Everyone listens to music from electronic devices or on the internet these days. So whether you are just starting out or still stuck in the CD era, it’s important to learn different ways to get your music heard online. The good news is, you don’t really need to be a web-savvy to do this.
Here are some tips to help you get started.
5 Ways to Get Your Music Heard Online
#1 – YouTube
YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google and it’s also a popular hub for music lovers. If you already have a Google Account, sign into YouTube and you’ll see the ‘Upload’ icon in your upper right corner.
It’s totally free to upload your music, but be sure to fill out the video information and adjust the settings to enable maximum exposure whenever someone searches for a music similar to your genre. While you can’t really sell your music on YouTube, you can use all the available tools to promote it online.
However, you can still make money on YouTube through the advertisements that are being placed on your videos by signing up for the YouTube Partner Program. This awesome platform has more than 1 billion viewers each month, so it’s definitely something you want to look into while building your music career.
#2 – SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a social platform that allows musicians to share their work with anyone online. It is purely a promotional platform for you to interact and discuss about your work with your fans. With a free account, you get 180 minutes of upload time. If you wish to upload more than that, you can choose between the Pro Plan ($6/month) or Pro Unlimited Plan ($15/month).
Unlike the random YouTube viewers, users who flock to SoundCloud are mostly avid music listeners so the chances of getting them to listen to your tracks are higher. It also provides deeper statistics such as showing where your listeners are coming from and indicating which webpages or apps that lead them to your music.
#3 – Google Play
The Google Play artist hub is another program that promotes your music directly to listeners on mobile devices. It helps create a store page that displays your biography, links and list of musics that people can buy from you. If you opt for the Google Play All Access streaming services, your musics will also be made available to online radios in participating countries.
Creating a new store page is very easy and it only costs $25. This is a one-time fee for unlimited albums. Whenever someone purchases your music, you could earn up to 70% in revenue sharing with Google.
#4 – Tune Core
TuneCore is a digital music distribution company that helps to promote your songs to more than 150 digital music partners such as iTunes, Amazon Music and Spotify.
For the first year, you can choose to distribute a single song for $9.99 or two or more songs for $29.99. On the following year, it would cost $49.99 to distribute a single album. Unlike Google, with TuneCore, you get to keep 100% of your sales revenue so that’s really exciting.
#5 – Tune Port
Tune Port (not related to Tune Core) is a software that enables you to build an audio store on your own website. It is fully automated, updated regularly and compatible with all mobile devices. You can install it for free, but you’ll need to set up a PayPal account in order to get paid.
All you need to do is upload your tracks, set your own selling price and embed the store code in your HTML editor of your website. Unlike Google, you get to keep 90% of your sales revenue whenever a transaction is made in the audio store. Although it doesn’t really link to any major digital music stores, it allows you to build your brand online and promote it creatively in the music industry.
At the front end, your audio store would look something like this;
The best publishing platform to use this awesome tool is WordPress. So, if you haven’t got one, simply head over to the SiteRubix platform to create your own WordPress website for free.
Don’t Just Be a Musician, Be a Music Entrepreneur
When you create your own music, you are actually producing a great product that people will want to buy. You have the potential to sell your own music. In other words, you are not just a song-maker; you are also a budding entrepreneur.
Having a business mentality will enable you to become more proactive in promoting your music and as I have demonstrated, there are so many ways that you can do this independently online. So, if you are interested to get started, visit my recommended training platform to learn how to create your own music business immediately.
Do you have any thoughts, suggestions or questions regarding this topic? Feel free to leave them in the comment area below and I shall get back to you.
Thank you very much for the heads up on helping potential entrepreneur to start an internet business in a niche. I am sure many of the young today are very into internet stuff and will find it easy to turn their musical talent into a money making business for themselves. Who knows – the next billionaire might be a 18 year old.
Hi there Fixitz,
With the convenience of technology these days, it’s certainly not impossible to be mighty rich at a very young age. Granted you have the talent and constantly taking action, the entire YouTube can be your platform without having to go through auditions or getting help from the music companies.
All you need is to create an online presence with a website and you are good to go.
This site has plenty of wonderful ideas.
It really gives direction to young people as to where to go when pursuing a music career. In the old days, it was road trips and corner bars. In today’s world, people turn to the web to learn who’s who. To have the focus like how you have laid it out will help many people become the next king and queen to fame.
Hi there Jameset,
Even in modern times, going on road trips and hanging out on corner bars can inspire a lot of young people to do things that they never thought of. I am one such example – left my job for a month, traveled down under and discovered that I can start an online business through blogging. Sometimes, you just have to break away from the comfort zone to know your true potential.
Wow Cathy, I used to play music 10-15 years ago and I was so impressed with having a recording studio on my computer. It’s incredible to see how far things have come with the music industry since I’ve lost touch with it.
It’s really an open playing field if you have an internet connection, a few bucks and a passion for your music.
Thanks for the eye opening article. You’ve clearly nailed down the best ways to get your music heard online. Now the only thing is to choose which platform.
Any thoughts on which is the best one?
Hi there Todd. Didn’t know that you have a music talent. Interesting 🙂
Well, in my opinion, the best platform to go to is YouTube and a WordPress website as they tend to cross-promote each other. If it’s too much for you to manage, start with YouTube first because it offers free hosting and they tend to have more music listeners there than anywhere else. Creating a music blog is certainly something to add later on for better reader’s engagement and for building your brand.
Excellent post on the 5 best ways to get your music heard online Cathy!
