The moment has arrived. You’ve finished your latest earth-shaking sonic creation and you’re ready to unleash it upon the mortal world. But recording the album is only half of the battle. Once your music is ready and you’ve hashed out a well-rounded release strategy (this is a whole beast of it’s own), the next step is putting your money where your Art is…
You can’t wait around for people to discover your band – not anymore. A strategic marketing plan allows you to place your music in front of the people most likely to be interested. It also gives you the chance to infuse important contextual elements into the project through the use of specific delivery channels, partnerships, and brand positioning in the current target markets. (That’s just a bunch of marketing BS for showing people Who you are, Where you fit into their map of the music scene, and Why they should care about you)
An effective marketing strategy not only takes time and thoughtful planning, but money. Let’s talk about how you can build an effective music marketing budget to promote your release.
How Much To Spend?
One of the most common questions artists have is, “How much should I spend on marketing my album?” Ultimately, it’s not about how big your budget is but how you prioritize it.
You can successfully promote your release on a limited music marketing budget. Just because you don’t have the resources of a major label artist doesn’t mean that your music marketing plan can’t be effective. The key is prioritizing your budget in a way that gets the most out of your investment. Beyond just the amount spent, it’s also important to have well thought-out and disruptive creative ideas driving the campaign.
How much you spend will depend on your specific goals and situation. Be realistic about what you can afford, but don’t be afraid to invest in yourself. I generally stick to the idea that with any piece of music or visual content (EP, music video, etc.) you should aim to invest AT LEAST 30 – 40% of the production cost on promoting it properly. For example, if you spend $2,000 on the creation of an official music video, then you should be willing to spend a minimum of $600 – 800 promoting it to warm and cold audiences.
If you’re worried about ROI, or “Return On Investment” (and if you’re new to the marketing and advertising world, you probably shouldn’t be btw) remember that music is an asset, and it can generate revenue in a myriad of ways for your brand throughout your lifetime. Don’t expect to drop your first release and turn a quick profit three months later. It takes time. Start slow and stay focused.
If you’re working with a label or distributor, a minimum marketing spend may be included in your contract. This is an important consideration for your band when entering into any deal. Review your contract and check with the label to confirm that they have a plan in place.
If you’re an independent artist, you can still create a music marketing plan and set an appropriate budget. There are plenty of ways to market yourself without breaking the bank.
Prioritize Your Marketing Budget
There are tons of different avenues for music promotion: radio, paid advertising, YouTube, social media, PR, touring, etc. Define your key marketing channels and the best way to reach your audience. Focus on a handful of channels, rather than spreading yourself too thin in an attempt to do everything and be everywhere.
For example, if your listeners are most active and engaged on your Instagram, create tactics for your album release specific to that platform. Paid social ads are highly effective, measurable, and you can accomplish a lot with a limited budget. You’re in control of how much you spend and performance analytics allow you to see what’s working and change it along the way.
Too many incredible songs fail because artists are hoping that the algorithm will do the work for them. Social media platforms are pay-to-play, meaning you have to invest something – either time or money – if you want your band to be discoverable.
After social media ads, YouTube ads are another cost-effective and powerful tool to promote your music release. At an average cost-per-click of $0.97 (depending on your industry), the cost of YouTube ads are relatively low compared to other forms of advertising. The channel’s targeting capabilities allows you to place your ads on channels or videos that have fans similar to yours. Over time, metrics will show how well the campaign is performing.
When marketing a music release, remember that what works for one artist won’t necessarily work for the next. Collect data to see what is working this time, then make adjustments for your next release.
Above all, NEVER underestimate the power and reach of a unique idea or angle. When it doubt, interrupt a pattern that people are probably tired of seeing. “Remarkable” means something is so impressive or different that it’s worth remarking about—don’t pour money down the drain by trying to overspend on a played out strategy. Make something remarkable and place it in an area that makes “remarking about it” easy for viewers.
No amount of money can turn a bad idea into a good one—just like it can’t turn a bad song into a hit. In the studio, start with getting the song right. When promoting a release, start with finding an authentic idea that generates a ton of excitement. If it’s clever, thought-provoking, or extremely infectious when you begin pitching it to people, that speaks volumes about you as an artist. Start a fire, then pour gasoline on it $$$.
With a tighter budget, you’ll also have to put in some sweat equity and rely on word-of-mouth and the support of people you know. Ask friends and family members to play and share your song. Host a release party at your local record shop. Organize a release show at a bar or venue. Reach out to radio DJs in the area to see if they’ll play one of your singles. Although it takes work, there are plenty of offline and DIY ways to promote your release. So don’t be afraid to get out there and just start figuring it the F*%# out. Make mistakes – they will lead you to better ideas and to a better understanding of how to craft campaigns that provide value for all parties involved (alas, the real secret of the dreaded industry buzz word “Networking”).
Expenses – Music Creation, Production & Marketing
Here are some expenses to take into account when building a music marketing budget.
