So you’ve finished creating your next big release, but maybe you’re not entirely sure how you want to spread the word… We’ve compiled a few suggestions to get those creative juices flowing in order to make your next release a great success.
How to Advertise Your Latest Release Online
Know Your Audience and Where They Are
You may think you know your fans more than anyone, but there are some great free tools available to you that may enlighten you a bit on some key locations and targeting options you might have overlooked. Facebook and Instagram insights are two of these valuable tools that can help you reign in on your most-active audience demographics, from age to location to time of engagement and more.
Another valuable tool is Spotify similar artists, located on your artist profile. These similar artists are suggested based on what fans of your music are also listening to on the platform. Utilize this data to help you grow your audience from similar artists. Lastly, focus the majority of your budget on your most-active audience, you’ll find that loyal fans will do a lot of advertising for you when provided the right information, the share button is only a click away.
Be Creative
Many advertising platforms require more than just your latest video or song in order to create an advertisement, it’s best to be creative when creating these assets. Think like your fans, how would they like to be told about your latest release or shown your latest video? Society has shifted to an instant gratification biome where you need to grab their attention in as little as 3 seconds before you’ve lost it. Always make sure you’re putting your strongest asset forward to get the best results from your investment.
Creativity doesn’t end with the assets, you can also be creative with the type of ads you use to present your message. An example is utilizing Facebook’s event response ads to create an ‘event’ for your new release date where you can drive traffic to this event page and provide them with information about your release, set up a watch/listening party, or even perform a Q&A.
Don’t Get Too Big for Your Britches
Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Many artists tend to think they need to cover all the advertising platforms and make sure their message is absolutely everywhere, regardless of having only a few hundred bucks to make that possible. Find your top 3 (socials & dsps) and streamline your focus there. You want to make sure you’re advertising in the locations where the bulk of your fans are, not everywhere and anywhere your fans might be (unless you have the budget to do so). If you’re rolling in cash, however, unleash the beast!
Watch it Like a Hawk
Advertising isn’t like the Ronco Rotisserie, you can’t just set it and forget it. You want to make sure once your ads go live, you keep an eye on the spending, adjust your ad scheduling, add/remove targeting from your audience, etc. – all to help improve your results. The last thing you want to do is spend your full budget only to realize after the fact that it was a wasted effort because you didn’t effectively optimize your ads accordingly throughout the life of the campaign.
Build Upon Your Foundation
Once you’ve got a few campaigns under your belt, don’t let that data go to waste. Utilize the converting users in new audiences for future ads, create re-marketing lists from engagements and share new information in past event pages.
We know this all can be overwhelming, but once you get a hang of it, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this sooner. Remember, we have a dedicated team here at Streaming Promotions to help you out if you ever hit a wall or feel you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.
In the ever-growing world of entertainment publicity, reaching thousands of listeners on your upcoming releases require a unique plan. Until your brand is recognized worldwide (i.e. Beyonce), it simply doesn’t make sense to spend the majority of your budget on recording new assets just to release them to the public without a solid strategy. Even so, a plan made up of basic press pitching might not always do the trick to build the worthwhile and engaged fanbase you’re looking for. Thinking out of the box is becoming more important in every quarter as we progress into the age of digital streaming and internet consumption. As a listener, a few Fridays contain enough new music releases to last a lifetime, so how can yours make the cut?
We’ve put together a list of eye-catching tactics to build buzz and excitement around your new release.
1) Memorabilia
This begins with another incredibly important part of music marketing: developing a cohesive brand. Actively participating in the way your fans view your band as a whole is a required stepping stone before you tackle this marketing strategy. Memorabilia in this instance is something that’s brand-specific but still wide-reaching. Developing these assets starts with remembering memorabilia that influenced your childhood. Did you have a sweet set of Hot Wheels with crazy turns? Do you wish you still had that glitter lipgloss from your first school dance? Gather ideas from yourself and your band, create a list, and then brainstorm together how you can turn those ideas into marketing products using your brand instead of releasing yet another t-shirt with your logo on it. Besides being fun and interesting, most of these things become relics that fans will hold onto for a very long time.
A few great examples of bands harnessing this method are the band Sleep On It creating pillowcases that read “Sleep On It” with their logo, Dance Gavin Dance releasing a “Strawberry Milkshake” limited release beer, The Story So Far creating a viewfinder with photos taken by the band, and the list goes on.
2) Limited Edition Prints/Presses
It’s no secret that vinyl has made a triumphant comeback. For many artists, vinyl is the only type of physical copies they’ll release. Some even go as far as releasing cassettes for a real pre-2000’s feeling. Just by themselves, vinyl and cassettes are great ways to release an album since they clearly outlive any other music trend, so use that to your advantage and create limited editions and/or collectors editions! For those who already love to collect vinyl and cassettes, different sleeves or tape designs is enough reason to buy the same album twice. This strategy can be used in different instances, like in a pre-order bundle, a deluxe post-release album, a “B” side album, etc.
