Here are some quick tips that can make a big difference in promoting and developing your music career 👇

1. Don’t try to fit into a box

An essential tip, especially today in the age of social networks and streaming platforms, when it’s becoming easier than ever to copy or imitate what you see and hear: don’t try to fit into a box!

Unique, truly original projects are becoming increasingly rare. Besides, diversity is the key if we want to continue to be creative and nurture a healthy music industry!

Don’t be afraid to explore your own influences and create a unique musical identity that sets you apart from others—because you are unique.

At first, it may be a little rough, but by trying things and searching, you will always eventually hit the target. And at that moment, you’ll thank yourself and others will thank you too, because you’ll have become a source of inspiration.

Working hard, being good at what you do, and being your own person… sounds like a recipe for success, doesn’t it?

2. Set realistic goals

Having clear and achievable objectives can help you stay focused and motivated. Whether it’s the number of posts per week you want to post on social networks, the number of concerts you want to do in the month/year, the number of playlists you want to contact for the release of your next song, the number of media outlets you want to contact, etc.

Focus on what you can control before focusing on your results. This will allow you to measure your progress and adjust your strategy based on what works and what doesn’t.

3. Think about a good social media strategy: 3 pillars

can start from this 3-pillar base to build a good social media strategy:

• content about you,
• content about your collaborators/features/label/entourage,
• and fun/less-promo content.

This diversification of content will give your followers an overview of who you are as an artist and your environment. Of course, you’re free to show what you want, the main point is just that your followers have some kind of connection with you. And that happens by way of the emotions that your content makes them feel.

You can also co-post on social networks with other artists, media outlets, venues, etc. This will allow you to expand your audience and maybe reach new people who might be interested in your music.

4. Avoid releasing songs at certain times

As an independent artist, there is no real rule. You won’t be threatened by the release of Taylor Swift’s album on the same day as you, no worries about that.

However, avoid releasing your tracks during saturated periods, such as holidays or major media events, where your music may be drowned out by other releases. People can be more or less in the mood to make new musical discoveries.

Also think about your style of music: maybe it doesn’t fit all times of the year or all seasons? Think of your listeners: who are they, what age and what gender? Try to determine the most favorable times for them. The statistics of streaming platforms and social networks will help you a lot on this point.

And finally, rest assured: the first day of release is very important, but the days after also count. All you have to do is do your best for D-Day, and then do everything you can to continue to make your music known as widely as possible.

5. Release your EPs or albums using the waterfall strategy

Rather than publishing all your songs at once, consider using the waterfall strategy. Publish a single first, followed by several others, then group them into an EP or album. This can keep your fans interested over a longer period of time, and bring it back to your previous singles with each new release. Need some more details on the waterfall strategy?👈

6. Participate in contests regularly

Musical contests offer a great opportunity to get noticed by industry professionals and gain visibility with a new audience. Look for local or online contests and events where you can showcase your talent.

| Consult the guide to the musical springboards of the moment

7. Set up a pre-download for each of your releases

Use pre-download features on streaming platforms to allow your fans to save your music before its official release. This can generate anticipation and boost the first release figures. It’s a good way to grab the attention of streaming platform algorithms!

8. Send your music to independent playlists

Playlists can be a great way to reach new listeners. You’ll probably want to aim for the biggest playlists, but be careful, it’s not necessarily the best strategy! Why? Because your chances of getting an answer are close to zero. However, many independent playlists want to support emerging musicians.

Little by little, the work your way up. One small playlist, then another, and yet another… until you have a snowball effect.

The advantage of independent playlists is that they usually have very targeted audiences. So if they choose to add your song, there is a good chance that their listeners will appreciate it.

Keep in mind that if people skip your song, it sends very bad signals to the algorithms. So try to get on playlists that really match your style.

And now all you have to do is identify the independent playlists that suit you and send them your music!

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Send your music to playlists of your choice 👇

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9. Share your press coverage on social networks to gain visibility and credibility

If your music is featured in media or blogs, be sure to share all of these articles on your social networks. This boosts your credibility as an artist and can grab the attention of new fans and music industry pros. Plus, it’s a way to thank these media outlets that put you in the spotlight.

10. Subscribe to the TikTok newsletter

TikTok has become a must-have platform for music promotion. Subscribe to their newsletter to stay up to date on trends, challenges, and collaboration opportunities that could help propel your music on the platform.plateforme.

Conclusion

By following these simple, yet effective tips, you can get a significant boost to your musical project and open new doors in your artistic journey.

Stay creative, stay engaged, and keep sharing your passion with the world!

