Music Marketing Strategies & Tips That You Can Embrace
1. Get a Music Website Created
Band websites form the base of a music marketing strategy.Your website is your foundation. All the major music artists have a website and there is no reason why you shouldn’t as well. On your music website list: your story on your bio, events and shows and merch to sell.
Having a website allows you to reach your audience directly and have a clear message for them. Also, using a custom website design, you can shape your message according to your needs. Apart from spreading word of mouth, you need a platform where you can tell your story to the target audience – a band website is just that. It can even open main revenue streams for you. Make sure you get a mobile-friendly website developed.
2. Doing a Cover Version
Just like we mentioned before, LeRoy Sanchez is a popular name on YouTube. He does cover versions of most of the popular tracks. His sexy voice and Spanish speaking abilities helped him garner fame.
The original track is sung by Camilla Cabello, but he gave it a twist and made it super romantic with Spanish wordings and soothing music. He has done many cover versions including ‘She will be loved’ by Maroon 5 and ‘Love Someone’ by Lukas Graham.
The question hovering your mind is – How do I get noticed by doing a cover version? When a music lover types the names of popular music tracks, they will be able to see the original version and even the cover version. By singing a popular track and putting it on YouTube or other channels, the visibility increases. Of course, you can hire a music marketing company, who would handle this aspect for you.
Daniela Andrade rose to fame with her cover ‘La Vie En Rose’. When you market these cover songs, you are able to get views and even grab the attention of movie producers and bars. Everyone is watching YouTube for inspiration, right?
3. Contribute Your Music to The Top Digital Music Streaming Services
Everything is going digital now a days and if you do not have your music on the major digital streaming services you are leaving money on the table and missing out on reaching your targeted audience. P
All you have to do is – upload your best albums, share songs that you are proud of, and wait for the audience to react.
Part of your music marketing plan should focus on contributing your music to the major streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud. But it isn’t just about sharing. You need to be very clear about your target audience and the platform they use the most. Identify your genre and then select the right platform to share it.
4. Involving Your Followers and Fans
Engagement with your fans and followers is a must. A marketing strategy is incomplete if you fail to engage with your audience. Same goes for musicians; interacting with their followers and keeping them updated about upcoming events! How to execute this?
Start an Instagram page and connect with your fans. Also, the fans will leave comments on your music videos on YouTube. Engage with them – like and reply to their comments in a way that pleases them to stay long. . You can even do a poll on Instagram and go LIVE! When an upcoming or popular singer like you, goes live, the fans are able to see you in real and even chat with you.
Here’s a classic example of liking comments of your fans on YouTube. Rick Hale Music is a YouTube channel, and they put out cover versions. If you notice their comment section on each YouTube video, they ensure that they like the comments. Fans love it when you indulge and connect with them!
Building trust and connecting with your fans is an important thing to do. Ask them for their opinion! Once you know what they want, you would know what your next step should be! It is a fantastic idea to include your fans in day-to-day activities.
5. Collaboration IS the way, baby!
We love the word ‘collaboration’! If you are unable to capture the audience’s attention, it is time to collaborate with another band. Let us say that you collaborate with a saxophone player and you give the vocals. It could be a beautiful amalgamation! This could help you to get the attention of millions of music lovers.
For example, a piano player collaborates with a jazz vocalist. The jazz vocalist has 5 million fans on Instagram and the piano player has 8 million fans. When these two separate entities collaborate, they will be able to create magic and it is possible that piano player’s followers will start following the jazz vocalist too!
Many musicians are already leveraging this music marketing hack. Think of “Beat It” by Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen or “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by The Beatles and Eric Clapton. You will find many.
We have no doubt that you are a fabulous singer, but joining hands with a popular artist or someone extremely talented could really help you! Collaborations work and help you to get the attention of millions of music lovers. You can seek out bands and musicians, who have the same vibe as you do.
6. Social Media Marketing
Part of your music marketing plan should heavily rely on social media marketing. Instagram, Facebook and Youtube are platforms that you cannot miss out on because of the billions of people using them.
Social media is one of the best ways to grow a loyal fan base which will constantly consume your music. Social media marketing can feel like a daunting task as there are many components involved to grow a music artist’s account such as content creation, posting, liking, following, and influencer outreach to name a few. However it doesn’t have to be that difficult as there are tools, tips and agencies out there to help you out.
Here also, you need to study your target audience and the platforms they are mostly active on. Research the type of content they will prefer and then create a strategy.
Most artists do social media marketing wrong; one reason is they do not have a content marketing strategy in place. One music marketing tip is to focus on the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule is posting 80 percent entertaining and 20 percent promotional content.
7. Experimenting and Going Out of the Box
Another popular music marketing strategy is doing something out of the box. You are already producing some great content for the viewers, but it is time to try something new! When you are marketing yourself both offline and online, you need to take risks and see what the audience would like!
This requires a fair bit of time and research. See what your audience is liking! Do they hit the like button more often when you are doing a collaboration? Do they love it when you do a live guitar session? Understand what type of content is driving more engagement for you. Will you stick to it or give it a new touch? Think of music you have never created and find its future possibilities.
Try out different strategies to get their attention! In some time, you will know what works! You can even look at other Instagram and YouTube handles to see what other musicians are doing. Basically, do your homework.
7. Experimenting and Going Out of the Box
Another popular music marketing strategy is doing something out of the box. You are already producing some great content for the viewers, but it is time to try something new! When you are marketing yourself both offline and online, you need to take risks and see what the audience would like!
This requires a fair bit of time and research. See what your audience is liking! Do they hit the like button more often when you are doing a collaboration? Do they love it when you do a live guitar session? Try out different strategies to get their attention! In some time, you will know what works! You can even look at other Instagram and YouTube handles to see what other musicians are doing. Basically, do your homework.
