How To Break Into The Often Difficult Music Industry As A New Band

By Author: Jabbar Karlee
Total Articles: 85
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Situated in an office Leeds, I was creating a regular magazine and maintaining the website.

Before I start, I should mention that Leeds is a superb place in which to work and I really enjoyed all of my time working at the office; although Leeds is not a cheap place to reside, with increasing demand and rents, coupled with a dwindling supply, making it hard for a young professional to live comfortably.

Here are just some of my tips to ensure success within the music industry, without worrying about the age of the band, history of gigs or prominence in the scene.

5. Sign up to a plethora of online blogs and magazines Kerrang and NME are commonly the most widespread and commonly accepted music magazines; however there are a number of alternative magazines with unique stories with which to derive news and gather information from. Independently-written online blogs also tend to provide recent news that has happened before a magazine has time to publish it; you must make sure that the blog writer is reliable and using reputable sources. This can help to get you insider information that you can use to improve your ...
... band.

4. Make use of Last.fm to get your music out there and promote your band: Much more than just a website that details what you are listening to, Last.fm is a powerful tool as you can build a band page for free, add any songs to the page and stream them for listeners, as well as provide ways of purchasing the songs. Whilst other social-networking sites allow you to create band pages, Last.fm is typically the most straightforward and industry-acclaimed way of effectively publicising your band.

3. Post blogs about it: Whilst you might think that writing prowess is not important and that it is all about the music, blogging is a great way to improve your SEO rating and fully publicise your band. Search engines play a vital part of improving band presence and an intelligent SEO strategy can be highly effective - however you should try to write blogs on music news or industry activity instead of personal information, as this will be more interesting to readers.

2. Attend festivals and sign up to small bands and newsletters: Small bands, whilst not attracting as much popularity or publicity, are a great method of gaining popularity via osmosis and striking a mutually-beneficial deal. The partnership can also make agreeing a support act much easier. It can also prove very beneficial to initially build up a presence in your own region. Working in an office in Leeds has shown me a lot of local bands that made it big, such as Hadouken!

1. It's who you know, not what you know: Similar to working a start-up company, a lot of your success depends on who you know and who you have built up a relationship with. It is a good idea to attend networking events for the music industry and speak to professionals within the industry. Even an e-mail address or telephone number can be a highly effective way to breaking through.

Even though some of the success of your band depends on the music and the originality you have (except in the case of a lucky break), these factors can improve the potential of your bad.