Have you ever wondered how to release a mixtape online just like the pros?
Did you ever question how Rapper X got from A to B by releasing his mixtapes online? And that rapper did it all independently without any label.
What has Rapper X got that you don’t have?
Is it money? The right connections? More Time? A secret rap label in the background?
Frankly, it could be all of the above!
All the chess pieces could just fall into place for certain musicians. It’s time you stop dwelling on things that you cannot control.
It’s time to focus on the one thing that you and Famous Rapper X can have in common that could make you reach the same heights.
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A Mixtape Marketing Plan: How To Release A Mixtape 101
The one thing you don’t have yet is a mixtape marketing plan. Lucky for you I have created this blog post full of information, giving you the confidence and resources on how you can release a mixtape online.
Having a music marketing plan will give you a clear view of your goal, and help guide you when it comes down to releasing that mixtape on the internet.
It will help you decide what resources you have, your budget, following you have, where to release your mixtape, what mixtape sites to upload your mixtape, growth hacking and much more.
When you plan the release of your music, you are basically putting all your cards out on the table and finding out what hand you can play.
How To Create A Budget For Your Mixtape Release.
Before I look at any type of mixtape websites, we need to ask some hard cash questions about your budget.
Having a good budget will help you purchase the resources needed so that you can learn how to release your mixtape online.
If you don’t have a budget yet you need to acquire some sort revenue.
“Hip Hop Is A Rich Man’s Game”
Quote Ali Shakur Mixtape Marketing Podcast Episode 10
All budgets come in different shapes and sizes ……
This can come from an extra part time job, selling some of your old stuff like video games, saving up some money and writing for hip hop blogs.
One newly popular way to get Funding is to use crowdfunding websites. These include sites like Kickstarter and Indie go go .
Here is an article I wrote a while back about How To Fund Your Mixtape using crowd funding sites.
Additional Reading
To give you extra knowledge about crowd funding websites here is an article on Sonicbids blog about alternate crowdfunding websites.
Budget and Hard Cash Questions
How much for rap beats?
How much for mixtape covers?
How much does my website cost? $?
How much does my email list cost? $?
How much will host my mixtape cost? $??
How much can I spend on promotion? $????
How much will I spend on social media? $???
How much for blog features? $???
How much will it cost to put on a live event? $???
Do I need a video camera to help create content? $?
Do I need to hire help? $???
These are all the questions you need to ask when you want to learn how to release a mixtape on the net?
I can’t tell you how much each of these are going to cost. You need to sit down and do some research. Some of these resources you may need.
Others you might just have to find growth hacking ways to promote your mixtape online.
Deciding Where To Host Your Mixtape Online?
I am not saying that we need to release your mixtape on a mixtape website. I am just adding everything down just to see what your options are.
Some rappers like the traditional mixtape site release. Other rappers like to control the hosting of their own mixtape on their website.
Let’s just take a look what mixtape sites can bring to the table.
The majority of mixtape websites online allow you upload mixtapes on their websites. All of these mixtape sites come with pros and cons, different price plans and extra promotional opportunities.
What to look out for ….?
You have to ask yourself what can you take from these websites without blowing your whole budget on one mixtape website.
What will they offer you …?
A lot of these mixtape websites have amazing tools that would cost too much to build ourselves.
Like HTML music players. Statistics and analytics so that you can monitor your plays and downloads. Demographics of where your music is more popular.
Theses sites could potentially have lots of Cold Hard Traffic! Yes, People that want to download your mixtape. Some sites that I will mention brief on, have much more targeted traffic compared to that of others.
Here more commonly know mixtape websites to host your mixtape. I will give a brief outline what pro’s and con’s of what each site can do to help you release your mixtape online.
Upload Your Mixtape To Audiomack
Steps on How to upload a mixtape on Audiomack
– Click sign up on the right-hand corner of the site.
– Fill out the necessary profile data, name, website, social link bio.
– Return to home page and click upload mixtape
– Click on upload Album
– Fill out data about your mixtape
– Don’t forget to tick the box that says { “Allow Downloads” }
– Create a Zip file of your Mixtape Mp3
– Here is a video to show you how to create a zip file of mp3s
– Name and label each song
– Upload artwork
Audiomack is an independently run company that was set up by musicians for musicians.
