22 Proven Ways To Promote Your Music Online
Want to learn how to promote your music effectively? I’ve got you covered.
These days, success in the music industry is all about marketing. There are a lot of artists out there, and the best way to cut through the noise and grow is to go all in on self-promotion.
With that in mind, I’m going to share 31 ways to promote your music online that actually work.
I’ll include some battle-tested methods that are proven to get results, as well as lesser-known, creative strategies that I’m sure you won’t have tried yet. Here we go…
1. Create your own online store
Before you do anything else, step one is to build your own online store. This is the place where you showcase who you are as an artist, and also where you sell all your music and merch.
Your store will serve as the final destination for all your promotional efforts. Because when you promote your music online, you’re ultimately hoping all the new fans you reach will find their way back to your website and buy your stuff.
The best way to build your online store is with Sellfy. It’s built for artists and creators, so it’s super easy to use and makes it easy to get everything set up in minutes.
You’ll have full control over everything, including how your site looks, your product catalog, checkout, etc. And Sellfy doesn’t charge any extra transaction fees like some platforms, so you keep 100% of your profits.
Plus, Sellfy even has a built-in print-on-demand catalog, which comes in super useful if you plan on selling merch.
You don’t have to buy any stock upfront. Just upload your designs to white-label products in the catalog and start selling. Sellfy will print and ship orders for you as they come in, then bill you afterward.
2. Distribute your music everywhere you can
Next, you’re going to want to distribute your music everywhere you can online. I’m talking streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, online stores, Bandcamp… the works.
The more places you can get your music, the easier it will be for people to find and listen to them.
A lot of these can be covered with platforms like DistroKid. It acts as your music distributor and submits your music to dozens of stores and music streaming services for you, so you only have to upload your tracks once, and you still keep 100% of your earnings.
3. Launch a YouTube channel
YouTube has always been one of the best platforms for artists in terms of getting exposure. So at a minimum, you should have your own YouTube channel where you upload all of your songs.
Because YouTube is a video platform, it helps to create a music video to accompany each of your songs. But if you don’t have the budget/resources to shoot a whole video, you should still be able to put together a basic lyric video.
Aside from your music, you can also post other videos to YouTube to help increase your reach, like interviews, behind-the-scenes tours, rig rundowns, live streams, YouTube Shorts… you get the idea.
There are lots of ways to promote your YouTube channel to get more views on your music videos. But the most important thing is to use eye-catching thumbnails and titles that get clicks.
4. Get your music featured in playlists
A lot of music listeners discover new music through playlists. So naturally, getting your music featured in popular playlists in your genre can be a huge win.
You can start by pitching your music to Spotify’s editorial playlists through your Spotify for Artists account. If the right person sees your pitch and likes it, and you can featured, it can bag you thousands of new fans.
Aside from editorial playlists, you can also try pitching to curated playlists made by other Spotify users and labels. Check out our guide on how to get music featured on Spotify playlists for a step-by-step guide.
5. Create your own playlists
Struggling to get your music into existing playlists? The next best thing is to make your own.
Curate a bunch of popular songs from other artists that you think your target audience will listen to and compile them into a playlist. Then, sneakily add your own tracks into that same playlist.
You can do this on Spotify as well as YouTube and other streaming services. The key is to make sure you name your playlist something descriptive that people might also search for. For example ‘R&B music to listen to at the gym’, or ‘chill music for long drives’. You get the idea.
6. Start a TikTok trend
TikTok is probably the best social media platform for artists to promote their music right now.
It has huge reach and the algorithm is pretty generous in that you don’t need to have a large existing following for TikTok to share your content far and wide, so it’s relatively easy to get thousands of views organically compared to other social networks.
The best way to go about promoting your music on TikTok is to start by picking out a short, 10-30-second clip from one of your tracks. Then, share a few videos every day using that audio clip in the background.
That’s how Lil Nas X blew up. He made a meme account on TikTok and started posting funny, short videos with Old Town Road playing in the background.
Whenever one of those videos went viral, hundreds of thousands of people also heard his song—and other creators started using it in their videos too. As a result, his fanbase grew insanely fast.
7. Share your music on Instagram
After TikTok and YouTube, Instagram is probably the next best social media platform to promote your music.
Add a link to your music in your Instagram bio, then start sharing content to grow your followers organically.
