5 ways to get more streams

1. Use Social Media to grow a devoted fan base

Every successful artist in the modern streaming industry, whether it be Drake or Kayne, have utilized their social media accounts to grow their following. Building a relationship with your own fans through social media is key to help create lasting success and foster a devoted fan base. If you haven’t already, establish a presence on the major social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Then, use your accounts to inform your fans about any upcoming shows and music that you’ll be releasing. Remember that fans don’t want to be seen as just a follower on your Instagram, but rather as a part of growing career. To do this engage with your fans through polls, dms, and also by commenting on their photos too. After you have built a strong and devoted fan base, post links to your streams and playlists, and encourage your fans to share your music to their friends.

2. Use numerous different streaming services

When starting off, you need to have your music on every available streaming service so you can attract as many listeners as possible. By putting your music on smaller and less known streaming services you also have the potential to become one of the most well known artists on the whole streaming service. This tactic worked incredibly well for XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God who, after putting their music on SoundCloud, became the face of brand itself and amassed a huge following from the promotion of the company. The more places listeners can find you, the more opportunities there will be for your music to be found, and the better opportunities you will have to gain more fans.

3. Know the power of the playlist

With the popularization of streaming services, playlists have become essential for any up-and-coming artists. For example, Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” Playlist can get, in one day, anywhere from a few million listeners to as many as 20.5 million listeners. While getting on the “Today’s Top Hits” Playlist is a relatively hard goal for a new artist, the idea of catching onto as many popular playlists as possible is still applicable to every up-and-coming artist. Before reaching out to some of the most popular user created playlists you should first get verified on Spotify and other services. After doing this, ask your distributor to pitch your songs to the “New Music Friday” playlist and any other relevant playlists in your country. By actively engaging with other playlist owners you will be able to get your music into the ears of as many people as possible and by doing this you could eventually attract the attention of Spotify’s in-house curators behind their biggest playlists like Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits”.

4. Reach out to Music writers, bloggers, and influencers

After you are up on a few steaming platforms and playlists, you need to start driving traffic to your music. One of the best ways of doing this is by reaching out to music writers and bloggers in your specific genre (you can reach out to us via our contact page). An article that features an embedded link to your songs or albums will only help your streams continue to grow and also could attract the attention of those so highly coveted playlist curators.

5. Ask your fans and friends to spread the word

One thing that many artists don’t value high enough is the power of word-of-mouth advertising. Not only is word-of-mouth advertising free, but it also one of the powerful forms of getting your music out there. By encouraging your fans to make playlists and share your songs with others, you can obtain increased streams and sales. If you have a web page (or on your Instagram), offer easily accessible links to your music to help your fans get the word out.