– Translated by Kole Wright –

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Spread your music worldwide ⬇️

L’article 10 Quick & Easy tips to Boost your Musical Project est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

But, you may not have thought of LinkedIn yet. It can be a powerful way to develop your network and get prospecting.

So should you hop on the platform? How can you get started? Fear not, all this and more awaits you below.

Should you use LinkedIn for your musical project?

Before you get started on LinkedIn, ask yourself if using it is relevant to you. Things to consider include:

• Your development stage: If you’ve just started out, limit the number of networks you use to avoid getting overwhelmed. When you’re starting out, you already have a ton of networks to manage, like Instagram and the distribution of your songs on streaming platforms. But if you’ve already mastered these channels and want to grow your professional network, LinkedIn is a good opportunity for you.
• Your professional activity: if you are a full-time musician, no problem: you can use LinkedIn as you wish by focusing on music. If you have a job where you use LinkedIn, think about how you want to combine your activities. It is common for users to occasionally share news from their side projects, but this is not the main topic. Also note that you can only create one profile per person.

Your goals: Before you start, set your goals on LinkedIn: Do you need to develop your network? Find new information? If your main goal is to promote your music, LinkedIn will not be the best channel. But LinkedIn can help you achieve many other goals:

How to Use LinkedIn?

1. Research

One thing LinkedIn helps with is keeping up to date with music industry news and discovering ways to develop your project. You can follow not only media outlets and companies in the music industry, but also industry professionals.

Here is a selection of sources to follow to get started: 

Pages: 

• Music Ally
• Music Business Worldwide (MBW)
• SNEP
• Groover

People: 

• Cecile Rap-Veber – SACEM
• Mike Warner – Believe
• Romain Palmieri – Groover

The majority of companies, media outlets, and professionals in the music industry are on LinkedIn. If you know of any others, feel free to search for them and start following.

2. Contact music professionals

As on other social networks, don’t just scroll the news feed. The point of LinkedIn is to interact with other users.

As a professional network, LinkedIn is obviously the perfect place to develop your network and interact with people you have met at events. You can find a variety of profiles: journalists, managers, representatives of streaming platforms, artist services, etc. 

However, do not use LinkedIn to send your tracks: professionals are in great demand and do not always appreciate receiving promotional messages. To send your songs and receive feedback, choose the Groover platform.

You can start by following professionals and commenting on their content to create a relationship before contacting them privately. If you have met them in person, do not hesitate to contact them so that they remember you and you can continue your discussion.

3. Communicate about your project

On LinkedIn, you can communicate about your project using a different approach from other channels. The network is poorly suited to the promotion of songs and musical releases. It is important to integrate storytelling into your publications and bring value to the audience: advice, trend analysis, sharing information, etc.

LinkedIn posts have a longer lifespan than on other social networks. A post can sometimes appear in your contacts’ feed a week after it’s been published. You can therefore adopt a lower frequency of publication than on Instagram and TikTok.

Publication ideas include: 

• A monthly summary of your activities: current projects, concerts, meetings… Grouping your news can create more engagement on the post, especially if you tag the people and structures with whom you have worked. You can also create a photo album or PDF carousel to illustrate your post.
• A flashback to a landmark event: for example, your first outing or your first concert. By explaining how you got here and the tips you have, you’re adopting the type of content LinkedIn users are looking for.
• An anecdote about your creative process: music enthusiasts are numerous on LinkedIn, but musicians communicating on LinkedIn are rare. So you have an opportunity to stand out by unveiling the backstage of your creations.
• A look back at your last release: platforms used, written feedback, promotion strategy… All these elements humanize your project and can inspire people working in other sectors. 

4. Join groups

Groups are spaces for discussion around a common interest. Joining LinkedIn groups has several advantages: 

• Get information about the music sector: Posts from other members can be a valuable source of information. 
• Ask for advice: You can ask questions and ask for advice within the groups. The advantage is that you will be able to get feedback from people in the sector that you don’t know yet. Be careful not to post too often, and also comment on posts when you are able to help.
• Expand your network: Through discussions, you’ll be able to interact with new people in the music industry. You will also be able to contact group members more easily in private messages.

To get started, here are some groups you can join: 

• Sound Matters – Music & Audio Technology Discussion Group
• Music Industry Forum
• All Access Music Group – Radio & Music News

We hope these tips help you understand how you can use LinkedIn for your music project, in addition to other social networks and a promotion strategy with Groover.

– Translated by Kole Wright –

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L’article How to Use LinkedIn to Promote your Music est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Offering exclusive content is an effective strategy to stand out to the media and their audiences. It also helps build your reputation by partnering with referral sites. There are several ways to take this approach, depending on your news and goals.

In this article, we share three concrete methods to offer exclusivity to media outlets.

