Finishing an album takes energy, passion, and hard work, and now that it’s done, you want to promote it and get it heard by a wider audience. The problem is, that you are just starting out and don’t quite know how to navigate the complex and messy music industry. Don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to promote your music album and get it heard by as many people as possible.
Let’s take a look at the different ways of promoting a music album as a beginner.
1. Grow your fan base and create buzz around your album
If you’re just getting started, chances are you’ll also be starting out on social media and the first step is to create a professional account on the various social media platforms out there, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and Youtube. Now, you may already have a personal account and if you want to use that for your music too, go ahead. But whatever you choose, the most important thing is that you start promoting your music on your social networks (we’ll talk about your music album soon, but you can just start by promoting your music in general).
If you’re a complete beginner, the people around you may not even know you make music, let alone that you’re about to release an album. So you need to use your social media accounts to tell the world what you’re about.
Chances are, unless you’re an influencer or have uploaded a video that’s gone viral, you don’t have a strong online presence or a large number of followers. Not to worry! The important thing here is growth and by creating and sharing engaging content, as well as using strategic hashtags, you can boost your visibility on these platforms and grow your follower count. This growth takes time, but it’s best to do it organically to ensure you build a loyal and dedicated fanbase.
But what if you have a music album to promote and you don’t have many followers? Again, don’t panic, because by promoting your music album on your social media platforms, you’re also sharing engaging content that will help you grow your following. It’s a win-win situation!
A good thing to do is to start promoting your music album a few months before its release date. You can post short clips from the music video, behind-the-scenes footage, spoilers, and teasers to build anticipation, as well as change your profile picture on all accounts for your album cover (it’s all about branding!). If you can, record a video of yourself talking about the making of the album and share it with your followers. People like to see how something was made and if there’s a story behind the project. Another very good way of promoting your music album is to create a hashtag relating to the release of your album and get it trending online. If there are any collaborations on the album, ask fellow musicians to post on their social media channels too.
Now, if we leave social media platforms for a minute, you also need to create a buzz around the release of your album within the music industry. An excellent thing would be to write a press release about your album. The next step is to contact music bloggers, radio stations in your genre, and music influencers. Bear in mind that they may not make themselves available to a newcomer or someone they’ve never heard of before, so a good idea would be to enlist the help of a music promotion service like Groover to submit your album tracks to the right people in the industry. These could be music bloggers, journalists, radio stations (and even, as we’ll see later, Spotify playlist curators). You really want as many people talking about your album as possible, and while we’re talking about building anticipation, this is equally important during or after the release of your album.
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Promote your music effectively by sending it directly to curators and pros via Groover 👇
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2. Choose the right distributor and get ready on the various streaming platforms
An essential step in promoting your music album is getting it out there. Now, if you’re a complete beginner, you might not know anything about music distributors or even streaming platforms (although you’ve probably heard of Spotify and SoundCloud).
A distributor essentially helps you get your music onto streaming platforms and there are actually several to choose from, such as CD Baby, DistroKid, and Tunecore. It’s important to research and choose the one that suits you best, as well as the one that will best meet your promotional needs.
Once you’ve created an account with a distributor, you need to create your profile on one or more music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud. By doing this, you’ll be able to put your music online and get in touch with new listeners.
To promote the release of your album, you’ll need to make sure that your profile on all the streaming platforms is up to date for when your album is ready for release.
Just as a film builds anticipation for its release with a trailer, you need to do the same for your album with a single. What you need to do is choose the song that best reflects the mood of the album and share it with your listeners first. If you’re the only one calling the shots and you’re not sure which song to release first as a single, the best approach is to follow your instincts (intuition is rarely wrong!). Remember that any album is a complete work and the song you use to announce it should represent the album as a whole.
It’s important not to underestimate the power of this promotional tactic, as the release of a single helps to build anticipation for the release of the album. What’s more, if the song you choose proves very popular on streaming platforms and social media, you can gain new listeners and followers who will be ready for the album release.
If you want to release more than one song as a single before your album comes out, do so, but make sure you promote each one well. And leave a bit of mystery for the album release!
