Off some of our topics on WhatsApp group, I though I come up with some interestingly practical ways to promote yourself as an artist.
I’m sure you’re already aware of how important promoting your music is. Getting your music heard is just as important as making the music and licensing it. It won't matter if you have the best song no one listens to, it’s almost like it doesn’t exist.
So, in an attempt to send you in the right direction for promoting your music – I’ve put together a list of effective ways to promote your music. It’s in no specific order and is a collection of thoughts from my consultations, conversations with friends, and years of experience.
By Word Of Mouth
Promoting your music by word of mouth is the foundation of music promotion. It’s also one of the easiest and cheapest. Telling friends and families of your latest music can be a powerful way to get them to show keen interest in you and anticipate what they hope to hear. More so, you'd have a chance to personally give them a first hand snippet of your music and while you sing it to them they can either cheer you better yet give you constructive critics & ideas which can eventually become useful in your music & target audience.
Twitter-Facebook-Instagram
Promoting your music on Twitter is fairly simple, but is very powerful. It’s very similar to promoting your music via word of mouth, but it’s digital instead.
Whilst your potential fans are on Facebook. You should have a Facebook fan page dedicated to your brand linked to your Instagram. Although Instagram is a photo-based platform, you can still promote your music on in the form of photo advertisements, videos, and in your profile bio and description. Both Facebook and Instagram allow business accounts which you can equally create sponsored ads & campaigns.
Whilst your potential fans are on Facebook. You should have a Facebook fan page dedicated to your brand linked to your Instagram. Although Instagram is a photo-based platform, you can still promote your music on in the form of photo advertisements, videos, and in your profile bio and description. Both Facebook and Instagram allow business accounts which you can equally create sponsored ads & campaigns.
Promote Your Music On YouTube
YouTube is the main video platform. If you’re not consistently growing your YouTube channel and promoting your videos on it, you’re missing out on a lot of potential fans.Promoting your Music On Soundcloud, Songtradr & Audiomack
This makes it easy for viewers to stream your music and interact with you. This is the perfect place to upload your songs for either free sharing/ monetize & for interacting with other artist and producers.
Promote Your Music With An Email List
Building your email list is one of your top priorities. Having an email list will help you connect with your fans better, as well as promote your music directly to the people who want to hear it. In my opinion, this is one of hip hop’s business “secrets” that most artists have no clue about.Promote Your Music On Internet Radio Stations
Promoting your music through internet radio stations are very effective if you can find which celebrity music artist your music is most similar to. After identifying that, you can promote your music on their stations and if your music is truly similar, you can gain some of their fans. Some of these internet radio station platforms are very cheap.Promote Your Music On Blogs
Getting your music posted on blogs will put you in front of a different audience and adds credibility to your brand. For example, you can say, “Featured on ____” and you will look more credible if the blog is credible. You should connect with blog content writers / authors and build a relationship with them. This technique works for as long as you’re an artist.Promote Your Music With SEO
If you have a website, Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO) will help get your name out there if you’re consistently updating your website and blog. The more consistent and high quality your blog post, the more Google will put your website in front of viewers searching for similar stuff. (Ex. Viewer searches for new music in your state and your website might be the first few to pop up).
Promote Your Music With Content Marketing
Similar to SEO, content marketing will help get you some website traffic and improve the credibility of your brand. Visit Copyblogger to learn about Content Marketing.
Similar to SEO, content marketing will help get you some website traffic and improve the credibility of your brand. Visit Copyblogger to learn about Content Marketing.
Promote Your Music With Google AdWords
Buying paid advertising is rarely talked about during conversations with upcoming rappers. If money is tight, focus on other avenues. But, if you have some money you can spend, you can promote your music with Google AdWords. The great thing about paid advertising is that you can track it, measure the return on investment, and continue to optimize it until you’re spending $1 to make $1-$100.Promoting your Music In Hip Hop Forums and WhatsApp groups
Groups are a cool place to build relationships with those similar to you. I don’t recommend directly promoting your music on the forum, but there are times when it’s acceptable. You’re better off becoming an influential member on the forum and then using that credibility boost to help get your music heard indirectly.
Promote Your Music By Bundling It With Other Products
Bundling your music with other products to add value is a great way to promote your music. Give away a free t-shirt, gift card, airtime, anything that would expose you to potential fans that you would not have gotten otherwise. But remember, keep it affordable. You don’t want to kill your pockets with this strategy.Promote Your Music By Cross-Promoting With Other Music Artist
Support artist that make similar music as you by sharing their music with your fans. In this age of music, there are more than enough fans to go around.Promote Your Music At Shows & Concerts
When you’re performing at a show or concert, have someone in the crowd go around and pass some marketing materials out. This is a good time to bundle your music with a product that people in the crowd would care about. If you’re not performing, then brand yourself (usually done with branded clothing but could be done in other ways) so that you’re gaining some attention, without distracting from the performing artist.Promote Your Music At Colleges
Depending on your target audience, college is full of kids looking for new music to party to. If you have any party / club songs, try to network with those that throw the parties and get your song played in their parties.Promote Your Music By Networking
Networking is your golden key to success. It’s the reason you’ve probably asked yourself “how the hell is he famous?” when viewing a music artist on TV that you thought made horrible music. Networking will get you opportunities that you would not have had without it. Get to know the influential people in your city and start networking.Promote Your Music By Sponsoring An Event
If you have some extra money that you don’t mind helping out others with, sponsor an event that has a similar target audience as you. This won’t get you a ton of people checking out your music, but it will build credibility and help with networking as well.
Promote Your Music By Getting A Sponsor
Getting a sponsor can help you with reaching an audience that you didn’t have access to. For an upcoming artist, you could get a clothing line to sponsor you and cross promote each others products. This isn’t the easiest because, most upcoming artist are not offering enough value to the sponsor, but I’ve seen it done.
Getting a sponsor can help you with reaching an audience that you didn’t have access to. For an upcoming artist, you could get a clothing line to sponsor you and cross promote each others products. This isn’t the easiest because, most upcoming artist are not offering enough value to the sponsor, but I’ve seen it done.
Promoting your Music On mixtapes
This is a great platform to release a song on. Some DJs already have listeners that are ready to explore new music. If you’re ready to drop a song, choose some DJ mixtapes as a first stop over.
Promote Your Music On Spotify
Spotify is a platform that’s similar to Pandora.Promote Your Music With Flyers
Flyers, unless super targeted, are not the best use of funds to promote your music, but are good business cards. I’d recommend that you brand the flyers similar to how you would brand a business card and give them away at shows or events.Promote Your Music By Hosting Parties
Parties are a great way of gathering people in one place especially when there's good food and drinks. if you're hiring a Dj, give him a compilation of your music if you have many. Ask him to throw in some of them while he's perfoming better yet replay specific tracks you're trying to promote.
I hope you found this list helpful and motivating enough to try some techniques that you may not have thought of before.
Here’s My Question For You!
What’s your favorite methods, techniques, or platforms that you use to promote your music and why?
You can drop your response in the comment section. I'd love to hear your input on this topic.
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