What is the meaning of "music promotion"?
The phrase “music promotion” is open and vague, and it can mean almost anything these days. Everything from a well-thought-out social campaign to standing on the street corner with fliers counts, but for the sake of this article, we’re focusing much more on the former option.
Music promotion simply means you’re spreading the word about your art, but these days, when professionals in the industry use the phrase, they’re usually referring to campaigns that involve social media, YouTube, streaming platforms, and paid advertising. These projects are usually put together and implemented with several people working with the artist, either on their own team or as hired guns.
What are the best music promotion sites?
The best music promotion services are:
- Spotify
- Groover
- Apple Music
- Songkick
- Bandsintown
- Bandcamp
- ReverbNation
- Pandora
- YouTube
- Stageit.com
- SubmitHub
- Tumblr
- TikTok
- Pandora
- Soundcloud
- Music blogs and magazines
How can I promote my music?
Create an email list. In the era of social media, some musicians have decided that email newsletters are a thing of the past. Sadly, they’re missing out, as they are still one of the best tools with which to reach those fans that matter most. The only people who will sign up for your newsletter are superfans, and you don’t want to miss telling them what’s new!
Use social media. You should already be on social media as an artist, but if you’re not, make sure you create accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok if you want to promote your music overseas as well. Then, learn best practices and how these sites work and start posting and communicating with the world.
Get on streaming playlists. These days, millions of people discover new songs and artists they eventually fall in love with via popular playlists on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Competition for space on some of the most-listened-to options is fierce, but it’s not impossible to reach them! Work with a company that specializes in this kind of promotion or do a lot of research and attempt it yourself, but don’t count on scoring a win the first time.
Can I pay for music promotion?
Simply put, yes, you can! You can’t necessarily buy all the different kinds of promotion you want, such as a feature in Rolling Stone or plays on the local radio station, but you can spend money to secure some promo for your work.
Online Advertising. In addition to promoting your art on social media via posting about your work and reaching out to individuals, you can also help get the word out there with a bit of money. Advertising on platforms like Facebook is usually inexpensive and easy to figure out, so why not spend a few bucks to push your latest tune to the masses?
Media Outreach. If you have something new to share, such as a single, video, or album, it might be time to mount a full PR (public relations) campaign. After doing a lot of research, you can actually do the work of reaching out to Journalists, Podcast Hosts, magazines, newspapers, and TV and radio stations yourself, or you can hire a company to do it for you.
Influencers. This is another instance when you can either do your own research or work with someone who knows this world well to find influencers who are popular on social sites like Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok and pay them to feature your new single in some way. They might review it, include the tune in some kind of video marketing post or perhaps just share the cover and a snippet.
Groover is a service that allows musicians to upload their music and pay to reach out to certain outlets, playlists, influencers, and more, get their music listened to, feedback guaranteed and potential opportunities. We tell you more about Groover further down in the article.