1. Why exclusivity?

For the media outlet, exclusivity represents a good opportunity to attract the attention of their readers and a new audience. By having content that is not available anywhere else, the media outlet immediately stands out and gives readers a good reason to come and visit their website and other channels.

When managed rigorously, exclusivity turns into a win-win relationship for the artist and the media outlet. On the one hand, the artist enjoys extensive visibility, allowing them to reach a wider audience. On the other hand, the media outlet enriches its audience while expanding its content and attractiveness. 

2. Three ways to offer exclusivity to media outlets

2.1 Previews

Previews ares one of the best ways to deliver exclusive content. The principle: a media outlet shares your song or video clip a few days before its release. This means that the content will be available exclusively there, before being distributed on your channels and on streaming platforms.

To offer this type of partnership, it is important to target media outlets that appreciate your music, have a developed audience, and talk about your musical style. You can use the platform Groover to identify relevant targets that offer preview features.

Thanks to this exclusivity, you can benefit from a highlight on different media channels: websites, newsletters, social networks, YouTube channels… For this device to be a win-win, remember to clarify conditions such as:

• The duration of the exclusivity: how long is the content available? Generally, this duration varies between 1 week and a few days before release.
• The form of exclusivity: there can be different forms of preview: broadcast on the YouTube channel or SoundCloud account of the media outlet, an article that contains the song or music video, etc. Check what the media outlet can offer you and the size of its audience on those channels.
• Means of distribution: what promotional channels does the media offer you? Since you are offering an exclusive, it is legitimate to get a higher profile than other content.

Consider providing the journalist with information about your release (media kit, press release, visuals) to facilitate collaboration and ensure that they have access to everything necessary to create content around this exclusivity.

2.2 Interviews

As an artist, interviews are a great way to share your vision and connect with your audience through storytelling. You can explain the story around your project: how you started, your creation process, anecdotes… all elements that help humanize your project and make you stand out.

Collaborating with media outlets for interviews has several advantages: 

• Use their expertise to highlight your approach and ask you relevant questions to build a universe around your project. 
• Take advantage of their approach to highlight you in their own way, for example by shooting a video or podcast, creating visuals or offering an interview from an original angle.
• Be presented to their audience with in-depth content about your project. By appearing on a media outlet, you will be introduced to their audience and reach new potential fans.

An interview is a good opportunity to introduce yourself and gives you more space than social media content. To find media to offer an interview to, prioritize those with whom you already have a connection. To do this, you can use the following methods: 

• Social networks: Look first at the media that follows and responds to your posts. You can also find others, such as those that talk about artists in your genre.
• Online articles: If the media has already talked about you in articles, there is a good chance that they are interested in interviewing you. You can find these articles through a Google search or mentions of your accounts on social networks.
• Feedback on your titles: whether the media have talked about you or not, it is possible that they have given you feedback on your releases. The reporter may not have been able to talk about your title for a variety of reasons, but may be interested in an interview. Use the feedback received by message and via the Groover platform to identify them.

2.3 Contests

Who doesn’t love receiving gifts? Contests are extremely popular, especially on Instagram: they generate, on average, 3.5x more likes and 64x more comments than a traditional publication.

A contest makes it possible to generate visibility and has a significant viral effect. Most of the time, the requirements to participate include sharing on social networks, subscribing to the account, and mentioning friends in comments, which helps expose your content to a larger audience.

You could organize a contest yourself, but collaborating with a media outlet allows you to be visible to its audience and to rely on its experience for organization.

Before you get started, think about the prizes you are ready to give out, based on your news and the resources you have available. You don’t necessarily have to dedicate a large budget to it. Prize ideas include: 

• Signed Vinyl
• Concert tickets
• Merch (t-shirts, accessories, etc.)
• Live performance for the winner
• Meeting with you at a concert, recording session, or studio rehearsal
• Exclusive content: a preview video, access to a private community, demos of unfinished tracks…

There are a lot of possibilities, and you can be creative. If you don’t have physical products, bet on the human aspect with meetings to create links with your audience. You can also create content around these meetings (video, photo) for your social networks. 

When collaborating with a media outlet for a contest, remember to define the framework: in particular, describe the prize accurately, and ensure that the conditions of participation and draw are clear before the launch.

