Cost Snowball - internet presence edition
Creating music is costly on its own. From instruments to marketing, if you’re actively trying to reach potential fans, you are aware or quickly becoming aware of the costs. For purposes of this post, I’m not going to talk about fame-seeking vs sustaining career. Nor am I here today to entertain the argument that creation is free or even an expensive hobby. The intent of this post is to give artists starting into the space an understanding of the hidden costs of maintaining a credible online presence. And FYI, I am not being paid or otherwise compensated by any site cited below.
The good news: You can maintain a very basic internet presence with little to no cost. Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, YouTube, a (very) limited amount of SoundCloud presence, and Bandcamp are free to use to reach potential fans and provide them a means to listen to or buy your music. And yes, you should make use of these where you can. I highly recommend using Bandcamp, where there are no up-front costs to listing your music (other than what you spend to create / record). The site and PayPal do take a bit from each sale however, so plan your pricing accordingly. Bandcamp often suggests $7 for an album, but you won’t keep all of it. You also can set your price at $0 but the amount of free downloads off your page will be limited.
What’s missing then? It’s budget time! Yes, I said budget (time and money). After you’ve covered your social media bases, where might you put your efforts? The first thing I would look at is an EPK. Then a webpage. I’ve chosen to use my webpage to host my EPK, but before I had a site, I used to host my EPK on Reverbnation for a fee. The third is setting aside some marketing money. Now perhaps you want to budget for marketing ahead of a webpage. Many musicians work without an official webpage. That is a fair call. I like having a clear landing page for anyone looking into my music and my EPK is also hosted on my webpage. That was a very personal choice I made based on fixed costs vs flexible budget. Not every musician has the same needs and given your own situation I might advise differently than given mine.
The EPK. Do you need one? If you are looking for reviews, to play festivals, or to reach music professionals, I highly suggest an Electronic Press Kit. This is a one-stop (usually single page) site meant to highlight the best of your work, promo material (music downloads, photos, etc), and list accolades (music awards, reviews, etc). There are several sites that let you host a custom EPK from music-marketing reach sites or other band media-building sites. Some of these sites will allow you to create the kit for free then charge you to distribute. Others charge a hosting fee. Artist ECard, for example, has multiple price points from free to just as expensive as a webpage. As with most things, you will be highly limited on what you can include with anything touted as “free.” If you already have your own webpage, I suggest hiding or password protecting a dedicated EPK page and using that.
Speaking of webpages.... If you want a decent webpage with its own domain, you are probably looking at a yearly cost. An ad-free site, custom domain, and a professional look on a web-building platform is going to probably run you roughly $80 - $150+ a year. Making use of introductory rate specials can make that first year considerably less. If you know how to create and code a site yourself, you probably don’t need to make use of web-building sites and can cut your costs to a degree. I’d suggest determining what you can and can’t live without in a webpage and shop around some alternatives. There are also creative ways to make some free platforms work for you. A blog like this allows for embedded SoundCloud links and customizing the html, for example. It may not look as professional as a full blown webpage, but it’s a start and gives you a platform to talk about and showcase your music until you can afford or find a better option. Wordpress can also offer you an affordable platform so long as you don’t need a lot of space (from free for a very limited amount of storage).
So what about marketing? Know that without paying for some type of publicist or marketing help, certain avenues will be either closed to you or will take a large amount of luck and networking. Some reviewers, web radio sites, bloggers, etc prefer to take submissions from sites such as SubmitHub. While many of these sites tout free submissions, again, you are limited either through number of submissions, priority, or quality of the reach. Yes, again, free is only free to an extent. The market is saturated with musicians trying to be heard. If one of your goals is to reach fans through reviews and blogs that don’t just cater to a largely musician readership, you’re going to have to work your butt off to cut through the noise. If you budget even just $30 a year on marketing you greatly broaden your reach to submit to playlists and blogs that would have been closed to you. This may seem like pay-to-play, but remember that for many of these avenues, you aren’t paying for the actual review or playlist add. You are paying for a marketing company to help filter out those venues that aren’t a good fit, get your music in front of the right people, or help you craft your pitch. MusicSubmit.com for example has people that listen to your music before it goes out to playlists and blogs to make sure they target the right audience. They don’t guarantee you’ll get attention or airtime, but they can help keep you from sending your EDM to a Country station.
