As a musician, your single biggest challenge is getting your music before your target audience. It’s not enough to create good music; you also have to market it effectively.

It doesn’t help that far too many musicians rely on spur of the moment actions and ad-hoc marketing tactics. Instead of approaching their music marketing with a systematic plan, they make reactive decisions that don’t yield any long-term success.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to create a DIY music marketing plan that actually works. I’ll cover branding, developing a marketing mix, and finding your target audience so you can make better marketing decisions.

There’s something so exciting about when a band transitions from looking for opportunities to getting asked to be a part of them. From other bands hoping you’ll open for them at a show to local nonprofits asking you to donate your music for a good cause, play music long enough and you’ll start to get lots of people asking you for things. But while some opportunities can be good for your career in music, others won’t be worth your time.

Pitching a new single, EP, or album to press outlets, blogs, and music tastemakers is an almost mandatory part of trying to make your mark in music today. Yes, you can fork over a bunch of money have an expert PR firm do it for you, but most artists don’t have the kind of expendable cash to make that happen every time they put out new music. A great pitch can help give your music real traction and momentum, but it’s not easy. Bands waste an incredible amount of time and energy spinning their wheels by sending bad pitches that are never likely to get read in the first place. Here’s what you shouldn’t be doing if you’re an artist trying to pitch your music to press outlets.