In order to gain traction with your music, your objective for a new release should be to reach a broad audience of listeners. With tens of thousands of tracks being released daily on streaming platforms, the competition is fierce. Therefore, the initial crucial step is developing a strong promotion strategy that enables you to reach fans and industry professionals. However, before you commence with music promotion, it’s important to create a digital distribution plan to make your tracks available on streaming services. Once figuring out the distribution, the final step is to focus on effective music promotion. Here are four industry strategies that can help you maximize the impact of releasing music in 2023.
1. Promote before the launch date
Here are some tips for promoting your music release prior to its launch:
- Treat your music release like an event and plan your promotional activities ahead of time. Creating a release checklist can help you keep track of your tasks.
- Post frequently on your social media channels in the lead-up to your release date. A single post isn’t enough to keep your followers engaged.
- Create different types of content for each channel to reach a wider audience. This could include music videos, social media countdowns, and other types of posts.
- Contact press and radio stations about two weeks before your music release to generate buzz and do a follow-up before the release date.
- Begin promoting your music release before the launch date to boost your streaming stats from day one. Sharing a pre-save link with your promotional content will help you achieve this goal.
2. Grow your community on social media
- Building a strong presence on social media can be beneficial for promoting your music release and launching your musical career.
- Social media enables you to directly connect with your fans and establish a personal connection with them.
- To reach new potential fans, remain active on important social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Engage with followers through shares, comments, hashtags, and other social features.
- The key to success is to share engaging content that viewers will interact with, increasing your visibility on the platform’s algorithm.
- While using ads on Instagram and Facebook can help grow your fan base, creating engaging organic content can be equally effective.
- TikTok has proven to be an excellent platform for musicians to build a fan base. Regularly posting content such as live sessions, music video excerpts, behind-the-scenes footage, or even a capella singing can increase your visibility and help your account gain traction. Don’t take yourself too seriously and keep experimenting with different types of content. Your account could take off unexpectedly and exponentially!
3. Contact press and outlets for promotion
This still is a great option to help releasing music in 2023. When promoting your music release, it’s important to expand your reach beyond just social media. Traditional music press outlets can also be a valuable resource for gaining visibility and credibility with listeners and industry professionals. However, it’s important to target your outreach carefully for the biggest impact. Contact only appropriate outlets that cover artists in your niche, as reaching out to as many outlets as possible may not yield the best results. Even if you don’t get coverage on their main accounts, many blogs and magazines have influential channels on YouTube, social media, and Spotify, which can help boost your visibility. Good press coverage can also be a useful tool for your EPK when applying to festivals and pitching music to curators, helping to open doors for future releases as you progress in your career.
4. Try to get your music posted on playlists
These playlists are curated by independent users on the platform and sometimes have a huge following. Even small playlists can have a massive impact on your streams, if they have high engagement. You’ll most likely find the curator’s contact information directly in the playlist description on Spotify. Otherwise you can try to find their contact information on social media or their website to submit your music. The ‘Discovered On’ section of similar artists is often a great way for artists to scout relevant third party playlists. You can use Groover to contact Spotify and Apple Music playlist curators among a selection of more than 500 playlist curators. Try to get your music more stream and receive guaranteed feedback within a week. Plus the possibility to get to the impactful playlists.
Are you feeling motivated releasing music in 2023? Don’t let the process become overwhelming. Plan out your promotional strategy and utilize the advice we’ve shared to ensure a well-rounded mix of traditional and digital coverage.