3. Best practices for negotiating exclusivity

As we have seen, focusing on exclusivity is a great way to boost your visibility, build relationships with media outlets, and reach their audiences. To get started, pay close attention to these points: 

• Think about your goal: Before you start, think about the result you would like to achieve: Is it to gain followers on social networks? Strengthening Relationships with Influential Media? To develop storytelling around your project? Answering these questions will allow you to choose the right exclusivity format.
• Define the duration of the exclusivity: It is essential to specify how long the content will remain exclusive on the media, without being broadcast elsewhere. 
• Agree on promotional resources: When you offer an exclusive, ask the media outlet what means of promotion it will put in place. This may include social networks, the site’s home page, the newsletter, etc. Also inform the media about the channels you will use to promote its content. Before starting, it is best to summarize everything in writing to avoid confusion.
• Being responsive: Setting up an exclusivity can take time: email exchanges, discussion of conditions, creation of content, visuals, etc. Ideally, start offering the exclusivity about a month before the start of your promotional campaign. Be reactive in your answers to secure exclusivity and move forward on collaboration.

By following these good practices, you can establish fruitful partnerships with the media and anticipate the topics to be covered in your exchanges with them.

Previews, interviews and contests are 3 ways to offer media exclusivity to boost your visibility while offering engaging content. If you want to test this approach for your next release, you can use the Groover music promotion platform to find media to contact.

– Translated by Kole Wright –

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Send your music to media for guaranteed listens and feedback!

L’article How to Offer Exclusivity to Media Outlets est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Indeed, you have to remain authentic, but also use the right methods to capture the audience that corresponds to you and understand what it expects from you. Knowing your fans allows you to interact with them as well as possible, but also to develop a better communication strategy in order to gain visibility- and especially notoriety. Here are some tips to help you target your audience as a musician.

1. Don’t try to please everyone

It is a question of not spreading out in order to satisfy as many people as possible. Your musical project must embody and project your own voice. This is what will make you a unique and original artist. Forcing oneself to conquer all hearts and minds is often a waste of time. It is up to you to discover your own identity in order to remain coherent and authentic. This is how your audience will identify with you. And it is also in this way that you will be able to implement your positioning and development strategy. Here are the questions you should ask yourself before targeting your audience:

• To which musical genre(s) does my music correspond?
• Is my project strong enough?
• Am I able to easily communicate about my music?
• What are the values/emotions I want to convey?
• Is my music for a niche audience or a more popular one?
• How do I set up a visual identity in line with my project?
• What are my ambitions?

2. Engage with a community

In order to better understand the audience you are engaging, there is nothing better than meeting the professionals and enthusiasts who correspond to your musical universe. Go to concerts, fairs, forums or any other musical event aligned with your style.

Take every opportunity to interact with the audience, musicians and even other fans. In short, you will meet people who share the same passion as you. This will not only open you up to new perspectives, but also broaden your creative field.

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Looking for more exposure with your music?
Contact the media and music industry professionals directly on Groover ⬇️

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3. Find online discussion groups related to your musical universe

There are many Facebook groups, Reddit channels and forums specialized around specific musical genres that have thousands of fans and insiders. These groups are an opportunity for you to get an overview of trends, listening habits, and news, but also it is an occasion to support other musicians who are in the same boat. Sharing and discovering new music on these networks is an excellent way to exchange, share, and discover other worlds.

It is the best way to maintain contact and be active and dynamic around your musical project. These groups often bring together thousands of people eager for new things and potentially receptive to your musical productions.

🧡 Our advice: do not hesitate to give before asking (and therefore receiving). Sharing the bond of an artist you love without asking for anything beforehand can be an opportunity to create strong bonds. And one day, you may get something powerful out of it. Our slogan?

“Give, give, give, give, receive.”

| Read also : 5 Steps to Find Your Target Audience As A Musician

4. Find the most famous artists in your musical genre and use them as a reference

Finding reference artists allows you to have a base and determine in which direction you want to go. Take for example Coldplay as a pop-rock reference, Alain Bashung for French song, or Mac DeMarco for indie pop/lo-fi. Start with accessible artists and adjust as you go along according to your stage of development and your ambitions.

The purpose here is to analyze:

• What types of social networks do they communicate on?
• How close are they to their fans?
• How do they communicate with their fans?
• What aesthetics do they adopt?
• On which types of media are they featured?
• What other artists are their fans listening to?

In short, it is a matter of figuring out how they got to the level they are at. Review their audience and the different communication strategies they implement. Indeed, it should not be forgotten that beyond talent, an artist must necessarily be a good communicator to be able to gain recognition and visibility.

5. Be active on social networks and build your own visual identity

To stand out and spark interest, you have to attract the eye. Proposing a striking visual identity is the best way to stand out and reach your audience with a particular imprint. Even if music remains the raw material, it is an element not to be neglected. A striking aesthetic builds loyalty and engages your audience.

An example of Jaden Smith’s Instagram account:

6. Use data analysis tools on social networks and streaming platforms

It can be scary at first, but some social networks, including Spotify and Apple Music, have developed easy-to-use tools to better understand your audience.