Aim for a good mix of content including photos, Reels, Stories, etc. Like TikTok, it’s a good idea to use short clips of the best bits from your songs in your Reels.
8. ‘Steal’ fans from your competitors
This is one of the most underrated ways to promote your music: Find people who make similar music to you and engage with their fans.
You can start by asking yourself who your musical inspiration is. Then, go to their Instagram profile, click on one of their recent posts, and look at the comments.
The people who have left supported comments here are your target listeners. Because you know that they’re already listening to music similar to the stuff you put out and that they’re so invested in that music that they’re already engaging with their favorite artists.
Follow as many of these commenters as you can, like their posts, and generally engage with them. This should prompt them to check out your page to see who’s followed them and liked their stuff.
If they like what they see/hear, they might then seek out more of your music online and become regular listeners. That’s the goal.
9. Engage in online communities
Join online communities you identify with. Ideally, these should be communities full of people who share the same taste in music as you hang out. I’m talking music-related Subreddits, Discord servers, etc.
Get involved in these communities. Hang out, make friends, and build connections. You don’t need to promote your music directly—just focus on building genuine, organic relationships. If you’re putting out good music, the people you meet online will find it and listen.
10. Add links to your music everywhere
Make sure you’ve added links to your music everywhere you can online.
For example, add a link to your website in your email signature. That way, every time you send an email in the future, you’ll also be promoting your music.
You should also add links to your bios on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, X… basically everywhere you have an online presence. This will all help people who you meet to find their way back to your music and ultimately, help you to grow.
11. Live stream on Twitch
Live streaming can be another great channel to promote your music.
People who watch your live streams can connect with you in real time through live chat, which is much more intimate than just watching/listening to the stuff you’ve already recorded. So naturally, it helps foster deeper connections and build a more loyal fanbase.
Twitch is a great place to start streaming, but you can also go live on TikTok, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and Kick.
The other great thing about live streaming is that viewers can donate, so in addition to promoting your music, it can also help you earn money at the same time.
12. Create an electronic press kit (EPK)
Your EPK is like your music resume. It tells important people like booking agents, reporters, and labels what you’re all about.
If you’re serious about promoting your music, these are the people you’re going to want to reach out to—so put one together. Your EPK should include things like your bio, music, photos, contact information, live footage, etc.
13. Run an outreach campaign
Once you have an EPK, you can run an outreach campaign to pitch yourself to places like music magazines, reviewers, labels, radio stations, etc.
Usually, the best way to do this is through email. For example, you could start by compiling a list of popular music blogs in your genre, and grab all their email addresses.
Then, compose a friendly email in which you reach out and ask them if they’d be interested in reviewing your latest track, and send it out to each of them. Make sure you personalize all your emails for each recipient and attach your EPK.
14. Run paid ads
Promoting your music organically is great if you can pull it off, but don’t be afraid to invest in paid music promotion alongside your organic efforts. Mixing both usually generates the best results.
For example, if you’re a brand new artist, you might want to consider running ads on Facebook, Instagram, or SoundCloud Promote to get some initial social proof and juice your play count stats.
This will help give you some initial traction. And when people find your music organically in the future, because you already have lots of plays/followers, they’ll be more likely to give you a shot.
15. Run a social media contest
Another cool way to promote your music is to run a social media contest. The idea is to offer something people want as a prize—like tickets to a concert, a package of your music & merch, etc.
Then, set it up so that to enter, entrants first have to follow you or like one of your songs on Spotify.
You can set your contest up easily with SweepWidget. And if you don’t have anything good to offer up as a prize, you can also partner with brands who do.
16. Score sync placements
A sync placement is when your music is licensed and used in a film, tv show, game, commercial, or any similar production. If you can land one, it can get you tons of exposure.
Take Malia J, for example. She was virtually unknown until her cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit was used in the opening credits of the Marvel blockbuster Black Widow. But following the movie’s release, her cover received millions of views on YouTube.
Submitting your music to music libraries is the easiest way to score sync placements—producers often scour them to find clips they can use. You can also work with sync agents or publishers to land bigger and better placements.
17. Build a real-world fanbase
It’s a good idea to build a real-world fanbase before promoting your music online. It makes your online marketing strategies more effective because they bounce off your existing fanbase and get amplified.
How do you build a real-world fanbase first? Well, the simple answer is to