Category Archives: Music Promotion

How To Use Instagram To Promote Your Music As A Rapper For Free

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How To Use Instagram To Promote Your Music As A Rapper For Free

 

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Instagram is one of the best platforms to promote yourself as an artist. Many people already know this. So lets get to the question, how to use Instagram to promote your music as a rapper for free? Instagram firstly is a social media platform, so being social and active is in fact the most important step to achieving success. So lets shed some light on what you can do to promote your music on Instagram as a rapper, and how you can take action right away! Be sure to check the common mistakes that artists make guide here and compile this information into your plan!

Follow People

Following people is the foundation of Instagram. You may be asking your why, but the aim here is to get people to follow you back, so they see your posts every time that you post new content on to your profile. So what can you do right now? Set your self a goal, and that goal is simply to follow up to 200 people per a day. Spread this activity out over the day, do say 15-30 follows per an hour so that you keep under Instagram’s follow limits. Lets say 25% of people follow you back, that would be 50 new people a day following your music profile! That’s a great foundation to building your Instagram presence. Once you have followed around 1,000 people, start unfollowing those who haven’t followed you back, since these people are taking up valuable space which we can use to generate more follow backs.

Being Social

This is kind of straight forward, but people seem to forget this. I have rappers daily reach out and enquire about beats due to my social activity towards their content. Simply liking and commenting on peoples photos and videos will help drive your engagement rate on your posts higher. This will attract more attention, and more potentially loyal fans to your page. The key is to get them to engage with your content and give them the opportunity to become a fan. So make the first move and show some love, communicate with them, and respond to all DM’s from genuine people. People love being answered, and will be grateful that you took the time to respond to them. This builds a relationship, and these people will be genuine supporters of your music!

Hashtags

Yes yes you have probably heard this before, but 95% of rappers I see on Instagram post hashtags that has absolutely nothing to do with their content. Irrelevant hashtags are about as useful as a car with no seats and wheels. Here are a list of hashtags which you can use to promote your posts and make yourself discover-able in Instagram.

#newartist #rapper #newrapper #upcomingrapper #hiphopartist #traprapper #newmixtape #upcomingartist #freestylerap #soulfulrap #smoothrap #undergroundartist #undergroundrap #unsignedartist #unsignedrapper #hiphopmusic #newschool #newsingle #hotrapper #femalerapper #femaleartist #singer #freestyleartist #hiphopculture #rapartist

Use which ever is suited to you best, these hashtags are targeted and relevant to you as an artist, and of course feel free to add more that you think of.

Recap

Instagram is a pretty straight forward platform to get to grips with, and it really is a numbers game. The more followers that you have, the better it looks, and the bigger your reach is. So following people is essential to get the ball rolling, and being socially active will help you reach out with new potential fans and in return increase engagement rate. Ensuring that your hashtags are relevant, people will be able to discover your music via your posts, which can result in even more followers on your page. If you imagine 6 months down the line, you will have a pretty strong Instagram fan base who are familiar with you and will love to check out your music. Do this correctly and you will easily jump ahead of 95% of the competition, believe me, 95% of rappers aren’t getting this right. Check my Instagram account and you will see the results of these activities. Here’s a guide to make money as artist using these tips

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Here you can find beats for sale.

Thank you, and take action!!!

How To Make Money As An Upcoming Rapper

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How To Make Money As An Upcoming Rapper

 

Artists of the stature of Drake, Future, Young Thug etc. are absolutely raking in the cash. But of course, these guys had to start somewhere and think of creative ways to get paid, and use conventional methods. Not many people are aware of how to make money as an upcoming rapper, and in all honesty, its a pretty tough task to accomplish. So lets talk about some ideas to make money and to set foundations for much bigger things.

Royalties And Adsense

I covered this topic in my previous article here, but lets break this down a little more. Once you have set up your YouTube account, click on the “channel” tab on the sidebar in your creator studio and enable your YouTube for monetisation. Follow the instructions provided and in no time you will be an official partner with YouTube. You will be able to track your daily earnings in Adsense. Many statistics such as amount of page views and clicks will presented in your personal Adsense account and you can monitor your growth. So where does the money come from you may ask? Quite simple. The money comes from the adverts that YouTube play before and during your videos. However, there is no set amount you will get paid for each view or click, it can vary depending on the amount that the advertiser has bid YouTube for these actions. Some adverts pay higher than others, but its worth noting that YouTube does award active channels, so the better your activity, the more likely that you will host higher paying adverts. You can find beats here which grant you the rights to monetise and make profit from.

