How to Promote Yourself as a Singer

Breaking into the music industry and being taken seriously as a singer can be a difficult task, especially these days when DIY technology has given everyone and anyone an equal shot at recording a few songs and claiming to be a musician. If you’re passionate about music and really want to promote yourself as a talented artist then you’ll need to be committed. Here are a few key ingredients to promoting yourself as a singer.

Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash

Engage with Your Audience

First and foremost, one of the most important things you can do is learn how to appeal to and engage with your audience. Without the fans, there’s really no purpose to making and performing music. Engaging with your audience doesn’t just mean selling them your music. It means having and maintaining a quality relationship with them. This can be done in person at shows, and across your social media channels. After all, these are the people that you want to attend your shows and buy your music. Bring these people into your world and watch them turn into raving fans.

Learn to Network

Another critical component in promoting yourself as a singer is developing the ability to network within your industry and community. Just as it’s important to connect with your audience and develop a relationship with your fans, you’ll also want to do the same with other musicians, industry professionals, and key people in your community. Having a strong network can provide the right connections for bigger opportunities. Connect with like-minded singers and bands, venue owners, promoters, record label reps, media talent, and even community influencers. Well-connected people always know who is seeking singers for hire and can share information for better opportunities.

Find the Right Gigs

Getting booked for the right performances can be made a whole lot easier when you have solid connections. It also helps to know your target audience. Some singers and bands will take any show they can get, simply out of desperation to perform. However, performing in front of the wrong crowd can be a huge waste of everyone’s time. It could mean a lousy time for the audience, a bad experience for you, as well as potentially hurt your reputation.

Build a Solid Press Kit

One thing all professional singers have in common, regardless of musical background, is that they took the time to create a solid press kit. Back in the day, singers and bands had to spend tons of money putting together a physical press kit that was then sent to radio stations, media personalities, and show promoters to get exposure. These days, you can save a lot of money by creating an EPK (electronic press kit) which is just as good. An EPK will have all the same features as its predecessor, but the information is digital and can be sent by email.

A solid press kit will include a professional headshot (and maybe other photos from live performances), artist bio, press release highlighting the specific information that you are promoting, samples of your music and possible music video, and any other relevant details that will highlight your work as a professional singer.

Media Attention

Once you’ve created your press kit, then you’ll want to start sending it out to people in the media. If you’re new or unknown, then it’s best to start locally and with people inside your network. You can reach out to local and college radio stations, entertainment writers and bloggers, and social media connections who might be interested in interviewing you for their podcast or livestream. Once you get a sizable following, then you can take a step up to bigger radio or TV stations and noteworthy industry magazines.

My Say

These are just a few key ingredients you’ll need to promote yourself as a professional singer. Follow these tips and you’ll find it much easier to grow your audience and get to the next level in your musical career.