Reddit music promotion - Reach new listeners : Blog

A decade ago, finding non-mainstreaming artists was difficult. However, social media has changed the game for music promotion. An independent artist can find very easy ways to promote their music online and reach a wider audience just by understanding how each platform works. Although it's not the first choice of many, Reddit can present itself as a great place for music promotion. Not only for its accessibility, but the platform itself also encourages new and indie artists to show off their work. When people talk about using social media to promote music, Reddit is perhaps the least mentioned platform. That doesn’t mean you should ignore it when you're planning your music marketing. Actually, for being a platform that values content over popularity, it can be easier to gain a loyal audience there than in other social networks. You just have to understand the way Reddit operates and use all the tools they offer.

What is Reddit?

To start, it’s important to know what kind of platform Reddit is. It’s not totally a social media like Twitter and Instagram, it’s more like a big Agora of ancient Greece where people gather to discuss different interests. They present themselves as a “community of communities”. Users can share whatever they want and find friends with similar ideas. Currently, there are more than 100k active communities interacting on the platform. Anyone can create a community, also called a “subreddit”, with its own set of rules and moderators. In Reddit, popularity is based on votes. Once you post something in a community, users can upvote or downvote your post. The most voted and commented posts rise to the top of the community, where they gain more visibility. That’s the kind of content you’re aiming for if you want to succeed doing Reddit music promotion. Every community name is preceded by 'r/", which is an abbreviation for Reddit. Some are more generic communities, like r/music and r/singers, but you can also find more specific ones.

Not only does Reddit gather new listeners for your music, but there you're able to know who your audience is. There are communities in Reddit like r/ratemymusic where professionals and common listeners give free tips on how to improve your songs. New and independent artists can learn a lot by letting different people rate their music. Also, you can catch the interest of important people from music labels.

How to start doing Reddit music promotion?

After creating your account, your first step is to engage in the communities available. Reddit doesn’t allow the creation of a subreddit right away. In order to value contribution above popularity, a user can only create his own subreddit after contributing in other communities. Following some communities such as r/music or r/listentothis is a great way to start. See what’s trending, dig in the comments, try to interact… Building your influence on Reddit will take a lot of your time, but in the meanwhile, you can make connections with producers, fans and other artists that are starting in the industry as well. There are also niche forums dedicated to specific music genres. Find one that matches your style. In big communities like r/newmusic, your post can end up lost in a sea of content, but small forums are more accessible. If your content is good, you can go viral in the same way. Reddit offers a wide range of communities dedicated to music and even exclusively to music promotion. There are subreddits like r/musictheory where people trade knowledge on music, others like r/guitarlessons where professionals and amateurs on guitar help each other. And then there are the more specific communities like r/punkskahardcore, r/rhythmicnoise e r/hiphoptruth. You just have to find something that matches the style of your music. The good thing about doing Reddit music promotion is the democratic way it works. If your work is good, then it's going to attract people sooner or later.

Make posts that will attract the community

Reddit encourages artists to do music promotion, but the website also values the user’s contribution. So, don’t spam your music in every community. Users that only post about their work, don’t engage with others and don’t answer comments are likely to stay at the rock bottom of Reddit. Spam can also result in bans.

First, the rules

Before posting something in any subreddit, make sure your content follows the guidelines. As it was mentioned before, every community has its own set of rules. They're important to follow if you don’t want your post to be taken down. There's an expression on Reddit called "reddiquette". Reddiquette is a set of values written by the community on how to behave properly, such as using proper grammar and respecting all users.

Second, bring valuable content

Dig a little before making a post, see what’s making more votes in that community. Normally sharing some music theory or something that inspires you is a great way to trade knowledge and make yourself noticed in a subreddit.

Third, let’s promote your music!

Now, it's time for you to share your song. Choose the community you want to share with. It’s common for people to share links from Youtube or SoundCloud since both are more accessible platforms. But you can create your own strategy here.

Write something in the post. Just sharing a link won’t really help you, even if your song is good. You have to attract people's attention. Don’t be too generic. Redditors like stories, so share the story behind that track or maybe what’s inspired you to write it. It’s important to also answer every comment! Even if it’s just a simple one saying that your song is good. Interacting is a way to build Karma, a type of user score used in the platform. It’ll be useful when it comes the time to create your own community.

Creating a subreddit

Reddit doesn’t allow new users to create a community right away. In order to do that, your account has to be 30 days old. It’s a long time, we know, but you can take that month to engage and build connections. You also have to have enough Karma – not the spiritual one, don't worry. Karma is a measure of your “goodwill”. You have two Karma scores: the “link karma” are for the links you’ve submitted, and the “comment karma”, for the comments you've made. Of course, the votes you get are related to your points as well. The Karma points are important to show the community that you have good content. People will trust you more and your posts will have more credibility. After all, the feature is called Karma for a reason. When you reach a certain number of Karma, you can create your own forum.

Time to do music promotion in your subreddit

Your own subreddit can be used for a lot of things. You can interact with your fans, answer some of their questions, promote your releases, post snippets of your songs, share tour dates and behind the scenes pictures, which everybody loves. The strategy here is free, the only important thing is to be active and engage with your fans.

Don’t forget to link all your other social media accounts, like Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Spotify in your Reddit profile. Also put the links for users to buy your music on online stores. To help you with the amount of links, Magroove offers a free LinkTree feature where you can have all your important links in one place.

Distribute with Magroove

Social media is gonna take a lot of your time. However, if you do everything right and have good content to show, the time spent will compensate. You don’t have to be on your own when exploring the music industry. Magroove is here to help all types of artists with the most advanced technologies in the market. Magroove distributes songs to over 40 streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer, online stores and social networks for free. We also offer services like LinkTree, a webstore builder and we add your songs to our music recommendation app. Create a Magroove For Artists account now and start promoting!

Reddit music promotion – Reach new listeners