Where To Buy Promotion For Music Makers

Artists don't always find themselves with a bit of extra cash lying around. But if you do, it's important to invest some of it back into your career – namely, for promotion. This is particularly beneficial leading up to a release, tour, or new video.

Whether you spend it on ad buys, promotion services, or hiring team members, a little investment can do a lot for your career.

Let's take a look at the different places you can buy promotion as a music maker.

Facebook Advertising

While it may seem ridiculous to pay for what was once a free service, Facebook ads are actually a very cost-effective form of advertising. Even five or ten dollars can get you significant reach to fans that you’ve already won, which is worth every penny you spend.

Sure, paying for Facebook exposure is annoying, but without it you would be paying for magazine ads, radio ads, and online ads which cost much, much more.

Facebook ads can also be more effective than the more traditional advertising methods, because you can target the ad towards a very specific demographic. You can optimize age, gender, artists they like, location, and other criteria to target your ads.

If you’re going on a tour, or even playing a few gigs outside your home market, consider targeting specific Facebook ads towards people in that city. You can run a bunch of ads simultaneously, so you can try experimenting with different text and images to see what resonates with your audience.

If you have well-composed, properly branded posts that you can put some money behind, Facebook ads can be big winners for artists.

Music Promotion Services

One of the best ways to promote your music is by hiring a music promotion service. These companies or people are professionals who serve multiple functions focused on promoting your music.

What you want these companies to do for you is plan out targeted ad buys on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other applicable social media. You also want them to pitch your music to music blogs and publications.

These services, when used properly, can do great things for your band and brand, but you need to be careful. There are many music promotion services that are… less then legitimate.

Here are a few things to watch out for when you’re hiring a music promotion service:

Buying Followers Or “Likes”

Don’t do it. For one thing, nobody cares if you have 50,000 Facebook likes but no real fans. Secondly, all the social media companies are cracking down on this type of behavior; removing fake profiles and accounts that abuse these types of services.

Don’t buy your fans. It does not work.

Buying YouTube Views

Same as fake Facebook and Twitter followers, fake views count for nothing in the real world. Any real industry professional will be able to tell immediately if you’ve used these services.

Beyond saving yourself from that embarrassment, YouTube also doesn’t like these services and will heartlessly remove view counts and videos that seem artificial. Why risk that? A good music promotion company will find a way to put your video in front of real humans.

Email Blasts

Sure, it sounds good in theory, but email blasts are a complete and total waste of money. And journalists hate them. You’re much better off trying to connect with journalists and bloggers yourself.

You absolutely need to vet your promotion company before you hire them. You have every right to ask for a client list, get a consultation, and ask questions. If they're balking about doing any of these things for you, move on.

YouTube TrueView For Video Promo

TrueView is great. It’s super easy to use, and you can create video ads that will lead people to your own video, your website, your social media, whatever you want.

Make sure to capitalize on the tutorial they offer, as it’s free and very helpful. Even 50 to $75 can go a long way with these type of ads.

They are pay-per-click ads, so you only get charged if people click them, and getting your brand in front of people’s eyes is useful on any level. Try to get around 1,000 impressions every day, and you’ve got yourself a cost-effective and efficient ad.

Pay A Distribution Company To Be On Every Streaming Service

There’s a seemingly never-ending debate about whether or not streaming services help or harm the music industry. And the truth of the matter is that you can't afford to care about that.

Your music needs to be on every streaming service imaginable. Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, you name it, you need to be on it.

Music fans are fickle beings, and if you’re not on their preferred platform, they may simply take a pass on your music. Don’t do that to yourself.

CDBaby, Tunecore, DistroKid, and Loudr are some of the most popular online distribution companies. Do a little research and find out which one will work best for you.

Hire A Publicist And/Or A Radio Tracker

A good publicist or radio tracker will not work with you if your music isn’t ready. You have to have super pro production, mix, and great songs for these people to work on your behalf. But having a publicist/radio tracker on your team will become essential as your career progresses.

Many indie publicists will also do some small-scale radio tracking to non-commercial radio such as Sirius XM, high-traffic playlists on Spotify/Apple Music, and BBC/NPR. This service is included in their fee.

That being said, it is sometimes worth it to hire a specialized radio tracker. If your songs are ready, they will be able to work magic with them. A little bit of radio play can do wonders for your career, and if you can make it happen, do it.

Avoid buying radio ads. They don’t count towards the charts, so they don’t matter. If you really want radio ads for a show, approach the station and ask them if they will sponsor the event with services in-kind.

Have you had any success with these services?