You Are An Established Artist Who Wants To Reach A Broader Audience
As an established artist, itll be highly likely that you have a large social presence.
Even at such lofty heights, optimization of all your social media channels can be used to drip feed other followers into the internets most engaging platform, which readily allows connections to Twitter, Facebook and more.
Tools such as Buffer can auto post to multiple platforms, which is ideal for musicians busy tracking in the studio or touring.
How To Promote Music On Instagram
This article was written by Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been viewed 2,100 times.
Social media makes it easy to spread the word about your music without having to pay for a publicist. This wikiHow teaches you how to some best practices for promoting your band or solo project through your Instagram account.
Creating A Platform Related To Your Genre Of Music
This is something I’ve talked about and helped people do in my other guides. So taking the above theory even further, why not create a website or podcast which you target at people who like your kind of music?
This can be a music review podcast, a radio show which showcases your genre, or even a website which generally covers everything in your music scene. Furthermore, it could even be something not 100% related to your genre that a lot of people in your genre also like.
So if you make music skateboarders often listen to, you may want to make a skateboarding site and play your music on the site and in the videos.
You’ll also want to include a shop page where people can buy your music, and possibly even start selling skateboarder related merchandise with your logo on it.
Doing these kinds of things will get you in front of people you wouldn’t have otherwise, and allow you to showcase your music to new people who are largely interested in your genre.
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Engage Fans With Your Waveform
When you think of SoundCloud, you think of the waveform. Its that automatically generated visualization of the music you share to the platform. Not only does it look cool, it gives fans the chance to leave comments at particular moments of a track. And you can do the same! This makes it great for engaging your fans and getting feedback on your music.
Ask them what they think of a particular line, or tell them how you captured that special drum sound. This helps to build a real community by letting your listeners into your process.
Instagram Marketing For Musicians: The Ultimate Guide
Despite a shift in the recording industry thats occurred over the last two decades, making it in music remains as hard as its ever been.
Internet behemoths like iTunes and Spotify have rerouted the path listeners take to find their new favorite artists.
Auditions take place on nationally televised contests where premium phone lines decide who gets a record deal rather than record executives.
A lot has changed in the 48,000 or so days since the first label – the American Graphophone Company – came into being.
Success is no longer dictated by the payola that was backhanded to commercial radio stations in the mid 20th century, a time of nostalgia when flat disc records played at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute.
The revolution that matters most to musicians in the 21st century is social media.
It grants them exposure to audiences, unlike anything that was available before.
And with its unique user interface and gargantuan engagement power, Instagram has many merits for todays established and aspiring musical artists.
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Should You Use Instagram
While Instagram is great, and there are plenty of Instagram musicians killing it, its not for everyone. You shouldnt just be promoting music on Instagram just because other people are doing it.
As a musician, you should use Instagram if the demographics of your fanbase strongly correlates with their user base. AND if image-based sharing aligns with your interests.
35% of all adult social network users are on Instagram. But 72% of teens and 71% of 18-24-year-olds are using the service. So, if a segment of your audience falls into the 13-29 year old demographic, Instagram could very well be an important part of your social media mix.
If youre not sure, the easiest approach is to take a look at the audience at your next concert. Whos in the crowd? How old do they look? A more accurate option is to glance through the analytics of any other social channels youre using. Both Facebook and Twitter offer detailed stats on your fans.
Not sure what to post to Instagram?
Edit & Maintain Your Profile
Setting up your Instagram profile and bio is pretty straightforward. But there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure itâs optimised and being used to itâs full potential.
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Profile Picture
Make sure your profile picture has the right aesthetic and conveys your brand identity and image. It could be a headshot, band photo, a logo or unique graphic â itâs your call.
Also, make sure itâs a perfect square too with nothing too crucial at the edges. You donât want anything getting lost when Instagram crops it into a circle.
You can check our social media image size guide for all the deets on this!
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Get verified
is another great thing you can do to boost the legitimacy & authenticity of your Instagram persona.
You’ll need to request for verification and include details about you, your music, plus links to any noteworthy press you’ve garnered so far.
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Your bio
Youâve got 150 characters to say whatever you want in your bio, and you can change it at any time.
Perhaps the most important part of your bio is the link. Instagram doesnât like links, and your bio is the only place you can share one with your followers, so make it count!
