The music industry is on the rise, and the numbers prove it! The industry’s revenue in 2024 is around $28.6 billion, the highest since 1999. These numbers highlight the importance of music marketing in a profitable but highly competitive market.
However, effective marketing strategies in the music industry are not just about how to gain followers on Instagram or other social media platforms. They include all digital and traditional methods that can promote your music and increase your visibility.
And that’s what we’re going to discuss in this blog. Stay tuned to dive into the top 7 music marketing tactics!
What Is Music Marketing?
Music marketing is all about promoting and advertising music to reach larger audiences, create loyal fans, and drive sales or streams. It involves a combination of digital marketing with offline or traditional marketing strategies to increase a music or artist’s visibility.
7 Best Strategies for Music Marketing
Now, let’s explore the top 7 marketing strategies to promote your music and create your fanbase.
Best Music Marketing Strategies
1. Build Your Website
The first step to effective music marketing is to create a well-established website. If you’re not still convinced to build your website, let’s break down the reasons why you need one:
- A website gives you full control over your online presence. In other words, you can curate the content and aesthetics exactly as you want.
- Industry professionals like managers or agencies can easily find necessary info about you, your music, or your performances.
- If you share your electronic press kit (EPK) on your website, journalists or media can easily feature you.
Now, it’s time to explore the essentials of a well-established music website:
- Your Bio: Tell about yourself, your music journey, inspirations, and whatever you think can build a stronger connection with your fans.
- Email List Sign Up: Here, you can put up an email signup form and encourage users to join your email list to get personalized updates.
- Tours: Give detailed information about your tours, dates, and a link for buying tickets online.
- Merch: This section is an online store where your fans can purchase clothes or accessories with your logo on them.
- Your Music: This is your website’s main part containing your music albums and videos to listen to and watch online on Spotify and YouTube.
- Social Media Accounts: Since social media is an inseparable part of your music marketing strategy, share links on your website.
Tip: Check out the websites of music stars like Ed Sheeran or Justin Bieber to get inspired!
Ed Sheeran Website
2. Create an EPK
An Electronic Press Kit, aka EPK, is your professional resume that allows managers, agencies, or journalists to review your music. Just like any other resume, it should include basic items to grab attention.
- Your Bio: This is about who you are, what you’ve done, and where you’re going to stand.
- Your Music & Videos: Link to your most popular tracks or music videos on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
- High-quality Photos: Go beyond words and show captivating shots from your live performances or media publications.
- Press Coverage: Include any positive reviews, articles, or interviews that feature your music.
- Contact Info: Finally, add your email, phone number, website, or social media accounts to your EPK.
3. Do Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing for music artists is key. A study found that the most popular social media marketing channels for musicians are Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube.
However, social media marketing for music is beyond creating social media accounts. It requires setting clear goals, knowing your audience, and developing effective strategies. Here are several powerful strategies for your social media music marketing:
1. Know your audience
Experiment with different post types to find out what your followers love most. Fortunately, all social media platforms offer built-in analytics with valuable insights into your best-performing content.
You can also observe relevant accounts with similar target audiences to identify what types of posts resonate with their followers.
2. Optimize Your Social Media Accounts
If you’ve heard of Instagram SEO, you know that it’s about putting keywords in your usernames, bios, and captions, using the right hashtags, and posting at the best posting times on Instagram.
Now, expand this to all your social media accounts. Create a unique visual identity for your brand including a font, logo, imagery, and color, and use it on all your social media platforms.
3. Engage with Your Followers (Fans)
Your social media serves as a communication channel with your loyal fans. It’s important to interact with your followers constantly. Here’s how you can engage with your followers:
- Check your messages and comments, collect the most frequently asked questions, and answer them in posts.
- Run polls to learn more about their pain points or preferences.
- Repost their posts as user-generated content.
- Be authentic. You may need to share behind the scenes of your song preparation.
- Be consistent and post actively to keep engaged with your fans.
4. Collaborate with Others
Whether you’re promoting your music on TikTok or Instagram, collaboration with music influencers and bloggers will increase your reach. Remember, find those influencers who have a similar audience to you.
Looking for music influencers on social media platforms? Ainfluencer allows you to connect with thousands of influencers based on location, budget, or language. Find your desired influencer, check their profile, and start collaborating!
