Social media is without doubt one of the handiest channels for selling music and reaching new audiences. Throughout platforms, you’ll be able to flip listeners into followers by weaving your narrative via movies, photographs, blogs, and dwell streams. When you’re in search of methods to advertise your upcoming music on social media, this weblog supplies you with a guidelines of all of the belongings it’s good to get began.
Select your social media platforms
A robust, constant presence on one or two platforms is way simpler than being stretched skinny throughout many. What’s extra, no single platform dominates music discovery for each demographic.
Select one or two platforms that finest align along with your targets, content material model, and strengths:
- YouTube: Finest for long-form content material like music movies, vlogs, and dwell performances. Additionally helps short-form content material by way of YouTube Shorts.
- Instagram: Supreme for visually pushed content material, together with photographs, Reels (short-form movies), Tales, and dwell streams. Nice for dynamic model constructing throughout content material codecs.
- TikTok: Designed for short-form, trend-based video content material. Nice for reaching new audiences shortly and inspiring engagement via challenges or sounds.
- X (previously Twitter) or Bluesky: Finest for real-time updates, fast ideas, text-based content material, and fan engagement via polls and replies.
You may additionally analysis the place your artist friends are most energetic (the place are they selling their music, upcoming exhibits, and merch?) and see the place your followers have a tendency to find and talk about music.
For rising musicians, social media is commonly handiest when it mirrors actual music scenes and communities that you simply’re part of – so hunt down the place these interactions are taking place.
Optimize your social media profiles
Whether or not you simply created a profile otherwise you’ve used it for a while, it’s useful to replace all the things forward of a launch.
- Replace your profile picture and/or banner with high-res photographs
- Archive outdated, time-sensitive content material
- Replace any hyperlinks to your web site, streaming profiles, and live performance tickets
For much more suggestions to enhance your profiles, take a look at our social media makeover.
Social Media Promotion Guidelines
When you’ve chosen platforms and up to date your profiles, it’s time to compile promotional belongings.
The one factor extra essential than making ready your belongings is time. Set your launch date to 4 to 6 weeks sooner or later to permit loads of time for promotion.
Put together common belongings
Earlier than you start your rollout, collect and arrange key promotional belongings. These will function the inspiration on your content material throughout platforms.
Cowl artwork
Your cowl artwork is the visible anchor of your launch — however keep away from overusing it. Maintain your feed contemporary by creating variations:
- Mockups: CD, vinyl, or cassette codecs
- Visible riffs: Associated imagery or alternate remedies
- Zoom-ins: Cropped or detailed views of the design
- Behind-the-scenes: Footage or photographs of the design course of
Artist and Merch Pictures
Schedule an expert photoshoot that displays your model and the temper of your launch. Use moodboards and visible references to align along with your photographer on the ideas.
Seize prime quality photographs of your merch as effectively in a wide range of setups: modeled, artfully organized, or digitally mocked up.
Lengthy-form video
Nice for deep engagement and storytelling, long-form video is a chance to immerse your followers in your world. Choices embrace:
- Official music video
- Full or partial dwell efficiency
- Mini-documentary about your launch
- Behind-the-scenes compilation
- Non-public efficiency for followers
Brief-form Video
These fast, scroll-friendly clips will be created prematurely or captured on the fly, however put together no less than a couple of core belongings similar to the next:
- Visualizer: A stylized loop or animation capturing your track’s temper
- The Hook: A 15-30 second clip of the refrain or catchiest second
- Artist Intro: A brief “meet the artist” or “what this track means” video
- Behind the Scenes: Studio classes, gear setups, informal moments
- Dwell Clip: A strong crowd second or efficiency spotlight
Extra key belongings
- Up to date EPK: Embrace a brief bio, press quotes, hi-res photographs, and launch particulars
- Caption copy: It may be useful to draft your launch announcement copy forward of time, being certain to credit score and tag any writers, engineers, producers, and others who assisted along with your launch.
- Up to date Web site: Characteristic your new launch entrance and middle, with straightforward navigation to merch, exhibits, and streaming hyperlinks. In case your cowl artwork options completely different colours or moods than your web site has, think about a reskin.
