Want to sharpen your music marketing skills in order to grow your fanbase?
You can create the best tracks in the world and distribute that music worldwide, but your songs won’t go very far without good music marketing.
Yes, that’s true for artists at all levels, including superstars like Billie Eilish. If you consider the careers of your musical heroes, I’ll bet most of them were the beneficiaries of good music marketing.
But does “marketing” sounds intimidating? Or maybe like some soulless business activity? The let’s frame it as something more exciting and creative.
Good music marketing is:
- telling a part of your music’s story
- in a compelling way
- to the right audience
- through the right medium
- at the right time
- so your ideal listener will notice, care, and take action
If you have a way to track results and follow-up with audience-members based on the specific actions they’ve taken, all the better! But I’ll leave more advanced concepts such as optimization and retargeting for another day.
Today I want to explore five common music marketing mistakes you should avoid if you want to steer your career in the right direction:
Watch out for these music marketing pitfalls!
1. Not marketing your music at all
What’s the MOST common crack in an artist’s marketing foundation? It’s not marketing at all.
You might know this type of artist. They excel at playing shows, recording tracks, even releasing music. All the fun stuff. Perhaps they post about a show in Instagram Stories or create a Facebook Event. Or they might put a link to their latest single on their homepage.
But they’re really just checking things off a list. These artists don’t take additional steps to make those activities feel truly special. They don’t incentivize participation. What a shame!
You need to connect the dots between the desired result and the steps it will take to get there. Because the actual legwork of good music marketing begins by finding the STORY you want tell, and then figuring out how to tell that story well.
Before you release a song, announce a show, or drop an album, you should answer these questions:
- What’s unique about my song, event, or career?
- Who is it for?
- Why should they care?
- How will someone feel once they attend, listen, or purchase?
- Where do they live?
- When do they need to take action?
Not every piece of marketing content you create has to address ALL of the above. But YOU should know the whole story before you begin telling it.
Then you should list all the avenues and tools you have to tell that story. Words, video, pictures, emails, texts, and more. Make use of what you have!
2. Neglecting your target audience
One of the biggest marketing mistakes musicians make is failing to define WHO their diehard audience really is: their demographics, preferences, needs, and behaviors.
We want our music to be loved. By everyone. But that ain’t gonna happen. Whenever Taylor Swift sells out some big city stadium, there are hundreds of thousands or even millions of people who stayed home.
Don’t dilute your music’s impact by expecting it will be all things to all people. If the internet proves anything, it’s the power of leaning into your niche. You don’t want to cast too wide a net. You need to begin with a target audience in mind which helps you focus your efforts on the right people, the right platforms, and the right kind of content that effectively drives engagement and action.
Your audience and your targeting can change over time. But at least begin every marketing effort with a specific audience in mind.
3. Not creating enough video content
TikTok, Reels, Shorts. Social video is everything right now. It’s THE primary way artists reach new listeners today. So it’s hard to overstate the importance of a vertical-video strategy. I mean, frequent, high-quality video output.
You should create a mix of videos, including:
- Performance videos (“live” at home, in concert, or in an interesting setting)
- Behind-the-scenes while recording
- Touring adventures
- Fun facts about your songs or lyrics
- Talk to us directly (while walking the dog, putting on makeup, etc.)
- Livestreams and AMAs
- Cover song snippets
- Gear reviews or tutorials
- Highlights from non-musical aspects of your life
- Occasional memes, skits, or trends (as long as it relates to YOUR artistry or interests)
The way that social platforms work now, viral moments have an increasingly shorter shelf-life. So you can’t lean on a few good videos for too long. They’ll go stale.
As for quality, social video can appear casual, but it should NOT look amateur. Be sure it has solid sound and lighting.
You can “batch” your content creation by shooting a bunch of videos once a month, or you can integrate TikTok into your daily life. Either way, video content creation should be baked into your ongoing efforts as a musician.
4. Squandering social engagement
Do you know where your lifelong fans are most likely to be? In the comments of your posts!
And yet countless musicians make the mistake of ignoring the power of social engagement. They post content as if social is a one-to-many distribution channel. They don’t encourage further discussion, ask questions, or invite participation. Or they DO — but then fail to respond to those comments. Either because they’re too busy, too disorganized, or worse, they think of it as a task that’s beneath them.
These are your fans, your advocates, your customers. A heart or a thumbs-up is the least you can do. Now imagine how endeared you’d be if your favorite artist set aside time to have a small but actual human conversation with you in the comments section.
This sort of personalized social management isn’t “scalable,” it isn’t always fun, and you won’t immediately see the results. But given that it’s a free, simple, and direct way to deepen your connection with people who’ve already responded to your content, I might argue there’s no better use of your time.
Write ‘em back!
5. Ignoring the data
Data sounds cold. Artists are warm, feeling, unique, immune to numbers. But we shouldn’t ignore what the data is telling us. Data is the story of how well we’re telling our story. How, if, when, and where our music is connecting.
Data doesn’t promise to present a pretty picture. But it can be a goldmine for musicians. In all those analytics dashboards, ad sets, and insights, you’ll find the keys to your career growth.
Where do you need to improve? How should you pivot in your marketing? What are your options to get better results for cheaper costs?
Your gut instincts are valuable, but the data doesn’t (usually) lie. Make a habit of checking your numbers and the story they tell. Follow the surprises. Lean into the successes. Learn from the failures. Repeat.
Conclusion
While the music industry continues to change rapidly, many of the common music marketing mistakes above are (unfortunately) perennial.
So keep them in mind this year, and in all the years ahead. Always strive for a more strategic approach to your storytelling, targeting, content creation, engagement habits, and analysis.
Better music marketing may mean the difference between obscurity and notoriety in our increasingly competitive and noisy world.
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