How to get your music listened to for free.

We say it enough around here, and you’re probably sick of the sound of it, but here at Aux we want to pull down the walls of the music industry; making a career in music a viable option for anyone. One of the most frustrating barriers that new musicians experience is not having enough money to get the set up that they need to even start creating music. Even after you've invested in your gear and creative methods there are still plenty more avenues to pump your funds into in the hope of advancing your musical endeavours.

In an ideal world you’d just be knocking out tune after tune, watching your listenership expand and counting the cheques roll in. Sadly, building an audience requires your music being listened to by some pretty key figures in the industry, along with getting it to the average listener, and that pathway can sometimes be costly. We’re here to give you a handful of recommendations that might just get you the attention you need without opening your wallet, purse or tiny coin pouch.

Before you start…

There’s a couple of things to consider in advance of sending out emails to every single human you’ve ever met. Don’t worry though - these are all free too!

EPK

Now, this might sound like it’s a bit too corporate for a burgeoning indie musician but it really isn’t. An EPK, Electronic Press Kit, is merely a digital representation of your brand as a creator and performer. Generally it will include the following:

• a bio that tells your story as well as describing your sound
• photos that represent you best
• a sample of your music
• a video of you performing live or a music video
• some reviews or positive press you’ve received
• Any awards you’ve won or been nominated for
• Any other achievements like playing at 'x' venue
• Links to social media and website
• Essential contact information

With a fully fledged out EPK you are armed with a one-stop-shop for any potential promoter, label, agency or collaborator to get to know who you are and why you’re so great. Make sure to get all of the important information across but don’t be afraid to convey a good sense of your character in whatever way you think is appropriate. While just creating an EPK obviously won’t get your music listened to, it will be a vital addition to your arsenal when approaching any of the targets that I mention in the rest of this article.

If nothing else a word document or PDF will do the job for an EPK. Further down the line a PR company might be able to help make it look pretty in a dedicated format. If you want to make the extra effort yourself though you could use platforms like ReverbNation, Bandzoogle,  Adobe Spark or Sonicbids. All platforms differ in their subscription models but for the most part, you can make an EPK for free.

Branding

Another preliminary step to take before you think about reaching out to any institution or individual is ensuring that you are putting out the best version of your product, within financial constraints, as possible. Your outward facing brand and persona as a band, producer or solo artist is absolutely essential in today's visuals-led industry. What I mean by that is making sure that you put some thought into how you come across on social media, your artwork and general tone. All of those can be as clinical, as abstract or off-putting as you want but just try and be consistent across the board. Try thinking about design influences, colour schemes, font and imagery for your brand - every little helps when it comes to people taking you seriously as an artist.

Make your music available!

You’re going to want to make sure that your music is uploaded to your platform or platforms of choice before taking the necessary steps to get listened to. While that sounds fairly obvious, all of the steps in this article will go so much smoother if you can just point to a play button somewhere as opposed to making the recipient download a track or put a CD in a player. The process for getting your music on the major streaming platforms can sometimes be fairly long winded so you make sure you do this well in advance of any sort of promotional campaign.

Like I mentioned above, you’re going to want to make sure that you have a profile, complete with bio and any imagery, set up on the platform. If you can tell your unique story at every step of the process it will only help bolster your appeal. Every time I discover an act on Spotify I read their bio to further cement my opinion on them - it doesn’t make much sense because I already like the music but the extra context just helps, okay? Worst case scenario just get your music uploaded to Aux.app and then you can share that link * winky face *.

Let’s get started…

Okay now you’ve got everything prepared we can start getting you noticed. Sometimes doing all of this might and not getting instant results can seem a bit soul crushing or fruitless but just stick with it and you'll start making small gains. Let's GO.

Submit your music to music bloggers

Who better to get listen to your music than someone who writes about music purely out of the love of music. Bloggers are a great place to start due to the ease of approaching them and the mutual benefits of doing so. While you might want to go straight to the huge blog sites with hundreds of thousands of impressions you might want to consider just going for an up and coming blog that is more likely to pay attention to you. Of course there’s no harm in going for both though.

Music blogs will often have a page or link for submissions and if not will at least have various ways in which you can get in touch with them. Take a look at what music they’ve written about or reviewed and see if they might like what you have to offer. Follow them on social media and try to form a relationship after they’ve listened to your stuff. If you can create a bond with a writer early on their journey then you might just have a fairly influential fan for life.

Here are some handy lists of music blogs to get you started:

Top 90 UK Music Blogs and Websites from Feedspot:

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_music_blogs/

44 of the Best Music Blogs in 2021 from Audiohype:
https://audiohype.io/resources/best-music-blogs/

London Music Blogs and Magazine You’ll Love from Pink Wafer: https://pinkwafer.club/2019/09/22/london-music-blogs/

Contact music journalists

Music journalists, hired by specific sites or publications, are essentially professional bloggers writing about industry news, trends and new releases. They'll often also be tasked with finidng the biggest upcoming acts that might be slipping under the radar. While it’s more unlikely for you to simply email or tweet at an NME, Pitchfork or Rolling Stone journalist and have them write a piece about your music, there is value in reaching out to some journalists. It’s especially worth sending your EPK or a press release to any local journalists you might be aware of. As with most of the tips here it’s always best to start small. Even if you don’t get the mad publicity that you dreamt of from a local publication or reviewer, it’s still productive to get quotes from official sources to add to your promotional material.

