10 Highly Effective Ways to Promote a Single Release Yourself

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Do you have a new song you’re about to release? Did you recently release a new song and are looking for ways to promote? Releasing new music is a constant task for music artists and it’s increasingly important to find effective ways to promote and get your music out for exposure. Music promotion efforts can not only bring more exposure, but it can move your career to higher levels. Additionally, putting a strategic marketing plan in place to promote your music can boost your efforts exponentially. Knowing how to promote a single release for your music effectively is half the battle. But, with so many avenues and promotional services available for music promotion, it can be hard to identify the right options. In this post, we’ll share 10 highly effective ways showing you how to promote a single release that will help you customize a core strategy to place your music where it needs to be – in the listening ears of loving fans and prospective fans.

Before engaging in any music promotional activities, the first thing you should do is build a Marketing Package for your Single. A Song Marketing Package will help you target the right audience and build a list of contacts that will most likely engage with you in order to promote your song. It helps you clearly articulate what your song is about and gives you the tools to achieve the results you’re looking for – exposure. In order to fully maximize your exposure potential, you’ll need to answer and provide the following items…

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Get the New Release Promotions Checklist

Here’s everything you need to do to promote your music project. Use it every time you have an upcoming release. 

Get the Free Checklist

Here’s How to Promote a Single Release

1. The What. What is the song about? Describe in a few sentences what the song is about and why you wrote it.
2. The Who. Who should care about it? Describe in a few sentences who needs to hear it. Include demographics and interests such as age, gender, income, occupation, ethnicity, religion, hobbies, and their favorite mainstream artists. This is your target audience.
3. The Why. Why should they care about it? Describe in a few sentences what impact your song will have on your target audience. What will listening to the song do for them? Looking at your song in this light will help you build a story for the song that people can resonate with. 
4. Visuals
   • Song artwork. Each Single Release should have its own artwork to legitimize your work and to look more professional. We like Canva, a free software to create artwork. However, if you’re looking for something a bit more artsy and sophisticated, you can try looking at these designers on Fiverr here and here. They provide affordable graphic design and imaging services to help illustrate the story behind your song.
   • Promo pics. Make sure your promo pics accurately represent the genre and overall brand messaging of the song. Your promo picture should be compelling and professional. It may be beneficial to add some retouching to your promo picture as well. 
5. Elevator Pitch. You’ve heard of creating an elevator pitch for your brand, but we’re recommending an elevator pitch for each single you release. An elevator pitch for a song offers a quick way for people to learn about you and your new release in just one glance. To create an elevator pitch for your song all you need to do is combine the name of your song, your genre, the subject matter of the song, what musical artist your song mostly sounds like, and how your song is a little different. Example: With a sound described as the unvarnished tapes of India.Arie, Anitra Jay’s newest release, ‘Crown and Glory’, is an acoustic soul anthem about the beauty of natural hair with a bluesy twist. 
6. One-Page Flyer. A one-page flyer helps you communicate your message in a visual manner. It combines most of the pertinent information from the Who, What, and Why sections as well as your elevator pitch along with your images. Including a jpg of this one-page flyer in your email or having a physical copy is very helpful for getting your message across quickly. Check out an example of a one-page flyer here.
7. Press Pack. Create an online page or a shareable folder that includes all materials people would need to feature you such as…
   • MP3s
   • Your Contact Information
   • Artist Bio
   • Flyer
   • Press Release
   • Promo images and song artwork

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You will use this as a hub where your contacts can go to download all the materials you have available to promote your new release. 

8. Optional: Create a CC License for the song. If someone wants to feature your song especially on YouTube or a Podcast, they may ask for a Creative Commons license. This gives them the right to play your song without assuming copyright liability.

Get your song reviewed. If you’d like to take your songwriting and production a step further, we recommend getting your song reviewed by anonymous listeners. This will give you a snapshot of what audience reception might be before you release. It will also give you song plays, loads of content to add to your marketing (i.e. quotes from actual reviewers), and other ideas on how to market your song. Another reason to get your song professionally reviewed is that you get the benefit of pre-launching your song to a small segment of the population. You can grab the attention of a pre-determined audience, get their feedback, and possibly add them to your fanbase! Ultimately, it gives you a good idea of how people will perceive your new song before you release it. Want to get your song reviewed? Learn more about our Song Review options here.

Once you have the marketing package created, now it’s time to promote. Here are 10 effective ways you can promote your new release in order to get your music out there for people to listen to.

