Selling It
For many artists, writing, recording, and performing is the joyful part of the job — the part we’re obsessed with, the part we dream about after our heads hit the pillow each night, and the part that gets us out of bed each morning.
Promotion, on the other hand — while vitally important — requires a large dollop of self-serving salesmanship. This challenging task is often relegated to the bottom of an artist’s to-do list, if not forgotten altogether! As a result, many music releases are under-promoted and fail to achieve their goals, whatever those might be: sales, streams, reviews, fan engagement, live-show attendance, etc. I’ve definitely been guilty of this in the past!
But with An Ape’s Progress, I’m determined to “up my game” in all areas of the project — musical and otherwise — which means taking marketing more seriously this time around. With this new album (my fourth), the goal is to grow my audience organically through online followers, video views, audio streams, album / single sales, and eventually live shows. This requires, shall we say, “shameless promotion” — and that takes some getting used to!
Nowadays, good promotion means having a nice web site as an online home base, a growing list of email subscribers for strong audience connection, a well managed ad campaign, online reviews (hopefully good!), a local concert following, and some means of tying it all together with an organized plan.
For An Ape’s Progress, this translated into a playbook that builds toward the album release with:
A new web site (you are here),
Regular (but not too frequent!) email communication,
Social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter),
Online advertising with a sensible budget (series of targeted ads),
A YouTube channel (music videos, promos, and mini-documentaries),
Two advance singles (released eight weeks and four weeks prior to the album),
Strong music videos (promoted alongside each single),
A bunch of fun merchandise (gotta have swag!), and
A live album-release party / concert.
Definitely more work than I had imagined at the outset, but I’m learning!
If you’d like to follow along and support my new musical adventure, feel free to sign up for the mailing list, say hello on social media, check out and share the music videos as they release, purchase / stream the album and singles, etc. Oh, and of course: Tell your friends! Promotion is a “game of inches” — where lots of tiny steps make a difference, and every little bit helps.
Today, my first Facebook / Instagram ad went live, promoting the new 60-second teaser video — An Ape’s Progress: “Just a Minute!” — to 5,000 like-minded music lovers (if I’m lucky). Check it out here, and let me know what you think! The next ads will run with the first two singles + music videos: Opposable Thumb on June 11, and Proud American on July 4.
Then of course a big ad push for the album release on August 13.
Let the shameless promotion begin!
-Pawlie.