Making music is great, but it is impossible to make a real living at it if you have no way of selling it and getting a lot of people to listen to it. This can seem like an impossibly daunting task in the beginning, and it leaves many musicians wondering how to even begin promoting their music.
There are several ways to promote your music, including short-form videos, streaming platforms, editorial playlists, social media, live performances, promotional agents and agencies, paid advertising, collaborations, making music for influencers, selling beats online, and through word-of-mouth.
There are several effective ways to promote your music today. You need only find a promotion method that works well for you and your music and a way of promotion that connects you with your audience well.
With that in mind, let’s explore some good ways to promote your music, how effective these processes are, and why promotion is so important.
12 Ways To Promote Your Own Music
The music business is intense and challenging, and there is an immense amount of competition in the space. However, if you know how to get your music noticed, it makes the process far easier.
Promoting your music can feel impossible in the beginning, but once you find ways to promote your music that work well for you and that sell your music well, there is no stopping the ball when it starts rolling.
There are several effective ways to promote your music, especially in the age of tech and social media that we live in now. Some ways are more obvious than others, and some are more effective than others, but it is critical to try out as many as you can to find success.
Once you find one or more avenues that work, you can double down and increase your following even faster.
Let’s explore some of the best ways to promote your music well.
1. Create Short-Form Video Content
A method that has been proven to be highly effective for many independent music artists is to promote their music by creating short-form video content for TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and other short-form video platforms.
This type of content is so effective for promoting music because it is shown to a very large number of people very quickly, and the music can be embedded in the video in a way that makes it accessible to whoever sees the video by simply clicking on it.
Many artists have created short-form videos, music videos, sketches, bits, and performances on these platforms and use their songs as the focal point.
When the videos are seen by many people, if they enjoy the song, they are likely to click on the song link, which will lead them to your own social media pages or your music on streaming platforms, which will result in your song being played and listened to.
This starts a snowball effect as the song generates momentum. This momentum, combined with the momentum provided by the success of the videos, is a shockingly effective way to promote music successfully and has resulted in many artists finding their way in the music industry.
This method also ensures that your music reaches your target demographic, as the algorithms used for these platforms will show the content to viewers who will enjoy it and find it relevant, which further increases the chance of success.
This method can take some time, and it does require creativity, patience, and good video-making skills, but when it does work, it works exceptionally well.
2. Get Your Music On Every Streaming Platform
Music streaming platforms are the easiest and best way to listen to music in the modern world, and there are many millions of people who listen to their music this way internationally. Spotify alone has more than 400 million active users.
This means that getting your music onto these platforms is critical for promoting it. The second your music is on the large streaming platforms, the chances of someone finding your music increase drastically.
Streaming platforms constantly recommend new music to people who the algorithms think will enjoy it, so be sure to tag your music correctly when you upload it.
If a few people find your music, it will very quickly be recommended to more people, and the effect will increase rapidly, promoting your music well and showing it to a lot of people very quickly.
3. Use Editorial Playlists On Streaming Platforms
Every major streaming platform has curated editorial playlists that its users are given access to. These are trusted playlists created by the streaming service for specific activities, genres, and occasions and are listened to by millions of users.
This means that getting your music onto these platforms can be an excellent way for new people to find it.
There are several ways to get onto curated editorial playlists, but the most simple is to submit your songs for specific playlists via the artist portals of the streaming services. If your songs are up to the standard, they will be added to the list and instantly appear on the devices of millions of people all at once.
(You can learn how to get on various Spotify playlists here).
4. Develop a Good Social Media Presence
Another good way to promote your music is to develop a good social media presence.
Social media is a powerful tool used by independent professionals from all professions for promotion and exposure to large numbers of people.
These platforms all have paid ads that you can employ, but even better is that using the platform is entirely free. Post consistently, be active on the platforms, put your music on it, and let your profile be spread through the system until it reaches as many people as possible.
Social media can be very effective for promoting music, but you must know how to optimize the process, and it requires significant time, effort, and consistency to do well.
However, once you have established a solid presence online, social media becomes far easier to manage, so the sooner you begin the promotion process, the better.
5. Participate In Live Performances
We live in a world where tech is the greatest influence in our lives, but the reality is that people still love live music, and one of the very best and most effective ways to get your music to any audience is to perform live shows.
