Whether you are an actor or somebody who has a business, you need people who will support what you’re doing and who can’t wait to see what you’re going to showcase next. You need people to tell the rest of the world about your existence. In other words, you need fans.
The same applies to musicians. You need your fans to be streaming your music, follow you in all your social media pages, go to your concerts or even buy your album. You need them to let more people know that you play good music. Once you find them, everything else will follow.
So how do you get started then? How do you make them love and continue loving your craft? Here’s how:
Share your story
Your music is important and so is the story of how your music was created or how your band started. It connects you and your fans. That once, you had a dream that you probably thought was impossible yet you still managed to work all your way towards reaching it. You may think about it as a bit “cheesy” but a good story always works as a great start.
Play in any local gigs that you can get
All you need is the opportunity to let people listen to your music. Take every opportunity that you can get to reach out to your "future fans". Check out the local community gigs and once you get the chance to play live, treat it as your best performance.
Create an email list and have people sign up
One of the best venues to invite your fans to sign up is during the local gig. Send them an email with free samples of your music or invitations to watch your gigs.
Stay active on Social Media and be consistent in posting interesting contents
In today’s increasingly digital world, social media presence is highly important. It’s your gateway to more than millions of people from different parts of the world. Staying active on social media and posting interesting content are ways to engage your existing fans. It’s also the best avenue to invite people to listen to your music and post invitations for your future gigs.
Talk to your fans on a regular basis
Run a Contest
Running a contest is an effective way to engage your fans. This is also one of the best ways to reward them for their loyalty.
- Cover song
- Retweet and win a prize
- Caption this - You can post a picture and have people caption it, the winner wins a prize
- The best selfie wins - Ask your fans to post a selfie from your latest gig. The most number of likes wins.
- Help us write a song
- Concert tickets giveaway - After announcing your upcoming concert, you can tell your fans that you’re giving out free concert tickets. All they have to do is explain in the comment section why they should have the tickets and who they want to tag in your show.
Conclusion
There are still a lot of contest ideas out there that you can run for your fans. It doesn’t matter what you would choose, the important thing is to engage your audience. When you’re starting a career in music, it’s important to build more people to discover your social media pages and running contests is one of the best ways to attract people.
The reality is, your fans are in a way, the lifeblood of your career. Building relationships is enriching loyalty which will, later on, turn into profits. Therefore building a solid fan base is important.