It can be tricky without a label telling you what step to take next. How do you figure out what you need and what you don’t? It’s not just finding the right platforms, but you also need to find the right companies offering them. There will be multiple of the same product around, so we’re here to help you figure out which ones to trust.
Smart Link Provider
If you want an easy way to promote your music, you need to look into Smart Links. PUSH.fm offer multiple links that you can access for no cost at all. We provide Fan Links (also known as Smart Links), Content Unlocks and Pre-saves. So, what do they all do?
Fan Links
A Fan Link is an online digital house for all of your links. If you have a release going live across multiple stores, save yourself the hassle of sharing each store individually and just place every link within one Fan Link. That way your fans can find the store of their choice at just one click, and you don’t have to work on sharing different links regularly. You can also place a website URL or your social media platforms within a Smart Link. Literally every URL you could want to share can be placed into one location. PUSH also allows you to customise your URL, you can call it whatever you want. You might decide to name it after your release or your artist name. The choice is yours.
When it comes to social media, most platforms only allow one link within your bio. It can be tricky to decide what to put there. Do you choose Spotify? That means all your Apple Music fans will have to search for your music themselves. Yes, that’s something they can do, but if you have the link available, why not make it super easy for everyone involved? You’ll have the chance to add a photo of your choice to your Fan Link, you might pick your release artwork, or perhaps some artist images. Again, it’s completely up to you. Add as many or as little links as you’d like to make it your own. Even switch up the store logos to reflect yourself as an artist. We’ve tried to make the process as simple as possible. Our aim is to provide artists with free tools that can maximise their promotional ability.
Pre-saves
Pre-saves do exactly what you’d imagine. Allow your fans to save your release ahead of time. This doesn’t mean they can access it and listen to it before it goes live. However, they can select their favourite store and save the release so that the day it becomes available, it’s placed straight into their library. This way, they don’t need to hunt for it on the day it becomes available. Instead, it’s sent to their library and will automatically be placed into their playlist shuffles.
PUSH.fm offers Pre-saves for free. No cost included. You can create unlimited Pre-saves so each of your new tracks or albums can have its own. It’s really easy to set up. You can create Pre-saves for Deezer, Spotify and iTunes. It saves hassle for both you and your fans because you can promote your music ahead of time. Maximise the amount of people who see your music and get your name out there as much as you can. You can share your Pre-save anywhere you like. Post it across your social media accounts and make sure all of your followers see it.
Content Unlocks
You hide something, your fans have to complete tasks to unlock it. That’s it summed up quickly. Basically, you will pick as many digital actions your fans have to complete to be able to access your hidden content. You might decide you want them to follow you on at least one of your social media account and subscribe to your YouTube channel. Or, perhaps you want them to follow your Spotify and share your music across their social media platforms. It’s your choice. Pick as many challenges for them to complete as you want, however, do keep in mind if you’re getting them to complete a lot of actions, this might put some people off. Smaller amounts of tasks seem to be preferable because don’t forget, not everyone has YouTube and Spotify for example.
Allowing them to choose between different tasks means it caters to everyone. Of course, if there’s a particular channel you really want to grow then sure, make this one a compulsory one to complete. However, if you’re just looking to grow overall then you can allow them to select any actions they wish. Set a minimum requirement and then everyone’s happy. Once they have completed these actions, your fans will be able to access the hidden content. It’s your choice again what the content is. Maybe you want to add a secret track that you haven’t released anywhere else. Or you could provide a discount code to your merchandise. Again, whatever you decide, it’s your choice.
Online community
Indiepreneur is a community for musicians where you can grow, learn from each other and expand your skills. Its aim is for musicians to be able to build a business through their music by connecting with others within the community. They have users from students, to graduates, to clients of various businesses. All within different genres so there’s something for everyone. Having an online community where you can learn from other people is really powerful because you’re all in it together. Some will be further along in their career than others and that’s where you’ll start to learn things you might not get from anywhere else.
They also offer a podcast which gives insights into the industry and provides great conversation topics. Listening to this could inspire you to expand and broaden your horizons. Stepping into the music scene for the first time is scary for most people. Having a community behind you can make this so much easier. Once you’re involved, you’ll start to form relationships that could take you to new places. It will open new doors, and you’ll no longer have to worry that you’ll always be a new face in the crowd.
Competition and sweepstake creator
Why not create yourself a competition for fans to enter and win? It’s a fantastic way of building up your artist name and encouraging your follows to interact with you more. You could set the prize as anything you like. Perhaps you want to give away some merchandise for free. Or, maybe you want to set up a video call with a fan. You could even go as far as arranging a jamming session with one of your followers. Whatever you decide to do, your followers will love it. After all, who doesn’t love winning freebies? Host them as often or as little as you like. Maybe you have a new album coming up or are heading on tour and want to include that into your giveaways?
SweepWidget lets you create your very own competitions and sweepstakes. It ensures the process is completely fair for everyone involved which will give your fans that extra bit of ease. It’s fun to do and won’t cost you much money at all. Especially if you already have the prize lying around anyway. It could boost your following massively and will increase your supporter’s trust in you. They support 103 languages, so everyone can join in with it. Your fans across the world don’t have to miss out. You could even try out a different style of competition each time to see which everyone prefers. There’s so much choice so why not give it a go?
The list goes on and on when it comes to tools and resources you could and should use. At the end of the day it always comes back to personal preference and this isn’t something anyone can decide for you. It’s great to be able to check out these different avenues however and know that many musicians use these tools on a daily basis. Why not give them all a try this year and see how you get on? You’ll eventually find the things you love and the things that aren’t your style that much, but that’s the beauty of being an independent musician. You get to make the rules.
