Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

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TimBuys
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by TimBuys »

vo0doo wrote:Hey, I recognise that A&R social media talk from when I visited Armada music with a mate who did a few tracks for them once (and it was really hard not to start laughing btw), which is a good indication you're barking up the wrong tree here :P

You will find that most people who are into techno, and/or other more underground genres in general, are pretty much allergic to that kind of thing. But if it's really what you want it shouldn't be too hard to just copy the Bumload sound of the hour and become 'famous'.

Good luck!
While the guy could have formulated himself a bit better and I do understand where you're coming from, are you just gonna ignore the fact that a massive amount of artist use Facebook advertising now? Like the bigger artist don't get covers on Mixmag. That you don't see a Nina Kraviz video getting spammed on (lame ass) facebook groups? Like techno events and festivals don't need to get promoted? Such a good chance to start a discussion here but instead everyone acts like there is no marketing in techno.

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SixOfOne
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by SixOfOne »

TimBuys wrote: Such a good chance to start a discussion here but instead everyone acts like there is no marketing in techno.
It's mad, the amount of hatred in this thread is shocking! Poor fella just asked for advice on setting up Facebook and Twitter pages and gets some sharp responses. Bit ironic to see links to Facebook/Twitter pages in the signatures of some of the responses!!

To the OP: Social media is a free platform to share your music that was never around before, set up pages if you want, send stuff to friends, and try not spam people too much. Even if you just use your page for yourself then who cares. Years ago I setup a SoundCloud page to push myself to finish tracks because once they were up they were finished and I would never go back to them. A small thing overall, but it helped me get over the hump of not finishing shit and going back to it over and over again.

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rktic
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

TimBuys wrote:Such a good chance to start a discussion here but instead everyone acts like there is no marketing in techno.
What if some are just sick of it?

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TimBuys
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by TimBuys »

rktic wrote:
TimBuys wrote:Such a good chance to start a discussion here but instead everyone acts like there is no marketing in techno.
Or maybe some are just sick of it.
I don't like some if it either, but it can be done the wrong way and the right way. Take one of my favorite artists Max Cooper for instance, he does a great job of connecting his background, passions and interests to his music and making them known through his Facebook. This can be considered "Marketing" or "Promotion" Do you see anything wrong with that? I've also been added on Facebook by artists (that I didn't know) which music I ended up liking. There is nothing wrong with trying to get your music heard unless of course, you are using terrible tactics. Aren't we on this forum as well trying to connect with other people that have the same passions?

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rktic
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

TimBuys wrote:There is nothing wrong with trying to get your music heard unless of course, you are using terrible tactics. Aren't we on this forum as well trying to connect with other people that have the same passions?
My passion isn't about marketing, that's for sure.

And I surely don't want to live in a world in which everybody's first fart is considered art worth sharing either. Hope you get my point.

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TimBuys
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by TimBuys »

It's a very common theme among artists. Well, if you don't like marketing you probably shouldn't be putting your social media profiles in your sig either. Right? Or is that different ?

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rktic
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

Tim,

I think there's a difference between providing links for further reference and wanting to grow an audience for the sake of growing an audience. Don't you?

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TimBuys
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by TimBuys »

I think both come from the feeling of wanting your music to be heard by other people. So I don't see a major difference.

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rktic
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

So you do see a difference, but not a major one?

I'm fine with that.

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TimBuys
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by TimBuys »

Ask yourself this though, was it really needed to grill the guy? I didn't like the "music industry is a business" talk either but still. It's better to spit some knowledge instead of grilling someone if you want to get them on your side

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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

I wish you could see me now. Going back and forth on your question. My answer, though:

Grilling, because I ended a conditional statement in an imho well tempered sentence with "fuck off"?

Yet, I can continue to give you reasons why that is the best answer he can be given. IF making music is his thing after all.

But I seriously need to sleep right now ;)


And Kudos PatrickHughes. I'd still like to discuss with you your understanding of "professionality" and why you think social media has any impact on your professional music quality. But you seem to be a cool-headed (or ignorant enough) fella ;)

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Prophän
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by Prophän »

Some of the reactions here are a bit over the top :lol: I see no harm in someone wanting to be more heard/known, I totally understand some here don't like the flashy and showy side of the techno industry as a whole, but this should not be enough to diss the op, at the end of the day all of you guys here would still be listening to your favorite music because you like it and not because the artist who made it is famous or not

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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by collide »

PatrickHughes wrote:Right now all I have is a soundcloud with a relatively small number of followers and I'm thinking the next step is to get a facebook page and possibly twitter as well going to put myself out there more and be more professional. Just wondering what tips/experience people have for setting these up and growing your follower base?
Head over to social media of your choice -> click create account -> DONE!

