Blogs can be a fantastic option for music promotion and music marketing. Successful music blogs have tens of thousands of loyal readers per month. As an artist, if you can get your music in front of these readers with the endorsement of a trusted blogger, it can be an amazing opportunity to seize new fans.
In this article, we’ll look at why blogs are great for music marketing along with actionable steps to get started.
Here are four big reasons why blogs should be utilized for music marketing online:
New audience. You can reach many new potential fans who can turn into loyal followers. Plus, this audience will connect with you on a deeper level since they’re not only listening to your music, but they’re reading your story as well. This is the type of connection that will make fans want to share your work through word of mouth–which is the Holy Grail of music marketing.
New feedback. This new audience can give you different feedback than what you’re used to from your current fan base. This will give you a different perspective on your music which can help your songwriting in the future.
Builds credibility. Proving that a popular and respectable blogger wrote about your music will legitimize your work and your brand. People will begin to take you seriously and give your music the respect it deserves.
Evergreen marketing. Unlike a five-minute live TV or radio promotion, blog posts don’t go away. Once they’re published, they’re there forever (as long as the blogger doesn’t take it down). If the blogger has decent SEO skills, people will be able to find your music through the blog post 24/7 for years to come.
Now that we know blogs are great for music promotion, how do you determine which blogs are the best fit for you?
Not every blog is a good fit for your work. In fact, if you pick the wrong blogger, it can have a negative impact on your brand. For example, it’s probably not a good idea to pick a music publicist that used to work for a Hip Hop PR firm if you’re trying to promote a country album.
Therefore, it’s important to research the blog to make sure it will have a positive impact on your image–especially since music promotion isn’t free!
Here are a few questions to ask yourself before contacting a blogger/music publicist:
Does this blog have a good amount of quality readers that will like my music?
“Quality” is the keyword here. Sure, there are many blogs with 100,000+ readers per month. But sometimes these blogs spend thousands of dollars on sending traffic to their website just to boost their numbers and ranking. This traffic isn’t engaged with the content at all. Scaling your music to as many people as possible is necessary if you want to grow your influence. However, quality beats quantity in most cases (unless if you are a true ‘pop’ artist). You need to make sure the audience is a good match for your music. View the comments on the blog to get a feel for what the audience is like. It would be much better to get in front of a few hundred quality readers who trust the blogger than 10,000 spam visitors. If the readers trust and respect the opinion of the blogger, then they’ll be much more willing to listen to your music if the blogger endorses you.
Does the tone and brand of this blog resonate with my music?
If you found a blog with a good amount of quality readers that you think will enjoy your music, it’s important to determine if the blog is ‘on brand’ with your work–everything from the writing style, the blog design, social media presence, etc. Read a few articles on the blog to see if you like their style of writing.
Ok, so you found a blog that you think is a good fit. What is the best way to reach out to the blogger and convince them to work with you?
The main question you must ask yourself when determining how to get a blogger to work with you is:
“What’s in it for them?”
No blogger will promote your music out of the goodness of their heart (unless you’re very lucky!). There must be an incentive for them to do so.
So many artists take the wrong approach to this by pushing their music onto people: ‘listen to this’ ‘buy this’ ‘check out my new ___’. This is the opposite of what you should do.
So what do you do instead? Figure out ways to provide value to them first.
What is valuable to them? Your two currencies are traffic and money.
Money talks. But if you’re short on cash here are a few ways to add value:
Leverage your social media following by offering to promote the blog post to your 10,000+ Instagram followers.
Share and engage with their current content at no cost to them.
Give them a percentage of the music you sell through the blog post.
There are many ways to add value–get creative!
Once you have an offer, find their email on the contact page and reach out. Here’s an example of an email you can send that has a value-focused approach:
Hi John,
I recently read and shared your blog post on __. It was fascinating to learn about __ and my audience thought so too! Thank you for sharing.
My name is John Doe, and I just released a new hip hop album. I’m reaching out because we have similar audiences, and I believe I can drive my 10,000+ social media followers to your website–many of which will become loyal readers.
Would you be interested in writing an article on my new album?
By doing so, I will promote the blog post to all of my followers who will then share to their followers. I will also give you 20% commission of any music that is sold through the blog post.
Please let me know if this is something you’d like to discuss further. Thank you for your time.
Talk soon,
John Doe
It’s not perfect by any means, but the point is to talk about them and their interests, not you and your interests.
Cold emailing can be a tedious process, so you can always hire Music PR Agencies or Hip Hop PR Firms to do this for you!
In conclusion, getting your music promoted through a good blog is one of the best ways to reach a new audience and potentially gain loyal followers. A well-written blog post is a piece of marketing that will always be working for you 24/7 to promote your music.
If you want to give yourself the best chance at fulfilling your true potential in the music industry, WMR Media is a leading music and hip hop PR firm that can take your career to the next level and help you achieve all of the things listed above. Check out WMR Media right now for publicity, digital marketing and Spotify Ad Campaigns
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