Music Promotion: how to promote your music (& make more money!)

You’ve done the hard part. You’ve made a track and you’ve distributed it to as many streaming platforms as possible. You’ve done your job. People will find it and listen to it, right?

… right…?

Unfortunately, that’s not quite how it works.

As an independent artist, making music is only one part of your job. You could make the best track in the entire history of the world - but if you don’t promote it, it’ll sit online gathering digital dust and earning you $0.

It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process and get so excited about your music that you want it released as soon as physically possible - but music promotion shouldn’t be an afterthought.

Promotion = more listeners.

More listeners = more streaming revenue.

And who doesn’t want more dollars in the bank?!

Music promotion is a big topic and it’s impossible to cover everything you could do to promote your music in one single blog post… but we’re going to give it our best shot.

So brace yourself to learn the dos and don’ts about promoting your music, getting more listeners and making more money from your music.

Using social media to promote your music

Look, we’re firmly in the twenty-first century now and if you’re not using social media to engage with your fans and reach new audiences, you’re really missing out.

Social media isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, we get that.

We’re not saying you should become an influencer or post photos of your dinner or share every single tiny detail about your life. And you don’t need to lose multiple hours a day to mindlessly scrolling through social media posts either.

What we are saying is that if you’re taking your music career seriously and want to make a real living from your tracks, you should be using social media as a marketing tool, regardless of how you feel about it personally.

So, where should you start with social media promotion?

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✅ DO: Choose your social media platforms carefully

You don’t need to be on every single social media platform that exists. (Let’s face it, there’s a new one popping up every week - it would be impossible to be on all of them!)

What’s important is that you choose a platform or platforms that you’re comfortable using and that’s realistic for you to be consistent with.

The main social media platforms we see artists using are:

• Instagram - great for sharing videos and BTS content
• TikTok - big emphasis on video
• Threads - the word-based arm of Instagram
• Twitter/X - short, to-the-point posts
• Facebook - good for groups and advertising

But there are hundreds more you could be on too.

If you’re starting from scratch with zero social media presence as an artist, have a play around with a few platforms that appeal to you. Make an account, follow some of your idols to see what they do, play around with the features to see if you get on with them.

If you’re finding yourself gravitating towards one or two platforms, the next thing to consider is whether your audience are on those platforms.

There are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to who uses which social media platform, but if your die-hard fans are Gen Z-ers who spend all their time making TikTok dances to their favourite tracks, you posting daily on Facebook (where their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents hang out) is not going to get you more streams.

Equally, if you’re an artist whose fan base is more likely to be a slightly older demographic, Facebook might be exactly where they spend their time.

As you can see, it’s important to have an understanding of who your existing fans are before committing to the social media platforms you’re going to use - so that your social media efforts aren’t wasted.

👉 Read TikTok For Musicians.

👉 Read Instagram Stories: a musician's guide.

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✅ DO: Commit to a realistic social media plan

It’s really really easy to get burnt out on social media. So for the sake of your mental health and your career, you need to be realistic about how often you can create content for your social media channels.

If music’s not your full-time job, aiming to post 7 Reels on Instagram, 4 TikToks and 12 Tweets every single week is NOT realistic.

(To be honest, that’s a lot for a whole marketing team, let alone a single person - even if music is your full-time job!)

You’ll see advice everywhere online saying that you should be posting every single day, multiple times a day if you want to get any kind of traction on social media.

But the thing is, doing that is a) super unrealistic and b) pretty annoying as a follower…

The more frequently you post, the less quality your posts are likely to have - which means that even if you could keep up with posting your music 3 times a day, 7 days a week on social media, you’ll pretty quickly lose the interest of your fans and followers.

Low-value content gets low engagement. Low engagement is a red flag to social media algorithms. If social media algorithms don’t like you, you won’t grow - which defeats the whole purpose of posting on social media in the first place.

If you have the time, creative energy and skills to make good video content for TikTok multiple times a week - go for it.

But if you have the time, creative energy and skills to only make one good video a week - that’s fine too.

