JOHN GOLD

MU SI C
PRO M O TI O N
MUSIC PROMOTION

SE C R T S
SECRETS
E
HOW TO PICK THE BEST MUSIC
P R O M O T I O N F O R YO U R T R AC K
T O G E T G UA R A N T E E D B U Z Z
F O R YO U R M U S I C
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 Abou t JOHN GOLD

Hi, I am John Gold. I am the CEO and founder of

Hypeddit.com, a leading global music promotion and
fan acquisition platform for independent music artists.

But this is not where things started for me...

20 years ago, my music career took off like a rocket. A few years into
making music I had signed record label deals ranging from majors like
Warner Music to underground cult labels like Dos Or Die. My music was
selling like hot cakes!

But when Napster's rise 'broke' the old music business model, it call came
tumbling down... My music career died a sudden death. I felt completely
lost and abandoned. I was 100% musician - and 0% music marketer or
music entrepreneur. I didn't even know how to get fans myself. And that
just didn't work anymore in the NEW music industry.

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But I didn't let that stop me. I decided to do it all over - and become a
better and smarter music artist this time around. I taught myself how to
promote music online, how to reach and get real fans like a rockstar, and
how to make a living as a music artist online. I even built technology to
help with it.

All of this has changed my life and the lives of the artists I got to work with.
With family and kids at home, I had to stop touring. But with my coaching
and tools, I have helped hundreds of thousands of independent music
artists reach and get millions of fans for their music. Some of them went on
to sign major record label deals, others stepped onto the stages of the
trendiest clubs or biggest concerts and festivals around the world.

I am super passionate about what I do: helping independent artists like

you grow a bigger and better fanbase around their music and succeed in
the NEW online music industry.

I hope you enjoy this book and look forward to maybe seeing you in some
of my other train programs that will help you become a smarter and more
successful musician.

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IN TRO
You worked so hard for days or weeks: composing, editing, mixing and
mastering your new track. Now your release date is finally here!

Your track is going public and your promo campaign is running full steam…
but ouch! Plays, streams, downloads or purchases of your track don’t seem
to go anywhere near where you want them to be.

“What is going on?” is the question you’re asking yourself. “Why is my

promo not working?”

I frequently get this question from fellow music artists looking for some
help. So, I decided to write this guide for all artists looking to turn around
their promo campaigns and to get the most out of them.

Here are the most common mistakes you may run into if your promo
campaign doesn’t deliver on its expectations:

01 You didn’t define a goal or objective for your promo campaign

02 You didn’t set up a clear call-to-action for fans on your track

03 You picked promotion channels that don’t actually support your goal
(if you had one)
04 You didn’t set realistic expectations

What does all of this mean? Let me explain so that

your next promo campaign can be a bigger
success for your music and your profile as an artist.

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 Step #1

Define Goals and Objecti ves

for Your Campaign

This is not as straightforward as it sounds. Your

initial reaction might be that your goal is to get
your music heard of course. That sounds great
at first. But what does that actually mean?

Do you want to maximize the number of ears that listen to your track –
even if most of them would never engage with your music?

Or do you want to maximize the play or view count on your SoundCloud

track, YouTube video, etc. to give the impression of huge popularity – no
matter if you actually get any downloads or purchases?

Or do you want to maximize downloads or purchases – even if your play

and view counts hardly move?

Or do you want your name and logo to show up everywhere across the
web – even if your music is not actually getting played?

The point is:

There are many different types of objectives and goals for a promo
campaign.

Here are a few examples:

01 Maximize listenership

02 Maximize play or view stats

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03 Maximize download or purchase conversions (if you using a download
gate, this could also mean you maximize follower growth, reposts,
comments and likes)

04 Maximize visual impressions or brand awareness

05 Maximize ticket sales for a show or gig

06 Maximize merchandise sales

All of these are perfectly good goals. Which goal (or goals) you go for is
totally up to you and may depend on your personal preference or where
you are in your music career.

Here are a few examples:

If you are an up-and-coming artist you might be most focused on building

a bigger and better fan base around your music. Your campaign goal
could then be to maximize downloads through a download gate to
maximize follower growth.

If you already have a huge fan audience and even cultivated superfans,
you might be most focused on music, merchandise or ticket sales.

If you participated in a remix contest and the winning remix is partially

determined by plays or view stats, then you might pick those as your main
campaign goal.

Bottom line:

Defining your campaign goal is an invaluable step in picking the right

promo channels and tools that can actually deliver on your expectations
(more on that below). You can of course set multiple goals for your
campaign. This can help you decide which promotion channels to
combine for your campaign.

