How to Use Influencer Marketing for Music Promotions

Whether you’re a singer looking to promote a new track, an indie music label promoting a new band, or an entertainment company, you can use influencer marketing to connect with your audience or reach new listeners. But how? Promoting music differs from promoting a product in key ways. Here’s what you need to know about influencer marketing for music.

Nuances of influencer marketing for music

In influencer marketing for music, you need to make sure you understand the key components:

1. Identify your target audience and goals for music promotions

Who’s your ideal customer, listener or fan? If you’re trying to sell high-end instruments, for example, you’ll target a different audience than a K-pop band promoting a single. Rely on existing metrics to help you narrow and define your audience. Remember, the more specific you can get, the better. That’s because identifying the audience helps you trace the ideal influencer who reaches them.

Set a goal, and identify the metrics you’ll use to gauge success — whether that’s downloads, streams, purchases or merchandise sales. 

2. Find and vet influencers 

The ideal influencer for music promotion might not always be obvious. You might look for music influencers, like DJs or influencers who review tracks or share industry news, but you can expand your search to dance influencers or popular creators in your target audience. Sometimes, working with a creator with a super-specific niche but highly engaged audience is the answer.

Consider working with a handful of influencers with various niches and audience sizes at once to maximize your exposure.

Examples of influencers to work with

To begin your search for influencers, head to IZEA’s Marketplace. You can search for influencers, narrow your results with filters, review profiles, and even pay for content on the spot. 

For example, you can work with musician Auggie Velarde, singer Luisa, or guitarist Frank Saunders through IZEA today. Former NBA dancer Alexandra Murphy or family influencers like The Ball Family could also help you reach your target audience.

Here’s an example of a listing from a music influencer in our Marketplace:

3. Engage with fans

Wondering what kinds of influencer campaigns you should try to gain exposure? While you can certainly use any platform, TikTok is beneficial for music promotions. TikTok makes it easy for users to lift tracks they hear for their content, which creates an excellent opportunity for musicians. As Insider Intelligence reports, “TikTok has been instrumental in influencing music trends and launching artist careers, courtesy of its vast global user base.”

Influencer campaign ideas for TikTok

Want to promote your music on TikTok? Consider these ideas:

Duet challenge

Release a snippet of your song and ask influencers to post a duet on TikTok. By using the side-by-side video feature, fans can see both the influencer and the song’s creators sing the song. Here’s an example:

Then, influencers can ask others to do the same. Hopefully, you’ll get a chain reaction, where many followers share duets — with your hashtag — on TikTok. 

Dance Challenge

When you release a new track, ask dance influencers to come up with choreography for it and share it on social. Like duets, this campaign is meant to generate UGC or user-generated content. 

An influencer could take your track and create something like this that gives followers specific dance moves to learn.

Consider working with a few well-known dance influencers to light a spark and watch the idea spread.

Lip sync

Release a short piece of your track and ask people to lip-sync to it. Again, find an influencer to get things started, and then watch others do the same. In the lip sync video below, the creator changes outfits based on the words, which is another idea to incorporate into your campaign.

4. Measure your success

Once the campaigns are running, check the metrics you identified initially. For example, if your goal was to earn exposure, you’ll likely look at social interactions like likes, shares, and the number of times your hashtag is used. 

If your goal is to boost song purchases, you’ll track sales. 

Explore the results by influencers, too. Is your audience relating to specific influencers more than others? Make adjustments based on data. In music promotions that encourage downloads, providing influencers with unique Tracking Links will allow you to see which creators brought in the most traffic to your site and purchases of the music or product.

5. Ensure best practices for working with influencers to promote music

When you work with influencers to amplify exposure, there are best practices to follow. As you work with creators, you’ll likely create your list of best practices, but here are a few to keep in mind: 

• Most platforms won’t allow copyrighted music, so original tracks are best. 
• Rather than releasing an entire song, release a snippet ideal for social sharing.
• Consider working with several influencers at once for a more significant impact. 
• Contact influencers with an introductory email and discuss compensation before getting into campaign details or providing tracks.  
  • You can find influencer rates in our State of the Influencer Earnings report. 
• You can use sounds or tracks without words, too. 
• As UGC comes in, share it on your channel and leave comments.
• Measure your campaign to ensure you meet your goal.
• Consider working with the same influencers later; long-term relationships are common in influencer marketing. 
• IZEA partner solutions can help you create custom music for promotions.

Influencer marketing can help musicians, singers, bands, record labels, and music brands connect with their target audience. While promoting music is a bit different than selling a physical product, music plays a big role in content creation, which unlocks opportunities for partnerships between influencers and music creators. 

Influencers:

Looking to partner with industry-leading brands? Create your free profile today. 

Marketers:

The world’s biggest brands trust IZEA’s influencer marketing software and managed solutions. Find out which solution is right for you.