30/8/2020 Digital Marketing 101: How To Promote and Market Your Music Online

Whether you’re a band, a solo artist/MC, or a producer, chances are that you will have to rely on
yourself first when it comes promoting the music you create. And that’s OK! We’re living in an age that
finds social and promotional platforms at our fingertips. While that’s obviously a major plus, it’s a
double-edged sword in that it creates what can feel like an oversaturated independent music market.
However, there’s really no excuse to not take advantage of them if you want to build a fanbase online.

It’s important to concentrate on the digital promotion of your new releases, music videos, tour dates, or
even just yourself/your band for the sake of getting the name out there. By doing so, you’ll be inviting
more and more opportunities your way while simultaneously building a ‘brand’ around your music.
A lot of artists hear ‘digital marketing’ and assume it’s a lot of work that requires years of experience,
but really, there’s a lot of easy ways to get started on an effective campaign. Establishing a social
media presence and developing a flow of content to share, making your digital assets available in one
place, building an email list, and pitching your music to digital outlets are all efforts you can begin
DIGITAL
focusing on earlyMARKETING FOR MUSICIANS 101
on in your music career.

As you begin to get organized and prepare to promote yourself, it’s important to consider everything
you’ll need to put together and where it will all live online. If the head of a record label or a booking
agent suddenly wanted to know everything about you, will they be able to find it without much effort?
Or will they have to sort through loose ends, empty profiles, and potentially wrong links to hear your
BUILDING
music and establishYOUR DIGITAL
a general understandingPRESENCE
of what you’re up to?

Your electronic press kit provides a central location with all of your assets – like image and music files,
bio, etc – for members of the media (editors, bloggers, radio program directors, venue talent buyers,
etc.) to quickly access. It should include the following:

Your Bio
No one needs a novel, but there are some crucial elements to an effective bio.

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30/8/2020 Digital Marketing 101: How To Promote and Market Your Music Online

Your Photo(s)
Professional-looking photography doesn’t have to be unaffordable, and it goes a long way.
Provide a link to hi-res photos for writers and editors to use – think Google Drive or Dropbox.
Include photo credit info if necessary.
Press Quotes
If you’ve been featured somewhere online or in print, include any positive quotes. If not, no
worries – that’s why you’re pitching, after all!
Links to Your Music
Consider that everyone has different preferred platforms and include major streaming channels
like Spotify and Apple Music in addition to Bandcamp and/or Soundcloud.
Links to Your Social Media Profiles/Website
Social channels have a way of keeping members of the media up to speed with what’s happening
in your world.
Members of the media want to be able to share links when covering music.
Any Imperative/Timely Information
For example, if you’re releasing a new EP or album, make sure to include a section that includes
ELECTRONIC
all the information PRESS
around it. KIT (EPK)

With social media channels offering a variety of ways to engage with our favorite artists, for a lot of
people having a website can feel antiquated. However, by building an artist website, you’re creating a
hub for all the information being conveyed across these social channels to exist in one place. While an
EPK can live on an artist’s website, the two are not necessarily one and the same – think of a website
of being fan facing and an EPK to be business facing. Believe it or not, people who want to cover your
music and people who want to engage as fans can both find websites very convenient.
But there can be more to an artist website than just a place to house links and pictures. Building a
website is just the start – it’s up to you, the artist, what you want to achieve from your website. Maybe
it’s to promote tour dates, maybe it’s to get more email addresses from fans – once you determine
whatever that objective is, you can make it the centerpiece of your site. Thankfully, too, there’s an
abundance of resources out there to make building and maintaining a website easy – so don’t go
YOUR
signing up WEBSITE
for HTML courses just yet.

At this point, most music fans are at least somewhat active on social media platforms like Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. As you continue to build your music career, you’ll find that
social media is a great way to connect (and remain connected) with your fans.

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30/8/2020 Digital Marketing 101: How To Promote and Market Your Music Online

While this Survival Guide is meant to be an introductory look at digital marketing, we could write an
entire individual section on the importance of social media marketing for independent artists — wait a
second, we did!
Head over to the TuneCore Social Media Beginner’s Guide – a step by step guide to getting, growing
and interacting with followers that will help you learn about:

Defining your brand

Engaging with fans, venues, other brands, and more
Channel differentiation
Social media analytics
Boosted posts and advertising

Once you’ve begun to establish your social media presence, (and that may even include deciding
which platforms to avoid depending on what kind of fans you’re trying to reach), you’ll begin to find
the kind of content sharing that works for you. A lot of that has to do with finding your ‘social voice’ and
SOCIAL
cadence, but MEDIA PROFILES
a lot of it also has to do with pure experimentation – so have fun with it!

