Marketing Your New Release on a Budget

Marketing Your New Release on a Budget

by Music Marketing

Do you have an original single to release? If so, it’s time to make it known. All you have to do is upload your newly released single on popular online platforms such as Youtube and let social media work its magic. In a matter of days, you’ll get thousands of views across the globe. Perhaps you’ll even wake up one day to find that your song is trending, and the whole wide world is crooning along with your latest single.

The life of a musician would be a lot easier if that were the case. Unfortunately, it takes either musical brilliance or dumb luck to achieve such an unexpected following. Sometimes, it’s a hit or miss. Musicians need to put a lot of hard work and deliberate pursuit into promoting their music, especially when it comes to their new releases. It isn’t easy and it isn’t necessarily cheap, either. In fact, even the biggest stars and famous musicians have to spend millions of dollars to have their music out in the market.

The question then is, what if you are a regular musician famous only in the locality needing to promote your newest single on a very tight budget? How do you go about doing this when your funds are limited and you badly need your music to be sold? Worry not – we’re here to help! Read on to find out more about marketing your new release on a limited budget.

Tell a compelling story

Every piece of music is brilliant and unique. However, it won’t be so without a story. Music conveys a message — be it a message about love, hope, pain, or disappointment. The lyrics, the instruments, and the little details all work together to tell a story. Therefore, if you write your own music, make sure that a compelling story is a part of it.

The content of your song should serve as an inspiration and act as the blood that flows through your music. This is the story that you will tell in your bio and the pitch that you’ll send out to blogs, radio, and media outlets. The bottom line is that you must think about what is story-worthy and prepare to share it to the rest of the world.

Align visuals with your story

Once you’ve successfully carved the core story, what better way to proceed to the next course of action than to streamline all your visuals to the story you’ve created? Align and update your visuals to go along with your story — from the band photos to the banners down to the music videos. It’s more of like creating a central theme for your music release. The central theme should be anchored from the main story you wish to tell to the world. It takes consistency and professionalism to ensure that the central theme gets across to the public’s eyes – and yes, ears.

Pitch via radio, blogs, press outlets, and social media

Lastly, and most importantly, prepare to get the newest music single promoted in different media platforms. This often isn’t the fun part, but promoting your music by making it known on the radio, blogs, press outlets, and social media is imperative.

That said, narrow down a short list of people and outlets you hope to contact and get your music marketed. The best way to do so is to be personal and genuine in a way that you tell the story behind your new music every time you reach out to someone. You can reach out to music bloggers and even make use of social media platforms to promote your music. Now for radio stations and some media outlets, you need to send physical copies of your new album along with a press kit that includes a press release, a track listing, and photos of your band.

So what are you waiting for? Tell a story, align it with your visuals, and spread the music to the world! Who knows? You might just get noticed and be given the opportunity to become the next big thing in music!

Maximize Their Email List

Our Tips on How to be Successful at Email Marketing

by Email MarketingMusic Marketing

Sending emails to a devoted audience is an excellent way to update and keep in touch with them. It strengthens the connection between you and your supporters. However, you cannot just send out some random emails that are not meaningful in any way.

If you are sending out low-quality content, you might end up losing your audience instead. That being said, it is crucial to know how to make an effective list if you want your email marketing efforts to be successful.

Here are three tips:

1 – Draft a story

In the music industry, playing an instrument and singing is the bare minimum. After all, what’s the point of making music if there’s no one to listen? It’s crucial to engage and interact with your audience in order to keep them interested and willing to listen to what you have to offer. One way to do this is to tell a story.

When you tell your fans about things that happen off-stage, it makes them feel more connected to you. Getting personal is a great way to hook people to stick around. This strategy is similar to that used by movie and television show producers. Having the actors and actresses engage and share the details of their lives is a fantastic way to entertain the audience and draw them in.

Try to tell a story in every single email that you send out. Each newsletter should have a different one without too much repetition. People want to read new things, not tales that have already been told. If you are wondering what to write about, just write about your confusion! This shows how honest and genuine your message is – your fans will always appreciate it.

The purpose of doing this to connect with your audience. Try to avoid selling your music or merchandise during this stage. Instead, get up close and personal by showing people who you are and what you’re inspired by. You can even write a story about your favourite childhood stuffed animal!

