Music is made to be heard and no matter what genre you perform, having your music reach a large audience can be extremely rewarding. However, learning how to properly promote your music and grow your fanbase can be confusing territory to the indie artist.
How do you guys promote your music?
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That’s why we created this guide to help give artists a roadmap to building an audience in their niche. Within it, we’re going to discuss the following powerful tips to promote your music:
- Write a Great Song
- Properly Record Your Music
- Get Your Music on Streaming Platforms
- Properly Promote Your Music On Spotify
- Build a Well-Designed Website
- Utilize Social Media
- Build an Email List
- Get Your Music Placed Into TV and Film
- Have an Eye-Catching EPK
- Approach Media Outlets With Your Music
- Book Live Shows
- Sell Branded Merchandise
- Get Your Music on The Radio
- Word of Mouth Is Important
- Be Patient
By applying the ideas in this guide, you can ensure that your music reaches as large a fanbase as possible.
1. Write a Great Song
It’s hard enough to promote good music, but it’s nearly impossible if your music is low quality. So, it’s important to spend time early on, developing songs that can stand up against everything else out there.
First, put in the effort during the songwriting stage to make your compositions are good as they can be. There are several guidelines you can follow when writing a song to ensure it has the highest success rate.
Check out our guides on songwriting for more advice on what makes a great song.
2. Properly Record Your Music
The writing stage is only half of the battle when ensuring your music will appeal to a large audience. You also have to record your music in a way that it can compete with big-name artists.
Sundown Sessions Studio is an online recording studio that can help you do just that. We offer professional recordings at an extremely affordable rate.
Our award-winning session musicians, producers and engineers have helped hundreds of artists record hit songs and they can help you do the same! Head over to our pricing and packages page for more information.
Click here to learn how Sundown Sessions Studio can help your music reach its full potential!
3. Get Your Music on Streaming Platforms
If you want people to easily find your music once it’s promoted, you need to make it easily accessible. In today’s day and age, that means getting it onto streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.
The secret to getting your music on these platforms is by using what’s known as a digital distributor. Two of the most popular digital distributors are DistroKid and CD Baby, each with their own pros and cons.
However, there are plenty of other distributors out there as well. Check out our guide on the 8 Best Digital Distributors of 2020 to find out which one is right for you!
4. Properly Promote Your Music On Spotify
Beyond simply making your music accessible, there are a number of promotional tools you can utilize within streaming platforms.
This is especially true for Spotify, which has become just as much a social media platform as it is a streaming service.
Getting your music on playlists with lots of followers is the best place to start. There are also plenty of tools you can use to integrate Spotify into your website and social media.
Our article, How To Get More Spotify Plays In 2020 explores this topic in full detail.
5. Build a Well-Designed Website
Having a well-designed website is integral to properly promoting your music online. Your website serves as a home base for your online presence. It should funnel visitors to everywhere else they can find you online.
Make sure your website has a professional appearance, showcases your music and provides links to all your social media accounts. Once complete, add a link to your website on all of your social media profiles so that new followers can quickly learn everything about you.
We dive deeper into what makes a great music website in this article on the topic.
Nowadays, almost everybody is on one social media platform or another. So, it’s important to understand how you can leverage this tool to promote your music.
Don’t feel that you need to have a presence on every social media site. In fact, it’s a lot more beneficial to put all your energy into making one or two profiles as good as they can be.
One of the most powerful tools for music promotion nowadays is Instagram. It tends to have a good mix of all demographics, making it ideal for most music genres.
Check out our guide 10 Tips For Instagram Music Promotion (2020), for more tips on how you can use this amazing free tool to promote your music.
7. Build an Email List
Email can be a powerful tool to promote your music. Believe it or not, if utilized properly, it can be more effective than social media posts.
This is because email still offers the most direct form of digital communication from artists to fans.
In order to collect emails, make a sign-up form easily accessible on your website and social media pages. Offering some kind of incentive, such as a free download is a great way to increase interest.
Once you’ve collected emails, don’t spam them with too many messages. Instead, send out informative newsletters once or twice a month to let followers know what’s new.
We talk a little bit about proper email list promotion in this article on song promotion.
8. Get Your Music Placed Into TV and Film
You may have heard about a lot of artists becoming well-known after their music was included in a popular film or TV show. However, many people aren’t aware that there is a relatively straightforward process for getting music placed in these mediums.
On top of the promotion, you’ll also get paid when a production company decides to use your music in their film. This can help you start to make a viable income from your music and promote it, all in one place.
Our sister site Sync Songwriter is dedicated to helping indie artists get their music placed into TV and film. Check out this guide on the topic for an introductory into what that process looks like.
