In this episode Ayaz Hussain & I talk about how artists can promote their music for free using social media. We also discuss ad strategies, and how artists can make money with brand deals on their platforms.
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Important Points:
Ayaz Hussain’s one-minute advice to artists? Create more micro content! Short-form content is the best way for potential fans to discover your music and move them into the marketing funnel.
Andrew and Ayaz discuss the ideal timeline for marketing a new song: 1 week for warm-up, two weeks for pre-release marketing (sharing the story behind the song), and three weeks for post-release with micro-content.
Andrew and Ayaz discuss sponsorship and content too and advised listeners to build their brand first. Then approach niche sponsors aligned with your image. Get creative in integrating sponsors into your content, and consider doing free posts for brands you genuinely love.
Andrew and Ayaz stress the importance of clarity in your goals before considering ads. Learn to prioritize and establish a solid content direction before seeking external assistance with marketing or advertising.
Podcast Outline:
[00:08] Ayaz Hussain shares one-minute advice to artists: create more short-form content (reels, TikTok, YouTube shorts) to help potential fans discover your music – Ayaz
[02:07] Andrew and Ayaz talk about the ideal song marketing timeline: 1-week warm-up, two weeks pre-release for storytelling, and three weeks post-release with micro-content. — Andrew & Ayaz
[05:13] Ayaz shares how telling his followers how he makes music is beneficial to his campaigns. — Ayaz
[07:03] Andrew & Ayaz discuss how sharing the genuine stories behind a song, like love and travel, makes it more relatable. — Andrew & Ayaz
[09:14] Ayaz advised that hooks and thumbnails for your videos should be as scroll-stopping as possible. — Ayaz
[10:29] Andrew’s pro tip: Maximize your song with diverse hooks and unique visuals that narrate its story. — Andrew
[13:57] Micro content on social, according to Ayaz, can be that conduit to convert a stranger to a diehard fan. — Ayaz
[15:46] When making videos, Andrew considers what the audience needs, wants and the potential for sponsorship. — Andrew
[17:30] Some artists, according to Ayaz build their personal brand by aligning with other brands. — Ayaz
[19:18] Andrew and Ayaz discussed ideas on how musicians can integrate brands and sponsors into their content.
[21:35] Ayaz shared how the free story he created for Spoke, done out of love for the app, grew and eventually became a sponsorship. — Ayaz
[24:56] Andrew and Ayaz encouraged startup artists not to run after big brands, instead look for brands that maybe smaller but truly align with their niche. — Andrew & Ayaz
[27:45] Ayaz encouraged artists to always consider their goals when creating ads. Ads are designed in a way with the end in mind. — Ayaz
[31:42] Consider outsourcing and marketing when your goals and content direction are in place. — Andrew
[36:02] When you’re starting to market your music, you have to be loud at first, meaning putting it out to as many people as possible over, and over again. — Andrew & Ayaz
[38:12] There’s a balance between being loud enough to be heard vs. annoying, and that means focus more on the emotion you want to convey that promotion. — Ayaz
[40:39] Ayaz suggests that if you want to get noticed by the community, participate genuinely. Don’t just promote, share relevant posts and comments – Ayaz
[43:18] Andrew and Ayaz talk about the pros and cons of collaborating. Both emphasized the difference between digital ecosystem and live performance – Andrew & Ayaz
[47:19] Ayaz shared about his experience building a SoundCloud label and how the administrative demand of maintaining it can be exhausting – Ayaz
[51:10] Ayaz talked about his book, available on Amazon, and his 90-day Magnetic Musician workshop
Wise Words:
[00:08] Definitely micro-content. So the act of creating short-form reels, TikToks, and YouTube shorts is the number one way, in my opinion, to drive all three phases of the marketing funnel from the discovery of your brand at the top to consideration of your art in the middle and conversion towards your streams and your super fans at the bottom. And just being militant and performing your song over and over and over again until people are sick of it. That means they’re ready to become super fans for you, and that’s probably the best place to start to do any type of activation. Forget music videos, just create reels, TikToks, and YouTube shorts instead. – Ayaz
[02:25] And when you replace promotion with emotion, and you tell people what your song means to you—why you chose the title, how they’ve been in this situation before. Whether it’s romance, whether it’s friendship, whatever the subject of the song is, if you unpack the theme in the narrative of the music, people can relate to it more. – Ayaz
[05:25] The ability to hold people’s attention and craft a narrative that separates great producers and storytellers from just average ones. – Ayaz
[27:45] I think it’s always having a very clear objective for what you want the ad to achieve. [27:53] If the ad is designed to increase your Instagram views, you build the ad in a certain way. If your ad is designed to drive Spotify streams, there’s four or five different methods to do that. If the ad is to get your brand more visible, there’s one way of doing that with reach ads. I think my philosophy on ads is what’s the one action that you want to achieve, and there, build a plan to test and learn to get you to that objective. – Ayaz
[31:42] Generally, the type of person that should be outsourcing their ads is either they have a big budget, and they already have their social media content put together. They’ve already had some kind of audience. Their brand is established. If they’re just starting, and they’re not going to put any social media content online, and they have no brand and no real fans yet, it probably doesn’t make sense to outsource your marketing yet. – Andrew
Resources Mentioned:
- Ayaz’s All About Helping Website – link
Learn More:
If you enjoyed this interview you might also like this one I did with Tommy Zee on how to make a living by making music for brands in advertising.
