Are you having trouble connecting to your fans as a musician on social media? You might be looking for them in all the wrong places. Discord is your answer.
If you’ve never heard of Discord or are just not 100% sure what it is, that’s OK. This innovative social space is where many of your fans are hanging out, but you might have missed it if you haven’t received an invite to one of their servers.
Dubbed as “Your Place to Talk and Hang Out,” Discord is a platform with millions of users and communities which are known as “servers” on the app.
Discord is all about being the go-to for group chatting. Users connect through voice, text, and video.
1.) The Format is What Fans Want
You can make the argument all day that more of your fans are hanging out on Facebook, Instagram, and social media in general. You do have a point seeing as how there are over 2 billion people on Facebook alone.
But don’t fool yourself into thinking overall numbers are everything. Just because people are on social media doesn’t mean they’re not getting burnt out from it and eyeing other options. This is when we introduce Discord.
When it comes to active monthly users, messaging apps are surpassing social media platforms by 20%.
This means your fans might have a Facebook account, but they’re spending more time on Messenger or WhatsApp. People are craving connection, and they find that through chatting.
Discord knows this and has built a platform that’s ideal for those looking to stop the scroll and start having real dialogues.
2.) Music Marketing Without the Algorithm
As a musician, when you drop a new album or release fresh merchandise, the first people you want to notify are your fans.
Naturally, you’re going to post the information to your Facebook page. If you’ve built a healthy following, you stand to reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of people unless something gets in the way.
What could possibly get in the way? The algorithm! It’s almost a dirty word in the music marketing world at this point, and for good reason. Countless dollars can be spent on perfect posts and poured into ads without ever reaching the fans you’re trying to talk to.
How do you think you’d feel if you were a fan? Most of them followed you for a reason: they enjoy your music and want to be in the know when new tracks drop or when shows are coming up.
The algorithm decides what you should see on Facebook, and Discord doesn’t operate that way. There are no likes to stress over. You just log in and focus on connecting.
3.) It’s Not Just for Gamers
No, you’re not crazy. Discord was originally a platform for gamers to communicate when it was launched in 2015. If you’re picturing your friends in headsets a few years ago, yelling at a guy across the country about a video game move gone wrong, they were probably on Discord.
While gamers will always hold a special place at Discord, the platform has evolved to a place where people come together for all kinds of shared interests. The company recently rebranded to show how inclusive it is and acknowledge that the format works whether you’re connecting over games, work, or even music.
4.) It IS for Gamification!
So you, as a musician, are welcome to build a fun, flourishing community in what was once a gamer’s space. But be wise, and take a note from the app’s roots: people LOVE games.
That means your fans will love the gamification you can create. When you set up servers, you can encourage people to be active by rewarding points for each engagement.
You can also reach more people by rewarding those who invite others to the server. You can play around with the rewards, possibly giving users early access to more content as they advance, but one thing is for sure – people love to WIN. Use gamification to keep your audience engaged, and your servers will be a huge success.
5.) You Can Branch Out a Bit
As a musician, you’re sharing primarily about one thing: music. On Discord, you can easily connect with your fans on several other topics. The platform allows you to create “rooms” on each server that focuses on specific topics.
The truth is, most people have an overlap of interests. For example, fans of a reggae artist might also have an interest in travel. Fans of any genre might be interested in the behind-the-scenes side of the music industry, and you can build rooms that appeal to your interests as well as your fans.
Chatting about some things that aren’t directly related to a new release or product helps you get a better feel for who your fans are, and it helps them feel more connected to you and each other.
6.) The Environment is a Breath of Fresh Air
Social media burnout is real, and that’s as true for musicians as it is for their fans. Fighting the algorithm and paying for ads drains the artist, while people who want to hear from you could scroll all day and never see a single post.
The artists who have created and cultivated servers on Discord praise the atmosphere they’ve found there. The conversations are more in-depth and less combative than what you see on social media platforms.
7.) Troll Patrol – YOU Set the Tone
This likely stems from the fact that whoever sets up a server sets up the rules. They can designate moderators who can help cultivate the type of community the administrator is looking for.
You are in control of the community that you create amongst your fans. You have the power to talk directly to them without the barrier of an algorithm.
If you are looking for an authentic connection to your fans, you know you’re not going to find that in the depths of a Facebook comment section or Twitter war. Discord can give you the genuine interaction you’re craving.
8.) The Features are Fun and Keep Coming
There’s a ton to do on Discord. With its integration with Spotify, your music is easily accessible to listeners, and fans can even jam out to it together.
You can connect your Discord to YouTube, Twitch, Google Calendar, and several other apps. So if you want to play around with live streaming, sharing your screen with your fans, or exploring the new “bots” that offer unique features all the time, you’ll never run out of things to do.
9.) It Might Feel Familiar
If you’ve ever spent time on Slack, Discord won’t feel like an unknown. They are very similar, as you can create different rooms on Slack, and it is an excellent communication tool.
There is one key difference – your fans aren’t on Slack. Many musicians have made their way to Discord, and it’s because their fanbase is there and ready to interact with their favorite artists.
10.) Disclosure Shows You How It’s Done
If you’re a “seeing is believing” type, look no further than Disclosure’s success on Discord. The duo has done an exceptional job at building their community on the platform and utilizing it to market their third album, “Energy.”
They show up consistently for their nearly 10,000 server members by regularly running contests and plugging into conversations. As you can see, they warmly invite newcomers to their community while making their standards clear.
Here are the many sub-topics they provide on their server. In these spaces, users can collaborate, learn, and chat about their shared interests.
Music marketing, in general, largely comes down to musicians being on the internet. Savvy musicians are choosing Discord when they log on.
Music marketing is complicated, and navigating it in the digital space as a musician is confusing. But with the proper support system, you can make things easier!
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Inside, you’ll find:
· Weekly live calls with me.
· Bi-Weekly live classes.
· Resource Library.
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And so much more!
Discord is just one of the many tools you might have been missing out on while figuring out how to market your music. But, you don’t have to stumble through the music marketing minefield alone!
Today, we learned about ten reasons that Discord is a dream come true. Click the link above for a whole lot more ways to make some moves. Let’s get to work on creating the music career YOU’VE been dreaming of.
