Music Marketing 101 in 2023

In one of our previous music marketing blog posts, we talked about 10 Fresh Music Marketing Ideas, that were super low-effort and laid back. These aren’t as low effort and laid back as the ones we mentioned there, but they’re definitely a bit more on the unintuitive side. Here are 5 more music marketing ideas to drive up your music’s stream count on Spotify and YouTube.

1. Podcasts

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen that the audio format has been on a steep rise. More and more people have been tuning into podcasts, and downloading apps like Clubhouse and the new Spotify Greenroom. 

You could feature on somebody’s podcast, or even start your own if you can devote the time. The goal is to stay relevant, so make sure you know what your audience wants. Now this could be live concerts, the BTS of your songwriting or recording process, your inspirations or something completely different. Choose topics based on their suggestions and interests, because if you don’t catch their attention, they won’t stay with you long.

 

2. Facebook Marketing

You might personally feel Facebook has become obsolete—like email—but there aren’t many players out there with the data and reach even comparable to what Facebook has, with the plethora of social media apps the company runs.



Let’s take the example of Tash Sultana, who posted a video performing one of the songs off her 2018 album, Flow State. After using Facebook ads to boost the video post with the target audience set at “Followers of similar artists, related festivals and music outlets on Facebook”, the video was soon to generate 1M+ views.

But that’s not the major point here. 

Then, her team created a Facebook ad to promote some merchandise related to the same album. This time, the target audience was set at:

• People who watched at least three seconds the video
  
  
• A Lookalike Audience of those video viewers
  
  
• Followers of Tash Sultana
  
  

The Ad exposure resulted in nearly $11,000 in incremental sales which adds up to over 1000% increase in conversion, something that wouldn't have happened without the 2-part ad campaign.

 

This sort of Facebook marketing not only has the potential to drive up views on your music videos, but could actually churn out some cash for you if you’re smart about it.

Speaking of churning out some cash from music, you might want to check this out.

3. Create a Website For Your Music

One of the biggest mistakes most artists make today is thinking that they don’t need a website, while their major focus remains on the social media platform of their choice, like Instagram or TikTok. If you’re an amateur musician, then that’s fine. But if you’re not, you’re making a mistake.

Your website is an integral part of your brand as a musician, and it lets everyone know that you’re serious. It’s your online portfolio, where you present and sell your albums, show the dates of your events, connect to your audience, and just tell your story.

We took the time to explain every “why” and “how” involved in building a website for Indie musicians in Indie Musician’s Guide to Building a Professional Website.

4. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has a lot of untapped potential when it comes to marketing your music. An influencer is someone who has a significant number of followers on various social media platforms, and they can be bloggers, vloggers, public figures, or famous YouTubers, TikTokers or Instagram users.

However, getting a food blogger or a tech-related YouTube channel to market your music won’t be the best way forward. What you need to do is find relevant influencers in your niche and contact them for collaboration. The entire point is to grab the attention of people who are already into the kind of music that you make. You’re much better off with influencers using your song as background music for their videos or starting a new dance challenge using your track.

Trying to get the attention of influencers can be a bit challenging at first. Start with smaller influencers and gradually move to larger ones as your following grows.

5. Start an Email Newsletter

We will keep saying this like a broken record until all of you build yourself an email list. Social media cannot beat the reach, personalisation and control of email. And we’re not asking you to trust us on this, but trust the numbers.

You may have heard that Facebook has 1.4 billion and Twitter has 100 million daily active users. What you may not have heard, is the number of people using Email every day. Every internet user has at least one email account. A recent research conducted by Radicati found out that there 3.8 billion active email accounts. That’s half the population of Earth.

That is only the tip of the iceberg. Go ahead and read up about why every musician needs an email list here.

 It’s true that the music business is incredibly competitive. However, if you've got a dream and you’re willing to put in the work into your craft, there's no reason you won’t succeed and find your fair share of dedicated fans. Here’s how you can get your music in TV Shows and films.