Co-Founder’s Dave Macli & David Ponte noticed from their time as DJ’s, that rappers were using sites that gave them an unprofessional look.
The shady websites rappers were using were free but easy to use. They created Audiomack for rappers to upload their mixtapes but kept a professional look.
The Upside
Audiomack is Free to use, no storage limits, no download limits and has no hidden fees.
Audiomack gives you real-time data of music that trending now.
They have a mixtape upload app that allows you to look at your mixtape stats, mixtape downloads, mixtape plays and music shares.
My favourite feature about Audiomack is the embeddable players. The html5 music players have to be the most professional looking music players online. These are embeddable players.
So you can take these players and add them to your websites and still keep all the features that Audiomack gives.
The Downside
I can’t find any fault with the website. Sometimes it can take a while to get any traffic or plays from the site. After a month or two, you should get some mixtape plays from Audiomack.
I wish I could nit-pick to make this review as fair as possible, but the team at Audiomack really just made a great website.
How To Drop A Mixtape on Soundcloud
– Create an account
– Click upload next to your username at the top right-hand side of the screen
– Add your music to Soundcloud Track by Track
– Try and use Wav Files instead of mp3 for better Quality Sound
– Tick the little box that says { “Make a playlist when multiple files are selected” }
– Once all files are upload name your playlist the same name as your mixtape
– Upload album artwork by clicking on the image next to the playlist.
– Don’t forget to enable download button by clicking on pencil icon ✏ under your playlist
– Then click permissions to enable the downs of your mixtape.
The Pro’s
Soundcloud isn’t really seen as a site to upload mixtapes too. It’s more of all genre music sharing website.
But because of the popularity and recognition that Soundcloud can offer, a lot of industry hip hop artist’s have chosen to host their mixtapes here.
Some mixtape websites, are covered in advertising and downtime because the site gets too much traffic.
Many rappers choose to upload their mixtape on Soundcloud to make that there is no down time. And their fans have constant access to their music at all times.
The playlist feature allows you to upload a mixtape on Soundcloud track by track.
Soundcloud gives you access to some analytic’s with their free version. But if you want better data you need to pay the $9.99 a month fee.
This will allow you to upload more mixtapes in the future too, along with the control over the spotlight feature on your Soundcloud page.
This spotlight feature enables you to place your mixtape at the top of your feed for maximum exposure.
The Con’s
Soundcloud has embeddable music players to take and add it to your website. They aren’t the most attractive music players but the serve the purpose.
Soundcloud is such a big music platform, and should have a better way of getting promotion on the site similar the advertising platform on Facebook.
Soundcloud doesn’t really give you that many music plays or downloads even though it’s a massive music site.
Soundcloud is very strict on the use of music. So you can’t upload remixes or covers on this platform.
How To Upload A Mixtape on Coast2coastmixtapes.com
Coast2coastmixtapes isn’t like the other mixtape sites that I mentioned above. Coast2coastmixtapes.com is more of mixtape promotion company.
They use the tools from some of the mixtape sites above, to help you market your music.
There is no straight up way to upload your mixtapes on coast 2 coast mixtapes. You have to pay to play here.
The mixtape promotion packages that coast 2 coast mixtapes offer varies in price. From starter packs which start at around $50 – $100 to official mixtape hosting which can be up to $1000 and above.
The promotion that coast 2 coast offers all depends on the type of mixtape promotion package your purchase.
Some of the services include can be seeing in detail here
So is it worth using?
It’s hard to say. I have heard great coast 2 coast mixtape reviews and also some bad reviews from coast 2 coast mixtapes.
If the site was truly shady I think they would be getting more abuse on social media from people.
Looking on Twitter and Facebook I don’t really see any alarms. You’re always going to get an odd couple of complaints on some blogs.
I spoke to DJ Kasper Binks on my podcast episode 8 and he had some interesting insight.
DJ Pain 1 is a coast 2 coast mixtapes DJ and I have been following his music marketing advice on Youtube. He seems like an honest person to be caught up in a site that isn’t legit.
At the end of the day, it’s a PR firm. It doesn’t guarantee success. But that does mean you won’t gain some exposure from using the service.
