How To Use Podcasts To Promote Your Music

In the era of online streaming, podcasts are the new digital radio. Podcasts have grown immensely over the years, due to the emergence of online entertainment in the pandemic, as well as the opportunity to explore the medium, given by music streaming apps like Spotify. The idea of telling a story, fictional or nonfictional, just through a voice or different sounds gives the mind so much freedom to imagine.

Since the acquisition of independent podcast production companies in 2019, the collaboration between a streaming platform - Spotify, and podcasts not only widened the popularity of both but also helped one listen to whatever she genuinely likes. The algorithmic personalization for every user who initially wanted to stream music could now listen to podcasts in the same manner - curated to the likes of the individual.  

In this article, we will answer these questions of yours:

1. Why are podcasts important for musicians?
   
   
2. How can musicians use podcasts?
   
   
3. What are our final thoughts?

Why are podcasts important for musicians?

The very idea that someone could go on to engage in a long-form conversation, with absolutely no visuals to accompany the audio, is itself remarkable and shows a desire from people to listen to stories, news, learn new things, and so on. You could sit through a podcast that'd talk about the conspiracies of Doja Cat’s new album for 30 minutes and that's the beauty about it - the ability to pause, listen at your own pace, and come back to it whenever possible. 

Pssst…come here: Forbes asserted that 57% of Americans listen to podcasts on a daily basis. That's more than a couple of million listeners. Podcasts are more in fashion now than before, given the number of audiences that are for it at the moment.

Do you know the number of podcasts that are running on Spotify right now? 5 billion. Oh, and that's not all. Spotify made around $215 million just through podcasts in 2021. At that time, the number of podcasts running on the streaming app was 5 million. You can only imagine the revenue Spotify would be making now. Let's not forget that revenue comes from millions of users who engage in podcasts. 

We'll be honest with you, there aren’t many podcasts on music, music making, or music production. The numbers are less. And that's precisely why, you could use podcasts to get the attention you need. It’s simple - there is a demand for it, but there seems to be a shortage of supply. Quality podcasts on music and any tips and tricks for upcoming musicians, in terms of production, story-telling, marketing or any other niche you think you could work with would create a win-win situation for both parties. 

How can musicians use podcasts?

Podcasts haven’t been explicitly used to make promotional content (and we wouldn't advise that either). But what you can do, is start a podcasting series but keep plugging in your music from time to time. This way you don't lose the attention of your listener, because the chances of someone listening to an independent musician promoting his music for 5 minutes, forget 30, is reasonably less. 

Expert Advice 

You can’t possibly know everything about music production or mixing or mastering or marketing unless you’re in the big leagues and if so, what are you doing here? But what you can do is give solid and honest advice on things you DO know. That may be music production, music arrangement, songwriting, how to get your song copyrighted, social media marketing for your music, getting your song playlisted on Spotify Playlists, and so on. 

Start off by identifying what you’re really good at and theorizing it. When writing the material for a podcast episode, make sure it sounds more interactive and less like a lecture. Most importantly, place yourself as an expert - it will give you the confidence to speak fluently and sound genuinely interested. Play clips of your music, for demonstration purposes and plug in your latest release. We recommend doing this in the middle of a podcast, right when the listener is in it till the very end.

Pssst…come here: Remember that those who are listening to you aren't only potential fans but also emerging musicians. Make sure your podcast is of some substance - think from their perspective as well and see if you'd want to listen to someone go on about something superficially.  

Reviews 

We don’t mean reading reviews of your music and discussing them. We mean, reviewing your demos, your songs, and your lyricism firsthand and explaining the process behind each component of the song - why it did or didn’t work. Retrospective narratives are the best way to appear humble as well as engaging, in a podcast, because you aren’t critiquing someone else’s work, you are reviewing your own. Plus you cannot run out of material because it’s yours to start with. You could do one song per episode and draw comparisons with the ones that have seemingly worked better - play both the tracks, old and new and there you go - you have honestly commented on one of your songs and you’ve promoted the other! 