Good luck!

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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by Alume »

Seriously though, Ive decided to cut facebook from the label and my music page. There is no purpose.

Wanted to delete the alume page for a while. As for the nyame facebook, I will post a sticky to the nyame website when the website is done and leave it as it is. That way the actual content womt be on facebook, but on the website though the mass will still be able tonget there.

Right now, most label websites are the other way around.

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Stace
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by Stace »

I guess it comes down to, do you want to be remembered from having the best curated Instagram posts or do you actually want to be remembered for making good music?

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rktic
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

I'd like to clear up my perspective and extend on dubdub's thoughts.
dubdub wrote:People that have been making music for six months trying to 'grow a fanbase'. You have 87 followers on Soundcloud dude.
Bear that in mind for a second. Let's add Patricks profile description from SoundCloud:

"Patrick Hughes is a emerging Techno producer focusing on dance floor moving techno. With rolling percussion, banging basslines and screaming synths Patrick's sound is both familiar and progressive. Keep an eye out for big tracks to come soon!"
PatrickHughes wrote:Right now all I have is a soundcloud with a relatively small number of followers and I'm thinking the next step is to get a facebook page and possibly twitter as well going to put myself out there more and be more professional.
When I put this together, this is what I'm reading:

"My name is Guybrush Threepwood and I wanna be a pirate. I've been practicing fighting in front of a mirror for 6 months now I'm ready to take on the sea. I've got a hat, a sword and some rotten clothes. Can anyone please sell me one of your exclusive 'serious-pirate-eye-patches' to make me look more dangerous?"

In other words: please help me look bigger than I am.

As far as I can see, marketing is about selling a product. And I don't have any issue with that. Selling a lie is a different story. If you want to equalize that through a superficial "oh, I'm already so used to bullshit I don't care anymore" filter, fine. Doesn't work for me. In my book that's a case of "decency - get some".

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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by rktic »

PS: I'm still getting demos for _rohformat every week. Most smell exactly like that. Nothing I'd ever add to my roster (if I had intentions of releasing other artists). People running labels have to separate the chaff from the wheat somehow. And this is by far the first filter to adopt to.

Patrick, your intentions aside - please consider being true to what you do and where you at. That's what gets you further in the end. Learn the rules. Then break them to your liking. Develop yourself as an artist.

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[wesellboxes]
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by [wesellboxes] »

I do digital marketing for a living and social media is one of the least effective channels whether you’re selling techno or baked beans. You can instantly buy likes but then that would be pointless as they’re generated by bots. You can share memes and virals but stray too far from your intentions and then so will your audience. Also, do you want to be known for content curation or your productions?

First things first, define your goals i.e. what do you ultimately want to achieve?

If it’s a larger audience for your music, then how is that going to be achieved, through your Soundcloud account or a label deal? Then your objective becomes either getting a record deal or increasing Soundcloud with x amount of legitimate traffic, and your activities should be geared towards that.

You can do some boosted posts on Facebook which will get you some extra listens but you won’t get anything too long lasting. If you are looking further afield and some kind of career out of this, or maybe you do want to be the next Adam Sellout or Ben Klock then it’s the same music industry slog they went through, there’s no social media shortcuts here.

DJ / Play live at parties
Start a club night
Start your own label
Create sample packs
Do tutorials online
Do regular podcasts, DJ mixes or live sets
Write blog articles
Network in real life

And finally - create more music

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Mattias
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by Mattias »

Beside every other wisdom that's been shared here let me chime in with some very important details;

Social media platforms today are not designed to reach your followers or potential followers.
They are worked out to prevent you from reaching your followers instead. Algorithms does everything and if you, for example, somehow manage to
post something from a site that does not have a lot of traffic you wont get that many "likes" or reach many people. On top of that you will be "punished" for
all future posts where you share content from the same site again. Of course with some variables on top.

Social media used to be pretty good at reaching people for us indie artists and labels. Now it's not.