There are certainly other potential costs as your catalogue and reach grow... from SC upgrades to distribution costs. Always price compare. Do your research. I could easily tell who I use and why, but you know your needs and budget. What is right for one musician may not be right for another. You are your own best advocate. Set yourself a budget, prioritize against your goals, and do a lot of shopping around.
The good news: You can maintain a very basic internet presence with little to no cost. Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, YouTube, a (very) limited amount of SoundCloud presence, and Bandcamp are free to use to reach potential fans and provide them a means to listen to or buy your music. And yes, you should make use of these where you can. I highly recommend using Bandcamp, where there are no up-front costs to listing your music (other than what you spend to create / record). The site and PayPal do take a bit from each sale however, so plan your pricing accordingly. Bandcamp often suggests $7 for an album, but you won’t keep all of it. You also can set your price at $0 but the amount of free downloads off your page will be limited.
What’s missing then? It’s budget time! Yes, I said budget (time and money). After you’ve covered your social media bases, where might you put your efforts? The first thing I would look at is an EPK. Then a webpage. I’ve chosen to use my webpage to host my EPK, but before I had a site, I used to host my EPK on Reverbnation for a fee. The third is setting aside some marketing money. Now perhaps you want to budget for marketing ahead of a webpage. Many musicians work without an official webpage. That is a fair call. I like having a clear landing page for anyone looking into my music and my EPK is also hosted on my webpage. That was a very personal choice I made based on fixed costs vs flexible budget. Not every musician has the same needs and given your own situation I might advise differently than given mine.
The EPK. Do you need one? If you are looking for reviews, to play festivals, or to reach music professionals, I highly suggest an Electronic Press Kit. This is a one-stop (usually single page) site meant to highlight the best of your work, promo material (music downloads, photos, etc), and list accolades (music awards, reviews, etc). There are several sites that let you host a custom EPK from music-marketing reach sites or other band media-building sites. Some of these sites will allow you to create the kit for free then charge you to distribute. Others charge a hosting fee. Artist ECard, for example, has multiple price points from free to just as expensive as a webpage. As with most things, you will be highly limited on what you can include with anything touted as “free.” If you already have your own webpage, I suggest hiding or password protecting a dedicated EPK page and using that.
Speaking of webpages.... If you want a decent webpage with its own domain, you are probably looking at a yearly cost. An ad-free site, custom domain, and a professional look on a web-building platform is going to probably run you roughly $80 - $150+ a year. Making use of introductory rate specials can make that first year considerably less. If you know how to create and code a site yourself, you probably don’t need to make use of web-building sites and can cut your costs to a degree. I’d suggest determining what you can and can’t live without in a webpage and shop around some alternatives. There are also creative ways to make some free platforms work for you. A blog like this allows for embedded SoundCloud links and customizing the html, for example. It may not look as professional as a full blown webpage, but it’s a start and gives you a platform to talk about and showcase your music until you can afford or find a better option. Wordpress can also offer you an affordable platform so long as you don’t need a lot of space (from free for a very limited amount of storage).
So what about marketing? Know that without paying for some type of publicist or marketing help, certain avenues will be either closed to you or will take a large amount of luck and networking. Some reviewers, web radio sites, bloggers, etc prefer to take submissions from sites such as SubmitHub. While many of these sites tout free submissions, again, you are limited either through number of submissions, priority, or quality of the reach. Yes, again, free is only free to an extent. The market is saturated with musicians trying to be heard. If one of your goals is to reach fans through reviews and blogs that don’t just cater to a largely musician readership, you’re going to have to work your butt off to cut through the noise. If you budget even just $30 a year on marketing you greatly broaden your reach to submit to playlists and blogs that would have been closed to you. This may seem like pay-to-play, but remember that for many of these avenues, you aren’t paying for the actual review or playlist add. You are paying for a marketing company to help filter out those venues that aren’t a good fit, get your music in front of the right people, or help you craft your pitch. MusicSubmit.com for example has people that listen to your music before it goes out to playlists and blogs to make sure they target the right audience. They don’t guarantee you’ll get attention or airtime, but they can help keep you from sending your EDM to a Country station.
There are certainly other potential costs as your catalogue and reach grow... from SC upgrades to distribution costs. Always price compare. Do your research. I could easily tell who I use and why, but you know your needs and budget. What is right for one musician may not be right for another. You are your own best advocate. Set yourself a budget, prioritize against your goals, and do a lot of shopping around.
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