You have invested too much time, money, and creative effort into your new track, and it deserves to be celebrated globally.
It does not matter if you have 1000 Instagram followers or 300 followers. If you follow the steps in this guide, you will be able to reach out to your fans directly and sell them your cool customized tees for your upcoming projects.
The bitter truth is that it pays to have 1000 Spotify fans than 30,000 Instagram followers. Why? We explained why your Instagram followers are not your fans in a recent report. That report also exposed how social media companies are cheating you. Read now to know what’s at stake before proceeding with this mailing list guide.
More Spotify Followers; More First Week Sales
The Spotify algorithm promotes your music to people who resemble your immediate audience (Spotify followers). If you don’t have enough followers, the best way the algorithm can help you is to feature your track on an algorithmic Spotify playlist. Then, if your track gains traction via the playlist(s), the Spotify algorithm will push the song to personalized
playlists of your lookalike audience. Does the term ‘personalized Spotify playlists’ sound confusing? Don’t stress! We got you. Educate yourself on the various types of playlists available on Spotify.
As an upcoming artist, the chances that you would be added to Garnering many followers on Instagram will only get you miserly likes that won’t pay your bills. To make things worse, Instagram limits the percentage of followers who see your content, leaving you no other choice than to pay Mark Zuckerberg to reach your followers. Which do you prefer? One thousand engaged Spotify followers coupled with an opportunity to grow big on Spotify or 30000 unresponsive Instagram followers that won’t see your content let alone stream your music. Serious-minded musicians will choose the former.
If you are still reading this guide, it means you are very passionate about music. Congratulations! You have stumbled upon the success secrets of big indie artists and labels. In the next section, I will introduce you to the tools used by professional music marketers to sell merchandise and boost album sales. Without these tools, your first week’s sales would plummet badly.
What is a mailing list?
Big labels use various tools such as Facebook fan pages, playlists, and conventional promotion platforms like TV or billboard spaces but the ultimate music marketing tool is the mailing list.
A mailing list is simply a compilation of addresses employed by artists to reach their subscribers via mail. It allows artists to seek the user’s permission before showing up on a random Tuesday morning with a ‘new music’ newsletter.
How does a mailing list work?
The mailing list allows you to send newsletters to subscribers who have previously permitted you to send them emails. In addition, you can garner people’s emails via website pop-ups, social media, and manually from shows/gigs.
There are two types of mailing lists – the announcement list and the discussion list. A discussion list allows subscribers or external entities to post messages that would be visible to every member. In contrast, an announcement list enables the owner to send emails to the recipients’ inboxes.
Some low-range companies often purchase people’s emails to send them bulk emails. As an artist, you should not engage in such acts. Always seek permission before using people’s emails. Why mail someone who did not consent to get emails from you? It is counterproductive as the mail service provider will get ‘listwashed’.
an algorithmic or editorial playlist is slim. Likewise, the likelihood that the followers of machine-curated playlists would appreciate your type of music is smaller. So your best bet to blow up on Spotify is to nurture a couple of thousands of followers on your account and self-curated playlists. Then, BOOM – you can scale up from there.
How do I create a mailing list?
You don’t need to be skilled in coding or programming to create a mailing list. However, to efficiently operate an announcement list, you need to register with an email marketing service like MailChimp. Some services are free until you reach a specific number of subscribers, while others are paid. An email marketing service lets you send bulk messages at once, check your subscriber activity, know your subscribers’ location, and give you access to advanced reporting tools.
How to grow your Spotify followers using mailing lists?
Write killer content
Subscribers have done their part by signing up for your mailing list. It is your job to send them entertaining content consistently. If you are not a good writer, you may have to hire one on Upwork or Fiverr. Don’t let your inability to come up with creative posts push your subscribers to unsubscribe from your list.
Promote your personal playlist
Playlist curation gives you a reason to show up on your subscribers’ desktops more often. The fact is that you cannot release music every time, so you must find ways to stay relevant when you are not dropping music. Add your music and songs from other artists to the playlist. The more people listen to your playlist, the higher your stream count. Check here for more tips on how to promote your Spotify playlist.
Give your audience an incentive to follow you on Spotify
You can give away free merch, Instagram shoutouts, or tickets to your shows in a bid to get people to follow you on Spotify. You can get creative with giveaways and find ways to reward your subscribers for following you on Spotify.
Use relevant CTAs in your newsletters
Call to action (CTA) refers to the words or phrases added to an article to encourage the readers to take action. For example, use catchy phrases to save your songs before a release and follow you on Spotify. Remember: the algorithm pushes your song to your followers and the lookalikes.
Final Thoughts
At the top of the music pyramid, there are a few outliers. Why few? The unsavory truth is that there isn’t much space for everyone at the top (It is what it is). To get to the top, you must be willing to take a path less traveled. While others are crazy about social media, keep building your mailing list and secure your future as an artist.