3 Essential Platforms That Changed The Music Industry & Will 10X Your Engagement in 2021
Nowadays, being a talented professional musician and recording your sound with a Grammy award-winning producer or writer is not enough. Understanding your target market, digital audiences, promoting your music, marketing, knowing the most important platforms to be active on and how to use these platforms are few of the most important things to produce long term success digitally. Looking to reach an amazing level of success? Read what MusicPromoToday’s chief operating officer Anthony Katz told Yahoo! News Entertainment last week.
With this article MusicPromoToday aims to help you understand the essential apps and platforms to find ways to self-promote your art, engage with your fans, and understand how technology has become vital for musicians in the last decade. To get useful tips on music promotion, read one of our previous articles on 15 Great Music Marketing Tips for 2020.
It is evident that having a clear idea of what you need to do plays a big part in choosing and understanding what steps to take to structure your music marketing and promo campaigns. Learning from your own mistakes will also allow you to grow through this process… well.. because there is no shortcut. So enjoy the journey!
Here are platforms you have to be very active, engaging and spending time on NOW! and in 2021.. to see spikes in your engagement and results. Make sure to also check one of our recent articles on Music Marketing Misconceptions once you’re done reading this piece.
This article provides you the top platforms for self-music promotion and explains why they could be essential to market your next single, EP or music video.
1. VIDEO: YouTube, VEVO, etc.
15 years have passed, and every single person in the world knows about YouTube.
From September 2005, when the first video went viral, YouTube has been the most watchable, accessible platform for videos on the internet.
A decade and a half later, statistics have shown over 1 billion hours of YouTube are watched every single day.
Now imagine the world of opportunities at your fingertips and the level of engagement your next music videos can get if you properly target your audiences. Promoting your music videos on YouTube will help you generate a global exposure and reach a broader audience. Consider working with Google Partner agencies only. Those are the firms that have passed multple exams with Google to properly spend every buck you pour into ads and – hence why named a ‘partner’ as a result.
Note: Music Videos are one of the most viewed video ‘category’ (27%) on YouTube.
YouTube not only allows its users to watch a video, but also premiere, share and monetize their traffic. If you can’t spend a hundred thousands dollars on music video production, consider creating a lyric video. You could also do covers, start a podcast, record anything and deliver your message through video. Remember to speak to your fans and keep them engaged.
Saying hello doesn’t have an ROI. It’s all about building relationships!
2. Social Media Networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
It’s no secret that in the last decade even the most useless content went viral. For example, the science behind a dress color that no one agrees. If you want a post to go viral, you need to know what triggers sharing in the first place and all you need is active social media accounts.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Triller, Snapchat are the one of the most popular apps with the most user base and active engagement.
These platforms have the numbers to help artists get to fame.
Rollingstone.com writes: “In just 12 months, the video app TikTok has transformed from a curio to a service mentioned in the same breath as YouTube”.
Learn how Fortnite, TikTok, Twitch and Verzuz are reinventing the music business and inquire about our social media influencer campaigns to start building your tribe of followers.
Twitter also has about 330 million monthly active users (MAU), Facebook has 2.38 billion MAU, and Instagram has 1 billion + MAU. We recommend not copy-pasting content across all platforms and curating unique content for each platform. Those outlets are not only to share your music but also allow you to open up and chat about your personal life to the public. They each have different engagement algorithms. This is another reason to be consistent, very active and never give up.
The New York Times interviewed 2500 people to determine why they shared their stories online.
The main reasons were:
- To bring valuable and entertaining content to one another
- To define themselves to others (give people a better sense of who they are)
- To grow and nourish relationships (stay connected with others)
- For self-fulfillment (to feel more involved in the world)
- To get the word out on causes they care about
By never giving up and being a very active user, you unfold the mysteries of the algorithms and get to know what works for you, your followers and your brand. The commonality between each medium is that they all will allow you to reach a wider audience, build your fanbase, and have straight-forward communication with them. Fans become more accessible to you, and you’ll be more accessible thus creating better communication with your fandom.
2.5. Video Social Networking: SnapChat , TikTok, Triller, etc.
TikTok..The new player of the good old marketing game..Some users have already flocked to competitors’ apps upon hearing the news. and Triller?… the underdog.
In 2016 when TikTok was launched, no one thought it would be the new hub of media, entertainment, and communication. However, fast forward to 4 years later, and TikTok has over 800 million active users worldwide. You are probably aware of TikTok being the latest obsession of Generation Y and Z.
Even so, TikTok will not only help users discover your music but also by allow them to interact with your content as well.
Their secret weapon? Combining 1-2 and 3. Video, with streaming -> in a social media world. Major labels have already moved quickly to sign artists with songs that perform well on Triller, Snapchat or TikTok, betting that their popularity will transfer to other platforms. It’s next challenge was to create stars and not just viral campaigns and they are already doing it.
3. Streaming: Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Tidal, etc.
Spotify is considered to be the most commercialized mainstream streaming platform.. (but all of them matter)! If you have a million viewers on Spotify and 100 on Apple, Soundcloud, what’s the purpose? Your numbers need to make sense.
With 217 million monthly active users globally, Spotify controls over 36% of the global streaming market. Spotify is a must for any musician and makes your presence skyrocket if you use it wisely.
There are a number of platforms that are making a start with new features, now is the time to be present everywhere and leverage every single feature of every single platform. Content is king. By having your content everywhere and not only on Spotify, you are exponentially increasing your chances of getting crawled by Google and discovered.
Fun fact: Spotify generated 73 billion hours of streams in 2019, which equates to around 1.3 trillion streams.
Important
By now, both fans and artists are craving live stage performance, we truly are. Just like we crave international travel and friends family gatherings. Truth be told, all of this is part of the wider grieving process that comes with Covid19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, innovation and funding are driving a new sector and everything seems to be heading towards the virtual world. The Covid-19 pandemic boom is fueling new creations. A new generation of artists is engendering a new creative paradigm…and a fast-growing wave of creative companies are meeting the needs of this new generation of artists with innovative and intuitive music production/promotion solutions.
Many other platforms and solutions will continue to emerge in 2021 and will be useful for both producing and promoting your music.
Make sure to follow MusicPromoToday’s blog or Instagram and a few credible news sources to keep yourself up to date and be the first to implement them.
The future of streaming, social and video is already here. Now is the right time to be assessing the long-term impact of these platforms. After all, these channels are not just social media platforms — they’re discovery tools and they are communities. Join and capitalize today!
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