15 Effective Band Advertising Strategies!

How to Promote a Band in 2024

Band advertising is a great way to reach a large audience and get your message out there.

However... It can be difficult to come up with effective strategies that will work.

Here are the 15 most effective music marketing tactics of 2024

1. Hire a music marketing agency
2. Run some Spotify promotion campaigns
3. Collaborate with other artists in your niche
4. Invest in your music website
5. Create and promote YouTube band content
6. Get in ALL streaming services
7. Hire a booking agent
8. Consider radio airplay
9. Use provocative visuals for the band's promotion
10. Build a viral brand on social media
11. Run influencer marketing campaigns
12. Perform free local gigs
13. Email marketing campaigns
14. SMS marketing campaigns
15. Music mastery PDF

This should help you with brainstorming band marketing strategies to really advance in the music industry and sell music to more fans!

Do you make good music?

Want to get your music on active & relevant playlists that actually get results? 

Get your music heard now 👇

#1. Hire a music marketing agency

Music marketing agencies have the expertise to help you design effective music marketing campaigns.

Here are the services provided by a music promotion/marketing agency:

• Targeted advertising
• Youtube channel promotion
• Spotify promotion
• Social media managing
• Album launch help
• Apple music promotion
• Market your music with paid ads
• Connect you to other bands
• Pitch your music to record labels

Should you use a marketing agency for your band?

Get Free Music Promotion From an online platform

Since bands have such a wide appeal, using free online platforms can be an effective way to market your brand online. It's the most effective music marketing strategy.

If you're simply trying to get more exposure for your brand, it's not going to be worth it.

But if you want to target the right audience or specifically reach specific demographics, like people younger than 25 years old who primarily listen to rock music or indie bands...

Boost Collective can help you do it.

#2. Create your own Spotify playlist

Spotify is the BIGGEST music streaming service!

There are currently more than 100 million active users who listen to some of the most popular music on Spotify.

Here are some surprising Spotify statistics (December 2021):

Most music lovers use Spotify as their personal radio station.

Compared to Apple Music, Spotify is one of the best streaming services in the music industry when it comes to organic discovery.

You should create your own Spotify playlist to reach new fans.

To create your own playlist, first, take a look at what your ideal audience listens to (Spotify for Artists data)

Next, try creating a playlist that's specific to your music and audience's interests.

You might want to name it something hype like "Badass Bands 🔥" After all, you want your new fans to fall in love!

(You can Submit to Spotify Playlists for free!)

Finally, you'll need a playlist for each of your music styles. Not just one.

How to grow followers on your Spotify playlist

Watch the video below for quick & easy step-by-step instructions!

This is important because the music in each playlist should be different from one another so you can properly market yourself across different channels.

This will help you reach fans with your marketing efforts.

You can differentiate based on mood & genre.

The advantage of this type of promotion is that it's easy to set up and can be used on top of social media and traditional marketing campaigns.

It's also especially popular among smaller bands because it doesn't require a large budget for advertising.

Music curation is an art, similar to music creation.

That said, once you get the hang of it you can easily create a target audience pool (without Google ads, haha)

#3. Collaboration music marketing strategy

If you're a musician from a band, you have an advantage when it comes to advertising.

Not only do you know how to work with other artists, but your band also works with organizers of festivals and events.

One strategy that works best is collaborating with other musicians in your genre.

Streaming services like When You Collaborate: You're giving high-quality data to the platform - allowing it to market your music organically through its own services.

It's a good idea to think about what music fits with what artists you are willing to collaborate with.

But don't be afraid to make amazing music with artists from different genres. 

Example-Jay Z and Linking Park:

Your collaborator can help you with brainstorming band marketing strategies as well!

Do you make good music?

#4. Invest in building your music website

The first step to marketing your band is building a website.

You can use free websites to build your artist's website and sell music.

Awesome list of band website services:

• Bandzoogle.com
• Wix.com
• squarespace.com
• Wordpress.com

You can reach a much larger audience than if you were ONLY using social media or traditional advertising methods.

Any content you use in your music marketing strategies across social media can also be embedded on your music website as well!

Band websites are still an effective method of reaching your target audience.

It allows you to create newsworthy content that people will want to share with their friends and family members.

With a band website, you have more control over the way your business looks and sounds than any other method available today.

You can also upload music, photos, and videos that would be impossible with other methods of marketing your band because it's all made right on your own site!

#5. YouTube buzz marketing strategy

Band videos can be a powerful way to draw in fans and increase YouTube views. The problem?

