4 Music Promotion Hacks The Lazy (Or Insanely Busy) Musician

Not many have the luxury of being full-time musicians with no other commitments. Typically, musicians juggle a career, school, day job, family, or a combination of the four. Unfortunately, they're often a bit too busy to put the hours that they want into music. Or, on the flipside, music is just a fun hobby or, hey, maybe they're just lazy.

Guest Post by Tyler Allen on Sonicbids Blog

Whatever your own personal timing conflicts may be, below are some hacks that you can use to ensure you're still promoting your music without interrupting your daily routine. This does come with a disclaimer though: dedicate one afternoon, evening, or even a few hours to these hacks. Yes, I get it, you're busy – but if you carve out just a little time for these four things, you'll be all set.

1. Schedule your posts

This is a very standard practice, and one that every marketing professional – music-related or not – would recommend. By using a social media scheduler such as Hootsuite or Buffer, you'll be able toschedule your posts out in advance, without having to log in and tweet or post every day.All you need to dedicate for this is an hour or two one day a week. This means you can go ahead and get that show you're planning or song you want to release on the calendar.[How to Revolutionize Your Band's Social Media Presence in Under 30 Minutes a Day]

2. There's likely an app for that

Let's say you took a great shot or had a great photo sent to you of your performance. However, you're a bit too busy to import it to your computer and then run it through Photoshop for touch-ups. One tool I use for on-the-go photo edits is Snapseed. The app allows you to do some photoshopping on your images right from your phone before you upload them onto your social media outlets.

Similarly, for social media content, let's say you find a cool article and don't have the time to copy the link and then throw it into your scheduler. There are plenty of browser tools, such as Twitter for Chrome and Share This, that allow you to quickly share articles on your social media outlets without leaving your article.

3. Get on community calendars

Okay, so you have your posts scheduled in Hootsuite (or whichever program you choose) promoting your show. You did that weeks ago, so now, let's ensure you're getting some publicity. If you don't have the time or will to get out there and make some media lists, write a press release, and do follow-ups, go and find some community calendars to list your event on. Typically these are online calendars that are found in local magazines, newspapers, and entertainment websites. These are great outlets and are typically what music fans and writers use to find new music.

4. Pay somebody

This is the hack of all hacks, really. If you're too busy or too lazy to market your work, simply pay someone else to do it. Plenty of freelance websites exist, such as Elance, oDesk, and Outsource, where you can hire affordable and reliable freelancers for projects. It could be a one-time design job, a small PR gig, or even something more intricate like building a website. There's also a great database of publicists, writers, designers, and marketing folks (like me) who write here at Sonicbids and also work as consultants. If your budget is exceptionally small, check out a site like Fiverr, which will help you stay within your budget but still get results. Don't stop there – keep learning how to make your musician life easier with these articles:

As a music marketing strategist, Tyler Allen works with an extensive array of artists, labels, music tech, and music retail entities. Tyler began his music industry career with Sony Music Entertainment and RED Distribution, as well as the advertising industry. He is dedicated to giving veteran artists the tools to preserve their legacy, and new artists the tools to begin theirs (as well as everything in between). Learn more at wtylerconsulting.com. He also offers strategy and artist packages for DIY and indie artists on a budget, here.