I am going to try a plethora of options to market my song, and I will break down my approach for each different type of promotion method.
All of these methods are the plan for after the release (9/29). Marketing before the release is only useful for artists who have earned loyal fans.
Influencers: I am going to pay for hip hop influencers to review my song. People typically review in private, or they share their opinions of songs via either a blog, or a youtube channel. Some of these influencers, depending on the package you buy will review for free, or will also charge a fee for their time. I will dabble with free influencers and pay to play influencers.
Amateur Spotify playlists: From my research, artists organically get more traction from playlists on Spotify compared to Apple Music. Spotify is a more amateur friendly way of getting traction. I have done research tracking amateur playlists, following their follower counts, how many plays they get a month, the type of artists featured. There are Spotify users who create playlists with the goal of developing a following, so in return artists can pay them for a spot on their playlist rotation. I am going to be writing targeted emails to the owners of these Spotify playlists to negotiate a price to get featured.
Professional Spotify playlists: Based on performance, and the algorithm, Spotify will automatically place a song on users' recommended playlists. This is the ultimate goal. The algorithm tracks how many people pre-save songs, how long on average a song is played, how often is a song skipped once it comes in rotation.
Self promotion: sticking out for myself! I will be creating a private snapchat story for only close friends to see the announcement of my musical hobby. This will launch the day of release.
Blog push: Although it may seem ancient, blogs are still a stable method to promote music in the hip-hop industry. I have researched over 150 contacts/ blogs where I will submit my song on the day of release. Timing is everything, I need to get the song to these blogs fast. Mant blogs will not accept submissions if the song has been out for a week, sometimes as few as 3 days. Blogs do this because their goal is to be on pulse with the absolute newest music.
Artist Community sites: There are websites that are only for musical artists, where as a community they can share eachother's music, for either collaborations, inspiration, or developing fans from other artists. I will be posting this song 3x (1x a week for 3 weeks) on the following sites: (Slaps.com, hyppedit.com. bandcamp, audiomack, and droptrack). These communities incentivize online activity through point systems based on engagement. Typically, you will get one point for every comment, or like you make on a song. Eventually, you can save up and use those points to purchase a premiere promoting spot on the community blog wall. It is a communication oriented currency, and the links that are played on the blog can be attached directly to Spotify and other monetizing platforms.
Hip-Hop Twitter: There is a community of people on twitter who only debate, argue, cry, and scream about hip hop. Although some of these people seem unstable, these could be potentially the most loyal group I am targeting. I will write tailored notes to 250 accounts via twitter, encouraging them to listen to my song on Spotify. The big accounts with 10k plus followings could provide opportunities to pay for promotion, but this is a tactic I will explore with my second song.
YouTube: I am going to build a YouTube channel and streamline listeners to the channel. The songs will have audio visualizers that will play on loop, and is a more engaging way to attract listeners on Youtube compared to a still image as the background to the audio. I will not be investing in any music videos yet. When I submit to the influencers listed above, I will direct them to the youtube channel. Youtube is a monetizing app, as opposed to soundlcoud, bandcamp etc. I will also have a welcoming video to the channel that briefly outlines the strategy I will write about on this website.
