14 Ways To Promote Music In Nigeria In 2024.

Music promotion is the bedrock of success for every musician, whether professional or upcoming and in this article, I am going to reveal to you the 14 ways to promote your music in Nigeria.

Yes! I mean in 2024 because 2023 is almost over, and if you start now to play your cards right; then you will be reckoned among the next big musical acts in Nigeria come 2024.

As an upcoming artiste, promoting your music should be your major target.

But most upcoming artists make the mistake of thinking that merely posting their music on social platforms, without even blogging then on music blogs; will help them get an effective result from their musical promotion.

And these kinds immediately meet with frustration, when they realize that people are not paying any attention to them.

Thus, I am going to try as much as possible to show you the 14 ways to promote your music in Nigeria in 2024.

14 ways to promote your music in Nigeria In 2024.

Below are the 14 ways to promote music in Nigeria in 20024:

Make good music
Use social media to promote your music.
Promote your music on music blogs.
Collaborate with notable artists.
Give out at least 2 songs for free downloads.
Build an email list and send campaigns.
Pre-save campaigns on digital stores.
Use playlists to promote your music.
Build a strong team.
Get press coverage on blogs and media houses.
Shoot a music video.
Use your niche to target the right audience.
Perform live.
Use the radio and TV stations.

1. Make good music.

The worst thing that will happen to you as an upcoming musician is making the kind of music that will turn people off.

There are 2 sides to the art of music making, and they are 1. Your presentation and 2. Quality of your recorded track.

Your musical presentation: Forget about originality in music, which means trying to create your own style; instead find artists who are already on top in your genre and study their presentation. And even if you want to be original, you can recreate something out of their presentation.
Quality of your recorded tracks: Good enough there are online music applications artists can use to record their songs in this digital age, but don’t think it’s good enough, because no online music app will have you get a good quality of your song. Be aware of the fact that most people are going to download your music and play it back on sound systems, and if your song is made of low quality, then your music career is going to end before it even begins.

So before you think about promoting your music, ensure your first step begins with making good music.

Find an artiste in your genre who is very successful, and most especially has been on top for a longer time.

Look for that thing that is keeping him relevant, adopt it; and if you want to be original recreate or rebrand it and come up with a style that is hot.

While breaking out with the style, play it first with your family members and close friends and keep track of their reactions.

If they like it then you are good to go, and if they don’t, then find out from them what the problem is; and work it out.

Also, make sure you set aside a little capital and invest in recording your song in a good studio; that will give you the best quality record production.

2. Use social media to promote your music.

Social media platforms are the best places for artists to promote their music in 2022.

This is because social platforms are free and easy to use, but these easy and free characteristics pose a lot of problems to upcoming musicians when it comes to promoting music.

The first problem is that most of these platforms do not have features for upcoming musicians to upload their songs directly, especially audio tracks.

Even YouTube which seems to be the only social platform that allows both audio and video uploads is hard to yield positive results for upcoming musicians.

This is because social platforms have an online robot known as an algorithm; which ensures that only relevant content that people engage with the most yield positive results online.

So to get a positive result out of your music promotion on social media; make sure you first of all build and grow a very strong presence on social media by way of your followers.

Because the more people that follow you on social platforms will help you get effective results out of your music promotion there.

The biggest problem of social media when it comes to music promotion is that social media hates links. Because it usually involves moving people away to another platform.

And of course, it links you are going to use in promoting your songs on social media; whether you upload them on free or paid music blogs.

Thus, your target on social platforms should be to build a strong following first; before you start promoting your music on them.

3. Promote your music on music blogs.

The reason you should promote your music on music blogs is that they already have dedicated followers; that is those who already have music as their interest.

Unlike social media which has people who pursue different interests as users; people who visit music blogs are those who already like music.

And so it will be possible for them to consume your music at their disposal.

Although there are several free music blogs, for example, Audiomack; I would only recommend you promote your music on paid music blogs because their owners will know how and where traffic is coming to their site, and place your music there to attract listeners.

4. Feature notable artists.

Featuring notable artists is one great way to blow into the music industry.

This is because superstar artists already have a strong following, and when you make music with them people will not be afraid to listen to that music.

I always make it known in most of my music industry advice articles that people are afraid to listen to upcoming artists because they are always afraid that their music is of low quality.

Even though it is expensive to feature notable artists; if you can set aside a little budget you will be able to target a notable artiste who charges an affordable fee.

5. Give out at least 2 songs for free downloads.

This digital era has made it possible for upcoming artists to distribute and sell their music online.

But don’t try to promote music you distribute to digital stores, because not too many people here in Nigeria are using streaming platforms.

6. Build an email lists and send campaigns.

Using email campaigns to promote music usually sounds old-school to independent artists.

In fact, a good number of them think that email campaign is long dead and gone.

But I wish they know what great success so many independent artists, and even record labels are achieving with it.

To however build an email list you need to set aside a budget to get a domain name and hosting to enable you to build a website or blog, where you can throw up a subscription form and collect emails from those who are interested in your music.

This then will give you access to emails where you will be sending updates, usually called campaigns; to people who are predominantly going to engage with your music.

The email list will help you inform people about your new releases, upcoming shows or concerts as well as tours.

7. Pre-save campaigns on digital stores.

Every online streaming platform, also known as a digital store; offers its users the opportunity to tell people beforehand about their music releases.

And this process is called pre-save campaigns.