On Instagram for example, you can access the “statistics” of your profil and discover the distribution in terms of Gender / Age groups / Countries / Cities of people who like your content.

On Spotify For Artists you can also find the countries and cities where your songs are most listened to, their age group and gender, as well as artists that your audience also likes and playlists that added your songs.

Apple Music For Artists offers the same option, also adding data from Shazam. All of this data is essential to better understand your current audience and adapt your strategy accordingly!

7. Finding the right channels for promotion

To promote their music, artists have only two main solutions today:

• Hire a press officer (~1000-2000 euros per month) which is often expensive for musicians who do not always have the contacts or the means, and with results that do not always match their expectations and the investment made.
• Send hundreds of emails to media and musical influencers (such as blogs, playlists, webradios and specialist journalists) themselves. This is certainly free, but a monumental waste of time in the artist’s creative work. And above all, as the media are overwhelmed by emails, artists do not receive answers, which is often the source of great frustration.

That is why Groover was created and why we are putting so much energy into developing it. The media, labels and other musical influencers are overwhelmed by emails from artists and their representatives (press officers, managers, labels) every day (between 100 and 500 every day even for small blogs). Faced with this saturation, Groover lets you send your songs easily and directly to the musical influencers of your choice, for affordable micro-sums, being assured to receive feedback as well as potentially concrete sharing proposals (articles, additions to playlists, sharing on social networks…).

Indeed, they offer the best pathways to promote your music with guaranteed feedback. These opportunities will allow you to boost your visibility and gain legitimacy!

– Article translated by Mackenzie Leighton –

To stand out from the crowd, get spotted by the media, radios & labels of your choice, with guaranteed feedback!

L’article How to Grow your Music Audience: 7 Tips for Musicians to Boost your Visibility est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Don’t worry, none of this is insurmountable if you understand the different steps and their stakes. I’m Theodore, editor-in-chief of NewTone media, which also offers pre-label services for emerging artists (coaching, press relations, administration…). When working on the promotion of a musical project, “visibility” is a recurrent topic, and for good reason. Without it, there is no chance that the music, no matter how good it is, will reach the ears of the public, since there is none. To gain visibility, it will be necessary, even before thinking about releasing real albums, to build a base of people interested in your music, also called fanbase, and your identity as an artist.

Notoriety: quality + quantity

The first thing to understand to promote your musical project is that what you are looking for is “notoriety“, more than just gaining visibility. Indeed, the notoriety of an artist is composed of 2 elements. On the one hand, the famous visibility. It is the quantity of people who follow you in a more or less active way. This one assures you that your announcements of musical releases will be converted (at a very low rate) into listenings. On the other hand, the credibility that people give to your musical project. It depends on the media and the pros who talk about you and the way they do it. It reinforces the confidence that is placed in you, in your music, and multiplies your chances to convert your visibility into streams.

One cannot go without the other: if you have succeeded in gaining visibility and you now have thousands of subscribers but no media is talking about you, your credibility is limited because people may question the quality of your music or the causes of your popularity. Sometimes, an artist followed by 50K people on Instagram but without media coverage has less chances to be spotted by a solid label than an artist followed by 3000 people but supported by relevant media. On the other hand, if you have media coverage but a small community, you will have no real control over the effectiveness of your successive promos.

You understood it: in this article, I’m going to present you some good and bad practices to promote your music, gain visibility and credibility. Allied to a quality music (and yes, otherwise it doesn’t work…), they will allow you to get media coverage and to generate growth on your social networks.

| Check out: How to gain new followers on Instagram?

1. Contact the media

Looking to gain visibility? You want to get your music talked about? A logical (and efficient) reflex would be to contact the media who usually relay artists whose music is similar to yours. Why? Because their activity has gathered a community of people sensitive to this music. A part of the audience of these media can become yours if they relay your musical news! Moreover, the most curious people are often subscribed to several similar media. You got it: if they read your name, hear your tracks or see clips of your videos on media they trust, they will be even more intrigued by your music and your project!

And that’s what good communication is all about: creating enough interest in your music to generate action from a group of people.

Don’t just contact any media!

At this point, when I work with artists on their development and strategies to gain visibility, they are often already discouraged. I hear a lot of comments like: “But I already tried to contact Booska-P, they never answered” or “Such media answered me by telling me that the articles were paying and I didn’t have the budget”. Yes, some media charge for their relays (articles, posts, stories, playlists…) and the biggest ones relay mainly artists already visible or well connected. It’s a reality that may seem harsh but that’s how our whole society works: with money and contacts… but also with merit!

