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Learn How to Promote Your Music. 4 Steps for Independent Music Artists on How to Promote Your Music Successfully. There are many tips, but these are 4 effective and inexpensive ways for independent and artists with little budget.
1. Let Your Fans pick Your SINGLE
2. Distribute Your Single on Streaming Sites, iTunes, Apple, etc
3. Run Facebook Ads in Your Area & Target certain Listeners
4. Create Your Story and Push on Blogs
Marketing yourself as a model is a business all on its own and some people even hire marketing agents and professionals to promote themselves. If you have a good agent, this is what they are paid to do for you and you should be able to get by with just having your name on their books. Sometimes however if you want to make your own career and speed things up a bit, you can also find ways to market yourself that will not interfere with your agents rules and policies. Once you have joined an agency, you cannot join another one.
One of the first and most successful ways in this modern age is to find options on the Internet. These should be free ways to create awareness and give yourself more exposure. You can create a social networking page such as that on Facebook where you can upload your portfolio images and promote your services. Join as many groups as you can and even make a YouTube video for people to enjoy.
You can also find plenty of listing websites where you can list your services, photo and details for free to potential advertisers, designers and other industry professionals. There are specific websites like StarNow that offer this kind of service as well as job opportunities to models, actors, dancers and singers only.
Marketing can also come in the form of getting interviewed on radio or TV or for magazines. Here you can really get a lot of exposure and people will remember your name. You can also participate in various events that will get people’s attention. If you are still looking to get the attention of designers and branding companies then why not get a job as a waiter at one of the corporate functions or fashion weeks. Your agent can find out the details of all the industry events and functions that you can offer your services for.
Photographing a headshot can seem like a daunting prospect. To have one person in front of your camera, looking to you for direction and positivity, is an intense environment. People are generally very critical of themselves in photographs, and feel very nervous. However, there are some simple things that you can do to make it a lot easier for everyone.
1. Have a pre-session consultation
Before your session make sure you know how the images will be used and what style they would like. This can be on the phone or face to face. Talking to them, will help them relax so much more than email. This will allow you to help them prepare for the session. Make sure they know what to expect, and are as relaxed as possible.
Find out about what profession your subject is involved in; a corporate lawyer may well opt for a clean white background look (above), while a more relaxed style of business (yoga instructor) may prefer a more colourful, environmental image (below). Find out in the consultation what they want so you are prepared on the day.
2. Help them to choose the right clothes
Generally speaking, solid, neutral colours, work best for headshots, as you want to avoid anything that distracts away from people’s faces. If it is a formal style you are looking to achieve, make sure that everyone gets the message, and remembers to bring formal work clothes with them. Men often forget their jackets, so for a consistent look, try and have a spare one on hand, even if you need to clip it at the back. If you have time with a person, get them to bring a few items of clothing. Remind them to iron their clothes as well.
3. Create separation from the background
Make sure that your subject doesn’t stand too close to the background. If you are using a studio background (or wall in an office) and you stand someone close to it, you may see shadows on the wall, which makes the images look less professional. For environmental headshots outdoors, I still recommend separation from the background. The bokeh creates a nice nondescript background, especially when shot at a wide aperture. Typically I aim for an aperture of f/4 for environmental and natural light sessions, and f/8 for studio style sessions with lights.
4. Starting the session
Whether you are photographing headshots for a single person, or a whole team, make sure you have a general chat with each person first, to help them relax. This can be just a 10 second, confident handshake, and a “how are you?”. People generally feel very tense about having their photograph taken, and talking about something in their comfort zone (where they live, if they have children or pets, etc) will really help them appear and be more comfortable.
5. Silly Faces!
A great way of helping people to relax in front of the camera, if you don’t have much time with them, is to ask them to pull a funny face for the first frame. Use this as a lighting test for a new person as well. This is great at breaking the ice, and very few refuse to do it. Once they have pulled a daft face, everything else is easy!