Just make a Facebook page and a Soundcloud account and accept that you occasionally get a few reaches.
Music Page: http://www.facebook.com/Mattias.Fridell.Music
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/fridell
Sample packs: http://mfsamples.bandcamp.com

Contention / 005

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Creating and Growing a Social Media Presence

Post by Lost to the Void »

Let me wade in with some realities I have experienced and then I`ll throw in some opinion at the end.

1stly, OP is pretty much wrong with every bit of his assessment about how important social media is, in terms of A&R, growing your audience etc. Just completely wrong.
Think of your social media profile as something that provides side support to the thing that draws people to be interested in the first place, in this context that would be music.

You need to have the music first, that brings in the audience, and your social media just provides a place where they can get a little more informed about what you are up to. The music generates the traffic to the social media, not the other way round.

Ok, now a little of my experience. I started my first (Techno) label, on vinyl in 2003.
I was a nobody with a brand new label with no named remixes and managed to sell an absolute shit ton of records just when techno was dying back to minimal and vinyl went through a collapse. We sold out straight away and then repressed up to around 7000 units.
This was with no promotion, a no name artist, just a distribution deal.
Consecutive releases on my label maintained consistently high numbers for the, at the time, collapsing vinyl world.
I learned as I went along, promo mailouts, magazine reviews (magazines were still the main outlet for info), sometimes getting record of the month reviews.
My distributer also happened to be a very good friend, so I could keep track of sales and sales locations etc quite easily.
It turns out getting record of the month in the most popular DJ magazine of the time made pretty much zero effect on sales, as did mailing lists, or any of the other stuff. It was great for my ego, but in real terms sales none of this stuff was really changing the numbers, which remained consistent.
Basically the music was selling on it`s own merits.

Nothing has changed with the oncoming madness of social media, you won`t become more popular by raising a big profile and spamming the shit out of people (unless you are a youtuber where the platform IS social media).
If you want to get more popular you have to slog basically.
firstly be realistic with yourself, you have to offer something that isn`t being offered by anyone else, and you have to make sure the quality of it is top notch as we are saturated with music. So it needs to be good music AND really well produced.
Currently OP, I think your music is kinda generic, not much personality to it yet, it sounds like a few different artists and the production is probably just below average (if I compare it to the demos I get sent and all the music I master professionally day in, day out). That`s not an insult, I`m just trying to be realistic.

So my advice based on my own experience and those of my friends and peers, some of who`m are way more commercially successful than me and who really play the "I want to be famous" type game.
Firstly, make a lot more music, develop and find your own voice, be honest with yourself, try to get a distanced, objective look at your own music and understand when you are being original or derivative. You need to have a clear voice and personality in your music that gives labels a reason to release you rather than just use their established line up. Your social media profile has nothing to say here, it is all about the quality of your music.
Get better at production. Production levels are pretty high on average, the music might suck and be derivative, but it is well produced on average. So get a lot better, hit the ground running. And again, be honest with yourself.
Build an audience by doing the slog. Play locally, if there is nothing local then start a scene. Nothing will get you more respect than establishing a scene where there wasn`t one. Moving to berlin to hijack an established scene makes you a small fish in an overcrowded pond (full of sharks). Be the big fish in the new pond.
Be a part of the scene and it become easier to be a part of the scene.
Once you get all that sorted, make sure you have some online presence so people can keep themselves informed, because that`s all your social media will do for you realistically.
You can`t ride on bullshit unless you are willing to throw a ton of money into a full on media assault PR campaign. And then you are stuck with the ultimate emptiness of it, the fear and paranoia and the trap of knowing you really don`t have the chops....

If you believe in it, then work it. Put in the time and DO GOOD WORK.
All the rest is bullshit, all of it.
We all know it`s bullshit too, we all know that most social media promotion is bullshit

the "hello berlin" photo with a picture of your luggage in the airport

the "thank you wherever" photo with a picture of a crowd in some club

the "my latest release was supported by ITCHY Whoretits" post with a link to a pullproxy page with "Downloaded for Ritchie Whoretits?" written on it.

We all know it`s a crock of shit "ooh look at me" game, we all know it`s utter bullshit, some of us feel we need to do it anyway.

All you need to do is just let people know what you have coming out, and when, and where you are playing and when.

all the rest is utter cock dribble.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
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Techno is dead. Long live Techno.


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