Can musicians can still be successful without touring, doing social media or showing their face?
I break down:
► Can you not post on social media and still blow up on social media
► The four pillars of music promotion
► How Radiohead, Tool, Cashmere Cat, Aphex Twin, Adelle, The Weeknd, Burial, Brand New and other huge musicians actually built their fanbases.
► Why you should focus on how your favorite artists built their fanbase instead of what they do at the top when they are already famous.
► How you build a fanbase if you don’t want to use Instagram or Twitter
► My playlist on How To Build A Fanbase Without Buying Facebook Ads –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOBsuuRl7U&list=PL0i-5Ujnd4VUlik-cALElrmL9lm8xaYNp
► How To Do A Full Stack Single Like The 1975 & Sleep Token – https://youtu.be/WpVWqNeXpJ4
►Thanks for checking out my channel please subscribe and tell a friend!
►If you enjoyed this video there’s a whole playlist of videos just like this https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0i-5Ujnd4VVckEVaE1_RUcLzPF8U680K
►Leave a comment with any questions you have and I will answer it in a future video.
Chapters:
00:00 Musicians Debating Social Media & Promotion
00:26 Lessons from Adele as a Social Media Exception
03:13 Music Promotion as Cross-Country Skiing
06:47 Success Beyond Traditional Promotion
Links:
👨💻 Become A Member And Get Next Level Fanbase Building Techniques https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a-qcXVlh4Teya-EiEz-GA/join
📞 Book A Call With Jesse (My YouTube Viewers Get A Reduced Rate): http://www.jessecannon.com/consulting
📺 Subscribe To My Other YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Jtm3FFIxqsoYyZeKUlFyA
🎛 Mix Or Master A Song With Me: http://foundsoundation.com/
📘 My Book On Building A Fanbase https://amzn.to/3LYnbHV
📘 My Book On Making Great Music: https://amzn.to/3BmJSRu
🧰 Free Tools: https://ko-fi.com/jessecannon
🖥 Learn More About Me: http://www.jessecannon.com/
📱 Instagram, Twitter, TikTok @JesseCannon
🗣 My Discord Server: https://discord.gg/8rXHevkpWw
⌨️ My Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MusformationDIY/
👽 Reddit On Music Promotion: https://www.reddit.com/r/MusicPromoTips/
In this thought-provoking video, we dive deep into the question: Can musicians still achieve success without the traditional tools of touring, active social media presence, or even showing their face? Join us as we dissect the possibility of rising to stardom without the pressure to post on social platforms and unveil the four key pillars of music promotion that could pave your way to fame. We’ll unravel the inspiring journeys of renowned artists like Radiohead, Tool, Cashmere Cat, Adele, The Weeknd, and more, shedding light on how they meticulously built their dedicated fanbases. Discover why it’s crucial to study their early career strategies rather than focusing solely on their current fame. Plus, we’ll reveal ingenious alternatives for building your fanbase if Instagram and Twitter aren’t your preferred channels. Don’t miss this opportunity to redefine your path to success in the music industry!
#musicmarketing #musicpromotion
source
Great perspective, thank you!
The idea of thinking you can be mysterious but "not promote online" is insane. Aphex Twin is a great example, also The Residents had to create a marketing entity so the "group" could remain anonymous while still promoting and selling product. They were on MTV while no one even knew who the members were.
Funny thing is, Adele actually speaks about using MySpace and other social media apps to get signed to her first label around 2007-2008. So even the exception isn't a proper exception.
I actually use my Instagram almost exclusively to promote music and sharing other people's music 🙂
Whew, I turned this one off. I can appreciate you getting fired up about your area of expertise but like…I got kids running around, man! I'll try another.
Great video Jesse. Surprised you didn't touch on Death Grips (Hacker in the intro too lol). I feel like they absolutely nailed marketing themselves in the digital era, though like many other artists you mention in the video, their music was so exceptional and mindblowing that it propelled them insanely fast
love the anatomy analogies !
Your videos are so different than other music marketing youtubes and feel much more real. Props king 👑
Thank you. Good pep talk as always, sir! 🙌🏽
Half way into this video I made the decision to start planning a serious photo shoot. 🤌🏽🙏🏽
Jesse, what advice do you have when you social media followers don't take that extra step to click on the links in your profile to your music pages? It doesn't seem to matter if the clip is a 30 second teaser, the full song or a photo ad. I was also doing non music posts. I thought I was doing things wrong until I polled about 20 or my friends and ALL of them said even if they like the song they just don't go to Spotify or Bandcamp, etc. off of Instagram or Facebook. Apparently it's too much work for them. Ari Herstand said a follower wants your music for free but a fan will support you so I fear that 99% on social media are just followers and not fans. Is it a numbers game? Do I need a bazillion followers so that 1% that are fans will provide enough support?
Where have you been all my life?!?! YOUR CONTENT IS SO STRONG.
While it's important to utilize all social media, what do you feel about an artist focusing in on one or two that play to their strengths? For me, I think writing things out in twitter and substack will go a longer way for finding and engaging fans than "cute pics" on Instagram or trying to go viral on TikTok.
I’ve always wondered this because my favorite band, Pink Floyd, seemed to be one of the first “mysterious” bands to blow up exponentially and still keep that aura. I know that in their early shows they were a great live band and leading up to the Dark Side of the Moon, they toured like hell. This video was very insightful, but I still don’t know how they were successful in making their art connect to the huge scale that they did, while still remaining in the shadows (they didn’t have masks or anything gimmicky like slipknot or other things that purposefully hide them) . Maybe it was a once in a lifetime thing? I don’t know, I’m not really looking to make dsotm 2, but I am interested in that sort of brand image. No pictures of the band on the album covers and all (first record had picture of the band members, none after that ). Great video dude
I mean for many artists on your list you ultimately default to “they were really fucking good”. Which subverts the point of your video. On Sophie “Madonna tapped her without her having a video”. Now if you really wanted to give us some meaningful content you would tell us how Sophie got noticed by Madonna without the traditional marketing. What did she do to build “demand”? Cashmere Cat is the same deal. He got lots of attention and worked with influential people. How, why, when, where? You aren’t really demystifying anything if you gloss over these stories without an explanation of how they did it.