3) Harness Your Local Scene
Remember when we mentioned Dance Gavin Dance crafting up a limited beer? Imagine doing that for your band, with your favorite local brewery or your favorite sandwich shop. Sound cool? It’s actually not the hardest thing to do but requires a long process and a lot of dedication. Many local-run establishments love to support local bands that give back to their community in exciting ways like this! Have an elevator pitch ready and ask to speak to the general manager so you can explain why naming a turkey melt after your band Stale Bread would boost their sales and help promote your upcoming album. Brewing a specific beer involves alcohol laws and actual brewing knowledge (to an extent) but most local breweries will go for it if you can promise the product will move off shelves. Another way to harness your local scene is asking record stores to stock your upcoming release in a local section. If they don’t have one, pitch one!
4) Get Fans and Friends Involved
Your close friends and fans are obviously your biggest supporters, and they most likely would love to be involved in your band’s success. Ask your friends to help spread the word about your new album by hosting giveaways, build a scavenger hunt that involves clues leading to free release show tickets, create a drinking game that mocks your band, hire your friend to photograph your band, or commission an artist friend to create the album art or a new shirt. There’s nothing better than involving your other creative peers to promote each other’s work!
5) Give Your Release Show a Twist
Most album releases are complimented by a release show, where you perform your new music live for the first time. With the right amount of promotion and ticket sales, this is an exciting way to throw a party for all your hard work! Consider hosting the show at a non-traditional music venue. Years back, Carousel Kings played the first (and last, for good and hysterical reasons) at a Haunted Mill during the Halloween season for a truly unforgettable show. I can’t remember the songs they played but I will never forget that show. Giving your fans a reason to talk about your show, especially your album release show, can improve your future crowd numbers and build buzz.
Part of succeeding in the music industry is continuing to learn every single day. Being a “jack of all trades” is the norm in today’s connected globe, where all information about pretty much anything can be accessed via the internet. The best thing you can possibly do for your band is to learn about every aspect of the music industry and how you can use it for your advantage. With these branding ideas, you have no excuse to not promote your album as hard as you can!
Want to learn how to build a fanbase and improve your skills as an artist from one of the best in the business? Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop offers all of that in their weekly Wednesday workshop. Here’s how to secure your spot for free.
Reserve Your Spot for Modern Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop
Here’s the rundown…
Founder of Modern Musician and host of the Modern Musician Podcast, Michael Walker is hosting an in-depth “fanbase growth workshop” for artists who are ready to level up their music career, and thrive during these challenging times. In this workshop, he’s revealing some of their best techniques that are usually reserved for his $5000+ clients at Modern Musician. This is the first time he’s given away this information for free, and you don’t want to miss out on the valuable insights he has to offer.
“How do I get involved?”
Every Wednesday @ 3PM ET, they offer LIVE training in 3 main topics:
Artistic Identity: Hone in your music brand to give you clarity about who you are as an artist, so you can attract the best-fit audience who will love your music.
Thriving Fanbase: Set up your marketing so we can build your loyal fanbase based on your artistic identity and your strengths.
Revenue Multiplier: Create an automatic monetization system to fund your artist lifestyle so you don’t sacrifice your talent or lose touch with your musical identity.
If you’re interested in tuning in, click this link to register in one-click:
Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a “welcome pack” with all the resources needed to take part in this special, one-time event.
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Want to learn more?
In addition, you may have also heard about the Gold Artist Academy, Modern Musician’s flagship mentoring program. This program is a great resource for artists who are ready to truly commit and step up their game.
Learn more about the program, plus testimonials and additional details, right here.
It’s undeniable that TikTok has given many up and coming artists a chance at major exposure with its algorithm. As long as your music is on TikTok for you (and other creators) to use, you have the chance to promote yourself through challenges, trends and so much more. If you’re ready to promote your music on TikTok, here’s everything you need to know.
Back in 2019, we announced our partnership with TikTok which allows our clients to deliver their tracks onto TikTok for its millions of creators to use in their videos. This offers an amazing opportunity for our clients to spread their music through one of the most popular apps in the world, with us to guide them along.
In the meantime, think about what part of your track has the most potential for going viral. — That means 15 seconds of catchy, groovy greatness that you can imagine people singing or dancing along to. Don’t be afraid to dig into your back catalog to find songs that truly fit the bill. Oftentimes when one song goes viral, it may bring some of your other songs right up with it.
Hop On TikTok Trends
Every week, something new is trending on TikTok. Hell, it seems like something new has taken the platform by storm almost every day. Even if a trending challenge doesn’t necessary align with your brand, it’s still useful to get involved. If an unrelated video of yours goes viral, it may bring your other posts along for the ride.
