We will talk about social media, advertising, platforms of all types, enough to transform the artist in you into a communication pro. Note that the following tips apply to all musical genres: electro, folk, pop, rap, hip-hop, etc.

To succeed in helping your future fans listen to the music you’ve made, you can use these top 6 websites to break into music. Spoiler: we will talk about both website creation and streaming platforms.

1. Groover, music professionals finally within your reach

It would have been strange not to start with Groover an article about sites to make your music known—this is the very reason why the platform exists, to help independent artists to promote their music.

You can show your musical content directly to those who can help you gain fame: radio DJs, playlist curators, media outlets, labels, publishers, and more!

The platform offers you the guarantee that your music will be listened to and that you will receive a reply (or a share!) in less than 7 days! Promoting your music is finally becoming accessible to independent artists.

2. Soundcloud, to target talent scouts

Let’s start with the German music streaming platform. It’s foundational for making your music known without spending money on distribution. One might think of Bandcamp too, but Soundcloud is still the cradle of many iconic musicians, especially in rap, such as XxxTentacion, Trippie Red, Lil Uzi Vert and so on.

Of all streaming platforms, this is probably the most accessible. If you find success there, the word of mouth will be huge. But to stand out from the millions of tracks, you will have to work on your image and a solid musical project, even if in general you use Soundcloud to test your sound experiments and less for successful albums.

3. Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music – streaming platforms

To increase your visibility, you can use a paid web agency, or do the job yourself. The first step? Stream your music. On Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music and all the others. This can be considered the step after Soundcloud. 

But how to do it? To be visible on a streaming service, you need to have a distributor, often managed by a label. Don’t have one and don’t have the resources to create one? No problem, you can go through a digital distributor like Distrokid or Tunecore. For a very small fee, you fill in your cover, some metadata such as the genres of music you identify with, an Mp3 file, and go. 

So yes, it does cost money, but it’s essential for gaining notoriety. Making it on Soundcloud is still less common than on streaming platforms. The opportunity to land in a big playlist makes it worth it by itself. 

4. Your own website

What if the best site to make your music known is the one you create? One huge benefit is that it allows you to control your natural referencing on search engines. 

Plus these days, no advanced technical knowledge is needed.  There are easy-to-use customizable solutions, such as Bandzoogle, KOMI, Weebly, Jimdo, or Wordpress, which is very intuitive. You need a domain name, a host and your storefront is online! It allows you to create SEO content, texts with keywords that define you, and when you’re done, you can end up on the first page of Google. 

Does creating a site seem out of reach? Don’t worry, you don’t need to code with the platforms we recommended above. Just use the free templates at your disposal, choose the most beautiful, and your website will have nothing to envy on those created by pros.

The article creation tool is often just a few clicks away, so there’s no excuse not to create content. The more you have, the more likely you are to be able to rank your site high in Google. Once you have a good SEO, try e-commerce! The term is scary, but selling a little merch to finance your project is usually a good plan. 

Don’t hesitate to check Google Analytics to see if your site works well, to understand where people come from, what interests them on the site, and to continue to gain visibility. And for those with a budget, you can use Adwords to create paid ads and redirect your future fans to your site.

5. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook – social networks

Admittedly, telling you to be present on social media sounds simple. We’re not going to stop at telling you to open a Facebook page and post regularly. No, we’ll go further. Be present, be diligent in your publication pace, but above all, personalize your interactions. Your music promotion has to be intentional. This is a cornerstone of your digital communication. 

Choose the networks to be active on. Are they being used by those you are targeting? Only pull the right levers, or risk wasting time. Online, you can catch almost anyone if you understand your target audience. If you’re successful, you will see your visibility increase drastically.

You don’t need a master’s in communications to be an effective community manager, you just have to be authentic in your interactions with the public. Artists who understand this understand the essentials.

On the networks you can: redirect people to your site, share your playlists , your clips, a link to the streaming platform you want to promote. The advantage to a personal site is being able to post without limits, a very low cost, and you can have a more freeform creative approach. It’s as simple as finding the right hashtag. But it’s not magic either, don’t get me wrong. Not every track you share will become a hit, but it’s worth a try!

– Translated by Kole Wright –

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L’article The Best Websites to Make Your Music Known est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.