2 – Show your appreciation to your fans

Those who subscribe to your newsletter are the people who love your music and want to keep up with what you’re doing. They might or might not be new to you, but it is essential for you to thank them for the support.

This can easily be done with the help of an automated-response bot that thanks them for subscribing. There is no need to make everything professional. Try to choose playful words that will make your new subscriber smile!

In your thank you email, there’s nothing wrong with including a Call-to-Action such as “Like us on Facebook” or “Follow us on Twitter.” Nevertheless, you should be aware that hard-selling does not a good first impression make. When you compose an email that emphasizes selling, your fans will not feel as appreciated.

3 – Create high-quality content

Although it is true that any number of little things can be made into stories, it is still crucial to know what type of content you want to write about. Brainstorm the ideas that you want to include in your newsletter. Any random story might work for some people. However, it is still better to have a particular concept for your content to keep it consistent.

Remember – sending emails is more intimate than posting on social media. This is like having a one-on-one conversation with your fans individually. You need to give them high-quality content to assure them that you are worth following. The last thing you want is to disappoint your number one supporters!

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

Like this article? Check out this one on building an email marketing list.

How Musicians Can Maximize Their Email List - Our Guide

How Musicians Can Maximize Their Email List – Our Guide

by Email MarketingMusic Marketing

Getting your fans to sign up for your email newsletters is the first step in convincing them to buy your albums and records. The first thing to remember is that most people don’t want to have spam messages clogging their inbox. Therefore, it’s crucial for you to respect your fans and value the trust they give you when they decide to sign up for newsletters from you. Temper down the promotional content and focus on delivering relevant and exciting information.

Not only should you aim to increase the number of people on your email list, but you have to ensure that your fans continue their subscription with you. They will not subscribe or continue subscribing if the email content you put out is exactly the same as what you publish on your Facebook page. This is why creating and sending valuable content is crucial for your email strategy’s success. Here are four things that you can do to make each email count for your subscribers:

1. Add a personal touch and maintain sincerity

Referring to yourself in the third person in your emails can make it seem like you are not the one actually writing those messages. Even if the content is interesting and engaging, subscribers may feel that the content is inauthentic and ghost-written. It could also be viewed as machine-generated spam meant as a cheap promotion for you.

Rather than come off as aloof, write sincerely. There are things that you can better write yourself than have someone else ghost-write it for you. Write as if you are telling a friend your story: your thoughts and feelings as you pursue your music career, your funny stories or embarrassing moments, your techniques or inspirations, and even some of the childhood memories you want them to know are great ideas. This way, you will be adding a personal touch to your emails that your fans will appreciate as a sincere effort to reach out to them.

2. Offer exclusive content

When you have established rapport with your subscribers, you will be able to offer content exclusive to your most loyal fan base. While you can send big news such as tour dates or a new album or song releases, it is unique content that will keep them subscribing to you. This does not have to be a time-consuming effort as you can use the content you are already creating to give your subscribers exclusive or early access.

For example, you can change the privacy settings of a video you are uploading on Youtube so that only people with the direct link can view it. Embed the exclusive link on the emails you are going to send to your subscribers and tell them that they get to have premium access to your videos. Then you can just change the privacy settings of the video to “public” after a few days.

3. Get your subscribers’ feedback

One of the best things about email marketing is that you can use it to gather direct feedback from your fans. Instead of using email to blast generic, one-sided communication that only requires subscribers to passively read what they receive, use email as a way to engage directly with your fans. Getting their feedback on your songs will help make your fans feel as if they have become a part of your career development, thereby deepening their devotion to you.

You can ask them to reply to your email for responses. Alternatively, you can make a Google Form asking for their feedback on specific questions. Include the link to the Google Form on your email. Google will gather the responses and will show you these immediately in your Google Drive. After you get their feedback, email them back expressing your gratitude for helping you improve your performance or for contributing to the development of your songs, titles, albums, or other fan products.

4. Go ahead, surprise them

Take your exclusive content to the extra level. Surprise your subscribers by sharing with them how and why a song or album is composed as it was. You can post a photo of a song’s music score sheet on social media while you can tell your email subscribers an interesting fact or story related to the song. After all, songs are a mirror of the self and of the society you live in.

Chances are that your fans are wondering where your lyrics and music came from. You can also share videos of bloopers on your email list or tell them about the problems you faced when you were making the song. While you can use social media for public announcements, you can use email for more personal surprises.

