As a music artiste without a record label, you need visibility, traffic and streams to push your songs, regardless of your genre but it can be very difficult to pull this if you’re just getting started without the necessary experience to promote music online.
Even though advancements in digital marketing, social media and online platforms has made it possible for a number of artistes including people like Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Rema etc. to find success in mainstream music, a large number of aspiring entertainers are still unable to find a break through because even when they do not have access to label based promotions, they also do not know the steps they can use to promote music online.
As a beginner, I need you to know that there are online marketing strategies you could use to promote your songs as an independent artiste and actually gain visibility, more streams and even media recognition, just like some artistes you know today.
In this article, I am going to list out some of the popular platform options you can use to promote music online and how you can get started using these platforms to push your songs, regardless of your location.
YouTube Channels
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If you’ve ever watched a YouTube video, only to find some song pop up as an ad on your screen, then you have been presented with a YouTube ad.
As a powerful platform for music videos and video content generally, YouTube has over the years evolved into a well-known established platform where artistes can promote their songs, reach a larger audience and get views for their music. And both new and popular artistes are increasingly using this platform.
Considering that you’re just getting started, you can use YouTube to strategically promote music online, using the right keywords and promotional strategy to set apart your work for exclusive visibility.
There are two ways to do this – the free and paid options.
The free option is one of the most popular music promotion options for artistes. It is documented online that artistes like Justin Bieber got their fame posting songs on YouTube. Even some none music artiste have also gotten their fame, using this approach.
It starts with creating a channel on YouTube with your brand name, uploading your songs, optimizing it for visibility by using the right keywords, search phrases etc. and sharing it with your audience.
This option is free and straightforward however it can be slow in delivering visibility organically, unless you take some additional measures to grow your channel, push the particular song out there and get it in front of your audience.
The paid option on the other hand is a direct advertising method where you get charged a certain amount of money for every click or visibility your music gets.
While the paid option is also very popular, it can get expensive if you’re without a budget however if you have a tight budget, using a very a strategic marketing, you can use the paid YouTube promotional option alongside organic promotion options to push your music out there, right on the platform.
Social Media Platforms
In the age of Tiktok, Instagram Reels and online viral Tweets, the social media has indeed become one of the most popular channels for new artistes to promote music online, irrespective of their location and even established acts are not left out.
From introducing artistes like Lil Nasx, Ayra Starr, Spyro etc., to enhancing the visibility of artistes like Arianna Grande, Beyoncé, Rihanna etc., social media platforms like Instagram and Tiktok etc. has provided a platform for artistes to create music and engage their audience for visibility.
As an aspiring artist, you can leverage these huge platforms and their audience to promote your music by keying into trends and content, posting your content and engaging with your audience directly.
Like YouTube, there are two ways you can go about this – the free and paid options.
The free option provides you with an opportunity to create your page on your selected social media platform like Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter etc., using your brand name.
Afterwards, you can be uploading your music content there, optimize it and share with your audience directly while engaging, replying to comments etc.
The idea about the free promotion is that it gives you somewhere to get started and you should get right on it whether you are actively promoting music or not however this free option may not potentially get you the necessary visibility as soon as you need it.
The paid option on the other hand helps you to push your songs either as reels, video uploads or music links while getting to pay for increased visibility on those platforms.
Regardless of whatever promotional option you want to use to promote your songs on social media, it is very important that you put in the effort to build a strong social media presence, create valuable content and engage with your audience at intervals.
Influencers
Influencer marketing is a great option to promote music online, especially in the age of social media and online visibility where a lot of people are getting on social media platforms and elsewhere.
This approach has been used by almost all categories of music artistes to get their songs across to their target audience on different platforms from social media to websites, blogs and digital music aggregator platforms.
This music promotion strategy demands that you leverage existing influencers with their audience to promote your songs, whenever you drop a track or an album.
Using influencers to promote songs does not come without a cost. While you can collaborate with influencers in exchange for value, a number of these influencers, content creators, and bloggers will ask you to pay something in return for the promotion they give you. But, the real work is in choosing the right influencers to work with.
To work with influencers to promote your songs, you have to first of all define what you want to achieve. Is it just visibility or actual clicks? This will set the tone for your choice of influencers.
As soon s you’re able to sort this, decide on how you want them to go about the promotion – this will mean deciding if you’ll prefer something like a Tiktok dance trend for instance, Instagram Reel or Twitter Post etc.? This will give you an idea on the right influencer to reach and how you might get involved.
After this is done, go ahead and filter out the kind of influencers that can meet your needs, based off your campaign goals. Although most artistes focus on music videos promotions, If you’re looking to promote your music using a text, audio or other promotional format, you’ll do well to choose an influencer with an audience popular with your preferred promotional format.
After this has been achieved, you can then professionally reach out to this your preferred influencer (check up their track record before making this decision), set out the whole formalities, negotiate terms and get your promotional contract signed.
PS: To get the most out of this music promotional strategy, you want to measure your outcome and strategically use the influencer’s platform to get as much visibility, including repurposing and reposting their campaign posts on your own channels.
Music Platforms
There are a number of digital music platforms you can leverage to promote music online for free, gather a number of visibility and new streams for free, especially during your early days as an artiste.
