Should bands bother promoting albums?
The music industry is in a constant state of flux. Streaming has taken over from downloads. Vinyl is making a comeback. Hi-res audio is increasingly a thing. Live promoters are becoming record labels. Record companies want to sell you a tote bag.
And yet despite all this change, one thing seems to stay the same: the notion that the album is the be all and end all.
Despite the fact that people are consuming music in all manner of ways, on all manner of devices, and often in some sort of shuffle mode, the idea that at some point a band should get 12 songs together and stick them on a shiny piece of plastic remains a dominant one.
In some ways, this obsession with and emphasis on the long-player is perfectly understandable. The album has proven itself to be a great format; and wonderful things can happen when you place twelve songs by a great band in a row.
And the LP has a proud history (though not as long as some imagine – it’s really only since the mid to late sixties that the LP really became the art form that it is considered today).
The main problem I see with the album doesn’t really concern the format though: rather, it’s the way that the album seems to be often the only thing that musicians think is worth promoting.
For new bands, unless there has been a lot of groundwork laid, there’s generally no fanbase at all there to buy an album — even if it’s great — and shouting about the fact that there’s a record with 12 songs on it out on Date X is not really going to do you much good.
(There are an awful lot of other people doing that.)
The thing to remember about music promotion is that if you leave it until the point at which your album comes out, you have possibly left things too late.
By all means release a full album, but try to create a promotion schedule that starts well in advance of its release date – maybe up to a year in advance.
Here are a few things that you could consider doing as part of this:
Rather than putting an embargo on your album tracks, try releasing them (ideally with accompanying videos) online regularly – and approach blogs and music sites about your band every time you do.
Use Facebook ads and other social media tactics to build up your following and email mailing list so that both are as large as possible well before the record comes out.
Don’t leave it until the album comes out to start gigging – get out there now and start developing a live following (well, when the state of the global pandemic allows, of course).
Approach managers, publishers, agents and labels with individual songs that might pique their interest; don’t necessarily wait until your album is 100% written, mixed and mastered to do so (you never know – an individual song might convince them to put some budget into an album project).
The other thing to remember is that you might be a singles band, not an albums band. Your album might be an incoherent mess but it might have 3 killer singles on it.
If so, focus on your strong point – and place the emphasis on (and plough your budget into) promoting singles over and above an album.
But to answer the main question posed by this post - should bands bother promoting their albums? - the answer is actually a resounding yes.
It’s just a case of starting way earlier than you might think is necessary. A promo strategy which kicks in long before an LP comes out is crucial to giving you the fanbase (and media support) that you need in order to sell some copies of that LP (or see bums on seats at the accompanying tour).
It’s simple: if your album is your big musical statement, make sure you have a big following to hear it — BEFORE it comes out.