You might choose to link to your latest release or your upcoming show tickets, whatever is most important right now. Make sure to mention “link in bio” when you post something about it.
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At Ditto, we use Linktree to consolidate all our important links on one page. Then link to it from our Insta bio!
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Driving Organic Engagement: Surveys & Questions
To get people to follow and interact with your music and videos on Instagram and beyond, it is important to drive organic engagement with your audience by using some widgets Instagram includes in its stories feature. Things like filters can be funny, and the face changing add-ons have been used consistently by some bands to great ironic effect.
But, the best tools to drive this organic engagement are the survey and question features in stories.
With a few clicks you can create a survey between two things, and bands have found all sorts of creative ways to use this simple widget to take advantage of human nature and the way we cant seem to help ourselves from clicking something like that.
Some do battle royals for favorite band member, some do food surveys, others just do battles between favorite songs of theirs to see which wins out. Others ask legitimate questions targeted at helping the band order new march or figures out where to tour next.
The question feature of stories is very useful as well, because you can either ask your audience a question and then post their answers, which makes everyone feel very involved. Its open ended, unlike the survey, and can pull people into your world by asking for their voice and making them feel valued.
You can also turn the question feature around into an Ask Me Anything . Inviting your audience to ask you anything is vulnerable and forces you to open up in either a serious or ironic way.
Which Instagram Music Hashtags Can Help You Promote Your Music On Instagram Best
We suggest using the likes of #InstaMusic and #InstaVideo because they are present on over 33 million posts combined, and they’re unique to Instagram
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Experts in the field recommend #InstaMusicVideo, #MusicMonday, #LiveMusic, and #InstaArtist.
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You can also piggyback off the #tbt hashtag, as long as you can connect it to your music in some relevant way
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You always need to include general hashtags like #music, #video, #band, #musician, and #song.
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In addition to that, you should add genre-specific tags like #rock, #guitar, #grunge, #aesthetic, #dj, #beat, #hiphop, and so on
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You can find lists of music-specific hashtags here pick the ones that fit best your music and your audience’s interests
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As for Instagram Stories, you get ten hashtags per story, so pick them wisely and avoid using all ten not to look spammy
How do you find even more hashtags you should use? Apart from using common sense, there are some hashtag tools that you may want to dive deeper into, such as Display Purposes and Sprout Social.
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Display Purposes functions straightforwardly. All you need to do is enter a relevant keyword or phrase, and it will come up with a list of corresponding hashtags you can use.
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However, you will also need to identify which relevant hashtags people frequently search, and that’s where Sprout Social comes in.
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Youve Got Content But Struggle With Growing Your Fanbase
If your fan base hits a plateau with a loyal but non-expanding following, Instagram can be used as a magnet to bring in the more fans you need.
When artists share content over and above their music – such as news or even their daily happenings at the local grocery store – it helps create a story about what theyre like as a person in real life.
This will give online users a greater chance to identify with the personality traits showcased in an unbiased and unadulterated way.
Unconvinced? Hark back to American Idol season one winner Kelly Clarkson.
Her much-documented track to stardom – which took the route over odd jobs, waitressing, telemarketing and selling vacuum cleaners door to door – won her the hearts and minds of fans globally and propelled her into the musical stratosphere.
Dont Act Like Youve Already Made It Act Like An Emerging Artist
Most musicians when theyre just starting out arent sure what they should be posting on their social media so seek inspiration from other artists, their initial instinct is to go to established artists who have already made it and touring globally to see what kind of content theyre posting. The problem with this is that youre assuming that this content is the type of content that made these artists successful and build a following, but the truth is an established artist needs a strategy which works for an established artist, and an emerging artist needs a strategy for an emerging artist. When you have a global fan base, it doesnt require the same types of posts to get engagement, people are going to engage and show up to your gigs anyway.
When youre creating your Instagram strategy, you should constantly be asking yourself What will make someone who hasnt heard of me stop scrolling and consider following my account?, because tour dates, Spotify screenshots and clips from your latest music video isnt going to cut it.
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How Often Should You Post
Many factors go into determining how often you should post on Instagram, including how much time you have to devote to your social media and even what kind of musician you are .
For optimal growth, aim to post a minimum of 3 Instagram posts per week, which can be either IGTV posts, videos, or photos.