This is one of the biggest hip-hop marketing companies. A lot of music PR firms focus on bands not hip hop artists.
This site does have connections in the music industry and they do bring music and business people together at events.
So what’s the verdict?
This is one is hard to call, I wouldn’t rule it out, nor would I place all my eggs in one basket. The promo packages aren’t cheap. So if you’re on a budget I’d control my own marketing.
If you have a lot of money to play with, I would do a little more research.
- Hunt down Coast 2 coast DJ’s and ask their opinion.
- I’d contact artist’s that are featured on there now and ask was it worth it.
- I’d test the water with a smaller promotion packs
- I’d talk to the people that didn’t have a good experience with the and ask why?
- Find out the price of each package
As long as you do your extra research and understand what you want to get from coast 2 coast mixtapes, then the choice is up to you.
How To Upload Your Mixtape On Livemixtapes, Spinrilla and Mymixtapez.
Before you label me a lazy ass because I grouped all these mixtape sites together, there is a method behind my madness.
From my research of all these websites, the process to uploading mixtapes on spinrilla livemixtapes and mymixtapez is strikingly similar.
The reason I grouped them together is because there is very little information on these websites to show you how to upload load mixtapes.
These mixtape sites want to keep the music higher quality so they don’t allow individual uploads.
Sites like Spinrilla, Livemixtapes and mymixtapez have gatekeepers like the hip hop blog sites I mention in my last article.
These gatekeepers are known as mixtape DJ’s or independent music labels. They act as go-betweens artists and these mixtape sites.
With the access restricted on these sites, the quality of the traffic and viewership is more beneficial to those that get mixtapes featured on these sites.
Yada Yada Yada How Do I Get Mixtape On These Sites. !!!!
Each of these claims to have some sort application process. This way is purposely slow to keep out low-quality music.
I think for an independent artist on their own without any inside connections or representation it might be a tough task. Here are some links on their websites which mention ways to release your mixtapes in their sites.
Spinrilla Upload Application Link
Livemixtapes Phone Email and Application Contact Link
Find Mixtape DJ’s That Work With These Mixtape Sites
In order to get your music on these sites, you need to network with the bloggers and Dj’s. Most of them will charge a fee to host your mixtape. These fees can vary DJ to DJ.
Here some links From Twitter To Help You Find These Mixtape DJ’s
DJ’s To Upload Your Mixtape To MyMixtapez
DJ’s To Upload Your Mixtape To LiveMixtapes
DJ’s To Upload Your Mixtape To Spinrilla
You might want to look at this way too …..
There are DJs and mixtape hosts that operate on Fiverr.com. This isn’t the most legit way to promote your music. It’s kind of a back alley deal. But if you get your music on their websites within your budget, you can at least see if it’s worth it.
I’d advise you to look at the reviews that these mixtape DJ’s. Fiverr.com is now a very big company and it isn’t as easy to game with fake reviews.
On the plus side if the DJ doesn’t deliver on his promise to upload your mixtape on spinrilla or livemixtapes, Fiverr.com will refund your money.
The cost of these mixtape uploads / hosting is pretty cheap compared to the prices of DJ’s that are on Twitter. Each DJ offers different prices for different services.
Please understand what you are getting from these services. Read the gig descriptions before you make a purchase.
Here is a link to Fiverr’s search results for mixtape uploads
HOST YOUR OWN MIXTAPE ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE.
Here Is A Link To My How To Set Up A Website Course
This is one of my favorite way to release a mixtape online. The reason for this is simple. I own and control my website. I can accurately see who comes to my website how long the stay on the pages of my site and where they came from.
Most musicians that have a website, have been promoting their website for quite some time. So I already have built up a certain fanbase that are already coming to my website.
I control the marketing to my website. So all the previous links to my website that I have built on the web, are already pointing to my website.
I find it quite scary to completely trust another company with my entire business.
Then I am beholden to that company at all times. Like if I upload my mixtape on a certain mixtape site, and I put all my efforts into that one website.
Somewhere down the line they shut down the site or they change their fee’s to host your mixtape, then I am screwed.
Take The Resources Mixtape Sites Give You.
Stats and Download Counters
Embedable Players
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There is no harm in taking the resources that the sites that I mentioned above. So take the HTML music players that they give you. Embed the music player on your website.
