In search of finest practices to get probably the most out of as we speak’s high music streaming platforms? Learn on for five actionable ideas per platform that will help you optimize your presence throughout the streaming panorama.
Introduction
There are such a lot of choices relating to digital streaming platforms for music. With CD Child distribution, you’ll have entry to over 150+ DSPs per submission. However a profitable streaming technique requires extra than simply maximizing attain. At the moment’s DSPs provide highly effective advertising instruments, knowledge insights, and profile customizations that will help you elevate your profile and drive deeper engagement together with your followers. On this information, we’ll talk about finest practices for main streaming platforms to make sure you’re getting probably the most out of the key DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, and extra.
Spotify Greatest Practices
With a 36% share of worldwide music streaming, Spotify is the main platform for music discovery and streaming. The corporate paid out a report $10 billion in royalties in 2024, retaining the lead for highest-paying retailer globally and bringing its lifetime payout to artists to just about $60 billion. In accordance with Spotify’s Loud & Clear Report 2025, that’s over 10x the contribution of the most important report retailer on the peak of the CD period!
Protected to say, you must add your music to Spotify and create a Spotify for Artists account, the place you possibly can construct a complete and dynamic profile in your followers. Listed below are some ideas that will help you get probably the most out of Spotify.
1. Optimize your profile
Your Spotify profile serves as a strong first impression for brand new followers. After claiming and verifying your profile, add the next to customise your web page:
- Pictures: Add an avatar picture (portraits work nicely, as these photos are circle cropped), a background picture, and a few extra photos in your gallery which followers can swipe by and discover
- Bio: Write an artist bio of 1,500 phrases or fewer. Spotify has compiled some bio writing do’s and don’ts right here.
- Social media: Add your social media handles to let followers comply with you proper out of your Spotify web page.
- Artist Decide: Promote your newest launch by making it seem on the high of your web page throughout the Artist Decide slot! Been a bit since your final launch? Plug a playlist of your tunes blended in with a few of your favorites.
- Concert events: Spotify will pull any of your upcoming concert events which are listed by TicketMaster, EventBrite, SongKick or AXS.
2. Leverage knowledge insights
Spotify gives knowledge you need to use to get extra strategic together with your music advertising. You’ve got entry to knowledge pertaining to your music, viewers, playlist placements, and extra.
3. Playlist like a professional
Pitch Spotify curators forward of your launch to get your music featured on editorial playlists. You may as well create and promote playlists together with your tracks to assist the algorithm place your music.
4. Add canvases for tracks
Cowl artwork is a strong instrument for attracting followers and canvases make it much more efficient. Give your listeners a further visible expertise whereas they’re streaming your music with Spotify Canvases. Canvases are quick, looping movies that play within the background of a observe and you must have them for each one in all your songs. You may add these to offer your profile a cohesive aesthetic {and professional} really feel.
5. Create a promo card
Gone are the times of printed enterprise playing cards. Create a Spotify promo card for a seamless technique to share your music hyperlink with followers in an on-brand means! You may share your promo card instantly out of your Spotify web page by social media, direct message, and extra.
YouTube Music Greatest Practices
Like a extra user-centric MTV, YouTube has lengthy been a house for music movies, live performance footage, and recorded tracks. However when YouTube Music formally launched as a music streaming platform in 2018, it shortly turned a dynamic outlet for artists trying to join with followers by multimedia. YouTube claims followers who see a given music video eat 94% extra of that artists’ music.
Listed below are some tricks to profit from your Official Artist Channel (OAC) on YouTube Music.
1. Optimize your Official Artist Channel (OAC)
Create an artist channel and make your profile identifiable and in keeping with a picture, title, deal with, and bio. YouTube permits a profile image in addition to a channel banner, which you need to use to tease upcoming releases, merch, tour dates, and extra by together with textual content within the graphic.
When deciding on a reputation and channel deal with, keep away from further phrases like official, TV, channel, youtube, music, or productions. As a substitute, go together with a reputation you utilize throughout different social media platforms as nicely to consolidate your promotional messaging.