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

What to Know Before You Upload Music on Spotify

What to Know Before You Upload Music on Spotify

by Music MarketingSpotify

A music career is a dream for many people, young and old alike. Nowadays, there are so many platforms on which you can showcase your talent and become famous. One of the platforms that you should consider putting yourself on is Spotify.

One of the best things about this platform is that there are no contracts or record deals that you have to go through. By uploading your music on Spotify, millions of people will get to listen to what you have created and follow your artist page. If your music starts spreading, you might even be invited to sign a record contract with a huge music label! If you aren’t sure about the prospects of Spotify, here are a few things that you need to know before uploading your music:

You have to start by creating an artist page

Although you might already have a Spotify account, you will need to create your own artist page before uploading any music. A private account is different from a public page. If you have an artist name, it is essential not to skip this step. This is because if you do become popular from the music you upload on this platform, people will automatically associate you with your artist name. Staying consistent with your name will reduce the chances of people getting confused.

On your page, there must be an updated version of your profile picture. It is recommended that you update your bio and image on the regular. Whether you just dyed or cut your hair, it doesn’t hurt to upload a new profile photo. If you have your own website or merch store, make sure that you include those links to your Spotify artist page to increase traffic to them too.

You should connect your page with other services

Once you have set up your artist page, it is time to connect it to other digital services. First off, you need to look into which services work with Spotify. Some of the platform’s partnerships include Songkick, Ticketmaster, Merchbar, and Eventbrite.

These services are all a part of the music industry and chances are that you may use them from time to time. If you book gigs, it is a good idea to sync Ticketmaster or Eventbrite to your artist page. Selling your music and merchandise is also possible on Spotify. Just sync the relevant services to your page, and you’re all set!

You do not have to spend a dime

Having an artist page on Spotify is absolutely free for everyone. You won’t have to pay anything for the service. All you have to do is get famous! You are free to upload your own music on the platform. Spotify also allows you to promote your personal merchandise without charging fees.

You should not expect lots of money from Spotify

Everyone knows that Youtube pays people who upload videos on their site. Of course, the amount depends on the number of views they get. However, this is not the case for Spotify. Sure, you may get a small amount of money, but the pay can be practically negligible. The platform pays up to $0.0084 for every stream that you get.

This means you make approximately $8 when you get a thousand streams. Moreover, this tiny amount of money does not go straight to your bank account. It goes to the music holder first. Then, it will be split among artists, writers, music producers, and record labels.

Spotify may not be a good place to try generating revenue from your music. However, it is a fantastic way to get your name out there and encourage people to listen to your music.

Like this article? We’ve written a comprehensive guide on Spotify Playlisting.

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

Five Marketing Strategies to Consider as a Musician

Five Marketing Strategies to Consider as a Musician

by Music Marketing

They say that music heals the soul. It can bring out the deep emotions you hold inside, making you feel the sadness, the joy, and the pain with much more intensity. Music is a wonderful thing that can soothe you when you are overwhelmed and celebrate with you when you are at your highest. Through music, you are able to tell stories about the unspeakable pain, warmth, and joy you feel. Some people even resort to music when they feel like no one else truly understands.

As a musician, you want to make sure your emotions are perfectly conveyed through the songs you write. After all, you are a listener as much as you are a music maker.

If you are an established music artist, you already have a certain genre that you stick to and a specific target audience that likes what you produce. However, your popularity will not always be at a high. There are times when other songs come out and other musicians catch the eye of your loyal listeners. Given this, you may need to set a strategy in place if you want your game to be known. Here are a few strategies that may be helpful:

1 – Get your fans involved

It isn’t too difficult to establish a connection with your fans. In fact, you have probably already done it. Getting them involved, on the other hand, is a completely different level. Consider getting a gig at a local venue and having a jam session where some of your fans can get to sing along with you. That will give them a great opportunity that they’re sure to love you for!

2 – Throw a special gig

Playing at your average concert is not enough. Sometimes it’s a good idea to plan a special musical gig that is nothing like your go-to venue or play at a local show in a club downtown. Consider looking for an unconventional spot as your next venue. Why not put together an intimate acoustic show at an art gallery or a rock show along the beach?