- Promotional Hyperlink: A wise hyperlink or touchdown web page with pre-saves, stream hyperlinks, and social observe buttons. CD Child members can arrange a Spotify pre-save hyperlink via Present.Co.
- Merch Pictures: Clear, high-quality pictures of any merch you’ll be selling or bundling along with your launch
Set up your key belongings
Maintain your belongings organized in digital folders and supply your crew and collaborators with entry. It’s also possible to use this folder to share with the press for promotion, however you may wish to create a separate folder for his or her wants.
Set targets
You may keep centered and consider your progress by setting targets round your promotion. Some goal metrics you need to use embrace:
- Electronic mail record signups
- Pre-saves/provides/orders
- Social media metrics (followers, common likes, shares, and many others).
- Press placements
- Streams
Plan your posts for a launch marketing campaign
Right here’s a pattern timeline for a 6-week launch marketing campaign — 4 weeks main as much as your launch and a pair of weeks of post-release momentum. Regulate the timeline primarily based by yourself planning, targets, and bandwidth.
Week 1: Announce
Announce your launch throughout all platforms via media that can keep seen in your profile like movies, photographs, and micro-blogs — then cross-post your announcement to non permanent codecs like Tales.
Inside your announcement, embrace a transparent launch date and a robust name to motion (pre-save, pre-order, and many others.) full with a hyperlink.
In case your viewers hasn’t heard a demo or efficiency of the track, think about posting a short-form video with the hook of the track and all of the announcement particulars.
Make a plan to achieve 100 pre-saves in your subsequent launch utilizing our detailed information.
Week 2: Construct hype
Share one other teaser of the track in a short-form video. Purpose for this clip to achieve new followers with an introductory caption that entices them to click on via to your profile. Experiment with completely different video ideas and publish a number of instances per week to check engagement.
In your present followers, plan day by day countdown posts over non permanent media like tales and make clear the time till launch within the captions of everlasting media.
Drop merch that followers can pre-save! Publish high-res photographs of things with a hyperlink to your on-line merch retailer or have followers DM orders and monitor them in a spreadsheet.
Week 3: Develop your narrative
Create a carousel with behind-the-scenes content material or photoshoot highlights with some caption copy concerning the story behind your launch.
Proceed experimenting with short-form video content material that ties your new music to your artist story — from dwell clips to behind-the-scenes clips — give guests an opportunity to get to know you past the music. Creating this content material is best if you doc your inventive course of, noting tales and recording footage for future use.
Week 4: Drive deeper engagement
Publish a short-form video that’s extra private and interesting for followers who’re already : an artist intro clip or a snippet of a non-public efficiency of the track and invite guests to have interaction with the publish – sharing, commenting, tagging pals, and many others.
Pin profitable content material to your timeline in order that first-time guests to your profile see it first — that is particularly useful if it’s an intro clip that orients a customer to who you’re, the music you make, and what content material they’ll count on out of your profile.
Launch Day: Have a good time
Announce that your launch is dwell! Reuse your single cowl and embrace all related hyperlinks in your bio. Thank your collaborators, tag everybody concerned, and use robust calls to motion to drive streams, shares, and playlisting.
Publish-Launch Week 1: Construct neighborhood
Maintain the power going by encouraging your followers to have interaction with and share your new launch. Ask them so as to add the monitor to their private playlists and share it on their socials — then reshare their posts.
Use interactive instruments like query bins, polls, and Q&As to drive deeper engagement. You may ask followers about their favourite lyrics, the place they first heard the track, or what the track reminds them of! This creates a two-way connection that helps convert informal listeners into loyal followers.
Publish-Launch Week 2: Retain momentum
As buzz from the discharge begins to stage out, maintain consideration in your music by sharing any wins — whether or not it’s being added to playlists, reaching streaming milestones, or receiving constructive press.
Then start teasing what’s subsequent: an upcoming present, music video, merch drop, or future launch.
Put it into observe
Prepared to start out in your subsequent launch? A rising neighborhood of two million unbiased artists such as you belief CD Child to ship their music to over 150 streaming platforms all over the world. Submit your subsequent launch no less than 4 weeks sooner or later and begin planning your social media marketing campaign with this information.