- Music production costs (recording, mixing, mastering)
- Physical manufacturing (CDs / Vinyl)
- Digital distribution (i.e. DistroKid / TuneCore)
- Merch production / designs / fulfillment
- Typical profit margin ranges from 40-60% on average merch items.
- Merch companies will typically take a 25-30% cut for online fulfillment.
- Designs range from $100 – 500, depending on the complexity, number of colors, and the usage of the design.
- Renting rehearsal space
- Replacing or purchasing new equipment
- Travel expenses if you’re touring (food, gas, lodging)
- Photo shoots
- Music video production
- Printed promotional assets (posters, flyers, hiring a graphic designer)
- Hiring a publicist
- Tier 3: ~$250/month
- Tier 2: ~$500-1,000/month – 3-month minimum campaign
- Tier 1: ~$1,500 – 3,500+/month with 3-month minimum campaign)
- Designing a website
- ~$500-2,000 depending on the complexity of the site and amount of existing brand assets the developer has to work with.
- Email marketing services (Free – $50 a month depending on list size and additional features)
- Digital advertising campaign. You can test the waters on paid traffic for as little as $50, but anything less won’t really give the ad platform’s algorithm enough data to begin optimizing the delivery. I’d also suggest putting aside your first $50-100 of a campaign to run split testing on different pieces of content and multiple audience groups to gain some upfront insights into which of the following elements perform the best:
- Section of the song: Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Outro, etc.
- Visual Content: If you’ve cut up a full-length performance video, don’t just assume the chorus shot is the only option. Pull a range of different clips and let audience behavior be the judge. This will help you avoid your own creator bias.
- Headlines / Captions / Call-To-Action: You’d be surprised how much of a difference the right phasing or copy can improve an ad’s clickthrough rate. Get creative and play around with at least 3-5 options once you’ve isolated the best performing visual / audio clip.
Having tangible projections of these expenses will help you to realistically achieve your goals. It’s always better to over budget than underestimate costs and come up short. This is also where you’ll decide what you absolutely need versus what you can do without, which is essential to learning how to budget and manage your finances.
Project Your Income
As an artist, both expenses and your income will likely be inconsistent, especially when you’re just starting out. However, do your best to estimate how much income your band will bring in over the course of the next year to balance out your expenses. This will help you decide if you need to cut back on your budget or source from the outside. Factor in the following potential revenue streams:
- CD, vinyl, and digital sales
- Streaming revenue
- Publishing royalties
- Digital royalties
- Licensing
- Live shows
- Ticket sales
- Merch sales
- Other revenue such as crowdfunding, fan subscriptions, day jobs, etc.
Track Your Music Marketing Budget
One of the most important things you can do for your music career is to learn how to budget and manage your money. Create a spreadsheet that lists all of your expenses and income projections, as well as the actual outcomes. (This also makes doing your taxes a lot easier when tax season rolls around.) By tracking expenses and results, you’ll be able to monitor your rate of return and improve on your marketing and promotion efforts.
Example Music Marketing Budget
Let’s say you’re a relatively unknown band that just spent $6,000 to create a 5-song debut EP. What would a reasonable promotional budget look like, and how should you divide it? Let’s break it down:
Total Budget: $2,400 (40% of EP production budget.)
Social Media Ads: $1,000
That comes to roughly $300/song x 3 focus tracks. Test multiple video assets at $5-10/day for two days ($50 – $100). Then, pick the best performing content to use for the campaign. Plan to spend a minimum of $5/day ($300/month).
Of course, you don’t have to divide the ad spend evenly across the 3 songs. If one clearly connects better with listeners, it might be worth doubling down on that one in an attempt to push it into platforms like Spotify’s Discover or Recommendation Algorithms.
Likewise, you’ll want to consult a profession in order to begin learning how to recognize the signs of a fatiguing ad campaign and when to pull the plug. Certain metrics and viewer behaviors can indicate a wide range of issues with the ad’s performance due to factors like the creative content, audiences selection parameters, and more.
QUICK TIP: Specifically for Meta / Facebook’s Ad Center, keep an eye out for the “indicator light” they refer to as the Relevance Score of the ad you’re currently running. It’s rated on a scale of 1 -10 (10 being the Best), and takes into account a number of factors including your clickthrough rate and negative-positive feedback ratios. If you start seeing ads with a Relevance Score of “1”, kill them and start troubleshooting the issue. Additionally, if you are getting a CTR less than 1%, it’s highly probable that your targeting is off or your content just isn’t strong.
Paid Partnerships (Digital Micro-Influencer): $200
TikTok / Instagram / Youtube channels or personalities in your niche lifestyle genre. This is typically an account with 10-20K+ followers. Establishing these relationships can feel transactional at first. But it’s a solid investment if you’re able to turn these people into fans of the band over time—not to mention having their stamp of approval on the track in front of their existing community.
A couple hundred bucks upfront could yield some valuable feedback and visibility over a short period of time by hyper-targeting a specific community of followers. Which is something that can take a lot of money and experimentation to achieve with paid ads alone.