If you want to learn more, sign up to receive this video on The Top 5 Mistakes Most Songwriters Make Licensing Music.
9. Have an Eye-Catching EPK
EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit and having one is integral if you’re hoping to properly promote your music.
In a nutshell, it’s a one-page portfolio that sums up everything your band is about. In it, you may include a bio, photos, music, videos, tour history, press quotes and anything else that helps to showcase your work.
You can then use this EPK to properly introduce yourself when reaching out to press outlets, booking agents, radio stations and any other industry professionals.
Check out our guide on how to build a memorable electronic press kit to make sure yours is as good as it can be!
10. Approach Media Outlets With Your Music
Once you have great music, a strong web presence and a proper press kit, it’s time to start getting the word out there!
Research blogs, newspapers and other media outlets in your niche. Then, once you know a little bit about them, write them a personal message on why you think they’d be interested in covering you.
Including a press release is also a great way to increase interest in your music.
11. Book Live Shows
Many people only try to promote their music in digital streams and forget that some of the best avenues for music are in person.
One of the best ways to make more people aware of your music is just to get out there and start playing shows. Try to book performances in as many venues as possible, with as many different bands as you can find in your niche.
This way, you’ll have new people listening to you at every show. Don’t forget to plug your online presence and encourage people to follow you after the concert is done.
We have an entire guide dedicated to finding and booking gigs and we encourage you to check it out if you want to learn more on this topic.
12. Sell Branded Merchandise
One of the most effective and easiest ways to promote your music is by having your fans do it for you. The best way to do this is by offering well-branded band merch for your fans to purchase.
If it’s wearable merch, your fans will act as walking advertisements. With proper branding and eye-catching visuals, people are likely to ask the wearer about the backstory of the merch. Once that happens, who better to give a convincing sales pitch than your biggest fans?
The best part about selling band merch is that it’s one of the few times people will pay you to promote your music. Check out our recent guide on selling band merch for a look at how you can make a viable income doing this.
13. Get Your Music on The Radio
Believe it or not, even with the rise of streaming platforms, radio is still a popular avenue for music promotion. There are plenty of people who listen to the radio and every time you get your song played on a radio station, you’ll be exposing your music to thousands of new listeners.
The hard part is actually approaching radio stations with your music and convincing them to play it. Thankfully, we have an article that discusses just this and offers a roadmap on how you can promote your music to radio stations.
14. Word of Mouth Is Important
As much as you may try to directly promote your music, some of the most powerful ways to gain fans are avenues that you have little control over.
Although slow at first, as your fan base grows, you’ll have more and more people discovering your music simply because someone they know suggested it. People who find you in this way will be extremely invested, as they learned about you from someone they trust.
You may think there’s not much point in worrying about this area of promotion, since you have such little control over it. However, there are some things you can do to ensure effective word of mouth promotion and it all comes back to the first two tips in this article.
If you start with a well-written song and high-quality recording, your fans will want to share it and when they do, those who find you will be more likely to start following you as well.
15. Be Patient
No matter how much work you put into promoting your music, you can’t expect your fanbase to grow overnight. This sort of thing always takes time no matter how great your music is and how strong your promotional tactics are.
The important thing is that you don’t get discouraged and that you continue to be consistent in your promotional efforts.
If you’re patient and follow the tips laid out in this guide, you’ll eventually see a reward for your efforts and it will be well worth the wait.
Conclusion: How To Promote Your Music In 2020
There are plenty of ways to promote your music and expand your audience but the most important factors are that you have great songs, high-quality recording and are consistent and patient in your promotional efforts.
Making sure your music is easily accessible through streaming platforms and promoting it online is a great start. However, don’t forget about the other offline avenues you can utilize to build a fanbase including radio, live shows, merchandise sales and word of mouth.
To recap, in this guide we discuss the following tips on how you can promote your music in 2020:
- Write a Great Song
- Properly Record Your Music
- Get Your Music on Streaming Platforms
- Properly Promote Your Music On Spotify
- Build a Well-Designed Website
- Utilize Social Media
- Build an Email List
- Get Your Music Placed Into TV and Film
- Have an Eye-Catching EPK
- Approach Media Outlets With Your Music
- Book Live Shows
- Sell Branded Merchandise
- Get Your Music on The Radio
- Word of Mouth Is Important
- Be Patient
As already mentioned, it will take time, but if you apply the tips laid out above you’ll slowly see an increase in the number of people listening to your music. Once you have a big enough fanbase, you can start finding ways to convert your followers into a sustainable income and you’ll be well on your way to forming a career in the music industry.
If you enjoyed the tips in this guide, be sure to check out the rest of the Sundown Sessions Studio Blog for more tips on music business, songwriting and home recording.