Hopping on the latest trend is a great way to get seen by more people and blow up the engagement on your present and past posts. Whether you’re on the hunt for audio, effect or hashtag trends, there are tons of ways to find what’s popping off on TikTok. // To help you out, we wrote a whole post that gives you all the sneaky tips and tricks we know about how to find what’s trending.
Post Music Video Sneak Peeks
While you’re working on that new music video, take behind-the-scenes clips during the process. Even better, you can tease final cuts of the video by posting them as a Reel before the launch date. You can do this by using captions like, “Coming Soon… 👀” with the launch date worked in. You can even link to Spotify for presaves, YouTube premieres, or wherever else they can find your music once it comes out.
Create Your Own Challenges & Trends
If you want to go viral on TikTok, you’re going to have to get creative. The most popular challenges and trends on TikTok are lip syncing, dance routines and comedy type videos. That’s why it’s important to have songs on TikTok that are catchy enough to support these type of challenges.
Need some ideas?
If you hate dancing, you can tell your fans to create their own dances to your song and tag you on TikTok.
If you have a song with amazing lyrics, do a VoiceOver of you lip syncing along with the lyrics on screen.
Want fan engagement? Tell your audience to do covers of your song and repost them when they do.
Want to collaborate with others? Try the Duet, Stitch and Collaboration features.
Just how tagging other creatives can double your video’s reach, so can collaborations. Finding your niche is important in anything you do, as it helps engage a more loyal audience and helps you secure yourself in a more manageable, less saturated space. — Be sure to comment, like, share, duet, other artist’s work and encourage your followers/viewers to do the same.
Try Covers Of Your Song in Different Styles
One of my favorite trends that musicians like to do on TikTok is when they give new life to an existing song by creating new versions of it you would have never expected. For example, those videos captioned: “If my song, [blank] was a metal song” or “If my song, [song here] was an EDM banger”. As an artist, you have many strengths you can leverage when creating content. If you’re low-key really good at making beats, show off that talent with a cover. If you aren’t so good at another genre, you can ask your audience to do their own version.
Use The Right Hashtags
Hashtags are important on pretty much every platform. With the right hashtag strategy, you can increase the reach, engagement and visibility of your posts on TikTok in no time. Luckily, figuring out which hashtags will work best is fairly simple.
First, go ahead and open the app, tap on the “Discover” tab on the bottom of your screen and scroll through the previews of all the trending hashtags.
Now, let’s dive a little deeper. In the search bar at the top, go ahead and search whatever hashtags are relevant to you. Once you hit search, you’ll be able to see related hashtags and view counts for each of them.
With a quick Google search, you’ll see that the most popular hashtags for musicians are: #music, #singer, #artist, #songwriter, #livemusic, #newmusic, and the list goes on and on.
However, these are just the most popular, overall hashtags. If you’re looking for more interactive engagement with a more segmented fanbase, we recommend looking into artists like you on the platform and checking out the hashtags that are popular in their circles. Then, you can make a solid list of these and keep them in mind for your own efforts.
Try TikTok’s Promote Feature
With Promote, you can turn any organic TikTok video into an ad, right from the app. You can start reaching new audiences, build a following, and drive traffic to your business website. Once you run a Promote campaign, you also get insights into your audience and how your videos are performing to help you improve your efforts moving forward.
We wrote a whole post that breaks down exactly how to do this; you can check that out right here.
Utilize TikTok Analytics
Driven by machine learning and a technical algorithm, TikTok thrives on data and metrics. If you want to improve your content’s performance, understanding your profile’s detailed analytics is the first step to improving your efforts. With it, your data-filled dashboard is separated into three main categories: Overview, Content and Followers.
By clicking through each tab, you’ll be able to see videos views, profile views, follower count, and follow demographics in terms of gender and geography. With this information, you can see which videos are working and which aren’t. Then, you can adapt your strategy as you go to improve in the future.
Aside from being an addicting past time for most of us, TikTok is also a wonderful tool for your promotional efforts as an artist. If you work with the algorithm and all the features the platform has to offer, you’ll see your content start to thrive.
On that note… As you reach a wider audience on TikTok, you can funnel those users over to your socials and streaming platforms in the process. By taking steps like adding links to other platforms in your bio, cross promoting content on your feed and following the tips mentioned above, you can grow your audience everywhere in no time.
Spotify is a powerful tool for any artists interested in reaching a larger audience. One of the most effective ways to utilize the platform is to create a custom Spotify for Artists profile, which will help you get verified, easily manage your profile, learn about your fanbase and more. In this post, we’ll break down some tips to help you make sure your profile is optimized and ready to go.
