Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

Hello everyone,

My band Fake Gods recently released an EP 'Chords of Human Kindness'. The 3-song EP can be downloaded for free at www.fakegods.bandcamp.com Please feel free to nip over there and grab it, and constructive comments/criticisms are always welcome.

However, our main issue is where to promote it online, or more specifically where we should signpost this download. We have our own website, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and websites like Bandmix are really good for feedback, but we have only received a modest number of downloads. Any advice from those who have been in the same position would be greatly appreciated.

Warmest Regards,
Alex
Fake Gods
www.fakegods.com

Work the streets, and contacts with everyone you and your band mates are in acquaintance with first.
Word of mouth is still very powerful. Especially in our multimedia world.
E-Mail contact lists need to be built, FaceBook, Myspace ETC can also be utilized. Pass out business cards like candy on Halloween.
Even if %90 end up in the trash, that %10, will in time net a much larger take.
Map out a battle plan on paper with your closest contacts and network, network, network.

Trick is to stay in their face without seeming to be pushy, and don't let your message get stale.

If you have fun with it, so will your audience.
What goes for music... goes as well for publicity.

You could expand a bit, & include reverbnation, myspace & youtube...they seem to work for many other ppl.

We've done a bit of word of mouth (though we could do better) and used Twitter and Facebook but need to build up our followers. We thought that by offering the album free through Bandcamp, we would generate followers. However, in reality very few people have bitten for the EP (though 100 odd people downloaded the last album). One problems is that we are only doing covers on this EP so can't use Amazon, iTunes, Spotify etc. Next time we'll be writing our own material.

We have business cards but haven't been great at distributing them, this is one area we definitely could improve on.

Many thanks for the advice guys, and best of luck with your own endeavours.

Alex

Give away the Cds you have now at shows. Write and record some original material; until then don't worry about it. The best way to build a following is to do a lot of gigs. There is no easy way.

If you have a personal website(which you probably should for your band) then you could offer your download for free in exchange for the recipient to be on your mailing list.

Not a bad trade at all.

You have to play out. People honestly don't start to get it until they see you play live. Then give out your CD for free.

Good luck.

Chaeya

I know nothing about UK copyright law, but in the USA, you can even get sued for handing out recordings of cover material for free.

I'd suggest you check into it a bit before further advertising, if you haven't already.

Now get to the woodshed & do your own stuff.

rent a u-haul and park it on a major bridge across 3 lanes with a big sign on the side advertising your band... oh wait, that's been done already