There are many advantages to promoting your music in the EU and the UK; such as direct sales and distribution, you can be held more accountable for your music sales and it gives you the ability to make money from other forms of income such as YouTube ads, streaming and social media platforms.
If you’re planning on releasing music in the EU and the UK, you should consider this article an essential read.
This article will teach you how to promote your music.
First, you must know that you have to market your music for a reason. The first step to marketing your music is deciding on the right reason to promote it.
Here are some great reasons to promote your music:
You are likely to be targeting one of the following types of promotion: Free promotion vs. Paid Promotion.
Free promotion is when you use promotional tools, such as social media, a blog, or a YouTube channel, to gain attention for your band. These promotional tools are free and you only will pay if you would like extra features.
Many bands use free services to promote their music and they do really work. You need to put in a lot of time and effort into your social and YouTube channels, but if you do it can really pay off.
Whether or not you do paid promotion, you will undoubtedly want to set up all the social media accounts you can so that listeners can find you online after you promote yourself.
Now the situation is a little more complicated.
Some bands decide to hire someone to promote their music.
In this instance, you have to pay money to a person or company to use their promotional tool, which often includes music videos or blogs. This is the best route for bands who want to make a large impact on the online world.
While this is the most profitable route, it is a very big risk.
If the promotion fails, you may end up spending money to try again.
Conversely, if the promotion works and you reach a certain amount of people, your business grows exponentially.
A music writer is a person who writes about music (both in music magazines, newspaper articles, blogs, and streaming services).
Usually, when you apply to be a music writer, you have to prove to the music industry that you have a grasp of the music industry. In particular, the writer will have to showcase their knowledge of popular music, their knowledge of music journalism, and their writing abilities.
THESE are the people you want to contact to write about your music. If they work at an established blog with lots of viewership you can really attract attention by them shouting you out or writing a feature article about them.
You can reach out to writers just like you would reach out to anyone these days—email.
Be sure to be brief, to-the-point, and courteous in your email. Include a link to your music and email. Make a list of the top UK or US blogs you would like to be featured in and then plan out an email list to send out. Make sure to personalize it though — don't be spammy.
If you are having trouble finding blogs to reach out to consider a PR service like Promo Panda.
Promo Panda is an online PR tool that sends your music out to influential blogs with tons of readership. The most powerful part of Promo Panda's service is how it works behind the scenes.
The tool works by analyzing your information, music, and style and pitches you to an appropriate blog in our vast network of contacts. Once we find the right blog to write you up we will contact you and ask you for additional information (response to questions, more information about your upcoming album, etc.)
You can find out everything you need to know about our service here.
We can get longer write-ups or shorter write-ups, we can also get your music video featured in blogs that have over 100,000 views per month!
This is an excellent option for releases if you have a budget to spend since your work will get real engagement and clicks from all over the world!
Before deciding on the right promotional tool for your music, you must decide which platform is best for your band.
When it comes to digital distribution, the most popular platform is Apple’s iTunes. You can use iTunes to sell your songs to your fans. You can also offer iTunes as part of your digital distribution, which can increase your reach.
However, you may not want to limit your fan-base to just one platform.
A good option for bands is the digital distribution service Amazon, where you can sell your music in CD, MP3, or even vinyl format. You can also sell directly to customers on the Amazon website.
All of these websites and more (Deezer, Tidal, etc.) can be accessed by using a distribution company. Common distribution companies include:
If you are want to get your music on a platform that is independent from these services you have a couple options!
