Musicians can use the following 10 tools to promote their music.

It can be expensive to promote music online. There are more ways to encourage music than ever before, and they’re all free. Here are the best tools to help you stand out this year.

1. Spotify for Artists

Spotify for Artists may seem like an obvious recommendation, but many artists fail to take advantage of its full potential. You can use various features, such as uploading Canva graphics, measuring listener engagement, and customising your Spotify profile with photos and a bio that highlights recent releases and influences.

Spotify also offers a nice package of data analysis and the ability to sell merchandise, add tour dates, or even add them yourself.

Sign up for Spotify for Artists and claim your artist profile. Then, verify your music.

2. SubmitHub

SubmitHub, first and foremost, is a tool to send your music to curators (Spotify listicles, Hype Machine bloggers or Influencers). It is a service that’s transparent and vetted.

SubmitHub is always adding new features that will help artists in their digital careers. The top features are:

SubmitHub links: A totally free landing page creator that is easy to use, lightning fast, and completely customisable. It has analytics, custom domains and Meta API integration. It’s great for music, merchandise, social media ads and LinkedIn bios.

Playlist checker offers a great analysis for Spotify playlists. It’s also a great way to see if a Spotify playlist is skewed towards bots or payola, which can be detrimental to you as an artist.

SubmitHub Market is similar in concept to Fiverr but with better quality control. It offers music services such as album artwork, mastering, and more.

What is my genre? A free AI-driven music genre identifier.

3. Reddit

Promoting music on Reddit is a powerful social media tool.

Engaging authentically with communities that are directly or indirectly related to your music (country music, cowboy hats), you can gain new followers, collaborators, feedback, and useful advice. Reddit is a great place to network and promote your music. Be active and don’t limit yourself just to sharing it.

4. Canva

Canva allows artists to create album covers, social media graphics, and short videos without having to be design experts. It is free, but users can upgrade for more features.

It’s easier to use than professional tools such as Photoshop, but it is still very effective at creating visually appealing visuals. Ditto allows you to upload music directly into Canva.

5. CapCut

CapCut, an easy-to-use video editor, allows you to create professional TikToks and music videos. It also lets you make lyric videos. It is similar to Canva in that it’s free, but you can upgrade if you want more advanced features.

CapCut’s app works well on desktop and mobile, so you can make changes on the go.

If you are creating content for advertising, always use video. A moving image will catch the attention much more than a static one. If you have only a single picture (e.g. add your cover art to CapCut and apply simple animation effects. (Noise, such as a WHOOSH noise, can be effective.) You now have a video to use for your Meta ads.

6. Musixmatch

Musixmatch, a web service, allows you to upload your lyrics and sync them to the music. This simple but crucial step will allow you to give your fans an opportunity to engage more deeply with your songs.

Spotify uses Musixmatch to add lyrics to its platform. Find out more about how to upload your lyrics to streaming platforms.

7. Disco

Disco.ac, one of our favourite music management tools, is a great tool. Imagine Dropbox for music. Disco allows you to upload and store music, making it easy to collaborate, manage your collection, and share your songs. It’s worth it to have peace of mind knowing that your music will be backed up and organised.

8. TikTok

It’s time you started using short-form videos. You can still use short-form videos, even if you are a more reserved artist. There are many other ways for someone who doesn’t want to dance in front of the camera on their phone.

Sharing vertical videos, lyric videos, or footage from gigs can help you reach tens or hundreds of fans for free.

CapCut and TikTok are affiliated, so it’s easy to upload anything you make in the video editor app to your TikTok profile.

9. Meta Ads/Business Manager

Any music marketing expert will recommend creating Instagram and Facebook ads. These ads usually promote your new release or your Spotify “This Is!” playlist or remind people about successful past releases.

Test different images/videos. By using clever targeting and ad placement, you can attract more relevant viewers who will be more engaged with your project. Ads are a great way to promote your project.

10. Loomly

This is a less popular social media scheduling tool, but it’s worth mentioning for those who need to generate ideas, plan and automate their posts across multiple platforms.

It is not expensive and has a very user-friendly interface. Loomly can help you save time and provide analytics and consistency across multiple social media platforms.

P.S. Buffer is a free alternative to scheduling tools that allows you to post content to up to three platforms.

These are the tools we recommend you check out right now. The usefulness of these tools will be determined by the amount and effectiveness with which you use them. It’s not necessary to do everything at once. It’s more of a marathon than a race.

You’ll grow your audience with patience and the right tools. Each big success begins with small, deliberate actions.