Music Marketing Strategies For Rappers

This blog is aimed at helping you increase the number of visitors to your music. To help you learn and grow with the aid of my online marketing experience. This is my music marketing guide for rap artists.

To show you the essential tools and techniques. These tools and tips will help you get the best outcome from the promotion of your mixtape, album or single online.

The Essential Guide for Up and Coming Rap Artists Promoting Rap Music in 2024

The Corporatethief Beats originally started just as a hip hop beat selling website. The is set up by Me Daniel Hartnett Aka The Corporatethief Beats a beatmaker/music marketing blogger from Ireland.

My initial goal with my website was just to sell my rap beats to independent rap artists. Over time I started to learn a lot about music marketing, through basic trial and error.

Why Should You Listen To Our Music Marketing Advice?

I did study music production for 4 years at the Academy of Sound in Dublin, in that same time frame I studied Digital Marketing at Dublin Business School and I received a Diploma In Digital Marketing.

Some of my marketing articles articles have featured on music marketing blogs like DIY CD Baby, Hypebot, Music Think Tank,Rap Rehab, Music Industry How To and many more.

What Other People Have Said About Our Music Promotional Advice?

I don’t mention this to brag.!!!
I provide this information to prove to you that my music marketing strategies can help you promote your music. 

This blog is aimed at helping you increase the number of visitors to your music. To help with my online marketing experience, I will be teaching valuable skills that can be used by any artist looking for more exposure and fans alike!

I’ve spent years developing rap artists' campaigns in order make them successful - from how they should promote themselves on social media platforms or what kind of videos work best when posted onto YouTube so keep reading this guide because it'll show everything there neededta know about getting results within reach…

Useful Resources For Rap Artists

You're not just a rapper. You are an entrepreneur, and your success depends on how well you market yourself to the world! This blog is about helping YOU grow with my ESSENTIAL music marketing guide for rappers of all levels.

Mixtapes? Albums or Singles? It doesn't matter because these marketing tips will work no matter what genre we're talking about - rap included 😉

Essential Music Marketing Foundations

 But I fear that too many rappers abandon their own websites because social networking websites appear FREE.

You don’t own or control your Facebook Page. It belongs to Facebook.

You are just allowed to use your Facebook page. Myspace is always the example people use to prove that Social Networking Sites can lose their appeal.

Bluehost Premium Website Hosting

Take The How To Build An Musicians Website Video Course.

THE WEBSITE HOSTING COMPANY THAT I USE

With all the website training courses out here most of them recommend Bluehost.

The main reason is due to their easy of use and quick 1 click install. It’s cheap and easy to use and they have and excellent support team. I would always recommend Bluehost for anyone starting a new website today.

EMAIL MARKETING 101 FOR MUSICIANS 

SETTING UP YOUR FIRST EMAIL FAN NEWSLETTER

The second music marketing strategy, I urge rap artists to undertake is to start an email fan newsletter. Like what I mentioned above with setting up a website, many rappers don’t market their music with email anymore.

Here is the first video in my Email Marketing For Musicians Course.

"Again the perception is that social networking websites are for free
and I don’t need to pay for an email newsletter."

"Organic reach on the main social websites will cost you ten fold every single time."

Facebook will not give you any organic reach to links off Facebook’s site.So if you want to promote your video or Soundcloud link on Facebook you will need to boost that post every single time.

If you have an email list you only pay the monthly charge for your email provider, not for every time you need to contact them.

Email has a number of benefits I cover most of them here is this article Email Marketing For Musicians.

THE EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE I HAVE USED FOR OVER 10 YEARS

If I had one piece of advice for any artist starting out today I would strongly urge them to start an email list today.

You can start with Aweber today with a Free 30 Day Trial.

Making Money With Music

As a musician there will be limited income at the beginning of your career. You need to get to the first money milestone as fast as possible. 

Start a Crowdfunding Fan Funding Subscription Campaign. Fan funding websites are the best way to get you started. 