Live performances are an excellent way to get people to listen to your music, and the local music scene is an excellent way to promote your music in your own country.
Put on some memorable live performances, and people are sure to want to listen to your music. when they do, it will be easier to promote your music to other listeners, and your local audience will become the springboard from which you can grow your larger audience and influence.
Never neglect live performances, as it gives you an opportunity to get live feedback from listeners and are a good way to connect with your audience, which never stops being important.
6. Hire A Promotional Agent
This method is somewhat old-school, but it is still very effective, as hiring a professional who knows what they are doing is always better than just taking stabs in the dark, hoping that something will catch.
The truth is that promotional agents are well worth the money if you find a good one. There are several freelance agents who are willing to do once-off work for good prices, and there are several well-established agents and agencies who can cover more ground in a month than you can in a year.
If you have the disposable budget for it, hiring a promotional agent is a good way to promote your music well and reach as many people as possible.
7. Use A Promotional Service
Promotional services are similar to agents, but there are more focused on broader areas of promotion.
This method can be very effective, or it can fail completely. The trick is to find the right agency that knows how to work with your type and style of music.
Using an agency can be a great tool for promotion but be careful who you trust with your future. There are many agencies that are more ruthless with their clients than with their audiences.
You can learn more about DistroKid (and what it can do for you) here.
8. Use Paid Advertising
Another possible route for promotion is to use paid advertising of various kinds.
This is not an encouragement to place an ad in a local newspaper, but rather to pay for adverts in online content such as sponsored segments in videos, paid ads on social media, Google ads that will promote your website, and even adverts done by influencers.
This may not be the noblest of ways to promote your music, but the reality is that this promotion format works well, or there would not be such a big online market for it.
The internet runs on ads, and throwing your music into the pot is nothing new. This endeavor can be expensive and challenging, but if you can place the right ad at the right place at the right time, it can be extremely effective for promoting your music.
9. Collaborate With Other Musicians
A good way to promote your music is to collaborate with musicians who are more successful than you are.
This method may seem impossible, but the truth is that musicians are very likely to receive other musicians very well, and many good-hearted musos will jump at the opportunity to help another up-and-coming musician if they like their music and enjoy working with them.
If you are a nice enough person and your music is very good, then approaching the right artist for collaboration may be a very successful method of promotion. Making a song with a bigger artist will reach a bigger audience and create an instant fanbase.
This is among the most effective ways to promote your music if you can do it, and it is recommended for all musicians to try it if they can.
10. Make Music For Content Creators And Influencers
If you are good at making music for specific genres and formats, it is worthwhile approaching content creators and influencers to make music for them in exchange for credit within their content.
This method can be great for content creators as their videos and content will not be demonetized due to copyright infringement, and your music will be shown to a very large audience in very little time.
Some influencers and content creators, such as Colin Furze (who has 12 million subscribers on his YouTube channel alone), encourage bands and musicians to submit songs for use on his channel for this purpose.
This can be an excellent way to introduce your music to millions of people all at once and can be shockingly effective for music promotion.
11. Sell Instrumentals And Beats Online
Selling instrumental music and beats online through beat directories and other platforms is a good way to firmly establish yourself as an artist. If your name is credited in someone else’s track as the creator of the music or the beats, then everyone who listens to the song and sees the credit will be introduced to you as an artist.
There are many high-level musicians who use beats made by other people, and if you can find your way into this area of the industry as a composer for other musicians, it is an excellent way to grow yourself as a musician and promote your music very quickly.
12. Never Forget About Word-Of-Mouth
The final way to promote your music is to remember word-of-mouth promotion.
This may seem inconsequential, but it is important to never neglect word-of-mouth, as people are far more likely to engage with and enjoy something that is recommended to them by people that they know and trust.
If you can reach even a small number of people, but your music is really good, then those people are very likely to recommend your music to their friends and people that they know, which can lead to exponential growth for your music.
Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool for promotion, and you should always try to make music that is so good that people cannot help but recommend it to others.
Conclusion
Promoting your music can feel challenging, but once you find the avenue of promotion that works well for you, the process becomes simple and effective.
At the end of it, be sure that your music is good, put it out in as many places as you can, and use the tools that are in your hands to promote it, and you will find that it will begin to make traction quickly.
If you are looking to join a band or network with other musicians, you can learn how to find local bands here.