Not every piece of content has to be heavily produced and super high-quality, so if you’re able to commit to one really high-quality video every week you can supplement that with off-the-cuff content as-and-when inspiration strikes.

Instagram is a great place to share behind-the-scenes snippets in your Stories more frequently than your high-quality grid content.

Equally, if you’re more of a words person, Instagram Threads has a thriving community of artists and fans and is really well-suited to in-the-moment thoughts being shared (much like X, but with more community - and your existing Instagram audience are automatically following you on Threads if they’re signed up!).

Think carefully about how much time you have for creating content and how much good content you can realistically produce each week. Remember: quality over quantity!

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❌ DON'T: Post & ghost 👻

There’s a reason why social media is called social media: because it’s designed for you to have social interactions.

If you’re constantly posting content (or as regularly as you’ve decided to post content, at least) and getting good engagement (comments, messages, etc.) from your audience, you’re succeeding at the media part of social media - but if you’re never interacting with the engagement you’re getting, you’re failing miserably at the social part of social media.

‘Posting and ghosting’ is the trap many creators fall into. You create content you’re proud of, you post it, then you ghost. You leave the platform, get on with your day, and check in hours later to see how many likes you got.

We get it. You have a busy life with important things to do. You can’t spend all day sitting on social media waiting for someone to comment just so you can reply instantly.

But the thing is, that’s what the algorithm wants you to do. Or rather, the algorithm wants to see back-and-forth interaction with your audience, not just posting into the void and leaving your audience hanging.

If you’re busy and don’t want to spend 24/7 on social media (who does?!), plan your posting around times when you can be a bit more active in responding to your audience. Share your content when you’re taking a coffee break, so you can spend a few minutes replying to people in the moment. 

And make sure you’re responding to the majority of comments. If one or two slip through the net, that’s fine - but try to reply to (or at least ‘like’) most of them. After all, your fans are taking precious time out of their day to comment on your social media posts; the least you can do is post an emoji in response!

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❌ DON'T: Ignore social media analytics

Posting what you want to create is great - because you’re motivated to create it.

But…

If you’re serious about using social media to grow your music career, get more streams and make more money, you need to factor in what your audience wants to see from you - not just what you want to create.

One way to get a better understanding of what your audience wants to see from you is to have a look at your social media analytics.

Look, we get it: you’re an artist, not a data scientist. Analytics aren’t your cup of tea.

But they do matter. And you don’t need to spend hours understanding every data-point to get an understanding of what your audience likes.

Whether you’ve been using social media for a while or are just starting out, do some experimentation. Mix up when you post, what you post, the design of your posts, the format (e.g. video, text, photos), the style you write your captions in - use social media as your playground for a few weeks.

Then, go back and look at your analytics. Which posts did particularly well for you? And why did they do well? Were they posted at a particular time of day? Were they a particular format? Did they use a specific colour palette?

Use analytics to spot any trends in how your content goes down with your audience. Repeat the stuff that works and ditch the stuff that doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.

And pro tip: social media algorithms like to change all the time, so even if you’re confident you know what works best for your audience keep checking in with analytics regularly to make sure you’re still giving yourself the best chance of success.

How to get more streams of your music

Unless you’re playing hundreds of live gigs and selling merch left, right and centre, your core income as an artist is likely to be streaming revenue.

Which means that the goal of promoting your music online should be to increase the number of streams your music gets. 

While building an engaged, active audience on social media is clearly an important part of that, there are other (good and bad) ways to get more streams of your music.

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❌ DON'T: Buy artificial streams

No no no. No. Just no.

It’s a tempting proposition: a company approaches you and says they can guarantee you thousands more legitimate streams of your music, in exchange for a small investment.

You pay $10 to this company, you earn $100 in streaming royalties. It’s a no-brainer, right?

Wrong. It’s a really big no-no in the music industry. They want your money and don’t care one bit if you get suspended from streaming platforms as a result.

