How To Sell Music Online In South Africa

Playing shows and selling merch is all well and good, but you can’t make money from it if you don’t have an audience. That’s why understanding how to market your music is just as important as the ways you profit from it.

Let’s go over the essentials of marketing your music online.

1. Build a social media following

It’s important to make it easy for fans and venues to find you online. While streaming services are great for linking your music, a profile on Spotify isn’t enough to build an audience. This is why your social profile is so important.

If you’re just starting out, focus on growing your audience on social media. Then you can switch your focus to getting them out for shows.

There’s a lot to cover if you want to take a deep dive into social media marketing strategy, but in general, there are a couple of things to keep in mind as you’re building your profiles:

Focus on building your audience over driving ticket and merch sales
Keep your followers updated about new merch and live shows but, more importantly, keep them updated about you
Show off your talent by posting new songs or works in progress or performing via live stream
Engage with other musicians, brands, and bloggers in your scene by tagging them, commenting on their posts, and following their profiles
Make interacting with your fans a priority⁠—building personal connections with your audience will do more for brand awareness than anything else

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2. Submit your work to music blogs

Music blogs exist for all kinds of genres and are a great way to target a specific niche. They can also be local, which is additionally good for finding fans who will come to your shows.

Many music blogs allow open submissions, but keep in mind that any blog with open submissions needs to wade through a lot of bad ones. This means you need to stand out.

Choose the right blog. Music blogs can cater to specific genres, so make sure you’ve familiarized yourself with the blog and that your music is a good fit.
Follow the submission guidelines closely. Many blogs use automated systems that will filter out your submission if it doesn’t adhere to specifics.
Include contact details. The more work the blog has to do to find you the less likely they will be to follow up.

Have your electronic press kit ready. You may be asked to attach this in your initial submission or in follow-up correspondence, so have it ready.

There are lots of blogs that accept open submissions from unsigned artists, but we’ve put together a list of some of the more popular ones. Keep in mind that many music blogs are genre-specific, so not every blog on this list will be a good fit for your music.

3. Get on streaming playlists

Many streaming services offer playlists to users or algorithmic recommendations. Each service operates differently, so optimizing for specific streaming services may come with its own set of rules.

Since Apple Music and Spotify are the two most popular streaming services, they offer a higher degree of reach, so they’re the most important ones to optimize for.

How to get your music on Spotify playlists

Spotify has a suite of tools available to help artists optimize their profiles for the platform. Start by claiming your profile. From there, you’ll be eligible for Spotify’s algorithmic playlists.

While there’s no guarantee that you’ll show up in people’s feeds, over time, as more listeners subscribe and save your music, you’ll become more likely to be seen.

Spotify’s algorithm evaluates your music based on your profile activity and its users’ activity on your profile.

Release music often. Spotify values activity on your profile, so releasing music more frequently will increase your chances of appearing in playlists.
Create your own playlists and include your music. Spotify allows any user to create playlists that are available to any other user of the platform. The more user-created playlists you’re on, the more likely you’ll be to appear in automated playlists.
Ask friends to include your music on their playlists. This will also look good to Spotify’s algorithm.
Link to your music on Spotify from your website and social accounts. Links to songs from external sources are considered high value by Spotify’s algorithm.
Make good music. Easier said than done, but ultimately you won’t show up on people’s playlists if your music isn’t worth listening to.

4. Use visual content like music videos

Music videos are always a great promotional tool for music. There are plenty of ways to go about creating video content but, for musicians specifically, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

Start with a strong video idea. If you’re envisioning your band playing in an empty warehouse, it might help to restart the brainstorming process.
Prioritize uniqueness over professionalism. Your video needs to grab attention. Working with a full professional production team can get expensive quickly and doesn’t guarantee any social media views. A cheap but interesting music video is far more likely to go viral than an expensive boring one.

Start making money with your music

For musicians in the 2020s, it’s rare to collect revenue from a single source. Being able to fund your music career is about constructing a system of diverse revenue streams that are easily manageable so you can focus on what’s most important: making music.

Managing risk is all about how well you diversify. Dumping tons of money into your music career isn’t going to pay off if you don’t have enough revenue streams. But by understanding how you create those protective streams, you can focus on the most important thing: making kickass music.

Where to sell your music online

Your own website.

Online music stores.

Bandcamp.

Music download sites: iTunes, Google Play, Amazon.

Streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.

SoundCloud.

Phase 1: Engaging your fans.

Phase 2: Launch a crowdfunding campaign.