Social media and streaming platforms have revolutionized the way people consume music nowadays. If you're in the industry, creating Instagram for musicians can help you on your road to success, making you reach more fans and admirers of your work. However, it is not enough to just click the create button, there are many tasks you can do to engage your audience and improve your results.
Instagram has approximately 1.4 billion users around the world. This crowd is impossible to ignore for musicians who want to be popular. As usual on the internet, this social network is constantly being updated, with new tools, trends and opportunities. Whether by photo, video or any other of the many options offered by the app, your band can promote music, get closer to fans and make your content go far.
Where to start
Creating Instagram for musicians starts with an important choice: you are offered two options, a personal or business account. Opt for the business one. With it you'll have access to engagement analysis tools that will help you get to know your followers better. Then it's time to enter your band name. Watch out: make sure the name is not being used by another user. Avoid long or over-complicated names with many numbers. When choosing your profile photo, it is recommended that you select a quality image that reflects your message, after all, we are visual beings.
In the bio space, focus on briefly describing important information, such as the band's rhythm, upcoming shows and contacts. The amount of characters for this is limited, so be cohesive and use clear and objective language. Your profile is your business card; always keep it updated. Setting up a new account can take creativity, so don't hesitate to look up references to what other musicians you admire have done. But without copying.
Instagram is not a very link-friendly network, so it's good to take advantage of what you can insert in your bio, a place that all your followers will see whenever they access your page. Use tools like Linktree, where one link can create a custom list that shows other sites that are relevant to the band. Such as virtual addresses for music videos, songs on platforms, ticket sales for concerts and forwarding to other social networks like TikTok or Facebook.
Instagram was originally a photo-oriented social network, but today it has a preference for videos. You can alternate the content, but prioritize the videos, these are favored by the algorithm and can reach more people. Plus, it's an effective way to connect with your audience, who will get to know your voice, your body language, and your charisma better.
Learn to post on Instagram
Use your posts to get closer to your followers and create a community: share band news, your music, and behind the scenes. Make sure that all your posts relate to the message you want to get across. In this sense, subtitles are fundamental and must be creative and be relevant to your ideas. When choosing to publish a photo, be careful to check that its quality is good and do not hesitate to edit it in specialized applications. You can find some editing tips in our cover art blog post, available.
As we mentioned, videos are the trend on Instagram and Reels are one of their most popular formats. They consist of short recordings that can be edited and used not only to, for example, share teasers of music videos, but also to create fun content and participate in famous challenges promoted by Instagram users. This helps your page appear in the Explore tab and increases your proximity to admirers, as well as reach prospective new fans.
But calm down: it is not recommended to make ten posts a day or to only one in a month. There needs to be a balance. At least three to seven posts per week in the feed and five stories is a good number. What matters most here is the consistency and constancy of your posting schedule. Create a schedule and adapt it based on your observed page performance results. Don't forget that visual identity is important. If your aesthetic is consistent, the feed will be more cohesive and look more attractive, which means more people will spend time scrolling through your feed.
What are stories and how to use them
Stories are videos or photos that are only available 24 hours on your profile. They gained several tools that further improved their ability to interact with followers. You can add gifs, polls, music, stickers, links, location and even a question box. This format is very useful for sharing about the artist's daily life.
In addition, you can archive your favorite stories in highlights on your page. It's an interesting alternative; you can create a highlight with content from a show, backstage, a release or news about the band. There are several possibilities. Don't forget to name this kind of folder and create a cover, which is recommended to be done on a design platform like
Canva. Remember that they are displayed below the bio, so it's necessary to think about the aesthetics of the page.
How to add your music to the Instagram library
Can you imagine the audio of your music playing in your post and whoever else wants to hear it? This is easier than you think and can help not only to gain more followers, but also to promote shows, tours, albums and merchandising. For that, you need a
free music distribution service, like Magroove.
Since 2018, Instagram allows users to choose songs to use as background for their posts. Take the opportunity to use your track and be dynamic and fun showing releases, behind the scenes, performances and more. Using direct links to streaming platforms like Spotify also helps to promote your upcoming albums or songs at no extra cost.
Increase your engagement
One strategy to help boost your engagement and get more people to see your posts is to insert hashtags into your captions. But no exaggerating – a maximum of ten at a time, so it is not confused with spam. Avoid the very general ones like #happy, tagged in millions of posts. Look for more specific terms that relate to your musical niche.
Another technique is to interact with your followers. Whenever possible, try to like and reply to their comments on your page, but don't do it generically. Add your brand, your personality, in your comments. It's also worth engaging in profiles of artists you admire.
A novelty are collaborative posts, which appear on the profiles of both users and increase your audience. In addition, you can do or participate in Instagram Lives with up to three guests, talking to your admirers or broadcasting a show, for example. Tagging your location, when possible, also helps to spread the posts to more people. Another option is to link your Instagram account with your pages on other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Be aware – each space hasits own language, so remember to customize the message appropriately.
Understanding Instagram for musicians
To measure your impact, use Instagram Insights, a tool available for business accounts. It offers free analytics on your performance and can help you know, for example, when your followers are most active. It provides a way to analyze the audience age, gender breakdown, locations, hobbies and interests. You can measure metrics such as reach, engagement, impressions, likes, shares and comments. There is also the possibility of paying for your content to be promoted to specific audiences, increasing the number of people impacted by the publication.
