It's a crucial step for any budding artist who wants to make a name for themselves in the Kenyan music industry. In this article, we will share some essential guidelines on how to promote music in Kenya.
The Kenyan music industry is in a crisis – artists with big dreams are struggling. Unless you're already doing it, you might be wondering how you're supposed to do it.
If you don't know how to start, start by promoting yourself, share your music with as many people as possible, and promote it as much as you can. Once you've done that, make sure to follow this article's instructions, and with any luck, you'll have the full weight of the Kenyan music industry behind you in no time.
You don't need to go out and buy a whole bunch of software to be a successful musician. You just need decent music software to get you started and a lot of patience.
If you're just starting, the best piece of software to start with is Soundfluence. It's a music promotion platform with everything you need.
You can enter your music, artist, name, song title, genre, what stage your music is at, and all the platforms your music will be played on.
It will automatically put together an email and social media list of influential people who listen to Kenyan music. That's the goal of Soundfluence, but the results will be variable for every artist.
Be patient, and always be prepared to explain why people should listen to your music.
Again, do you have a Twitter account?
You can also use these posts to answer these questions:
This next paragraph is by no means exhaustive, but it's a good start on getting to know the personality of the person you are about to promote music for.
This one needs to be personal. If the person you're promoting your music for is in another city or doesn't really know you, it doesn't hurt to make it sound as though you've been around forever.
Maybe you go to a good school and sing in the band for the college radio station. Maybe you are from a large family, and your name is like your father's or your cousin's.
Maybe your band is popular in Kenya. Whatever it is, your brand name should come from a local event, person, or city you lived in.
Just make sure the name can be easily pronounced. It should have a family member or a grandparent in it or a geographic location.
Yes, it would help if you had a team. If you're going to win over social media influencers, you have to ensure your team speaks to the person promoting music.
You have to make sure that your team members have a strong voice. They should be well-rounded, interesting people and interesting things to say.
Be sure to include at least one female member of your team and one or two people of color. Even if they aren't that well known, and your artist is not especially popular, make sure you have people who can bring a different perspective and make your team diverse and interesting.
Of course, if you are the only member of your team, the person you are promoting music for won't be able to find you, so make sure you have some advertising work you can send them.
Your team should be active on all the social media platforms you use. Perhaps they all sing or rap?
Maybe you have some high-quality videos of them performing? Maybe they are hosting podcasts?
The better their personalities, the more likely you will have a positive experience with them on social media.
Now you're ready to publish a post with a popular, talented artist from another country.
Get clear on who you want to promote your music for. If you're an artist from another country, you need to have a team, and you should probably make sure it has an excellent reputation.
If the artist is popular in the social media space, they are also very likely to have a team of fans that you can reach out to. You need to find a way to hook them into your music.
