As an artiste with or 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.
Use YouTube Channel
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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.
You can use free or paid promotional strategies, depending on what works for you. 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.
Now, to get started, you want to first create a YouTube channel with your brand name. After you’re done with this, upload your songs and then start optimizing it for visibility by using the right keywords, search phrases etc. and sharing it with your audience.
Use this as an Execution Plan
- Upload 1 main video per release (official, lyric, or performance)
- Post 2-3 Shorts weekly using the best 10-15 seconds of your song
- Use clear titles: Song Name – Artist (Official Video)
Now, let me explain. For step 1, Instead of uploading all the videos at once, start with putting up one single video per release. It could be your official video, the lyrical video or just a performance. This serves like a teaser, introducing your audience to your songs.
Post 2-3 shorts weekly. Shorts can easily go viral and it is very useful in bringing in new audiences. Focus on using the best 10-15 seconds of your songs for this post. Also, pay attention to using clear titles like song names, artist names. This is very important especially in terms of search visibility.
Don’t just update posts and disappear once in a while. Post consistently and also engage with your audience while at it. This will boost your visibility.
If you’re going to do just one thing using the free YouTube option, post shorts consistently, using the right hooks.
Outside the free promotional strategies, you can also use the paid options. Usually, this delivers faster results and can get you more views but to get the best out of this, you’ll still need to add a few other strategies to get the best outcomes.
Social Media Platforms
Social media is a key platform for music promotion. In the age of TikTok, Instagram Reels and online viral Tweets, the social media is now the one stop place 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. Short video clips can be very useful on these platforms.
You don’t have to post videos of the songs alone. Your daily content structure for instance could be one performance video clip like a lip sync of your song or a real live video, a personality video which gets your users to understand and see you up close and real, a trending sound on your video. You could consider something like this:
Daily content structure:
- 1 performance video (lip-sync or live)
- 1 personality video (story, humor, or opinion)
- 1 trend using your sound
Video formula:
- Hook (first 2 seconds)
- Song snippet (5–15 seconds)
- Call-to-action (“Use this sound”)
Expectations:
- Post 1–3 times daily
- Most videos won’t go viral – consistency is very important.
As much as possible, you want to post consistently. You won’t have all your posts go viral but some will. Focus on posting and promoting your content while growing your brand.
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. You can also use this, in addition to the free promotion option, if you have the budget for it.
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.
Engage 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.
To get started, try this execution plan:
- Reach out to 10–20 micro-creators. This should be creators with at least 5k–50k followers
- Target creators whose content naturally fits your sound
- Engage them to promote your new release, short clips or just talk about the song.
For a simple outreach format, you could use a text like: “I think your content fits this sound, can I send it to you early?”
Not everyone will respond but consistency is what creates momentum. And to get more outcomes, you can consider paying for Influencer Partnerships instead of opting for free collaborations.
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, if you want to get better outcomes.
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, Apple Music, 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.
Streaming platforms reward artists who build momentum before release, not after. For starters, try this strategy even before you upload:
- Upload your track 2-3 weeks in advance
- Pitch your song through Spotify for Artists
- Prepare 5–10 promotional videos before release day
Now, this is what you must keep in mind, avoid dropping music without any buildup or promotion.
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.
Get Music Reviews
There are music blog and curators 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.
To get started; contact 5-10 blogs or curators per release. Focus on smaller platforms-they respond more often. In the promotional message; include:
- Short bio (2–3 lines)
- Press photo
- Direct link to your song
Outside this, you can also get these curators to review your music 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”, 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.
For content promotion ideas that will drive more results, post things like behind the scene clips, story behind your song, relatable emotional moments that shows your life as an artiste or just another human being, acoustic or stripped version of your song etc.
As part of your strategy, do not create content whenever you want to post. Batch create 5-10 videos or more per time and post it over some days.
Remember, volume beats perfection. Do not wait to get the perfect content or the best pieces of content. Create and post valuable content that matters to your audience.
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.
Try out Podcasts, Instagram Live sessions, YouTube Interviews etc. These options are always easy to get on especially for new artistes.
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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