How To Release A Single With Zero Fans and Zero Money

what's up guys leaving Keys here welcome back to the channel so I've been noticing a lot of comments recently about people who are releasing for the first time also people who are releasing without any money and on top of that people who don't feel like they've got fan base but they do have a small audience mostly of friends and family so are these things the same do we release in the same way or do we have different strategies and the answer is yes we do we should have different strategies to release under these circumstances so let's deal with these three outcomes number one if this is your first release let me tell you something you are in luck this has just become a major opportunity I know that sounds really crazy but bear with me because you've never put anything out before so you have time to get your house in order before you put out that first track you've got time to go and make sure that your socials that your banners that everything is ready so that when you do put out that release you're capturing attention straight away if you think of it like a bike when you get on a bike as soon as you've pushed off in order to get the momentum you're constantly putting yourself off balance so you push down on one pedal in order to get yourself back on balance and get faster you have to push yourself up on another pedal and then that kind of goes backwards and forwards as you gain the momentum very very similar when you're putting out music as soon as you've pushed off you've got that momentum and at which point you've got to then start releasing the second and the third and the fourth in order to keep gaining that momentum so what we're about to do is make sure that everything is ready before we take that first push off and that first pedal so your job for the first few releases is more about quality and experience it's making sure that on the odd chance that someone does come through listen to your track and leave a comment you are ready when someone passes through your house they stop and they pay attention that is the first job and so with that in mind we need to think about where you are going to house your music because it doesn't have to be Spotify there's no reason why you can't build a following starting on soundcloud or even starting on youtube heaven forbid how crazy all this is about is putting something somewhere getting people to pay attention and looking after those people so if you don't feel ready to put your music out on spotify yet guess what you don't have to soundcloud is still in the jit place in fact there are many many big artists who still release music on soundcloud just to go alongside everything else soundcloud has everything you need to be able to get started to build a fanbase because if you think about it it's free it's easy you can upload straightaway you can have up to three hours worth of music on there for nothing and you still get all the great features people can still listen people can still comment which means you can comment back and the same goes for YouTube which means we need to set our house up so when someone does come along they stop and pay attention so there for pictures banners about sections and the stories everything can go into all of these three platforms your banners are absolutely crucial your photos are absolutely crucial to tell a story and if you're thinking ah but I don't have any money to take photos well in which case you've got to be a bit more creative you've got a phone and if you've got a phone that means you can do photos for free now if those photos aren't good then you either need to learn how to do some good photos or very simply go and look at some hashtags in your city in your town see some people have got an eye for photography send a message and say can I ask a favor even if it's out of your friends on Facebook or Instagram you take really good pictures can I ask a favor if we set up a photo shoot would you might come in and sit taking some photos I mean maybe there's a beer in it for you somewhere same goes for the banners and the about session when it comes to banners you might not be very good at graphics but there must be someone that you can call upon to say I just need this banner for Spotify or SoundCloud I need this banner for YouTube and I need this banner for Facebook they're all slightly different sizes I don't understand I've got a photo I've got artwork can someone help me you will be surprised people will jump at the chance to come and give you a hand same thing when it comes to the About section we need to tell great stories and in order to do that you need to tell people who you are what your stand for and take people on this exciting journey that you just started and yes when I say you need to stand for something it doesn't need to be something political it can just be this is Who I am I love music this is how I started I sing songs about my experiences and my life and things that I noticed that I would love you to come on this journey with me and you'll be surprised people will read it and take it in and go I relate to the way that you're telling your story or I relate to something about you and that is how you start to hook people in next friends and family matter now notice so far no money down we have no money no fans and we have started to put music out for nothing so so far no money down friends and family are so important because friends and family will start to do the work for you because that's what they're there for they're there to support you to love you to look after you so when you've got something and you put something out and you start getting friends and family commenting and sharing all of a sudden other people can now see it and get involved also especially with your first release that's when friends and families really come into action because it's the same as your first gig getting people to your first gig is always a lot easier because everyone's excited for you and they want to come and watch you play and be a part of that first gig when it comes to your third your fourth your fifth gig normally the audiences start to die down a little bit and it becomes a little bit harder same thing with the release this is the chance where your friends and family will stand next to you and say I'm so proud of you I love what you're doing and they're more likely to get involved and share it now one thing that's really important to remember is you are always potentially one song away from greatness and you are also one song away from changing someone's life that's the power of music that's the power of the emotion that is within music and that's what we're trying to do we're trying to get that one song of Huck's people in it might be your first it might be your 300 song but this one is there to start that journey to get you better at songwriting to start building the fanbase so that when you get your 50th your hundreds your 300th that's when you just get that killer song and everything changes now we're your friends and family come in is it might be a share on your sister's Facebook or it might be a make Dave who's having a chat down the public goes oh you should go and check out this this artist I know testing you really like them those things really matter because what you have then is you have an opportunity to get in front of someone and as soon as that one person sends a comment you're in now when it comes to your first release timing is imperative because we don't have an audience to have that build up over that 2 or 3 week period before the release so it's more about the release and then the next couple of weeks of building that momentum this is your chance to stick a flag in the ground this is who I am and this is what you can expect for me going forward and also this is the time where you don't big time and audience which I see far too often I see so many bands trying to