To ensure that your stories or reels are getting picked up by Instagrams algorithm, aim to post a minimum of 8-10 of them per-week make sure you post more frequently if you have an upcoming announcement or release and of course, make adjustments when needed.
Although consistency is key, you should never feel forced to post something if you would rather post whenever you want to, you must ensure there is some strategy involved so you are always reaching your audience when they are online.
Take Advantage Of Instagram Stories And Its Latest Features
Stories are by far Instagrams most popular feature.
Used by over 500 million users daily, brands should take advantage of Stories as often as possible when promoting on Instagram. For many businesses, this means publishing user-generated photos and behind-the-scenes content. The beauty of Stories is that you dont have to worry as much about your visuals being polished or perfect.
That said, creativity still counts when it comes to Stories. Among Instagrams latest features, Stories are always at the center of them. For example, new interactive stickers such as the new Quiz sticker represent fresh ways that brands can engage with followers for a more unique and interactive type of Instagram promo.
Keeping up with Instagram means staying active and on top of its latest features. If youre regularly publishing to Stories and watching what other brands are doing, youll always be in-the-know.
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Musicians Guide To Instagram: Setting Up Your Instagram Account
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of actually posting to Instagram for musicians and getting more followers on Instagram, lets make sure you have your account set up to make the most of all of Instagrams features. These lessons are taken from the extensive collection of online music marketing and promotion courses we have at New Artist Model. Lets dive in
Tips For Promoting Your Music On Instagram
During the past two decades, the music industry changed fundamentally, especially regarding music promotion. Back then, labels would handle everything. Now, artists oversee every step of their journey, from creating music to promoting it on all channels and media. Today, we will discuss how to promote music on Instagram, as this social platform is one of the most inviting when it comes to music promotion opportunities! Are you ready to build a brand for yourself? Let’s see time-tested tips for promoting music on Instagram, whether you are a beginner or an experienced artist!
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Posting To Instagram For Musicians
Now that you have an account set up, lets go through the fun stuff actually posting to Instagram. Instagram is very much a content marketing platform. Its more about sharing your story and using the posts you share as a way to continue that narrative, so keep that in mind as you craft your posts, images, and videos. Youre trying to hook fans and draw them into your world with interesting and engaging content. It may take you some experimentation to figure out what kind of content your target audience relates to, so dont be afraid to try different things to discover what works.
I also want to clarify that even though Instagram is an image-based platform, you do not need to be a professional photographer to be successful. In the next few sections, were going to cover everything from photography and editing, to content, captions, posting times, and stories. In this musicians guide to Instagram, well look at everything you need to know about posting to Instagram.
Pay To Promote Your Best Work
Nobody wants to pay for promotion, and it isnt always necessary. But if you keep finding that your content isnt reaching as many people as you would like, then by all means, give it a go.
Instagram has an incredibly accurate advertising algorithm , and its yours to use if you have a little extra cash in the marketing budget. But if you spend money, make sure youre spending it on the content that you are most proud of, or is most unique to you. Once again, your acoustic cover of everybodys favorite sad song Fix You is incredible without a doubt, but lets be honest: you have better things to spend money promoting. Original music, release hype graphics, and unique, double-take-worthy content are pretty much the only things you should bother boosting. And once youve boosted a few things, check the analytics to see which ones performed the best. Then try that kind again.
In the end, it isnt easy to promote your music on Instagram, and it can be soul-sucking. But theres good news youre up to the task. Take these tips and run with them. Make them your own, find out what works for you, and be as authentic as you can. I promise that youre only a few more posts away from that coveted blue checkmark. And then its all fame and fortune.
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Create An Authentic Brand
Whether youre a country singer, a jazz pianist, a pop writer, a rapper, an EDM producer, or a church choir member, you are most likely aware of the aesthetic that goes with your genre. As much as you want to stand out, you dont want to confuse anybody, either. Probably dont use grunge-inspired filters unless youre a rock guitarist. Maybe go easy on the intense, busy fonts if youre an acoustic singer-songwriter. And please, please dont just assume that typing in all lowercase letters is right for you.
The best Instagram content is honest, true-to-life, and relatable. If youre funny, post funny pictures with funny captions. If youre quirky and have an artsy photoshoot with your friends every other day, dont be afraid to own it. Youre trying to promote your music on your own Instagram, so be yourself, not who you think you should be. Authenticity is always, always better.