There are many routes an artist can take when it comes to music promotion. A lot of artists get caught up focusing too much on one way of promoting and think their song will just blow up. The most successful artists allocate time and energy to multiple outlets for a well rounded promotional campaign.
Our team at WMR Music Group has listed the 5 most important strategies and marketing campaigns that will help you to reach the widest audience possible.
Tip #1 - Create Pre-Release Strategy
What is pre-release hype, you might ask? Well, it’s all about creating anticipation around your release and getting people to WANT to listen to your music once it’s out.
The more preparation that’s done BEFORE the release means that you will drastically increase your chances of reaching a larger audience and getting more streams/plays/downloads than if you didn’t have a strategy or plan.
Here are the most important tips to do before your release:
Social Media:
Change your Instagram/TikTok bio to announce the release - don't forget to add CTA to pre-save.
Create Instagram Story Video and Post
Post Facebook/TikTok Status Update to announce the release
Go Live and host a ''listening party'' with your fans directly
Spotify:
Update your header & profile photo while still keeping your social media branding image
Update your image gallery - Add the images that align with your brand and recent music
Update your Spotify Bio that includes your new release announcement
Add an Artist's Pick with your new release
Create and upload Spotify Canvas on Release Date
YouTube:
Customize the channel's banner to announce your new release
Prepare description with CTA's to other streaming platforms
Update your artist's playlists
Make a timeline post for your subscribers with your new release
Post ''Shorts'' with a single announcement
Or you can hire our team at WMR Music Group and we will do it for you!
Book a consultation call today - https://www.wmrmedia.com/quote
Tip #2 - Pitch To Spotify For Artists
We’ve heard many success stories from artists who’ve pitched a song to Spotify for Artist’s playlist pitch tool. They’ve watched their streams and followers skyrocket after being featured on one of Spotify’s editorially curated playlists. When pitching a track, be sure to add key details about the song, like genre and mood, to improve the likelihood that it’ll land on the most suitable playlist.
Remember that when you pitch your track to Spotify's editors through Spotify for Artists at least seven days before the release date, that track will automatically be eligible to land on Release Radar—a personalized playlist for fans that features new releases from artists they follow, similar artists they’ve listened to, and music we think they’d like. This in turn helps the algorithm. So, no matter what stage you are in your career, encourage your fans to follow you on Spotify and your music will hit their Release Radars when it’s live!
To increase your chances of landing one of these spots, pitch a song for playlist consideration at least seven days before its release date.
When you’re pitching to Spotify bear in mind that editors love to learn about context and community.
Give them the who, what, why, when, where, and how of your song. Who made it with you? Why did you make it? When was it made? Where did you make it?
If there’s an interesting story around you and/or the song, please let us know. The music is key but context is also extremely helpful to us. Whatever you do, we encourage you to NOT leave the note blank! The more information we have about the song that you’ve worked so hard on, the better. In addition, beyond knowing what your song is about, it is also especially helpful to us to include any press, music video plans, release schedules, and promotions, as well as the social media accounts linked in your artist profile.
Want to leave it to professionals? Get in touch today! - https://www.wmrmedia.com/quote
Tip #3 - Use YouTube Advertising
It’s all about meaningful and real connections! YouTube provides artists with a unique way to amplify their music by directly engaging with millions of fans.
Listening and building relationships with subscribers is super important in order to increase your YouTube subscriber count and showcase your music. We advise you to like or respond to certain comments to create a dialogue. The Youtube Studio app allows you to manage your profile, easily create playlists and reply to comments directly on a mobile!
Here are a few reasons why you should use YouTube Advertising:
Reach new listeners By using our YouTube Advertising Campaign we will make sure to reach new listeners
Build your channel With our campaigns, your YouTube channel is set for consistent growth
Engage your audience There will be lots of new potential listeners who will engage with your music
WMR Music Group's marketing agency is focused exclusively on entertainment growth on YouTube.