Write an outline of your channel and make that first sentence as complete as doable. That’s what YouTube reveals in abbreviated listings of your profile. Much like your channel banner, you possibly can replace this description repeatedly, utilizing the road for necessary bulletins or to tease upcoming tasks
You may add as much as 14 hyperlinks in your channel residence tab so long as they comply with the exterior hyperlinks coverage. Many artists will characteristic hyperlink repositories, an official web site, social platforms, and extra.
2. Make residence really feel like residence
You may modify your channel structure to type your content material and make your web page really feel extra genuine. Select movies to incorporate in your channel trailer/highlight part! Channel trailers auto-play when somebody involves your channel who isn’t subscribed, whereas a highlight video performs for a customer who’s subscribed to your channel.
You may leverage this characteristic for highlighting current or upcoming music.
3. Create playlists
Playlists are one in all largest visitors sources for music viewership on YouTube. Playlists assist manage, curate, and make content material extra accessible to customers. Take into consideration bucketing your content material and creating playlists for interviews, tour content material, album particular content material, authentic content material, and extra.
4. Join your retailer
Monetize your YouTube web page by connecting your merch retailer. Unlocking the shop tab permits you to tag merchandise and maintain a product shelf which you’ll be able to show proper beneath your movies.
5. Optimize then monetize your content material
If a tree falls within the forest and nobody is round to listen to it, does it make a sound? Be sure your nice content material is straightforward to seek out! Hold your video titles quick and succinct and middle them round probably the most vital search phrases: sometimes your artist title and the title of the songs. Video title formatting doesn’t need to be overly formal, however make sure that it’s constant throughout movies to enhance readability. Lastly, your video thumbnails ought to precisely replicate the content material of your video.
After getting some top-performers, take into account investing in promoting to achieve new followers with this content material. As a most well-liked companion, CD Child makes it straightforward to monetize your music on YouTube.
Bonus: Check thumbnails
The correct thumbnail might be the distinction between a person clicking on or scrolling by your video. Music movies and visualizers ought to have a compelling, high-quality nonetheless shot from the footage. For any official audio, album cowl artwork works nicely. For lyric movies, embody outstanding textual content, demonstrating the video is a lyric visualizer. And for behind the scenes movies, it’s useful to make use of candid pictures to offer the video a stay, uncooked really feel.
If you happen to’re uncertain of what thumbnail to make use of, YouTube has a thumbnail take a look at, which lets you deploy as much as 3 choices for testing on a proportion of your customers to determine which one is simplest.
Amazon Music Greatest Practices
Amazon additionally presents a platform for its artists, Amazon Music for Artists. Newest knowledge reveals Amazon has over 80 million customers worldwide, occupying just a little over 11% of the overall international music streaming market. Amazon Music gives some thrilling instruments for musicians to attach with followers in dynamic methods. And as a smaller platform in comparison with Spotify or Apple, Amazon Music rising artists would possibly discover it simpler to face out.
1. Pitch your music
Amazon presents a number of curated channels for artists to push new music. You may attain your current followers and followers with in-app exercise posts, Alexa alerts or prompts, and cell push notifications. However you too can pitch Amazon curators to characteristic a observe out of your upcoming launch on international curated programming.
Amazon recommends together with particulars on the next when pitching:
- Fundamentals: Inform the story behind the observe
- Viewers: Describe your present fanbase and your advertising plan
- Collaborators: Title drop any collaborators
- Placements: Present particulars on any licensing or music movies within the works
2. Run a pre-save marketing campaign
You may create a pre-save hyperlink to construct hype and maximize engagement in your release-day. A fan who pre-saves your new launch will robotically turn out to be a follower on Amazon Music and can obtain push notifications to take heed to your music on launch day.
3. Create a hype deck
Much like the Spotify promo card, the Amazon Hype Deck permits you to create customized playing cards you possibly can share together with your followers over socials, emails, and different advertising channels to advertise a brand new launch, playlist, or the anniversary of an older launch.
4. Leverage X-Ray
Amazon X-ray is a dynamic, enjoyable means for followers to get to know your story whereas streaming your music. The Amazon Music staff pulls collectively information and insights about your music out of your metadata and trade press then inserts the highlights into your X-Ray stream, which followers can entry in a single faucet whereas streaming a track. X-ray information would possibly spotlight track credit, associated playlists the track seems on, or enjoyable information and trivia about your artistry.