3 – Host free giveaways

One of the best ways to keep your fans excited about you and your music as well as to further grow your following is by hosting free giveaways. Who doesn’t like free stuff? The novelty is even more pronounced when these valuable freebies come from their singing idol and bear a trademark of their musical icon. This is a great way to market yourself as a musician.

4 – Experiment musically

Chances are that you’ve been sticking to a particular genre and are known for a certain musical taste. But what if you incorporate a few tweaks here and there? Without necessarily losing your identity as a musician, you can incorporate the current fads to your musical genre so you won’t be left behind. This keeps you on par with other musicians in the industry and ensures that people are always interested in what you have to say (or sing). It’s always a good idea to always experiment and reinvent yourself. That being said, don’t feel like you have to become someone who you’re not. Staying true to your musical core is more than possible, even with a few trendy incorporations here and there.

5 – Collaborate with other bands

There are quite a number of great artists out there. It’s best to collaborate with other musicians to showcase your talents and excite the music industry all over again. This is one good way to get fans of other artists to join your own following or to get your follower base excited about your musical evolution through collaborations with other artists.

// Wrapped Up

There’s much more to do as an artist if you think that you’ve lost the spark and need a boost to your musical career to keep it going strong. Apart from what we’ve discussed, you can host a game and provide prizes to your fans, create a podcast, publish YouTube covers, and try many other things to keep your name afloat. Before you implement a marketing strategy, however, make sure that you identify your target audience and what they want. By doing so, you are being smart about your marketing efforts and ensuring that they will pay off. Who knows? With some smart marketing tactics, you may very well find yourself with more fans than ever before!

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

Keeping Your Fans in the Know With Email Marketing - Our Guide

Keeping Your Fans in the Know With Email Marketing – Our Guide

by Music Marketing

Sending out emails about your new releases or gigs isn’t too difficult. Keeping your fans in the know while you are working on something new, however, can be a little bit harder. To maintain your fanbase and keep them excited for your new releases, it is essential to create a list of emails that can automatically be sent to all of your fans.

Although you may not have new songs or events to promote quite yet, you need to update your fans and never abandon them. If you don’t know where to begin, here is how to keep your fans in the know with the help of email:

Plan and write 30 emails

Some people can compose 30 emails in a single day, but some draw the line at one or two. There’s nothing wrong with that. Avoid putting too much pressure on yourself and take your time. In fact, you don’t even have to write all 30 emails. Consider getting your bandmates to help you with the task. Just distribute the work and collaborate as a team. Before you start writing, however, you need to have a plan and determine the topics that you will need to cover. Here is a basic guide for your 30 emails:

Write about the beginning of your album – 10 emails

Since this is the first phase of the update, you need to introduce the fans to what you are currently working on. You can make them feel interested by choosing your favourite songs and writing a couple of paragraphs about the story behind the lyrics, the process of recording, or the inspiration of the tune. One email should cover a story about a single song, which means that 10 emails will cover 10 songs. At the end of every email, link them to the platform that you use to sell your music so that your fans are encouraged to purchase the songs.

Write about personal stories – 10 emails

This is the part where you tell your fan base about little life stories that you have never told in public before. Sprinkle in a few little secrets that aren’t public knowledge or moments in the past that made you who you are. These stories will make the fans feel more connected to you and continue to support you. If you have any past stories that inspired you to write your songs, make sure that you tell your fans. As always, don’t forget to link the singles at the end of the email!

Write about touring – 5 emails

You will have to think of past tours and write about the things that you miss. Sharing some stories about the last tour will help prepare you and your fans for the upcoming tour. This is the perfect time to provide information and sell tickets to your fans. Let them know about the impending tour and hype them to attend the event. You may excite them by attaching personal photos and little videos snippets about the tour in your emails.

Write about the fans’ thought – 5 emails

After the releases or gigs, it is important to ask for opinions and feedback from your fans. Ask them what they love and what you can do to improve. There are a number of ways to do this. One is by creating a poll so that it is easy for you to see everyone’s overall opinion without having to read plenty of emails. This is also an opportunity to ask what do they want you to do in the future.

When you have all of the emails ready, it is time to automate them with the help of an online service. You may have to pay monthly fees, but the cost will be well worth it in the end. Using a program will help you immensely as you will not need to send the emails manually.

