The reality for independent musicians is they face numerous struggles when promoting and marketing music on social media. From getting started, content planning, and gaining digital marketing skills to growing a fan base, and monetizing their music online.
With so much competition for attention, social media marketing has become a very specialized, data-driven, and behavioral science. That is why JamWith conducted internal research to find the most pressing social media marketing concerns for musicians. In this article, we will share our results starting with musicians in the U.S., and provide actionable solutions.
JamWith Survey Insights
In 2021, JamWith conducted a comprehensive survey involving 74 music professionals spanning the U.S. and Latin America. The survey delved into the challenges they faced when utilizing social media for advancing their careers.
We will be looking at the results for U.S. musicians in this article, stay tuned for our comparison with Latin America and the insights we discovered!
Here is a summary of our analysis of the barriers to social media marketing for musicians (later we’ll discuss strategies to overcome them):
- 23% admitted to having difficulties with self-promotion due to a failure to start.
- 30% were being held back by a lack of knowledge regarding when, how, and what to post on their social media.
- 39% wished they could invest in vital professional marketing services but could not.
- 50% felt they needed to expand their fan base which magnifies the complexities of building and maintaining a digital presence.
- 55% struggled to monetize their musical talents on digital platforms, shedding light on the intricate nature of navigating a crowded virtual landscape.
Reflecting on their journey, one survey respondent stated that:
“After playing for a decade I still feel like an ‘outsider’ looking in a window and tapping on the glass asking to come in.”
This was only touching the surface level of replies that echoed how hard musicians found it to navigate the social media space to better their careers.
Let’s dive into how these factors affect their ability to promote their music on social media with some tips.
Get started marketing music the right way
Embarking on social media marketing as a musician might seem overwhelming, but with a clear roadmap, you can confidently expand your reach. To start off right you must define your brand, identify your target audience, and curate visually appealing content that resonates with your music.
To keep the momentum, ensure that you maintain a consistent posting schedule, engage actively with followers, collaborate with peers, and analyze insights to refine your strategy. This approach will foster growth and help you connect authentically with a wider fan base.
More tips to crush online music promotion.
Planning when, where, and what to post:
Planning ahead and staying consistent is the key to success when it comes to growing any platform. Take some time to research and analyze your target audience – it’s like tuning your instrument to perfection!
Find out the best times to post content that really strikes a chord with your audience. To make life easier, use scheduling tools for automation. With a plan, creativity, and the right support, you’ll be set to take your music promotion efforts to new heights! Keep it real, keep it simple, and remember, the world is your stage.
Here are some useful tools for planning your posts:
- Later: Efficiently plan and schedule your posts across various social media platforms. This is particularly advantageous for musicians who often have tight schedules due to their creative and performance commitments. Musicians can use Later to maintain a consistent online presence without the pressure of real-time posting.
- Sprout Social: Navigating social media can be daunting for emerging musicians, but Sprout Social streamlines social media management and equips these artists with data-driven insights and analytics. By learning which posts resonate most with their audience, musicians can refine their content strategy and posting schedule for maximum impact.
- Canva: Bringing your music to life visually is crucial for captivating your audience. Canva offers intuitive tools to design eye-catching social media visuals and promotional materials. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to easily create striking visuals that complement your music’s vibe, making your online presence as visually compelling as your sound.
Hootsuite lets you plan posts and a lot more, keep reading to learn about it.
Hire a digital music marketing professional or not?
Our research showed that nearly half of musicians struggle to afford digital marketing professionals. It generally falls on them to take on the responsibility of marketing themselves on social media. A lack of strategy expertise or resources in this area can hinder their promotional efforts.
Seek guidance from industry experts through consultations, workshops, or online resources. Collaborate with aspiring marketers or interns. Learn and implement basic marketing strategies to improve your social media presence. Also, check out JamWith’s top 3 tactics for self-promotion for musicians.
