I’ve been releasing a new track every 4-6 weeks for some time now, and I daresay I’ve got it down to a science. I upload the track to DistroKid a month or so before release, then work my way through the checklist below. Many of the items won’t apply to you, but they’re sure to…
I gave up on Spotify playlist pitching services. They just aren’t worth it. First off, there’s the risk of bots, which could get you booted off Spotify. Every service denies using them, but what human would choose to listen to unthemed collections of random songs by unknown artists? And yet there they are, sometimes with…
Tunespeak is a loyalty platform for musicians where fans earn points by performing various actions like streaming tracks, watching videos, and referring friends. Those points serve as entries in a raffle. The more points a fan accumulates, the better their chances of winning a prize. I reached out to Chris Rhein, the Head of Artist…
I’m exhausted. My 12th full-length album Mages was released on December 3, and I’ve been going nonstop since October. The album promotion was a series of five distinct campaigns, not counting two singles releases over the same time period. I’m going to break it down into bite-sized chunks and perhaps draw a conclusion or two….
I’ve got an album launch coming up, and I’m determined to make it my best yet. That means putting together bundles of merch that my fans will actually want, and not just what I think is cool. I would’ve been happy taking a chance on cassette or MiniDisc, but vinyl is too big a proposition…
I haven’t had much luck with influencer marketing, but that hasn’t stopped me from trying! Since writing about Breakr earlier this year, I’ve done some cheap influencer campaigns on SubmitHub. None of them moved the needle in any measureable way, but my experiences have all been positive. When the SpaceLoud team reached out and offered…
Matt Mancid and I just released an album of 80s covers that we’ve worked on since 2013. As much as we would’ve loved pressing CDs or even vinyl, paying the rights for 1000 CDs doubles the cost. We would’ve absolutely, positively lost money. So we released it digitally in two flavors: a 12-track standard edition…
It’s been four months since my last post. Sorry about that! My new album of 80s covers with Matt Mancid has been keeping me busy, among other things. On the promotional front, I’ve got plenty of irons on the fire, including three big reviews in progress. I share all the details in my How I’m…
I’ve written about Facebook and Instagram ads for Spotify many times, like here, here, and this one from April of 2018 where I noted that I’d spent $5888.35 on Facebook ads to date. Three years later, it’s $20,614.84. While there are still useful angles to explore in those older articles, this post supersedes them. Not…
Until recently, I only dabbled in influencer marketing. It seemed promising but daunting. To do it right, I’d need to research influencers across multiple platforms and determine which ones align with my brand. Then I’d have to figure out how to reach them. A cold DM? Comment spam? Next comes the really awkward part: negotiating…
Strangers routinely hit me up in my DMs with overly broad questions like, “I’ve got a new song coming out. How should I promote it?” I’d generally just refer them to my blog, where they wouldn’t find a dedicated answer to that question. UNTIL NOW. It obviously depends on the budget. And to be honest,…
Way back in 2001, my song “Ponytail Girl” spread like wildfire on Napster, mislabeled as an unreleased Depeche Mode b-side. Turning lemons into lemonade, I used the incident as the basis for a tribute album to the band. It quickly became my top seller, and the initial CD pressing sold out. Not wanting to become…
Seven months ago, I added a WooCommerce shop to my site for a free CD offer, which I discussed here and here. It ran from May through the beginning of August, netting $3249, which I used to press 1000 copies of each of my last two albums on CD. At the end of September, I…
Over the past two decades, dozens of my mastering clients have hired music PR companies to promote their music. They always regret it, and always tell me the same thing: “They didn’t do anything for me that I couldn’t have done for myself.” Same goes for labels, by the way. I’ve never been on a…
Email is my #1 promotion tool. Always has been. I’d been using FanBridge since 2012, but it didn’t integrate with the WooCommerce shop I added to my site earlier this year. Mailchimp did. Moving all of my FanBridge subscribers to Mailchimp would’ve cost me $99/month, so I chose to maintain two accounts: FanBridge for “fans”…
In my last installment, I detailed the mechanics of my free + s/h funnel. If “free + s/h funnel” is gibberish to you, you can get yourself up to speed here. When I started, I had eight titles available on CD. Now I’m down to five, with less than 20 copies of the two I’d…
Why would anyone buy a CD in 2020? Let me count the ways: I first heard about the “free + s/h funnel” through Chris Robley, who heard about it through Indepreneur. It’s a pretty simple idea: you offer a CD for free. The buyer (air quotes) just has to cover the shipping & handling. Throwing…
It’s been over two years since I wrote How To Promote Your Music with Facebook Ads, and it’s still one of the most popular articles on the site. I’ve learned a lot since then, and I’m still learning! The truth is, the platform is constantly evolving, along with the Ads Manager interface. It’s hard to…
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…
That's all, folks!
That's all, folks!