DIY Promo

When someone mentions promoting music it conjures up the idea of ad campaigns, television appearances and magazine covers.
The business end of it.
Something that few people seem to take on board is that the bands and artists that go down this avenue are the ones that are bankrolled by the labels.
While there is no doubt that it works. It's also a tried and tested system that doesn't lend itself to providing a level playing field for musicians.
If you can't afford it then it's a path you wont be able to go down.
Due to this people then have to find more imaginative ways to grab the attention of the music fan and promote what they are doing, but it's a hard slog that drains the creative juices.
Sometimes it's a twenty four hour a day job just to get your name out there.
A murderously hard and often fruitless task.
There is other options though.
A halfway measure that has managed to raise peoples profiles are the street teams that some bands or artists have.
Fans get out there and do the job that a promotion company will do, and in return they will get free passes to gigs, money off on merch and other tasty goodies.
It's not a bad idea at all and it allows everyone to get something out of it.
The only downside to is that a band has to get to a certain level of exposure before they can consider the use of street teams.
So how do they get there?
How can the bands and artists get from local attention to impressing a wider audience?
Well that's where we come in, and when I say we I mean everyone reading this.
With a little effort, and at no cost to us, we can spread the word about.
Invest in some people power and really make a difference.
So here's how to do it.
Don't just read a review about the band and artist you like and nod in agreement.
Cut and paste the link into your facebook, or whatever social networking site that suits.
Not just from this blog, but from anywhere.
Take that couple of seconds and support the musicians who are out there and not getting the exposure they deserve.
Tell your friends about the guy you seen last night playing the open mic in the pub.
Look up the woman who was handing out CDRs outside the gig you went to and post a comment on her facebook./myspace page
Review an album or gig yourself in the notes section on FB and link to it.
Even something as simple as a comment on a blog entry helps.
Do anything rather than nothing.
Everything on this blog of mine can be used. Feel free to dive in and take what you want.
I'd love a credit, but to be totally honest it's not necessary.
I don't even really care that much if someone wants to claim they wrote it as long as someone somewhere reads it and then checks out who is being spoken about.
I suppose I could be accused of trying to promote my own blog here by writing this, but I can live with that if someone goes out and buys Colin Hunters début CD, or Javier Escovedo gets a label interested in releasing his album.
Right. It's over to you now.