How to Promote Music on Apple Music Effectively in 2023
With a staggering 72 million subscribers, Apple Music stands as the second-largest platform for streaming and music promotion after Spotify. Whether you’re an emerging artist just starting your musical journey or already making waves in the industry, Apple Music should play a pivotal role in your music promotion strategy.
What’s even more enticing is that Apple Music is tailor-made for music promotion, offering a plethora of promotional tools to artists who opt to release their music on this platform.
However, it’s essential to understand that merely getting your music on Apple Music is just the beginning; your subsequent actions will determine your visibility and success.
How to Promote Music on Apple Music Effectively
To effectively promote your music on Apple Music, it’s essential to first distinguish between Apple Music and its counterpart, iTunes. While iTunes allows listeners to purchase and download individual songs or albums, Apple Music operates as a subscription-based service where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited listening.
While you can still sell your music on iTunes, focusing your music promotion efforts on Apple Music can yield significant benefits. Here’s how:
1. Claim Your Apple Music for Artists Profile
Claiming or verifying your Apple Music for Artists profile is a pivotal and straightforward step to kickstart your Apple Music promotion strategy. If you’re new to Apple Music for Artists, follow these steps to claim your profile.
2. Create a Track Preview Tweet
A valuable promotional tool on Apple Music is the ability to craft a track preview tweet. This feature enables you to share a Twitter audio card that showcases a 30-second preview of your song, complete with cover art and a link.
This encourages your existing fans and Twitter users to transition seamlessly from Twitter to Apple Music to listen to the full song. It’s an effective way to boost social buzz and music sharing.
(Note: This feature is exclusively available for songs, not albums or playlists.)
3. Design Your Own Badges & Icons
Apple Music provides badges and icons in 42 languages to help global listeners recognize you and your music. These badges feature branded images representing your music or product, complete with text displaying its name.
Icons include imagery from your product, featuring music notes and color schemes. Both badges and icons serve as identifiable links to your songs or albums on Apple Music, ideal for integration into your marketing communications across various platforms.
4. Create an Embedded Player
An embedded player empowers Apple Music users to provide listeners with a preview of their music anywhere on the internet.
This means that even non-Apple Music subscribers can play a 30-second clip of your song, view album previews, or explore playlists, all without leaving your website. For Apple Music subscribers, the player allows them to listen to full tracks without navigating away from your site.
5. Generate Links to Your Music
Streamline the process of directing listeners to your songs, albums, or playlists by generating links that automatically open Apple Music on any mobile device or digital platform. Additionally, you can create shortened links for distribution via email marketing and social media.
6. Build a Following on the Platform
Initiate your Apple Music journey by seeking support from family, friends, and existing fans. Sync your social media profiles with your Apple Music profile to guide different audiences and traffic directly to your Apple Music presence. Extend your support to fellow musicians on the platform, fostering a sense of community.
Engage with their content, provide compliments, and consider giving them shoutouts on your social media, building a network of mutual promotion.
7. Upload Music Consistently
Consistently releasing new music, songs, and albums on Apple Music increases your visibility and engagement. It prevents your fans from forgetting about you and keeps your music in their streaming rotation. However, prioritize quality over quantity; releasing substandard content to stay relevant can harm your reputation.
8. Get Playlisted
Similar to Spotify, securing a spot on Apple Music playlists is a potent music promotion strategy for emerging artists. Unlike Spotify, Apple Music’s public playlists are curated by its in-house editorial team, making direct playlist submissions challenging.
However, you can enhance your chances of playlist inclusion by verifying your profile, growing your following on and off Apple Music, and collaborating with a well-connected music distributor.
Embracing these Apple Music promotion tips will help you effectively navigate the platform and elevate your music career in 2023.
