Not a signed artist? No problem
There are hundreds of independent artists and we all have to focus on one thing: gaining new fans! Yeah, even more than money, we need people to listen to us and tell their friends about this awesome new band they discovered. playing our music Spotify is a critical step in this process.
Unless you’ve been living on Cloud 9, you’ve heard of Spotify and its “freemium” service. You’ve also heard how Spotify has taken the social network by storm. Every time one of my friends listens to a song, he appears on my Spotify, Facebook, Twitter and any other social account he has; Ex: “Hey! Nicklas just joined Spotify and listened to Weasel…”. You get the idea.
So while the amount of money you make per stream (per game) is less than a penny, the potential for exposure is well worth it. And luckily for independent artists like you, it’s pretty easy to get your music on Spotify.
At this time, it may be signed with a label. If so, your music may already be on Spotify. If not, call your representative and ask if they’ve uploaded your music to the service. If they don’t have them and you want them too, give the order! (in a nice way). Also, make sure they submit your uploaded press kit with a bio, photos, contact information, and anything else that makes you stand out to Spotify. Pretty simple, right?
If you’re a non-signed artist, that’s okay because there are plenty of ways to upload your music without a label. However, Spotify cannot deal with you directly. Why not? I’m sure it’s one of the stipulations of his deal with the majors. But the solution is still quite simple. You should choose a dealer like Tunecore, CDBaby, or DittoMusic. I’ve written a review of these dealers so you can save some time and keep trying.
Once you’ve created an account with a distributor or signed a record label deal, your music will be uploaded to Spotify within 4-6 weeks. But there is still work to be done, which brings us to:
—————————->Promote your music!<------------------------------------
Spotify doesn’t always get their awesome press kit, so just to back it up, create a profile at allmusic.com. Spotify will look for you there if they don’t get a bio.
Now that all the tedious work is done, it’s time to let your fans know that Spotify will be showing your songs soon! Create engaging promotional posts on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Make a promotional video for your YouTube channel. I just had a sweet idea: write a song just for your Spotify release and plug it into your posts! Example: “I can’t wait to see our fans on Spotify. We’ve recorded a song just for you! It’s coming to your Spotify account soon!” The fans will eat it up!
Well, there are still a couple of tedious things to accomplish. No site is complete without clickable logos. Once your music is on Spotify, download the service’s logo at iconfinder.com. Then, find your band’s profile on Spotify (several options will appear, including “Top Hit, Tracks, Playlists”… you want to select the link under “Artist”). While hovering over your artist profile, right-click and select “Copy Spotify URI”. Lastly, combine the URI with the Spotify logo by adding it to your website or blog by creating an “Image Widget”.
Another trendy promotion that you can use for Spotify is the “Spotify play button”. This feature allows you to publish songs on your website and blog. First, right-click on any song, album or playlist on Spotify that you want to promote and once again select “Copy Spotify URI”.
As an example, let’s post this URI on your blog. Open your blog, write something for your hungry fans in html mode: (“We know you want a sneak peek of our next album. Here’s the first song for you! Share it with your friends!”). Then post the link and add a greeting.
