5 Proven Strategies for Promoting Your Music Online Without Social Media

Most musicians rely on social media to get their music out to the world, but do you ever feel like you're shouting into the void?  

Also, what if you just don't have the time, resources, or desire to use social media?

Are there other ways to promote your music? Yes, there are!

In this article, we will discuss several effective marketing strategies that don't involve social media. So whether you're just getting started or you've been at it for a while, these tips will help you take your music promotion to the next level.

The Problem With Social Media

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1. Email marketing

Whether you use social media or not, email marketing should be the foundation of your music marketing. 

Email marketing is THE BEST way to turn followers into fans. 

If you're not familiar, an email list is just a software tool (you can get started for free) that holds the email addresses of everyone who agrees to join your list. 

This tool then allows you to send mass emails to your list. 

The tool that I use and recommend is called ConvertKit, and you can get started for free here.

But before diving in, you may be wondering why you need an email list. Isn't social media enough?

WRONG!

Why Do Musicians Need A Mailing List

The email list is the foundation for any online business, as an digital marketer worth their salt will tell you. 

Yet, music artists are still behind the times when it comes to email marketing. 

The reality is that having an email list is far more valuable than a social media following for several reasons:

1. Organic Reach Is Pathetic

Free Challenge: How To Get Your First 100 Email List Subscribers In Just 3 Days Without Ads

Organic reach on social platforms is shrinking every day. This means the only way to really reach your fans and followers is to pay for advertising. 

Social platforms are holding your fans hostage for ransom. 

In fact, the average organic reach for a Facebook post is 6.4% of the page's likes, and that's if you're posting engaging content. 

This means if you have 1,000 followers on Facebook, only about 60 of them will see anything you post. 

Compare that email marketing, where 100% of your audience will see your email in their inbox, even if they don't open it, you are still staying top of mind. 

Sure, only 30-35% of people might open your email, but that's still 300-350 fans seeing your message, verses 60 on Facebook.

If you have your fans on an email list, you can contact them at any time, and direct them anywhere you want, whether that's to buy your album, or stream your music on Spotify.

By the way, if you're struggling to get your songs past the <1,000 streams mark on Spotify, then checkout my article here.

2. Email Subscribers Are More Engaged

People who actually consent to give you their email address are by default going to be more engaged, and therefore, more likely to buy. 

In fact, people are just far more likely to buy something through email than social media.

So if you're looking to actually make income from your fanbase, and not just gain vanity metrics, then you need to nurture an email list. 

3. You Can Lose Your Social Followers Overnight

An email list is an asset that you own and control. This is not the case with social media. 

In our increasingly polarized world, you can easily get your posts blocked, or even your entire account shut down, just for sharing an opinion or a post that social platform doesn't agree with.

You don't want to lose your entire following overnight. 

If you have an email list, your fans are protected, and you can always direct them to a new platform. 

If you want to learn more about how to start your email list, and actually get subscribers, then read my guide here.

2. Press releases

If you want to get the word out about your music without using social media, press releases are a great option.

A press release is a formal announcement that is sent to journalists and media outlets. This is a great way to get your music featured in magazines, newspapers, and online publications.

But you don't have to stop there. 

You can also reach out to just about any relevant influencer with your press release. This includes, but is not limited to, Instagramers, TikTokers, YouTubers, Bloggers, etc. 

To write a press release, start by creating a list of media contacts and influencers that you think would be interested in your music. Then, assemble all of the content you need for your press release. 

For a complete guide on how to do this, check out my article here. 

3. YouTube

YouTube is a great platform for promoting your music, and is a much better platform to use than social media because it is a search engine.

You can upload videos of your live performances, create music videos, or simply post clips of your songs.

Make sure to optimize your videos for SEO so that people can find them easily. Also, be sure to include links back to your website or other online platforms where people can join your email list and purchase your music.

The only thing is...

Just posting your own music likely won't be enough to grow your channel and fans? 

Why?

Because no one knows who you are yet, and therefore, aren't going to be searching on your content, which means they won't find you. 

Every successful YouTube musician I know grew their channel by posting cover songs, or a twist on this concept. 

Don't worry, you can still upload original music too, but you use the covers (and other types of videos which I cover here) to bring in your ideal potential fans...

And then you can introducing them to your original music. 

YouTube is beast, and I can't describe the whole strategy for growing a music YouTube channel in this article. 

But I do cover, in-depth, how to grow a music YouTube channel in my article here.

4. Spotify

Spotify is one of the most popular streaming services, and it's a great way to promote your music without using social media.

First off, if you don't have your music on Spotify yet, you can use a tool like DistroKid to get your music on Spotify and the other digital streaming platforms (DSPs). 

Spotify is a fantastic tool because, if you feed it the right data, it will promote your music for you to people who are likely to love your music.

It does this through it's algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and others.

You can also get a massive boost in streams from getting on editorial playlists.

But how do you get the algorithm to boost and promote your music?

It's simple. 

All you have to do is give the algorithm positive indicators about your music. 

This means your music needs to get:

• Streams (at least 30 seconds)
• Saves
• Playlist adds
• Lots of streams in a short period of time

So how many streams, saves, playlist adds, etc., do you need to get your music promoted by the algorithm?

We don't know for sure, as Spotify doesn't tell us, but we do know that you need a "Popularity Index" score of 30 to get on Discover Weekly

The Spotify Popularity Index is a 0-to-100 score that ranks how popular an artist is relative to other artists on Spotify.

As you increase your streams, saves, and playlist features, your index score will increase, and you'll get placed in more algorithmic and editorial playlists.

You can use a tool like Musicstax to see your artist and song popularity scores. 

How to boost your Spotify streams

Keep in mind, Spotify isn't the best tool for generating income, although I do know some indie artists who make an extra $800, $1,000, or even $3,000 a month from Spotify royalties alone. 

If you want to learn how much Spotify pays per stream, check out my article here.

While Spotify might not be the best platform for monetization, it is a great platform for discoverability. 

But how do you actually trigger the algorithm so it promotes your music?

Well, I put together a guide of 22 different tips you can follow to boost your Spotify streams that you can read here.

However, the best way (without spending money on ads, which I'll cover in a second) is to get your music onto user-created playlists. 

You see, tons of regular Spotify users create playlists all the time on the platform, and you can contact these playlist curators and ask them to add your music and get your music added for free. 

Each playlist add is a point for your in the algorithm, and can lead to more streams and saves. 

Over time, you'll build up an army of playlist curators who are happy to add your latest release to their playlists, which can massively boost your song in the algorithm.

If you want a more in-depth guide showing you how to implement this strategy (including copy/paste scripts for contacting curators) then just grab my free Spotify Playlist Placement guide by clicking below.  

5. Facebook & Instagram Ads

Even if you aren't actively posting on social media, you can still set up a Facebook and Instagram account so that you can run ads.

You can create ads on these platforms and target potential fans based on their interests, demographics, and even location.

This is a great way to reach a new audience and get your music in front of people who are actually likely to love it. 

This is a rather complicated strategy, though, takes quite a bit of time and money to master, but I can create a future guide on this strategy if you're interested. 

Just let me know in the comments below.

How To Trigger The Spotify Algorithm To Explode Your Streams

In order for Spotify to promote your music for you, the algorithm first wants to see that your music if performing well on its own.

One of the best indicators that your music is performing well is that is being added to playlists. 

So if you want to trigger the algorithm so that your music gets added to algorithmic and editorial playlists, then you need to get your music onto more user-created playlists first.

In fact, I've discovered a system that has helped me to get my songs on Spotify Playlists without having to spend a dime.