The A-Z of networking for music promotion and actually getting heard

There are many different avenues to follow when it comes to music promotion. Typically, you should focus the majority of your music promotion efforts on fans and prospective future fans. However, as part of building your online music community, you may find opportunities to promote your music within the music industry as well as beyond it.

There are some good communication skills you can keep in mind and develop when you want to promote your music to people in the music industry. Here’s a full A-Z of them!

A – ASK

The best way to communicate and build rapport with somebody is to ask questions. If you talk AT people and don’t invite them to talk about themselves, your conversation won’t last very long. Asking a question is also an extremely effective way to break the ice.

B – BREAK THE ICE

Breaking the ice is the gateway to a good conversation. But ice-breaking isn’t just about having some canned openers (although these can be helpful as a backup). Use questions, observations, situations and your imagination! On Vampr, this would mean using something mentioned/auditioned on another user’s profile. Or, it could be something they’ve said in a Room. Using the actions of others is a powerful way of opening a conversation.

C – CONVERSATIONAL

Make your interaction about the conversation and about the potential for friendship. When you first open conversation with somebody, you shouldn’t be trying to get something out of them. Your goal should just be to have a good conversation so you have left a good impression for the other person to welcome you in to talk again.

D – DELIBERATION

Whilst you need to be “conversational”, it’s not just about having a conversation for conversation’s sake. Don’t waste people’s time. Only open a conversation with them when you’re ready to talk about something meaningful. Until then, it’s better to “follow” them than connect with them. You can send out that connection and a great deliberate message when you know what you want to talk to this person about.

E – EFFORT

Putting the effort in to know about who you’re talking to, how you can help them and what you find interesting about them is essential to starting a relationship. If you don’t put the effort in, such as with copy & pasting messages, you won’t be rewarded. This also applies to trying to use Vampr for music promotion by pasting your links in Rooms, connection requests and messages. What you receive from the world is relative to the effort you put in.

F – FUN

It’s not all business, business – especially in the music industry. Have fun with people! See them as potential friends, not just as associates you want to exchange something with.

G – GRAMMAR

People are more likely to take you seriously if you take the time to make sure you’re writing in a way that is coherent and readable. Try to avoid shortening words or formatting your message in a weird way. Do this at least until you’ve already made a good impression and already have a solid relationship with the people you’re messaging.

H – HELLO

One fast way to get ignored is just to write “hello”, “hey”, “hello sir”, “sup” etc. Your messages should always carry some intention behind them. Let people know why you want to open a conversation so you give them a hook to work with.

I – INVITATIONS

Invitations to connect should always be supported with a message. And this message should be tailored for that person you’re trying to connect with. People are far more likely to chat with you if you have put some effort into learning something about them, or listening to their music.

J – JOKES

A bit of humour can go a long way to breaking the ice. But keep it clean and don’t make it personal.

K – KINDNESS

Remember to be kind.

L – LISTEN

Listening is the greatest skill in communication. If your goal is to promote your music, it might seem backwards using “listening” as a strategy for music promotion. But, everybody gravitates to a good listener because it’s validating to know somebody is devoting the time to let you express yourself. This is, ultimately, what every musician wants. Start with listening and pretty soon you’ll find that people want to hear about you too.

M – MONEY

Don’t start conversations by talking about money. Opening a conversation saying you’re selling a beat for $100 isn’t an effective way to start a communication. It’s OK and necessary to tell people what your rates are. But wait until you’ve built a bit of a relationship, trust and have an indication of interest first.

N – NOTES

If you really want to put some effort into building a strong network, take notes about people you want to network with and conversations you have. In business, this is called “CRM” (customer relationship management) and it’s an important way of keeping track of who to speak to and when.

O – OWN YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

If a conversation hasn’t gone the way you’d have liked – own the responsibility to try and have a better conversation next time. Sometimes, people are just rude. But other times, there’s something you can learn from the way you approached a conversation you can improve upon next time.

P – PROOFREADING

Taking a second to read your messages a couple of times before pressing the send button will do you big favours, especially publicly!

Q – QUICK

Try not to waffle. Be polite, but sharp and efficient with your messages (until you’ve built a good rapport). Be conscious of other people’s time. Very few people have time to read a huge paragraph from a stranger.

R – RELEVANCE

You’re best off trying to connect with people who share common interests with you. This could be favourite artists or genres. This is much better than just trying to connect with everyone. Keep a relevant network and it’ll be a stronger source of success for you.

S – STOP SPAMMING

Don’t just send your links out expecting people to listen. In a contested world where everybody wants to be heard, you have to earn your listens. Music promotion to a new music industry network requires a very different approach to an engaged fanbase. Start with conversations – lead to links when the conversation allows.

T – TRANSACTIONAL

There’s a lot more value to conversations than sharing links with each other. But generally, if you give somebody value (such as feedback on their music) you’re likely to get something back from them in return down the line. Just don’t expect it or you’ll end up bitter and that’s doing yourself harm you don’t need.

U – USEFULNESS (SHOW VALUE)

Make sure your profile and bio really highlights the things about you that you want people to know about you. Show yourself in a good light. Then, carry that confidence into your conversation. Believe you can bring value to people you interact with – and back it up by doing your research on them so you know where they have gaps you could fill.

V – VAGUENESS

People will never know about you if your profile is pretty empty. Make sure your captions explain your work. And when you converse, tell people about what it is you think is important they should know about you. Make it a point to describe your strengths.

W – WORK ETHIC

Networking can take a lot of work – especially if you’re doing it properly by learning about people who you might not even engage with for a long time. Stick with it though, it’s always worth it! The people you meet along the way become an important part of your life story.

X – XYLOPHONE

Well… We are a music network 😬

Y – YOU BEFORE ME

Z – ZOOM

If you can’t meet in person, get a video call arranged when you both feel comfortable to chat. Putting a face to name and having an actual conversation really helps solidify a strong connection.