Promoting your music for free: it's possible

It’s now possible to promote your music for free thanks to the many online platforms dedicated to music. These platforms allow artists to put their songs online and share them with a wide audience. They also offer artists the opportunity to connect with other artists and their audiences, enabling them to gain exposure and visibility. But that’s not the only way to promote your sounds without spending money: social networks or collaborations, here are the solutions for promoting your music for free.

Getting your music heard without spending a penny: a challenge for all budding artists

Music promotion is often costly, both in terms of time and money. But it is possible to promote your music for free with a few tips and tricks.

There are several reasons why it is advantageous for artists to promote their music without spending any money:

monetary interest, of course, when you start with few resources
but also a focus on free levers that are attractive in the long term. This applies to your social media, such as Instagram or Tik Tok, for example.

The best way to get visibility is to be present wherever you can be. Artists can put their songs online and share them with a wide audience. On music platforms or social networks, your communication allows you to connect with your community (or community in the making!) and other artists. It’s one of the best ways of getting yourself known and gaining visibility.

But is it really that easy to achieve?

Not really. In fact, you’ll soon be faced with a number of problems:

managing all your communication levers, which can be complicated and time-consuming
evaluating these levers to see what works best to attract your target audience
evaluate these levers to see what works best to attract your target audience On social networks (Instagram, Facebook…), music platforms or in the case of collaborations, you may be addressing a community that does not correspond to your target audience. So your sounds and your positioning may not appeal to a certain proportion of your listeners.

Remember that if you want to succeed in the music business and make a name for yourself, you have to produce quality music with good sound quality. You also need to be present on as many communication channels as possible, right from the start, to see which ones work best.

The best free promotion is the one you do yourself

Use the various communication channels at your disposal to effectively promote your music and your albums. The tools to be mobilised include :

1. Social networks

A great way to get your music out there, you can use your social profiles to share your songs and video clips with your followers. You can also use social media to inform your fans about upcoming events and new projects.

They also allow you to stay in touch with your fans and provide them with exclusive content. In fact, social networks are going to be your main means of interacting with your audience and strengthening your links with them. You can work on your Instagram, Facebook or Tik Tok profile and multiply your publications.

Another advantage is that you can promote your YouTube channel for free. It’s through YouTube that the vast majority of your fans will discover you. So you need to take the time to create good video clips, good music and optimise everything to please the YouTube algorithm. After all, it’s mainly through the algorithm’s suggestions that you can promote your YouTube channel for free.

2. Teasing an album or video release

Teasing your future releases is an excellent way of getting the word out about your music. In fact, you’re going to rely mainly on word-of-mouth for this lever, since distribution is aimed mainly at an audience that already follows you in this case.

In fact, you’ll be relying mainly on word-of-mouth for this lever, since distribution is mainly aimed at an audience that already follows you in this case. You can also create promotional videos and trailers for your albums and clips, but this requires more time and resources.

Finally, another way of raising your profile is to organise competitions and giveaways to give your fans the chance to win your albums, but this is not really a free solution in this case.

Teasing is interesting, but it’s mainly used to boost sales of your titles and arouse interest rather than to introduce people to your projects.

3. Mobilising your family and friends

Mobilising your friends and family is a classic strategy for promoting your music free of charge. As well as the power of word of mouth, your family and friends can help you distribute your music by sharing your songs and clips on social media. They can also help you organise events and promote your music to their friends and family.

4. Creating a website

Creating a website can help you promote your music free of charge. Your website allows you to present your music to the world. Your website also allows you to share your songs and video clips with your fans, provide them with exclusive content and inform them of your forthcoming events.

Be careful, though, as the visitors to your website will be people who already know and follow you. So it’s not so much a tool for attracting new fans as for retaining your existing community.

5. Feeding a newsletter

Directly linked to the creation of a website, the newsletter helps you distribute your sounds. Your newsletter allows you to stay in touch with your fans and provide them with exclusive content. You can also use your newsletter to keep them up to date with news and developments on your album, your career and any upcoming collaborations or concerts.

Once again, though, it’s more a tool for retaining your existing fan base than for growing it.

6. Subscribing to playlists on platforms

Subscribing to playlists on music platforms (Spotify, Deezer, etc.) is an excellent way of getting your music known without necessarily spending money, in some cases. They allow you to present your music to a wide audience, raise your profile and make yourself known to other artists.

The only disadvantage of this strategy is that you are targeting a wide audience: not everyone (and probably not everyone) will be interested in your sounds.

Other strategies for getting yourself known quickly, without spending any money

We’ve covered all the strategies available for getting known without money, but there are other, more original tactics for promoting your music:

Be active at the events you attend to build up your fan base. However, this approach requires you to take part in an event where the majority of your target audience will be present, and not to pay anything for your contribution.
Covering the sounds of another, better-known artist, for a remix or tribute. Even if it helps your reputation, listeners who hear these covers don’t necessarily like your other music or your ‘real’ musical style. In some cases, it can help your career take off.
Another solution is to make free music, but this trick has a lot of disadvantages, including the fact that your music is just covered without paying attention to who composed/sung it (which isn’t good for your reputation).

Is it really possible to showcase your sounds for free?

Yes, it is possible to promote your sounds without spending money. However, you should be aware that this will take a lot of time and effort. You will also need to create a good marketing strategy that is sustainable over time.

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. You can choose to join labels if you prefer to benefit from monetary support, but this will not come without conditions on your autonomy.

Even if it is possible to promote your music without breaking the bank, can we really say that this is the most effective way to go about it?

In reality, no. It’s even possible that your career will never get off the ground because of a lack of resources.

The best strategy for making yourself known to your target audience is to target them where they really are. And in almost all cases, it’s YouTube.

Music-related searches are the most frequent searches on Google’s streaming platform.

It’s true that you can promote your YouTube channel for free, but the impact of this is uncertain.

To increase your chances of building a solid community, and to target your audience more specifically, you need to use advertising.

Advertising promotion remains the best way of reaching your audience quickly and widely.

To advertise on YouTube, you can call on the services of Red Label Agency. But in practical terms, what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Promoting your music for free VS online advertising: what are the differences?

We’ve seen that free promotion of your music is possible, although a little uncertain and above all limited in terms of impact.

To boost all this, you need to spend a little money on tools that will be more effective and bring you more results.

For most new singers and musicians, publicity can quickly become very expensive. To avoid having to pay too much right from the start, Red Label Agency has put together a series of YouTube Ads offers that are perfectly suited to your initial budget.

With our advertising campaigns on YouTube, you’ll be able to promote one of your video clips directly to your target audience. You can also check the progress and performance of your YouTube Ads campaign in real time. Our experts are on hand if you need any further information to help you better understand your investment.

So which solution should you choose?

	Benefits	Disadvantages
Promoting your music for free	Little or no cash expenditure Interesting long-term leverage	Limited effectiveness Maybe your career won’t take off with just these methods You’re not necessarily targeting your target audience.
Promoting your music through advertising	You are sure to reach your target audience Types of advertising tailored to your objectives Transparent monitoring of the performance of your advertising campaign You are present where most of your target audience is located	Expensive, but prices are flexible to suit your budget (from $89 to $1,969)

As you will have realised, promoting your music is all the more interesting when you invest a little money. However, the best way to proceed is to combine the two solutions: promote your music for free, through social networks and your website, and through advertising. You maximise your chances of building a lasting, sustainable community.

These other subjects may also be of interest to you