Internet Marketing Guide For Independent Hip Hop Artist

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Introduction: The internet is so important in today’s society, everybody uses the internet all the time. A lot of people look to the internet for music to buy and download. That’s where you come into play. You make music, and you want to sell it, or at least give it away to as many people as possible. So here are some very helpful instructions on how to go about promoting your music successfully online. Most people use search engines to find things, so optimizing for search engines is very important also.

Essentials: Among the essentials for internet marketing are obviously a computer (preferably one that’s not too old and crappy) and an internet connection. You should also probably have an online store of some kind, no point in marketing your music if no one can buy it. Also you will probably want to sign up for a few different email accounts so you can sign up for a few different accounts on social networking sites. The more times you are online in different places, the better. Most importantly you need to have the rights to your music. Sign up for ASCAP.

Online Store: Ideally you want to be on iTunes but it costs a little bit of money and takes some time to verify that your music is authentic but it is the best way to sell your music online through download. Also getting your pressed CD on online cd stores is a great idea. Local CD stores are a good place to start and having CD’s on Amazon or ebay is a definite plus. Reverb Nation, Snocap and a few other services will allow you to set up a pay per download account for individual songs and albums. Sign up for as many different ways to sell your music as possible.

Social Networks: You MUST have a Facebook and Twitter account. Try to post once a day on these with keyword heavy text and links to your other sites. There are many different social networking websites, blogging sites, event websites, and social bookmarking sites that allow you to build your network online. The bigger network, the more chances to hear your music and buy your songs.

Keywords: Chances are people are looking for music like yours, not you specifically. So its best to use keywords that reflect your music style as much as possible. It is good to use your name a lot too but don’t forget what people will be searching for. For instance if I wanted for someone to be able to find this post I would say a lot of things about “internet marketing guide for independent artists”. Use your area ( in my case Portland, Northwest, West Coast or Oregon will all work) in your keywords when marketing for shows. People will be looking for shows in your area not for you specifically. Example Keyword Sentence: On November 14th 2009 Portland Hip Hop group Bad Habitat of Surreal Music will be rockingClub Calabash,  Portland’s illest hip hop club.

Here are some examples of keywords that I would want to use for a post like this one: Internet Market Guide for Independent Hip Hop Artists

• Internet Marketing Guide
• Hip-Hop Marketing Guide
• Independent Marketing
• Indie Artist Promotion

Images: It is important that you name your files something that makes sense. For instance if the picture is of you at a show don’t name the picture “ME006.jpg” name it “mindskillz-portland-hip-hop-show.jpg”. Also if you are familiar with html or know someone that is, it is important to include the alt attribute in the image tag. Use keyword text for the alt attribute as well as the name of the file. Sometimes blogs like wordpress or blogspot will allow you to ad title text or alt text when you upload or place images into your blog.

The text surrounding your images will also effect its keyword relevancy. If I were to put the keyword “Bad Habitat” around this image it will have more relevancy for that phrase in image searches done on search engines.

You Need a Website NOW

Websites: You have to have a website, in fact have two… or more. The more websites, the more ways people can find you. Use keywords in the domains that you buy. For instance if your band name is G-Rap buy a domain like www.g-rap-hip-hop.com that way it includes hip hop in the domain and gives you more relevancy on search engines. Make sure that the content is different from site to site, you don’t want them being too similar. A blog is a good bet for any indie artist trying to market themselves online. Search engines like blogs and its easy to post information like shows and pictures.

Blog: You will want to sign up to as many sites as you can that allow you to blog. Many of them already have good ranking on search engines so if you can link to your website from them with a lot of keywords and good images you will get some of that good ranking from their sites and build more links to your sites, where people can buy your music (or at least download it, more about that later). Some blog sites that you will want to sign up for are: tagged.com, vox.com, plurk.com, my.opera.com, blogger.com aka blogspot.com, myspace.com,

Other good sites to sign up for are:current.com, culturemob.com, eventful.com, gigmasters.com, youtube.com

Its not good enough to just sign up for blogs, social networking sites and social bookmarking sites. You have to be active on them. The more often you can post the better. It is better to post once a day for 3 days than to post 5 times in one day and then nothing for the next 2. Social bookmarking sites like digg, diigo and delicious don’t require daily posts nearly as much but every post that you do make on social networking sites and blogs should be linked to and bookmarked.

Video: you have to sign up for Youtube, you have to film your shows, you have to have music videos, or goof off in front of the camera or something. Video is one of the most important forms of media online and it is an invaluable tool for marketing. Start filming now!

Once you film your shows or have music videos you need to link to them and post them in blogs like shown above. Youtube is one of the most visited sites online and by keyword loading your video tags or comments about the video, you will be able to drive traffic to your online store, your website and more. If you are doing the editing for your videos it is a great idea to include your website domain at all times on the video.

Press Releases: On your blogs and anywhere that will let you release information about your shows, your band, photo shoots, video shoots anything. Try to make each release unique from the others at least 30%. Use most of the same images and video just make sure you change the text as much as possible.

SEO: Get links to your site. Make blogs on tumblr, vox, my.opera, blogspot, wordpress, etc and link to your website. Make sure your sites title tags include keywords and your bands name. The title tags will display on the top bar of your browser. An example of good title tags for a Portland hip hop crew like Bad Habitat would be “Bad Habitat – Portland Hip Hop – Surreal Music”.

Social Bookmarking: These will get links to your sites, which will improve your ranking on search engines and your keyword relevancy. Include keywords in the title of your bookmark and include relevant keywords.

Free Downloads: everybody wants something for free. offer a free sampler download so people can hear you before they download, unless of course you suck. Then you want them to pay before they hear you, but lets hope for both our sake that you don’t suck.

Viral Campaign: A viral campaign is good for any independent hip hop artist. How do you start a viral campaign? Well its not as easy or as cheap as you probably home. It takes time, effort, creativity and a little bit of money. First you want to think of something that’s catchy. This example gives you an idea of what I am talking about. Portland Publishing company and Record Label, Surreal Music, is represented by the domain and the skull image. The question and ambiguity of the image is drawing to the viewer and it also builds brand recognition.

This Person People image is very similar. It draws on comedy to make it more memorable.

The Viral Campaign starts with images like these. But if no one sees the images then its a total waste. So you probably want to make them into stickers or put them on flyers and t-shirts. Stickers can be placed all over town, on buses, bumbers, windows, etc. Stickers build brand recognition the same way that billboards do. No one is going to go out and buy a Pepsi just because they saw a billboard for it, but every one knows what a Pepsi is because of their long time branding campaign. Viral Campaigns are therefor a form of branding. Viral marketing also needs to be done in the blogosphere. For those of you who don’t know what that is I am about to explain.

The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions. So like I said before you need a network. Post your viral images and text to your twitter, facebook, vox, my.opera, blogspot, etc. Make your posts as unique as possible and include keyword text about yourself or your rap group, your label, your CD, and your city.

Hip Hop Shows: When you have a show you have a great opportunity to promote yourself. Here are a few ways you can use a show to build hype, branding and online promotions.

1. Promote The Show: Design your own version of the flyer which highlights yourself over the other local acts. Post it all over the internet with information about the show. Don’t forget to name the file properly.
2. Record The Show: Have someone take pictures of and/or film your performance. These pictures and video will help you market yourself online later.
3. Leave Them Wanting More: If you have CD’s, give them out. If you have stickers, give them out. If you have t-shirts, give them out.
4. After The Show: Post your videos and pictures all over your network. Load them with keywords and link to somewhere that people can buy your music or at least download a sample.

blogosphere