How do you promote your music?
As a music promotion agency for over a year, we’ve helped hundreds of artists to raise their profile. We realised that it’s increasingly complicated to promote your music, given the number of sounds being released every day. So how do you go about promoting your albums in 2022?
To be honest, there’s no magic formula for “breaking into music”. The first thing you need to know is that you should make music to enjoy yourself and find your own style.
Today, anyone can make music and publish it on social networks and streaming services in no time at all. To get noticed, you have to be original and not try to copy popular artists.
Taking the time to create good sounds in your own style, to get to know yourself and to launch yourself when you feel ready is not a good idea either.
Once you have all these ingredients, the best way to get your music in front of a large number of potential fans is through advertising.
Unfortunately, you can make the best sound in the world if you don’t share it or let anyone see it. Few people will listen to you or watch your clips so that you can make a living from your passion.
Is this the only way to proceed?
No. There are plenty of ways to make a name for yourself as a musician or singer.
Red Label Agency’s experts reveal the most interesting levers to mobilise to make your sounds known to your potential audience.
Why is getting the word out about my music the most difficult thing?
The hardest part is getting your music out to a wide audience. There’s so much music out there already, and new music coming out every day, that it’s hard to stand out.
You have to find ways of attracting listeners’ attention to your music, and that’s often where artists fail, which is perfectly normal since it’s not your core business in the first place.
Today, Spotify claims that over 60,000 new tracks are released on its platform every day. Not only does this show that the market is ultra-competitive, even saturated, but what’s more, listeners aren’t going to be listening to music all the time: YouTube videos, Instagram realities and Tik Tok… In short, it’s extremely difficult to stand out from the crowd these days. the economy of attention is more than required on a daily basis.
But the problem is not only the market, but also… you.
Getting the word out about your sounds will also depend on the direction you want to take, your objectives and your long-term vision.
Define your publication objectives and frequency
Before you start promoting your music, you need to have a clear idea of your objectives. Before you start promoting your music, you need to have a clear idea of your objectives. Or do you want to achieve a certain level of success in the music world? Perhaps you prefer to stay with a niche audience?
Once you have defined your objectives, you then need to determine your publication rhythm. Do you want to publish a new song every month? Every quarter? Your publication frequency will have a direct impact on your success. If you don’t publish often enough, your audience may not be active enough. But if you publish too often, the quality of your music can be affected. Playing on the feeling of scarcity for the release of your clips is also a good point, without going overboard.
It’s very important that you define your publication rhythm now so that you can remain consistent with your productions.
Identify your target audience
The next important element to consider is your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people you want to reach with your music. This can be as broad or as specific as you like. For example, the contacts you’re looking for could be teenagers aged 14 to 18 who like pop, or music lovers who like to discover new artists.
Many of the artists we have worked with believe that they should be accessible to as many people as possible, and that they should target everyone. The best way to make yourself known and stand out is to address a specific audience, with the right style and corresponding codes. If you address everyone at once, you end up addressing no one.
Once you’ve identified your target audience, you’ll have a better idea of how to get the word out about your music. What appeals to your audience? How do you keep in touch with her outside of your publications?
You’ll know where they spend their time online, what kind of content they like, and how you can reach them.
Choose the right promotional channels
There are plenty of places where you can promote your music. Social networks are obviously an excellent way of reaching a wide audience, but there are other options. You can send your music to music bloggers, put your music on streaming platforms, or even advertise on social networks.
Choosing the right promotional channels is crucial. If you don’t target the right contacts, you risk wasting a lot of time and money. Take the time to think about the best places to promote your music, depending on your target audience. We’ll come back to this later.
Keep your promises
Once you’ve found the right ways to get the word out about your music, it’s important to keep your promises. If you tell listeners that you’re going to release a new song every month, make sure you do.
Your audience is your greatest asset for your musical career: you need to be close and sincere with them to maintain a healthy relationship.
If you make a promise you can’t keep, you risk losing the trust of your fans.
Be prepared to invest time and money
It’s important to remember that promoting your music will take time and will require investment. You won’t become famous overnight. Getting your music out there can take months, even years, to bear fruit. And you’ll probably have to invest money in appropriate levers, such as promotional tools or advertising.
If you’re not prepared to invest time and money in promoting your music, you’ll find it hard to succeed. But if you’re prepared to put in the time and energy, they can be a formidable, even decisive, weapon in your career.
In the same way, when we think of the music sector, we forget that visual elements, such as the cover of an album, play a major role in its visibility. This type of investment will be very attractive from the outset.
