How do you promote a song you have made?
 

How does someone go about promoting a song they have made?

My brother in law has made a song with his mates/band and they have it on a few sites where they get a few pence per download but, they want to 'make it big' if poss...
It's on myspace too I think but they don't really know what to do next with it.


:D

you tryed
bebo or facebook ?

I think it's on those too...

A shot towards the charts was more the thinking.

put it up on itunes or something or the radio m8 !

....errr hello! Is that the radio? Would you mind playing this song by my brother in law and his mates... Honest, they're dead good...!

:lol1:

NEUTRON STARS's music on MEmusic
Just click the play button (player pops up in mini window)

Not my taste in music but the tune is very catchy :)

Chorus made me smile.... :thumb:

Felt the track was about 1 minute too long at 4:09, it was screaming out to be a 3 minute pop song.
Maybe the singer could try to be a bit 'rougher' and get the guitars a bit 'heavier and grungier' to suit their songs, just seemed a bit weak for what they were aiming to do.....needed some attitude.

good luck to them though, cracking chorus

I think they want to 'put it out there' just in time for the Oasis tour.

:thumb:

Speak to the A&R dept of some record companies, send in the tune to them to see if they rate it.

The best thing is to raise awarenss, Facebook etc is a good way of doing that, if it sells on its own then the lables shouldl show interest anyway.

It is SO difficult to get a song released by a label at the moment :(
Aside from the fact, that today's "young" generation just don't pay for music, (:mad:) there aren't THAT many labels.

If I were you, I'd get them to do some more stuff, and set up their OWN label ;) They can sell the songs at gigs (even "live" record the gig as merchandise). With most bands now, the focus has swung onto the live event (to overcome piracy). The music is a marketing tool, just like the mug and the T-shirt.

This way they'll make ALOT more money. Record labels don't do it for owt ;) Also if the rest of the material is strong, look for a publishing deal....

Record deals aren't worth sh1t at the moment IMHO

Dan ;)

Hi Chris

Not sure if this will be much help to you but i was watching a program a couple of weeks ago(cant remember what it was?)but the guy on there said 1 of the best places to get your music seen/heard is YOUTUBE he said that way you have a global audience.

Good luck to your brother in law

regards

Nick

Sing it from the highest mountain.

Sing it loud.

Chris, I've just re-edited & remastered the song if you'd like to hear it (won't post it up on here as I haven't got the artist permission!) - i was bored whilst waiting for the family to wake up :D

I'll email it to you (mp3) if you want (ps catchy song!)

DAn

Cue kabillions of Snetters sending their homemade tracks to Dan :thumb: :D

I hope when you mastered it the loudness war wasn't a factor in it. ;) I really hate it when the levels are ramped up, makes the music sound so damned flat.

LOL @ Scoobychick!! preferential rates for S'netters ;)

Hux309 - nah, I hate that too. My mastering is more about the sound rather than squeezing all the dynamics out of the music. I can't STAND these brickwall mastering "presets" - they sound sh@t. :)

Dan

ps forgot to add - it's been brickwalled already :eek:

sing it on the uderground

Cool, so if I send you a recording of me singing 'Yesterday Once More' in the bath can you make me sound like Karen Carpenter? :wonder: :D

Do they gig alot, because that is the still the way to get your music heard. Also it will help them become better as a band. It sounds as if thay my have the basics there but need to build on it. The song is ok but only three chords and falls off at the end of the chorus.

Playing live will bring the band together more and make them tighter, practicing as much as possible is the way. It is hard work though playing the same songs over and over hundreds of times.

It is also the hardest style of music to get noticed with because every pub band play it.

But they got to keep at it, practice and if they have full commitment you never know:)

Just wish you tube was around when I was in a band

There's an old studio adage which may be quite fitting - "you can't polish a turd"! :D

Of course, you may be the next Diva. In that case, you're "signed"!:D

Dan ;)

Good track!

