(Quick note: I’m not selling anything, and I received no support, financial or otherwise, from any company or organization for publishing this post.)

TL;DR: worry more about sharpening your skills as a musician before you start spending time and money on promotion.

Every new musician and recording artist has been there: you spend months getting your masterpiece just right, you reveal it to the world, and… nothing.

I have lots of experience unsuccessfully (very unsuccessfully) releasing music on my own and through digital distribution services. Even if I played the social media game of generating regular content for this platform or that, nothing seemed to get my numbers out of the single-digit ghetto.

Five things finally moved the needle for me: reaching out to DJs, praising music by other independent artists, sending out press kits for new releases, engaging playlist curators, and releasing a steady stream of singles over a long stretch of time.

One Thing First

Before I dive into these separate topics, I want to touch briefly on the concept of success. I’ve seen a fair amount of hand-wringing on platforms like Facebook and Reddit regarding the necessity of a TikTok or Instagram presence. The question usually goes like this: Do I need to have dozens of flashy short videos to “make it” as an artist?

The answer honestly depends on your definition of success. If you want to be a TikTok star, that’s one path, and it requires a whole different set of tools and objectives.

You can also use social media platforms very effectively to promote your music with short video clips before, during, and after a release. Or heck, you can ignore social media altogether and focus only on the music. You’ll have to decide which path is right for you.

My only warning here is to make sure you have a very clear idea of what you want to accomplish before you set out to achieve it. Personally I believe the answer to the question above is yes, you probably do need at least some social media presence to “make it” as an artist right now. Even minimal efforts in this arena can do wonders to boost your signal.

But honestly don’t worry about this too much if you’re just getting started. Unless you’re a one-in-a-million talent, it will take you months or even years to find your voice, master your craft, and make music worth promoting.

OK, rant over. Back to our regularly scheduled program. As I said above, five things finally moved the needle for me: reaching out to DJs, praising music by other independent artists, sending out press kits for new releases, engaging playlist curators, and releasing a steady stream of singles over a long stretch of time.

Reaching Out to DJs

This part consists of sending short (short!) polite messages giving your basic info, a link (not an attachment!) to one (one!) of your songs, and a quick note about why your song might be a good fit for their show, which of course you’ve actually listened to before reaching out to them. (Note: never share unreleased songs with anyone. More on this below.)

You can find DJs in your genre by doing some creative googling and digging around on various social media platforms. Some DJs only record mixes for streaming services, others play live shows, and some do both. Whatever their setup, DJs have access to the one thing you need: listeners. Try to find DJs with solid subscription stats or likes.

Keep a spreadsheet with a row for each DJ that you reach out to, and add columns for things like email, website, date contacted, notes, and so on. Step through this spreadsheet when promoting a new release, contacting each person individually (individually!). This can take a while, but it’s time well spent.

After doing this for a few months, I noticed that some DJs never wrote back, but I did manage to establish a rapport with the ones that did. Most importantly I tuned into their shows and left comments, swapped thoughts about industry news, chatted about artists we both loved, and so on.

This rapport is everything. Once you have it, cultivate it like a rare flower. Even if you don’t have any new releases to promote, reach out to them from time to time just to say hello. They are a major conduit through which your music will reach new ears.

(You might want to add independent playlist curators to your spreadsheet as well, and don’t forget to submit your new tracks for playlist consideration when publishing to Spotify.)

Praising Music by Other Independent Artists

This part is all about karma. Scan subreddits and social media groups related to your genre and praise posts of new releases that you like. Upvote the post and leave a comment about why you liked it, then head over to the streaming platform where they posted their song and upvote / like / comment / subscribe there as well. Turn around and praise the artist and their release on your own social media accounts. Tag them in the post if you can.

This is especially gratifying for new releases that haven’t received much attention. We all know what it’s like to put a link out there and get nothing back. More often than not the person will comment back, and this can lead to a rapport with other artists. These are more rare flowers to cultivate. (This is actually how I met the guys I’m in a band with right now.) I was really surprised to see how fast my subscription and streaming numbers went up after doing this.

You can take this a step further by attending live shows and purchasing releases and merch on paid platforms. Obviously this means a financial investment, but I think even just a little bit of this goes a long way.

