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A Musician’s Playlist for Digital Marketing: Your Guide to SEO for Musicians

A GUIDE FOR THE AT-HOME MUSICIAN A MUSICIAN'S PLAYLIST FOR DIGITAL MARKETING COFFEE MUGS AND 23h TRACK 1 GET IT STARTED RIGHT 1:12/3:04 The first thing to do is "Don't suck." No, really....don't suck. Make sure you have a good product. Like any other person trying to present a piece of content, product, or service (in this case your music), it has to be good in order to turn heads and be effective. Okay, so you've bought all the recording equipment, set it up in your bedroom, recorded all the tracks, laid down vocals, then mix and mastered the songs until your ears bled, it is perfect... now you want people to hear and download your masterpiece. TRACK 2 IT'S ALL IN THE NAME 2:22/4:09 ESTABLISH A NAME AND STICK WITH IT LIVE MUSIC Band names and artist monikers that are the same as music by COFFEE MUGS other words can cause confusion and really hinder your marketability and SEO-ability. 01.01.13 JUMPING LIZARDS 19:00 THE RUN-AWAYS If you do have a name with a double meaning, make sure your name distingishes you from the other meaning of the word when it's written on your website or your social profiles. ex: Coffee Mugs (Band). TRACK 3 GET A WEBSITE, BABY 0:33/3:27 Get a domain name that is close to your band name; it will make it easier for people to find you. Ex: coffeemugsband.com COFFEE MUGS Meta tags with band name and keywords - every page on your website should make use of the title tage and meta description in its header section. Update the site regularly. Post news, pictures, videos of practice, etc. Keep fans informed and interested. Post what you would like to see from your favorite artist. The purpose of the website is to compile everything in one place (acts as a "hub") music, merch, tour dates, news, contact info, etc. Link to other musicians you've played with and bands/musicians with similar Optimize the website. styles. Create content. Content is king. Do keyword research to see what terms are being searched in your genre, amongst your fans, city, band name etc. Ex. Sonicbids.com d' Make sure you have actual written copy, google can't read images, audio or video. 'Add the lyrics when you have a song for download. Optimize images with alt text (a word or phrase that can be inserted in the coding). Make it descriptive. PTranscribe music videos. TRACK 4 NOW LET'S HOST THE MUSIC 3:33/5:45 Excellent for full Optimize with tags, share with groups, follow other musicians, create playlists. releases (EP, LP format). Sell your music easily. \yourlisten bc Great for finding new SOUNDCLOUD bandcamp content and artists with their music and audio suggestions feature. Even if you don't have a shiny new music video with special effects, you can host your music on YouTube to expand your reach. Likes and Audience You Tube Number dislikes retention - add of subscribers intriguing, unique artwork for after watching each track YouTube SEO "It takes dozens of signals into account for ranking videos in Title tag information Keywords in description YouTube search and tag forsuggested Comments Write videos." LONG video Tags descriptions, almost transcribing the video using keywords that are synonymous with your Create video playlists that consist of releases and Video length - genre and musical niche extended versions playlists that you feel comfortable putting together with artwork TRACK 5 BE A SOCIAL MEDIA MUSIC MAVEN 2:35/3:20 Create accounts on social media sites and update them regularly. Use #Hashtags to gain followers. Try using hashtags that are trending and relevant. Link to and share music that inspires you on these channels, but don't over do it. Mix it in with your own music. This gives fans For the image based channels, show the personality of the music through the images. For the text-based channels, be sure a sense of you and the music you produce. to link to music, images and the website. :myspace tumblr. 8+ Use subreddits to drive traffic and share your music. Some popular music subreddits to share your music are: r/music, r/wearethemusicmakers, reddit r/futurebeats, r/hiphopheads, etc. TIP: Offering free music is the best way to turn heads and get downloads; build your fan base before going for their wallet. Vanity Metrics Matter (Unfortunately) - use Fiverr as a last resort. You can buy vanity likes, shares, followers, etc. to make it seem like you're more popular than you really are. Sounds fishy? Well, it is. Problem is, people naturally want to listen and share popular content, and having 37 likes on your band's Facebook page isn't going to turn any heads TRACK 6 THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT YOU 1:43/3:09 LEVERAGE BLOGS There are thousands upon thousands of great music blogs that, if utilized, can help your SEO as an artist. Make a Blogs are always hungry to post great new music or videos, especially if they can be the ones to "break" a new artist and post their stuff first. It all comes down to people wanting to Digital Press Kit have the best content for their audience and your music might just be that content. ABOUT US COFFEE MUGS Use search modifiers in Google to find blogs Intitle: "hip hop blog" AND "contact" Inurl: "folk" blog AND "submit" "Indie rock music blog" and "contact us" Make sure you send the bloggers your website address (very important), a link to the music you're wanting them to post, and a short bio of yourself andyour music. Give them the full Blogs are a way to not only reach new audiences, but to establish yourself in the genre of music you make. Many blogs are genre specific so choose wisely. picture in a short, condensed email and they'll appreciate you not wasting their time with a 4,000 word bio. Create a relationship with blog owners so that when you have more music, you'll have a direct and consistent channel to promote your music. TIP: In SEO, the more relevant and quality links you get to your website from other relevantand quality websites, the better off you'll be. TRACK 7 WHERE DO YOU COME FROM 2:50/3:05 LOCALIZE YOURSELF Many musicians are synonymous with where they're from (Springsteen = New Jersey, Jay-Z = Brooklyn, NY, Nirvana = Seattle) - Make sure you're relevant locally by spreading your music to lifestyle sites, local music blogs, promoters, etc. See what blogs are in your genre of music and close by to your location. Use location in your META tags. Use local SEO to help boost yourself locally (for example, by posting event listings like concerts.) Directories - use music directories to boost links to your site and share your bio. You'll want to have multiple versions of your bio or else you'll get hit with duplicate content penalties, which will hurt your SEO results. BONUS TRACK UNTITLED 2:33/3:10 Aspiring Rappers Find well-known producers willing to sell their beats at a discount. In hip hop, the producers have become as popular and important as the MC's on a track. Use well-known producers with wide appeal to amplify yourself to a large audience. Many blogs will post music produced by popular producers, even if they haven't heard of the MC. Aspiring Hip Hop Producers Find well-known rappers willing to hop on a track for a discount. Using these well-known, already established artists will get your foot the door at larger websites and blogs in terms of playability. Create remixes of popular songs using your production. This will get you noticed and possibly garner some new listeners. Aspiring Singers Find instrumental versions of popular tracks and make your own version of that song. If there are songs that you really can sing well, show your voice off and catch people's eyes. Sources: DIGITAL THIRD COAST 10 SEO TIPS for Musicians, shadesofsolveig.com, 2014 Inbound Marketing and SEO for Bands and Musicians, Moz.com 9 Top SEO Tips for Musicians, hypebot.com, 2012 How To Optimize Your Bands Website in 7 Steps, sonicbids.com

A Musician’s Playlist for Digital Marketing: Your Guide to SEO for Musicians

shared by kolson1985 on Dec 02
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You may be the next big thing at your local open mic night, but the reality is that until your music gets “discovered” on the Internet, you won’t be able to get any traction as a musician. Makin...

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