10 Best Social Media Site for Music Artists

• July 07, 2020
• Aleksey Weyman

The internet is a critical place for music artists to build and engage with their fans, but which social media sites are the most useful?

I’ll start by prefacing that almost any online website is useful for music artists. What matters is that you really take the time to build yourself on the platform and become a member of its ecosystem- using it as any ordinary user would. Opening an account and slapping your latest release URL every two weeks isn’t going to do much for you, but genuine interaction with the community will build authority and turn readers into fans. Let’s look at 10 valuable social media websites that all music artists should be using (updated for 2020!).

1. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

I put Facebook, Twitter and Instagram together because they’re extremely obvious and not unconventional at all. You should absolutely be using these platforms consistently, as a music artist. For a better idea about how to use each one, check out this engagement guide I wrote. These big three platforms are already teeming with music artists and fans, which make them extremely ripe for harvesting supporters. The downside? They are all very saturated and you've got to be very intentional with your marketing approach.

Tip: Since Facebook owns Instagram now, connect your accounts and leverage boosted (paid) ads to reach new fans. Even just a $1 campaign can put you in front of new people.

2. Soundcloud

I feel like people don't use Soundcloud to its full capabilities. With any of their paid account plans, you get detailed analytics of your listeners, which can be used to create marketing campaigns for your upcoming releases. Soundcloud is also a backbone for many developing artists, which means there are tons of up and comers that are eager to provide feedback and might just fall in love with your sound. Maybe they'll even download your latest remix and play it out at a show? That's a great way to get publicity. Soundcloud also rolled out a distribution model, which means you can use their platform to get your music onto Spotify, Apple Music, and more.

Tip: set up download gates like I've done on this song, to require people to follow your account when downloading.

3. Bandcamp

An alternative to Soundcloud, Bandcamp allows artists to sell their music/merch and set their own prices. Really empowering for artists with dedicated followers, but it’s also a good place just to have a profile, from an SEO standpoint. Google and other engines formulate search results based on the amount of content you have online- higher up in search results means higher chance of getting heard. For more detailed info on this, check out these 5 tips for getting your band found online.

Tip: When you release a song to Spotify/etc, upload to Bandcamp as well and attach your ISRC, for streaming royalties.

4. Tumblr

Since their somewhat recent disbanding from adult content (dated 2019), Tumblr has seen an increase in community users. That means it’s yet another place to spread your tunes/brand. Tumblr is also very flexible with the types of content you can include in a post. In addition to the obvious text or images, you can directly embed links, quotes, audio, and more. Check out my music Tumblr for an example!

Tip: Create a Tumblr for your artist brand and repost some stuff from other creators- this platform operates on a similar "cross-promo" model as Pinterest.

5. Reddit

Reddit has an abundance of communities focused on music, from the production side to the marketing and promo side. Redditors are definitely anti-spam, so be sure to only post your music related content at times/places that make sense. A couple of subreddits (forums) to get started on are:

• r/wearethemusicmakers (they have a weekly feedback thread to share music)
• r/edmproduction (they also have a weekly feedback thread, tailored to EDM)
• r/promoteyourmusic (self explanatory)
• r/thisisourmusic (another place to share your tunes)

Tip: Use the search feature in Reddit to find other communities to share your music in. Get creative with your keywords!

6. Google publisher (once you have a knowledge panel)

Once you have a Google Knowledge Panel, you can directly publish updates to Google using Google for Business. This basically acts as a “post” on your knowledge panel that appears whenever someone searches your name or music in Google. Really great for letting organic readers know what’s up.

Tip: Once you have a panel and start posting, check out Cameos on Google for in-browser Q&A with fans!

7. Snapchat

I still get a couple hundred views per snap, regardless of how “dead” the platform supposedly is. Snapchat let’s you show the intimate side of you and your music, but you can also post flyers/pics/videos directly from your phone as well, making it another great and direct marketing platform.

Tip: Snapchat lets you embed links in your snaps, just click the paperclip icon when creating a snap, and it will ask you for the URL!

8. YouTube

YouTube consistently sees the highest amount of creative content traffic and there are plenty of social aspects that make the platform great for music artists. Obviously if you have music videos, get them up there. If you don’t, why not make some lyric videos or just slap your artwork into iMovie and add your song in the background? Publicity is publicity. If you distribute your music to Spotify/Pandora/etc through a record label like StoryTime, your music can also earn royalties from YouTube streams over time. Here are a couple of my older tracks that do this.

Tip: Once your music is distorted on YouTube, create playlists of your music on your own account, to help consolidate the releases for fans to listen to.

9. VK (EU Promotions)

VK is the European version of Facebook. With 85 million active users, you can use this platform in very much the same way that you can Facebook- create a page for your brand, share links to songs, upload pics/videos/ etc. Remember that the world is much bigger than your hometown!

Tip: Once you create a VK account, start searching for groups that discuss similar types of music, and start engaging. Remember though, spam is spam, no matter which country or language you're engaging!

10. Reverbnation/Myspace

I combine these two because they’re both kind of tacky and outdated in my opinion, but it doesn’t hurt to at least put your bio and a couple of tracks up. People still use these platforms and there’s a chance they come across your music. Maybe they’ll add it as background music on their profile (if that’s still a thing)? Slightly off topic but relevant- Reverbnation had a massive data breach several years back which exposed email addresses, one of which was mine (here’s a more in-depth article about how I found this out). So if you do use these platforms, maybe use a burner email address. :)

11. TikTok

I know I said this list would only have 10 platforms, but I can't be honest with you if I don't mention TikTok. I made a totally dumb video that got 1 million streams, organically! These watchers turned to subscribers and even bled into my other social profiles. Tiktok is about creating short video clips that capture watchers attention. I may write a more in-depth guide about TikTok eventually but for now, just create a profile and see what all the hype is about. Watch the trends, then make your own versions!

Like I mentioned in the beginning, the real value from using these platforms comes in actually using them on a regular basis, interacting with the community members and being a community member yourself. People prefer authenticity and have gotten good at identifying users/accounts who are just out to get something and not give.

If you enjoyed this Mod, you might like to read more about how to how to make money from your music! Please share this Mod using the social links below. Any questions or comments? Let us know on Twitter!

Tagged in : MusicMarketing