Music Promotion: how to choose a Budget for your Release?

Music promotion is the crucial step that follows the production of your music and its distribution on streaming platforms. Music promotion starts when your track/EP/album is ready and its release strategy is prepared. There are great tools to help you in this crucial stage of music promotion- including Groover, which allows you to contact the best media, labels and music industry professionals with the guarantee of a response within 7 days.

But one question remains, the one that many musicians and music professionals ask themselves:

What kind of budget should you invest in promoting your music?

The important thing here is to think in the short, medium and long term. Developing a solid strategy and knowing in advance what budget you will be able to invest in the promotion of your music is essential to avoid getting stuck. We especially advise you to create a simple promotion calendar from one month before the release of your music to a few weeks afterwards. Writing the steps of your music promotion as well as the budget allocated to each of these steps maximizes your chances of getting the visibility your music deserves.

How do you promote your music online?

How do you keep your music alive in the face of the 100,000 new releases on Spotify every day?

In this article, we will give you tips to help you prioritize your music promotion strategy and use the most effective tools according to your budget.

1. Social Media Strategy

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter, and more… To stand out from the crowd, artists must be present wherever it makes sense. Competition is tough and all these platforms are evolving fast. You have to follow, be followed, understand the trends- all while remaining yourself. To learn more about harnessing the power of social media, we suggest you read our article: How to manage your social media accounts as musicians and stand out. 

Here are two techniques of music promotion that can help you boost your visibility on the internet: advertising on social networks and influencers.

| Read more: Instagram for Musicians: How to gain new followers

A. Promote your music with sponsored posts: Facebook Ads and Google Ads

• Facebook / Instagram Ads

Facebook Ads allows you to create ads on Facebook AND Instagram. It’s not so much a question of budget but more a question of targeting. You can quickly reach thousands of people and keep them interested if you aim right! The priority in terms of music promotion via Facebook Ads is therefore to define your objectives. Do you want to get new followers on social networks? Do you want to boost the number of listens on your songs?

Rather than sponsoring the already existing posts on your page, we advise you to learn as much as possible about the Business Manager: Facebook’s platform that allows you to create an infinite number of advertising contents and formats adapted to both Facebook and Instagram. Also note that the visual quality of your content is paramount- your time spent on graphic creation and clips will be put to good use in your ads.

To know step by step how to create sponsored content, we suggest you read our Guide to promote your music on Facebook and Instagram Ads.

💡 Even with a total budget of 50-100€ for a single, it is possible to get great results with careful targeting and quality content.

💡If you have determined your target, a budget of only 2€/day for a well-targeted Instagram story can get you started.

💡For an Instagram post, it is better to sponsor videos rather than photos.

• Google Ads

Most people use Google every day and Youtube is one of the best ways to discover new music. Why not use it to get your music known? Again, what is your objective?

Google Ads works on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. This means that you are only charged for your advertising when someone clicks on it. You can set a budget per day not to be exceeded. The more relevant your content seems, the better you are positioned on Google and Youtube and the less you pay. That’s why it is important to define your target.

💡  For artists, the focus should be mainly on Youtube, which offers the most interesting results to increase your audience. You can highlight your clip directly with an in-stream placement (for example placed before another video) or in the search results on Youtube to make it gain views easily. This is a technique used by all well-established labels.

💡  You have the ability to target other Youtube channels, specific videos, etc. in a very precise way. It is important to target precisely and do tests in order to maximize the chances that the preview of your clip is shown to the right audience who will then act upon seeing it (like, comment, subscription) and can become a fervent fan.

💡  You can start with a few tens of euros, and raise your budget up to 200€ well spread out over 1-2 weeks for a single/clip.

💡 Google Ads also makes it possible to highlight content in search engines and via banners on other websites, but the interest remains limited for highlighting a track or clip.

B. Get put in the spotlight by influencers

• Media and blogs 

FREE PROMOTION- It is common for artists to contact webzines, blogs and media outlets for a spotlight in an article or video. Feel free to contact them for your music promotion too! If you don’t get an answer after a week, don’t hesitate to contact them again personally. They get so many emails so don’t be offended if you don’t get a response on the first try, but with a good method you can get results.

Be careful with your messages! The media and radio programmers are real people who have tastes, a passion for music, and are not necessarily paid for their musical activity. Take an interest in their media before contacting them all systematically.

☝️ Don’t forget to attach your Press Kit to your message! You can keep a close eye on the coverage you receive and follow up with it. Everything is explained here in our article on the subject.

☝️ Groover allows you to target the most appropriate media and blogs for your music and guarantees a response within 7 days.

• Playlists

FREE PROMOTION – Once the distribution phase of your song is complete, you can pitch your song to playlist curators thanks to Spotify for Artists.

☝️ Pitch your music to playlist curators a few weeks ahead of release day!

| Read also: How to release music the best way

There are three types of playlists:

🎶 Editorial playlists: an artist can submit his or her new track to the Spotify editorial team using Spotify for Artists.
🎶 Algorithmic playlists: playlists generated by Spotify’s algorithms.
🎶 User-generated playlists: playlists from people outside of Spotify- it could be you or me- who have managed to grow a following that listens to their own playlists. Here is a foolproof technique for contacting them here 👈

☝️ Groover allows you to target playlists that best match your music and guarantees a response within 7 days.

