Research for Alicia Dutton

After being in the music production and performance zoom call, Alicia Dutton (singer and songwriter) emailed me on the 23rd of March proposing we work together to help promote her album and single release. Since then we had a meeting on the 1st April.

I put together some research for that meeting:

Promotion (https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-to-promote-your-music-independently/)

Create a mailing list: Send relevant updates and information to fans through email. Make sure it’s not spam and annoying as it may end up with people unsubscribing.
Send single or songs to local radio stations, even to BBC introducing. This can be a great way to expand your audience.
I see a lot of upcoming artists using TikTok or Instagram Reels to grow a fan base. (@pxrxvi, @petercollinsmusic, @d.bxiley, @laufey) If you use relevant hashtags then your video may gain traction and end up on pages of people who like similar things. This can help get fans.
Send your music to music blogs, this could get your music heard! (https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/music-blogs-that-want-your-music/) - Make sure you submit to blogs that are relevant to your music. Don’t submit to an indie blog if your music is pop! - Make sure what you submit is within the guidelines or it could get ignored which you want to avoid. - Try to make the submission professional as bloggers are writers and they may notice this. - Make the submission accessible. (https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/5-important-rules-when-you-submit-music-to-blogs/)
Music videos are a good way of crossing platforms and keeping people engaged (https://dittomusic.com/en/sell-your-music/vevo/)
Try to get to know your audience. See if they like your videos, how they listen to your music (which platform) this will help promotion as you can focus on your niche and promote where necessary. Look into where would be best for you to perform (for your genre) , join a community specific to your genre and gain fans or broaden your mailing list. People often like to support local artists so maybe start locally with cool posters pinned around with your handle.
When COVID is over and music venues/bars are open, perform live as much as you can, even if it’s a small crowd. New fans could introduce you to friends and so on.
Use your social media well, engage with your followers and post as much as you can. Create content when you feel motivated, but don’t post too often as people don’t like spam. Use Instagram stories daily if possible, just share a post or something relative to you. Reels are a good way of ending up on the explore page.
Use Spotify for artists if your music is on Spotify as you can submit music to end up on Spotify playlists. You can only submit one track per album release.

(https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/6-tips-for-promoting-your-music-on-spotify/)

She said that this was all helpful. She also wanted some help creating posters to use as promotional material. We arranged that Indy Brewer (a musician photographer) would take some photos of Alicia on the 29th of April, we have already booked the studio at college. I was going to create some promotional material for her when they're finished.