Most music marketing blogs will tell you that you should start a crowdfunding campaign with sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

This method has its rewards and its place in music promotion. The main negative is that it has an end point. Once the crowdfunding campaign has ended, that’s all folks.

Most musicians don’t want it to end.

 Crowdfunding campaigns aren’t easy to set up. They take a ton of work to get the ball rolling.

 The crowdfunding strategy is great if you just want to start an idea or fund an album.

The longevity of crowdfunding can last a couple of months at best.

• What are you supposed to do then ?
• What if you didn’t meet your monetary goal?
• What if you just don’t have a big enough following to undertake a crowdfunding campaign?

For the average musician these are pain points that will linger in their minds. Holding them back from looking to their fans to support their music careers.

Lucky enough their is better solution….

With a website like Patreon you can grow with your new fans. You can start with no following.

Then you can continue to reward loyal subscribers with your content.

Why Patreon the way it works is very similar to that of a crowdfunding campaign but there is no end point.

The fans that subscribe are here to fund your music for as long as they stay subscribed.

As long as you keep creating engaging content like video interviews, Youtube / Facebook Live sessions, Showcase demo recordings , live QA’s, your new fans will continue to support you.

Patreon does this in two monetary subscription methods.

Fans can either to subscribe for $5 or $10 or $20 amount per month to access your private subscribers only content.

 Or Fans can subscribe per video that you release on Patreon each month. So you release 4 videos a month and Fan X  subscribes at $5 per video you make $20 a month from Fan X.

Yes it can be difficult to get started….

 But you have to start somewhere and sometime. What makes Patreon so interesting is that it makes it easy for you to get started. It also has a community in different niches to find new fans too.

 Patreon allows you to grow with your new subscribers. This gives you accountability. Remember !!!!

"With great power comes great responsibility" Quote Uncle Ben - 

{Spiderman's uncle not the rice guy} 🙂

 Having accountability will give you more motivation to keep delivering content to the fans you already have. When your fans are funding your work month to month, this takes a huge financial strain off your mind. Freeing up your time to create amazing music that they want to hear.

 You can build different Patreon reward levels

to entice new casual listeners to join your new tribe.

 Example :  

• Fan Joins at $1 a month will get  Access To Your Patreon Community
• Fan Joins at $5 a month will get  Access To Youtube / Facebook Live Sessions
• Fan Joins at $20 a month will get Access Private QA Sessions a 20% OFF The Band's Merchandise Store

These are just some simple examples, it’s up to you to find what rewards your fans want and what they are willing to pay for these rewards.

How to find out what my Fans really want? The best way you can find out this is by having a free live Questions and Answers with your fans over Skype or Google hangout.

Emailing your existing fans a simple question survey will also give you a better understanding of the type of content your fans will fund you with? When you first get started with Patreon, look at the more successful musicians on there.

See what they are doing right. Copy what successful musicians are doing just to get the ball rolling. When you finally get some subscribers start tweaking your Patreon profile to what you fans really want. Now it’s your turn to get started. 

These are non-generic music marketing strategies that any musician can start today. Even musicians or bands with a small following can undertake these idea’s and start implementing these methods.

There is no room for excuses.If you want to start promoting your band or new song in a much more efficient way now is your chance. If you feel that you have gained good insight from these music marketing tactics share them with your followers.  

 Stop wasting time with Facebook spammy forums and do something much more productive for your music promotional efforts.

How 1 solo musician made 74k with Facebook Live ....?

I just wanted to share a video that I found on CD Baby DIY Musician blog, where 1 solo musician has generated over 74k using Facebook live.  

This video presentation is done by Rick Barker a music industry expert in music marketing. Rick has worked on music market campaigns for huge industry artists like that of Taylor Swift.

I was super inspired by the story in this video. Click Here To Watch.  In this video Rick speaks about how Dawn Beyer, used Facebook Live to generate over 74k in revenue. 

Dawn was a solo country singer that played in a number of venues in Nashville. This was her only livelihood, but she was living the dream as a performing musician.  

