Promoting Mixes and Tracks - Keys to success!

This is mainly an introduction to a project im doing as well as me carrying out a little research, so to start I have a question...


How your all promoting your mixes or your tracks?

No doubt theres a vast array of promo techniques so I thought I'd start a little thread to group them all together and see what we can share and learn, some of the useless and useful's

I havent released and music as of yet so its just mixes so far for me, I have a decent facebook following so I usually create a facebook event with a week long lead up to build up some hype and at the end of the week upload my mix to mixcloud! I started off doing that because I entered a DJ comp and from doing so my mix ended up the most listened to in the whole competition! great_success_by_merionminor-d4xmjry.jpg

Anyway, heres my story - I believe its slightly important to read but if not scroll down and you can get on with reading what ive come up with (bear with me cause it might get slightly longwinded)

Besides facebook theres not really much I do at the moment however I have just spent a good few weeks prowling through the web, through how to websites, fourms, facebook groups etc. to try and take all the info and merge it into a package to try and create the 'perfect promo' technique and heres what I came up with..

In this digital age the internet and social networking is a thing which when used properly can be all you need! besides having a passion for music im also a social-mediaist and graphic designer and run and manage quite a lot of bars, clubs, retail stores and other business' and companies facebook sites as well as providing the artwork for their business. This came about from running my own events, I started doing under 18 events when I was 14 cause I wanted to DJ but every bar, club, event promoter and DJ I met laughed me off as you can imagine and as many of you know in this industry unfortunately its 60% of who you know and 40% of what you know, a shame but its how not only this scene works but also how much of life works! So to heck with it, i started my own evening s where I could DJ and get myself out and playing live. Since then I've won business awards (news links below) as well as hosted and been involved in organising and managing many more events ranging from corporate events, to evening life events and even the odd festival, and im only 17! Ive even played at The Ministry of Sound Superclub in London, a club im sure most if not all of you will have heard of.. Not bad so far...

So from my knowledge and skills thus far in both business and music along with all the info on the net I've came up with some keys to success that theoretically should work, which I am going to carry out as a little project of mine and just like a small business review and re-evaluate every so often to see whats going well, not so well and how I can change to become better. Enough babbling heres what ive got;-


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Be seen;
The old days of waiting outside of evening clubs to dish out your cds to the promoters and dj's are long gone due to the powers of the web. Having a online presence is key to success! I've been to business lectures and seminars that are solely on social media and having online presence and its been shown that it can improve a business drastically, therefor the same should transfer over to promotion of your mixes or music. So go set your self up some sites! Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, go join community s, create a youtube, make a instagram, the more your online the better chance you have!
Once your done, be seen! Theres no point in having all these things if you dont use them! Remember to post frequently but not constatly, theres nothing worse then showering people with your posts. It can be over done so go easy. When you set up a facebook set up as a profile not a page, that way you can send request's to people and not have to worry about people finding you and actually wanting to click like on your page, its much easier and convenient for them be 'friend' you not to mention its more personal - be sure to make sure you set your age to over 18 when you sign up then you can 'allow subscribers' this is just another avenue for people to connect with you and once you hit your 5000 friend limit people will still be able to keep in touch by subscribing you, then you can convert your profile to a page and your friends and subscribers will automatically be converted to 'likes' (I do this for a lot of business and it works a treat!)
As far as all the other networks they're all follow based and the best thing to do is start following people and hope for a follow back! it might take 1000 follows for you to gain 100 followers but thats still 100 you never had right?

Interlink;
Everyone of you pages should point to the other, make sure you stick all the links to your other places on the web in your 'about' sections of your sites! that way if you make it big on youtube your fans can like your facebook site, dont get sucked into the mentality that just because your super popular on one site all the rest should be forgotten. If you want to make it big you need to be popular everywhere!

Create;
After being seen you actually have to give what you say your offering, upload regular mixes and tunes. Keep it catchy, start something like 'tech tuesdays' where on tuesdays youll put out a 30 min tech house set on soundcloud available for download and then delete it and reupload the new one every tuesday, this gives your followers something to look forward to and it gives you something to shout about on your pages! It might be slow at first but youll eventually gain an audience and grow your following from others stumbling upon your mixes (be sure to tag them properly too!)

The Hook;
Every marketing and promo advert has something called a 'hook'. See that TV ad you just watched for coka-cola? thats got a hook.. See the billboard you just passed for that new evening club opening soon, thats got a hook.. A hook is something thats put into a advert thats going to be memorable to you, something thats going to hook you into whatever is being advertised. Every great marketing campaign has a hook, you need one too. For example, if your good on photoshop print screen a celeb's facebook status then get your self on photoshop and photoshop it over to make them say 'wow, cant stop listening to (dj name)'s mix! been on repeat all day!' then post up the photo on all your sites saying something funny like 'even David Beckham is enjoying the tunes, have you listened yet? ;-)' and stick a cheeky link in to your mix!
Boom, you have yourself a great little hook!

Finally

Consistency;
its been scientifically proven that we as humans like consistency and dislike change, that should follow though in your social activity, make sure you spend the time to make a logo and create a theme that fits you an your musical style and if you cant its more then worth getting someone you may know to do it for you, if you dont know anyone pay someone to do it! Im not going to say its 100% vital in making you a superstar DJ or producer but it sure will help, it gives a professional feel and even though people may not say it but mentally it will be there that when they click on your pages and theres a consistently running theme that you know what your doing and your not just like bob down the street who makes music or DJ's too. Sum up - constant logo and theme (such as colours and fonts in things such as your logo and facebook cover picture etc) make sure all of your account names are the same, for example mine are LeroyAllenMusic and you can find thats the same on instagram, facebook, soundcloud, mixcloud.. everywhere, all you need to do is type in your site facebook[dot]com or soundcloud[dot]com forward slash LeroyAllenMusic and its there, that way your fans will always be able to find you and wont need to remember a hundred different user names..

All this is my starting point and works theoretically but in the DJ and Production world especially theres no such thing as a theoretic strategy to success, much of it is being in the right place at the right time.. but if your constantly visible and doing then thats got to help and will no doubt grow you more by spending your time promoting yourself then it would by you just sitting at home watching your pre-recorded episodes of Jersey Shore

Like I say this is just a project Im just starting in hope that it may actually do some good, if you click on any of my links you will notice they are rather blank because Ive just started but they will fill up. Ive put my old page links below so you can see what sort of following I originally had as well as have a listen to some of my old mixes and whatnot

So thats my 2 pence worth, im going to keep this going and keep you up to date with how im doing and whats going well and what isnt. Id love to hear what you's are doing, as well as have some idea's or constructive criticism!


Cheers, Leroy x

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Ministry of Sound article -
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...Sound_dancing/

Business articles -
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/bus...y_s_busy_life/
http://www.entrepreneurscommunity .net/vo...business-life/
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...ing_leukaemia/

Page Links -
http://www.facebook.com/leroy.allen.5
https://soundcloud.com/djleroyallen
http://www.mixcloud.com/your_leroyallen_dj/
https://twitter.com/DJLeroyAllen