As you will have realised, there are a number of points to consider before throwing yourself headlong into your dream. The best way to build an audience is to use a number of levers to improve your visibility. Here are our top 15 levers for getting yourself known as an artist.
Top 15 channels to use to promote your music
1 - Online advertising (Google Ads)
One of the best ways to promote your music is to advertise online. Online advertising can be very effective, as it allows you to target your audience precisely. For example, if you advertise on social networks, you can target users according to their age, place of residence, interests, etc.
Online advertising can be expensive, but it can really help you achieve your goals. They help to raise your profile with your target audience and increase your visibility with Internet users who don’t yet know you. If you have a limited budget, you can start by advertising on the Internet, then move on to other, more expensive types of advertising once you’ve generated a certain number of fans.
The best lever for your online visibility is YouTube Ads, since music-related searches are the most numerous.
Please note that we are making a distinction here between advertising and the actual purchase of views, streams or followers. In the first case, they are views of real people who may follow you in the future. In the second case, it’s often a financial drain, since it won’t improve your visibility but will simply play on your ego (which is what we want to avoid, especially when you’re just starting out!).
As a music promotion agency specialising in YouTube Ads, Red Label Agency is committed to supporting promising artists who are motivated by the success of their albums. We offer accessible, easy-to-use services so that you can monitor the progress of your results in real time. To find out more about our offers, click on the button below.
2 - Mobilising your social networks
Social networks are an excellent way of promoting your music. Social networks allow you to reach a wide audience, and you can target your audience precisely. You can use social networks to share your songs, videos and photos, and even to organise concerts.
It is also through your social media that you will create and maintain a link with your community throughout your life as an artist. Internet users who like your music will be more likely to share it with their friends, which can help you reach a wider audience.
There are various ways of promoting your music on social networks.
3 - Promoting your music on Tik Tok
Whether you’re singing live or creating a buzz around your sound, your aim is to create an original video that will increase your audience.
To promote your music on Tik Tok, you need to bear in mind that exposure is very short (a few seconds at most). So you’ll need to create an impactful video right from the start if you want to have any chance of getting new subscribers.
4 - Promoting your sounds on Instagram
As with Tik Tok, you can create a buzz with your music around the Reels, but here you can also promote your music more easily in your feed. Mastering your image on Instagram means thinking carefully about the posts you want to make and how often you want to make them. A well thought-out strategy for promoting your music on Instagram can dramatically increase its number of followers.
You can also promote your content by sponsoring your posts via Instagram Ads.
5 - Push your music on YouTube
Apart from advertising on YouTube, music is the most sought-after type of video on the streaming video platform. Optimising your videos for your musical style and your audience is a very good strategy, but it can be quite complicated to put in place.
To ensure better deliverability, you need to flirt with YouTube’s algorithm. On this point, it is also very interesting to combine the optimisation of your YouTube videos with advertising on YouTube.
Being visible on YouTube is really the grail in your situation, since it’s the platform most conducive to discovering new sounds and artists. The more subscribers you have on your YouTube channel, the better your chances of building a solid community.
6 - Promoting your music on Facebook
You can spread the word about your music on Facebook, whether through live performances or simply to showcase extracts of your forthcoming sounds, in order to generate interest.
Facebook is a very powerful tool, but it’s not always easy to master. Showcasing your musical performances on Facebook Live, for example, can be complicated to set up, bearing in mind that certain rules in force can limit your room for manoeuvre.
As you can see, there are many advantages to being present (and active) on your social networks. As well as being very powerful tools for promoting music, they improve your relationship and communication with your audience.
7 - Creating your website
Creating your own music website is an excellent way of promoting your music. Your website gives you complete control over your image, and makes it easy to share your music with the world. Your website can also help you build fan loyalty, by giving them a place where they can find out more about you, your music and your release/tour dates.
The key to success with your website is to make it as attractive and easy to navigate as possible. Your website should make visitors want to stay, and make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. It serves as your shop window, your virtual business card, the spokesperson for your digital communication.
8 - Distribute your music on streaming platforms
Being placed on playlists is one of the best ways of getting your sounds recorded by potential listeners. It’s very complicated to get discovered on streaming platforms in any other way.
To add your sounds to popular playlists, you can contact the people or companies who own these playlists directly. Labels can also be used.
For our part, we work with a number of Spotify ‘playlisters’. If you would like to find out more, you can contact us directly via our Instagram page or by sending an email to contact@redlabel-agency.com.
Streaming platforms are also very interesting when you want to create buzz around a future release of your music. You can encourage your audience to pre-save your sound in their favourite streaming software. This will also allow you to measure the buzz around your sounds. Streaming platforms can be interesting for promoting your music on Spotify, Deezer or for getting your music known on Soundcloud, for example.
