LinkedIn can be a great platform for musicians and bands to promote their music and grow their fanbase. With over 722 million users worldwide, LinkedIn offers access to a huge professional network that can help musicians connect with potential fans, collaborators, venues, and industry contacts. However, LinkedIn also has strict rules around self-promotion and selling, so musicians need to be careful about how they share their music on the platform. In this article, we’ll look at what is and isn’t allowed on LinkedIn when it comes to music promotion, as well as tips for effectively using LinkedIn as a musician.
What are LinkedIn’s rules around self-promotion?
LinkedIn prohibits members from using their profile or posts primarily to promote or sell products or services, including musical content. This means you can’t use your profile solely as an advertising platform for your music. However, you can include relevant information about your musical background, accomplishments, and work in the appropriate profile sections. You can also occasionally share music-related updates and links in a way that provides value for your connections.
Some key LinkedIn rules around self-promotion to keep in mind:
- Don’t share links to music just to get clicks/listens. Provide relevant context and commentary.
- Status updates should not just be lyrics, quotes, or details about your songs/albums. Add professional insights.
- Don’t overly promote upcoming gigs, releases, etc. Share judiciously alongside other useful updates.
- Don’t spam connections with requests to listen to your music or follow your artist pages.
The main thing is to avoid appearing to use LinkedIn solely as a channel for free advertising. Keep your profile professional and share music-related updates sparingly between other insightful content.
What music promotion tactics are allowed?
While overt self-promotion is prohibited, there are still music marketing tactics musicians can use on LinkedIn without violating the platform’s rules:
Profile Optimization
Tailor your profile to highlight your musical background, credentials, accomplishments, and skills. For example, list bands you’ve performed with, albums released, awards/achievements, training, etc. Use this to establish credibility as a musician.
Industry Connections
Network and connect with other music professionals on LinkedIn, like bandmates, producers, composers, venues you’ve played at, etc. This can help you expand your reach and opportunities.
Thought Leadership
Share your expertise by posting advice, insights, tips, etc related to the music industry. For example, provide tips for getting gigs, promote music-related causes/events, review industry trends, etc. Position yourself as an expert.
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Give your connections an inside look at your creative process, daily work, experiences in the industry, etc. Let fans get to know you better through this kind of authentic content.
Contests/Giveaways
You can promote contests or giveaways through your LinkedIn posts as long as they adhere to LinkedIn’s promotions rules and provide value to your audience. Free song downloads, merchandise, tickets, etc can help attract new followers.
8 tips for effectively promoting your music on LinkedIn
Here are some best practices for musicians using LinkedIn to promote their music:
1. Complete your profile
Fill out all relevant sections of your profile thoroughly – this helps establish your background and qualifications in music for connections.
2. Use an appropriate profile photo
Have a professional headshot or photo of you performing – treat this as your business profile, not your social media selfie feed.
3. Share music updates sparingly
Only occasionally share links to your music – promote new releases/gigs, but focus mainly on value-adding content.
4. Post visual content
Engage your audience with photos, videos, graphics, and presentations related to your music.
5. Interact with your network
Comment on others’ posts, share articles, join groups, and engage beyond just promoting your own content.
6. Use hashtags strategically
Include relevant hashtags like #music, #musicians, #newmusic, etc to help people interested in music discover your updates.
7. Partner with brands/orgs
Look for sponsorship opportunities with brands or partnerships with music organizations to expand your reach.
8. Analyze your results
Use LinkedIn Analytics to see what types of posts, topics, and strategies resonate best with your target audience.
Examples of effective music promotion on LinkedIn
Here are some examples of musicians, bands, and music companies using LinkedIn effectively to promote their music:
Behind-the-Scenes Content
Sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the recording studio, tour bus, or latest video shoot gives fans an insider’s view of your artistic process.
Live Show Promotion
Promoting upcoming tour dates/locations allows you to market shows to your professional network in different cities.
Song Previews
Posting short song clip previews lets you generate excitement for an upcoming release among your connections.
Industry News Commentary
Commenting on recent music industry news and trends shows your expertise on the business side of music.
Band Merchandise
Sharing images of new t-shirt designs, vinyl pressings, or other band merch makes followers aware of what’s available to purchase.
Music Charts/Awards
Announcing chart placements, award wins, or nominations builds your credibility as an artist.
Album Artwork Reveals
Revealing your new album cover/artwork generates intrigue and helps spread the news of your upcoming release.
Contests/Giveaways
Running a contest to win free album downloads, merchandise, tickets, etc incentivizes new followers.
Common mistakes to avoid
While there are many effective strategies for promoting your music on LinkedIn, there are also some common mistakes to avoid:
- Sharing too many posts solely focused on your own music/events
- Aggressively pitching connections to buy music or attend shows
- Spamming music industry contacts with promotional outreach
- Only sharing lyrics, songs, or details without any professional value
- Automatically connecting with any music professionals without personalization
- Using misleading titles/graphics that appear promotional but don’t deliver value
- Promoting unofficial, outdated, or inaccurate information about your music
- Neglecting to follow up with connections made through LinkedIn
- Putting too much focus on vanity metrics like song plays instead of meaningful engagement
Avoiding these missteps and focusing on value-driven engagement over self-promotion will lead to a much better LinkedIn experience.
Key Takeaways
LinkedIn can be a powerful platform for musicians, but overt selling and self-promotion are prohibited. Focus on optimizing your professional profile, establishing industry connections, sharing valuable insights, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look, and running contests/giveaways instead. Make sure to share music-related updates sparingly between other useful content. Avoid common mistakes like aggressive self-promotion andvanity metrics. With the right strategy, LinkedIn can help grow your fanbase and advance your music career.
Conclusion
In summary, musicians can leverage LinkedIn effectively for music promotion, but need to do so strategically following the platform’s rules. Completing your professional profile, posting valuable content, sparingly sharing music links, interacting sincerely with your network, using relevant hashtags, partnering with brands, analyzing your results, and avoiding common mistakes will allow you to tap into LinkedIn’s professional community. While overt self-promotion is prohibited, tactics like behind-the-scenes content, tour promotion, song previews, contests, merchandise reveals, and industry commentary can all help attract new fans organically. With over 700 million users, LinkedIn offers huge potential for musicians to expand their reach – but it requires finding the right balance between promotion and professional engagement.