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 Tip

When you set your goals and objectives for the promotion of your
latest release, write it down. It’s easy to think of goals in your head
and confirm that you have them there.

But when you force yourself to write them down, then you’re
committing. And that’s a great starting point.

Use this page below for notes to write down the track you’re
planning to promote, and pick your main goal(s) for your
promotion campaign.

I gave you six examples of perfectly valid goals above. Feel free to
come up with additional goals if they are important to you.

Don’t overthink it. It’s not about having lots of goals. It’s really
about having just one or two that really matter to you, and then
going for them.

Notes:

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Step #2

Properly set up
Your Call-to-
Action
This step is incredibly important if your
campaign goal is to maximize download or
purchase conversions.

The concept is really simple: If you want your listeners or fans to take a
specific action – such as downloading or purchasing your track – make it
as quick and easy as possible for them to do so.

A good call-to-action is a short and obvious link or button that takes a fan
directly to the desired action.

The buy-link on a SoundCloud track – if set up correctly – is a great

example of a call-to-action. It can take a fan to a download gate or music
store with one click to get your track.

On YouTube, end screens, annotations or card overlays on your video are

great for a call-to-action.

If you are not in YouTube’s partner program (required to put an external

link over your video without running an ad), then you could put the call to
action into the first line of your video’s description so it shows up above the
fold.

Whichever way you do it, you want the call-to-action to be immediately

visible, obvious to understand (e.g., “Download here:”), and clickable.

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You can’t expect fans to spend their valuable time Google-searching or
looking around for a download or purchase or additional streaming
options for your track. If you don’t tell them right on your track or video,
then you are most likely going to lose them.

So make sure you set up your call-to-action and links correctly.

Obvious and well-performing setups include linking from the buy-link on

your SoundCloud track to your download gate or a music store. Or if you
are promoting a preview of the track on SoundCloud to grow your Spotify
listenership, then link the buy-link on your SoundCloud track to the full-
length stream of your track on Spotify.

There are lots of options. It’s just important that the call-to-action directly
supports the campaign goal you defined before.

Checklis t

If you aren’t sure that you linked all instances of your track online to the
desired action you want fans to take - for example buy the track, or
download it through a download gate to grow your fan base - then you
can use this checklist for a quick overview of the most common link
placements.

Buy-link on your SoundCloud track Instagram profile page link

SoundCloud profile page Recent Facebook posts

YouTube video description Recent Twitter posts

YouTube end screen Your home page (on your artist

website)
YouTube annotation
Your email footer
YouTube card overlay

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Step #3

Pick the best promo channels

and tools
You defined your campaign goal and
your call to action is set up. Now it’s time
to pick the best promo channels and
tools to deliver on your goal.

But how? There are so many options!

You could run ads on Facebook, YouTube or Google AdWords... You could
get radio promotion (for AM/FM or online radio)... or focus on SoundCloud
reposts... You could promote your track on music blogs... or places like
Hypeddit’s Top 100 Charts (shameless plug! ;)...

How can you possibly decide what helps you the most with
accomplishing your goals and objectives?

This is where it gets exciting and where we’re diving into how to pick the
best music promotion for your track.

Here is how I approach it. It’s a mix of common sense and experimentation
that leads to the best promotion results.

At a fundamental level, music promotion is about getting your music in

front of music fans. Music is all about listening of course.

That means at a minimum, your promotion channel needs to deliver

people that (a) want to listen to music and (b) can listen to your music –
that means they need to have a high probability of active speakers or
headphones on with volume turned up.

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It sounds pretty simple but it’s actually not the case for every promo
channel. Just consider most ad formats on Google, Facebook or
Instagram. It’s mostly about visuals, not audio.

But even if you focus on channels that can deliver audio promotion, not all
music listening is equal!

Consider when, where and how people listen to music.

You might be listening to music right now as you read this sentence. You
might be listening to music when you drive your car. You might be listening
to music at work – or when you work out at the gym. And you are definitely
listening to music when you check out the latest Beatport releases,
Hypeddit chart breakers or Spotify’s Release Radar.

Although lots of people listen to music nearly all day, there are important
differences related to when and where they listen to music: It’s their focus
on the music and their level of engagement.

This is key when you consider what music channels best support your
campaign goals and objectives:

01 How likely are music fans in this channel to actually listen to your
music?
02 How likely are music fans in this channel to engage with your music
(e.g., buy, download or stream your song)?

Let me give you a few examples:

Radio promotion is great to reach a huuuuge number of listeners. That

sounds pretty exciting. Within minutes, your track could be heard by
thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people!

