How TO ADVERTISE Your Music More EffectivelyKnowing how to market your music is considered to be THE most important thing you can do for your music business as well as your music career all together. You know it's a thing that must be handled and when you're not making efforts to learn how exactly to market your music better then you should know that, at least, nothing serious will ever happen in your music business career.The first thing to consider is if you're currently managing the most basic elements of an effective music marketing campaign.What do I mean by this?To begin it is important to assess where you're at right now and determine whether or not you know and understand exactly what the basic components of an effective music advertising campaign are? Let's face it, if you plan on making a name on your own in the music industry it is critical to realize you'll be investing a great deal of your personal money and time into your music career. If you are certain your absolute goal is to mold your music talents right into a true "music business" and you also have no doubts about the career path you've chosen... then you'll wish to be as efficient and productive as you can possibly be.Most indie bands and musicians whether from the Rock, HIPHOP, Folk or any genre for that matter, tend to work on just a few of the three essential requirements of effective music marketing. For instance most musicians are excellent at connecting with audiences. What with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube in the mix, communications have grown to be stupid simple for today's musician.On the other hand, requesting the sale is occasionally handled effectively but is commonly approached hap-hazardly and without a formula or the necessary accompanying awareness campaigns. This lack-luster approach tends to dampen the efforts of even the hardest working bands and musicians in the industry. Unfortunately, applying only one as well as two of the key components without the essential third aspect in a music marketing campaign won't bring in maximum returns for the time invested. This just isn't how to market music effectively.Don't get me wrong, getting the name on the market and partaking in conversations with fans can be cool, even self gratifying and it's really definitely better than not doing some thing, but imagine how much far better you'd be if you visited work on all of these essential marketing areas of your music business armed with a formula and a pin-point focused purpose.THE ANSWER To Ineffective Music MarketingThe bottom line is that whenever you break down the ins and outs on how to market your music effectively, it becomes apparent that as a musician, it is important to discipline yourself to concentrate on the elements which are most productive for your music business growth. Broken down in an an easy task to follow process these components of music marketing and music promotion essentially consist of a 3 step formula:Step #1 - Create Awareness: Find an audience who appreciates your music style, your sound and your identity. Take the steps necessary to communicate your musical message in their mind. Everything you do should create an awareness for you and your music always. Approach this with precision and a firm direction and your music business foundation will undoubtedly be solidified for years to come.Step #2 - Connect to Your Audience: I mentioned earlier how stupid simple it really is for connecting with fans today. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the countless other online "hangouts" get this to process a breeze. Once you have laid the original groundwork and you've made your audience aware of just what you have to offer, focus on maintaining those important on-going relationships with your fans, the media and the all important music business contacts you collect on the way. Your fans and contacts want to know that you're for real. That you care about them. That you're here for the long-haul. Making connections using them and keeping them involved with your growth process will ensure this happens for you.Step #3 - Sell Your Stuff (Ask for the sale): This one is essential. If you don't have products to sell... you do not have a music business. Attempting to create a steady, consistent cash flow for your music business is key to your long-term success. Entice fans to spend their money and buy your stuff and the rest of your music marketing processes will flow and flourish so easier.Yes! best indie artists Said Than DoneI recognize that it's easier to talk about these exact things than it is to make them happen in your career but this is exactly what the music business is centered on so incorporating these procedures into your music business campaign is crucial, or you simply won't last long enough to make dent in the music world.And that's not what we want for your music career... is it?Again, it might seem easy enough to map these exact things out on paper nevertheless, you that most bands and musicians will see a hundred and one methods to screw this up.You'll either spend too much time on creating awareness and connecting together with your audience but then fail to require the sale. Or you'll ask for the sale way to often and forget about connecting with your people. I mentioned earlier that it's cool to obtain all gung-ho, get busy, and at once out there and execute a bunch of music marketing, but if you are not touching all three components of this process on how to market music, then you're missing the boat and much more importantly... you're fans will not be "feeling" your vibe. They just won't connect with you on a deeper level. Without connection, there's no sales and without sales, you don't have a music business.Don't BELONG TO the Marketing Music Business TrapYou've seen them. They're everywhere. Lame press releases that musicians love to send out nowadays. These press releases are posted and sent to my inbox on a daily basis with headlines like: "Johnny Come Lately, the most recent Album Release from the 123 HOW EXACTLY TO Rock & Roll Band". Go ahead... admit it. You've probably delivered something like this yourself at once or another.Unfortunately there are some problems with this spray and pray technique that'll be blatantly obvious when you stack up a headline such as this against my 3 step process. Start to see the news release handles the "Creating Awareness" aspect and even touches lightly on the "Selling Your Stuff" step but it fails to connect and that my pal is really a no no. It's 100% self interested and sadly, it'll fail each time it's used.Fans and media see through this. All the band wants may be the money. For a few unknown reason the band is expecting us to at once over to the link contained in their press release and go through the buy button. But where's the bond? What about the awareness we need BEFORE they require the sale?