Band videos can sometimes be difficult to create.

There are so many options when it comes to music video promotion - it's easy to get overwhelmed.

In fact, you will find that many bands struggle with creating effective, unique music video concepts that will work well on YouTube.

Even if you have a good idea for your band video, you could still run into trouble with the specific music genre that the band is trying to build buzz around.

You might not be able to find a song or artist that fits the genre you're targeting.

In this case, you'll need to narrow down your options by searching through search results and searching YouTube for similar videos from artists of interest to your brand.

Re-make them in your style. You'll see growth over time!

Do you make good music?

Promote your band with entertaining behind-the-scenes content

On top of creating music videos.

One of the best music marketing strategies on YouTube is creating behind-the-scenes content when touring. 

The famous punk band “The Johnstones” would make fun edits of their tours and use that as a way to promote their new music!

Here’s one of their videos:

Running YouTube ads on your content might bring in new audiences better than promoting your music directly.

It’s worth the shot!

The music industry is part of the entertainment industry so don't fear branching out into other media.

#6. Leverage every single streaming platform!

Distribute your band's music to EVERY single streaming platform out there!

The easiest way to reach the most people.

Your audience is your most valuable resource. The more people you reach, the more likely they are to see your message and engage with it.

With a traditional business structure like a record label or management company, there are plenty of options available to help manage an artist's finances.

However, when it comes to bands with their own creative control and management, there are no clear-cut methods for doing so!

How to make more royalties with your music

Sure, we all know the major platforms like:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• SoundCloud

But how much attention have you put on Tidal and Pandora?'

Most bands don't consider these streaming platforms in part of their music marketing strategies.

If you had a cool angle and you really targeted music lovers on these streaming platforms then you can get your music hard with more people!

Music strategies work in aggregate. For an independent artist to thrive, you need to see my micro success excess over a large span.

Treat each streaming platform as a radio station for new fans.

People use different stations and as long as you're music is heard in all, you will see success!

Do you make good music?

#7. Hire a booking agent

To drive the volume of your ban's business and if you want it to grow, you should hire a booking agent to help you find music gigs.

Hiring a booking agent ensures success when marketing your band and securing gigs. Direct email & word of mouth is just one of the many booking agent advertising strategy that works well for bands.

Here's a list of the BEST booking agencies to use!

This is because traditional marketing approaches can be hard to implement when it comes to reaching venue owners.

For example, most people who are interested in a band will first look at their local network before hopping onto social platforms...

Any music marketing efforts put towards getting gigs won't really shine.

You won't be able to attract the program director’s attention.

Many of these ads only reach a fraction of people who are searching for bands online.

What exactly does a booking agent do for artists?

There's very little exposure from that approach.

Should you hire a music booking agent?

Booking agencies have covered bands similar to you so they know exactly how to get your music heard live!

If your audience is comprised of large groups of people in your local area though, you can promote gigs yourself.

Booking services such as Ticketmaster or StubHub are awesome.

So if you want to advertise with a booking agent, consider testing different music marketing strategies first.

Do you make good music?

#8. Radio airplay music marketing

Are you looking to get band marketing done on radio stations?

There are a few different strategies that can help you achieve your goals.

One strategy is direct response advertising via radio stations.

Does radio promotion still work?

When listeners hear your brand often enough, it's easy to get them to come back and buy from you. This is why record labels put their music marketing efforts toward radio stations.

These are referred to as "touchpoints" and work especially well on Spotify ALONG with radio.

This type of advertisement focuses on the first impression that people have when potential fans hear your music.

College radio stations CRUSH IT..

There are many online radio stations available on Twitch and YouTube as well.

Live streaming platforms take no money out of your marketing budget AND have so much upside potential!

You can link your artist pages in the live video stream, as well as make some behind-the-scenes videos with your engaging fan base.

It won't hurt to mess around and reach out!

Here's one for example:

#9. Cultivate a really good band image

For people to buy into you as a music artist, you need to seem legit.

Test different branding and image styles!

Perhaps a band member is standing next to a guitar, another person is sitting at a keyboard, and one person is holding a tambourine.

If you were able to pull up those images in Google Image Search (which would be easy) you could potentially find out the number of people who search those specific images.

Google makes your marketing efforts easier by showing the most demanded content at the top.

Pinterest is really good as well!

Don't forget: To make your band's marketing strategies successful you must be engaging with the music industry and be up-to-date with what consumers want.

This method could help get you started on quantifying your audience size.