Royalties are similar yet different. With royalties, you receive payments each quarter of the year, and works two quarters behind. For example, you will be paid your 1st quarterly pay in the 3rd quarter of the year. This is because the royalty collection societies have to collect data from worldwide and calculate the amounts each artist is entitled to receiving. You are entitled to receiving royalties if you work is publicly broadcasted. For example, if your music is played on public and legitimate radio stations, it will be logged and the royalty collection society will be informed, so you will be entitled to pay. The amount you get paid depends on a multiple factors, such as :

How big the radio station is

How many people were listening at the time

How long your work was played for

Territory where your work has been played

So as you can see, its quite a complex funnel. However if you are fortunate enough to break into mainstream national radio and get frequently played, you can expect VERY BIG pay-cheques. Check this link out to see how much the BBC radio stations in the UK pay approximately per play. Not bad, eh?

Merchandising and Sponsorship

Merchandising is where most major artists actually make their money, and they use their music as a promotional tool to promote their merchandise. A good example would be 50 cent’s success with his Effen Vodka brand. You can sell anything from clothing, alcoholic drinks, jewellery, mobile phones, anything that you can think of. The key is to create a product which your target audience will find appealing alongside your music. If you are a deep conscious rapper, you could sell clothing with your most intelligent personal quotes which people can relate to. One major thing to remember is that people invest in being able to express themselves. Stop and think about it, and create your own judgement of what I just said, and you will make your own understanding of human nature,and be able to cater to their needs, without them even knowing! Remember, your not only an upcoming rapper, your also a marketer and your running a personal business. This is how to make money as an upcoming rapper the proper way. Think bigger than just music.

As creative artists, it is in our best interest to collaborate with other creative individuals from other areas of business. By doing so, you can gain sponsorships and endorsements which can really benefit your progression as an upcoming rapper. Lets look at a very well known example, DJ Khaled promotes Diddy’s Ciroc brand, and gives Ciroc a much larger marketing reach and stronger branding. No doubt, Khaled is earning great money for this. On a smaller scale, an upcoming artist can work with other upcoming businesses and promote brands in return for endorsements. The options available are endless. The key is to be creative see potential opportunity has it arises.

(Idea) Running Your Own Events

In this section, we will talk about a potential idea which answers how to make money as an upcoming rapper. As an artist, your product can be used to promote just about anything and everything. As we know, everybody love a good excuse to get out for a night, have a drink with friends and to generally have a good time. This is an opportunity which you can capitalise on. By putting on your own event, you will be able to perform on your own show, bring in other artists and also DJ’s who are looking to break into the scene. This game is all about about networking, and by bringing people together, you never know who you may meet at your events. Back to making money, there are normally two options. You can charge an entry fee on the door, or have an agreement to take % on drink sales with the venue that’s hosting the show. By bringing other artists onto your show, you will also be reaching out to their fans, as they will more than likely bring a small crowd to the event to support them. Lets do some basic maths. If you could bring 10 rappers onto your show, each of them brought 10 fans with them and the entry fee was $5, that is $500 of income on the door. This is just an example of something you can do to make money with your music and other peoples.

Recap

Hopefully this article has opened up your mind to seeing past music sales, and as you probably noticed, I purposely left out music sales. As an upcoming artist, being just a rapper ISN’T enough to make the cut. You have to be an entrepreneur also. Having multiple income streams such as streaming, Adsense, merchandise sales, selling verses, live performances, you can make a living off your dreams and passion. The best thing is that you can start right away! Begin to make notes of potential brands and merchandise which you could promote using music and lyrical content. Also, reach out to upcoming companies and attempt strike a sponsorship deal with them. Just by taking these steps, more doors will open up for you. Use this guide here to look at how you can use Instagram to promote

Hopefully This article has shed light on how to make money as an upcoming rapper. Please share so that others can reap the benefit of this information.

Thank you, and be sure to act upon the information, this really does work!

5 Most Common Mistakes That Artists Make On The Rise

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The Top 5 Most Common Mistakes Made By New Artists

So you have decided that you want to pursue a career in the music industry as a rapper. You have spent countless nights dreaming of the perfect life, not having to work a typical 9-5 job and making a comfortable living off your passion and doing what you love most. So, where does the adventure start? This post will highlight the 5 most common mistakes that artists make on the rise.

