As an indie rapper it’s hard to get your music out there. The best media sources to spread the word out about your music cost thousands of dollars. Most indie rappers will never be able to afford TV or Radio Advertising so you MUST think of creative ways to stay in the loop with your music.

Being that it’s hard to receive commercial radio for just about any indie rapper, Jango.com is a great platform to be heard and to get your music to millions of music fans.

For decades radio airplay has been the mother ship for artist’s new albums or singles. It has served as the primary and most successful means of marketing musical products to the masses. Commercial radio has performed in constant and stellar fashion, until now.

Being a big music lover has led me to a on-off, love-hate relationship with commercial radio. Historically, one of the greatest benefits of top 40 radio has been the breaking of new artists and new music. This vehicle has served society, although not always well, by introducing the music we’ve come to know and sometimes love.

I still remember being in love with Commercial radio. I recall not missing a beat as a child when I would run to my father’s car excited just to hear the radio as we took our route. However, to a lot of folk’s displeasure major artist’s music gets played repeatedly on mainstream radio. It has led to mine and a lot of others a permanent break-up with commercial radio.

With money, or the lack of it, often being the most pressing issue confronting small independent labels it is often unrealistic for the Indies to secure airplay. The music is often the last concern as it pertains to commercial radio programming. We often hear the artists and music that the majors have paid to have placed in regular rotation.

Does this mean there is little hope for the Indies to reach the masses? NO! Does this mean that every artist intending to go it on their own is doomed? NO! With the continued quantum growth of the web the playing field is being leveled quite rapidly. The days when it was utterly necessary to spend millions of dollars on commercial advertising, billboard campaigns, TV promotional spots, etc are becoming a thing of the past.

It will not be as easy but if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and do some work you can achieve the success you envision. It is possible to do it yourself. I AM living proof.

Understand you don’t have to do it the way the majors have done it since commercial radio was incorporated and nationalized. Not as big anyway, but rather more on a smaller scale. The first thing you may want to explore is the use of local or college radio. College radio can help a lot if you catch a buzz with your music.

Get in touch with them to discover what format they use, what kind of music, if any, they play regularly, and ask if they’d be willing to add your music to their playlists. Just contact the music director; they will be the ones who will play your music.

The next step you may want to explore is internet radio. There are new stations arising regularly. There are even broadcasts dedicated to breaking new or undiscovered artists. Do your homework and find a broadcast that best suits your musical expression. Jango is a broadcaster that has provided extraordinary value to my label. They even offer tracking tools for the songs you place with them.

Massive online radio sites get your music in front of targeted music fans. They are not your average passive radio listeners; they are music fanatics feverishly searching for music just like yours.

Yeah, you have to pay for the privilege, but the exposure you get in return is guaranteed and you can track your plays. When I put a song on Jango..if I get 3-5 new fans a day, I know I have a song that will sell. In the music biz, it’s hard to find that kind of bang-for-your-buck value.

Jango radio is one of the coolest tools you can use to get your music in front of a massive amount of potential fans in a very, very short period of time. It does cost, but what you get for your money far out weighs the money spent. They have several plans to choose from ranging from about $30 – $150. I highly suggest the $100 plan. You get 4000 plays of your song and this is huge! I am not going to go deep into how Jango works because you can get all the info on their site and it is well described! But I will say that if you work the Jango awareness you will come out of a $100 buy in with a massive amount of real fans, a steady increase in your social networking activity, and most likely a good number of merchandise and CD sales.

Jango radio is by far the best music marketing tool available online today. I know it works because I use it with all my consulting clients as well as the clients I personally manage. I just released a single on a new Christian artist I am managing and the results were outstanding. After releasing his new single on Jango we got more traffic on his website and music social networking sites in less than two days then we had been getting with all other marketing strategies combined. We got a ton of new sign-ups to his email list and we sold some CDs and Merchandise as well.

Don’t get me wrong. Jango is not a pay for it, release it, and “BAM” you’ve gone platinum. You have to work it like any other marketing and promotion avenue. You have to seek out possible fans, make friends, talk to them, and invite them to your profile. You have to interact and treat the fans you meet as real friends and take an active part in their interests as you would an offline friend. This will draw them into you and if they love your music and your personality, you’ll have a fan for life.

I release 3 albums independently and Jango has helped me tremendously with getting my singles out to the listeners. I can really see a difference in Jango and there are a ton of new users creating their own stations that open up your possibilities of reaching even more fans.

For those who do not know, Jango is a website that as a listener allows you to create your own radio station that will play artists that you like. The station throws in songs from time to time that fit within your stations format and then you hit “add” if you like the artist/song and want it played on a regular basis on your station.

As an independent artist or group, you place your music on Jango and then pick 5 or so artists you feel your music is closest to or that the fans of “big name” artists may like. Then, your song is played right after the “big name” song on a listener’s station.

The really cool thing, unlike regular internet radio stations that only stream one playlist to anyone who is listening, Jango streams individual stations to each listener. This means your song can be played, and heard, a massive amount of times in a single day. And it works let me tell you.

The cost:

250 Plays = $10
1000 Plays = $30
4000 Plays = $100

Wow, when I first saw the cost to play ratio on Jango, it was unbelievable. Then after trying it and the amount of fans I received was amazing to me. Jango claims that you will get about 40 – 80 new fans for every 1000 plays. I can tell you from first hand real experience, if you really work it, you can get about 30 – 50 new fans per day of play.

Personally, I have not found anything else in online marketing that can get 30 -50 fans a day anywhere, and I would like to believe I’m on a good portion of the net. The cool thing is that once your music is added to 50 stations you start to get free plays as well as the paid plays. Basically, that’s the same thing as you getting put into regular rotation. But don’t get lazy or cheap. The pay to play option still gets your music in front of more fans faster!

Don’t just take my word for it try it for your-self, $10 is nothing to see the results. Once you try it, you will be hooked and you will see that it works better than anything you have tried. Keep TRACK of your results. Watch your website stats, watch your friend count and your plays on certain sites begin to go up…. that will be your proof that it works! Every time I use Jango I notice my sales increase on I-Tunes and I’m sure it will work for you.

1. Pay to Play – The spins you get for the money you spend is incredible but the data you get back is priceless. New fans will tell you if you have a hit. A lot of new fans tells me to hurry and put my song on ITunes and start monetizing off of my music. Jango is great for telling me this.

2. Vamp Your Profile – Make sure you have nice quality pics and information on your profile where fans who like you can find you. For example…I make sure to put a link to J-Mill.com so any one who hears and likes my music will go to my website outside of Jango and get links to new music, videos, interviews and ITunes etc. So now not only do they know about on Jango now they know you’re a serious artist because they’ve seen your resume on your other site.

3. Build Fans – Once a listener likes your music, they will become your fan. Once this happens reach out to them and tell them where they can find you. Keep up with them a few times a month. Do this and they will follow and love your music forever. Tell them to join your mailing list, that way they will be notified every time you drop something new. Bulletins seem to work well for us.

4. Persistence – Once you get 50 people to like your song it is added to the Rotation. Don’t stop spending advertising dollars on that song. Still continue to push your music as much as possible. You have to drill it into your listeners.

5. Artist Comparison – Be sure to pick a hot artist who gets a lot of listens. The goal is to put your music up against this artist to hopefully gain some of their fans. So make sure you pick some good ones-Some one who is hot at the moment.

Well I hope this report will help you SUCCEED on Jango. Now hurry, make some hits.