Music Promotion, Radio Airplay & Spotify Playlists

Music Promotion, Radio Airplay, Spotify Playlists & Music Marketing

It can be difficult to get your music heard in today’s industry – where everyone has the ability to make and upload music to streaming sites from their bedroom. The hard part is getting people to actually listen to it – and that’s where music promotion and music marketing come in.

The general public spends more time than ever on social media platforms so music streaming services like Spotify are becoming more and more important to reach a fan base and get your music online. 

Yet with people increasingly advertising their products online, many platforms have become swamped with ads. So the question is, how do you cut through all the noise? The answer is music promotion and music marketing. 

What Is Music Promotion?

Music promotion comes in many forms, both free and paid. Free music promotion can come from friends and family sharing your music to reach a larger audience. But while it’s a fantastic way to spread the word of your latest single, it’s not as effective as paid promotion. Ads on platforms like Spotify, Facebook or Soundcloud are some of the best places to promote music and in turn increase your streams, ensuring your music reaches a wider audience. 

Music promotion companies and online music promotion services offer a range of music promotion packages and are a great way for artists to expand their audience. Paying for a professional service opens artists to a previously unreachable demographic. Of course, everything a promotion company will offer is achievable on your own, but it can take months of research, networking and emailing before you see results. So how do you promote your music?

Why Is Music Promotion Important? 

Strong music promotion and music marketing are key to any artist’s success, especially focused on album and single releases which are normally six weeks prior to the album launch. Music marketing allows an artist to reach new music fans, which in turn leads to more streams, likes, views, shares and sales – and pushes your music career forward. The best way to promote music is to approach it in an organised and methodical way, taking into the following considerations.

How To Promote Your Music

Friends and Family

Your closest friends and family are an invaluable asset to both your music and your brand. Ask those around you to support your music marketing efforts by subscribing to your YouTube channel and sharing your latest Facebook post or blog posts. Them talking about your music to others and being involved in your journey is the best way to slowly but surely get the word out about your music and promote music free. 

Social Media Campaigns

Social media offers plenty of music promotion ideas, and everyone likes great music so it’s a popular topic. As well as scheduling ads for cheap music promotion, you can post updates as you progress through your career. You can post behind-the-scenes footage and live music on your Instagram and TikTok. You can even host giveaway competitions to boost fan engagement as you take them with you on your journey.

Soft Sell

Soft selling is an advertising and sales approach centred around being subtle and not forceful, designed to avoid turning potential customers off by being too pushy.

Instead of being too ‘shouty’ about your music, try and spark conversation and build relationships with your fans by being more personal. Listen and engage with your followers and encourage them to get involved and ask questions – and in turn, respond with well-informed and friendly information to build trust and garner support.

Music Video Promotion

This is the ideal way to showcase your talent and single release. Sharing your music video on Youtube is fantastic organic music promotion and there are many other platforms on which to distribute your music video – the visual element makes it perfect for social media. You could also approach music promotion forums and music blogs to see if they are interested in your story.

You may also consider YouTube music promotion through ads as a way of getting your music out there. Many music promotion companies UK – such as Music Gateway – can also promote your video to television, record labels, and their respective A&R teams. A way to promote music video free is to get your personal network involved in sharing it on their socials too. 

Radio Airplay

Radio promotion is probably the most obvious answer for indie music promotion. It can be free to get your music out onto the airwaves with a well-structured email to your local radio promoter – but do your research first. 

There’s no sense emailing a pop station to play a death metal track. Offer something in return – most local stations and radio pluggers love to play upcoming artists, especially if the artist promises to share details of the station with their audience. You get airplay, the radio gets free promotion to your fanbase and everyone is happy. 

Collaborate with Other Artists

Music is all about collaborating with different people and there’s a reason you see so many singles released by established artists featuring other big artists. Collaborating allows you to sell your music and your brand to someone else’s loyal audience – reaching fans you may have never reached through your usual promotional efforts.  

Collaborating can come in many forms: performing a duet on stage, writing a song with another artist or working with a producer to remix your latest track or even someone else’s. 

Music Marketing Companies (Music PR Companies) 

There are many companies that offer promotion for indie artists. The best music promotion services offer affordable services with clear outcomes. We’ve all seen the fake Instagram accounts promising followers for cash, only to find the followers you receive are bots and false accounts. Legitimate companies provide artists will real engagement from real people through the use of ad campaigns, DSP playlisting and clever digital promo targeting. 

Playlists

The popularity of streaming platforms has seen Spotify music promotion continue to grow, and artists have been known to make a living purely from the royalties collected when their track lands in a top Spotify playlist. But how do you secure a playlist push? The answer is DIY or via a music promotions company. 

Both will give you organic Spotify promotion or other playlist promotion – but working on your own to land your latest single in a big playlist takes a lot of time. First, you need to find a suitable playlist that your single would fit well with. You then need to spend potentially hours tracking down the playlist curator before finding a suitable contact. Even then, that doesn’t land you a spot. 

Alternatively, you could invest in your career by hiring music promoters or Spotify promotion companies who will already have a phone book full of strong contacts ready to receive your track.  Spotify promotion services can help boost your Spotify streams, increase your monthly listeners and increase your fan base – in a fraction of the time. 

DIY Or Hired Help? 

There’s nothing wrong with making connections for yourself to build a strong network for your brand. Whether this method is successful depends on your effort, input and patience. Spending hours a day promoting your music can be a long and boring task. However, the potential is unlimited and the rewards are much more satisfying when your single begins to gain traction. 

If you don’t have the time, patience or knowledge to develop music marketing strategies to promote your music, then music promotion companies like Music Gateway can do it for you in half the time. This gives you more time to focus on what really matters – the music. 

Explore Music Gateway’s music promotion services listed above for help promoting your SoundCloud tracks, boosting your Spotify plays, creating Apple Music promotion campaigns and much more.

FAQ’S

If I want to add money to my ad spend, will I be charged extra for my campaign?

No! Our rates are fixed. So you can spend as much or as little as you’d like.

Can I promote my music to get them into TV and film?

Absolutely. Our Sync Promotion team will present your videos to music supervisors/ labels and A&R teams.

I don’t have any followers on social media, is Music Promotion for me?

Everybody has to start somewhere! It doesn’t matter what size your following is already, we work equally as hard for every client to grow the reach but also expose your music to our followings of over 80,000 industry professionals and fans.

Will my music definitely get played on the radio?

Nothing in the music industry is guaranteed, however, we certainly try our best and our experienced team work directly with some of the biggest radio stations in the world.

Do you buy followers as a tactic for promotion?

Absolutely not. Our growth comes organically or from specially created, well-thought-out ads and marketing strategies.

How will I know how my campaign is going?

Our talented team will regularly update you with how your campaign is going, any placements you’ve landed, or plans to try a different strategy. Of course, our team is always around if you want to get in touch to talk about your campaign.

Could I just do my own Music Promotion?

Whilst there are aspects of music management and promotion that artists are capable of doing themselves. The benefits of working with an established Music Promotion company are wide scopes for reach and making huge industry connections. Plus it frees up more of your time to do what you do best – make music!