And the principle of meritocracy is to start at the bottom and work your way up. If you want to gain visibility to promote your music, you’ll have to be lucid and look for media that really correspond to your music. In fact, the common mistake is to restrict yourself to the most known media: either because you are not aware of the existence of others, or because you are unrealistic.

Groover will be an excellent friend to help you gain visibility and discover new media adapted to your music (and to contact them). But don’t let that stop you from being vigilant and getting information about them. Then, refine your research through social networks to discover other media. Instagram and Twitter are full of influential accounts that relay emerging artists to larger or smaller communities. There are no small benefits: even a relay by an account with 1,000 followers can be enough to make you famous! Think about the snowball effect: it’s enough for a subscriber of this media to spot you so that he/she listens to your music regularly, talks about you to his/her friends and family, or even better: allows you to make a good meeting.

Don’t contact the media in any generic way!

Many developing artists have a reflex that makes journalists and community managers smile in reverse: promo DMs. Private messages, to media and journalists, can be a good way to get an email address or to finely establish a first contact. But for the heart of your promo, i.e. to send the link to your project, your pitch, your bio and all those important infos, it’s rather by email that it happens. And again, it’s quite logical! For a media company, Instagram and Twitter are tools for spreading information: not for receiving it. Whereas in any business, the mailbox is well used to receive them.

As for the content of the message you’ll send to the media, it’s simple but it’s like anything else: you have to know. So here it is: introduce yourself with a bio of 2 lines maximum and a pitch of your piece in 3 sentences. Provide the release date of the project or single as well as the links to listen and/or watch it. Add a public drive folder with a few press photos and at least one video teaser.

Avoid: long speeches that drown out the essential information.
Preferably: a little context explaining why you selected this media.
Examples: it relays artists who look like you, its editorial line corresponds to your vision, it has a playlist that you think you can integrate…

Don’t contact the media at any random time!

Developing a strategy to gain visibility necessarily involves the notion of timing. If your title is already released, then it is probably too late to ask for a relay. The ideal is to send a first email 2 weeks before the release for a project, one week for a single. As much as they can, the media plan their calendars in advance. The earlier you go for your spot, the higher your chances of getting it (same for a James Blake concert). However, don’t hesitate to send a reminder e-mail on the day of the show; it can always be useful! 

| Check out: How to use Groover to Promote your Music with Success

2. Share about your musical project to gain visibility

Normally, you are already better equipped to contact the media and you have chances to win your case! Only, and especially at the beginning of the process, the media will bring you credibility more than visibility! What I mean is that these relays through niche media will improve the trust your community has in you and will bring you qualitative subscribers but at the margin. Unfortunately, you can’t be satisfied with that because you really need to multiply your number of subscribers.

For that, there are not 10 000 solutions: you have to communicate. And by communicate, I mean: post, regularly, on all platforms. Because as you know, social networks are governed by algorithms. They measure how often and how well you use their features. They will reward you if their calculations prove that you are a good user. The reward is that your posts will be better located in the news feeds of your community (thus, more engagement from them) and better referenced in searches (thus, more people discovering your profile and, potentially, subscribing).

Pictures of your lifestyle, studio sessions, sound samples, polls, covers… Create as many as you can and set a goal of at least 3 posts per week on Instagram, 5 on Twitter, 1 on Tik Tok, for example. Obviously, each artist will do according to his lifestyle, his tastes and his goals: some don’t like Tik Tok, others are acidic on Twitter… Stay true to yourself, but manage to seduce the algorithms!

Today, to succeed as an artist, you have to be a good content creator. So immortalize the moments that you feel like and post them. Don’t be afraid to let your community listen to your demos, to get their feedback and show them that you’re working hard! Ask them to help you make some choices, you’ll be surprised at how much interest people have in what you’re doing.

Finally, when you post creative and qualitative video content, don’t hesitate to sponsor it. On Instagram, the process is almost automatic and it can be very effective. On the other hand, the idea is not to simply throw money at the windows of Facebook’s offices: so stay tuned! You can place a small budget over a short period of time (for example, 20 euros over 3 days) and observe the results. If the advertisement is not effective, you can always stop it and conclude that your content was not optimal. If it causes a lot of engagement, you can repeat it with a bigger budget! But don’t get your hopes up too high with a small budget. It’s better to have one big, effective ad than a few small ones.

For optimal advertising, put yourself in the mind of the average user. To keep their attention, you’ll need a dynamic video in which at least one face (ideally yours) can be identified. Select a strong moment (the chorus, for example) of a strong song (validated by your entourage). With a budget of 20 euros, you can reach up to 6000 people. If everything is well set up, you should get a return on your investment and you will convince people to subscribe.