8. Your VERY OWN Concert
Concerts have become a trend! We have noticed that the current generation loves going to concerts and live music shows. They update their statuses, put live videos and even capture the live show in their phones to share on social media. Well, here’s your chance to get noticed! You can throw a concert at an off-beat destination without shelling a lot of money. It could be outside your home (in a park) or even a small restaurant your friend owns.
You could even get in touch with restaurants, clubs and bars. Most of the new clubs and bars are looking for new faces for their live musical shows. Give them a good deal, advertise the concert/live music show on your profile and you will see a good response FOR SURE!
People want to watch you FOR REAL, and it is possible that they will get their friends along. Also, they would post your live show videos on YouTube and Instagram. This will help you get more followers overnight!
9. GIVEAWAY Time
There is no shade of doubt that everyone likes free stuff. How about doing a giveaway? Put a silly photo of you and ask your followers to give the best caption for it. You could announce one lucky winner and give them a cap signed by you or even your favorite bracelet.
The winners will be elated, and you will get a new fan base. How? Once you run a giveaway, your fans will tag their friends. The friends will tag their colleagues and other people they know! All of this becomes a movement, and you become a known entity. Keep running giveaways and your fan base shall increase.
Don’t forget to make the contest rules. It should be the following –
- Tag 5 friends and get them to participate
- If you unfollow, you will not be eligible for future giveaways
- The more number of people you tag, the higher your chances become of winning!
- Share this post as your Instagram post or story.
All these strategies have worked for musicians, and you can use it too! If you are doubtful that this will not work, you can do your homework and see other musicians. Giveaways are the best way to capture the attention of the audience. This shall surely work out!
10. Paid Ads to Market Your Music
At a stage, organic traffic may start declining. You may not get potential audience from creating posts as SEO takes time. To gear up your marketing strategy, embrace paid advertising.
Using paid ads on YouTube, Instagram, Google or Facebook is a great way to reach your target audience. One music marketing tip is to run a preview of your music video on Youtube. You can use tools like Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and Facebook Business Manager.
Within each advertising platform there are a large number of filters to narrow down your audience to serve ads. The narrower you get with the filter the better for conversions. Paid ads are an awesome way to garner short term success.
Paid advertising may require an expert to manage, like myself, who am I – a certified digital marketing professional, because of the complexity of the advertising platforms. Without proper training and experience you could end up blowing through your budget without getting your desired results.
11. Getting in Touch with Radio Stations
This seems like a lot of work to do, but most of the radio stations are looking for new talent. How long are they going to play the same old tracks? Radio stations should be known for good music, and endless talking. People listen to radios in their leisure time, while travelling, cooking, and when they don’t feel like engaging in any physical work. You have the chance to grab their attention when they are eagerly waiting for you.
If you can get in touch with a radio station, it will be a great exposure. Plus, you can always upload your music to an internet radio. Make sure that the recordings are of high-quality! Most radio channels embrace new talent, but it should be worthwhile! If you think you have the power to touch several hearts, then the struggle is worth it.
In case you are not ready for the struggle and have the money to invest, get in touch with professionals who push your beautiful music to radio stations, websites, press outlets and playlists. This strategy works like a charm! But, you would require a bit of patience because slow and steady wins the race.
12. Live Shows in Colleges and Schools
Most schools and colleges will not be able to afford a big-shot musician, and they are looking for raw talent. Teens have a special corner reserved for music. If you have the right beat to tap on their hearts, go for it. You will end up creating a strong fanbase for you.
If they are willing to give you a chance, you must grab it! Your success means referrals for you to other institutions as well. Students tend to influence
13. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a rather new digital marketing technique that has been used lately and works great. Smaller brands have been using this and because of the ROI larger brands like Nike and Gucci have created their own influencer marketing campaigns. If you don’t know how influencer marketing works it works like this. Brands or music artists work with large social media accounts to promote their content. These accounts promote the music artist to their loyal followers and is a perfect channel for a music artist is to grow their social media fan base and increase sales.
How about getting in touch with popular bloggers? A music lover might just do a shoutout for you. There are YouTube channel supporter groups which you can join. You can even start your own. This way, other YouTube channel creators will be able to do a shoutout for you, and you can do the same for them.
This does not cost anything because you are supporting other YouTubers, and they have your back. If you find YouTube creators on Instagram, you could seek their help to crash into a YouTube Support group. This way, you will get in touch with more YouTubers. Trust us when we say this, YouTubers help each other a lot! They will like your recent posts, share it on their profile and even comment.
14. Music Marketing Companies at the Rescue
Choosing a music marketing company could save you from all the hard work. There are companies, who are offering services like digital marketing, social media marketing, branding, content marketing, and pitching the music to play lists and blogs. Basically, these companies become your voice. The companies find out who your fans are and they do a thorough research to get followers. Whether it is social media marketing or brand management, the company would make sure that you become a known entity.
Selling your music and reaching out to the masses can be a super slow process, but with the help of content marketing and brand management professionals, you will be able to breathe easy! We all know that pitching your music could be a grueling task. Doing this all by yourself could be frustrating.
We are a hip hop marketing company and a music marketing company providing all these services. When you opt for our pitching, social media marketing, and brand management services, you will be able to reach out to the right audience and this will help you gain followers and listeners.
We hope to see you rise and shine as a musical star!
Looking for tangible results and top rankings in search engines? With my expertise as a freelance digital marketer, I’ll craft personalized strategies to boost your organic traffic and enhance your brand’s visibility. Reach out now and let’s make your business shine online!