• Get put in the spotlight by a well-known artist

Why not propose a collaboration to an artist who is better known than you? Or ask them to share your music? Above all, make sure that your music is of high quality! Then, once again, spend time writing your pitch and try to answer this question: why would this artist want to give me a boost? If you manage to answer it, then you have nothing to lose by explaining directly to the artist why it would be great to accept it and what it would mean to both you and them.

• Influencers on TikTok, Insta, Youtube, etc.

Seek out influencers who correspond to your musical style and who can help you reach your target- maybe someone who dances to your music, someone who talks about your music, your music video, etc.

If they really enjoy what you do, some may accept for free but most- even the “little” influencers- already have a price tag. Ask for their prices and see what’s possible.
Example: for an Instagram or TikTok influencer who has 50k subscribers max, they usually charge at least 200€.

2. Press relations

• Contact database

FREE PROMOTION– Create a well-organized file with all the contacts you have that you can continually add to- blogs, playlist curators, artists, and other actors who can help you promote your music. That way, when you release your music and it’s time to move into the promotion phase, you can contact them all.

☝️ Put little notes next to each person to remind you who they are, how you met them and what you can ask them. This will help you write a personalized message, be effective and maximize your chances of a positive response. You can read our article on Internet monitoring and tracking your press coverage here.

☝️ If you can afford it, you can also hire a PR expert for your musical promotion!

• Newsletters

FREE PROMOTION- Newsletters are a perfectly free tool that have proven their effectiveness in terms of music promotion. There is nothing better than a newsletter to boost your fans through a different channel- emails. It’s a range of expression that has no limits, except that it must capture the attention of your readers. You can share news about the release of your songs, your past and future concerts, your press coverage, your new partners, etc… Newsletters can also help you to reach a wider audience and/or satisfy your most fervent fans.

💡 Our special tip: prepare a contact list and start with a simple newsletter format using tools like Mailchimp or Sendinblue. You’ll be able to track who opened your mail and who clicked on the link to listen to the song. Prioritize your time by sending personalized emails to those who clicked on the link. You can find out more on how to send great newsletters in our article on the subject.

• Radios

FREE PROMOTION- For the promotion of your music, the radio remains a very effective tool! Lots of people still listen to the radio in the car or use the Shazam app to figure out what song is playing in a store. These remain very common practices that are among the biggest channels of music discovery even today. Contact the radio stations that play your style of music and see what’s possible. We give you lots of tips on how to get your song on the radio successfully in this article.

💡 Groover allows you to target the radios that best match your music and guarantees a response within 7 days.

3. Music promotion using Groover

Through its innovative web platform, Groover connects artists who want to promote their music with the best media, radio and labels looking for emerging talent. On Groover, artists can send their music directly to a selection of media, radios and labels of their choice and get guaranteed feedback within 7 days with a potential for a feature, a meeting and/or a signature.

The media (playlists, blogs, social network influencers, etc.), radios and labels are carefully selected.

💡 For a successful experience and to maximize your chances of a positive response, we strongly recommend that you contact at least 20 influencers (i.e. a budget of approximately 36€ with the Britney pack ), knowing that the quality of the results obtained increases with the number of influencers contacted. The average campaign is around 30 contacts and many very successful campaigns exceed 100 contacts.

🌟 To maximize your chances of success, there are very advantageous Groover credit packs available:

💡 Don’t hesitate to contact us to direct you to the best people to contact for your music. Targeting is the key to good music promotion, for fans and pros alike.

To learn more, check out these topics to guide you:

| When should I send my music on Groover?
| What budget should I invest on my Groover campaign?

4. Total budget for your Music Promotion Campaign

Here are four ideas of schedules and scenarios according to your budget for your musical promotion:

• For a music promotion budget of 100 €

– This budget corresponds to a single release –

💡 We advise you to distribute your Ads budget per day. 

For example: for Facebook & Instagram Ads, we suggest you put a budget of 15€ on the day of the release of your music over a period of 3 days. To be more explicit, you will be able to tell Facebook Ads that you want to sponsor your content on Facebook & Instagram at 5€ per day for 3 days. Then repeat the operation on D+3 by changing the content to be promoted- a new excerpt of your music for example.

As a reminder, Google Ads is particularly useful to boost your music on Youtube if it is accompanied by a visual/clip- which is highly recommended for a successful release.

• For a music promotion budget of 500 €

– This budget corresponds to the release of a single or an EP –

💡 On Groover, with the Mariah pack at 94€ for 110 Grooviz accessible in your Balance, you can contact 10 magazines and radios (20 Grooviz) before the release to initiate contact, then 45 blogs, radios, and playlists on release day. Read more about when to send a song on Groover here. 

• For a music promotion budget of 1000 €

– This budget corresponds to the release of a single, EP, or album –

• For a music promotion budget upwards of 2000 €

– This budget corresponds to the release of a single, EP, or album –

Conclusion

Releasing and promoting your music online is a moment that needs to be carefully prepared in advance. Even if you don’t have a large budget for music promotion, you’ve seen that there are plenty of ways to get your music out there! Remember to target music professionals and your potential fans with precision- you will gain visibility while optimizing your budget. 😉

– Article translated by Mackenzie Leighton –

To contact the best media, radios and labels, check out Groover✨