Marketing music on the internet and within social media : how individual folk musicians can promote themselves with little money

Abstract

In the field of folk music in Finland, there is a lack of managers and marketing professionals to help musicians. Folk musicians do their marketing alone alongside career building without the proper education or resources in this area. This study identifies the need for managers and guidance, and gives suggestions for individual musicians to take care of their marketing with little money.

The Internet and social media provide several opportunities to advance a musical career. In this study, I find out the present state of marketing among folk musicians. I investigate their ways of using the Internet and social media now and also identify other ways from the literature to help the situation. Personal brand is an essential part of the big picture as well as using email.

Finally, I show the interconnection between brand building and using social media, email and web-sites for marketing folk music and musicians on the Internet.