This includes digital platforms like Audiomack, Soundcloud, Applemusic, Spotify, Boomplay etc. some of these platforms provide a completely free option to create an account and promote your music on the platform while others ask for partnership or offer paid options.
- Spotify and Apple Music: For these two music platforms, you’ll need to partner with a music distributor to get your songs uploaded on the platform. These distributors will also charge you a certain fee to get your work on the Spotify or Apple Music Platform.
- Boomplay: Popular across Africa, this platform does not require you to pay or upload your songs on their platform however to be able to get your songs on Boomplay, you’ll have to partner with a distributor.
- Audiomack: Audiomack is one of the best free options for indie artists. It offers you an option to promote your music directly on your own with a free storage and unlimited space. You can also use their monetization options if you’re eligible. As a free music promotion platform, Audiomack also allows you to monitor your downloads and streams on their website.
- Soundcloud: Like Audiomack, Soundcloud also offers artistes the options to upload their songs on the Soundcloud platforms and promote it online however they have limited space storage with a paid options for upgrade. This music promotion platform can be useful for beginners especially if you’re looking for alternate free options to push your songs.
You can use any of these or the other music platforms alongside your own social media to promote your songs online.
PS: To get the most out of this, consider the the platform’s target audience, your own audience goals and music genres as well as your budget before settling for a platform.
Music Reviews
There are music reviews and reviewers in different countries, regions and genres and you can jump on this as a channel to promote your songs without breaking a bank.
Music reviews is a strategy that works with influencers among other reviewers. This can be influencers from the social media, blogs, music platforms or even TVs and Radios.
With their reviews, an influencer with a large platform can create a positive sentiment or controversy about your music. And you can leverage this to promote music online or even get it to go viral.
To get the most out of this digital music promotion option, you can reach out to the right music influencer with a decent audience and pitch your song directly. Get their opinion on the song and share it with your audience.
These influencers could be anything from playlist aggregators to music bloggers, and music influencers on social media. You have to be very strategic with this option so that it doesn’t overlap with your other promotional strategies.
So if you’re targeting digital influencers from social media and other platforms as a strategy, you can then contact other channels like news platforms, radios etc. for the music reviews to further create publicity elsewhere.
Outside this, you can also get them to review your song as a blog post, social media content or top selection for a specific genre, list them in their genre aggregation etc.
Create & Share Content
Content creation is as important for music promotion just as it is in everyday digital marketing. Both established and new artistes have been known to leverage content creation strategies to create the buzz about their music.
From creating viral dance video like Davido recently did for his song, creating Controversial content on Twitter (X) and Instagram like Wizkid and Burnaboy or creating Tiktok worthy dance videos like Tyla’s Water song, content creation provides a viable option you can use to promote your music.
What you need to keep in mind with content creation for music promotion is that you have to be very strategic. Yes. Jumping on trends or dropping controversial opinion can create a serious backlash (call it dragging, cancelling etc.) in some cases which will need a lot of tact to navigate but it can also create a very positive results in terms of visibility. You have to find ways to navigate both outcomes.
Also, I need to emphasize this. You have to be aware of social media cancel culture and its possible impact on your music brand if that ever happens. Meaning that you have to be very careful with the kind of content you create and post on your platforms as an artiste.
Above all, consider trends and use them for your own benefit. Create content that is useful to your audience. Learn from your outcomes and find ways to engage with both your audience and influencers in meaningful ways while building relationships that can lead to further visibility opportunities in the future.
Strategic Interviews
The interview is a popular option for music promotions. Although not as popular as it was before the advent of the social media, it can still serve as a viable alternative to promote music online.
With the advent of blogs and social media, it becomes even easier to use interviews as a promotional strategy. And you can do this directly or with the use of an agent.
Start with identifying the preferred platform you want to get interviewed on. It can be print like digital news platforms, video like music video platforms, or audio like podcasts etc.
Choose your preferred platforms based on your music promotional goals. Pitch the platform owners and try to relate your music to their audience or platform’s interests. Pitch as many platforms as you can, telling them about your music, your background and your story as an artiste etc.
Whenever you’ve been granted an interview, get snippets from the interviews and share it with your audience either on your own social media platforms, blogs, etc. also, reach out to the interviewer and acknowledge the interview publicly while tagging them or linking to the interview from your platforms.
This option gets your name out there, creates visibility while enabling you to leverage the interviewer’s platform for a new audience.
Final Words
As you just learned here, with digital marketing, you can now bypass gate keepers, record labels, financiers etc. and promote music online independently or as an individual regardless of your location.
To achieve this, you must use the strategies you just learned here to the latter, alongside other strategies you’ll evolve to grow your brand as a music artiste however, you also have to pay attention to build relationships with influencers and your audience, engage with them, understand trends and create good music.
These things are non negotiable. Also, pay attention to build and grow your digital platforms, including your own website, regardless of whether you’re starting music promotion today or not. Get a website here if you don’t have one.
And finally, learn from your strategies. Analyze your outcomes at intervals. Learn from your success and short comings and continue to iterate and evolve strategies that will lead to improved outcomes. This is very important. And you can reach out to us or work with our team to promote your music by reaching out here if you’re not sure about how to get started.
Now it’s your turn. What are your biggest challenges when it comes to promoting music online? Drop your comments below.
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