Sometimes it’s hard for an independent singer-songwriter to change gears from creation to promotion and figure out where to start promoting their new release. Here are some ways I’ve been promoting my new EP “Life Gets Strange”.

1. Independent radio promotion

Often a singer-songwriter’s music ends up fitting best in the Triple-A (adult album alternative) or Americana radio format, and their are a number of independent radio promoters out there who specialize in those formats. A quick search will come up with a great many results, I’ve had good luck working with industry veteran Bob Laul and his “Serious Bob Promotion” radio promo company. An independent radio promotion campaign may cost anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 for roughly an 8 to 10 week run depending on how serious of a campaign you’re going for. Those numbers a very rough ballpark figures, but may give you an idea of how much you’d need to budget for a professional radio push. The radio promoter should give you weekly tracking reports to see what stations may be giving you spins. You’ll also want to create a “onesheet” PDF of the basic info regarding your release, the radio promoter should be able to help you do that.

2. Play MPE

 If you can’t afford a full-on radio promo campaign and want to go more DIY, the company PlayMPE has basically become the industry standard for digital distribution to radio program directors and industry folks. For a singer/songwriter to submit a song (they work on a per-song basis) to Triple-A/Non-commercial & NPR stations cost about $400 at this point, and that allows for an initial email blast to hundreds of stations that subscribe to their service (most stations do) along with link to the song directly in their inboxes, plus two follow-up email blasts to update on the progress of the song (any spins you may be getting, stations who have picked you up so far) as well as giving another chance to catch the interest of anyone who may have missed your song the first time. You also can access a list of all the people who may have streamed or downloaded your song so you can follow up with them.

3. Independent PR

There are a great many independent PR firms and individuals around who can help with writing a press release, getting your song/album/EP reviewed in magazines & music blogs, getting interviews with entertainment sites and more. The cost varies widely from individuals & companies, I’ve had good luck with Eric Alper (aka “That Eric Alper”), who is based in Canada but has some good US connections as well.

4. Submit to Spotify playlists

There are several sites you can use to submit to Spotify curators & influencers, by purchasing credits in order to submit to whomever you choose in your particular musical genre. Submithub & Playlist Push are two of the main ones. You can submit to popular Spotify playlists & get feedback from the curators regardless of whether they add your song or not. It’s important that you look for playlists that your style fits into the best.

5. Social media

While promoting your new release on social media is by far the most obvious, sometimes artists don’t consider everything they can do to make it as easy as possible for people to find their music. You should have the cover image of your new release and a current promo pic on all platforms to keep your “brand” consistent, and make sure you have band/artist pages on all the usual sites (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with links to stream and purchase your music in the bio, along with a short but compelling description to give people a reason to want to click through and check out your music. It’s also important to secure your Spotify for Artists account (assuming you’re on Spotify) to get more stats regarding who’s streaming your music and where. The same goes for your Youtube Creators account and for Google Knowledge panels.

About the author:

Award winning songwriter, singer and producer, Cliff Hillis has a solid reputation as a highly sought-after multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and studio whiz. His releases have been praised by USA Today, The LA Times and his songs have been featured in TV shows and films.

 In addition to performing his own songs, Hillis tours the world with The Orchestra (featuring ELO former members) Patty Smyth & Scandal, US Rails and is a member of The Hooters’ David Uosikkinen’s In the Pocket and Smash Palace.