5 Creative Ways to Get Your Music Heard

As an artist, your number one goal is to get your music heard. The more potential fans that hear your music the more opportunity for you to grow your fanbase. Thanks to the technological revolution there are now more ways than ever to get your music out to the people.

Given this equation, how can you get creative and stand apart from all of the other music out there? Today we’re taking aim to solve that exact question. We are looking at 5 creative ways to get your music heard and help you rise above all of the other sounds out there. Enough small talk, let’s get to the strategy.

Playlist Placements

Spotify is one of the most (if not the most) valuable for platforms today. Within it, playlists are extremely valuable real estate. According to a report by Business of Apps, nearly a third of all listening time on the platform is spent listening to Spotify’s playlists.

The report goes on to say that as of 2017 the average listener was streaming 25 hours a week and there are over 286 active monthly users as of the first quarter in 2020. If you add all that up, a third of Spotify’s listening time is something that you want to have a piece of.

Getting on Spotify’s playlist will give you the ability to reach a large new audience with your music and allow you to grow your following. The problem is, that this is easier said than done. To help make this simpler for you, our Outreach Program helps independent artists get on 4-6 playlists which opens them up to about 40,000 new listeners.

Social Media Ads

Social media is a great tool and obviously, nearly every single artist is taking advantage of them from an organic perspective. However, investing in ads opens up the ability to reach a more targeted audience. You can reach people who are not familiar with you but are within your target demo, you can promote new music to them directly, and you can tailor each ad to each platform.

Now I acknowledge that spending money may be a barrier to entry for some artists but you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need a big budget to see results. Here are the average cost per clicks on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Facebook: $1.86
Twitter: $0.40
Instagram: $0.50

If you target 100 clicks across all three platforms, you could plan to do so for $200 or less a month. It’s an investment, but it’s one that will help you grow your audience and build your name as an audience.

YouTube Ads

While this is closely related to the last section, given the medium it deserves a category all it’s own. With over 2 billion active monthly users and the ability to share your music with visuals, it’s impossible to build a real following without effectively using this platform. While building an organic following and fanbase is an effective strategy, adding in YouTube ads to the mix will help accelerate your growth and reach.

Like on all platforms, using data and effective targeting are the key to successful ad campaigns. Using strategies around similar and lookalike audiences allows you to get your music in front of people who are more likely to become fans. This is no simple task, and we here at DNA have a program that can help you with your YouTube Ads.

Outreach to Music Blogs

Piggybacking on someone else’s audience is a great way to reach new people. Reaching out to relevant music blogs (that match the type of audience that you appeal to) and asking for a review is a great way to get your music in front of new people. Setting up a plan to consistently performing outreach will broaden the audience that you can reach. Here are a few things you should submit when you reach out.

Submit the song, video, our album you would like them to review
Provide any pertinent information about the release
Include a short bio
Submit a professionally done photo or two for them to use in the piece

Ultimately, what they say and use will be up to the blogger, but you want to provide as much as possible in an effort to get your story and brand out there. If the review is positive, you will then want to repurpose this on all of your social channels so this process can serve multiple goals.

Get Your Music Into Movies or Video Games

This one is a bit more outside the box but it provides a great way to reach new audiences and generate some money in your pocket. If you land a Sync Licensing deal you will have the opportunity to get paid upfront and potentially earn royalties. However, more central in importance to our topic today, this will open you up to a wide new group of people who can become your fans. Ditto Music provided a great resource of information for this process that should help you in this tactic.

Landing the Plane

First of all, all of these tactics are great add ons to your current strategy that will help you build a bigger following. However, the bigger point here is that you have to remain versatile. The key to success is getting your music in front of more and more people. You need to continue to evolve and find new ways to do that and while this list is a great place to start, you will need to continue to examine other avenues to do this.

Let’s quickly recap the 5 ways that we discussed today.