Learn digital music marketing online
- Udemy & Coursera: Udemy’s Independent Musician Music Marketing course equips you with tailored social media marketing skills for musicians, helping you effectively present your music, engage fans, and expand your reach. Meanwhile, Coursera’s Building Your Artistic Brand program empowers aspiring musicians by offering specialized social media marketing courses. These courses delve into audience interaction, content crafting, and digital branding, all tailored for the dynamic music landscape.
- Google Digital Garage: Understanding the basics of digital marketing is essential for any musician aiming to make a mark. This platform equips you with valuable knowledge in areas like search engine optimization (SEO), social media dynamics, and online advertising.
- Google Ads Fundamentals Certificate: Covers the basics of online advertising, including Google Ads. It will help you understand how to create effective ads and reach the right audience.
- Google Digital Unlocked Course: Provides a comprehensive overview of digital marketing concepts, including SEO, social media, and online advertising. It’s a great starting point for anyone new to digital marketing.
Efficiently growing your fan base
When trying to gain and keep followers, it’s all about staying connected in a way that’s personal and relatable. Consistency is key here!
- Engage your fans consistently with top-notch content and focus on what motivates your particular audience.
- Utilize targeted advertising to reach the right people and team up with other artists or influencers for collaborations.
- Don’t forget to actively engage with music communities to expand your reach further.
- Live streaming on TikTok or Instagram is an amazing way to connect with your audience and communities in real-time.
While streaming you can share behind-the-scenes content that gives your audience a sneak peek into your creative process.
Useful tools for growing your fanbase
- Hootsuite: A powerful ally for musicians seeking to manage their social media presence with post-scheduling, engagement tracking, and multi-account control from one dashboard. For musicians juggling composing, recording, and performing, Hootsuite offers a centralized hub to efficiently maintain their online interaction.
- SubmitHub: Enables musicians to submit their music to curators, bloggers, and influencers, so their work reaches a wider audience. This tool serves as a bridge between artists and industry professionals, making it invaluable for musicians looking to expand their reach and impact.
- Reddit (r/WeAreTheMusicMakers): Among digital communities tailored for musicians, the subreddit r/WeAreTheMusicMakers stands out by providing a space where musicians can connect. Additionally, they exchange insights, seek advice, and share their experiences. The discussions create a supportive environment where artists can find solutions to challenges they encounter in their music journey.
Navigating beyond traditional platforms for monetization
While platforms like YouTube, Apple, and Spotify offer monetization options, the revenue generated may not be substantial without a significant following. Often coming out to fractions of a penny per stream. It is no secret that it is difficult for emerging musicians to reach the threshold required to start earning from their music.
Try alternative revenue streams such as online and on-site merchandise sales, crowdfunding campaigns, and using direct-to-fan platforms to generate income through fan support.
One platform working to increase monetization options is JamWith which will soon enable earning via crowdsourced talent in fun collaborative jam sessions. Later, we will also open a marketplace for direct-to-fan sales of music and tickets.
Let JamWith be your earning and promotion superpower
Introducing JamWith, a new music collaboration and artist portfolio and showcasing platform. Launching soon, at first on an invitational basis. Subscribe to the JamWith Briefing newsletter and join Discord for the best chance of getting an invite. Meanwhile, we will keep you up-to-date on tips, music industry trends, and the innovative tools we are developing to make collaboration and artist showcasing effortless. To discover more about how JamWith can enhance your music career, check our page.
Be the master of your social media!
Most independent musicians face a number of seemingly insurmountable challenges with social media music marketing. Dealing with kicking things off without any experience, planning engaging content, learning digital marketing by themselves, gaining fans, and making money with an ever-increasing amount of competition.
By using some creativity and the strategies we’ve outlined, musicians can shine online and share their music more widely. In the meanwhile make sure to keep an eye on JamWith, a revolutionary music collaboration and showcasing + discovery platform. Our emphasis on crowdsourced talent and an innovative incentivization model aligns with the need for musicians to earn money and promote their musical creations while connecting with like-minded creators.
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Tune in and share your opinion below (anonymous)!
We will provide the results and consider them when writing future articles.
What are your personal challenges with social media music marketing? (Choose all that apply)