YouTube Ads: $0-200 (depending on the other categories)
On average, you can expect to pay roughly $0.10 – 0.30 cents for view on a typical YouTube ad. The cost will vary based on the target audience you’re trying to reach. If it’s a very lucrative demographic for advertisers, the “bidding” style of YouTube Ads means you’ll probably have to spend more to reach that desired viewer.
The cost will also depend on the ad format you select for a campaign. The most common type of YouTube ad for a music campaign focused on generating brand awareness for the band or a specific release is the “Skippable In-Stream Ad,” where the viewer can choose to skip forward after 5 seconds.
Remember, when it comes to spending money on a specific platform, the first thing to keep in mind is the journey you’re trying to take the target audience on. Taking a viewer “off-platform” is often more expensive in the long run. Ad platforms (Spotify, YouTube, Meta) optimize and favor ads that keep users on their platform for longer, instead of sending them away. Rather than asking them to switch gears to a completely different method of digesting information.
It’s also easier to keep a user in the ecosystem and online format that they are already comfortable with, rather than asking them to switch gears to a completely different method of digesting information. So in this case, if your band’s YouTube channel doesn’t have much for a new potential viewer to investigate, then you might want to work on building up that content narrative before you highly increase your spend on that platform.
PR: $0
Publicity is a long-term marketing activity. Rarely will new artists see a noticeable ROI on a publicity campaign in the form of streaming or show attendance. Unless you’ve figured out an EXTREMELY compelling narrative that accompanies the release and the band, a full-scale press campaign is something I’d hold off on until your budget can accommodate working with a Tier 1 agency, the cost of which will usually start at $1,000-1,500/month (3-month minimum). Instead, you can work to identify and engage with the individual and freelance music journalists that work for the larger and mid-tier outlets. Making a believer out of even a few of these well-spoken voices in your direct scene can again lead to interesting opportunities around future release.
Playlisting: $100
As most up-and-coming artists have probably already figured out, playlisting can be a powerful injection of momentum in any artist’s career. The trouble is, with roughly 60,000+ songs being uploaded to DSPs like Spotify every day, the competition is STEEP. Furthermore, it’s tough to find well-respected independent playlist curators that actually have a following capable of moving the streaming needle.
If you aren’t getting any love from the editorial playlist curators, there are a few places worth investigating with a small portion of your budget. SubmitHub, Groover, SongRocket and are some of the more recognizable names in the curator and outlet submission game. Most at least have some sort of guaranteed feedback reply in place, so even if you don’t land a spot on a playlist, you’ll still hopefully get a quick idea as to why your song was not selected.
BONUS TIP: NEVER underestimate honest and candid feedback. Sometimes the “No’s” are exactly what you need to hear in order to improve when it comes to your production quality or even songwriting. Don’t be afraid of them – you’re gonna need a think skin for all the haters coming your way when you’re visibility does start to scale. So start training NOW!
Services like PlaylistSupply are often worth the exploratory cost of $19/month. I’d categorize PlaylistSupply as a database that yields results in proportion to the time you are willing to spend with it. Time is the key. Make sure to spend a good amount of time researching and saving the more promising outlets and curators you find, as you have to do the outreach and relationship-building on your own.
PlaylistPush is also a big name in the game. I commend them for putting together a candid list of “Playlisting Red Flags” here. But remember that every company is out to position themselves as the savior of their field. This is a complex subject with many indicators that you’ll begin to spot over time. I’d advise you to do some deeper digging on any other playlisting service outside of these before investing a significant amount of funds.
Music Video / Content Production: $900+
Some artists may have skill sets that allow them to save on the content creation portion of their budget. However, just like the streaming success of your song is tied to its recording and production quality, so is the success of its visual promo elements. Low-res or poorly edited videos (unless stylistically intentional) will not perform well in the long-term. If you’re willing to invest in promoting a piece of content with paid traffic, you should take its creation just as seriously.
Build Your Audience
As a band just starting out, your main focus will be to identify and grow your warm audience. That’s why your primary spend will go to digital advertising and content creation.
As you process with each release, your marketing objectives will shift from awareness-based activities to nurturing the listeners who show a potential for deeper investment in your brand. Remember, the job doesn’t stop at getting someone to stream your release. The real art is finding ways to get them to trust you and appreciate your values and personality as an artist.
Building trust requires foundational efforts that set the stage for effectively retargeting and delivering repeated experiences to potential fans. The goal of early release campaigns is to connect with these audiences through your digital marketing promotions, and ultimately create a degree of curiosity that compels them to opt-in to your world. If you don’t show them they’ve made the right choice, they’ll leave just as quickly.
Marketing is an ongoing process, and your music marketing budget should be flexible enough to accommodate changing goals, priorities, and opportunities. Be willing to adjust your budget and marketing strategy as needed to stay ahead of the curve. And most of all, BE PATIENT. These efforts take time to work. A “super fan” isn’t built with just one song over night.