Once you have this connection with other artists in your genre, the sky’s the limit. You could swap remixes or do a split EP or even start a label!

Using Press Kits

Send out electronic press kits (EPKs) about a month before each new release. Keep a press release schedule and follow it. There are plenty of posts and articles about how to craft good EPKs, when to send them out, and who should receive them. Again, creative googling and social media investigations will help, with an eye towards curators and influencers in your genre.

Engaging Playlist Curators

If you have the budget, you can submit your songs to playlist curators like SubmitHub and Groover. Even if your song doesn’t get playlisted, you’ll get honest feedback on your music from people who have lots of experience working with artists in your genre. This feedback can be extremely valuable as you head back into the studio and think about your project’s vision and direction.

If your song does get playlisted, your stats could blow up across the board, not just on Spotify. Make sure your music is available everywhere listeners might go, including YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, TikTok, Instagram, and beyond. If someone falls in love with one of your playlisted songs, chances are pretty good they’ll seek you out on other platforms as well.

Releasing a Steady Stream of Singles Over a Long Stretch of Time

I think new artists are better off focusing on singles rather than EPs or albums. I also think a big key to gaining any kind of traction is releasing a steady stream of music over a long period of time. This helps you in a few different ways.

1. Once you have that rapport with DJs and other artists, and you have yet another new release about to drop, your name will start to ring out.
2. You’ll get feedback from your contacts and curators about whether your work is going in the right direction. This is subjective of course, but DJs and curators rely on subjective taste and experience to pick which songs to support, and they probably know more about your genre than you do.
3. You’ll get better at your craft with each new song you release. Practice and experience really are the best teachers.
4. It’s much easier to dismiss one or two random songs from an artist that quickly appears and vanishes. Staying power is everything. A long string of singles is pretty hard to dismiss, and shows that you’re in it for the long haul. This goes to the “ring out” comment above.

My Experience

After I’d been doing the things outlined above for about a year, DJs actually started contacting me to ask when my next single was coming out, which was wild. My streaming and subscription numbers didn’t explode, but they definitely started moving in the right direction. One of my songs got over 300 hits. To a guy like me who was used to low single digits, this was a sea change. I set up an alert for my name and started seeing random posts about my releases that I didn’t even ask for.

I’ve also worked with some independent labels, but honestly this can be good or bad for your exposure depending on a lot of different variables. Like is the label expecting you to do your own promotion and artwork? Do their previous releases have good streaming / purchase stats? Do they have a catalog of music that you’d listen to?

Be ready to play the long game when working with labels. It can take over a year to see the release date after you submit your demo. Meanwhile your masterpiece is languishing in a kind of dead zone, unheard by anyone because the label insists on worldwide premiers. The temptation to just release it yourself can be overwhelming. (It’s not the worst idea in the world to add a clause to your agreement that the rights revert back to you if the label doesn’t release your work by a certain date. I’ve had independent labels just completely ghost on me.)

Protect Yourself

Never, ever pay someone to promote or release your music if they reach out to you first. Be wary of “guarantees” to reach “thousands” of listeners. Only pay someone for this kind of thing if you reach out to them, like for example if you purchase a promotional package for a social media platform. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I hate to point fingers, but nearly all of the bullshit like this comes from SoundCloud.

You’ll also want to be wary of intellectual property theft. Sadly it’s not uncommon for unsavory characters to yank unreleased songs from various platforms and release them under their own name. It can be extremely difficult to claw back your rights when this happens, and you’ll feel super violated and upset that some stranger is getting credit for your hard work.

There are a couple of ways to safely share unreleased songs.

1. Create 60-second preview clips that highlight the best part of your track. DJs and label reps will be more likely to listen to a short clip than an entire song, and bad actors can’t do anything with just a clip.
2. Add digital watermarks to your unreleased songs. Use a text-to-spoken-word generator to make a recording of a phrase like “demo version”, and add a track to your music project that plays this sample every 30 seconds. You can mute and un-mute this audio watermark as needed when exporting your song.

Only share full tracks when submitting masters to a label after signing an agreement, or after your songs have been officially released and can be tracked by copyright services and organizations.

Thank You!

Best of luck out there, and send me your links! And if you’re just getting started with DAW-based music, you might like my video on how to get started with DAWs.