If it were my choice I would either choose Soundcloud because of the size of the company and the stats they give or Audiomack Becuase it’s free, good analytics and the mixtape player is attractive.
I would take these players and embed them on a page on my website.
Why Bother With A Website When Facebook and Mixtape Sites Are Free?
Mixtape sites tend to very cluttered and have advertising all over them. It’s hard to get your fans to any site in the first place without sending them to a site that’s covered in advertising.
The consumption of music online is immense.
If you send fans to your own website where you host your own mixtape, you keep the focus on your music.
Keeping the focus solely on your music enables you to create a better relationship with your fans.
This gives you the opportunity to plug your merchandise, tours, future music and newsletter sign ups.
With less distractions on the page, people will be more likely to carry out the actions that you desire them to do.
When you are promoting your mixtape online you are sending all those fans to one website that you control.
In the future when you launch your next mixtape you still have all those links coming back to your website to help you with the release of your second mixtape.
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Here Is A Link To My How To Set Up A Website Course
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Resources To Help You Learn How To Release A Mixtape and Promote It.
Your Blog
I just mentioned above on how to release your mixtape on your website. One the biggest assets that you have with your website is your blog.
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I urge young artists to start blogging about your journey with your music career. A blog is a perfect way to bond with your fans.
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You can also create blog posts about the music that you are going to make, the rappers that inspire you to make music and the team of people that are working with you in the studio.
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But I hate writing blog posts ….
PRO TIP
Try This Easy Hack To Create Blog Content
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Most rappers that read this part of the article will say that they hate writing blog posts.
So do I. It takes up so much time and it’s hard work.
The best advice that I can give you is to create videos of yourself speaking into the camera. Use a free video recording software called Screenomatic to help you record these video.
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- Talk about the mixtape you are making
- Talk about topic in hip hop that are current and trending { e.g. Drake vs Meek Mill Ghostwriter Debate}
- Make video’s about who inspired you to write music.
- Make a video about each song.
- Make a video of your plan to promote your mixtape.
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Once you have created these video blogs, hire a writer on Fiverr.com or Freelancer.com to help you create blog posts based on the content you spoke about in these videos.
When the writer has created blog posts based on your content, add them to your blog with some nice pictures. Don’t forget to add the videos to youtube to get extra promotion for your mixtape.
Use Your Email List To Promote Your Mixtape.
HERE IS A LINK TO MY EMAIL MARKETING COURSE FOR MUSICIANS
Email subscribers are the most responsive followers online. Their attention span is much more focused compared to the noise of social media.
Email subscribers only sign up to your newsletter if they want to hear from you. Social followers tend to follow you in the hope that you will follow them back.
When an email subscriber signs up to your newsletter they are actively giving you permission to contact them with up-dates about your music.
Note : This doesn’t give you the right to spam them. But don’t be afraid to tell them about your new mixtape or to promote your merch and shows.
Social traffic will only get you so far. There are so many people online promoting their music. Your fans on social media hear and see updates from tons of musicians every day.
The reach on some social networks has diminished. Now you have to pay to get any attention on social media. Like that with Facebook. Where you have to constantly boost your post to get in Facebook Feed of your followers.
Here is my FREE Email Marketing for musicians course to help you get started. This will show you exactly how to set up an email newsletter to get fans follow you online.
FREE Email Marketing For Musicians Course
Use My Rap Blogs Cheat Sheet {List 700+ Hip Hop Blogs}
I wrote extensively in my last post on how you can use my hip hop blogs list to help promote your music online.
This is a list of 700+ rap blogs list that has detailed information on all of these rap blogs.
The blog post that accompanies this list gives you 10 step plan how to get featured on rap blogs. My plan gives you templates and strategies on how to get past the gatekeepers on rap blogs.
This is not an easy way to promote or learn how to release music online with email marketing. But the guide that I have written will give you expert guidance on the best possible way to get your music heard by music bloggers.
Getting on these hip hop blogs is a must. Getting the influence and social proof of having your mixtape shared on a rap blog is the perfect growth hacking technique in music marketing.
