Music Promotion Methods
In modern times, the music industry requires a competent approach to promotion. Simply reposting content from friends to your Telegram channel or VK page won’t cut it anymore, and just hoping that success will come on its own is merely a dream for everyone. Each individual requires their own tailored method — an approach that works in its own unique way.
Some might benefit from posting a couple of Reels or TikToks to gain widespread popularity, while others may need to push their content for several months or even years. Why is this the case?
There are many methods for promoting your music, and each one is unique. Here, I’ll discuss both paid and free methods that actually work.
Free Promotion Methods
Vertical Videos. Yes, it’s basic, and everyone talks about it. However, not everyone understands that vertical platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram*, and others offer a free and high‑quality promotion method. Hundreds of thousands of people use vertical platforms daily, scrolling through their feeds. These platforms can be used to promote any kind of content, including your music. Many emerging artists have gained popularity primarily through vertical videos. A good video, high‑quality sound, and simple lyrics can win over your audience.
Moreover, if you look at the list of artists who’ve «made it» in the past three years, the vast majority achieved success thanks to this method. Major artists also constantly use this tool — so why do you still consider «dancing on TikTok» cringe?
Playlists. Editorial playlists work great and provide a certain boost to your audience — though only to a certain extent. On VK, the increase from being featured in playlists isn’t particularly large, but on Yandex it actually brings benefits. This also applies to «My Wave» and «Nitro» on Yandex Music. Tracks for «Nitro», by the way, are selected through self‑pitching.
Speaking of self‑pitching in this article…
And the best part? All of this works completely free of charge.
User Playlists do work, but with caveats. They often have inflated play counts and additions, so purchasing a spot in such playlists is risky.
Collaborations. Yes, reaching out to someone with a proposal for a feature or to create something together can be challenging — at first. The first five times, that is.
After that, you’ll enjoy the collaborative process, delegate half the tasks, and feel less exhausted when working on a release.
Plus, making music with someone else is far more interesting than working alone. Even if your first attempt at co‑writing was unsuccessful, that experience doesn’t mean subsequent ones will be the same.
This method is a sure bet — there are many options for collaborating and moving forward together, or perhaps even creating your own community of musicians.
It’s far more engaging to follow the scene — take Dopeclubb, Melon Music, Acidhouse, and Yung Russia as examples. There are millions of successful cases.
Outdoor Advertising. Hanging posters, stickers, and QR codes in venues where it’s allowed, on designated boards and poles (where permitted). No one’s stopping you from promoting yourself through physical posters. Some people still sell their services not through websites like HeadHunter, but by hanging up flyers. Yes, it might take a lot of time, but you could also get noticed by many people through these stickers (stickers, posters, QR codes).
Paid Methods
Targeted Advertising. This is when your card or track is shown as an ad to various users — usually your target audience — for a fee. This includes factors like age, gender, country, etc. In other words, your track is shown to those who might be interested in it.
However, there’s a problem — the advertising market is overheated. While targeting on VK provided a boost in 2020, in 2 Newton it doesn’t make sense on small budgets.
«Impulse» on Yandex Music is a good option, but it doesn’t yield immediate results and is more of a supplementary tool. Opinions on it are mixed.
Seeding with Bloggers. If you don’t have an established account on vertical platforms, you can turn to bloggers. Instead of promoting your new music yourself, you’re banking on the pre‑existing trust in someone else’s voice. This format helps promote your track by leveraging the blogger’s already loyal audience.
The upside? If the blogger genuinely likes your music and it fits their video format, they’ll use it for content without needing to be paid.
Other methods, like reposting to popular channels, don’t work. They typically generate negative reactions and comments. Track reviews on streams also don’t work — viewers aren’t interested in adding your release; they’re usually there to hear a review of their own track and then leave the stream.
Other Promotion Methods
There are many more ways to promote your music:
- participating in contests;
- submitting your track to thematic паблики (communities);
- joining music chats;
- selling your services as a musician to gradually build an audience;
- promoting your music through acquaintances;
- performing for small audiences at open bars.
You can list them endlessly, but they won’t be as effective. However, no one’s stopping you from combining them. On the contrary, doing so will yield greater audience growth — especially when you mix free and paid promotion methods, working on your own and leveraging the power of others. The key is simply to try promoting.
The easiest approach here is to create a great viral video that will give you your first basic audience — after that, it’s the music itself that will do the talking.
