The Importance of Taking a Music Marketing Course
For musicians interested in building a music career, it's no longer enough to just be exceptionally talented and hardworking. The sad reality is that brilliant artists get overlooked every single day because they don't understand how to effectively market themselves and their music. This is where taking a music marketing course can be utterly invaluable to building a sustainable future in music.
In the past, artists could rely on record labels to get their music out into the world using marketing campaigns that included radio promotion and articles in Rolling Stone. But because the industry has shifted and so many artists are now independent, the responsibility of marketing and promotion falls squarely on the independent artists themselves. This presents a huge challenge for musicians who have spent their lives focusing on honing their musical abilities rather than learning business, music marketing 101 and digital promotion strategies.
Here are 4 key benefits to taking a music marketing course:
Learn Cutting-Edge Strategies:
The landscape of music marketing is constantly evolving with new platforms, marketing tools, streaming services, technologies and best practices emerging all the time. An experienced marketing instructor can teach music marketing students the latest, most effective tactics for getting their music in front of the right audiences in an authentic way. Plus how to gain a competitive edge over other artists still using outdated strategies.
Develop a Comprehensive Plan
A piecemeal, scattershot approach to promotion is far less effective than having a cohesive, unified music marketing plan in place. A good course will show you how to bring together multichannel strategies for social media, email marketing, content creation, advertising, fan engagement and more into one seamless operation. Most major artists again, have record labels and management companies that handle that sort of thing for them, so they don't have any personal experience with the challenges of running a marketing campaign. Why am I mentioning this? Because it's worth noting, when independent artists look to their idols for a glimpse of the relevant skills needed to build a successful music career, few artists see marketing as one of those skills. In short, many of today's professional artists set a bad example for the next generation of artists and bands when they participate in talent-focused shows like American Idol or the X Factor or when they say things like, 'I don't care how much money I spend on recording, the art come first.'
Today's major artists need to make a conscious effort to stress the importance of learning how to make money with music and not just how to make music. I believe messages like that would go a long way to encouraging young artists to do things like learn how to make a comprehensive marketing plan. (Sorry, I know that was a bit of a rant)
Establish Your Brand
Musicians are more than just their music – they are multi-dimensional brands and businesses unto themselves. A marketing curriculum will cover brand development to help define your image, build up your messaging, visual identity and more. A musician's brand is hugely important when trying to stand out in today's crowded industry, but even more important when building an engaged fanbase. Social posts, online advertising, releasing songs on streaming services like Amazon Music and sending newsletters to your mailing list are all less effective if you don't have a professional brand. It is the ultimate relationship-building tool and the first step in creating an effective marketing strategy.
Gain Industry Knowledge & Mentorship
Along with the hard marketing skills, courses taught by veteran industry professionals or music promotion insiders provide invaluable mentorship and knowledge about the overall music business. You'll gain insights into things like career planning, music distribution, copyright law / protection, music publishing and more. Good mentors will take a closer look at your overall music business and give you tips on things like how to incorporate your brand when selling merch online or the best way to market your next digital release. They may provide feedback, such as whether your band logo or promotional content needs a better graphic design or recommendations on which digital distributors offer the best promotional tools. You can learn more about the benefits of working with a mentor by reading our article, 5 Reasons Musicians Should Have a Mentor.
The bottom line is that musical talent alone is no longer enough to truly make it in the industry. Taking a comprehensive music marketing course can equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to amplify your creative vision, effectively reach audiences, engage fans and ultimately achieve a sustainable, successful career as an artist.
And if you're looking for marketing help, you don't need to perform a survey of courses at the school of music business or even enroll in music marketing 101, below is a link to our program that will help your create a professional brand and teach you the marketing skills to be successful.
Click Here to Enroll in our Signature Sales Story (Brand Creation) program for FREE.
And if you want to learn how to build a sustainable music career then I encourage you to check out our online artist development program.
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