Two-Way Street: Tips for smaller bands and labels

(updated 20 Nov 2023)

I’m no trained or professional journalist. Nor am I a professional in the field of PR. So take what I have to say below with a grain of salt, but… I’ve been doing music news on the hobby side of things since 2016– four years over at Punknews as, first, a reviewer and then later as a news editor and reviews editor. I carried the knowledge I garnered from PN, along with fresh ideas on how to do things (I think) a bit better over to TGEFM, which I launched in May, 2020. Below are some tips and tricks I’ve picked up, or come up with, along the way that I think can help smaller bands and labels make the most of their online presence without breaking the bank on a PR firm.

Obviously if you’re at the point where you can afford an actual PR firm, a lot of this may be moot, and you should definitely go with the professionals. But then again, some it can still remain relevant well into your successful career. Which TGEFM hopes will be sooner, rather than later!

Admittedly, some of the content below is self-serving for TGEFM (hence the “two-way street”), but it applies just as well with most of the online music publications. But we think of it this way: The bigger YOU get, the bigger WE can get.

If you have any suggestions or experience you’d like to add to this, please do contact us directly at this email address!

Table of Contents

Band Photos
Link Pages (use them!)
Choosing which Social Media to use
Setting up FB/IG as a business
Tagging on social media
Paid advertising for your Band/Label on Social Media vs. Organic Spread
Mutual Assistance (help each other out)
Direct Mailing
Mailing lists (YES!!!)
Streaming Services
Sending Digital Promos
Offering Exclusive Content
Merch and Shops

Band / Label photos

Always have a decent quality band photo/logo or label logo sitting somewhere on your social media. For FB, it is best to have a folder in your Photos section called “Band Photos” or something similar.

Music news blogs like TGEFM love posting a photo of the band, and it helps promote YOU as well when the reader can visualize who we are writing about. Have one handy for them to pick up off of your social media. A few pointers to make this easier:

  • Make sure your photo is a minimum of 600×400 pixels. Meaning the shortest side should at least be 400 pixels long, and the longest side should be at least 600 pixels long. This is due to cross-posting on social media as, often, a smaller image won’t be carried over (for example, if the image in a TGEFM post is too small, FB just inserts our banner photo as the image). Additionally, photos in a 3×2 dimension look best online (600w x 400h, etc.)
  • DEFINITELY have a band photo that is just the band. No band logo or band name overlaid onto the band itself. Also try to avoid having fun digital effects applied to the photo, or at least make a version available without them.
  • Bands in action photos, or spontaneous photos, are just as good as “posed” band photos (I, personally, prefer them). Just make sure each member can be seen.
  • Include photographer’s name if professionally done, so that the site grabbing the photo can include that.

Useful tip- Yeah, occasionally a music news site will post an old photo of your band. If this happens, simply contact them to let them know (TGEFM can be contacted here), and provide an updated photo, or link to one if possible. Replying on social media with a comment about the photo being old is a bit unhelpful, as we’re doing our best. Also, DON’T do this if you don’t have an updated photo available. All too often a band will chastise a site or blog for posting an old photo, but can’t provide anything more recent than the one that’s already been used.

As the internet has grown, so has the prevalence of Link Pages. Sites like Linktree and others will provide, often free of charge, a basic link page where you can direct people to all of your sites, streaming services and more from one location. Sites like TGEFM will gladly share a link page in any news posts about your band or label.

This is also beneficial for Instagram users, as it allows you to put a catch-all link in your bio for fans to click on.

Choosing which Social Media to use

Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. TikTok. Etc.

There’s A LOT of social media channels out there for you to choose from. So which ones should you use? Well, the obvious answer is all of them! Or, at least, as many as you can get your hands on. There’s no reason not to get your name out there on as many services as possible, and every reason to do it.

I know that Facebook has a lot of baggage and, lately, their algorithms don’t always work as well for bands and similar organizations, but it is still by far the largest social media platform out there. Those who DON’T use FB for moral reasons, but still use Instagram, are a being a bit disingenuous (because, you know, both are Meta). You can post your news on FB without ever interacting with your audience.

