While marketing might not come as naturally as creation for many, it’s important that you have a strategy in mind when it comes time to promote your song.
Especially if maximizing your reach is one of your main goals as an artist, you want to make sure that the blood, sweat, and tears you put into creating your track will also help grow your audience. In the video above, we walk through four tips that will help you plan out how to promote your song.
We’ve also summarized each key point below:
Ready to get planning? Let’s dive in!
1. Prepare an EPK
The first thing you should have ready to go when getting ready to promote your song is an electronic press kit, or EPK for short.
Essentially, an EPK is a digital summary that tells the story of who you are as a producer or artist. It should include a concise but engaging artist bio, highlight any accolades or placements, showcase press photos, and provide relevant links to any of your recent work. It should also include your contact information, or your manager or relevant team member’s contact information if you have one.
An EPK is a vital tool that makes you appear more professional as an artist, while helping interested parties learn more about both your music and your brand. It will be a key attachment when you reach out for blog features, playlist placements, or tour bookings, so make sure it’s well-written and up to date.
2. Plan a multi-phase release strategy
The next thing you’ll want when strategizing how to promote your song is a marketing plan. More specifically, you’ll want to identify a solid rollout strategy.
An effective rollout strategy will likely have multiple phases—one of the most popular ways to structure it will be dividing it into pre-rollout, week-of, and post-release initiatives.
Below are some examples of the types of content you might share for each:
- Pre-rollout: Trailers, track snippets, cover art, behind-the-scenes footage, feature / collaborator announcements (if any), etc.
- Week-of: Music videos, lyric videos, TikTok content, skits, influencer content, merch, supporting studio footage, etc.
- Post-release: Community challenges, recirculation of playlist / blog coverage, live performance videos, etc.
The importance of pre-rollout, week-of, and post-release strategies can’t be overstated. Even if it’s simple, try to create and post engaging content before, while, and after your single goes live.
Your content can directly promote your song, but also don’t be afraid to put out things that are indirectly related or even entirely unrelated as well. The most important factor is the value your content brings to your audience—make sure it’s engaging, inspiring, entertaining, and / or informative.
3. Develop consistent branding
When new audiences come across your new single or album and want to learn more about you, the first place they’ll go is likely to be your social profiles. Across different aspects such as voice, tone, energy, and aesthetic (color schemes, fonts, etc.), make sure the story you’re telling across your channels via your branding as a musician is clear and consistent.
In many instances, your branding can be the final push that turns casual listeners into invested fans. This means that strictly when it comes to growing your audience and building a community, your branding can almost play an equally important role to your music.
4. Ask yourself ‘why’
This step is something that sounds simple in theory, but we all too often don’t take it into consideration when we’re primarily focused on creation. Before promoting your single or album, take a moment to ask yourself why you’re sharing your new music with the world, and what you hope to get out of the experience.
Are you trying to build momentum towards a larger project or record? Perhaps you’re simply trying to gain subscribers on YouTube, or accumulate monthly listeners on Spotify. Maybe you made the song in response to a personal or global event, and you want to share a specific story with the world. There are no wrong answers here, but being intentional about your goals will allow you to be more strategic about the messaging and types of CTAs (call-to-actions) you attach to your content.
How to promote your song: Conclusion
Hopefully, these four tips give you a solid framework for planning out how to release and promote your song. The biggest takeaway is that you’ll want to do a lot of preparation—and even drop some amount of content—prior to your music actually being out in the world.
Do you have any questions about any of the points we’ve covered above? Do you have any tips of your own on releasing music that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments section of the video, and subscribe to the Splice YouTube channel for more tips, tutorials, and insights.
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May 16, 2022
