Your music deserves to be heard. But in the world where everyone tries hard to conquer music marketing, it might be quite a challenge.

No music is the same, and most of the time, you will need to tailor your music marketing approach. To help you with this, we came up with the list of dos and don’ts. They will give you suggestions on where to start and how to execute your music marketing strategy the right way.

A little bit of theory first, though. Engaging with your audience is the core of marketing and applies to every industry, and music marketing is no different. Even though a lot of people listen to music, most likely, they are not your audience. Before you start promoting your song or album, you will need to do your homework and figure out who your potential listeners are and where to find them. Then, you will need to establish your online presence right where your audience is and then win them over with your ultimate music marketing plan.

 

DO social media music marketing.

Most likely, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear marketing is social networks. Science proved that nine out of ten social media users do music-related activities on their social media apps. That sounds like a good start.

But even though two billion people are using Facebook daily, it does not necessarily mean they are your audience, and that you have to pour all your music marketing expenses into Facebook. 

Different people like different things. That goes for music genres and various social networks. Research what social networks are the most applicable to your audience and focus your social media music marketing efforts there. This will help a lot not to overspend on promotion and connect with your audience faster.

You can also check what campaigns work for musicians that have a similar style to yours. Facebook Ad Library is an amazing tool for that. It can show you ads and posts that are promoted by your favorite musicians on Facebook and Instagram.

Instagram and Facebook ad by The Doors as seen in Facebook Ads Library

 

DO Twitter research.

Social networks can be used not only for your updates. Most of them, including Twitter, are powerful search tools, where you can find everything, including publications that will readily feature your music.

Getting featured in a magazine or a newspaper can help you to get noticed. If you appear in a digital publication, you will also get links to your channel, and this is how people can access and listen to what you do. 

While many magazines charge quite a lot for an article, there is a tool you can use to get there for free. A lot of journalists post requests as a hashtag on Twitter. Check #journorequest to see if there are requests regarding music or subscribe to JournoRequests and get entertainment requests straight to your email. 

 

Daily email newsletter from JournoRequests with a selection of Twitter requests about music and entertainment industries.

 

 

DO something about your website.

While a lot of social networks allow you to create a personalized page, having your website can significantly help you to get discovered by your audience and what is also important, by music professionals. 

Even though all you want to do is to grow your fanbase, there is always a chance to get discovered and push your music to the next level, for example, through collaboration. Your website doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should serve its purpose – display your music as well as give website visitors the chance to learn more about you.

It is also good to have at least one channel that you can fully control yourself and website is that channel – you control your data and see the insights. You can also modify the way your site looks, so if you want to sell your merch later on – you can quickly implement that. 

 

DO search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is vital for music marketing and allows pages to stand out in the pool of similar content. The key to that is using relevant to your audience and your content keywords. Make sure you use them on your website and blog posts. They will help you to be searchable by your audience.

Pay attention to the descriptions and tags you use on YouTube as well. YouTube Optimization algorithms can contribute to the visibility of your videos when done right. 

Connect your other channels. Ideally, all the networks should work jointly for your listener to quickly jump from one channel to another.

 

 

DON’T be spammy.

Don’t send cold messages to people who you think will like your music. Instead of sharing your music, you will end up looking like spam. Most likely your messages will end up in requests or spam folder. With an increasing number of online scams, social media services update their algorithms regularly, and due to this, cold messages will not be useful as a music marketing tactic.

 

DON’T promote every post.

Social media keep pushing to post promotion and advertising, but it does not mean you should promote every update you post. Even though it doesn’t violate policies, it can do more harm than good. If you are boosting your ideal audience, you will end up showing all of your posts in front of the same people again and again. Instead of doing that, you can select the one visually appealing post and focus your music marketing strategy on that. 

Another good idea for your music marketing is to promote two different posts. Then you can compare the results you reach with each of them. This way, you will be able to analyze which content works best for your audience. 

 

 

DON’T treat all channels equally.

There is a chance that over time the same people will follow you on all of your social channels. If they end up seeing the same content everywhere, they most likely will unfollow you on one or more channels. Post content that people would expect on specific platforms: visuals on Instagram, news on Twitter, music insights on Reddit.

 

Music marketing is all about reaching people who would like your music. Even though it is a hard thing to do, you can achieve good results if you think like your listener. Think of where they are, what they like, and how they search for their music. Think of what they are reading and feature an article there. Make sure to focus on DOs, but don’t forget about DON’Ts as well!