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

Our Tips For Musicians to Get the Most out of Their Email Lists

Our Tips For Musicians to Get the Most out of Their Email Lists

by Music Marketing

When it is used well, email can be one of the best methods of encouraging more people to buy your music and to strengthen your fanbase’s devotion to you. Unlike jostling for attention in the overcrowded arena of social media, jumping right into people’s inboxes is a more convenient and target-focused way of promoting your recent album.

However, people consider their email addresses as private information that they wouldn’t just give out to anyone. By consenting to have their email addresses included on your email list, they are trusting that you’re going to send them only valuable and interesting information instead of spammy material. Abusing that trust will make them unsubscribe from you.

The fear of getting unsubscribed from discourages musicians from employing email marketing. However, there is actually a way to overcome this fear and ensure that your subscriber fans will remain trustful of you by only sending them content they find valuable and relevant. The first step to overcome this fear is organizing your email list.

Why should you organize your list into segments?

If you want email marketing to work well for you, you need to be sending messages or content to your fans or industry connections would want or need to see. You can set up different lists of recipients regardless of the email service you are using. Email lists are usually organized into two groups: one list contains the email addresses of your fans and the other contains the email addresses of your networks in the music industry. Your industry connections wouldn’t want to receive your marketing communications; they would simply consider it to be nuisance junk clogging their inboxes. In the same vein, fans wouldn’t appreciate receiving messages that pitch your upcoming gig to venue owners, so it would be best for the fans’ emails and music industry colleagues’ emails to be grouped into separate lists.  

Segmenting your list will help send emails that your subscribers want to receive

Let’s now focus on your fans list. You can actually further subdivide this list into three groups, each receiving only a distinct kind of marketing communication different from the other: leads, fans, and buyers.

Leads are people who just recently joined your email list for reasons such as wanting to receive a free song or an extended play. They might also have been enticed to subscribe to your list after having read your blog and are interested in following and being notified of your new posts. These kinds of people may not want to buy your music yet so sending them a message informing them of an upcoming sales event will probably just annoy them.

It would be better to further deepen interest in your pieces or album by sharing content about these things. Sending them interesting feature stories of your life or music career can also work and you may include in one of these stories one interesting song for free which includes a subtle but inviting link that would lead them to a site where they can buy the full album. You may ask them for their feedback after a few days or a week while inviting them to buy it.

In contrast to leads, fans are those who have been subscribed to your list for a longer time. They are also the ones who are more consistent in opening, reading and clicking through the links in your emails, and you can identify who they are based on your email analytics. They are also those people who have responded to surveys or participated in a contest you organized.

While some fans may be inclined to purchase your album, others prefer just listening to it regularly. Instead of sending them free music just like you would with leads or offers to buy the more expensive music packages, it would be more expedient for fans to receive a link to the digital download of your album.

The buyers are your most reliable subscribers. They are the ones who have actually bought something from you such as a signed album or a souvenir like a poster or a shirt. They are most likely people who would buy your newest album releases, and they can even be interested in making further purchases if you give them to have the opportunity of doing so.

The best emails that you can send your buyers are those messages that would offer these fans the chance to take advantage of a pre-order sale hours before your album is open for sale to everybody else. In addition, you may try offering deluxe or limited edition bundles that have bonus tracks or content. You can also offer them albums that come with a signed T-shirt or a discount. This is a great way to show your appreciation for your dedicated fans!

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

Social Media Vs. Email Marketing For Musicians

Social Media Vs. Email Marketing For Musicians

by Email MarketingSocial Media

There is no denying that social media is one of the most powerful tools for marketers everywhere. That being said, when it comes to the music industry, one has to wonder if social media is really the most effective platform. This article will address this question in detail.

Why Social Media Is Not Working Out For You

As social media has become more and more popular as a marketing channel, certain rules have changed for business pages and profiles. Now, you can either post for free and engage a small number of people among your group of followers, or you can pay for more exposure and visibility.

Imagine this: you have invested a considerable amount of money, time, and effort in video shooting and professional photography. You have spent hours after hours perfecting the sound and lighting, editing the video, and making sure that your pictures are flawless. You finally uploaded them on your social media, expecting a wave of likes, comments, and share. After waiting for a while, your expectations are far from being met, and now you are only left with disappointment.

