With the right strategies and tactics, every artist can get their music in front of the right people.
Written by Leni – February 1, 2019
No matter what stage you’re at in your career, releasing music into the world can be daunting to say the least. You’ve worked on it for weeks or months (potentially years) and you want to get the best result for your hard work. But with hundreds of thousands of tracks released daily, getting your music heard is tough.
With the right strategies and tactics, every artist (major label support or not) can get their music in front of the right people. Here are our tips for promoting your tracks independently and getting your music heard – on a budget!
Distribution
Without the help of a music distribution service, you can miss out on your music being streamed on Spotify or Apple Music, getting featured on playlists, or being bought and downloaded from stores like iTunes. If you are serious about getting your music out into the world, sign up to a free music distribution service like Amuse, and let them distribute your music to all the important stores and streaming platforms that matter. Amuse is the only music distribution service that lets you release music from your phone, and we let you keep 100% of your rights and royalties.
Press Kit
Whether you’re sending your tracks to blogs or pitching your music to playlist/mix curaters, having a good EPK (Electronic Press Kit) is non-negotiable.
“Having as much information about yourself readily available in the most easily digestible format possible is crucial for that initial outreach, says Dan Roy Carter, CEO, Above Board Entertainment Group. “A good electronic press kit, including music, imagery, touring history, key data and social statistics, is going to serve you well.”
If you don’t have spare cash to get it done professionally, don’t stress. Drop an update on your social channels and see if any friends would be happy to help take some snaps of you as a favour. Then, search for free EPK templates online and copy their format. Easy.
Build Your Network
We know you’ve got your head down in the studio, but getting out there and building your network IRL is a critical part of every artist’s journey. Network as much as you can within your local scene (think: club nights, festivals or industry parties), send your music to promoters, and engage with your own community online. Your fans are often your biggest advocates, so keep them engaged and pumped to spread the word about your new release.
Share Your Music In Niche Communities
Sharing your tracks with online music communities in the same niche as your music is an effective way to promote your release. The first step to take is identifying your target audience and the places they are consuming new music. There are a heap of different (free) tools available to help you learn about your audience, like Facebook’s Audience Insights tool or YouTube’s Official Artist Channel platform.
When you distribute your music with Amuse, you get access to our data dashboard where you can keep track of your streams, downloads and audience. We give you access to real-time data, like who is listening and where. This data can help you make informed decisions about your next release and growing your fanbase.
When you’re armed with the insights you need to target the right listeners, start actively participating in conversations or discussions and sharing your tracks in their niche communities, whether it be a Facebook group or Twitch channel.
Reach Out To Blogs and YouTube Channels
There are a number of handy tools out there to help get your music featured on the best blogs and channels, without having to do the guesswork and (painful) cold-emailing yourself. Hype Machine automatically aggregates the best blogs around the world for you to contact based on popularity. IndieMono lets artists submit their tracks to popular playlists by simply browsing their playlists and hitting “submit” on the ones that suit. Submithub is a site that allows you to bump your music over to a heap of blogs and YouTube channels around the world and receive feedback. Getting your music featured on blogs and YouTube channels can be a big driver for streams and potential playlist adds – so don’t sleep on it!
Ready to get your track out in the world? Start by downloading the Amuse app to release your music to all the major music stores and streaming platforms, for free.
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