Top 10 Tips To Promote Your Music
How to grow your audience and network.
10. Join Discord Servers
Before jumping into all the flashy ways artists promote their music, it’s important to cover the basics. Joining music-centric communities on discord is the perfect way to connect with like-minded creatives on your level. It will also expose you to a wider network of people who you may not have otherwise encountered on your typical social media profiles.
If you are unsure of where to look to find communities, just do a quick google search for “find discord music communities” and find the best servers that suit your style.
9. Invest in Quality Visuals
Artists are often quick to forget the power of a highly engaging visual. So many artists believe that they can get by with just making quick Trillers in their room, and for some artists it does work. But the overwhelming majority of artists who truly make it have some sort of music video, or music-video style content on their socials. If you don’t have a large budget for a high-concept music video, buy a tri-pod and film some engaging short-form content in a cool location. “High quality” doesn’t have the mean expensive, it simply means that the visuals you are posting are unique to you and your aesthetic branding. Just remember that the first impression people get from music nowadays is almost 100% originated from social media. Do not gloss over the importance of a good first impression.
8. Buy SoundCloud Reposts
The reason this tip isn’t higher on the list is because the power of organic growth on SoundCloud is but a shadow of its former self. However, the ability to grow organically on SoundCloud should not be understated. In the underground rap scene specifically, most artists get their first “break” on SoundCloud. Reposts can be helpful to give you a slight algorithmic boost, but don’t spend the majority of your budget on reposts. The best strategy is to find some target artists who’s community you want to tap into, and buy consistent reposts from them for your drops. Don’t spend hundreds hoping to make it big, rather take your time to reflect on which reposts give you the best value for your dollar, and rinse and repeat.
7. Buy Instagram Promo
Now, you may be surprised that this tip isn’t higher on the list since I myself run an underground rap promo page. The reason it isn’t higher up is because before buying promo, there are so many steps that I see artists skip over, which I’ll get into later.
This tip is reserved for artists who have completed all of the following tips, so come back to this once you know whether or not you still have your work cut out for you.
However, in terms of this tip specifically, buying promo is the easiest way to gain followers for the least amount of work. This doesn’t mean that it’s a cheat code, since if your music is ass or if your visuals are weak, NOBODY is gonna give a shit about your goofy ass promo bro lol. But on a serious note, promo is a key step to gaining a wider audience, but again this only applies to artists who have all of the other fundamentals covered.
6. Be Active in Other Communities
This tip is lowkey the secret sauce. Coming from someone who runs an underground rap community, the majority—if not all—the artists I highlight and post for free are people I consider my friends. I haven’t met anyone in person that I’ve connected with online (aside from a few), but I still feel as if we’re friends to some degree. This doesn’t mean befriend people just to get things from that, because that would be stupid since if you have nothing in common with someone why on earth would you want to be a part of their community.
Rather, I encourage all of you to remember music is a social construct, there are other humans listening to your music and other humans making music and content. Focus on building relationships, not transactions. I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to find these communities or how to be active, because this is something that should come naturally. Don’t force it, just don’t let connections fade because of laziness or your own ego.
5. Create Your Own Community
Halfway down this list now we’re getting into some of the top tips I have for you guys. This is a tip I took for myself, as I’ve created an expansive network over the past couple of years dedicated to the underground music scene. I myself am an artist as well, and have benefitted from all of the connections and relationships I’ve made along the way. Now, this isn’t me telling you guys to hurry up and make an underground page (please don’t lol we have too many). But all jokes aside, it’s key that you are able to lead your own movement. Once you’ve been active in other communities, grown a bit from posting consistently and having high quality visuals, make your own discord server or music collective with your friends. Spend time strengthening relationships with your fans. Having a community of supporters and collaborators will help you in the long-run, as you never know who you may meet along the way.