Once you’ve done this, you’d have established a deeper connection with your potential listeners as well as with yourself, as an artist. You’d seem more ‘believable,’ something a lot of podcasts don’t aim for. 

As your music career evolves, and your music reach widens to thousands of listeners, you could take these episodes further by involving another artist or music industry professional to break down your music with you. This would also add weight to your podcast, given the credentials of the featured professional.

Eventually, you could make a series of episodes reviewing songs by other artists in the same genre as your music. 

Brand partnerships

If your advice, guidance, and tips are new, helpful, and creative, there is a fair chance that your listener will pay to listen to more. If such a premise is established, you could be approached by companies and brands that operate in such niches. For example, if your podcast series on music instruments becomes a hit, then music instrument manufacturing companies such as Fender, Sennheiser, etc., may approach you for a collaboration. You’d have to recommend your listeners their products and this would be termed as a paid review or paid promotion. 

Pssst…come here: If you have a relatively big following, you could charge a fee for mentioning the brand name or promoting the brand. The idea is to expand and monetize simultaneously! 

Interviews 

Film stars, pop stars, musicians, and so many others have always come back to radio and given radio interviews. Why is that?

Radio interviews are becoming more of a luxury rather than an obligation for the interview - it is a break from a camera being on their face all the time and let’s be honest - no one likes being filmed constantly. Additionally, there is scope for fan engagement as well - through fan calls and pranks and different segments introduced to the interview. 

With Spotify and its immense digital space for podcasts, you could do interviews, with artists you have collaborated with, and other music industry professionals such as music promotors, music PR professionals, music agents, and A&R reps, who are not impossible to gain contacts of, because as an independent musician yourself, you’d have come across and worked with a few. Interviews help bring different perspectives, and most importantly, give you the power to ask questions - on behalf of your listeners and other upcoming musicians listening to your podcast. 

If you have gained a fair amount of following, you could livestream on Instagram or YouTube and see what your listeners would like to know. Announce that you’d be recording an interview with someone from an XYZ field and open the forum for questions from your listeners. This way, you’d have created anticipation for your episode, you’d have also interacted with your listeners, and know what your audience would like you to cover more. 

Pssst…come here: Try to make your interview session a lot more fun. Include games you could play, like Rapid Fire, Never Have I Ever, This, or That to make the interviewee more engaged and genuinely interested in the interview as well. It’d be ideal if you could break your interview into different segments, and place these interactive games appropriately, to keep the listener going. 

BTS but make it audio

The amount of audio that has gone viral on TikTok and Instagram without actually knowing where it originally came from is INSANE. 

“Yappa yappa yappa…shut it please. Thank you Shaneez.”

“OMG, I love this question….I think.”

“What can I say? What. Can. I. Say.”

If you read that in the original audio voice in your head, it is safe to say you are a regular social media user. 

You could make a compilation of all the BTS moments, those that you particularly think could be extremely funny and iconic. This doesn’t have to be a series as well. The idea is to give your audience material, show them what goes on behind making your music, and let them visualize it for you. User-generated content is the USP of this strategy - the more content your followers make, the more viral it will get and when it does, you could post about it on social media and link your podcast for the ‘Original Audio.’ Do not be too careful while picking your moments and audio, you never know what potential those ‘meh’ audios have, given Genz and content creation in 2024. 

What are our final thoughts?

You should definitely give it a shot - it doesn’t necessarily have to be high-budgeted and well-produced, you aren’t making ASMR podcasts. When you are just starting out, try 2 podcast episodes per month and as your musical graph increases, getting you more listeners and followers, you could increase the pace at which you’d release the podcast episodes and explore different topics. 

We at GreaseRelease, have a bunch of curators on our network who are looking for new & exciting music to push on their massive playlists. If you make music and want to reach a wider audience, check out our submission platform and get a chance to reach millions of listeners! Submit your tracks now!