Today’s the official launch of Christmas Vol.1! This is the hardest day for an independent artist. But not me. I have you.

Visit shaungroves.com/christmas to share Christmas Vol.1 with the interwebs on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

I’ve made it a cinch to tell your friends about this album by creating lots of tools that are quick and easy to use. If every reader tells their friends online about Christmas Vol.1 today, this album will be on the iTunes charts this week and in the cars and cubicles and homes of thousands around the world. Christ will be celebrated and banjo will be enjoyed by all.

How A Label Markets A Record

When I was on a record label, tens of thousands of dollars were spent by a team of half a dozen full-time employees to launch my records. Roughly the same amount of money and time that went into creating the record was spent on marketing it.

Publicists worked for months lining up interviews. Retail marketers schmoozed chain stores into buying lots of my music and putting it in the right place on the perfect shelf. Ads were designed and circulated in magazines. I’d get in the car with a radio promoter and visit twenty or so of the most influential radio stations. Headlining artists were paid to let me open up their concerts with a few songs. Six months of spending and strategizing for release day.

Why? People buy what’s popular, the thinking goes. Get a new album on the sales charts the first week and people will notice, buy it and tell their friends about it.

How I Market A Record

I’m thankful that several radio stations are playing music from Christmas Vol.1. A few publications have written about it too. I’ll be on a Christmas tour all month with Francesca Battistelli and I’ve made a sizable investment in Facebook ads. But you are a bigger part of my marketing plan than any of this.

I’ve worked hard – with Ben at Louder Media – to give you the tools you need to be a music marketer at shaungroves.com/christmas.

Instead of half a dozen full-time employees working for months to promote Christmas Vol.1, I’ve got a few thousand people like you who are willing to spend five minutes telling the internet about this album. If every reader, Twitter follower, Facebook friend/fan, and Instagram liker of mine shares this album it will be more effective than the largest radio stations in the country playing my music or being the opening act on the biggest tour this year.

There are that many of you. And your influence is that powerful.

When you simply tell your friends you like something, it means more to them than any advertisement ever could.

Making music is the easy part for an independent artist like me. Letting people know the music I’ve created exists is the hardest part. I’m so glad I have you on my side. Thanks for the help today.