4. Post Consistenly at a High Quality
Now, you may be looking at this tip as an obvious statement, but stay with me for a moment. The key here is high quality. I know dozens of artists who post consistent garbage and always get trash results. Just because you’re being active doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Conversely, I’ve seen artists post 1 or 2 bangers and fall off the face of the earth, only to return with nobody waiting for them. This industry is fast-paced, and people move on quickly.
This tip is to encourage you guys to focus on finding a balance between releasing your content and music while still maintaining a high standard. My suggestion for all of you is to make music every single day. Yes, every single day. If you can’t do that go get a different job or something. By everyday I don’t mean literally 24/7, I more-so mean anytime you have spare time, hop on a track, make a beat, do SOMETHING creative to get the ball rolling.
Once you’re able to stick to that level of consistency, take the time to craft visuals and an aesthetic unique to you, then go ahead and post something. While your latest material is going up on socials, repeat the creation process and do this over and over again. You should always stagger releases, spending time on creating quality content, then releasing it, then creating new content while the previous content is doing it’s thing on socials.
3. Collab With Other Artists
This tip cannot be stressed enough. Collaborating with other artists is one of the purest forms of music promotion. Not only are you creating a new track to add to your arsenal of music, you’re also tapping into a community of fans that have already been sold on the other artist you’re collaborating with.
I think a lot of new artists skip over this step because they believe that they need to purchase features from big name artists, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. While yes, it is true that a feature from a larger artist will help you be exposed to a wider audience, too often do artists neglect the power that comes from building from the ground-up. Finding consistent collaborators that you can record multiple tracks for a low price—or better yet for free—will go much further in the long run due to the sustainability of this method. Also, it will allow you to have a real connection with someone else closer to your level which in turn will help each of you learn from each other’s successes and failures.
2. Study Other Artists
This is a key reason why so many of you guys fail time and time again. You have absolutely no understanding of how the game works. I hate to break it to you buddy, but your music isn’t that special or unique. That’s not to discredit you, it’s simply to remind you that there are thousands of other artists that can hop on FL Studio, slap on some autotune and call it a day.
The thing that separates the good from the great is awareness of their surroundings. The best artists are aware of trends, they’re able to understand human behavior and how social media works and use it to their advantage. In a practical sense, this means taking note of what’s working for others versus what’s not. This is such a crucial step, especially if you’re in the beginning stages of being an artist because you simply do not have the same experience as others. Put your ego aside and take the time to learn how social media works, because I guarantee you there’s so much more you will understand about yourself and your music after investigating other artists.
1. Reels, Reels, Reels
Interestingly enough, the top tip on this list has absolutely nothing to do with spending money. Instagram reels has been the breeding ground for the majority of breakout artists in the underground. Yes, TikTok is important, but the key for making it as an artist on TikTok is vastly different than Instagram, as the algorithm is more randomized. Instagram reels is the best for artists because followers matter way more on reels than they do on TikTok. Don’t get me wrong, ignoring TikTok completely would be a horrible decision. Instead, just post everything you post on reels to TikTok to give yourself every chance possible to go up.
Now, getting to the good stuff. This is the harsh truth about music promotion, most of you guys are TERRIBLE. Don’t get it wrong, I’m not talking about the music. However, the majority of reels I see as an underground rap promo page shows me how out of touch some of you guys are with society. SO many low quality reels flood my feed, and honestly it makes my blood boil. TAKE YOUR TIME. Get that tri-pod and set up a good scene. Add lyric captions to your reels, make it more engaging. I could write an entire article on how to make the best short-form content for reels, but I’ll save that for another day.
Right now, the main takeaway from this tip is to figure out how you can specifically increase your engagement and reach on reels. The best way to do this is to study other artists similar to you and see what works versus what doesn’t Don’t copy them, just take notice of engagement tactics they use such as: text on screen, headlines, cuts, transitions, locations, lengths of snippet, etc. Get into the nitty-gritty and please, for the love of God, fix your shitty ass reels.