Nashville is a very busy place. Soon Dawn overworked or voice on 2 separate occasions. Leaving her without her main revenue stream from playing live gigs. 

How musicians Can Turn Paypal Into a Tip Jar?

 After several months of STAYING Committed to her Facebook live sessions, she started to make serious bank.
Also, people started to buy her merch, ask her to play live for weddings, and play live at certain venues.

The main thing I want you to take from this story is too,  Find where your audience is at. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, time place, it will never be perfect. 

 Don’t be afraid to experiment. You have a ton of tools at your disposal, {Mobile Phone, Hip Hop Beats :-), Social Media, Email. 

No audience is too small. 

If it looks small. Example like 50 people. Try and imagine 50 people at a venue. Or try and imagine
50 people purchasing your merch. I already showed you how to use both Facebook Live and Youtube Live here in these videos. No harm using your phone too if you feel the quality is right.

I urge you to watch the video. It’s super inspiring.

Have you started incorporating live video into your marketing yet? Hit me back with and let me know what your experience was like. 

Step 1

Go to Paypal and click Pay & Get Paid Look For Donations Tab on the Right Hand Side of the Drop Down Menu.

Step 2

You can choose share a link or create a website button. For this example I will just create a link.

Step 3

Set the currency that your fans are most likely to pay you in.

Step 4

Upload and Logo or an Image that you fans will understand that this link is coming directly from you.

Step 5

Step 6

It's best practice to take them from your donation page back to your website. This goes for both if the cancel and choose not donate and I feel it's best practice to take them to a special FAN THANK YOU PAGE if they do choose to donate.

Step 7

Some musicians like to send their fans direct mail so they ask for their address. If you are like me and don't need your fans address you can remove the request for their address.

Then when you have all the steps completed, share your Paypal donation link online, via email Facebook , Facebook Live , Twitter and Instagram. You can even use the QR code for live events. 

Other Blogs Post Related To Making Money With Music

This article was intended to be a post about how rap artists can promote their music or promote their music beats. While I feel that the above content is essential for any musician to get started, I feel that I need to get back to the original goal of HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC AS A RAP ARTIST.

The articles below will show you other similar ways to make money with your music.

Online Advertising For Musicians

Google Display Ads For Musicians

Google Display ads are hosted on millions of websites all over the internet. You now have the opportunity to get your music in front of the right audience. 

Years back I wouldn't have recommended Google Display ads as they were too time-consuming and you'd need to pretty nifty with graphic design to get them to work. 

Since Google revamped the display advertising section within Google ads, you can whip out display ads without breaking the bank or wasting all of your day.

I don't see any other music marketing blogger or music marketing influencer sharing this information online. Get this free training while it's hot right now. 

Facebook Ads For Musicians

What's in the Facebook ads training

1: The "3-Part Perfect Ad" template that gets clicks for (in any market or niche)...

2: The little-known software that can practically guarantee profitability on your very first ad...

3: The "Simple Scaling Method" without spending hours optimizing Facebook ads...

Instagram Ads For Musicians

The crazy thing about Instagram is user engagement… User engagement on Instagram is 15 times greater than Facebook……and 10 times great than Twitter. People that use Instagram are plugged-in and that engaged traffic CONVERTS…

To see how you can get in on the action and start generating converting traffic with Instagram as soon as today, click the link below, now…

YouTube Video Ads For Musicians

1. Why most musicians are ignoring YouTube ad platform and how you can take full advantage and dominate this $4Billion platform. 

2.YouTube has one the most sophisticated ad targeting which will help you find TARGETED Fans for your music, Merc, Tours, Crowdfunding, Patreon pages and ONLY show your ads to the people most likely to purchase your content!

3. Learn how to create 1 specific video ad which will help you build your fan email newsletters. YouTube is one of the easiest ways to build your email list and the best way to get started is with YouTube ads.

