With a huge number of platforms and services promising to help musicians sell their music, gain exposure, and build a fanbase, the question arises: should you trust any online service to promote your music?
For the quick answer, trusting a service online to promote your music should always be approached with an element of caution and requires careful consideration and research. Indeed, while there are reputable services that can effectively promote your music to a wider audience, there are also many scams and ineffective services that may promise to amplify the reach of your music but don’t really deliver on their word or may even engage in unethical practices.
Therefore, here are some factors to consider when evaluating a service for promoting your music online.
1. What services are we talking about?
Getting the help of a service online to help you promote your music is a great idea and should be included in any good marketing strategy, especially nowadays as having an online presence as an artist is crucial. There are many online services and platforms for music to help musicians promote their music, such as :
- Social media platforms: social media marketing is very powerful and these platforms offer tools such as hashtags, reels, and live streaming to share your music, engage with your fans, and build an audience (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Music).
- Major streaming platforms: you can upload music to these and they have extensive user bases and algorithms that can help your music reach new listeners (Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music).
- Music distribution services: these primarily focus on distributing music to various streaming services but they also offer some promotional features as part of their services (DistroKid, CD Baby, and TuneCore).
- Independent music platforms: websites and apps like SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Audiomack provide independent artists with more direct control over their music and opportunities for grassroots promotion within specific communities or genres.
- Music promotion websites: these platforms connect artists with bloggers, playlist curators, and other influencers who can help them promote their music. They act as the middleman and can be a great help when submitting music to various music industry professionals. Groover is one of these platforms and you can use it to submit your music to radio stations, blogs, record labels, and playlist curators – and as well as promoting your music through the various platforms you reach out to, you can get feedback from professionals in the industry.
- Music blogs and music magazines: these offer great publicity and you can submit your music to these platforms to help expose your music to new audiences and give your work credibility.
- Online radio stations and podcasts: a lot of them are interested in music discovery and are often looking for new music and new artists to showcase. And getting radio airplay can really help an aspiring artist get his or her music in front of new listeners and advertise their brand.
- Crowdfunding platforms: if you’re working on a new project or album, you can consider using crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or Patreon not only to raise funds but also to generate buzz around your music.
- Music promotion companies: these companies offer a range of services including PR campaigns, radio promotion, social media management, and much more.
- Playlist promotion services: some companies specialize in promoting music to playlist curators on streaming platforms like Spotify. These services can help artists get their songs added to popular playlists, increasing their visibility.
- Influencer marketing: collaborating with social media influencers or content creators who have large followings can help expose your music to their audience.
2. The good, the bad and the ugly
As with everything in life, these services have a good side, a bad side, and a truly ugly side.
And what you really want to do before getting your music on one of these is to navigate this part of the music industry with a healthy dose of skepticism. So let’s look at all these sides in detail.
On the one hand, reputable music promotion services can provide valuable exposure and help you connect with listeners who resonate with your sound, as well as industry professionals. What you want ultimately is to get your music heard and build your fanbase through tools such as curated playlists on Spotify and radio promotion, which can help you reach audiences and expand your fanbase as well as your potential revenue streams.
But as we saw earlier, not all online music services are created equal, and while some platforms will genuinely have your best interests at heart and will prioritize your success while operating transparently, others may indulge in shady practices that could damage your career and even your reputation. These are the bad and the ugly, and we’re going to take a look at them now.
The bad relates to the issue of remuneration, because while some services will ensure that you receive a fair payment for your work, other platforms may take a significant portion of your earnings, leaving you with only a fraction of what you rightfully deserve. Songwriters are not immune to scams and some companies or individuals might promise them lucrative royalty deals in exchange for a fee or signing over rights to their music but these deals sometimes turn out to be fraudulent, and the songwriter never receives the promised royalties.
Now, the ugly thing here is the risk of piracy and copyright infringement, because by uploading your music to certain platforms without a license or proper protection measures, you could fall victim to misuse or even theft of your work.
In short, it’s essential to do thorough research and evaluate all services before committing to working with them. But what exactly should you look out for when doing your research?
3. What are the factors you need to look out for before entrusting your music to an online service?
OK, so you’ve decided to use an online service to promote your music and now that you know what could go wrong, you want to do your research.
The first thing to check is the reputation of the service. Any business knows the importance of word of mouth and while people don’t always say when something goes right, they are usually very vocal when things go wrong. With this in mind, look for reviews, testimonials, and comments from other artists who have used that particular service and look out for complaints or warning signs about their practices. It’s important to have a good track record and you need to make sure that the service you’re considering has a history of successful campaigns or promotions they’ve run for other artists.
Communication is key and any service you are considering should listen to your questions and concerns and keep you informed throughout the promotion process.
This brings us to the next point, transparency. A trustworthy service must be transparent about its methods, prices, and exactly what it offers. A service that promises unrealistic results or guarantees overnight success, or offers vague explanations of how it will promote your music, is a red flag not to be ignored.
You have a right to clarity and, in the same vein, make sure you read any contract or terms of service carefully before agreeing to work with a service. If there’s a lot of jargon you don’t understand, you might consider hiring a professional to help you understand what you’re paying for and what results you can expect.
Make sure you work with reputable services that prioritize copyright protection and fair remuneration for artists, and be wary of services that charge high upfront fees or lock you into long-term contracts without providing tangible results. A reputable promotion service should be transparent about its pricing structure (it should mention things such as royalties, music licensing, music publishing, copyright…) and provide clear metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of its campaigns.
Finally, because people tend to associate artists with the people they work with, make sure the service you’re considering adopts ethical promotion practices and doesn’t use spammy or misleading tactics that could damage your reputation as an artist.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the decision to trust an online music promotion service comes down to doing your due diligence and ensuring that the service aligns with your goals as an artist. Remember, trust is earned and the music industry, at the end of the day, is a business. This means that while there are good and decent people out there, there are also untrustworthy ones, so make sure you take the time to thoroughly research and vet all services before entrusting them with promoting your music.
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