With thousands of global campaigns built for record labels, PR agencies, and independent artists, we’ve learned the nuances of developing complex YouTube Ads management processes that optimize results towards key metrics that are important to creators.
Here are a few ideas on how our team can help you to advertise your new release.
New music video: This will draw fans to your work, as well as bring attention to an album.
A "making of" video: This may be best targeted at your existing fans, but a "making of" video can build a lot of buzz for a future release.
An "out now" ad: This is really what YouTube ads are for: brief clips that lead viewers to official music video of your single
Well-shot acoustic video or live performance: It could build buzz for your future work and get new fans interested in your music.
You can also make community posts that allow you to tease future videos, talk about new releases you may have and stay in touch with your audience! These posts can be plain text, or contain images, videos, GIFs, Youtube playlists, and even a poll.
Don't have the time to learn the complex YouTube Advertising Strategies?
Our team will take care of it for you! Book A Call Today - https://www.wmrmedia.com/quote
Tip #4 - Use Facebook & Instagram Ads (Pre-Release / Retargeting)
Creating ads on Facebook is a great way for musical artists to get people interested in their latest album, tour, merch, and other promotions.
You should create pre-release advertising campaigns to announce your release to your existing audience as well as create an additional campaign that reaches the widest audience possible that can be used for re-targeting after your song is released to increase your sales, let's look at an IRL example of Tash Sultana:
1: About two months after her album Flow State was released, musician Tash Sultana posted a video of her performing a song off the album. The video post was boosted using Facebook ads to reach more of her existing and potential new fans.
Target audience:
Followers of similar artists, related festivals, and music outlets on Facebook
Followers of Tash Sultana
Results: Over 1 million video views
2: The team then created a Facebook ad to promote related merchandise to their US audience. Based off the audience of the previous video, they created a few audience sets for the ad.
Target audience:
People who watched at least 3 seconds the video
A Lookalike Audience of those video viewers
Followers of Tash Sultana
Results: Ad exposure drove over 1,000% increase in conversion, resulting in nearly $11,000 in incremental sales that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
3: Using the results from that campaign, the team used the same creative to create another Facebook ad to promote the same merchandise to a worldwide audience.
The target audience included all of the previous audience sets, plus:
People who had visited the website but didn’t buy anything (created using the Facebook Pixel)
A Lookalike Audience of people who did make purchases
Results: Ad exposure drove over 300% increase in sales, with an incremental return of 3x on ad spend.
Our team thinks creatively when choosing imagery and videos for mobile ads. Even simple changes can make a big difference.
Get Started today - https://www.wmrmedia.com/quote
Tip #5 - Blogs & PR
Music blogs are an essential way to promote your album to new audiences. There are a ton of genre-centric blogs out there where bloggers review and post independent music.
Research is an important step here once again. Just like with your radio submissions, make sure you’re submitting to someone who writes about your genre of music, and who you think will be interested in what you are offering. Make sure to include your band EPK when you contact them.
Once you do get some press, regardless of the size of the outlet providing coverage, use that in your EPK and on social media to draw more interest to your release.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when doing your Press Pitching:
Update your EPK & Bio
Research Local Press First
Research Niche Blogs & Sites
Have a story ready for editors & writers
When you get placement, post it to your social media platforms
If your music gets featured by music publications, whether that’s mainstream mags or niche blogs and webzines, those placements can help build hype and give you the credentials to take your music career up a level.
Ready to start your campaign?
We have a team of skilled and experienced individuals on hand to promote our clients’ music to the heights they deserve, which is exactly what we’ll do for you.
With thousands of global campaigns built for record labels, PR agencies, and independent artists, we’ve learned the nuances of developing complex campaigns.
Why not get in touch? We’re waiting to talk about how we can help you too!
Get In Touch With Us Today!
Book A Consultation Call Here: https://www.wmrmedia.com/quote