Hip Hop Blogs [10 Step Guide] How To Get Featured on Rap Sites
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How To Promote A Mixtape On Social Media
My music marketing blog is dedicated to showing hip hop artists how to use social media to help promote the music. I have written and created countless videos and blogs giving my tips showing you how to use social media to get the word out about your music.
I won’t dive in depth here because this is a topic I have covered time and time again. Here are some articles and video courses on my blog that will really show you how to release a mixtape online.
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Twitter is one of my favorite social media websites. It’s one site that is so easy to start and join in open conversations online. I picture Twitter as a forum site that has different conversations happening in real time.
You could also use Twitter as broadcast medium. Where you share information about your music, shows, merchandise, Tours, and videos.
I create a course on how you can turn Twitter into music marketing machine. Twitter is easy to use but after a while you can see signs that you are doing a lot of grunt work, sharing your music and promotional material.
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This course I designed is here to help you set up automation systems so you don’t have to be manually Tweeting the same messages every day.
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Try Twitter Music Marketing Machines Course Here
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I also want to highlight two specific videos just to help you release your mixtape on Twitter.
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Promote Your Mixtape With Copromote
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To put it simply, copromote is a social sharing website, where musicians collectively share each other’s music. Copromote gives you {reach} points for every time you share someone’s music with your followers online.
Then you use those reach points you have collected to promote your music. It’s as simple as that. There is a free version but it’s limited to one post share per social network.
It works very well with Twitter and it’s great to help you build an email list.
Promote Your Music With Sniply
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Sniply is a very simple app to help you create a small message on any website link you share on social media.
Example if I share a post from 2 Dope boyz using a sniply link on Twitter, when people click on that link and end up on that 2dopeboyz post, they will see a little call to action message from me.
In this call to action message, I can promote my mixtape or my beats.
Resulting message on sites that your tweeted with your sniply link
If I didn’t explain it very well just watch the video below. Using these two tools above is on of the best ways I can show you how to release a mixtape online. Both tools give you instant access to and audience that you have never been exposed to before.
FREE COURSE TO HELP YOU
How To Promote Your Mixtape On Youtube?
In go into great detail here in this video
I briefly covered this above when I spoke about blogging. I would create content around my mixtape.
This involves vlogging. Vlogging is much easier than blogging and it creates a deeper connection with your fans. I would use a free software called Screen o matic to create vlogs all around my music.
Start creating vlogs about, how you wrote the songs, how inspired you, vlogs about trending hip hop topics, vlogs of you in the studio.
This is all great content for your fans but, saves you having to upload the music all at once. So many rappers when the release a mixtape online they rush everything. Then later they have nothing to use to promote the music.
Learn to Drip Feed your content.
This is where I would Upload the best song on the mixtape first on Youtube. Create a nice video of you or create an entertaining video where you have images or a lyrical video.
Here is a tool to help you create lyrical videos or entertaining videos called typito.com
Make sure it’s entertaining
I would promote the heck out of that first song using additional vlogs around the promotion of my mixtape.
Then over time I would release the rest of the mixtape. Only uploading, 1:30 song snippets so that people will actually download it from whatever site I choose to release my mixtape on.
Don’t forget about Youtube Live
Live events on Youtube is a great way to get people to listen to your mixtape. I have found a much simpler way of creating a Youtube live event using the Google hangouts feature. I you want to know one of the best ways on how to release a mixtape online , using Youtube live is up there.
Here is a video tutorial on how to carry out Youtube Live Events that I follow to record my podcast episodes on Youtube.
This a much simple process compared to most Video tutorials on Youtube where they require you to use a video encoder.
The video tutorial above allows you to just stream live from your webcam or you can share your screen to show people the mixtape that you are releasing.
Why is Youtube Live so important?
The bonus with live video is you can get a live audience to watch your videos now. This instant viewership will boost your video’s SEO because the audience retention rate will be high.
RETENTION RATE YOUTUBE VIDEO IMPORTANT SEO FACTOR
Having a high video retention rate on a new video is crucial. This way Youtube will add your video to other search areas on Youtube so it will constantly grow and promote itself.
PRO TIP
One of my favorite tools to help with my video SEO and research is that of Tubebuddy.
Tubebuddy is a chrome application that attaches to your Youtube channel to give you tips on and tools to make life on Youtube much easier.
Here is my video tutorial to show you how to use it.
