It’s one thing to make stellar music that inspires listeners or has the potential to jump up the top song charts. It’s another to get the word about that music out there, so people actually listen to your songs. For new and up-and-coming artists, it can be tough to promote music effectively.
Today, let’s take a look at seven ways you can promote your music in 2023 to maximize its spread and popularity.
Get on Social Media
For starters, make profiles on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more. Getting on social media is an important part of music promotion since it lets you directly interact with your current or future fans.
For example, want to post a new song online as part of your music distribution strategy? Be sure to note that on social media so all of your followers, even if it’s just a few dozen people, are immediately notified and start listening. Encourage your followers to share your music on their own social media profiles to build an audience from scratch!
Social media is also an excellent way to connect with other artists, labels, music publishers, and other important organizations.
Make Short-Form Content
Don’t hesitate to jump on social media platforms like TikTok and make short-form content, like 30-second videos showing you getting ready for a set or announcing an upcoming gig at a local bar or restaurant.
Short-form content helps drive social media traffic to your profiles, plus lets your future audience members see your personality and stage presence before attending one of your gigs. Plus, you can make short-form content to respond directly to audience questions or requests.
Do Public Gigs
Speaking of gigs, be prepared to do a lot of public ones at local venues, often on the cheap or entirely for free. The point of these gigs is to promote your sound by letting as many people hear it as possible. Bring business cards or cards linking to your social media pages so that people who like your music can find it online once the event dies down.
Build an Email List
It’s also wise to build an email list from people who request emails on social media or those who visit your personal website (see more below). An email list allows you to start a regular newsletter announcing upcoming album releases, new songs you just put online, gigs in your local area, and so on. You can even start an online shop with band merchandise and announce special deals or discounts through your email list!
A regular email list helps you build up a real following, which is vital if you want each new song release to be as big of an event as possible.
Post Content on a Website
As touched on above, you can and should build a website for you or your band at the earliest opportunity, even if it’s a basic blog. By having an online presence, you have a digital headquarters where you can post about upcoming song releases, direct people to your band merchandise, and collect emails for the above-mentioned email list.
Promoting your music often means doing a lot of marketing hustle online. In conjunction with your social media profile pages, an online space you can call your own will help you manage this work much more easily.
Release Tracks Online One at a Time
Want to practice online music distribution and put your sound out there for people to hear? That’s a great idea! Just don’t dump a bunch of songs onto the Internet all at once, especially if you don’t have a major fan following just yet.
No matter what music distribution platform you use, releasing your tracks one at a time will help to drum up anticipation for upcoming releases, especially if you’ve followed the above tips and have focused on building up an audience from scratch.
With each track you release, you can pair it with a social media announcement. Once you build up a sizable following, you can release full albums.
Collaborate with Other Artists
Lastly, consider collaborating with other artists by cross-promoting the music that they make and giving them your own tracks to promote as well. Cross-promotions with other artists can be very effective, especially if you are competing for a limited local audience.
By cross-promoting with other artists, you have the opportunity to expand your listener audience to include people from other bands. Not only does this help you maximize your audience reach, but it also minimizes competition that can be damaging in narrow music markets.
Ultimately, there are lots of successful ways in which to promote your music in 2023 and beyond. Use these tips in conjunction with each other to maximize your chances of breaking out and making it big!
