1. CREATE SHARE-WORTHY CONTENT
The first step to make your music go viral is to have something share-worthy! It has to be either so good people can’t help but share (like Beyonce), or have a media component tied to it that appeals to your audience.
Think about Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, the song went viral and his music career sky-rocketed. He had an innovative song since he mixed country and trap, but just releasing the song wouldn’t have been enough.
Lil Nas X made about 100 different memes with his song in the background prior to the song taking off. One of the memes caught the attention of a Tik-Tok influencer and before you know it the entire world knew about it!
You have to get creative. What is something everyone is talking about right now in the media? Think about ways to leverage that with your creation.
Here are some steps towards getting your content shared:
Get your song recorded, mixed and mastered by someone who can make it sound amazing sonically, or learn how to do it yourself. If you want to save some money and you know how to produce, create the beat and then just get your vocals professionally recorded.
I produce many songs from scratch with my clients, but I also have a lot of clients that bring me a backing track and then I record, mix and produce their vocals and master their entire song.
Contact Jony Studios if you’d like to have your song recorded, mixed and mastered by a professional.
It just has to be at a level where people can truly enjoy listening to it over and over again. Bon Iver recorded his entire debut album in a cabin with a $100 mic (a Shure SM57) and won two Grammys!
Create a video component for your song. Whether it is a music video, or you with your smartphone blasting your new song in the car while belting out the window to strangers in a mall parking lot haha.
The point is to CONNECT with the people you want listening to your music. Video is perfect for this.
Another great way to find examples of share-worthy content is to pay attention to what you and your friends are sharing.
Is it funny, is it shocking, is it really emotional?! Then take your song and ask yourself: what can I add to the video portion to make it something worth sharing. Also, controversy works, just be careful because if it is done in an untasteful manner, it can have a severe impact on your brand image.
Be real! Talk about your flaws, your weaknesses, your struggles, your happiness and your success. People connect with other people, not objects. When you show your human side you build a real relationship with your audience.
To be honest, I still struggle with this. It’s hard for me to be vulnerable to social media and I think this has had an impact on my growth. The times I’ve talked directly to my iPhone camera and put myself fully out there on my Instagram stories it ended up getting the most engagement.
Look at Cardi B for example, she is who she is and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks of her. That’s why people either love her or hate her. It’s a lot better to be polarizing and unapologetically yourself, then so passive that no one will ever remember you.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t like watching movies or tv shows? Mean either. It’s because we love a good story! Show the climb, be honest about your obstacles, create suspense, celebrate your victories. Take your future fans on a journey they don’t want to miss. Let them in on the action and watch as you create a movement that will launch you to success!
4. NETWORK WITH INFLUENCERS AND ADD VALUE TO THEM
The Internet has given you access to a lot of people that can take you to the next level. The fact that you’re reading this means you have access to me. We are connected! You can even come to record a song or even send me a mix to master from across the world!
It’s crazy when you think about it, and most people rarely utilize the Internet for their growth. Instead, they just spend countless hours watching Netflix and funny prank videos.
All the songwriters, music label execs, musicians, and business owners are on social media! You can reach out to them. One step you can take now to connect with others is to create a LinkedIn account for your music brand.
You can view mine here as an example. Through LinkedIn and other social media platforms, you can find playlist curators and a lot of people in the industry that can help you expedite your growth. The opportunities are endless.
In order to create meaningful connections when networking (either online or in-person) you must ADD VALUE first! No one owes you anything. If you just ask someone who doesn’t know you to do something for you, you can expect no response or a block.
You want to learn more about them to see how you can make their life easier, without expecting anything in return. Do you have a skill they could benefit from? Do they have a problem you can fix?
Those are the type of questions you should be asking yourself.
When you serve others, the doors of opportunity unlock and abundance will come flowing into your life like never before. I’m writing this free article for you currently at a Starbucks at 9:39 PM after a full day of work because I’m passionate about helping you!
