Chapter 5: Identifying Your Audience
HINT: It's not "everybody".
Welcome back to “How to Market Your Music (…and still sleep at night)”! Need to catch up? No problem, here’s every article so far:
Oh shoot, is it Friday already?
…. hang on let me put some pants….
Ok here we go. Welcome back! I am fully prepared for this.
Today - we’re starting with an exercise.
I’m going to make some assumptions about you, and I want you to count how many of my assumptions are correct. Here we go.
Are you:
An independent artist
Currently writing and releasing music that you are passionate about but promoting it feels “gross” or “inauthentic”
Tired of trying to “go viral” or “trigger the algorithm” and want to build a long-term strategy that doesn’t rely on luck
Worried that learning “the business” will force you to compromise your values as an artist or a person
Not looking for global superstardom, but at least want an engaged audience that enjoys and resonates with your music
Sick of pretending that streams and followers are the same as a real audience
Losing money on your music promotion with no clear idea of how you’ll ever make it back
Getting inundated with ads from “gurus” who claim to have the “quick-fix”
Finding yourself continually making music but avoiding promoting it
Paying for ads or playlisting services
How did I do?
Probably pretty good, right? If not… then I’m entirely not sure how you got here but I’m happy to have you anyways.
So how do I know so much about you?
Well, I’ve spent years identifying who my audience is - which is a crucial, unskippable step towards building an effective marketing plan.
Knowing my audience allows me to take a boring marketing hook:
“Want to learn more about music promotion? Subscribe to my paid newsletter, ‘How to Market Your Music (…and still sleep at night)’”
… and turns it into an effective, specific, and resonant hook:
“Does the idea of promoting your music make you feel gross and inauthentic? Me too. That’s why I started my newsletter, ‘How To Market Your Music (…and still sleep at night’ which teaches you how to build a loyal, engaged audience without compromising your values as an artist.”
The first ad is…. fine?
But the second ad speaks to someone’s soul.
Knowing your audience is the key to effective marketing… so today we’re going to identify YOUR audience in real time.
Don’t you dare close out of this article… we are just getting started.