The Basics of Marketing Music for New Artists: Post-Release
Post-Release
Many artists have been told that the more that they release, the more successful they will be. The logic is that, as an artist, you’ll have more chances to catch the listener's ear because the listener may like one song more than another. Also, streaming services will supposedly reward you for using their service and encouraging more people to listen to your music on it.
While this strategy could work in certain circumstances, it usually doesn’t because:
Artists don’t have songs that sound drastically different from song to song.
Streaming sites don’t reward you for simply releasing music.
If you don’t promote your music, no algorithms will be triggered and your following won’t grow. Ultimately, if releasing multiple songs in a small time period isn’t a small part of a bigger marketing campaign, then that strategy will fail.
It’s better, if you don’t have a following, to save your output and release more after you’ve gained some momentum. Once you have followers, saves, downloads, etc then you will show up on algorithmic playlists, allowing you to grow your career even more.
With that being said, picking a song and putting resources behind it would be a better indicator of what connects with listeners and what doesn’t. Once you’ve released, your work begins, continuing the strategies of our release day article.
Analytics
Now that you’ve released your music, you should give it time to breathe to see which song people like. If you only released a single, your only focus should be where your listeners are. Analytics allow you to zero in on your key demographic, letting you know where you should potentially tour.
Analytics also allow you to discover what sound your listeners like the most from you. With this information, you can craft your art around what you know would be successful, although you shouldn’t be afraid to try new sounds.
While editorial playlists aren’t analytics, they show you which artists are trending upward and the type of music people are enjoying at the moment. You can use this to your advantage, as you’ll be able to tell whether or not your song could be placed on one of these playlists.
Self-Promotion: Convincing People to Listen
The basics of marketing is the same for every artist, what separates them is how they use the principles of marketing creatively.
Before figuring out what you can do, you must study the mistakes that other artists make. How many times have you seen artists just spam their song links in whatever platform they’re using? How many times has that made you want to listen to their music?
If you don’t have a following, posting your link and asking someone to listen to it, won’t get them to do it. You have to find a way to creatively either force them to hear the music, or impress them with the content around the music enough to convince them to listen. Here are some ways to accomplish this:
Videos
Giveaways
Music Reviews
Podcasts
Influencers (Blogs, Social Media)
Ads
YouTube Shorts
The main goal of marketing for any business is to evoke emotion. If people connect with you, then the chances of them connecting with your music is higher. Tell the story of the song, explain your thought process when creating and highlight your emotional connection to it. You still have to be creative, because spamming your emotional connection to a song, just like spamming the link, will get ignored.
If you’re on music sharing sites with other artists, we give advice on how to approach them here. If you’re on social media, with non-musical listeners, put your links in your bio, and create content that will indirectly promote yourself. People want to feel like they make decisions on their own, not because you told them to in a post. Also a little creativity goes a long way in convincing listeners that you put time and effort in your marketing/creation and allows you to stick out among the other artists.
