Music promotions campaigns are becoming a marketing standard, thanks to smart phones and inexpensive broadband. Many people do not bother with their radio or CDs anymore; they're going digital, listening to their iPhones and Androids, plugging in their iPods to work out, or even listening to Internet radio stations on their laptops.
The most common approach to music promotions campaign is to use the typical mainstream music. But in some cases, you may find that independent music will work better for your music promotions campaign instead.
Rather than pay licensing fees to offer specific artists, or creating a generic campaign that offers iTunes money, work with local and indie bands and offer their music instead.
If you're trying to reach a college age audience in certain cities, you can appeal to them by offering cuts from their favorite local bands. Not only are you helping promote your own brand by affiliating yourself with popular bands, but you have new partners in cross-promotion as well. Some of these bands may be willing to help promote your music promotions campaign themselves. After all, the more fans they can drive to your site, the more people they can expose to their own music as well.
Other indie music promotions ideas can include giving away tickets to local shows. Not only can you offer a sample song with your music promotion, but you could even create a loyalty program along the lines of "buy 20 cones, and get a ticket to the next Tripping Daisies show at the Dew Drop Inn."
You can help sponsor local shows. Not only will your name be announced during the show, you can also attend the show and recruit customers there. Think about what the audience would really be into, and offer that as music promotions incentives: "Post a photo of you wearing our t-shirt to your Facebook page, and you could win free widgets for you and 4 friends."
Create a video campaign. Encourage people to take videos of their favorite bands (at your sponsored shows, of course), and upload them to YouTube, then share them on Facebook and Twitter. In each message, the fans will need to include that it's part of YOUR promotion, which will not only bring in viewers to their movies, but will reinforce your name. As a result, your customers will be doing your marketing for you and thousands of dollars of marketing value, all for the cost of partnering with a few favorite local indie bands.
By working with indie musicians and bands, you can not only localize your music promotions efforts, you can get some additional support from the bands you're partnering with.