1. Contact the media. Create a list of 20 media contacts who directly speak to your target audience. Send them a downloadable link to your song along with your one-sentence pitch and your 1-Page flyer. Do this for steps 2, 3, and 4 as well.
   • Media contacts include local music critics, morning news stations, music magazines, local and state newspapers, and local radio and college radio stations.
   • Be sure to explain why their audience would be interested in hearing the song. 
   • Consider also linking the shareable folder you created that includes all marketing materials.
   • Offer to do an interview or a live performance.
2. Capitalize on special interest marketing. In addition to traditional media connections, you can also send the song to other special interest media types who speak directly to your target audience. A special interest would be a hobby, a value, or a belief. For example, when I released my album about natural hair, I sent my song to blogs that write about natural hair. (Be careful to only reach out to specific parties who discuss topics that are related to your song or who have audiences that match your target audience.)
   • Blogs
   • YouTube Channels
   • Podcasts
   • Influencers
     • Pro Tip: If you have a budget, utilize paid influencer marketing programs to boost your exposure. Just one strategically worded tweet from an influencer can send a massive amount of people to your track or website. You can find lists of reputable influencers for free here.
3. Get in the music connoisseur space. Promote your song with music blogs that cover independent music. 
4. Go worldwide. Send the song to online radio stations. Check out our radio station directory here. It includes online and college radio stations in all major genres. Plus, we update it and add new stations to the directory each and every month.
5. Send the song out to your audience using all available channels…
   • Email
   • Text
   • Social Media
   • Snail Mail – Send a postcard to all your fans whom you have physical mailing addresses for with a link to listen to and/or purchase the song.
6. Capitalize on SEO Tactics. Write 3 or more search engine optimized blog posts about your new release. Use relevant keywords that would give you high positioning on search engine results pages.
   • Add the blogs to your website.
   • You can also send them as guest posts to relevant blogs.
   • Be sure to add all keyword tags in the title, image descriptions, and include meta descriptions for each blog posted on your website.
7. Create a social media campaign and schedule frequent posts for your new release daily for two weeks, weekly for one month, monthly, and then sporadically throughout the remainder of the year.
   • In order for this to be effective you’ll need to diversify your content so that it’s not redundant. Use your song marketing package as a guide to creating interesting content. Some ideas include song reviews, why you wrote the song, how you wrote the song, the instrumentation you used, the recording process, the meaning behind the song, any visuals associated with it, people who inspired the song, experiences that inspired the song, your elevator pitch, why the song is important, where the song has been or is being featured, any contests associated with the song, videos associated with it, etc. Needless to say, there are many ways you can promote your new release on social media without seeming redundant.
   • Don’t forget to utilize a call-to-action, such as “Stream (Song Title) on Spotify Now” or “Get It Now For only $0.99” to prompt people to do something after seeing the promotion.
   • See our article 10+ Ways to Promote Your New Release on Social Media for more fun and engaging ideas about promoting your new song on Social media platforms.

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8. Create a playlist on Spotify and Soundcloud. Name it something specific. Use content already created from your Song Marketing Package to create a compelling and interesting description for the playlist. Add similar songs from other artists to the playlist.

• If you do this on Spotify, you can search other playlists with a similar theme and share your song with the author for potential inclusion on their playlists.

• If you include songs from independent artists on your playlist, coordinate with them so they’ll market the playlist to their audience.

• It may be helpful to create specific artwork for the playlist.

• Send the playlist out to your list and promote it on Social Media.

• This works extremely well for songs that tie in to an upcoming holiday, a current event or a controversy.

9. Create a video campaign. Create a series of videos to feature the new release. P.S. If you don’t have a decent video camera yet, here’s an affordable one we really like on Amazon. It’s a Best Seller!

• Lyric Video

• Traditional Music Video 

• Film a video of you sharing the meaning behind the song and why you wrote it. 

• Background Scenes and bloopers (from options B and C above)

• Pair your song with a cause, recent event, a motivational message, or a thought. Show snippets of you performing the song and clips of you talking about the issue and how the song relates. For several of my releases, I did a series of Bible Devotionals where I paired a song with a scripture. See an example here.

• Create a Karaoke version of your new release and post it on YouTube.

• Get your fans to make a video of their own using your single. Make it a contest and offer a prize for best video. If you’ve done distribution for the song and have Content ID set up or something similar, you may be able to get song royalties every time it’s played on YouTube. Also, this will give you additional content to promote on social media.

10. Go Local. Work with local coffee shops, cafes, and record stores to boost local promotion. Talk to managers and shop owners in your local area for consignment opportunities. If they’re willing to work with you, it can be very beneficial to set up a partnership. For example, they can play your music over their loudspeaker, include your song or album as part of a point-of-purchase display, or allow you to create promo materials that they use to service their customers such as custom coffee cup sleeves, napkins, and coasters. Another thing you can do is offer free gifts near a register such as custom guitar picks. Be sure to include your artwork and a link or code to listen to your song on the promo items.

Bonus Tip for US readers… If you’d like to get your song played at businesses nationwide, submit your music with Mood Media. They are responsible for Muzak, the music you hear at salons, hotels, retail shops, restaurants, and other businesses.

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Get the New Release Promotions Checklist

Here’s everything you need to do to promote your music project. Use it every time you have an upcoming release. 

Get the Free Checklist

If you’re about to promote a single release, the first thing to do is come up with a solid plan and marketing strategy. Once you’ve done that, it’s just a matter of following through with the plan.  When promoting their work, unfortunately, a lot of artists struggle with limited results. This is oftentimes, due to not having a core marketing package and/or not executing it properly. The key is putting together a good plan and carrying it out fully. Stay the course and you’ll start to see positive results.

More Resources…

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