I have heard of YouTube and SoundCloud, but I have not heard of the other options but they sound like well worth looking into. I have definitely heard of a lot of Musicians uploading their music to YouTube to build up a fan base and take the leap from being a musician to musical entrepreneur.
Fame can be so fleeting and you really need to have a strong business head on your shoulders to make it a success long-term. Awesome post for any budding music entrepreneur out there!
Hi there John,
The music business is huge and learning how to distribute your marketing with various channels will certainly help to grow more targeted audience coming back to your website.
I do like your statement “Don’t Just Be a Musician, Be a Music Entrepreneur” and the quote from Justin Bieber’s manager. Lets face it, everybody loves music, especially free music, but musicians can’t afford to keep up the good work without making money. I like that the internet made it possible for people to start publishing without going through the hoops of finding a manager and an agency.
You make a good point there, Sue.
All these tools have certainly make music marketing easier without going through any agencies. With some basic gadgets and good sound recording, your music can be heard on YouTube by tomorrow. If you really work on it, you can build a fan base as large as any of the pop stars out there in a short period of time.
Nice techniques to be heard online. I am not into creating musics or posting medias online but I have to say I like your article and it gives helpful information. Although I know most of the resources, I find it helpful that you list them out. Each of these platforms offers different benefits and it’s interesting to see them come together.
Hi there Anh,
Yeah, you can actually merge all these tools together. Promote on YouTube or SoundCloud, lead viewers to your own music website and get them to buy from your audio store. It’s all about getting them to know you more and if they engage long enough on your site, then you have higher chances of selling your music online.
Yes, Cathy. I see a lot of cover artists on YouTube. Do you think it’s good to cover some songs first or just write your own?
Most of my favorite artists on YouTube like Boyce Avenue and Cathy Nguyen started out by covering some songs, which I think is totally cool. It gives the original song a good twist and also portrays the artist’s talent in varying degree. Giving them the opportunity to explore their talents is helpful when it comes to writing their own, I guess.
What a great article. I didn’t know that YouTube was the second largest search engine next to Google. It’s cool that you can upload your music for free! I also had no idea that you had so many tools on YouTube to help promote your music .
Thanks for the tip to use Sound Cloud. I think I’ll give this a try since this site is geared towards avid music fans. I like the idea that my tracks might be heard more often here.
But best of all, the idea of starting my own store on Google play really has me thinking! What a wonderful way to start making some money from my music. The idea of being a music entrepreneur instead of just being a musician could be the difference between making music as a hobby and turning your passion into a full time carreer!
Hi there Martin,
The good thing about using SoundCloud or creating a music store on your website is that you get more targeted audience; people who really like the genre of music that you create and not just through some random browsing on YouTube.
When you get following from that kind of audience, it’s easier to promote and sell your music to them while creating a brand of your own without too many competitions. I am glad you learned something new from this article, Martin.
Your topic 5 Best ways to Get your Music Heard Online is very inspiring. I strongly use Youtube for all my personal purposes. I haven’t visited other websites that you mentioned in the post. Youtube to my knowledge has dominated the music industry to the very maximum. This has lead to traffic explosion on Youtube.
Hi there Shiva,
No doubt, YouTube is the most popular platform out there, but it is also very competitive if you are relying solely on it as a music newbie. That’s the flip side of free video hosting service – everyone gets to use it. So listing your music in a less crowded platform using other techniques, especially through your own website, can actually increase the chances of them being heard online.
Hi Cathy,
Your post made me want to go out and start creating music so I could effectively share it with others. For now though I’ll have to be content with listening to music rather than creating it, since I really have no talent 🙂
I do very much love music, I wonder if I should create my own website that some how promotes it or something…. hmm
Welcome to my blog Vic,
You can absolutely do that kind of promotion through affiliate marketing. I believe there is a music and entertainment section in Amazon that offers tonnes of genre in this niche. If you are qualified to be an Amazon Associate, then I think you should take advantage of this money making opportunity given your passion in this field.
Let me know how it goes!
I do add music on occasion. Having different options for adding and downloading music will give me some variety and different looks. The top 3 I have used and still do. The other two I have really never explored until today.
Hi Ken,
I could see that YouTube and SoundCloud are some of the popular and more familiar platform that music people go to. Nevertheless, I think TunePort can be a great addition if you have a website so do give it a try.
Hi Cathy.
I think personally that YouTube is probably the best way to be seen online when you want your music to be heard. Some have started a singing career like this I think about Justin Bibber here (doesn’t matter that we like the guy or not; it just shows how powerful YouTube can be).
I heard about SoundCloud a little but I am not really familiar with it. As for the others, I never heard of them. It might be something good to explore further. TunePort seems like a good place to start.
Hi there Guy,
YouTube is definitely the go-to platform for most people who are planning to launch their music career. In fact, based on my opinion as a listener, I think some of the quality of singers are better than those who appear on TV.
Another reason why it is popular is because you can make money on YouTube from the advertisement that they place on the video. Some might not like the idea but I think advertisement are becoming more creative these days and they are better at delivering their message to the viewers. Plus, this advertisements are targeted so viewers will stay on to watch because it’s relevant to them.
Awesome post Cathy!
I have a few friends that are in the music industry and could definitely benefit from this post. A lot of musicians only rely on YouTube to get their name out there; but if they use these five ways, then there’s no way their music won’t be heard.
Hi there Diana,
There are plenty of ways to market yourself as a musician and I certainly don’t think that it should be limited to YouTube. If you check most of the high performing musicians on YouTube, they all have their own websites where they do a lot more self-promotion through blogging and social sharing. So I think creating your own music website is a necessary move.