Publications will often have a page devoted to listing their contributors. If you’re lucky they will have their contact information listed on the site, if not try tracking them down on social media and dip your toe into their DMs. Arm yourself with your EPK, or some form of it, and set aside some time to hunt down some journos!

Social Media

This one goes without saying. I’m sure I don’t really need to tell you to get yourself set up on social media channels but it really is pretty essential. What I will say is try not to spread yourself too thin - unless you have the time and organisation to put equal effort into every single platform it might just be best to focus on one or two. Each platform has its own benefits and limitations but most importantly they all have different audiences. Depending on the type of music you’re putting out and your ideal target audience it might be worth thinking about which social media channel might be best to focus on.

Not only is social media an opportunity for you to upload music, videos, posters, merch and teasers, it’s also a forum for communication with your existing and potential fanbase. Use social media to reach out to those that you want to hear your music, use hashtags in the hope that it will be discovered organically and form relationships with other like-minded musicians.  When people discover your profile you need to have done everything in your power to make them want to follow you. That means keeping your posting varied with pictures, videos, GIFs and written content, posting as regularly as you can, engaging with followers by asking questions and making it clear that you are a likeable personality. It's also worth keeping your goals in mind - do you want people to listen to your music, buy tickets to your shows or watch your new video?

Make a lyric video.

Can’t afford to make a music video, don’t have any live footage or you just straight up don’t have a camera? Lyrics videos are now standard practice for musicians wanting to get their music on video or any visual platforms. This video will allow you to upload a track to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok without having to break the bank. Now I’m fully aware that Ed Sheeran and Adele will often have elaborate, high budget lyric videos but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be doing one.

In case you don’t know what I’m banging on about here’s a fairly simple, but effective, lyric video by Dua Lipa.

Dua Lipa - Levitating (Official Lyrics Video)

All it takes is finding some imagery that you like for the background, typing out all of your lyrics and getting hold of some free video software to make the video on. Here are a couple of free video editing software programs:

VideoPad: https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html

Shotcut: https://www.shotcut.org

Apple iMovie: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/imovie/id377298193

If you want to trial something out with the intention of paying for something of more quality down the road then plenty of software with more features have free trial periods. Take a look at Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Elements or  Final Cut Pro X.

YouTuber Edward Smith has a handy video explaining how you can make a free lyric video here:

How to Make a LYRIC VIDEO (For Beginners) | Make Your Own FREE Lyric Videos! (VideoPad Edition)

Equally if you’re an artist who doesn’t have vocals in your music it’s still worth taking the same approach but just with some great visuals to go with your music.

Start local

This one’s more of an attitude to adopt more than an actual method. You shouldn’t be too concerned with instantly approaching the biggest names in the industry; whether that’s in journalism, labels, influencers or radio. Instead try shrinking the radius of your outreach down to a more local area. Draw a 20 mile circle around where you live on google maps and make that area your initial zone of contact.

Find local open mics, events and festivals that might be interested in having you play live. Track down any local promoters that might be able to help you get those gigs. Email or call local radio stations that will have you on to play live. Contact local publications that might write a review of your new EP or interview you about it. Join online groups or forums dedicated to music in your area.

It might feel disheartening to feature in places with a smaller exposure but you just need to see every new opportunity you get as a way of steadily notching up new listeners to your music. You should see every new listener as a success story; word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Newsletter

Here’s a straightforward one that can make a huge difference in getting your music heard. An email newsletter can be such a great tool for alerting your subscribers to new music, videos, announcements or anything you need to say. The only caveat is that you obviously need to get people to sign up for it first - but that’s easy! Make sure to slap the link to your newsletter sign up page in as many places as possible - your Instagram bio, on your EPK,  in a Twitter post, on your website, in the description of a YouTube Lyrics Video.

There are plenty of email marketing tools out there today but many of them are sadly paid. Here’s a list of some that are either totally free to use or have a free trial:

Sender: https://www.sender.net

Sendinblue: https://www.sendinblue.com/pricing/

Sendpulse: https://sendpulse.com

Benchmark: https://www.benchmarkemail.com/pricing/

Or simply collect emails in a spreadsheet and email people directly using the BCC field (Gmail lets you email up to 500 people a day).

Join the Aux community!

You thought I’d go this whole article without mentioning our own platform? Here at Aux we’re building a toolkit that will be essential for musicians at any stage of their journey. On top of that though we’re building a community of creators and music service providers.  Other musicians will be able to discover your music, allowing you the opportunity to collaborate with them. You’ll also be able to find promoters, labels, journalists, bloggers, management or publicists that might be able to help you get your music out there - all by delving into our incredible feature - ‘The Guide’. We're launching fully in November to subscribe using field the below to get access to the guide before anyone else.

There are of course many ways to pay for publicity and marketing but I hope this article might help any of you that can’t commit funds to that aspect of your career just yet. I wish it could be as easy as just making a banging tune but with so many avenues for music discovery these days it just takes a little bit of work. With a combination of these methods, you might find your modest army of loyal listeners start to increase in size.