Re getting people to see/hear your ware, I just uploaded a vid I did for Sony/Nissan on to Facebook and mailed some Facebook producery friends to take a look at it in the hope of more work in the future. At least you have an 'in' this way as they are friends or colleagues already and so may take a look/listen and be thoroughly astonished :D;)

D

Aah christ it'll sound crap then, any chance they can send you the unmastered version to work your magic on?

I can test the song for any faults should you wish, i have a very sensitive pair of customs, if there's any distortion or anything for that matter they'll pick it up. :)

Happy to see you prefer more traditional mastering, trouble is i've been forced to listen to pre 90's music as a lot after that is horrible, surprisingly eric claptons music is beautifully mastered, id love to shake the hand who did his material.

For those that don't know this is what im on about.
YouTube - The Loudness War

Great link & totally agree in principle.

CD's have a good dynamic range, however any broadcast medium doesn't (and then add 'louder' competing channels)....

When I deliver stuff for telly I get to go to +8db max ppm (wrt 0 dB =--18dB peak). Not much!!!

D

One of the problems now is EVERY band can record a demo cheaply at home on their PC and stick it on Myspace - hence there being millions of very average songs that are badly recorded to trawl though before you may find something really good.

Getting noticed properly still works the same way it always has - money and contacts - unless you have plenty of either, you have a one in a million chance of anyone noticing you.

Most of these brand new bands that you suddenly see everywhere have proper management, who have the contacts in the music industry to get the songs heard by the right people, and also have the money to get them recorded properly and produced first, and follow it up with advertising and getting them on promotional tours.

Getting out and playing live is always good, but there are so few venues now, and you can spend years playing all of them on a wednesday night with 3 other unknown bands, and still not get anywhere. The best option is ( using money again ) to get a buy on to a tour with a larger artist.

Even with all the breaks, its still unlikely you will get anywhere unfortunately.

A good example is a band we played a few gigs with - at the time they had won a joint vote thing in NME as best new band of the year ( with another new up and coming band ) - and these two bands were packed off on a co-headlining tour of all the top venues with the full backing and promotion of probably the biggest music paper in the UK at the time.

Obviously the record companies all came sniffing, there was plenty of major radio play, press coverage etc... but despite this ( and despite the band we played with being the better of the two on the tour ) one of them did really well from it, and the other vanished into obscurity after one single.

The band that did really well was called Coldplay, the other was called Terris - guess which bands singer is regularly on TV, touring the world, and shacked up with a film star, and which is back driving a van....

Interesting story there Mike :thumb:
It is STILL a big case of luck and then money/contacts etc......

That's why self-promotion etc is the way forward - you won't make LOADS of money, but you could do semi well out of it.

Dan

I think most self promoting / internet based bands aren't ever going to make a living from it unfortunately.

Apart from in a few rare cases ( mostly real pop dross ) large advances from labels are a thing of the past, so for most artists they will need to rely on touring to make any real money, and unless you are big enough to get into decent sized venues, and have a good following, then you cant do this.

It is the chicken and egg situation, and why a lot of bands have always been hanging on for some sort of 'break' to get their careers going.

I've known quite a lot of professional musicians over the years, some in pretty well known bands with record deals, playing festivals etc... and most of these didn't earn much more than minimum wage, and a lot had to do other work like teaching etc... on the side to make enough to live from. Unless they were big enough to do really long headline tours ( most smaller bands tours will be less than a month, and they don't earn a great deal from them ) then its very hard to make enough money to live off.

We were always in that position, where we got to a certain level and were known as one of the best live bands around the area and everyone always said they thought we were really good, but it just sort of stalled.

We couldn't get any record company interest from any decent size labels as they didn't see us as being commercial enough to make them a lot of money back quickly, and because we werent young kids, we couldn't really all give up work to sign up with a small label as we wouldn't have enough money to pay the bills - so we ended up in limbo not really getting any further.

I think there's enough work out there to make a living. Not a mega decent living, but a living nevertheless.
You're right though - usually has to supplemented by additional income.
If you're lucky enough to find a music-related job then you're laughing (for the time being!)

It's difficult and risky. That's where it's more of a risk for more mature people, who tend to have commitments etc, so more to lose.

Dan :)