How To Use Instagram To Promote Your Music.
Obviously, you need a follow first to get the most out of Instagram when you are dropping a mixtape online.
I created a video series on Follow Adder for Instagram. This software that helps me build my followers up on Instagram at a much faster and target way than building it manually.
Click here to take my FREE Follow Adder for Instagram Video Course
Instagram isn’t the easiest way to promote your mixtape. The reason I would say this is because Instagram only allows one clickable link on the entire website.
This clickable link is found in your biography.
I would create micro vlogs and micro-snippets of my music and upload them to Instagram using a tool called gramblr.
This tool is a God Send to me as I hate having to create content with my mobile phone.
Gramblr is a desktop tool that enables you to upload videos and images from your computer. This makes it much easier to edit your content before it goes live.
The reason I hate mobile phones…….
Here is a video tutorial of how I use gramblr to schedule all of my Instagram videos.
PRO TIP
Always tag yourself in the description of every post you add on Instagram. Links don’t work here but your own Instagram handle tag { mine = @the_corporatethief_beats } is a clickable link back to your Instagram home page feed.
Here people can click that original link of where your mixtape is hosted on your Instagram biography.
Want to know the best part ….?
I mentioned a social sharing website above called copromote. If you use this website to help promote your music on Instagram, other users on their will #REGRAM your post.
What the hell is a #REGRAM …..?
This is basically like a retweet on Twitter but it only works with Copromote or other third party apps. Instagram is all about hashtags. Use popular hashtags on Instagram so that people can find your mixtape promotional videos.
Use a tool called websta.me to find hip hop related hashtags on Instagram.
Launching A Mixtape on Facebook
Facebook marketing is the hardest social media to promote your music on period.
Facebook is a pay to play game now. So you have to boost your post or create ads in Facebook’s ad manager to get any reach from the audience that you built.
To get any organic traffic I would continue to share all the images, videos, and links that I share on Twitter and Instagram. But I would format them for Facebook.
“I bet that other music marketing blogs will tell you to use Facebook Groups to promote your mixtape.”
“This is a massive waste of time.”
I have noticed that Facebook is placing more and more emphasis on their video platform. And this goes especially for Facebook live video.
So I think it would be a great Idea to create a Facebook launch party live on Facebook maybe with a DJ or some of your Friends where you speak with your Facebook Followers and share your music with them live on Facebook.
Using live video is a new thing that Facebook really pushes on. So you are guaranteed to get more FREE Facebook reach by using the LIVE video over the prerecorded video.
This is the hard part…
Facebook live really works best on your phone. But if you are like me and hate using your phone to record videos, I figured out a small hack on how to use OBS {open broadcast software} to stream live videos from your Computer’s webcam to Facebook live.
This is the best tutorial online to show you how to use Facebook live stream with OBS.
The hard part with Facebook live is that you need to have a good upload speed with your internet service provider. My internet upload speed varies from day and night so it can be hard to stream high-quality video with a low upload speed.
Additional Resource
I found a good interview with DJ pain 1 and Mike Trampe where they speak a lot about how they promote their much on Facebook. I think these tips that they discuss here in this video should help you out.
Theses guys talk a lot about music promotion and how to release a mixtape or ep online on their respective youtube channels. Watch the video below to get tips from a coast2coast mixtape DJ and hip hop music marketing expert.
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Promoting Your Mixtape Online With Advertising.
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I’m not going to dive deep into advertising here because it’s a massive topic and will end up writing days. I have outlined some simple resources here to show you how to promote your music with paid advertisements.
Buying Ads On Hip Hop Blogs
Use my hip hop blogs cheat sheet that I offer for free here. Ask these sites how much does it cost for a feature or a blog placement ad on their website.
I created this video here to help you find out which blogs are worth advertising on.
Also my article on hip hop blogs and how to get featured on them goes much deeper into this topic.
Find Music Promotion on Fiverr.com
Here on Fiverr.com there is a ton of people offering mixtape promotion services, like email blasts, blog features, social media features and radio advertisements.
Here is a typical search of mixtape promotion on fiverr.com
Fiverr.com has a ton of crappy sellers on here BUYER BEWARE.
Look for reviews that these people have and use your gut to find a gem.