The desperation that you feel may push you to turn to another option: pay Facebook for more reach. That is because you know full well that posting on social media without paying is not doing anything for you. The next thing you know, you are playing a concert without an audience. Now, the question is: what is the solution?

What Can You Do?

You may be tempted to give in and spend your money on Facebook to reach your audience. After all, you know that advertising almost always comes with a price, and perhaps you think that this is an investment worth making. However, there is another effective method that you may have forgotten about: email marketing. This may come as a surprise to you, but email marketing is much more effective than social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. In fact, many successful artists are already using email marketing to promote their music and reach their fans. Let’s take a closer look at how social media and email marketing differ.

Which One Should You Go For?

Just like any business, your online presence as an artist is crucial. You need to be able to garner more fans, and social media is a great place to do that. Although social media is a useful tool for audience expansion, they should not be the only channel of marketing. Instead, you should take advantage of email marketing.

When people give out their email address, it means that they already expect your emails. Email users are more tolerant when it comes to promotional content than social media users. As the primary purpose of being on social media is to connect with friends and browse through posts, not searching for promotions or advertisement of any kind. Email users, on the other hand, are likely to set their mind on doing business that is not of a social nature. This means that people on email are more likely to be interested in your promotions than those who are scrolling through social media posts. The bottom line is that you should now start looking at how to do effective email marketing for your brand instead of relying on your social media alone.

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today.

The Best Tips For Sharing Music That All Professionals Should Know

The Best Tips For Sharing Music That All Professionals Should Know

by Music Marketing

How people access, listen to and share music has drastically changed over the past decade.

YouGov conducted a study that revealed that 42% of the UK population access music through CDs. However, for people aged 16-24, only 6% consumed their music through CDs.

Millennials and Generation Z-ers consume their music differently to the generations that have gone before. So if you tap into technology then surely you will be able to share your music with the world?

Not necessarily. You need to stay relevant and keep afloat in the ever-changing digital age. Keep reading to check out our top tips for professionals to share their music. 

11 Tips on How to Share Music, Grow Followers, Become Famous and Live the Dream

Breaking into the music industry is no easy feat. Luckily, we are on hand to help you. (But you will have to bring the talent, hard work, and dedication).

It can be argued that technology has made your promo life easier. There are so many ways you can share new releases with your fans. From music platforms such as Spotify and iTunes to promoting your latest music on your social media channels. 

But with so many options available, it can also be difficult to narrow down which ones are best for you and how you want to share music with the world. 

1. Regularly Gigging

Every good musician and band should be gigging. This is an essential part of how to share your music with new audiences.

Not only can you expect to grow your followers, but you can also start creating key relationships with local promoters and other musicians. 

78% of respondents, in the UK Live Music Census 2017, who identified as emerging artists revealed that they had performed in small music venues, bars, or pubs in the past 12 months.

Regularly gigging can help you create brand awareness – yes, you are a brand. Once you have enough of a name for yourself, you can also expect to start earning some money. 

Remember to promote your upcoming gigs on social media, on your website, on BandsinTown, or on Songkick. The more word you get out about your gigs the more people will come and support you. 

2. Marketing Yourself

Marketing yourself is much more than just posting regular updates about your upcoming events. Marketing yourself is all about seeing yourself as a business.

After all, you want to make a career from this right? This is your business, so treat it as one. Marketing is a key part of how you share music. 

Your fans are important, but in order to reach more and more people, you need to find someone with greater outreach.

This is where you start to build relationships with people who can promote your music. Think local radio channels, TV channels, people on YouTube with a lot of subscribers and followers.

Check out our music marketing tricks blog to learn more about how you can market your music.

3. Make It Easy for People to Find You

Having a professional music website and relevant social media channels are key when it comes to sharing music. 

The good news is you don’t have to be techy to create your own website. There are a number of platforms that allow you to effortlessly make your own website, such as WordPress or Squarespace. 

If you want a website tailored to music, why not check out Wix Music? Wix Music lets you sell your music and merch, promote gigs, share music to over 120 music channels and much more.

Social media is a must. It allows your fans to find out what you are up to, what new music you have and find out when you are next gigging.

You don’t have to crack into all the social media channels, just choose two or three that you can comfortably update regularly. 

Remember to keep it easy for your current and new fans to find you. Use the same name for all of your online presence. For example, if you use your band name on your website then use that name for your social media pages, too.

