Working on Spotify music promotion is crucial for any artist. Launched in the market in 2008, Spotify has turned the music industry upside down since its debut. Nowadays, with 210 millions of premium signatures, Spotify has become a great showcase to new artists.
Connecting with new fans has never been so easy and accessible. Do you feel like nothing else works and you are at your limit in the music industry? Maybe, if you just adapt your music promotion method, your career will be on a completely different level. To keep evolving in your way to success, you need to innovate and improve your skills in multiple areas. Knowing how to sell your music is often a great divider for an artist's career. In this article you will find:
- Why should you be on Spotify?
- Guide to Spotify music promotion
- Build your name with branding
- Draw more attention to your work
Why should you be on Spotify?
For many reasons, Spotify has turned itself into not just the most efficient, but also the most comfortable platform to be in. Especially for independent artists, that streaming service offers a huge pool of mensal listeners, counting with 500 million active users every month, tools to help you get to your fans, editor's playlists that help you to promote your music, and much more.
The platform has even changed the way people relate to music, stimulating fans to listen to different types of songs. If in the early 2000s people had to pay for every album they wanted to listen to. Today, with Spotify, you just have to pay 9.90$ for a subscription and have access to a giant archive with innumerable amounts of records of all kinds. Therefore, the new generation of listeners is more eclectic then previous ones. A 2019 survey by the research team YPulse found out that 85% of millennial Spotify users say that they often listen to different categories of music.
Before, it was expensive and rare for people to listen to music genres outside of their comfort zone. After all, who would pay high prices for an album to end up not enjoying it? That scenario contributed for people to stick with the songs and artists they already knew. Now, discovering new artists and trying out different kinds of music is much more accessible. That's great for both artists and listeners.
Guide to Spotify Music Promotion
Once your music is on Spotify, it's time to learn how to use it efficiently. As we said, there are many tools to use in Spotify music promotion.
The first thing to do is: claim your Artist page and create your account. As an artist, you can't create your own artist page, though. First, you need a label or music distributor to release at least one music on the platform. The registering part is up to your label or music distribution team. Once you have your first record uploaded, you're ready to claim your account.
With that in hand, you're now allowed to access some important promotion functions. Edit your profile to look more like your style and access your data and statistics. That data is highly detailed and is a great help to organize your promotions. Some tutorials provided by Spotify are also available to help you use this information.
Pre-save Campaign
Another effective practice in Spotify music promotion are pre-save campaigns. This will help you build the hype around your release. Good pre-save campaigns show that you're relevant and help the algorithm better distribute your material. This process even helps your release to reach the people who are more likely to listen to it.
A good way to rise up your pre-save numbers is doing a prize draw with the fans. But beware: this strategy will only work if the prize is something related to your work. General prizes, like cellphones, TVs will attract people that won't even press the play button in your music when it's released. If that happens, the Spotify algorithm will consider your pre-save numbers as fake fans, and that will ruin your reputation on the platform. That's why you should only put on prizes with things related your music. Try to use a merch store; that way you get the right people involved with your promotion.
Spotify's Curated Playlists
You can also pitch to a spotify curator playlist. Spotify playlists cover almost all types of music. Separated by genre, mood, time of day, month, activities and many more. Some of the editors' playlists have tons of followers. Having your music on one of these playlists means it will be seen by all of those listeners. It can open ways and give you unprecedented opportunities.
Build your name with branding
Building an identity is a crucial step to your career, and it will help you with overall music promotion. It's a part of your art and it makes the connection with your fans easier. People want to have an idea of who you are, and that necessity turns into a great opportunity for you to bring them even closer.
Good examples of strong branding in music may be the ones provided by rock bands in the 80s. You might not be a fan, but you may remember the thunder between the C and the D of AC/DC; the red roses mixed in the guns on the logo of guns and roses; or even the wings in the logo of Aerosmith. This is the power of good branding, it's as if they're stuck in your mind.
The visual identities mentioned have something in common: they represent strong aspects of the artists and the music they make. At the end of the day, artist branding is there to help your music deliver its message; the identity you create will be there to reflect the deeper meaning of your music and your work as a musician. To reach similar results, you have to think carefully about what your identity embodies. Meditate on the message you want to deliver, what your music represents, your fans, the audience you want to reach and the image you want to embrace.
Draw more attention to your work
Being in the game is a great step. If you're on Spotify, you're in a very fruitful place of the music market, and that already gives you opportunities. However, simply being there is not enough: you have to sell your music. Although Spotify really is an oasis for musicians, with more than 10 million artists in 184 different countries, the competition is tough. Therefore, you need to spend some extra effort to maintain your development.
In order to sell your art, you need to sell yourself as an artist. Be interesting, show your profissional routine, your producing process and your job partners. Tell a story about your art. There are many ways to do it, but some of them are more efficient. Creating a narrative around your art and posting it online on your social media is often a good option.
Social Media Presence
Still, be careful. Social media algorithms are different, and need to be fed with adapted content to work out. If you produce a content for your musician Instagram, you can't use it on Tiktok or Facebook. The content must be thought of with each of the platforms in mind. This way, the promotion can live up to its fullest potential.
Producing material for social media is a hard and exhausting task. If you're willing to take on this mission, the best choice is to focus on one or two platforms; which is already a huge amount of work. Trying to manage more than two social media accounts often leads to failure. There are high chances that the quality of your content will just drop off if it's badly adapted to the app you are trying to use.
Live Performances
Live performances are also a good way to catch attention. Each appearance of yours or your band in public can create a unique memory for the people that were there. It's the best way to connect with your fans and to grow your fanbase. Those are great moments to talk with them and also to sell your merch. People are often more interested in the products after experiencing a good moment with your music.
Hiring a photographer or videomaker to register these moments is a great idea, too. This material is useful for many things. Videoclips, documentary, exclusive content for a personal website, and much more.
Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
Once you have your visual identity, you can use it in your EPK, or electronic press kit. The electronic press kit is basically your visitors card, a resumé of you and your portfolio. This is the material you will send to labels, journalists and any other music industry contact. Having an visual design project can help you show more of yourself and your work.
Your EPK should contain your main music portfolio, a brief introduction of yourself as artist and some visual material, such as photos and videos. Remember: that material is a quick view of your work, something that brings all the important stuff about you together.
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