act like the huge bands when the reality is is they get so much more power and so much more momentum from being real hey this is my first song I'm really excited I would love you to come on this journey with me rather than ego bang this is who we are we're big timing everyone it doesn't actually help at this point of a first release your job is to tell the story and allow people to be in it from the start how many artists have you been a fan of since back in the day before everybody knew about them it makes it so much more special and then when they do big time it eventually you feel like you've been there before everyone else you feel like you're in the know and now you get to flip that around you get to be that artist you get to bring people in early and say hey come with me at the beginning and when this goes we're going to be in this together now being as this is your first release we don't have loads and loads of music to follow this up with so therefore we need to squeeze the lemon effectively we need to make sure we get enough out of this one song in order to keep people going and till the next song so the way I would do that is can you perform this song live if so that should be some more content if not can you perform some other songs maybe songs that you've been working on which you're not really sure about releasing maybe songs that aren't even yours maybe cover songs maybe a way of just saying this is part of my story I grew up on this music and I'd love to perform this not a release heaven forbid I'm just talking about some that says guys thanks for coming with me I just wanted to say thank you here's a song that I wrote or hears or here's a cover that I wanted to play for you and more musics coming soon then you're looking for other ways to tell your story which is where photos videos artwork all come into play they've heard the song they go this is good I'm interested I like this then after that you know there's more coming you're gonna tell people there's more coming but between now and then what you're gonna do is you're gonna tell the story a wave come from where you'd love to go what you what you love to do when it comes to writing what you write about anything that just draws people in to say come on come and be a part of this community this is my party I want you to come to my party and with that in mind I don't think artists do enough photoshoots why don't you do a photo shoot every single week that's the genius of the phones that we now have go and find someone and just say I want you to take some photos of me or us and then we can use those for our social media get everyone together you've got a rehearsal add on an extra half an hour before or after and make sure you all come dressed up properly so you look like the art the act that you are and then get those photos on your socials so again first release no money no fans we are talking about the power of one let me tell you about the power of one one is the most powerful number in the entire world do you know why because one is a start one is the momentum and all you need is one if you can have one you can make one into a million because you can look after one it's so easy to look after one to make one special and when you make one special one becomes two and two becomes four and very very quickly you're looking around thinking there's a lot of people in my party an example of this is many years ago I'd sold a business I did not know what I wanted to do I just knew that the business had got to a point where I didn't want to be in it and I had nothing left to do and I was thinking what am I gonna do and I turned to the one thing that I knew wouldn't let me down which was this base this this is my 1977 Fender P bass as you can see it's battered I have done too thousand gigs and probably a thousand of them maybe more have been with this bass I've got loads of bases but this one is the one that comes with me everywhere I turned to this bass and I just wanted to get out and I just wanted to play music now when I did trying to get some gigs in and then I got a phone call from one agent who said we have a gig which is miles away there's no money we only want 20 minutes do you want that gig and I just thought I've done it I've got it because this is the power of one if I can get that gig and I can get there and I can make that gig the best gig that it's ever been I know that that agent will get me gig number two I know it so I said to them I don't need your money I'm gonna go and do that gig and I'm gonna show you because what I see this as is is you're just trying to break the door opener enough or the window so you can get your fingers in because when you can get your fingers in you can rip the door off and that is the power of one if I can get there and I can make something the best it can possibly be to look after people like they've never been looked after in that entire life I know two is easy and three and four and five and a hundred that's the easy bit the hard part is one and that is the power of one so let's look a three very quick takeaways number one take advantage of the fact that this is your first release this is an opportunity this means that you can get your house in order this means you can get everything ready to slingshot you and then when you do that don't big time everyone tell people this is the start I want you to come with me I want you to be here from the start that's a powerful statement so lean into the opportunity of starting number two everything is an opportunity every comment is an opportunity every subscriber is an opportunity every share is an opportunity every friend that talks to you about your music is an opportunity to get something in front of someone who hasn't seen or heard you before if you can do that you can make one - very quickly and number three get your house in order make sure that before you do put out that release you have got your photos in order you have got your banners ready you have set up your party so when someone comes in you can look after them and please don't forget no money is fine but it is not an excuse no money is not an excuse to be able to build a good fan base if you're gonna look after people also having no fans just friends and family that is not an excuse either because you could still look after people and you still have friends and family willing to help and let's not forget that we all start with the same amount of subscribers none we all start with friends and family who are there to support us my mum still comments on most of my pup my posts and I absolutely appreciate it because she still does that and she still wants to be a part of that so thanks man so there you go no fans no money first release you guys have still got an opportunity to start something and make it absolutely amazing so I want to know if you have got first release all you've got I'd release coming up then get it in the comments below I want to see I love working with you guys I love seeing what you guys are putting out there so get me your links in the comments below let me know your thoughts if you give me a favor if you can like subscribe really really close to that hundred thousand subscribers I'm just I'm just really excited I'm really proud of what we've built in the last couple of years so thanks for watching and I'll see you guys soon

Channel: Damian Keyes

Views: 89,219

Keywords: damian keyes, damo keyes, how to release a single with zero fans and zero money, how to release music, how to release a single, how to release music 2020, how to release music with no money, how to get fans, how to build an audience, music industry 2020, music marketing, how to get streams on spotify, adam ivy, burstimo, how to release music online, how to get fans online, releasing music 2020, how to release music on soundcloud, how to release music on spotify

Id: I5SczkbTfkM

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020