Here are five Canadian websites that support independent artists in Canada
By, Didhiti Kandel
Image by Becca Clark (Pixabay)
Equally as important as the music itself, promotion is essential for artists to share their work with audiences. However, as the prices of conventional resources for advertising and branding become more and more exorbitant, visibility has never been so essential for independent artists. Here are some approachable websites whose primary incentive is to spread the word about music that needs further exposure.
Frontside Group is one of the most successful music marketing companies in Canada. Headquartered in Vancouver, Frontside has subsidiary offices in New York City, Calgary, and Toronto with a full team of members.
A musical collection must generally comply with the components outlined as M(Music), A(Artist), P(Performance) or L(Lyrics) to qualify as Canadian content. Firstly, the music must be entirely composed by a Canadian. Secondly, the primary artist who performs the music/lyrics must be a Canadian. Thirdly, the musical selection must be recorded or broadcasted wholly in Canada and lastly, the lyrics should be written by a Canadian. However, artists wanting to use this platform to promote their music have to satisfy only two of the components outlined in M.A.P.L.
Founded in 2003 by Gary McDonald, who has worked in national radio promotions since 1999 and Geoff Goddard, who has an A&R (artist and repertoire representative) and label background, the firm specializes in artist development, radio promotion and streaming promotion as well as research and analysis about musical work.
HipHop Canada is a media group designated to help Canadian hip-hop artists. Artists wanting to submit their work (song/single, mixtapes, EP, album, video, etc.) to HipHop Canada must submit via a submission form that can be found here. HipHop Canada also provides the artist with an option to submit to their Spotify playlist – “Canadian Fresh” – by using a separate submission form. The only requirement is that the artist’s work should have some kind of Canadian connection. The music must be by a Canadian artist or a group, or it must feature a Canadian artist.
Although submissions are not guaranteed to be featured, all content is reviewed by members of the editorial staff and taken into consideration for publication. If you want to skip the waiting list, they also offer paid sponsored content posts for audio and video which provides artists with an opportunity to showcase their work across the promotional platforms.
The costs for sponsored content may vary.
Launched as Canada’s first indie music station in 2013, Indie88 (CIND-FM) offers a forum for new artists to share their music. They allow artists to submit their work and include an option to advertise with them in order to reach a larger audience.
Some of their advertisement features include radio reach (broadcast commercials, featured sponsorships), digital content to target and engage (written and video sponsored content, audio and video pre-roll) and advertisement on events and promotions. To submit your music, simply email [email protected] with the links to your music.
A Journal of Musical Things is a music blog by Alan Cross, a Canadian music writer and a radio broadcaster. With its mission being, “filtering what’s happening in music to save your time, money and effort,” A Journal of Musical Things is a way for Cross to spotlight new artists to his audience. The three-time award-winning music blog offers artists a variety of ways in which they can advertise their music, including newsletter sponsorship, sponsored posts and ads inserted in blog posts. Artists can fill out this form to further consult with Cross regarding advertisement.
First launched in 2003 founded by novelist Sean Michaels, Said the Gramophone is an MP3 blog and the first of its kind. An MP3 blog is a category of blog in which the author or the creator makes music files available for download, usually in the MP3 format. Heavily supported by the funding from readers, Said the Gramophone doesn’t take any commercial advertisement. However, artists wanting to collaborate with the blog and make their music heard, can send an email to [email protected] with the MP3 links to their music.
Please note that the blog doesn’t support streaming widgets like Soundcloud. All of their posts are accompanied by MP3s.