Best music channel on YouTube. Absolute fucking gold.
Man it's cause of you that I've been more active than I've ever been in my life, so thank you! Would love your feedback on some music sometime. Your opinion is super valuable to an independent artist like me.
Might I suggest using a Becky and Stacy meme to appease the virgins?
Jesse, please make a video of exactly how you need to interact with people in the community of artists like you.
I use social media, but as far as touring and going out, that's something I've been thinking about.
“4 keys”? I didn’t learn shit.
oh god, if i had a dime for every time i heard someone say "bUt BUrIaL aNd apHeX tWIn dIDn'T hAVe tO pROmOTe tHEmseLvES" i'd be able to buy my way onto a spotify editorial playlist at this point lmao
Adele was produced by Rick Rubin Lolol there’s your social media exception
Thanks so much for the great tips, Jesse! I have focused heavily on pre-release marketing like pre-saves and blog pitching, but have realized most of the magic is in post-release. With that said, would you credit any parts of pre-release an important part of a song release, aside from consistent posting?
Always exceptional content.
Love your channel so much!
Jesse! Love this man. I have been putting your advice into practice, and seeing results. Thank you so much.
Makes a lot of sense. I genuinely can't think of any exceptions to this model off the top of my head.
The other option that isn’t mentioned; is to be in the top 1% tier of your niche. If you arrive there then creating mystery will work just fine because everything you drop will be undeniably valuable and if you are the type of person ready to put your life and soul into your art you should aspire to this and not waste too much time with this sns stuff. You can either become a rare gem so valuable that it can’t not be discovered OR promote the shit out of your music til everyone knows your name whether good or bad. Which approach would you choose? Current sns is not fostering a musicians creativity – I hope in the next few years the format will change to promote creativity over mindless exposure. If you’re resorting to thirst traps you are low quality. What is your end goal as an artist? If it is exposure, to get attention, then you’re not focusing on the art itself and your overall quality will be low. Do you know how many artists are in the top level in my genre? 2. The top 1% is a quiet place.
I used to listen to hip hop, since JDilla there’s been no one who reached his level, the music lost its roots. Aspire to become someone of that caliber not some thirsty sns fame leech..Make your priority to make the best music in existence and not attach your goal to a follower count. I’m deeply disappointed with the music out today, the quality sucks. This isn’t some old guy espousing back in my day bs either. The quality has really died in this arse and this video encapsulates the essence of every shitty musician of today’s era, looking for follows and likes. Respect to the author he’s only playing the game that exists to play, my gripe is with the game itself.
I'd be really curious to know what "mysterious" musician cultivated that mystery without some element of marketing.
Tool's drummer played on Green Jelly's first record (as well as Maynard singing 3 little pigs part), I'd say that was a band that had some potential. I'd love to know what happened. Their second album was pretty cool and they had a bunch of videos for it, that were unlike anything else at the time, just like Tool (they had their own DIY movie studio). But I haven't seen any of them on MTV Europe outside of a late night metal show. It's like somebody decided not to play them and that was it. Same thing happened to many other bands. They were one hit wonders, but not because they couldn't do another hit song, but because somebody decided not to play anything new from them. Good thing at least we don't have to talk about MTV anymore.
When you’re on top the of the ladder, write on the billboard and everyone will see it. When you’re at the bottom of the ladder, write something and barely anyone will see it.
Yay cross country skiing
I see no lies here!
I see so many unknown bands on YT with cool vids and brilliant songs w 1000 views. Then I see artists with cool videos that have 100M views, but the song is forgettable. I don't think the successful artists are working harder and they're certainly not more talented. Weird world.
Do a video on promoting music on TikTok
Really enjoyed this!
The thing with Adele is that she went to the BRIT school, one of the most successful performing arts schools in the world, so she peobably had connections before she even graduated. Amy Winehouse, Katie Melua, FKA Twigs, Imogen Heap and Kate Nash also graduated from the BRIT school. Leona Lewis and Jessie J were Adele's classmates. So its not really a surprise that she was signed to major label one year after graduating. This is NOT the kind of person a upcoming artist should model their career on, Adele was in a position where she could talk to music industry experts when she was like 12.
Wonderful video as always, can't deny I cried thinking about SOPHIE, still terribly sad, she was the best.
I love this, and it encourages me to put that much more effort into my currently minimalistic insta (I do show part of my face, but obscured). I try to do notable things but starting from 0, it feels like making the very first fans is the hardest part. Maybe it's because I haven't found my community yet. What do you do if your niche doesn't quite fit any microgenre? Is social media able to bridge that gap?
Jesse is straight no bullshit. Realist person in music marketing.
This is that SAUCE
I do believe you are absolutely right. Your videos are quite interesting, but I feel that you go way too fast…you give a lot of very important information and I've found annoying having to pause the video because you keep talking while showing an article with even more information. I've found it overwhelming, very interesting but…if could you slow down a bit your content will gain immensely. Don't get me wrong, I'm telling you this because your stuff is really good!
Frank Ocean was my personal case study that brought me to a lot of these realizations.
Side note: Some of us hide from social media and people in general because we're afraid, not lazy.
The same vulnerable sensitivity that inspires our music, also makes us scared to show our heart to the world… or maybe it's just me… but I'm working on it.