4. Create a landing page on your professional website
If you don’t have an official website for your music, the first step is to create one. You don’t need to spend an absurd amount of money or hire a graphic designer to help you (you’d be better off putting that money into promoting your album!). All you need is a place on the Internet where your fans can find all the information they need about you.
Once you’ve set up something functional and relatively aesthetically pleasing, what you can do to further promote your music album is to create a landing page for it, and on that landing page, you want to set up a pre-order feature for your music album. This allows you to take orders even before the album is released.
Another thing you can create on your website is an electronic press release (EPK) that contains all the information about the release of your album. This is more for industry professionals to find out about your album, its concept, and its story.
5. Submit the album to Spotify playlists, radio stations, and music blogs
OK, so today’s the day and you’re about to share your music album with the world. Make sure you’re posting on all your social media channels about this big release and reposting any user-generated content or other items such as reviews and articles about the album.
But even with as much promotion as humanly possible on social media, your album risks being drowned out by the huge amount of music on streaming services. You might be wondering how you can make it more visible on Spotify and drive more traffic to your profile?
A great tactic for promoting your music album is to submit your music to popular playlists in your genre, as this can help you reach a wider audience and build your fanbase.
Remember when we mentioned music promotion services in the first section? They can be useful at this stage of the process too, as you can use platforms like Groover to submit your tracks directly to Spotify playlists. This can save you from having to contact the playlist curators yourself and it will also give you more credibility.
At this stage, you can also get back in touch with radio stations and music bloggers. You’re no longer awaiting the release of your album, you’re promoting its debut!
If you’ve already contacted radio stations before the album’s release, get back in touch with them. Otherwise, look for stations as well as music bloggers and influencers in your niche and get in touch with them, either directly or via a promotion company like Groover. If you’re just starting out, you could target independent radio stations keen to discover indie artists and new music or your local radio station, which is probably keen to share news about people who live in their area. And remember the EPK? This is a great thing to submit to them for consideration. Don’t forget to share any news coverage of your album on your social media channels as well as your website.
6. Create merchandise to go with your album
A really fun part of creating an album is finding all the visual elements associated with it, such as the album cover. This has to do with branding, which can be very useful when it comes to promoting your music album. Many people are visual and remember something they saw that was striking or original. Bear this in mind when choosing the color and font for your album cover and make sure that it fits in with the overall feel of the music on the album.
Once you’ve decided on all this, a good tactic for promoting your album would be to create and sell merchandise, i.e. physical products that you could sell and that could further promote your music album. You need to check that your budget allows you to do this, but if it does, why not create merch such as CDs, vinyl, cassettes, or even T-shirts, hoodies, and caps. It works in the same way as word of mouth, and when people see that person walking down the street wearing that great hoodie with a catchy album name, they’ll probably look it up.
7. Offer exclusive content
So if you’re sharing engaging content on your social media platforms, chances are your following is growing. And a great way to turn that audience into a loyal and devoted fanbase is to offer exclusive content. After all, when you look back in a few years’ time, you’ll realize that these are the people who were with you from the very beginning. Don’t they deserve a bit of extra love?
Exclusive content can be anything: behind-the-scenes videos, acoustic versions of tracks or even unreleased songs, opportunities for meet-ups, contests… basically, anything you can think of to solidify your relationship as an artist with your listeners and to boost your album’s visibility.
8. Organize a tour to promote your music album
One of the most effective ways to promote music is probably to perform it. If you’re just starting out, you may not have the budget for a big tour, but you should try to book a few gigs at local venues like the corner café or your favorite bar to create a buzz around the release of your album and start a good word-of-mouth promotion campaign.
One good thing you could do is organize an album release party and perform your entire album live.
Invite everyone you can think of, from family and friends to people who follow you on social media and any industry professionals you’ve made connections with. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with local journalists, podcasters, or bloggers – they might very well want to cover a story about a local releasing their first music album!
Conclusion
As a newcomer to the music business scene, all of this may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t worry, there are many ways to promote your music album and build your music career. Keep in mind that promoting an album takes time and energy, but with the right promotional tactics and marketing strategies, you can stand out as an independent artist and succeed in the music industry.
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Promote your music effectively 👇
