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Indie Music Promotion – Guide to Market Your Music
September 12, 2023 •
8 min read
We know the path of music promotion is not simple, especially if you have no one to take care of this process other than yourself. Being an independent artist nowadays it’s not easy and knowing how to do a great indie music promotion is crucial. Streaming platforms made music distribution more accessible, but now it’s even harder to draw attention. But calm down, we will help you! In this article, you'll learn valuable tips to boost your releases and build the hype around your work.
The Current Scenario For Indie Music Promotion
Are you still not 100% sure about what music promotion is? Well, it’s the process of marketing and spreading awareness about your music with strategies to raise your audience. Besides, of course, gaining recognition. And for a very long time, a musician’s success was measured based on how many physical copies they sold.
The only option for bands or singers was was to sign deals with record labels to sell music to stores. Yet, the internet changed the whole picture. In the early 2000s, streaming technology was born to revolutionize the industry. These platforms cut the middleman, allowing artists to share their songs directly to online stores and services while keeping their royalties - copyrights paid to the holders of the work. Now, you can go beyond just radio music promotion, and work on Spotify or Instagram music promotion too, for example.
This way of listening to music, with your favorite songs on the palm of your hands, rose fast. Today, it dominates the music sector. Spotify alone has more than 500 million users. According to the latest IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) report, 67% of the global industry revenue came from streaming last year. In a decade, its revenue went from USD 0,9 billion in 2012 to USD 17,5 billions in 2022.
First things first: in order to take advantage of all the tools streaming platforms provide, you need your music to be available on them. Here enters a music distributor! There are plenty of services, but Magroove distributes your songs for free and was founded to help independent artists.
We upload your tracks to more than 40 high accessed platforms globally, like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TikTok, and more. All giving you 100% of your royalties and never charging upfront. Works this way: you will only be charged if you make more than USD 5 a year per release. We will keep only USP 5, everything else is yours. If you earn less than that, we keep just the amount that was made. The company also offers a lot of features that can aid your journet through music promotion.
Now, you're on streaming platforms. Just like other million musicians. It’s time to stand out! What about creating a Pre-Save Spotify campaign? It guarantees that the track will automatically be in the library or playlist of the listeners who signed up for it. When a song receives a high amount of pre-saves, the platform understands it will have a good repercussion. In the end, pre-save is a great tool to reach more people all around.
Apple Music has a similar feature called pre-adds. Subscribers who signed up are notified the second the content is online. Releases with pre-adds have more listeners than those without, according to the company. These campaigns help to build the hype around your launch! Be sure to promote the campaign on your social media. It can be impulsed with art involving the single’s cover or visual concept, for example. Share the link and encourage the followers to click!
Playlist Pitching
Playlists are another good way to increase your audience. You can pitch tracks to official editors or curators to reach new listeners. Go to your Artists Page on Spotify to send upcoming, unreleased songs. They’ll add your pitched song to your followers’ Release Radar playlists and you can pin it to your This Is playlist.
It’s easy: just log in, select “Pitch from next release”, pick the music, and fill out the info. Feel free to contact the curators directly too, with a message on social media or an email. Be concise, polite and creative. You can look for playlists that fit your work on other major services too, like Apple Music, and Amazon Music. An idea is to create your own list as well, maybe themed with a mood. Something like “Songs to Sing in the Car”, “Songs for Sunny Days” or “Songs for Girls Night”. That way, you can catch new users attention to find your tracks.
Social Media For Indie Music Promotion?
In today's world, social media is key to indie music promotion. Why? Facebook has 3 billion subscribers, Instagram has 2 billion, and TikTok has 1 billion. A typical social media user spends an average of 2 hours and 26 minutes per day using social media, revels data from GWI. These platforms are very popular in people's lives and are efficient to promote your music. Let's learn about the different tools each major platform offers to support you!
Facebook provides an opportunity to build a dedicated community. Through Facebook pages, artists can establish a hub to connect with the fandom, share updates, and interact in chats. Post about new releases, Pre-Save campaigns, tour dates, press appearances, and insights. You can even create groups to motivate fans engaging!
Using live streaming, the musician can open an interactive space for followers to connect in real-time. Additionally, Facebook’s target paid advertising features allow you to achieve specific demographics, ensuring better metrics.
Instagram
You can do plenty of different promotion moves with Instagram. It’s the place to post amazing photos and videos. More than traditional content, this social media has engaging tools like the Reels. They are short-form videos where you can use your tracks as a background or even sing them. An idea is to share a behind-the-scenes of a new music video with the song playing. Therefore, don’t forget to keep your profile active and aligned with your visual identity.
Instagram also has Stories, in which musicians can show their daily life and get closer to the fans. It’s very dynamic and you can open a question box to answer the followers, for example. Use hashtags, be authentic! And why not have your own filter for photos or videos? Also, use the live streaming tool here as well.
Recently, the platform introduced two new features. Now it’s possible to make posts shared with another account. It's a chance to show up for users who don't follow you yet. How about combining content with another artist in your musical genre? Maybe to promote a feat. The second news is the Channels, which works like a large message transmission list. When you enter one, you receive direct messages with updates and fresh posts.
TikTok
When it comes to indie music promotion, TikTok emerged as a game-changer. Many artists became famous after achieving popularity on the platform. The platform’s specialty are short-form videos. On TikTok, anyone can create videos featuring an audio track in the background. Challenges or memes are a hit on the app and make songs be used countless times, generating virals.
Also, a lot of musicians already produce the track considering parts that can become popular on the platform. Think about how you can use your release in these videos: choreography, a snippet of lyrics or the instrumentals. Motivate your fans to use the song, record videos as well, and share those posted by the fanbase.
Artists have other tools on TikTok too, such as “stitching” — when you record a video using an original video as a starting point. Or the “dueting”: recording a video that plays side by side with the original one. TikTok is super funny and enjoyable, so don’t be afraid to use humor to interact with the followers. Be creative!
Spread The Word With an EPK
Never underestimate the power of organic indie music promotion and of the famous word of mouth. With that in mind, an Electronic Press Kit is a perfect exhibition of your work. It’s like a portfolio and can be sent to venue promoters, reviewers, influencers, bloggers, journalists, and radio stations. These people don’t have much time, so receiving one link or archive gathering all information that matters helps you to stand out.
This is why you must always have an EPK ready and updated! In order to do that, here's a guide with things you can't leave out:
- Artist biography: don’t be too long, focus on the most important events and characteristics about your career. Usually it’s two or three paragraphs.
- Press photos: select your best ones and be sure they have high quality so the press can use it. Additionally, it will show more professionalism. Include both vertical and horizontal sizes.
- Videos: add audiovisual content of your best music videos and live concerts recordings.
- Media appearances: compile your main mentions in the press in major media outlets. This will show relevance and critics' interest in your work.
- Contact: always include your contact information, like website, social media, and email address.
- Numbers: insert your numbers on social media (followers, likes) and streaming platforms (plays, playlists). Some places will look up for that to decide if they will promote you.
Show Your Talent
Last but not least: you need to go on stage! Perform your repertoire with all your talent. Although playing gigs is not new in the music industry, it’s still indispensable. For indie artists, big festivals with bands of similar genres are a good call to reach new listeners. If you still can't put together a concert of your own, participate in that of other fellow musicians. Or do a virtual presentation or broadcast on social media. It doesn't matter how: make an effort to show your music to the world!
