With the advances in technology, it seems like everyone and their mom has started a record label these days. This is good for artists who may not be in the major music hubs of the city, or for those who know the true financial and creative value of being an independent artist and putting out their own records. While many may know how to put together a successful album, most don’t know how to be innovative in order to get the word out to fans and potential customers. For those artists who truly have fantastic music that the world needs to hear, I’ll provide you with some details on how to promote your product.

Work your MySpace page correctly: Everyone knows that MySpace is the place where any sucker with a mic, a beat, and a few lyrics can promote their music for free. The key is to use your MySpace page effectively. Make sure you have a custom designed page layout. It gives you a professional image, and after all, the image is what really sells you. Stay away from free layout generators that promote everything but your music. If you’re good at Photoshop, create your own or pay a few bucks to have a professional design it for you. You never want to look less than professional, because you’re competing with major amateurs, independents, and all kinds of terrible amateurs. You may only have one chance to win a fan, and since so many fans are heavily bombarded by other artists, you want to make sure you stand out and have a professional image. Also, when you leave comments on fan pages, personalize your message to them and always ask to be added as a primary friend. Along with your feedback, make and publish an online flyer advertising your music, shows, products, etc. Try to be unique with it so that you can catch the attention of others who visit that fan page. Once you’ve convinced fans to click through to your page, make sure your page is clean and easy to navigate and that all of your images and videos load quickly. Lastly, if you’re selling any of your products on the page, make it easy to notice and order so you don’t miss out on any sales.

youtube campaign:Stars make themselves every day on YouTube by doing dumb things like banging their heads on walls. If that can happen by accident, just think what a little planned creativity can do for your music career. Show the world your talent by posting videos. You can post a music video or show yourself acting, singing, rapping, making a beat, being interviewed, and anything else you can think of. The key to success is posting consistent, quality video. Invest in a mini dv camcorder for the cheapest, best quality picture. Read on the Internet and learn how to record good videos. No one wants to watch a shaky video, or see you and your friends standing around talking about nothing and smoking cigarettes. Assume that you will only have one chance to grab a fan’s attention, so encourage them to subscribe to your channel, watch your music, and any other relevant information. Don’t forget to add those videos to your MySpace page.

Send press releases: Create a professional-quality press release and email it to all the websites and blogs you can find that fit your music. Be sure to include a full bio, photos, and no more than 3 of your best songs. Search the Internet for tips on how to make a press release. The bigger, mainstream sites most likely won’t post your information, but will send it to you anyway, because they just might, especially if you have an interesting angle that makes a good story for them and you. There are numerous websites that cater to independent artists and they will be happy to post their information, just so they have something to post. Don’t sleep on this because you never know which writer will fall in love with your music and give you high praise and in turn fans of your website will become fans of your music. Also, most websites archive their pages, so old news can become new news for someone months or years later and thus gain new fans and sales.

An additional tip is to watch artists who are already successful and emulate their moves. Keep in mind that some of his moves you can completely copy, but other moves you’ll have to avoid in order for him to stand out.

Those are some good tips for getting started with your record label but of course you should never stop learning and always remember that knowledge is power and the more you learn the better chance you have of being successful. Good luck.