5. Use Social Media Ads
Sometimes, you may have to spend money to get what you need! The study we discussed above also found that social ads are the most effective social media marketing strategy for music artists.
Image Source: Two Story Melody
We understand you’re not a social media marketer! So, why not leave your Instagram and TikTok marketing to our pro account managers and create your sweet music? At AiGrow, we take care of the whole process, from designing posts to scheduling and publishing them. Don’t waste your time!
4. Use Email Marketing
Digital music marketing is vital in today’s digital era. Email marketing is the most effective strategy of digital marketing.
The stats reveal that email ROI for different industries is 3600%. We already mentioned that email sign-ups are important parts of a musician’s website. Here’s a simple guide on how to promote your music using emails:
1. Build Your Email List
First off, collect email addresses from your website or social media accounts. To encourage sign-ups, offer incentives and lead magnets like early access to unreleased album art.
Remember to mention what you’re going to send them in emails, like tour news and updates. Don’t make the signup list long!
2. Create Your Email Content
Now, you need compelling and personalized content with eye-catching images promoting tour announcements and updates, merchandise discounts, newsletters, or early access to tickets.
3. Set up Your Campaign
Choose an email marketing platform to automate emails and send them consistently. But, avoid spamming.
4. Track the Results
At the end, analyze metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates and adjust your strategy.
5. Outreach Playlist Curators
In today’s world, playlist curators like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music are vital music marketing channels. Out of various playlists, Spotify is the main one with 31% of total subscribers.
So, to increase your visibility and credibility simultaneously, you need to get your music into Spotify playlists.
But let’s be honest: as an emerging artist, getting into in-house curators is challenging because they mostly depend on user data and algorithms to curate content.
Here’s the solution: find unofficial Spotify curators like:
- SubmitHub
- Indie Shuffle
- Soundplate
- MySphera
- Daily Playlists
- Musicto
Suggested Post: Top Social Media Marketing Companies for Small Businesses
6. Play Live
Live shows are great music marketing opportunities for a rising artist. Here’s why:
- Live shows allow you to connect with your fans on a personal level. This builds a strong bond and loyalty.
- With live shows, you can also connect with other musicians, industry professionals, and playlist curators.
- And more importantly, you’ll make money through ticket sales, merchandise, or potential sponsorships.
However, playing live won’t be effective unless you consider these tips:
- Start with local venues like bars or cafes that host live music. This way, you can build a fan base and plan for larger stages.
- Use social media platforms. In a world where social media marketing for small businesses and brands is key, you can promote your live shows on your accounts.
- Here’s another smart move: offer products like t-shirts, hats, or posters to hit two birds with one stone; engage your fans and make money!
7. Network with Other Artists
Nobody can underestimate the power of networking in music marketing. Here’s how you can build the right network with others:
- Collaborate on Music Projects: Find artists who work in a similar genre or style. Then, reach out to them with a clear idea for a project. Remember to clarify each artist’s roles and responsibilities. And utilize both sides’ fans and followers to get maximum reach.
- Support Other Artists on Social Media: It’s social media again! Promote other artists’ works on your social media accounts. For example, you can duet on TikTok or use Shorts on YouTube to create videos with other musicians. Don’t forget to engage with their fans.
- Participate in Industry Events: Music industry conferences or festivals are the best opportunities to reach out to like-minded artists or music influencers. So, actively participate in these events and promote yourself by handing out your business cards.
Final Words
We explored seven powerful music marketing strategies that can help you get noticed. You don’t need to do them all at once. We suggest you choose those tactics that match your goals and target audiences. However, social media marketing and building a perfect website can be great starting points.
FAQs
Here are a few FAQs about marketing in the music industry:
1. How to Get Into Music Marketing?
To get into the music marketing industry, you need to combine a strong passion with skills like digital marketing, understanding industry trends, networking with musicians, media personalities, and playlist curators, and gaining practical experiences through internships.
2. What Does Music Marketing Do?
Music marketing involves a variety of strategies to increase a music artist’s visibility, build a fanbase, and ultimately sell music albums. it includes creating social media accounts, playing live shows, or collaborating with other artists.