You can find music marketing gold here, you just have to do some research and find which services can provide the best outcome for when you release your mixtape.
Here is a video I did a while back showing you what to look for on Fiverr to help promote your mixtapes.
Social Media Ads
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Advertising on social media can be very lucrative for the release of your mixtape. It will build buzz and hype beat hind the launch of the mixtape.
I spoke to Shawn Folk from payusnomind.info on the Mixtape Marketing Podcast episode 12 about social media advertising for musicians. Shawn also carried out a detailed video on the basics to Facebook adverting.
Shawn also carried out a detailed video to explain the basics to Facebook and social advertising.
The problem with social media ads is that they can become costly if you don’t be careful with the creation of the ads.
If you are not familiar with social advertising platforms like Facebook power editor, Twitters Ad Platform or Google Display / Adwords, hire someone Freelancer.com to help you get the best outcome your ads.
The cost of getting some help might be a lot of money to spend but at least you are getting an expert’s experience to help you with your mixtape advertising.
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PRO TIP With Youtube Video Ads
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I really like Youtube’s advertising platform and it’s pretty easy to use. You need to have a Google Adwords account to advertise your music on Youtube.
Click here to set up an AdWords account.
You might have to wait a couple of days for the application process to be approved. {If you are denied an account, hire someone on Freelancer.com to help you}.
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Once approved link your Youtube account with your AdWords account.
Steps to do this
- Sign in to your YouTube channel.
- Click your channel icon or name in the upper corner of the page to select the channel you want to link.
- Click My Channel.
- Click Video Manager.
- Under “Channel,” click Advanced.
- Under “Link an AdWords for video account,” click Link an AdWords account.
- Follow the instructions, and then click Finish.
- Once the owner of the AdWords account approves your request, your YouTube channel will be linked to that AdWords account.
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– Once this is all complete go back to your video creators area
– Find a video from your mixtape that your want to promote on Youtube.
– Click on promote in the drop down video menu
– Click on the budget you desire { I advise Daily to control it better}
– I only run instream ads because I get better quality views
– For audience I choice English speaking countries USA, UK, Canada, Ireland etc.
– For interests, I put in hip hop and rap fans, pop fans
– Then I fill out descriptions.
To make the ads go live you have to turn them on in AdWords after some on from Google AdWords approves them.
NOTE : Be Careful with the type of content you are promoting here. Google won’t allow you advertise profanity. They won’t approve videos that have profanity in them. So if your lyrics are hardcore, it might be best to promote a vlog of you talking about the release of your mixtape.
TRY HOSTING A LIVE MIXTAPE LAUNCH EVENT
Example of a mixtape release party flyer
I’ll admit I have never carried out a mixtape release event before, but I have been in bands back in the day where I played small clubs, bars, and events.
Because the band and I were also the road crew, the lighting team and the sound engineers this was a very stressful way of promoting our music.
The joys of playing live to lots of people far outweighed the lows of carrying out an event.
This won’t be an easy task. You will need help to carry out the event.
My suggestion is to find other local artists that are also releasing some new music and have a joint mixtape launch event. This way each of you can split the cost of promotion, and equipment needed for the event.
Having other people on board will make easier to do all the work that comes with promoting and event or finding equipment or a venue to host the event.
You can use tools live Eventbrite or Facebook Events To Help learn how to release a mixtape at an event.
I would try and reach out to local radio stations or local media and see if they will help promote your Live event.
Local media is always looking for Event to promote to their listeners and readers. Your event is exactly the thing that their audience wants to know about.
But what if you are too young to play at clubs…?
Then I would suggest that you stick to creating Facebook Live Event Video Or Youtube Live Events at home. You can still reach a large using both of these live video channels.
On the plus side, you won’t have to deal with the stress of organizing and event, but you can still gain the rewards of having a live audience listen to your music.
Now It’s Your Turn….
Hit me up in the comment and tell me what you think of this How to release mixtape online guide.
You can use all the resources in this article {almost book} to help you create a mixtape marketing plan.
Did you learn something with this articles?
Have you carried out some of the tasks that I have laid out in my mixtape marketing plan?
If you feel that this is a good resource and can help other hip-hop artists learn how to release a mixtape online don’t forget to share it with them.
