UPDATE: I’m doing things differently now! There are still some great pointers here, but don’t miss my latest post on the subject, Facebook Ads for Spotify Best Practices. If you were wondering how I found your work, it was through Spotify. I was looking for vocal synthwave playlists. Yours had the most followers and I…
In March of 2016, I published what quickly became my most popular post: These 59 Music Blogs Will Listen to Your Song, Guaranteed. Four years later it’s up to 1100+, and also includes radio stations, YouTube and Twitch channels, Spotify playlisters, and Instagram influencers. Jason Grishkoff, the founder of SubmitHub, walked me through the submission…
Your new music video cost $2000 to make. One week after its YouTube premiere, it has 134 views. What to do? You could share the link on your socials for the seventh time, at the risk of annoying your friends and family. But even if they click through, the lack of social proof is unconvincing….
Over the past few months, I’ve received a handful of emails asking me the same impossible question: “I love the blog, I’ve read all your articles, you’ve given me so many things to try… but if you had to pick just one, what’s the best way to promote music?” I bet you know the answer….
Three weeks ago, I received the following email from SoundCloud with the subject line “You’re invited to an exclusive promotional opportunity.” I immediately created a campaign to promote the opener from my new album: As it currently stands, creating a campaign is relatively straightforward, though the option to choose between simple and advanced targeting is…
You’ll recall from my last installment that streams don’t equal fans. Two campaigns yielded 180K streams, with no obvious boost in followers. Keep those results in mind as we break down my two Spotify PR campaigns with Midnite Blaster, which should ring a bell if you read my article on SoundCloud promotion. Vicky Edward, who…
John Gold, founder of Hypeddit, recently published a course called Fans on Demand Formula, promising a thousand new fans in one week. I put it to the test! Well, kinda sorta. I took three weeks, and experimented with different audiences more than any sane person would dare. But hey, I completed the training and am…
It’s always a good sign when a Spotify PR company rejects your song. It means they’re selective, a prerequisite to establishing fruitful relationships with influential curators. Virtuoso Music rejected my first submission, so I sent them three more. To my relief, they approved one of them: We really love “In Motion” and we think that has a…
Spotify launched their Ad Studio platform early last year. I was giddy with excitement. For the first time, I could make potential fans hear my music. If they liked it enough to click through, my entire catalog was at their fingertips, AND I’d earn royalties on every play. Maybe I’d even earn enough to pay…
You may have noticed that whenever you schedule a video release on YouTube or Facebook, you have the option of making it a premiere. In the spirit of “why not?” I tested the feature out on both platforms to determine the premiére premiere-er. The winner, in my mind, was cliére (I’ll stop). The idea is…
Drooble is a social network for musicians. Like Facebook, it has a news feed with comments and likes. Like SoundCloud, it has artist profiles, radio, charts, and playlists. And like Fiverr, you can pay for things like radio play, news feed exposure (Artist/Tune/Video of the Day), and even professional services like mixing and mastering. The…
I would never buy fake plays, and I strongly suggest you don’t either. You risk getting your material taken down, your account suspended, or worse. When I received an email from Vicky Edward of Midnite Blaster, an electronic music marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia, I was skeptical. She assured me that their SoundCloud promotional service is…
In a recent How I’m Promoting My Music This Month email newsletter (subscribe here), I mentioned that I was working through a long to-do list to promote my new album. Several subscribers emailed to ask for a copy of that list. It’s full of abbreviations, acronyms, and other indecipherables, so I figured I’d break it down…
Patreon has been doing a lot lately to help creators maximize their potential on the site. In addition to the recently launched Patreon U, I was invited to not one, but two special workshops: Special Offers & Membership Reboot. The former allows you to offer a limited-time reward at a particular tier. The latter involves…
You’re probably familiar with song share links that direct fans to the music service of their choice. For example, here’s one for my last single: There are several free and paid options. I can’t say that I’ve tried them all, but I’m partial to Feature.fm Smart Links. It’s comprehensive yet easy to use, and offers several advantages…
A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this giveaway from Taylor Davis, and was blown away by what I saw: With almost two days left, she racked up over 3K entries, just by giving away a few CDs! All that social media action probably cost her $100 — $50 for the CDs plus shipping, and…
Playlist Push promises to help independent artists get their music on Spotify playlists, and gives playlist curators a way to monetize their music discovery. As of this writing, they have 242 curators across 60 genres with a total of 8 million followers. Campaigns start at $185 and run for two weeks. The price increases with genre popularity,…
UPDATE: I’m doing things differently now! There are still some great pointers here, but don’t miss my latest post on the subject, Facebook Ads for Spotify Best Practices. As of today, I’ve spent $5888.35 on Facebook ads. Does that make me an expert? No way! Promoting music on Facebook, and Instagram through Facebook Ads, is…
UPDATE: Be sure to check out my latest post on Spotify Ad Studio here! I’ve been looking for ways to boost my Spotify streams. What could be better than advertising directly on Spotify with an audio ad? That way people will hear my music without needing to click on anything first. And if they hear…
Patreon consumed my last year. Between launching my page, promoting it, and delivering on what I promised to patrons, there was little time left for other musical or marketing activities. These days, most of what I make from my music comes from patrons. Starting at $1 per month, they get exclusive first access to new…
UPDATE: I gave Playlist Push another whirl in March, and they’ve come a long way since I wrote this. You won’t miss anything if you skip straight to my latest review, Playlist Push Revisited. My Spotify numbers are weak compared to my other social stats. I hover around 1200 listeners and 3600 streams per month….
$500 is a lot of money. As much as I love testing out promotion ideas and sharing the results with you, that’s more than I’m typically willing to spend. In this case though, I didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket. The referral link I included in my earlier article on Feature.fm (which will…
Which of my unreleased songs will people like? I have no idea. Friends and family aren’t much help either. Fortunately, I’m able to get unbiased feedback from fans of my genre through ReverbNation’s Crowd Review, which has been completely overhauled since ReverbNation’s acquisition of Audiokite last November. To call this market research simply “helpful” would be a gross understatement. My…
I haven’t bought a CD since 2011. If it isn’t on Spotify, to me, it doesn’t exist. Once you’ve experienced the convenience of having the entire history of recorded music in your pocket, why would you go back to schlepping files around? 50 million paid subscribers agree. Thus, it is with great sadness and a…
That's all, folks!
That's all, folks!