Starting artist, get your music to these 20 platforms fast.
(TLDR: Scroll down to check our Video about our favorite three platforms.)
Yes, ya’ll know everything about Soundcloud, YouTube and Bandcamp but, sometimes the major players aren’t the ones which will benefit you most. The decision of where to upload your music is a critical one, nonetheless there is no single answer. Many platforms provide unique value, one you can not get nowhere else.
Some platforms offer great tools for music promotion, getting your music to a much wider audience, others, help with digital distribution bringing your tracks to pristine services such as apple music and spotify and some offer an active community of likeminded individuals where you can get feedback and sharpen your skills.
Our approach is always maximizing opportunities, but, those platforms are not magical solutions you will still need to invest some effort in them.
Don't just upload your music to all the platforms below if you got no time - you will see little results!
So how you should use this list? 1. think what your music needs - is it perfecting your sound and improving your production skills? or is it promoting your songs to a wider audience.
2. Choose 4-5 platforms which provide you the value you are looking for.
3. Start uploading your music.
4. Spend some time at each platform (at least one full month).
5. Not getting the results you wanted? Get back to the list and find an alternative.
As we said above, each platform on this list has a different agenda in terms of helping music creators.
To make our list easier to read, it's divided into three main sectors:
Hosting, Promotion and monetization.
Hosting:
Just like Soundcloud and YouTube. You upload your music and you get likes / reposts / shares from community members.
What are they good for: production tips, improving your music, getting feedback on pre-released tracks, collaborations.
Pros: Easy way to interact with other musicians and fans, a storage solution for your music, mostly free.
Cons: Time consuming, taking an active part is a key to success.
Clyp.it - Did you ever feel like you needed more inputs on your music before uploading them to Soundcloud/Bandcamp/Youtube?
clyp.it solves this problem, just upload a snippet of your in-work track and the clyp community will share loads of feedback - helping you transform raw material into hits.
Audiomack - Until recent times Audiomack was mostly known as a hip-hop oriented platform. But nowadays it has been gaining a cult following among producers and DJs of all genres. Audiomack is completely free, with unlimited storage, it offers all the known user interactions such as like / repost / comment and has an easy on the eye visual design.
Audiobaby - A growing artist community which offers great discovery tools such as mood based search. They offer a great selection of indie, pop and rock - for artists from these areas Audiobaby might be the best pick.
Jamendo - While Soundcloud faces financial difficulties, many platforms try to catch it's place as the main hub for music creators. Jamendo combines charts, free downloads and on demand streaming for fresh music in all genres, with a steadily growing user base Jamendo might be a great bet for the future.
Pro tip: Get your music to Reddit! despite not offering a storage solution, Reddit is a great place to interact with music creators and fans alike. read more here
Promotion:
Get your music in to blogs, playlists, radio play time and new fans.
What are they good for: getting your music to as many people as possible.
Pros: you can take a passive role, get experts help,
Cons: Costs money, you are not engaged with your new audience directly.
Hypeddit - With the promise of helping great artists get heard, Hypeddit is a unique tool that amplifies musicians online presence. From Marketing tools to automatic sound improvements - they are serious in the hype game!
Rising Hype - Do you have a super cool video for your new track? Rising Hype takes care of marketing and promoting your video, helping it to get featured in the right blogs and sites.
indiesound - with a community of 20K indie artists helping each other out, Indiesound is a super effective way to get a great reach for your music for free.
Reverbnation - From sync offers to label deals to festival slots Revernation got it all! Join their platform and discover new opportunities and a lot more fans for your music.
The Artist Union - With a promise of enlarging your fan base, the Artist Union helps upcoming musicians reach to a wider audience.
The go to feature that stands out is the “Powerscore”: just sync in your Soundcloud account and you’ll receive some cool analytics on how effective is your page.
Pro Tip: Submit your music to the "BBC Introducing" program, the lucky picks get played time in one of the most listened radio stations out there. Submit here
Monetization:
Royalties from digital Distribution deals (getting your music to spotify, apple music, etc) and music marketplaces.
What are they good for: Earning from your music, selling your music directly or collecting royalties from distribution deals.
Pros: Get paid from your music, easy to use and efficient.
Cons: Take commissions, cost money.
Beatstars - Despite focusing more on hip-hop / trap / beats, Beatstars is one of the best platforms for starting musicians; community is active, you can find nice collabs, get feedback on your music and even get paid from your music via licensing / direct sells.
Airbit - formerly known as My Flash Store Airbit is Beatstars fiercest competitor. The platform is also dedicated to beatmakers; giving them tools sell and lease their beats, both are very similar in features, different mostly in design.
Tunecore - With 150+ digital stores in its repertoire including Pandora, Tidal, Deezer, Google, CDbaby, Spotify and apple music together with on-platform promotion tools. Tunecore acts like your very own label helping you grow and earn as an artist.
Distrokid - get your music to all major streaming services, apple music, spotify and tidal for free.
Audio Jungle - Sell and lease your music for movies, clips and apps. Audio Jungle is a huge database of royalties free music where the composers of each track can sell their music directly. Unlike beatstars and Airbit there are no genre limitations.
Pro tip: Leasing and selling music can't work for digitally distributed tracks so make sure you do some research before making your decision.
All things playlists:
Playlists spots today are the blogposts of 5 years ago. Every one is trying to capture as many spots as possible. From official playlists from streaming giants like Spotify and apple music to indie playlists by small curators. Every spot takes your music closer to the ears of new potential fans.
What are they good for: unlocking new audiences, getting your music more attention and buzz, improving your music SERP (Search Engine Results page) spot.
Pros: High levels of engagement, instant monetization value, large potential audience reach.
Cons: Time consuming, pricey, hard to connect directly.
Playlist Push - Build a unique campaign to get your music to Spotify playlisters. They offer a unique set of tools to connect artists and playlist curators, from analytics to dynamic campaign management while focusing strictly on independent artists.
Indiemono - A simple submission platform to directly send your music to indiemono's curators roster. The playlist range heavily in follower numbers but unlike some services it's completely free. All you need to do is to follow the playlist you submit your music to.
Playlist Pump - With the ability to target a wide range of Spotify playlist curators and multiple promotion outlets, playlist pump can be an effective go to. Be sure you book a consultation.
humanhuman - Combining a unique discovery platform for new music with the ability to connect with avid playlist makers on Spotify. The company offers a promotion segment which let's you decide which curators you wish to reach out to with your music. Therefore, campaigns can be ultra accurate and cheap. you don't pay for a bundle but just for the curators you wanted.
Muga Tunes - Another platform that connects music discovery with the ability to send your tracks directly to playlisters. With a heavy playlists catalog they can provide great value to your upcoming music.
Tonight ends never - With over 500 Spotify & Soundcloud playlists in check. Tonight ends never allows you to submit your music for 30$. If you want your track to reach their full roster the price would go up 60$.
Now, after you know what are the best platforms for your music, go ahead and start uploading your tracks to the ones that fit you most.
Remember, Success as an artists takes a lot of hard work and none of the platforms above are magic solutions - work hard, make good choices and you will enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Mysphera connects new music with micro influencers to help your music get the attention it deserves. Learn more here
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