Hello, fellow independent musicians! I know we’ve all been putting a lot of effort into honing our art and producing amazing songs. However, becoming successful as an independent musician requires more than simply writing catchy songs; you also need to get out there and market your work!
I wanted to offer some of the best music advertising advice I’ve found that has aided me thus far. These are some excellent strategies for promoting your music in 2024, growing your fan base, and increasing streams! Here are some of the top music promotion options for indie artists in 2024:
Spotify Promotion
Spotify is one of the best channels for musicians to share their music with fans. Spotify has a monthly active user base of approximately 500 million, providing excellent exposure potential. Independent musicians should ensure that their music is distributed to Spotify via a distributor or aggregator such as CD Baby, Tunecore, or DistroKid. Learn more about Spotify playlist submission and how to promote your music on Spotify playlists.
Once the music is on Spotify, there are a few promotional tactics artists can utilize:
– Spotify Playlisting: To reach a wider audience, have your music featured on Spotify’s well-curated playlists, such as New Music Friday. Artists can now contribute directly to playlists on Spotify.
– Spotify Advertising: Spotify provides a venue for artists to target advertisements to listeners who fit their ideal demographic. Sponsored ads can help increase streams.
– Spotify Curator Outreach: Reach out to influential Spotify playlist curators and ask them to add your songs to their public playlists. Landing placements on popular playlists can yield major results. Check out the best Spotify promotion services available.
TikTok Music Promotion
– Work with TikTok influencers in your genre to create TikTok videos featuring your songs. Paying influencers with large followings to use your music helps put it in front of their audience.
– Create your own TikTok account and make interesting, engaging short videos with your songs. Use viral TikTok music promotion sounds and hooks to increase visibility.
– Use relevant hashtags like #musictok so your videos appear on popular feeds. Engage with your followers.
– Pay for TikTok advertising to boost views. TikTok ads can be highly targeted to your ideal demographic.
Music Blog Promotion
Reaching out to music blogs and websites is a key promotional avenue for indie artists to secure reviews, features and interviews that provide exposure to new fans. Some strategies include:
– Send new releases to music bloggers and writers at popular indie music blogs like Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound. Provide a press release and streaming link.
– Guest post on music blogs by providing unique articles with an author bio and links back to your site/music.
– Offer giveaways like free album downloads in exchange for email sign-ups that music blogs can promote.
– Reach out to smaller niche blogs that cover your specific genre and local blogs in your city. Small blogs are often more receptive.
– Utilize a PR service or do outreach yourself via emails, social media and through your existing connections.
Additional Promotional Strategies
– YouTube Marketing: Upload your music videos to YouTube and utilize YouTube advertising tools to promote your channel. Pitch your videos to YouTube music channels and playlists.
– Play Live Shows: Book gigs at local venues to build in-person fans. Playing live is a chance to sell merch and gain email sign-ups to continue engaging your new followers online.
– Social Media: Promote your music actively across your social channels like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Run paid ads, engage with users and find creative ways to connect with new listeners through social media.
Spotify Royalty Payments
Per Stream Rate – This is how much money Spotify pays per individual stream. It amounts to between $0.003 and $0.005 (so like a fraction of a penny!) This may seem tiny, but it adds up with enough streams and listeners.
Monthly Listeners – If you have 1 million monthly Spotify listeners, you may expect to earn between $3,000 and $5,000 per month in royalties. Of course, more listeners is preferable, but this provides a ballpark figure to work with.
Pro Rata Model – This is where things get a little tricky, but I’ll attempt to explain it clearly. Spotify distributes around 70% of its entire revenue to rights holders based on their percentage of total streams. So the artists with the most Spotify streams that month receive the highest payouts.
For smaller indie musicians, this means that the more streams you have, the larger your revenue share. So, even though it appears to be a fraction of a penny each stream, you want to generate as many streams as possible by pushing your Spotify links.
I appreciate that the per-stream cost may appear discouraging in comparison to physical sales, but streaming is unquestionably the future of music consumption. So, as indie musicians, we must embrace and leverage it in order to build fan bases and get our music out there. Despite the low per-stream figures, Spotify’s success remains critical.
Find out how much does Spotify pay per stream.
Facebook Music Marketing
With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains a crucial platform for artists. Musicians should optimize their Facebook presence by:
– Creating an artist page and promoting it through ads and shares to accumulate followers
– Joining Facebook groups related to your genre/niche and engaging with group members by sharing music
– Live streaming performances or behind-the-scenes moments on Facebook Live to give fans insider access
– Utilizing Facebook ads to target local fans or lookalike audiences who may like your music
– Collaborating with other artists for cross-promotion, like Facebook Live battles or co-hosted giveaways
YouTube Channel Optimization
YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world and top destination for music discovery. To leverage YouTube for promotion:
– Create an artist channel and upload high-quality music videos, lyric videos, live performances, interviews and other engaging video content.
– Include keywords, tags and optimized descriptions so your videos appear in search results.
– Promote your YouTube videos across your other social channels to drive views and subscribers.
– Join multi-channel networks or collaborate with other YouTubers in your niche to access new audiences.
Instagram Music Marketing
Instagram’s visually engaging platform is perfect for artists to showcase their brand. Promotional tactics include:
– Posting short snippets or previews of new songs to hype releases. Use relevant hashtags.
– Going live or posting Instagram Stories during events, studio sessions, or performances to create excitement.
– Running sponsored ads to drive followers and views. Target local or lookalike audiences.
– Post eye-catching photos and videos showcasing your image, merch, events, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and more.
Twitter Engagement
Twitter provides artists with opportunities to directly interact with listeners. To grow your fanbase on Twitter:
– Tweet updates surrounding new releases, videos, events and other music activities.
– Respond to fans and have conversations to show appreciation and build connections.
– Live tweet during concerts or festivals so remote fans can share the experience.
– Utilize hashtags and viral threads like #NewMusicFriday to increase engagement.
– Retweet fans who share your music and profile influential tastemakers who can expose you to their followers.
Cross-Promotion Across Platforms
The key is to leverage multiple platforms and cross-promote new content across your social media profiles. Announce new YouTube videos on Instagram, share Facebook live streams to Twitter, and promote TikTok clips on Instagram. By coordinating your social media activity, you can maximize exposure and keep driving fans back to your music.
Consistent Activity & Engagement
Posting frequently keeps you top of mind with fans. Responding to comments and DMing fans also strengthens connections. Contests and giveaways incentivize social media activity as well. The key is keeping your social media active, engaging and authentic. Meet fans where they are digitally.
Promoted Posts
Consider putting some budget toward promoted social media posts and ads across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more. Promoted content expands your organic reach. Targeted ads can efficiently reach ideal new demographics. Just don’t overly rely on “pay-to-play” tactics.