The music industry continues to rapidly change…and SpaceLoud has a solution.
With over 100,000 new tracks hitting Spotify every day, musicians, including top stars and amateur producers, are all competing for attention. It’s no longer sufficient to create great music if you want to expand your audience and advance your career.
Many artists face intense competition but neglect modern music promotion techniques, focusing more on production than marketing. They stick to old, often expensive, and ineffective promotional methods that don’t yield the expected outcomes. Innovative marketing strategies are essential for standing out and reaching a wider audience.
We’ll review various traditional promotion tactics, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and identify the most effective ways to promote your music today. Although classic strategies have their benefits, they haven’t fully adapted to current trends.
So, what works? Let SpaceLoud explain…
Classic Ways to Increase Your Music’s Exposure
Record Labels: The Pros and Cons
Record labels can undoubtedly help artists grow. Their impact has decreased, but they still have influence in the music industry, even as trends shift away from them. Like everything, they have their pros and cons.
Major record labels provide artists with the advantage of established distribution and promotion networks. This access can be valuable and sometimes leads to artists getting advances under long-term contracts. Label heads are well-versed in distribution and often have ties with Spotify editors and curators, offering artists added growth opportunities when signed.
Being signed to a record label also serves as a stamp of approval and quality. It means your music meets high standards, placing you among other renowned artists on the label. This not only boosts your credibility and professionalism but also provides access to a network of industry connections, making complex steps easier.
But there are downsides to consider…
Securing a record label deal takes significant effort, often involving reaching out to many labels with no response. When you do get a deal, sharing royalties is a standard practice. As artists delve deeper into the industry, retaining master rights to their recordings becomes a major concern, especially with the rise of high-value NFTs and other innovations.
The loss of control is another significant issue. Working with labels often means adhering to their release schedules, potentially delaying your music’s release. Even Spotify’s CEO criticizes this approach. With smaller labels, you might have to cover promotional costs and still give up a portion of your royalties. This can result in losing many of your music rights without significant return, beyond some streams online.
A partnership with a label can be viable but often requires a lot of time, effort, and energy for potentially minimal returns.
Promoting Music Through Blogs and Spotify Playlists
Music blogs and Spotify playlists are alternative avenues for promoting your music effectively. However, it’s essential to set realistic expectations before dedicating significant time to these platforms.
These platforms are effective for reaching a specific audience in your music genre. Users on these channels are often engaged and can quickly connect with your music on Spotify playlists or blog writeups. Managed by real people, these platforms can boost your visibility and improve your standing with Spotify’s algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar. This can expose your music to thousands or even millions more listeners. Both blogs and playlists offer the added benefit of long-term exposure, accumulating views and listens over time.
However, utilizing these platforms can be complicated…
The impact of music blogs has diminished over the years, with its peak around 2014 now a distant memory. Reaching out to blogs, channels, or playlists to feature your music can be difficult. It’s often the case that dozens or even hundreds of outreach emails go unanswered.
Submitting to Spotify editorial playlists is always an option, but you aren’t guaranteed placement on these highly sought-after playlists and the competition is monumental. And you certainly don’t want to opt for ‘pay-for-play’ services that Spotify can easily recognise and end up penalising you, or worse – ban you from the platform.
Stay On The Cutting Edge: The Growing Trend of Influencer Marketing in Music
In recent years, the music industry has changed significantly. The methods of discovering and engaging with music are evolving rapidly, and this trend is expected to continue. For artists, adapting and taking advantage of these changes is crucial.
So, what are we talking about?
What’s the most effective music promotion strategy for artists in 2023?
The answer is influencer marketing for musicians.
Platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat Sounds have revolutionized music sharing, offering artists unique opportunities to share their music worldwide. Nowadays, influencer endorsements are as impactful as radio plays once were. TikTok’s user-generated content serves as today’s music videos. Instagram Reels, Stories, and YouTube Shorts are now major forces driving streaming numbers.
Ignoring influencer marketing in today’s music landscape is like choosing to live without electricity. While you can survive with candles or stick to traditional record deals, why not make life easier and embrace the power of modern marketing? Many artists have built their careers by taking advantage of this trend.
SpaceLoud: Navigating the Complexities of Influencer Marketing for Musicians
However, delving into influencer marketing can be complicated, especially for emerging artists. Starting a conversation with influencers is challenging, with slim chances of getting your message or email noticed.
If you succeed in connecting, more questions follow – Have they heard my music? Will they share it? When and where will it be promoted? What are the costs? The biggest concern might be the risk of paying without any promotion in return. This process can be uncertain and unsettling, but there is a more assured way forward…
Introducing SpaceLoud
Trusted by Steve Aoki, Dillon Francis, Hardwell, Revealed Recordings, and many more, here’s how it works.
SpaceLoud is a powerful platform that connects artists and influencers. It empowers artists to share their music with millions of new listeners, and influencers get paid to share the music they love. It’s an easy, transparent, and secure way for artists and influencers to work together and grow their careers.
SpaceLoud addresses all the challenges musicians face when using influencer marketing to promote their music. Offering clear benefits, you can quickly find and connect with top influencers, whether you’re targeting those with thousands or millions of followers. The platform allows you to send and receive offers, giving you the option to accept or decline based on your preferences. You maintain complete control over your budget, collaborations, and where your music is promoted.
And maybe the best part about SpaceLoud is its payment protection. Your payment is securely held until the influencer shares your music and provides screenshots and links to the posts. This ensures clarity on the content’s effectiveness, with easy access to stats on views, engagement, and more.
Boost Your Music Career With SpaceLoud
Traditional music promotion methods like record labels and music blogs have their limits. While experimenting with these is fine, it’s crucial to utilize the most effective promotional strategies available today. In the current digital era, influencer marketing for musicians stands out as a powerful tool.
Music Gateway and SpaceLoud have teamed up to give you a discount on your first campaigns. Get started by signing up on SpaceLoud.com where you will receive 10% off your first three influencer promotions using the code Music-Gateway-10.
It’s a golden opportunity for artists, and we encourage you to seize it!
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