4. Regular Updates

There’s a lot that you need to regularly update, but it is all worth it. Make sure you are updating your website, social media channels, YouTube channel, and any other music platform that you use.

Having a blog is an excellent way to ensure you are regularly updating your website. It also is great content to share with your followers on social media.

Regularly updating your website ensures that your SEO ranking is better, that your fans know what you are up to, and also that you stay relevant online.

Social media is a tricky minefield; post too much and your fans might get irritated, whilst if you post too little then they will lose interest! You need to find a balance that works for you and your schedule.

Social media experts state that you should have a mix of promoting material and topical content.

So, if you are posting every day then maybe you would choose to promote yourself on Wednesday and Friday, and the rest of the week you post other content, such as blog posts and general chit-chat.

5. Focus on the Trending Music Platform

iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Pandora, Xbox Music, SoundCloud, Mixcloud, 8tracks, Tidal, Deezer…you get it. There are so many places you can share music. 

But you want to share new releases that can reach as many people as possible. So how do you do this? 

Don’t stretch yourself too thin, choose the platforms that you are most comfortable using and the ones that are most popular (especially for your type of music genre.) 

Trends come and go, so make sure you keep your eye on what music platform people are choosing for their music needs. YouTube has 1.5 billion users who are currently streaming music, so start there!

6. Spend Time Creating, or Updating, Your YouTube Channel

What do Justin Beiber, Shawn Mendes, James Bay, and The Weeknd all have in common? 

They were all found on YouTube. Originally, all these big names were struggling emerging artists looking to catch their break. Then BAM! They made it.

YouTube is a fantastic place to share music. A lot of your listeners use YouTube daily, so you must make sure your presence is strong.

What type of content should you upload? Share new releases, songs that you cover, sneak previews, and any exciting news that you want to share with your fans. 

Be sure to promote your YouTube videos on your social media channels, too.

7. Have a Mailing List

Mailing lists are a great chance to share news with your fans and followers. Building up relationships with your fans is key to succeeding as a musician.

When someone comes onto your website, make sure you have a place where they can sign up for your mailing list. 

The last thing you want is for them to leave your website and forget about you. A mailing list ensures that you can regularly communicate with your fans.

A great way to encourage people to sign up for your mailing list is by offering a freebie, in exchange for their email address of course. 

8. Explore New Territories 

Once you are comfortably juggling your social media, website and music platforms, why not be daring and see what else is available? 

Emerging artists have an exhaustive list of ways in which they can share music with new audiences. It just takes some research to find new sharing music platforms. 

Try Last.FM, Dozmia, or why not see if Reddit Music works for you?

Or if you only share your music on YouTube and Spotify, why not throw in another music platform and see if you can grow your fans with SoundCloud or iTunes?

9. Hashtags

Hashtags can help with your exposure, so make sure you are using relevant hashtags for your social media posts. 

Do a quick search to find out what kind of hashtags and social media posts other artists in your genre create. This will help you to learn about what is relevant.

Remember to be creative and playful with your hashtags.

Need some hashtag inspiration how about incorporating some of these in your next post: #MusicMonday #EmergingArtist #music #rock #pop #SingerSongwriter

10. Behind-the-Scenes

Capturing and sharing behind-the-scenes content and content that makes you look like a friendly human being is important. 

Yes, to successfully make it in the music industry you need a business head. But you also need to be relatable, so that fans want to listen to your music and share it with their friends.

About to play a gig? Take a selfie and post it on your social media channels. About to start recording some new songs? Record a video with a sneak preview for your fans.

Behind-the-scenes content is great for both topical or promotional social media posts. And it gives your fans a little more insight into who you are and what you are trying to achieve.

11. Find Yourself a Publicist

Once you have a growing fan-base it is a good idea to find a publicist who can help in growing your fans more. 

You might be doing everything you can possibly do to try and reach more people, but you might feel like your efforts are in vain. 

Sometimes asking for additional help is the best way to move forward. It means you can focus on the music, whilst your publicist focuses on how to share your music with new fans. 

Before diving in, make sure you do the research and be sure that you and your music are ready for some professional PR. A music publicist can’t perform miracles and will need you to contribute information and music that they can promote. 

How to Share Music

Music distribution has changed a lot in recent years due to technology. The way people listen to, share and interact with music is different from how they used to consume it a decade ago. 