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But most radio listening takes place as a secondary, background activity.
People listen to the radio while driving their car, while being at work, while
at the gym, or while doing some other primary activity.

If you radio-promote your new track as a relatively unknown artist and

your goal is to get as many downloads as possible, how likely do you think
it is that someone listening to your track while driving their car will pull over
to the side of the road, pick up their phone, find a way to look up your track
online and then download it?

It’s not going to happen!

But most radio listening takes place as a secondary, background activity.

Radio is great to repeatedly reach a large audience of listeners to build
awareness for an artist, song or sound - but not to expect immediate
conversion. The listener engagement level is very low.

Now view this in contrast to a placement of a promoted track on a

transaction-focused website (i.e., focused on buying/selling music) such
as Hypeddit’s Top 100 Charts or some other charts or stores that offer
placement of promoted tracks.

Using this channel, you reach listeners that are already in front of their
computer or at their mobile device, actively looking for new downloads.

These listeners are genre-targeted, highly engaged, guaranteed to have

audio on, and will most likely download any track they like.

So even though you may not reach as many actual listeners as you would
through a broad radio campaign, your conversion rate to downloads will
be a lot higher. You are dealing with a smaller but extremely engaged,
genre-targeted audience.

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Then you have huge global ad platforms such as Google AdWords,
Facebook or YouTube. When promoting your music on these platforms, I
always recommend that you first consider which ad formats are most
likely to reach actual listeners with either headphones on or volume up on
a decent set of speakers (after all, your new techno banger might not
sound at all impressive when previewed on the tiny speakers of an iPhone).

YouTube is always a great option. For the most part, you can assume that
an ad served on YouTube reaches actual listeners since most viewers
consume YouTube videos with sound on.

That may not be the same case for ads that show up in a Facebook
stream. Facebook visitors may either not have their volume up at all or
they may be listening to music from another application.

So just because you can reach millions of people via Facebook who would
have an easy time clicking through to your track to download it, does not
mean that you automatically get a fair shot at reaching actual listeners.

Luckily, there are tricks inside Facebook’s ad manager that let you target
users with the highest probability of having the time and focus to check
out your promoted music video. One of those tricks commonly used is to
target devices connected to Wifi only as this often times mean that
someone is at home rather than running around at work for example.

Most of this is pretty obvious if you just analyze

your own listening habits. Ask yourself when and
where you engage with music.

But to further realize how fragmented media

consumption is, check out some recent US-based.
You can find it if you go to Google and search: How
Do ‘Average Americans’ Actually Consume Media?

As general guidance, here are some music

promotion goals and objectives with media
channels that may line up pretty well:
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 Goal Promotion Channels
Maximize listenership § Radio promotion

§ SoundCloud reposts
Maximize play or view
§ Spotify playlists
stats
§ Youtube ads

§ Promote on transactional sites where listeners

are already looking for new music to buy and
Maximize download or download
purchase conversions § Your own email list
§ Facebook ads optimized for conversion -
requires support for Facebook pixels

§ Combine download gate with promotion

Maximize fanbase growth channels that maximize download or purchase
conversions (see above)

§ Facebook ads
Maximize brand awareness § Instagram ads
§ Google AdWords

§ Facebook ads (good for geo-targeting)

Maximize ticket sales for a
§ Instagram ads (good for geo-targeting)
show or gig
§ Your own email list

§ Facebook ads
Maximize merchandize
§ Instagram ads
sales
§ Your own email list

Once you have decided on one or more channels, it’s time to take action
and start experimenting.

Channels may offer different ad formats (e.g., Facebook display ads vs.
videos) and you may test different versions of ads/promotions.

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Picking a media channels that is most likely to support the promotional
goals for your music is not an automatic key to success, but it is an
important first step to help you make the most out of your time and promo
budget.

And that’s important. You don’t want to be a musician who just promoters
harder. You want to be a musician who promotes smarter.

Next:

Use this page below for notes to write down the track you’re planning to
promote as well as the main goal(s) for your promotion campaign.

Now add to this which promotion channel best matches your promotion
campaign goal.

I gave you examples of goals and promotion channels that might work well
with those goals above. Feel free to come up with additional channels that
come to your mind. Add them to the proper goal categories.

When this notes page is complete, you can be confident that you set a
goal for yourself and that your on your way to pick the best music
promotion channel to reach your goal.

Notes:

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 Step #4

Set realistic
expectations

It’s always great to dream big as a

music artist! And you should!

Well, that’s as long as you don’t expect to automatically book Ultra Music
Festival, Tomorrowland or Coachella from a $5 music promo service on
Fiverr :)

OK, that’s a bit over the top.

Dreams are very important and will make you go faster and further.

