Music Promotion Essentials for Record Labels

Record labels remain one of the most important elements in the music industry. This is basically a support system that helps artists get on track, release new music, realize their marketing strategies, and perform at the highest level. It's not just a promotion machine—record labels search for talents by sending scouts to live performances, listening to demos, and taking information from insiders to understand who are new promising artists in the industry. With complex assistance from record labels, musicians develop personal brands, going far more than Spotify or SoundCloud. 

The main advantage of record labels since their development in the 20th century is the number of tools they have to find, promote, and push talents, helping them become top musicians. The one thing that interests us today is how record labels promote their artists. 

Today, beginners who just entered the music industry prefer an alternative method of digital promotion. They cooperate with verified music services without additional help from labels, using paid organic promotion. With Artist Push, you can get complex packages with streams, likes, and saves from real users. Your tracks will be shown to listeners interested in the music you create. Moreover, some of those who streamed your music will follow you, increasing your audience. There are lots of talks about paid promotion for music platforms and social media like TikTok, but what about record labels? How do they organize their marketing campaigns and get on top of music marketing? In our article, we will get these questions answered and show how record labels work today.

Have a look at the promotion methods of the most popular record labels. As you can see, they mostly focus on social media and organize campaigns using different platforms.

Social Media Platforms: Main Instrument for Record Labels

You don't have to study rocket science to understand the essentials of promotion in today's digital landscape. 20 years ago, musicians had to make announcements on TV and radio and organize press releases; today, everything is much easier. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok allow professionals to organize a proper record label marketing strategy. Each record label is a huge company divided into multiple departments:

• Merchandise department.
• A&R (Artists and Repertoire) Department is responsible for scouting and searching for new talents.
• The marketing department is responsible for developing marketing strategies and music promotion.

At this point, let's take a closer look at the A&R department. Besides attending live performances, specialists from this section actively search for talents on social media and digital music platforms. They search for talents who have their own value to help them reach their full potential and get to the top of the game. In our article related to the record label topic, we revealed some cases of record labels changing musicians' careers.

Interscope Records, one of the most influential record labels, actively uses Instagram to showcase artists' latest releases. 

Still, using a single platform for promotion is not effective. If you own a record label and you need to promote your artists to get them to the top, it's essential to use a complex approach. Whether you do music videos, announce new tracks with trademark images and concept arts, or use other techniques with visual elements, you have to do it on multiple platforms. Most labels use combined promotion methods.

Paid Advertising on Social Media: Effective Promotion Method

Considering the fact that the amount of music content constantly grows on social media, it's essential to stay on top and keep pushing your posts all the time. Paid promotion is an effective method that helps large companies and independent artists stay on top and share the latest music releases without fear of being unrecognized. With paid ads, your posts get a lot more engagement and views than default posts. 

As an independent musician, you can also use Instagram and other platforms to promote new tracks. With social Instagram promotion that includes likes, comments, and organic followers, you receive a powerful boost that makes your tracks reach your target audience.

How Do Record Labels Amplify Their Music Marketing?

Whether it's about a major label or a small promotion agency, they will always have their own tone of voice. Simply filling all the gaps with the music-related content won't be enough. Labels are responsible for promoting other artists by innovating their own tone of voice to effectively communicate with the audience. One of the most common tactics is storytelling, where creators use visual content to present the latest releases or showcase new artists in the music business.

Here's how Universal Music Group promotes the latest music releases from the artists they push. At first, it seems like there's nothing special about such posts. Still, they contain all the needed information, including a link to the original music video and the artist's profile. 

Social media promotion remains one of the most effective methods for most major labels. Whether it's a collaboration with an influencer, a playlist preview, or a regular promotion campaign, Instagram and TikTok will be top platforms to work with. Even though music blogs are good options for promotion and better recognition, social media allows creators to implement more strategies to promote artists and their content.

Alternative Music Promotion Without Record Labels?

Record labels keep making an impact in the world of music, and artists find alternative methods to push their content. Besides using free methods like social media promotion, email marketing, and others, they also interact with paid music services to receive organic engagement and increase the number of listeners. For example, if an artist releases music on Spotify, the best option is to get a Starter Mix package. With it, you receive plays and likes for organic growth and can targetly boost a specific track. It will make the difference at the beginning of your path, so when the independent labels spot you, you'll already have some solid numbers in your stats.