9 - Partnering with other local players
Joining forces with other players in the music world is an excellent way of promoting your music. Establishing a partnership to promote your music allows you to benefit from the expertise, reputation and notoriety of the other partner. What’s more, partnerships enable you to reach a wider audience, as your partners generally have a large network of artists and music professionals.
In practical terms, featurings are a formidable weapon for reaching a new audience and building your network. You may also come into contact with publishing houses, which is a very good thing for your career.
10 - Touring
Touring, organising concerts, doing interviews to talk about your music or taking part in festivals… There are many ways to promote your music offline. Tours and festivals give you the chance to play in front of a live audience, which can go a long way to winning over new fans.
Concerts also allow you to promote your music in new places, which can help you reach a more specific audience.
The interview is a little more specific, as it will mainly target an existing fan base. Although it may have its advantages, it is not the most attractive strategy to invest in when you are just starting out.
11 - Communicating your music on the radio
Radio is an excellent way of promoting your music. Radio allows you to reach a wide audience, but you will find it difficult to target your audience. Radio allows you to reach a wide audience, but it’s difficult to target your audience.
The key to success with radio is finding the right radio stations. If you target the right radio stations, you’ll have a better chance of reaching your target audience. Getting on the radio is always interesting, but it’s not the most effective way of raising your profile, because the results are very uncertain.
12 - Send your music to music bloggers
Music bloggers generally have a large following, and they can help you reach a wider audience. If you manage to contact those with the most influence, it can be a real boost to your visibility.
13 - Sending your music to DJs
Sending your music to DJs can be interesting, but it all depends on your musical style. They also have a fairly wide audience, which is not always your target. It’s interesting, however, if you offer sounds that correspond to hip hop, rock or rap, for example.
14 - Sending your sounds to labels
Working with a label can really boost your profile. You should, however, make sure you contact labels that tend to work with artists in the same musical style as you.
A label can completely manage your communication and even your production, depending on the situation. If you don’t necessarily want to manage everything yourself, joining a label can be an excellent choice, at least when you’re just starting out.
Note, however, that you will no longer be considered independent if you join a label.
There are many advantages, particularly financial, but you need to be careful about the contract you sign so that you agree with all its clauses.
15 - Working on your image: the key to standing out from other musicians
Having a good image is extremely important if you want to succeed in the music business. People like artists who have a strong and unique representation. Your marketing is therefore extremely important, whether it’s your “real” marketing or your web marketing.
If you have a good image and a clear identity, you’re more likely to attract the attention of your audience as a unique artist and stand out from other musicians.
But how can you ensure you have a good image?
The best solution is to be authentic.
Authenticity is extremely important if you want to succeed in the world of music. People like artists who are authentic, because they are more credible and have more charisma. Authentic means sincere about your positioning and identity. Your behaviour must be in line with your identity, which in turn is in line with your market and your musical style.
Don’t hesitate to think outside the box to get noticed: it doesn’t always work, but it’s often effective.
In the end, we presented several possibilities, but there is no magic formula for success in music.
By implementing the right promotional strategies, you can considerably increase your chances of success. If you’re prepared to invest time and money in promoting your music, you can achieve your goals and maybe even become famous.
How can you promote your music for free?
When you’re just starting out in music, it can be tempting to try and get your sounds known for free. Although it’s much less effective than investing money, you can promote your music for free.
You must ensure that :
- continually promote yourself on your social profiles and to your audience, especially before the release of your video or album. Teasing works best, especially for your core fans.
- do a musical cover version, but this has advantages (well-known song, tribute that can bring visibility) as well as disadvantages (particularly with regard to your image as a composer).
- Be active at events where you can participate.
All these strategies require an enormous investment of time, and your gain in terms of visibility will be greater, but not always with your target audience.
All these strategies require a huge investment of time, and your gain in terms of visibility will be greater, but not always with your target audience.
Yes… And no.
In fact, we can’t predict how your visibility will develop. Maybe you’ll have a big exhibition, but not many people will be interested in your music? Or perhaps, on the contrary, you’re going to create a buzz and get a huge audience in just a few weeks? Perhaps your content, communication and marketing strategy won’t have an impact on your target audience?
In practice, these actions improve your visibility, but it all depends on how you implement them. The key remains regularity and the complementary nature of your levers, whether advertising, social networks or offline events.
To make yourself known, it’s best to start by advertising on various social media, such as YouTube. Then, listeners who have heard you at least once will be more likely to follow you. It’s the repetition of your online and offline presence and activity that will gradually grow your fanbase.
Invest in these different channels to maximise your chances!