The minimum that you post on regularly should be FB, IG*. TikTok does have benefits, but the format may not always be conducive to the news you need to share, and their algorithm has been shown to benefit those who post content on a regular basis. With that in mind, it can definitely be a bog boost if something you post goes viral.

*TGEFM can no longer in good conscience recommend Twitter/X as a useful platform. Significant changes to how user’s content is propagated make it harder for non-paying subscribers to be seen. There is also the issue of leadership’s questionable ethics and business practices which, in our opinion, have made Twitter/X a toxic community that is antithetical to values of our scene that we support.

Setting up FB/IG as a business

Be sure that your band/label FB and IG pages are set up as a business, so that you have a self-defined @ for people to tag you with.

Also, establishing a business page will give you more tools for spreading your content and news, including the ability to manage your FB and IG business pages all in one place.

I’m not going to lie… a lot of band names are not as original as you think. TGEFM and other similar sites want to be sure that we are tagging the right band or label when we post news. Let us HELP YOU, and having a business presence on FB/IG is simply a good idea. I mean, this is the entire reason TGEFM exists… to get YOUR music to more ears.

Tagging on social media

Carrying on from the previous section, make sure your band/label page is set up to be taggable on Facebook. This may require changing settings for your page (or setting it up as a business), but Facebook as social media does no good for you if you can’t be tagged. You’ll know if your page can be tagged as there will be an “@insertnamehere” below your page name when you (as a page admin) are visiting it.

TGEFM and other news sites will make an effort to tag a band or a label when we post news about them. Why is this a good thing for you? If FB/IG/Twitter see multiple tags for your name in a short period of time, their algorithms will potentially see you as being “newsworthy”, and will push posts about you to more of your fans/followers, and even show it as “suggested posts” to people who aren’t fans yet.

Also see the next section, as well as Mutual Assistance below.

OK, this isn’t going to start as a how-to, but a very definite how-not-to.

If you are set up as a business page, FB and other similar sites will allow you to boost content by paying them. Honestly, FB is really hit-or-miss with this (usually miss). The advertising function on Facebook can be very unforgiving. One small omission for location or audience and, the next thing you know, Facebook has funneled 99% of the views to random people in Indonesia, and then takes your money and runs.

This is why, at earlier stages in your career, you want to try to drive more “organic” spread of your content. But there’s a right way, and a wrong way to do this.

There are a lot of music-related fan groups on sites like Facebook, Reddit, and more. I would guess (and probably be right) that there are several groups that your band or label would easily fall under.

Now, imagine this scenario: band member(s), or person nominally unaffiliated with band (but usually a friend), spams multiple social media groups and pages daily (sometimes more than once a day), with “Check out our new album”, “I love Band XXX’s new album so much”, or (and this is a true story) “Here’s my twice-a-week posting of a music video we put out a year ago!”

I’ve seen this happen multiple times before in multiple groups and, contrary to belief, so much spamming decreases the possibility of one of these posts going viral. Also, flooding social media daily with the same post or announcement for weeks on end also carries the risk of annoying your potential audience (and, trust me, we DO get annoyed).

Best advice if you want to flood social media without inundating everything is this system below. I’ll be using a new album as an example, but this can apply to new singles, videos, or similar (and this doesn’t apply to posts on your own page, only to posts or shares to other groups, etc.):

Day -XX: Announce new album

Day -XX: Announce pre-order/pre-save (if this happens on a different date than the previous)

Day -7: Reminder of upcoming release (“We’re so excited!”)

Day -1: One more reminder (“Tomorrow’s the day!”)

Day 1: Announce album release

Day 3 or 4: Reminder that album is out

Day 7: Reminder that album is out

Day 14: Reminder that album is out

Day 28: 1 month anniversary

By that point, you’ve gotten all of the eyes you’re going to get organically. Maybe a 3m, 6m, and 1y reminder. But if you want fresh eyes, paid advertising is the only thing that will likely work after the first few weeks.