No Financial Backing

Sadly, the life of the rapper isn’t as cheap as we would initially think. Like any business, you have to invest in your craft, and also your time. As lovely as it would be, money doesn’t flood in overnight after simply uploading a track to band-camp with a “buy link”. It takes a lot of time to build a strong and reputable brand as an artist, and to expand your reach, it takes monetary investment. The most wise solution would be to get a job, even if its part time work, so that you have some sort of financial backing.

This Is A Business!

This is probably the most common mistake that rappers make, by not treating their rap career as a business. To generate a strong income in any type of business, you must have a strong brand image, and offer the BEST quality work which would result in someone paying their hard earned cash for your work. Also, how are people going to find you? Advertising is the answer, and you could probably guess, this can get costly. For example, a good place for a rapper to advertise their work would be the front page of major hip hop sites, such as DatPiff, Coast2Coast Mixtapes, etc. You can sell your music here

There are vast amount of income streams that artists can make money and elevate their business from which require creativity, thought, and most importantly research. An artist should plan out who their target audience is, their interests, fashion trends of their audience, and what would appeal to them. This information can be used in the creation of the musical aspects, merchandising, appearance and shows. This will build a highly targetted fan base who will share interests in relation to what you are actively promoting. Never under-estimate the power of research, its the foundation to your whole business.

Here’s a guide for rappers to make money

Little Online Presence

This is also another flaw that most artists come across, and this issue makes it a lot harder for them to become discover-able. As an artist, being in as many places as possible is essential, and it increases the likelihood of your music being found. Only being active on twitter with 250 followers will sadly not make the cut for creating a solid music career. It is also a good idea to sign up to rap related forums, where you can reach out and connect with other rappers and offer valuable advice to eachother. Here is a checklist of locations where artists should be active :

  1. Facebook
  2. Instagram
  3. Twitter
  4. Soundcloud
  5. YouTube
  6. ReverbNation
  7. Bandcamp
  8. StumbleUpon
  9. Forums

So instantly, you are expanding your potential reach by x9 just by using those websites to create a presence with. Lets just say each of these sources got you 10 views a day, you will generate 90 daily views. May not sound a lot? What if I told you that would accumulate to 32,850 views in a year? Not a bad place to start. As you build your following overtime, these numbers will increase. By using wise advertising investments such as Facebook Ads etc. your presence will grow quicker, and your following will be of much higher quality

Using Tagged Beats

This one is something that’s often overlooked, and doesn’t require much depth, but is one of the most common mistakes that artists make. Ripping beats off YouTube which contains tags every 8 bars isn’t a good look for any rapper, and it really devalues your product. Also, you have no legal rights to profit from these compositions, It is best to keep away from releasing music with tagged beats. No body minds a producer tag at a start of song of course, but not a consistently tagged beat. There are many sources online where you can buy very high quality beats for cheap, and you will be able to make money from!

No Monetization

This is something EVERY artist must have in some form, and there is no excuse not to! Did you know you could earn money from views on YouTube? Simply by uploading your work to YouTube you are entitled to make money. The next question – How? It’s very simple and will take a few minutes to get set up. Once you have set up your YouTube channel, you can enable your channel for monetisation, and link the channel with a Google Adsense account.

For the more serious artists, signing up to a royalty collection society would be a sensible idea, because for each stream and public broadcasts of your work, you will be entitled to royalty payments. Each country has their own royalty collection society, a simple google search will show you the royalty collection society for your location.

Recap

The life of a rapper is something that many envy, being able to live freely and to do what you want, without having to turn up to a 9-5. However what people don’t realise is that is one of the hardest careers to pursue, and requires investment, time, skill and a lot of research. To get started, write up a plan of action, take note of the style of music that you create, and also your content. Next, find a demographic which is most suited to your style of music, and share interests with the type of content your creating. Identify fashion trends, and trends which closely relate to those in your demographic. Build your online platforms, brand them with artwork and descriptions, and start building your following. Invest in adverts to target your specific demographic which you want to follow you and become fans. Use beats which you have the rights to use, and ensure that you are monetising your plays!

Here you go, the 5 common mistakes artists make on the rise has been addressed!

If you found this useful, please it share with others so they can reap the benefits of this information also.

Also, click here to check our guide on using Instagram to promote yourself as an artist.

Thank you.