4.Learn how you can get started with YouTube ads even with a "Small Budget" and still create campaigns that goal-driven and profitability in mind. 

This training is pretty wicked so make sure get it before it's taken down. Once it hits zero, your pass will have expired and access to the training will be closed down.

In case you have misplaced the link, or accidentally clicked off the page, you can access the training here:

Twitter Promotion For Musicians

How To Get Your Music On Popular Hip Hop Blogs?

Every rapper online today is hunting down hip hop blogs to get featured on. So how are you going to stand out from the crowd?

You might have heard the same run of the mill answers on other rap websites. Where they tell you that good music will prevail and you will get the glory that your music deserves.

Are you looking for a way to stand out from the crowd?

Are your favourite rappers always getting featured on hip hop blogs and having their music shared with everyone else! 

It's not easy being in this business. But I've found that there are some things which make it easier, like making quality content or building up relationships over social media platforms rather than just posting random tracks day-in/day-out without any effort put into actually marketing yourself properly first (which we know isn't sustainable).

Both of these blogs above cover how to get featured on hip hop blogs extensively. I go right into the methods I use to promote my music on hip hop blogs and how I outsource this task to VA's so that I don't have to do this grunt work.

10 Step Mixtape Marketing Plan For Rappers

How To Promote Your Music Using Fiverr.com Gigs?

Some of the gigs I have highlighted here in this video and blog are there to help you both in the launch stage and pre-launch stage of your mixtape.

All of which include areas such as graphic design, branding, mixtape covers, blog coverage, mixtape distribution and press releases.

Many artists tend to go straight for the really poor quality gigs that will never benefit you like “20000 mixtape downloads and streams” These types of gigs are false and just a waste of your time and effort. Don’t waste your time with these types of gigs, because at the end of the day you are just fooling yourself.

Press Releases For Musicians On Fiverr.com

Blog Coverage For Rap Artists

One of the best ways to build up buzz for your music launch is to get others to share the news. You can only do so much buzz building using your social channels. 

There are loads of great rap blogs on Fiverr that will post your mixtape or snippet on their website for only $5. Just make sure you have good quality recordings.

Most bloggers don’t judge if the song is good or not, but having a quality recording is a must !!!! There are many benefits to this. 

Once you are using someone else’s reputation to back your music, You are essentially building your audience from the influence of the music blog owners site, You are creating backlinks to your website, youtube videos, Soundcloud player which give you more search engine visibility.

Music Playlist Pitching For Rap Artists

Playlists are the new music blogs. The is no way around it. 

While I hate the thought of playlist pitching there is no doubt that it's a very effective method of music promotion that's IF !!!! AND I MEAN IF!!! Your song ends up in a GOOD PLAYLIST.

So at all times you are getting your brand out there and getting your name in front of the audiences that you need to connect with.

It has been said that playlists curators are like the new age A&R’s.

They decide what is hot right now and contribute a large about of promotion major industry artists too. In the long run, it will be easy for you to get your music heard by labels and other bigger blogs if tons of small blogs have covered your music before.

If you are like me and HATE THE REJECTION or the GRUNT WORK associated with manual playlist pitching try and use some of these playlist pitching gigs on Fiverrr.com

Music Video Production & Lyrical Videos For Rap Artists

You need to be able to maximise the promotional value from a single song that on that mixtape. The biggest problem with most hip hop artists is that they use the songs themselves to promote the mixtape.

You need to be able to create multiple types of content for every single song.

For example, you take one song,  

Then you create lyrical videos using a tool called Canva.com.

Now you chop this video up for each social network.  Facebook YouTube and  other video sites allow full songs.  With Instagram and Twitter you need to have one to two minute clips..

Each song is usually 4 minutes long. This will give you 4 separate clips for Instagram and two separate clips for Twitter.

You now also have lyrical cards from your lyrical video to add to your social media networks sites. Just make sure that the lyrical cue cards are branded with your logo are images of you are artists. 

Click here for more Fiverr.com Gigs related to music video promotion and lyrical video creation.