The easiest way to share music is undoubtedly online. But that doesn’t mean that you need to forget about the people who still buy CDs or the people who love to see live music.

Everybody enjoys listening to music in different ways. So to answer the question of how to share music, you need to know your target audience. Do your fans mainly stream and download your music? Or do they enjoy buying physical copies of your music?

Keep Your Fans Updated

As you can see, there isn’t a quick fix or a one-fits-all solution for how to share your music. Pick and choose from the above list and find out what works best for you and your fans. 

A takeaway tip you need to always remember is: the music industry is constantly evolving and in order to stay relevant you need to be highly adaptable, embrace change and use effective communication to keep your fans updated.

Share music that matters to you in an easier way, with Promo.ly. Try out promo.ly for 7 days for FREE! Our Basic and Unlimited accounts offer a range of benefits.

Basic accounts are ideal for small record labels. And include all of these goodies:

  • – A free set-up
  • – Send up to 500 promo emails
  • – Anti-piracy watermarking
  • – 24-hour web support via email
  • – File storage

Whilst Unlimited accounts are ideal for established record labels. Customers with Unlimited accounts get to enjoy:

  • – A free set-up
  • – Send unlimited promo emails
  • – Anti-piracy watermarking
  • – 24-hour web support via email
  • – File storage

Your Music Matters 

Share music with your fans and followers in an easier way. Sign up now for your FREE Promo.ly trial. There are no contracts – so if you don’t like what we offer, then you can leave whenever you want.

PR Tips For Aspiring Musicians Our Guide

PR Tips For Aspiring Musicians [Our Guide]

by Music MarketingMusic Promotion

Navigating in the competitive music industry can be extremely stressful. Although it may seem like a good idea to hire a music publicist to help launch your career, there are certain things that you need to do first. For starters, you need to understand your goals as well as what your brand is all about so that you can establish a good marketing plan. Other things you need to think about are your websites, blogs, and perhaps most importantly, your social media. These will be the things that the media representatives look to first when you introduce yourself to them. In other words, you need to have a strong online presence before you think about your music PR. Once you have these things sorted out, you can go ahead and get yourself into the world of music PR! This article will tell you some tips you can follow so that you can be your own music publicist.

1. Provide Working Links

The first step is to reach out to editors and writers of blogs, podcasts, magazines, among others. The majority of writers prefer SoundCloud links while others may request that you submit an MP3 file or provide a Dropbox link. You may want to reach out to writers directly by sending your files to their email. However, keep in mind that these writers are already receiving a massive amount of submissions on a daily basis, and your email will most likely go straight to spam.

The best way is to have your album or EP on SoundCloud as a single playlist. Make sure to test the link first to ensure that the writers will be able to access your music. Write a short bio to put on your SoundCloud profile to showcase who you are and what your music is all about. Also, don’t forget to include all the available links to your website and social media channels. These may include the links to your iTunes, Amazon, or Spotify.

2. Come Up With a Great Pitch

One thing you need to understand is that music bloggers and journalists hear new pitches every day. If you write a long essay about how groundbreaking your music is, nobody bothers to read it. You want to come up with the right words to describe your music in a way that will immediately grab the reader’s attention.

Start off by choosing a few genres that fit your music as well as a few artists that you think are similar to you. This will help you get a better idea of what your music sounds like. Keep in mind that you need to approach this with an outsider’s perspective so that there are no biases involved. It is easy to confuse your music style with your idol’s. Queen’s might be your inspiration, but pitching your music as comparable to theirs might not be such a good idea. You want to describe your music as accurately as possible. Otherwise, you may risk attracting the wrong type of audience, and you are more likely to receive backlash for claiming to be something you are not.

3. Write a Great Signature Story

A signature story, or a musician bio, is one of the most important parts of your music PR along with your music. A powerful signature story should be interesting and personal. The key is to create a story that will draw in potential fans who find your story relatable. The beginning of your bio should be about what your music sounds like. That is because most writers are too busy to read the whole thing, and so they can take the first few sentences from your bio and use them in the write-up. Of course, writing a great signature story is not easy, which is why you may need to hire a bio writer to help you with the task.

Promoly is a music promotion platform for musicians. If you’re looking for a music PR service to deliver music to your mailing list, get in touch to see how we can help today!