But it’s always good to educate yourself on a particular promotion channel

before investing your hard earned money. That way you can support your
investment decision with some indication of what to expect.

Here are a few tips on setting your expectations so that you can make
smart decisions about your promotion budget.

Platforms such as Facebook or Google AdWords show you estimated

results as you set up your ads. Other platforms don’t display this
information but you may get it if you contact their customer support. Let
them tell you what typical results look like. It never hurts to ask.

If you go for SoundCloud reposts on a particular channel, just check out

that channel’s tracks reposted more than five days ago. Scroll through 20
to 30 of these recently reposted tracks and look for the ones reposted by
this channel that have the lowest number of plays. Those are likely tracks
that got only promoted through this channel and didn’t get any other
promotion.

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This can be a good indication of the reach to fans available through this
channel. This is important since experience has shown that the follower
count of a channel alone is not a good indicator of the actual reach, which
is more of a function of the number of engaged followers.

If you would be happy getting the same number of plays as the tracks with
the lowest play count you found on this channel, then go ahead. If not, then
just consider alternatives.

And with any channel you decide to invest your hard-earned money in, it’s
always good to start with their smallest possible campaign size. If they
offer promotion for different budgets, pick the cheapest one.

Dip your toes, see how it goes. If you like the results you can always scale
up. This way you limit the risk of blowing your budget on something that
does not give you the results you want.

Important:

As you research or ask for the results you can expect from different
channels, beware of promoters who promise you precise results (e.g., you
will get 5,000 plays and 100 reposts in 24 hours).

This is a warning sign that this channel may be using bots or other fake
techniques to deliver promised results.

Here is why:

Music is very objective. Few people can

reliably predict the actual results of a
promotional campaign. And that’s OK. After
all, most of it depends on how much fans
love your track. It’s about the music.

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 A hit song that everyone who hears it wants to have right away
is obviously going to get better results from a promotion
campaign than a track fans are not that excited about.

Try to be open minded and accept different results. I know this is hard for
us musicians. We know the sweat and blood we poured into our music,
and we want each and every track from us to he a hit

But real promotion to real human beings always delivers organic results
that vary.

That said, a good promoter should always be able to promise you a

specified campaign scope (e.g., “you’re going to get one repost”, or “a
thousand ad impressions”, or” a hundred radio plays”, etc.).

It’s just near impossible to predict how this promotion scope converts to
downloads, purchases or other goals you’re tracking. Accept this. The key
asset in any music promo campaign is art: your music.

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 Summary

Time to sum it all up to help you make your next promo campaign a
bigger success for your music and artist profile.

Let’s recap:

Start your next promo campaign by defining your goals and objectives
upfront. This helps set your expectations and pick the best possible
promotion channels.

Before you kick off your promotion, make sure your call-to-action is set up
correctly to help you maximize conversions. This is especially important if
your campaign goals include any downloads, purchases or follower growth
(anything transactional).

Don’t just blindly pick promotion channels and tools for your campaign and
hope for the best.

Instead, be smart. Apply common sense. Find ways to reach actual

listeners that are most likely to perform your desired actions (e.g.,
download, purchase, follow, share, etc.).

If you are starting out and are unsure about what to expect from a
particular channel or tool, start with a small budget. This limits your risk
and gives you more budget to experiment with variations of your promo
tactics.

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Analyze results and identify what works best. Then invest more into those
winning channels and tools.

And now it’s time to get started.

If you haven’t done so yet, go through the notes pages and checklists in
this book. And then pick the best music promotion for your track to get
your music heard!

I can’t wait to see you break through with your music!

Please share your story and feedback. Would love to hear how you got
your music heard with tips and tricks in this book. Just email me at
[email protected]

Cheers,

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Notes:

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2
 JOHN GOLD

Ha v e Y o u
e n c e d thi s ?
E x p e r i
You worked so hard for days or weeks: composing, editing, mixing
and mastering your new track. Now your release date is finally here!

Your track is going public and your promo campaign is running full
steam… but ouch! Plays, streams, downloads or purchases of your
track don’t seem to go anywhere near where you want them to be.

“What is going on?” is the question you’re asking yourself. “Why is my

promo not working?”
John Gold frequently gets this question from music artists looking
for help. He is an accomplished music artist and the founder of
Hypeddit.com, one of the largest music promotion and fan
acquisition platforms for musicians in the world.

So, John decided to write this guide for all music artists looking to
turn around their promo campaigns and get the most out of them
by working smarter and not harder.

Music Promo Secrets helps independent music

artists identify more effective ways to promote
their music for more exposure to real fans.

© Hypeddit LLC