This energizes me and allows me to meet amazing people while doing what I love.
Start shifting your mindset from “What can I get” to “How can I serve” and just watch what happens. Everything will start clicking into place.
5. GROWTH HACK YOUR WAY TO FAME
You can do all of the above and still have just your mom checking out your music haha. I’m exaggerating, but in order to fuel the fire, you need to harness the power of digital marketing!
You already know what I’m talking about.
You must have seen those ads everywhere on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Google. In order to go viral, you need to find the people that can resonate with your brand. Once you have your target market (as mentioned above) you can use that information to target them wherever they are online.
There are a lot of great strategies I have used that have created an impact, but to tell you all about them here would be too much reading! Schedule a music growth training session with me here and I can tell you all about it. I look forward to meeting you.
Always make sure to keep track of all your connections on a Microsoft Excel Document.
It should contain the names, roles (family, friend, blogger, fan, etc.) and email IDs of everyone you know and can connect with when a new album/song comes out. Try to keep them in touch with everything noteworthy that’s happening in your professional life.
This will increase the number of people your song reaches out to since your connections will be able to share your news with their loved ones and followers as well. Always make sure you keep updating your list. Note down every new ally you connect with and add them on the list as well.
13. GET YOUR SONG ON A SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Spotify has become a powerful tool for musicians and artists.
Not only will it expose your song to millions of people in one platform, but it can also help create a fan base for you. The way to do that is by getting your song on a Spotify playlist. And by Spotify playlist, I mean the playlists made by Spotify or by any major label.
There are a few ways to get your music noticed by some of these playlists:
Create a Spotify for Artists Account. Not only will this verify you instantly, but it will also provide you with analytics and notifications whenever your song is added to a playlist.
Direct your fans to your Spotify account by sharing a link on your social media and website. This will generate traffic on your Spotify page thus increasing the number of plays.
This is important because Spotify uses data such as plays, durations, the number of people listening to your song, etc. to decide the songs that go into a playlist. It’s important to be active on Spotify to get on a playlist.
You can contact individuals who own playlists and request them to include your song on their playlist as well.
You also have the option of submitting your song through your Spotify for Artists Account for consideration for the Spotify Playlists. There are only a few conditions before you submit your song:
The track must be unreleased
It has to be submitted 7 days prior to its release date
You can only submit one track
You need to submit specifications such as genre, mood, instrumentation and whether it's a cover or original.
Create a professional-looking video to go along with your song. This will not only give your fans something to look at while listening to your music but in some cases can also provide them with more in-depth content for your song.
Making a professional-looking video is not that difficult. All you need to do is get the right background, get a professional microphone and video camera and lastly, make sure to record your audio first and then your video.
Also, do remember to make your video SEO friendly. Make sure to use a lot of keywords and phrases that will get your video on someone's search results. The way to do this is to create a good video heading that clearly states the song’s name, album’s name and singer’s name and to use a lot of keywords in the description box.
In order to make your music go viral you must keep learning and growing. You should always devote time to better yourself, this can sky rocket your success. Anyone you look up to in the music industry has learned as much as they can and continue to do so to improve. Whether it’s signing up for an online course or buying a book and taking notes on an aspect you want to master, there is no greater way to accelerate your career as an artist / music producer.
Me and the entire Jony Studios team are developing a course based on all of our experience in the business / music industry. It will be a concise value packed online course on everything you need to know about music production to succeed. From songwriting to producing to marketing your brand.
The course is called: Producer Launch - The Ultimate Online Music Production Course
This will help millions of musicians, home recording studio owners and producers learn what took me over 10 years to learn in a few months, plus it will be lifetime access, so I will keep adding more valuable content with all the people in the course as I keep growing. This is going to be an amazing community as well, where we can all learn from each other and keep growing together.
If you would like to get notified of when this course is released, sign up with your email here or press the “Get Notified” button below. Everyone on that list will receive an exclusive 50% off when the course launches! It’s time to take action now.