Mutual Assistance (help each other out)

This one is a bit self-serving but, trust me, it works. Following on from Tagging on Social Media above, when a news source, like TGEFM, posts about your band or label, it is incredibly kind for your business page to like the post on social media. However, it is infinitely more helpful for you, and the posting site, to make a comment (and TGEFM will often reply back!). This feeds into the “algorithm” subject mentioned above, where social media services will boost content that includes conversations. Even better, if you share the post to your band or label page with a message like “Check out what TGEFM wrote…” kind of thing, that is the type of cross-content that the algorithms absolutely LOVE.

This also works when creating Reels on Instagram (and, to a lesser extent, Facebook). Tagging, sharing, replies all feed into these algorithms.

Even better, not only like/comment/or share as your band or label’s business page, but also circle back around as your personal profile (each member, if a band) and do the same. The more likes/comments/ or shares something gets, the more the algorithm will push it out to other users. These are the small steps you can take to ensure organic spread.

Getting A LOT of press? Then maybe a single post in a day or two thanking (and tagging) all of the sites and sources that publicized your work.

Bringing more attention/eyes on the sites that showcase your work is mutually beneficial: the more eyes means that social media’s algorithms show the site to more people, and then more people will see the news that helps to boosts bands and labels like yours. It is a cycle that, hopefully, will be beneficial to everyone!

Direct Mailing

Some of this ties into the following section Mailing Lists (YES!!!), but you may not always be using mailing lists and might sometimes be emailing someone (a label, new site, etc.) directly. So here are some important things to remember:

  • Don’t expect a response. I know, I know… that sounds a bit disheartening, but many places, especially news sites, don’t have the bandwidth to respond to every email that is coming in (TGEFM is a small operations, and we get hundreds of emails daily). This is why you need to make YOUR message shine. The worst thing you can do is an overly vague email along the lines of

Hey this is Jeff from Me Jeff and the Takee Takees. We’ve got a new EP coming out soon and would really like to work with you on it. Look forward to hearing from you!

I think you can appreciate how an email like that will probably be ignored. Why? Because it is missing info and is forcing the recipient to do all of the legwork. This is why you should always include:

  • Band Info: Yes, the name of the band, of course. But also where you are located or originated from, when you formed, things like that. Set this up as an email template or something you can quickly copy and paste into an email.
  • A clear and concise message about why you have emailed, and what you want to accomplish. “We’re looking for coverage for our new video…” “We are releasing an album and have the first single…” and the like. Provide as much info as possible because, as above, the more info a news site has right away, the better the changes of getting your news written up. But, of course, you won’t just tell us about your new video/single/album, because you always should also provide…
  • Links to socials, streaming, YouTube, link pages, etc. 100% do include all of this, typically as a basic list and not linked somewhere in the body of your message unless linking to a specific video, single, or album. Even then, still give all of those links at the end of the message. Give the recipient quick access to your band and their output.

Mailing Lists (YES!!!)

Yeah, I know… mailing lists seem so old school, right? WRONG. All of the biggest music PR firms use mailing lists to blast out their client’s latest work to music news publications and websites.

It’s such an easy thing to do, and to set up, why wouldn’t you do the same?

It’s simple: in your email app of choice, set up a mailing list of the contact or submission emails of all the music publications you can find (TGEFM’s is here). Then, when you have something newsworthy to share, set that mailing list in the To: field, fill out the body of the email, and fire away.

Do note that Bandcamp includes a built-in feature to directly message fans who are following your band. This is a great built-in feature… use it! USE IT!

Warning, though: don’t abuse this. Mailing lists should not be over-used like social media! Too much and you’ll find your emails being put into the spam folder, or blocked altogether. Also, if your email provider doesn’t provide this as an option, do include a section in the body of the email (typically at the end) for the recipient to respond asking to be removed from the mailing list (and be sure to honor such requests). A couple more tips:

Do send emails to your mailing list for the following:

  • Album announcements (although this is much better if you announce along with the first single/video made available)
  • Promo copy for review (or offer of promo copy for review)
  • Single/video release
  • Album release
  • Album release show
  • Charity/benefit show (also include any links to said charity of service which will be the beneficiary of the event, if applicable)
  • Tours with dates and set venues

Don’t send emails to your mailing list for the following:

  • One-off gigs
  • Tours that are mostly date/venu/city TBA, or “Looking to fill these dates”
  • Reminders/count downs for an upcoming release
  • New merch offerings (unless it is something significant like a repress or similar). Note that Bandcamp messages your followers if you offer new merch. Don’t worry about that
  • General commentary with no newsworthy comment (yes, we’ve gotten this before)
  • Anything that isn’t significantly newsworthy. Think “if this wasn’t MY band I was reading about, would this be really that interesting?” If the answer is “no”, then don’t send it.

