Industry Insights Page 2

According to Music Radar, more music is being released today (in a single day) than was released in the calendar year of 1989. Thanks to advancements in technology, releasing music has never been easier. Uploading to streaming platforms is now quicker, more affordable, and often more impactful than physical releases.

Music promotion on social media in 2024 is a full-time job. Spending your time researching social media trends, creating reels and posting carousels are all imperative for successful music promotion. The Plugged Into Music Fandom study by Wasserman estimated that income from social platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Twitch accounted for between $0.8 and $1.2 billion in 2021 (Source: Midia), reflecting just how important social media is for musicians. So, releasing music today is just hours of creating social media content, pitching to Spotify editorial playlists, and radio plugging, right?

Thinking of becoming a professional musician in 2024? Get ready to join a battlefield of artists fighting tooth and nail for relevance, streams, and attention. It’s not 2003 anymore. The music magazine is dead. Even music education magazines are going down, with three of the biggest guitar magazines recently announcing their closure. Even Facebook is becoming obsolete (though still a powerful tool for musicians, as we posted about here). You’ve got to hustle. You’ve got to find new ways to promote yourself.

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, staying current is crucial for musicians wanting to amplify their reach. While platforms like TikTok and Instagram are becoming the first choice for many, Facebook almost feels like the “weird uncle” of social media, reminiscent of Myspace’s decline. However, Facebook remains a formidable tool for music promotion on social media in 2024. Here are five reasons why you should leverage this platform to elevate your music.

Getting featured on the right Spotify playlist can be a game-changer for artists and bands looking to expand their fanbase. With the right approach, it’s an effective way to reach the right audience. Here are our top five tips to ensure your Spotify editorial playlist submission stands out and gets your music heard by the right ears.

2 billion users log into YouTube every single month. 694,000 hours of videos is streamed on YouTube every single minute. And guess the most viewed category on the whole platform? Music! Using YouTube to promote your music is a no-brainer. Not only is it a great platform for perfectly-crafted music videos or behind the scenes edits, but with YouTube Shorts, it’s now cornering the market of the shorter attention span. In fact, it’s starting to dominate it. YouTube Shorts receive around 50 billion views ever single day. Damn. That’s a big old audience awaiting your music.

Let’s be real. As a DIY musician, you know that the best way to get your music from your bedroom speakers to people’s headphones is through social media. We’re all on it. All the time. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram wield the power to shoot an independent artist to stardom overnight. To have a platform, you need to take your social media promotion seriously. Gone are the days of artist development, led by labels to nurture an artist from the ground up. Start a successful social media presence and the industry will meet you on the fifteenth floor. You’ve got to have a platform. But the good news? That’s totally attainable.

Getting your face featured in your favourite music mag is a two-fold process. You need to craft the perfect press release and write a punchy pitch. Then, you need to find out where to pitch it. The latter takes a level of persistence and commitment that only a DIY musician on a mission to make it could muster. It takes trawling the internet for the right contacts and submission forms with potentially not much return. But, when it does pay off, boy, does it feel great.

You’ve done the hard graft. You’re re-mixed and mastered your single every other day and now you have it perfect. The tune is finally ready to go. You’ve uploaded it onto DistroKid and have your release date. What is next? The press release.

How we discover, enjoy and share music has changed hugely in recent years. However, whilst securing a spot on a coveted Spotify playlist or starting a trend that sweeps through TikTok with your catchy chorus may seem like the golden ticket, there’s one side of digital music promotion that we absolutely shouldn’t forget – radio plugging. Yes, we’re talking about the good, old-fashioned radio.

So you’re an independent musician, in other words, you’re doing almost absolutely everything by yourself. You’re the songwriter, the label, the graphic designer, the producer, the videographer, god knows what else… Oh yeah! You’re the promoter, the publicist, the radio plugger, and the playlister. Oof, that’s a lot of plates spinning. But, on the road to becoming an established artist, there’s one particular plate that is so important that dropping it might just be make or break. Music marketing.

Setting out to grow your following on Spotify is just as tricky as growing on social media platforms. In fact, think of Spotify as another social media platform in itself. It really needs working, with strategy and persistence. It feels frustratingly slow at times, and it could be a full-time job in itself! But fear not, we’ve got some bright ideas up our sleeves here at Decent to help you along the way to gaining more Spotify followers.

One indispensable tool in any musician’s kit is the EPK. A word often thrown around by music industry pro’s, publicists and managers, the term ‘EPK’ is a little confusing for many, especially those newer to the industry. If that’s you, then fear not as we’re here to cast light on this mystery term, why it’s used and even more importantly, how to make one.

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