Band visuals can be great when they're done right.

Do you make good music?

Make sure your band logo is top-notch!

Your band's logo is essential so don't skimp out on that!

Should I make a logo for my band?

This band logo will be incorporated in every single one of your music marketing strategies so it's important to take some time to really design something amazing.

But... if they're poorly done, they can ruin your brand image and make it difficult for people to identify with your music biz.

Hit up a local graphic design firm or go search Fiverr band logos to get a logo done at fair rates!

Having a great brand image will help get heard. 

If you want to build a major international brand and escape the local scene…

Then you really need to dedicate time to your image!

#10. Building a viral brand on Social Media

This combination of social media and offline marketing will bring more results than traditional advertising in terms of virality!

Why focus on viral marketing?

A viral social media marketing strategy has virtually no limit to the number of new fans and new audiences that you can reach. Viral content is shared for free whereas paid advertising is limited to your budget.

To reach this audience, it's important to focus on one type of content (such as photos and videos) and make it entertaining!

Here are the emotions your content needs to have to go viral:

Hit multiple emotions to make your content stand OUT!

In the end, viral band advertising can be used to promote new products, events, and music...

For free!

Do you make good music?

The issue with viral marketing

One issue with going viral is that you are not reaching your ideal target audience.

This is why you must test different marketing strategies within your overall marketing plan.

Viral content should be a large part of your music marketing plan.

You can test virality on different social media platforms and see where the Fanbase resonates with you most.

Viral content won't lead to a long-lasting music career though…

You still need a valuable direct line of communication with your target audience so don't rewrite your entire music marketing plan for vitality.

#11. Influencer music marketing

What's the best way to get your brand noticed by new music fans?

Influencer marketing.

This strategy is perfect for bands that want to promote good music.

You'll want to select an influencer who has a strong following on their social media pages and are known for their awesome content-making talent.

You'll want to include them in all of your marketing efforts on social media.

Reach out to these influencers either via TikTok or Instagram (known for virality.)

Example: "How would you like to make content with my music? I have a budget to work with."

This seems like a simple request, but it will work because the influencer will love being involved!

Do you make good music?

#12. Perform free charity gigs to build a buzz

If you're a musician who has an interest in diabetes - you can help spread awareness about this illness AND advertise music.

It's the most wholesome win-win ever!

Many charities host fund fundraising events.

Not only can you help people by donating to charities, but you can provide live music to the events.

Even if you're not a super-huge musician, there are plenty of organizations that can benefit from your charitable donations.

For example, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of America and the United Negro College Fund get major donations from fans who purchase merchandise inspired by their favorite bands.

Distribute your merch at charity events

How do I distribute my merch?

Create band merchandise to promote as a music artist at charity gigs. Not only will band merch display your band image but also bring attention to upcoming tour dates!

(Limited edition merch item that's linked to the charity works best!)

Doing charity events can help you land placements on music blogs and cultivate fans that way as well.

Just document the gigs and put them in your electronic press kit for your fan base.

Want to get press just like your favorite artists?

Traditional press coverage only promotes artists doing cool stuff - stand out to get on music blogs! 

(Bonus: hand out even handwritten lyric sheets in advance so fans can vibe to your music when live!)

Do you make good music?

#13. Email marketing strategies

Email marketing is a great way to reach your targeted audience without having to spend a ton of money.

For example, you might have an email list of 1,000 people who are interested in your music.

You could use this campaign to send out an email to each person once a week.

This would allow you to reach your entire target demographic and keep fans active.

make sure that you're not just reaching the target fans but also communicating with the masses.

You can easily set up email lists for free using tools!

Top 12 free email marketing services musicians can use:

1. Hubspot (we use this one!)
2. MailChimp
3. MailerLite (And this one!)
4. Benchmark
5. Sender
6. Omnisend
7. Moosend
8. Zoho
9. SendInBlue
10. Sendpulse
11. Mailjet
12. Email Octopus

Do you make good music?

#14. SMS Marketing for music videos & content

Why should you use SMS marketing for your band?

SMS marketing is one of the best methods for targeting your ideal music audience. SMS has over 90% open rates, a surefire way to get your music heard, sell concert tickets, and brand yourself as a musician.

This type of marketing works because it's quick and easy, and you don't have to go through a long process of building a site and all that.

Casual fans don't interact with you nearly as much as dedicated fans do.

One of the ways to become one of the casual fans of FAVORITE artists is by emphasizing fan communication.

You need as many new listeners as you can get, you don’t have a record label!