Email was one of the first big revelations associated with the digital age, and as a result it can be
viewed as ‘old school’ in a rapidly evolving environment. Regardless of this, email lists can be
extremely impactful for artists. Sure, tweeting or sending a direct message might seem like the easiest
way to communicate with fans directly, but like anyone else, music fans check their email inboxes, too.
Additionally, email has the highest engagement rates per post – fans are more likely to read any one
email than any one Facebook post or tweet, both of which exist in a virtual sea of content.
First things first: finding ways to build that email list. Tactics like offering incentives in exchanges for
your fans’ email addresses and setting up a sign-up sheet at your merch table are two of the most
common strategies here. Free downloads or access to exclusive content can be offered in exchange
for a fan’s email address. Hooking new fans up with small, free items of merch at your table after a
performance on the condition that they throw their email addresses down on your list is a practical
approach, too.
Once you’ve begun to build your email list – and don’t worry if it’s starting out small, Rome wasn’t built
in a day, right? – it’s time to start thinking about what kind of content you want to share.
Email lists provide an easy, wide-reaching communication option when it comes to spreading high
level information about a new release, a tour, a music video, or radio/TV appearance – but it can also
be used just to check in and say hello to your fans, letting them know you’re still thinking about them.
Like anything else, it’s important not to abuse these lists or make the messages you send too
redundant – music fans are just like you: they don’t want to be spammed.

Think of this in a different light in terms of what you’d post on social media. People who take the time to
open your emails are truly some of your most engaged fans, so give them something that’ll make them
want to open your next one. Some ideas include:

Early access to events or singles

Behind the scenes glances
Tour dates/show announcements
Cool new merch for sale
This one could offer an exclusive discount!

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30/8/2020 Digital Marketing 101: How To Promote and Market Your Music Online

Put some thought into the content of your emails, and like your social media accounts, develop and
craft a ‘voice’ that your fans can relate to and enjoy. Building and sticking to an email calendar will help
ensure that you don’t go overboard or leave anything out. Did we mention that email tends to be more
effective per subscriber in terms of e-commerce than social media? When you’re ready, start setting
some sales goals as a measure of your growth in this area – as always, remember that it’s a balance
and to avoid coming off too salesy.
Be sure to check out Cheryl B. Engelhardt’s six-part S.T.A.G.E.S. series on email marketing for
EMAIL LIST
artists on the TuneCore Blog.

Just because you released a great single, EP or album doesn’t mean people are magically going to
know all about it. Yes, you’ve sent your emails, you’ve posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,
you’ve made the release available on your site, and you’ve shared links to digital stores and streaming
platforms to friends and family. If you think that your digital marketing efforts are over after all of that,
guess again.
If you want to be like your favorite artists and see your music being featured on playlists and blogs and
local digital outlets, it’s going to need to be pitched! While at some point you may be interested
in hiring a publicist for this sort of work, don’t be fooled – you can take a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach
PITCHING
to pitching. YOUR MUSIC

As streaming continues to attract more and more music fans, platforms like Apple Music and Spotify
have found ways to offer these fans curated playlists of music they may love, or, in many cases, not
KNOW they love yet. That’s why streaming has laid a foundation for new levels of music discovery –
and independent artists are not being left out of the fun!
As an artist or band just starting out, there are a few steps you can take toward trying to get your
music placed on some of these playlists. First thing’s first: you’ll want to make sure you’re verified on
any platforms that allow you to upload photos and build profiles. From there, it is equally important to
be promoting your streaming platform links – on social, on your site, in emails – in order to remind
people where they can find you and add you to their personal playlists.
A tactic that has gone overlooked by some artists is pitching to lesser-known, unofficial playlists. For
example, while we all know about “Rap Caviar” on Spotify, there are tons and tons of ‘unofficial’ Spotify
curators that build playlists with decent (and dedicated) follower counts. Try finding these folks on
social media and let them know what you love about their playlists and why your newest song would
make a great addition to it. Remember: don’t spam, be polite, and don’t always expect a response.
Also, if you’re using TuneCore to distribute your newest music and you give yourself a minimum of
three weeks lead time, you can take advantage of our Feature Release formthat makes its way to
PLAYLISTS
editorial teams across digital stores.

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30/8/2020 Digital Marketing 101: How To Promote and Market Your Music Online

If you’re making music, it’s not unlikely that you’re a fan who has his or her favorite online resources for
new music. Blogs and online magazines that cover music can be a great way of getting new eyes and
ears on your tunes. As mentioned above, you can get started on these efforts early in your music
career without paying for a publicist – it just takes some work.

Start by putting time aside for research – lots of it. Scour every corner of the internet for blogs and
other sites that like to cover the kind of music you make (and make sure the sites are regularly
updated, too). While they may not make it easy, you should be able to find general contact information
– or, in some cases, specific “Submission Guidelines” – somewhere on the site.
Build yourself a robust media list, and where you can, try to find specific writers who seem to be fans
of your genre (one tip is locating writers who have covered artists that you’d compare your style to –
that way you also have a reference point in the introductory email) – sending them the EPK you
learned about above will help them learn more about you.
Remember: it’s important not to get to discouraged or distressed when you begin pitching to writers
and music sites. If you’re not getting responses, follow up once – but respect the inboxes of who
BLOGS &to,OTHER
you’re pitching DIGITAL
and don’t take OUTLETS
it personally.

CONCLUSION
Whew. You made it all the way down here, good job. This ultimately has been a high-level look at some
steps independent artists can begin taking when it comes to not only promoting and selling their
music, but also building and engaging with a fan base.

Don’t feel overwhelmed – once you’re started, take some pride in your development as an artist or
band and know that you’re establishing a business acumen that will help you navigate the music
industry.

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