How To Optimize Your Spotify for Artists Profile
To create your Spotify for Artists profile, go to artists.spotify.com and claim your profile. Once your profile is approved, you’ll receive automatic verification, which will make you more discoverable among other artists and boost your position within Spotify’s algorithms. Next, let’s take a look at some helpful hints for creating a Spotify for Artists profile and utilizing it for maximum success…
Use Artist’s Pick
Artist’s Pick is a valuable tool that allows you to feature music at the top of your profile. You can make a track, an album, a playlist or even an event the focus of your profile for two weeks, but you can update it at any time. This allows you to draw listeners to a certain release with the ability to include a short message as well.
Create and Feature Your Own Playlists
Creating your own playlists is a powerful way to connect with your fans and other artists. Playlists can give you the ability to promote your newest releases while supporting other artists and showcasing your sound. Utilize playlists as a tool to connect with other artists, and show fans what you’re all about.
List Your Concerts
Did you know that you can actually list your own concerts on Spotify? Simply connect your Ticketmaster, Songkick, Eventbrite or AXS profile and your upcoming events will be listed on your profile. This can be done through the Spotify for Artists dashboard, and will be updated automatically every time you announce a new event.
Utilize Your Data Effectively
The Spotify for Artists dashboard is useful for learning all types of information about your music, and the people who listen to it. You can access analytics in real-time and see where your plays are coming from. If they’re coming from a certain playlist, make sure to reach out to the curator with your next release. If they’re coming from a certain location, try and reach out to the promoters of that area. The possibilities are endless!
Keep Your Profile Up-To-Date
Keeping your artist profile updated with up to date information at all times is very important. Use Spotify for Artists’ tools to upload a current profile photo, add a bio and more. Make sure your image is high resolution and your bio tells listeners who you are and what you’re about. Make sure to update both of these consistently and make sure to highlight any major achievements or announcements.
2023 is finally a thing of the past! It’s been a long year, but it’s time to start looking towards the future. As a musician, it’s important to set goals for your career and create a plan to make them happen. From learning new skills and getting more followers to earning more money and booking more gigs, setting clear goals is the key to seeing your dreams come to life. Here’s how to set better goals for the new year…
How To Set Better Goals As A Musician in 2024
Let’s talk S.M.A.R.T.
When it comes to goal setting, many pros around the world use the S.M.A.R.T method. Created back in 1981, S.M.A.R.T is an acronym that helps you create specific criteria for your goals to help improve the chances of their success.
What does it stand for?
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timed
How to use the S.M.A.R.T Method:
When it comes to your music career, your goals need to be realistic and specific. You should be able to quantifiably measure their success. For them to be achievable for you as an artist, you also need to be able give it a set time period for it to be accomplished by.
🧠 Pro Tip:Always write down your goals. Once they’re written down, you can look back at them whenever you start to feel lost and get right back on track.
Here’s an example:
Let’s apply the S.M.A.R.T method to, “I want more people to listen to my music”.
What’s wrong with that? — This goal needs to be more specific. First, think about where you want more people to listen to your music. Which platform do you want these listeners on? Next, make it measurable. Come up with a variable that is quantifiable. Now, it’s time to make sure it’s achievable and realistic for where you are in your career. How many new listeners are you actually capable of reaching with your resources?
Those big time goals are good to keep in the back of your mind, but starting off with unrealistic goals will make you frustrated and disappointed when you’re just starting out. You’ll eventually reach those crazy goals, but you need to start small and work your way up. That being said, this leads us to the last step. Timed.
Your goals need to have a time limit. It’s easier to stay on track when you have a set time frame to get things done. (With checkpoints along the way!)
When you apply the S.M.A.R.T method to, “I want more people to listen to my music”, it turns into something like: “I want 1000 more monthly listeners on Spotify by May 31th.” instead. You can keep it focused on your profile’s full monthly listeners or you could break it down even further by focusing on a single release.
Now, that’s doable!
Let’s try one more.
Let’s try a more complex example for applying the S.M.A.R.T method. How about, “I want to go on tour.”
Great goal!
Let’s make it specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. Specifically where and when do you want to go on tour? Is it the right time in your career to start touring? Do you have enough fans in various cities who would buy tickets to your shows? When do you want to achieve this by? What variables do you have to meet in order to meet this goal? For example, reaching X total amount of monthly listeners by this date or cultivating X amount of fans in X cities by this date.
How does this change our original statement? Something like, “I want to go on tour” changes to something like “I will meet XYZ requirements for touring by December 1st in order to start touring by January 1st .”
Make sense? Keep in mind, you can make these goals as specific as you need to. The more specific, the better.
In Conclusion…
2023 was rough for a lot of us. However, one thing it did give us was a chance to assess ourselves. What do we want for our music careers? What’s been working? What efforts have been more time consuming than fruitful? Now that you’ve had all this time to brainstorm about the future, it’s time to make sure your goals for the new year reflect that. 2024 is a great opportunity to jump back in and hit the ground running!