3. Be organized, plan your releases

You understood it: to gain visibility with your music, there is a big work of communication and musical promotion to make, and this work is very far from what you make in studio. You will have to organize yourself a minimum of 3 weeks in advance before releasing a project or even a simple single. This way, you will be able to make a retroplanning indicating when you have to contact the media and post content on your social networks. Don’t neglect this part, because the more it’s planned in advance, the less you leave room for mistakes and oversights. You didn’t give up until the mastering of your sounds, so give your music the promotion it deserves!

Besides, it’s a virtuous circle. By doing these practices, the media you will contact by email or by Groover, to promote your music, will notice that you know how to do it. They will be all the easier to convince. And to give you one last push, Groover & NewTone offer you a discount on your promo with the code NEWTONEBLOG10 – valid until November 30th!

– Translated by Betty Gonzalez Gray – 

To gain visibility, send your songs through Groover

L’article Gaining Visibility: Good & Bad Practices to Promote Your Music est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

🖊 This article was translated from an article in French by David Abakan, whose blog Spread The Word is highly recommended. Thanks, David, for your insights!

1. Submit the track on Spotify for Artists

Single release day: as soon as your track is available in your artist space on Spotify, you’ll need to submit it in order to get it into editorial playlists directly from Spotify. The pitch is a summary of your track which may allow Spotify to integrate it into themed playlists. Usually, I do this well in advance of the release date but sometimes, depending on your distributor, it may only appear in your account on the day of release.

See as well: HOW TO USE SPOTIFY FOR ARTISTS TO DEVELOP YOUR STREAMING AUDIENCE

Spotify For Artists

2. Update my Press Kit and website

Although there are many ways to listen to or see your music (Youtube, Streaming, social media, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc.) your site remains the cornerstone of your communication. Indeed, many people have the reflex to search for an artist directly on google through his or her website. It is important that your website reflects your most recent news. It is therefore necessary to add the news of the new single on your press kit and integrate the video of the clip on the site- on the home page if possible.

Press Kit image

3. Send a reminder email to influencers

Part of the promotion can be done in advance, about 1 month before the official single release day of the single, notably through Groover. Therefore, on release day, it is important to send a reminder email to those who have expressed their desire to share the track.

In this email I include :

• The link to my youtube video
• My press kit
• The link to streaming platforms

Of course, this media canvassing phase also continues once the song is released.

4. Personalize my social media

It’s important to standardize your social media and customize your profile and cover photos. When it’s single release day, I change the ones on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. You can change Youtube, Bandcamp, and Spotify, if you want to as well.

Cover photo

See as well: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS AS MUSICIANS AND STAND OUT

5. Finish my YouTube description

The description of your YouTube video is one of the key elements for referencing your video on YouTube. Here are the elements that I systematically add :

• Credits (author, composer, musicians, video, photos, mix, mastering etc.)
• The link to streaming platforms (smart link)
• The link to subscribe to my channel
• Legal notices (producer, label, distributor etc)
• The lyrics of the song
• Tags

6. Make the YouTube video public

This action clearly announces the single release day of your song because each of your subscribers will receive instant notification. In my case, the video of my single is used to propose the track to influencers on Groover for example, therefore it has already been uploaded on Youtube for almost a month but put in “unlisted” so that Youtube doesn’t index it. So I just have to change its status to “Public” to make it accessible to everyone.

7. Advertise the single on Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin

There is no one method in advertising the release; some will want to open up at length and tell in detail the creative process up to the release, and others will play it more soberly. On a personal note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who helped me to bring my songs to life. This announcement should be posted on your Fan page, even if your page is as animated as a pharmacy! You will then be able to share the publication on your personal account. (*With my Facebook account linked to my Twitter, I don’t need to repeat this action)

8. Sharing with friends

I must admit that for this stage I force myself, because if I had to listen to my own music I wouldn’t bother anyone! But there is no choice! Indeed, the organic reach of Facebook has fallen in recent years and having subscribers no longer means that they will see all your publications. The ratio would be around 6.5%. In practice if you have 10,000 fans, only 650 would see your posts. Since 2018, it is the subscriber who has to make the effort not to miss any publication by one page.

Following on Facebook

Moreover, one might think that they can rely on paid sponsorship, but it is strongly advised to wait until your publication has reached its organic peak before sponsoring it. Sponsorship should complement what can be achieved organically. If you sponsor too early, you do not give the publication time to reach its organic peak. You must therefore try to have, in a first step, as much sharing or interaction as possible by yourself.

9. Send an email to my mailing list

Emailing is one of the tools at our disposal to communicate with our fan base. For this step, I try to be concise because I know that people have little patience these days. So I focus mainly on the YouTube video with a light explanatory text for those who are really interested. Of course I make sure that an unsubscribe link is visible and easy to access.

