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Starting your own heavy metal band is as simple as you make it, but it certainly doesn’t come without its challenges along the way. If you have an online MMME degree from an online MMME program such as the one Rutgers Online offers, you can be sure your band is going to have a better chance of success. However, if you do not have such a degree, it’s time you had a look at the following steps you’ll need to take to ensure you and your heavy metal band has a good chance of survival in a competitive market.
1. Find Committed Band Members
One of the key aspects to ensuring the success of any band is that you approach members that are going to stay committed throughout the journey. You’re not going to want people that do not live and breathe music; you’re going to want members that stay dedicated from start to finish.
2. Practice Makes Perfect
Once you have a band filled with dedicated members it’s time to start playing music together to get a feel for each member’s style. Practicing multiple times a week is necessary and anyone who can’t commit to that probably isn’t the right person for the job. Practice makes perfect and if you can spend multiple hours every week practicing you’ll find your band has a much higher chance of success.
3. Offer Free Gigs
Now it’s time to put your practice into action and start playing in front of small crowds. Approach family members and friends to let them know you’ve started a band and see if anyone is willing to let you play at their party. If that doesn’t work, you always have an alternative in approaching bars and clubs local to you. Tell them you will entertain their customers for free to get some experience of playing in front of small crowds under your belt. This will create a stepping stone to play in front of bigger crowds.
4. Take Advantage of Social Media to Get Your Band Out There
It’s now time to start marketing your band as much as possible to get as much exposure as you can. You can do this by starting social media pages and uploading videos and songs of the music you create. Social media will give you the exposure you need to take your band forward and the great benefit of doing so is that it’s free. Instagram has become one among the foremost effective platforms to share content and promote your music on social media. With quite 800 million active users as of September 2017, Instagram is one tool you ought to be using to urge your sound out. But getting more people to understand about your music and follow you on Instagram doesn’t mean posting photos, videos or stories randomly – there should be a technique thereto . Hashtags make it easier for those who are interested in the kind of music you make to find you. Always use hashtags relevant to your post; otherwise you may come off as too much of an attention seeker who’s desperate for followers. Choose hashtags wisely and use 11 at most for each post. Some of the most popular hashtags related to music are #music (of course!), #musician, #musicianlife and #musicmonday.
Having a strong Instagram presence isn’t just about using the right hashtags and posting regularly. You also need to gain more instagram followers by asking questions or feedback. Remember that you need to give likes and comments to receive those as well. Check out some of your existing followers’ content, like their posts and leave genuine, non-generic comments. And don’t forget to reply when they leave a note!
Commit to interacting with a certain number of people a day (say, 5 or 10). When the followers of those people see your comment or like, they will be more inclined to check you out as well and may even become new fans. Just remember to be fun and personable and not too promotional.
5. Go on Tour to Get More Exposure
Once you’ve done the above and you’re ready and confident, it could be time to get some money together to go on tour. You could go from state to state and offer free gigs in local communities or you could even go one step further and visit Europe to make your metal presence felt. There’s a lot you can do when it comes to touring and although it isn’t cheap, it’s the only way forward if you want to be a success in a competitive industry.
Starting a band is easy enough, but keeping it afloat is the frequent problem every band faces. If you get the right members and you are all dedicated and committed to succeeding as a group, there is no reason why you can’t be the next big metal band around.