Streaming Services

This is close to the same question as Choosing which Social Media to use, and the answer is just about the same: As many as you can!

Sure, streaming services aren’t as profitable as physical media used to be back in the day. And the big beastie Spotify is hands-down one of the worst at paying musicians for the content they create. However, with that in mind, in my opinion it makes no sense to not try to populate your music across as many services as possible. Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Get your music in those ears!

It also makes sense to have a Bandcamp page. Yes, there ARE still people who will pay you money straight up for your music, even if it is only a digital download. While some may fret about Bandcamp’s fees, there is nothing onerous about money in your pocket.

If you do launch a Bandcamp page, or have one already, don’t forget to use their link feature. You can link to all of your social media sites (or a link page) right there.

Bandcamp BONUS: Bandcamp also includes a feature where you can message all of the people who are following your Bandcamp page (and have opted to put on the mailing list)!

Bandcamp BONUS BONUS: If you set up your album as a pre-order on Bandcamp, you can also offer pre-release streaming or download codes to music sites for (p)reviews before the album is released. This will save you the trouble of the next section…

Bandcamp BONUS BONUS BONUS: Bandcamp also offers listening parties for new albums, with a built in text chat feature between you and your fans. Awesome!

Sending digital promos

The problem with streaming services is that they aren’t intrinsically designed to allow bands or labels to make their music available to music sites prior to release for (p)reviews. Setting an album up as a pre-order on Bandcamp, or making a private stream available on Soundcloud are obvious alternatives. But the other option is to send, or offer to send a download that the potential reviewer can listen to via the music app of their choice.

If you go this route though, there are a few recommended steps to do before zipping those audio files up and sending them off:

  • Be sure that the internal data for each track/file has the band name and album name established, as well as the number of the track within the total number of tracks. Few things are more annoying than getting 5-6 promos in one day, unzipping the files, and then dropping them into an MP3 player to find that three of them just have track names, but no band or album name.
  • Be sure that the tracks are set up to be in the proper order. Help the reviewer to have a clear understanding of how the album should be listened to based on your vision. Yes, I have experienced a situation when reviewing an album that I talked about the tracks in the order they were presented to me, and then the band complained that I had them out of order but never provided any info on what the proper track list is. Don’t be that band.
  • Including any album art, lyric sheets, or inserts as graphic files in the zipped folder whenever possible.

Offering Exclusive Content

Music news websites absolutely LOVE to premiere exclusive content from bands. Be it a premiere of a new single, music video, album, or something more robust like a track-by-track breakdown. Exclusive content allows a band or label to drum up interest or excitement for their product, and also provides the hosting news website with traffic that helps boost their readership and, if applicable, ad views/clicks (which help keep the website afloat). It’s a win/win situation for all parties involved.

There’s no set way of going about this, though. You can obviously spam multiple news websites at once with an exclusive content offer (via your mailing list, see above), and see who comes back with a hearty “yes, please!” Or you can create a list of preferred sites, starting with your first pick and working your way down the list until you get that “yes, please!” (although this may take longer, so give yourself enough time for responses to come in).

(and I hope TGEFM is high on your list, click here to send any exclusive content offers, and we’ll send you back a helpful form to walk you through the whole process, making it as quick and painless as possible)

Whichever method you choose to go with, absolutely do it. I can pretty much guarantee that some site will want to do an exclusive premiere of your new content, be it a single, video, or even an entire album.

Merch and Shops

As a separate page, we have advice on setting up shop using Print-On-Demand services, which have little-to-no up-front costs, and no need for you to carry stock on-hand. These can be a great supplement to tour merch and more.

Merch, POD, and You