The ‘legit’ companies who offer you ‘legit’ streaming are anything but legit. They’re likely using bots or streaming farms or some other artificial streaming method to ‘game’ the system - to try to trick the music platforms into believing your music has been listened to by thousands of real humans, when in reality it’s the work of digital fraudsters.

Paying for artificial streams could very well be the worst thing you could do for your music career.

Every platform, from Spotify to SoundCloud and everything in between, has sophisticated systems that spot artificial streaming from a mile away. They’ll notice you’ve been paying for artificial streams and you’ll get no revenue from those streams. And, if you’re a prolific artificial streamer, your tracks will get taken down from platforms - which means you’ll get no revenue from legitimate streams of your music either.

So that $10 investment that could return $100? It could also cost you thousands in lost streaming revenue and negatively impact your reputation as an artist too.

It’s really really not worth it, trust us.

👉 Read 5 music industry scams to avoid.

👉 Read How to avoid Spotify playlist scams.

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✅ DO: Distribute your music as far and wide as possible

The more platforms your music is released to, the more chance it has of being found by brand new fans.

Just because most of your streaming revenue comes from Spotify doesn’t mean that being on SoundCloud or Tidal or Vevo or Napster isn’t worth it. Those platforms still generate revenue, and your ideal, super-engaged, committed fan might just be listening on a platform you’ve never even heard of before…

That’s why we distribute your music to over 70 global platforms, with more being added all the time. Casting the net wide with your music is the key to building a consistent streaming revenue and finding those ride-or-die fans who’ll help you reach your music career goals.

👉 Learn more about our music distribution services.

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✅ DO: Pitch your music to playlists

We’ve all done it: we can’t decide what we’re in the mood to listen to, so we throw on a playlist that the Spotify algorithm has recommended for us and hope for the best.

And sometimes, we find our new favourite artist in that playlist. The artist we don’t know how we ever lived without. The music that speaks to our souls and is exactly what we were craving.

If you’re pitching your music to platform playlists, you could be that artist.

Being featured in editorial or algorithmic playlists on streaming platforms increases your discoverability massively. Not only does your music get listened to more, it gets listened to by new people who might not have ever discovered you if you weren’t in that playlist - which means you’re reaching new fans, too.

So, how do you go about pitching your music to playlists? If you’re an Identity Music artist, it’s simple: just ask us to do it for you. We’ll submit playlist pitches for your tracks on your behalf to streaming platforms so you can reap the rewards.

👉 Read How to get your music on Spotify Playlists.

👉 Learn more about how we support your music promotion.

Planning your music release

So far, we’ve talked about everything you should be doing to promote your music after it’s released and live on streaming platforms. 

But your music promotion job starts way before then…

If you’re serious about growing your music career, releasing music the moment you’re happy with a track isn’t the best thing to do. Full-time career musicians follow a pre-planned release schedule to make the most of seasonal trends, to keep their fans engaged, and to make consistent streaming revenue.

Instead of getting over-excited about your amazing new track and releasing it as soon as it’s finished, hit pause and take a step back - and start planning your pre-release promotion.

Building hype around your next release is a key part of getting the traction you want when you do release your music. Tease the track on social media, create a pre-save link (we do that for you if you’re an Identity Music artist!) and make sure your fans know when your new track will be dropping.

There are no rules around how long you should tease your release for before it drops, but a couple of weeks or more is a good amount of time to generate some buzz around your beats. If you can, increase your social media presence in the run-up to release day - but make sure you save some creative juices for promotional efforts after your release too!

👉 Read How to create hype for your next music release.

👉 Read Share your music with fan links.

So, are you ready to promote your music?

This is by no means an all-inclusive music promotion guide - but hopefully it’s given you some ideas and inspiration for your next release! 

Don’t forget: if you’re an Identity Music artist, you’ll get access to promotional support from our team of experts. We’ll pitch your music to streaming platforms, generate pre-save and fanlinks for your upcoming releases, promote your music on our social media channels, and advise you on your own promotional efforts too.

Identity Music is an invite-only distribution platform to make sure we can fully support all of our artists - so if you fancy joining the Identity family, submit an application here and we’ll get back to you!