5. Let your followers sing alongside
Make your lyrics come alive with Amazon’s lyric-sharing characteristic. Add phrase sheets in your music and allow followers to share a number of strains out of your songs on to their social media, direct messages, emails, and extra. This enables your followers to share your music in additional significant and personalised methods.
Apple Music Greatest Practices
Apple Music trails simply behind Spotify at just a little over 30% share available in the market. Apple’s music streaming platform presents distinctive advantages in your followers equivalent to lossless playback and “sing mode,” which permits them to show your track into a non-public karaoke session. Learn on for some tricks to get probably the most out of Apple Music.
1. Optimize your profile
Reap the benefits of each instrument Apple presents to construct out a personalised and genuine profile web page in your followers. You may submit a photograph, bio, and even a Q&A bit the place you possibly can reply continuously requested questions on your artistry. You may as well present the Apple Music Editorial staff with extra details about your bandmates, influences, and collaborators — this data received’t be displayed in your web page, however will assist the editorial staff get to know you higher.
2. Present up with Shazam
Shazam is an extremely highly effective music discovery instrument you possibly can leverage to show first-time listeners into followers. Registering your music with Shazam permits new listeners to determine your music simply by asking their iPhone “who’s this?” when one in all your songs is being performed within the background.
3. Set your paintings in movement
Much like Spotify Canvases, Apple permits artists to add shifting variations of their paintings, for which yow will discover pointers right here. Including movement paintings may also help elevate your launch aesthetic and provides your profile an enlivening, dynamic really feel which appeals to new followers.
4. Create hype with Pre-adds
Construct hype in your launch and maximize your engagement on launch day with Apple Music Pre-Provides. Out there just for full album releases, Apple Music artists can choose a single observe from their upcoming launch to be made out there to followers instantly. On launch day, followers will obtain a notification in regards to the launch being added to their library.
5. Leverage insights
Apple Music is greater than a streaming platform, it’s a strategic instrument for strategic advertising. You may leverage metrics round streaming exercise, geography, playlist efficiency, listener engagement and retention to make smarter choices about touring, promoting, and content material.
TikTok for Artists Greatest Practices
Although TikTok will not be a streaming platform by title, its function as a music discovery instrument is plain. The corporate simply launched the TikTok for Artists platform, an all-in-one music analytics platform for artists, providing larger insights into
1. Apply for a TikTok Artist Account and add a Music Tab to your profile
You’ll must have a TikTok Artist account to entry the TikTok for Artists web page. Go to the TikTok for Artists homepage and scroll right down to the apply button, which brings up a QR code to scan. It’s doable that you have already got an artist account! You may verify by on the lookout for a music observe image in your profile.
2. Run a TikTok Pre-Save Marketing campaign in your subsequent launch
Probably the most thrilling options of TikTok for Artists is the brand new pre-save button, which you’ll be able to allow in your upcoming album or EP (observe that singles should not but eligible) instantly by TikTok. Underneath the pre-release marketing campaign tab, you possibly can schedule the pre-save hyperlink to go stay on a sure date and followers can save your launch to their Spotify or Apple Music web page.
3. Leverage follower and content material insights
Get to know your followers and leverage demographic insights to higher goal content material and advertising. You may as well observe views, likes, shares, feedback, and completion charges of your content material to know what’s resonating together with your followers and plan strategically.
4. Observe track efficiency
You may observe the overall view counts, video posts together with your observe, and creator engagement per observe by the TikTok for Artists dashboard! This may also help you gauge a track’s viral potential.
5. Invite your staff
The most effective options of TikTok for Artists is it lets you flip your private web page right into a collaborative hub. You may invite your label, supervisor, agent and extra to entry your analytics to leverage for their very own functions.
Conclusion
At the moment’s streaming options provide followers a lot greater than music playback. These platforms are outfitted with instruments that empower artists to create deeper connections with followers and construct digital worlds round their music. We hope this information gives you with some actionable steps to get extra worth out of every platform.
A trusted distributor since 1998, CD Child presents distribution to over 150+ platforms and has helped over 2 million artists identical to you get their music heard all over the world. Get began as we speak!