This doc aims to become an introduction to ways for artists and their music to be discovered by people out there. The goal here is to get more people aware of your music, more listeners, and more fans.
Eventually more listeners might turn into more income, but we discuss income strategies in another doc. We also don’t explain where to publish your music, which should be covered in a separate doc.
How your music is discovered
(((Just aiming to identify the areas. Each point to be developed with a short description and a dedicated page.)))
These are ways how your music may find its way without your direct intervention.
Metadata - description, genre, bpm, hashtags, license… Make it easy for shops, search engines, social media boosters, playlist makers, curators…
Playlists, compilations…
(Online) music radios and podcasts
How you are discovered
But really, your music will be better discovered when you are involved as an artist or a band. When you are the one(s) being discovered.
Website
Social media - (a sane approach to)
Fanbase - (clearly a page on its own)
Closest scene(s) - being active in your local scene and/or your genre.
I started the draft above, certainly not with the aim to transform music. But does it help getting to where you want to get at, @Mel. I don’t know much, and this first draft just aims to be a proof of concept, hopefully encouraging those of you who really know to edit it further and create dedicated pages as needed.
I think we are in unknown territory, tbh. No-one, not even major labels, know how to “break a new artist” () if the DSPs (read: Spotify) don’t support them. Or if they don’t go randomly viral on TikTok or whatever.
Source: talking to the music industry over the last 10 years, including people at major labels.
Therefore, I think we need to nourish our parallel DIY music scenes, and help artists on the Fediverse to reach more people.
How do we do that? That’s what we are in the process of finding out! Completely new ground. I am hopeful.
Not sure if a “knowledge base article” is the best place for some incomplete side thoughts by me, but here I am
Just to underscore this:
I’m currently reading “A People’s Guide to Publishing” by Joe Biel because I’m 100% at capacity but the way my brain works is like “I could totally start a publishing business” (I can’t). Anyways, it’s a pretty useful book I think, and it also deals a lot with discovery. It emphasizes that there are 500 books published every hour, and that it’s the role of the publisher to make their author’s book succeed. The book also advocates against self publishing unless what you’re doing is a vanity project, primarily because a publisher helps you determine if it’s worth the effort to put in the time and money to make the book (granted there is a bias here considering the author).
That number, I’m sure, is much larger for music. I’ve had some good conversations with label owners over the past year, and the majority of label runners I think see their role in a similar way. I think there’s a tendency to equate labels with majors, but that’s certainly not true for small labels, collectives etc. There’s a lot curatorial going on, and this is the same for music blogs, etc.
I’m wondering if it’s useful to have a conversation about “why discovery matters.” Is the aim to get listened to by more people, or is it to be able to make time to make your art? I’m genuinely curious what people’s reaction to that is (and if they have responded to similar questions elsewhere I’d love to read it).
IDK, but labels, no matter how small, seem to be no more rapacious than large labels. I prefer to do my own insignificant marketing, rather than be subjected to a label’s interference with my artistic direction. After all, just on some of the DSPs and social media, I have almost 11,000 followers and I’ve gotten 1.25 million impressions in less than 5 years. (Impressions are streams or track and album purchases).
Promotion strategy : Collaboration
Play with other musicians, talk to them, meet up with people who like what you do, who play in the same small genre, make split records, featurings, side-projects, cross-promotions, share dates and tours together, help with a broken instrument, be generally helpful and kind and people will remember you for that and… freely promote your material and help you in return !
This mays sound like not much but if you look closely there is certainly some artists who had a wonderful music life while never becoming well-known. I’m thinking of song-writers, composers, beatmakers, people who have been part of bigger projects, but never (or seldom) the center of it.
Or maybe promotion is only aimed at making what you do known to the public, and not making your stand in the long run ? I don’t know, when i read promotion advice some of it sounds a lot like one-time spotlights that make you shine for a brief, very brief moment, but not much i said about how to stand in the long run.
But does it help getting to where you want to get at, 
) if the DSPs (read: Spotify) don’t support them. Or if they don’t go randomly viral on TikTok or whatever.