10. Update my signatures

There is no small profit when it comes to making your music known. You can add the link of your last single in your email signature or in the bio of your Instagram account.

Signature

11. Add the track to “Radio Airplay”

Having a monthly subscription on Radio Airplay, I add my last title and transfer the current credits to it.

12. Add the track on Soundcloud

Although I have long since left Soundcloud, I always put my new releases on it. I have a few followers but it’s mainly because Hype Machine uses Soundcloud to stream tracks on its player.

13. Create an Instagram story and sponsor it

Beyond the fact that I much prefer Instagram to Facebook, which I find much less anxiety-provoking, the stories there work much better and it is also possible to sponsor them. However, it is important to remember to designate an image or a video in the right format (1080px × 1920px).

14. Sponsor the post

Depending on how step 8 (sharing with friends) goes, I sponsor the Facebook post the same day or within the days following. By sponsoring, you can then decide to reach your subscribers, friends of your subscribers, or an audience that you will have defined beforehand, if you want to target a particular audience.

To take your single further like Abakan, contact the media, radios & labels of your choice on Groover, feedback guaranteed!

More info about Abakan: “After a long self-taught journey where I acquired some skills (mixing, video editing, color correcting, web development, web design) I decided to learn how to promote my own music- a complex but essential step in my job as an artist. Starting from the principle that in giving, one can receive, it’s through Spread The Word that I recently decided to share, in all transparency, the tools and solutions that worked during my releases.”

L’article Single Release Day: A step-by-step guide by David Abakan est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

1. Adapt your pace to your goals

First, you need to determine your goals and set up a strategy that will shape your communication. You do not have to be active 24/7 on social media! You have to know how to adapt your pace of publication to the time you have. There is no point in overwhelming your fans with messages, photos or videos if you don’t evolve in your core projects.

Always favor quality content when you’re short on time. However, you will have to be very active afterwards to promote your music. Your use of social media will be more or less intense depending on the progress of your projects. For instance, you do not communicate as much when working on your album as when you’re looking to sell it!

2. Seek and understand your fans

For your communication to be effective, you need to analyze the habits of your fans in order to understand their behavior. To what kind of content are they the most responsive? How often do you have to talk to them? At what time are they most likely to see your news? But above all: on which social media are they the most active?

You can then build your strategy around these info (the “Statistics” tab of your Facebook page is full of information). For example, if your typical fan is very active on Twitter, you will also have to be active on this social media in order to catch his attention. It’s up to you to adapt to the your fans’ habits and not the other way around.

3. Which social network to use and how?

Each social network has its own codes and is not used in the same way. Poorly using them can hurt your image and transmit the wrong signals. We can try to classify social networks according to their current importance as follows:

• Facebook and YouTube

These two social networks are essential to share your news on a large scale and reach the widest audience possible. Centralize your activity around Facebook, which has many very interesting features (such as Music Tab, Video Tab, Twitter Tab, Instagram Tab) and allows your audience to easily navigate between your different networks.

Do not forget to leave a description of your profile photos / cover links to discover your projects: this is the goal after all! Using Facebook Live is also a great way to display the events you organize on social networks.

However, you must be careful to be active without spamming your users and thus favor quality content. 1 to 2 posts per day maximum on your Facebook page so as not to harm the commitment of your fans.

• Instagram and Twitter

They allow you to communicate differently with your fans by posting more personal content at a higher rate. These are two very important social networks because they allow you to retain your fans by establishing a proximity with them.

Focus on “curating content” on Twitter with short, hard-hitting messages, and share links that concern you such as the playlists you’ve been added to, articles written about your project, perhaps obtained through Groover! On Instagram – which has experienced massive growth in recent years – take full advantage of the innovations regularly made and the many opportunities that this social network offers. Like Jaden Smith, be creative!

• Snapchat, Soundcloud, Pinterest

These tools target very specific populations and are therefore less global. They are to use if it makes sense with your universe but they are not essential. Depending on your style of music and the image you want to convey, Soundcloud can still be a good alternative to Youtube to build your first audience and get organic fans.

4. Get in touch with your community

Finally, it is very important to interact with your community –you can even give it a name! Polls, calls to action, sharing request, incentives to tag friends etc. This allows you to better know and retain your audience. They will be happy to interact with you and be involved in some of your decisions. But it is also very important to increase the craze around your posts, helping them to spread widely on the social media sphere.

Finally get in the radar of blogs, radios and labels of your choice with our platform, feedback guaranteed and coverage 🚀

L’article How to manage your social media accounts as musicians and stand out est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.