It’s one of the promotion tools that help independent artists to send the word out about their music release date with a feature of making people save the music to their profiles or playlists.

It helps even playlist curators to get the awareness of your music and once it’s out if it’s good; they will add them to their playlist.

This music promotion source is cost-effective but it’s worth the returns if you set aside a budget for it.

8. Use playlists to proomote your music.

Scores of people who are using music apps, whether free or paid; like to listen to music via the playlist.

This is because the playlist will avail them the opportunity of listening to multiple of their favorite tracks without interruptions.

And if your music gets on various playlists, you will increase your streaming because people will have no option but to listen as it plays along with their favorite songs

Playlists are compiled based on genres and moods, and you are likely to sound like one or more of the artists in your genre.

And that will make people easily fall in love with your music if it has the message they are looking for or rhythms they love so much.

There are basically 2 ways to promote your music via a playlist and they are:

Create your own playlist.
Reach out to curators to add your songs to their playlists.

1. Create your own playlist

To create your own playlist you have to look for songs in your genre that are making waves.

Add your own song from 3 to 5 in the list and compile the playlist.

Give a title that best fits your genre and will attract people to view and start listening.

For best results, share the playlist to your Instagram or Facebook account and run Ads to target audiences in a location that you know will listen to it.

2. Reach out to curators to add your music to their playlists.

You must be very careful when implementing this particular strategy because most of the playlists with millions of streams have bots streams. Especially that one that seems cheap enough.

Thus, you need to do a little research to look for genuine curators and contact them to know how much you are going to pay for your music to get on their playlist.

9. Build a strong team.

Even though you are an independent artist, don’t try to do everything on your own.

As a matter of fact, the word independent in relation to being an artist simply means that you are unsigned to any record label; that is supposed to oversee music promotion for you.

Therefore, you just have to take the bull by the horns and gather the people who will help to promote your music.

The team members could range from your friends, colleagues, family members, dedicated fans, and whoever will be excited to join in spreading the word about you and your music.

The team does not necessarily have to be in a physical form altogether. For that reason, you can go online and check your already followers’ database as well as dig into that of your similar artist.

Dig out the ones who are always active online and also have a good following.

Now spend the time to send these kinds of DM’s and tell them how you’d like them to be a member of your promo team.

You can use giveaways, or promise them shout-outs on your songs and content; in return for the favor.

Believe me, ten out of every fifty or hundred will be more than excited to take on this task.

Now the task is simply asking them to repost, reshare, or even upload your content on their social accounts.

10. Get press coverage on blogs and media houses.

Press coverage is simply the process where blogs or media outlets relate a story of what’s happening in the life of a celebrity.

Even before the advent of the internet, media houses like newspapers and magazines have always made it a duty of writing about celebrities.

In the modern era, all media houses have secured a place for themselves on the internet.

And for that reason, you need to utilize this unending opportunity to approach these media houses, as well as blogs to write something about yourself.

It might not necessarily be about your forthcoming or current release, as some people might overlook it.

But a great story of something spectacular that happened in your life, even if it’s a made-up story; can go a long way to drawing people who feel your story to your music.

So at the end of your story, you can draw a conclusion that the experience you had brought the inspiration to make the music that people can download below to listen to.

The most important thing I want you to note here is that you are the one who is going to write this press coverage.

After which you will send it to the blogs and media houses after you have negotiated on how they are going to help you publish it.

You can use an EPK (electronic press kit) to write your press coverage.

You can also use SubmitHub to send your press coverage to blogs.

11. Shoot a music video.

So many independent artists are brainwashed to believe that shooting a classic music video is way too expensive.

But I’ve known of so many artists who blew their music career with a low-budget music video.

Go to YouTube and you will see music videos that were shot with one costume in one location having millions of views.

It all depends on the concept you base your music video on. So long as it’s something that will easily grab people’s attention, they are going to watch it.

Do you even know that lots of artists have spent thousands of dollars to shoot music videos in great locations but the music video ends up not going anywhere?

As a rule of thumb, don’t go for popular music directors, as their fees are going to be relatively high. Instead find an upcoming music video director who knows what to do, and together develop a concept for a music video that will go places.

Your main target should be on using a camera that will give clean video footage, and color correction during the post-production process.

12. Use your niche to target the right audience.

Randomly promoting music is one of the reasons some independent artists are unable to promote their music.

For the life of me, why should you share your music with people you already know who will never get to listen to it.

By the way, I hope you are not making rap, rock, AfroBeats, and RnB music all at the same time. There sure has to be one of these niches you are into.

And for that reason, you need to use your niche to target the audience you want to listen to your music.

For instance, if you are to share your music with a Facebook group, you must look for the one that pertains to your niche.

If you are running Ads, your target interest should correspond with your niche.

You can even include this in your post caption. For example, if your niche is AfroBeats, you can caption your post “listen to this irresistible AfroBeats sound by….”

Add your name and title to it.

13. Perform live.

Performing live will give you the opportunity to physically interact with people and convert them into your fans.

Before now you must ensure your promo package is on board. It could be a CD jacket or simply a flyer that contains your artist’s name, the title of your song, a short musician bio, your contact details like phone number, email, etc, and links to where people can get your music online.

Make sure you have people in the house who will distribute this package to people immediately after you finish performing.

Someone might have felt you while on stage and thought of connecting afterward. This package will provide him with all the details to connect with you afterward.