How to Market a Song With No Budget
Published · updated · by Loopin
With no money, you have two currencies: time and specificity. Here is where to spend them, in order, over the four weeks around a release.
The free things almost nobody does
Pitch in Spotify for Artists — it is free, takes ten minutes, and is what makes your track eligible for Release Radar for your existing followers. Claim your artist profiles on every platform, not just Spotify. Add your song to your own public playlists and to any playlist you already run.
Three items, under an hour total, and they are the highest return per minute available to an independent artist. They are skipped constantly because none of them feel like promotion.
Week one: make ten clips from one song
One song produces ten posts without repeating itself: the hook, a different section, the voice memo it started as, a lyric card, hands playing the riff, the mix before and after, a walk with the song over it, the artwork being made, a one-line story about writing it, and a question to the audience about which version to release.
Batch all ten in one session while the room is already set up. The posting schedule is then a queue rather than a daily decision, and daily decisions are what kill zero-budget campaigns in week two.
Week two: fifty personal messages
Not a broadcast. Fifty individual messages to people who have already interacted with you — commenters, people who shared something, other artists you have spoken to. Say what the song is and ask if they want it early.
Expect twenty replies and eight who actually do something. That is a far better return than any post gets, and it is the only mechanism available to you that scales with effort rather than with reach.
Week three: go where the audience already is
Find the three subreddits, Discord servers or forums where your genre actually talks, and be there for a fortnight before you mention your own song. Answer questions, react to other people's work, be a name people recognise.
Then post once. A single post from a recognised member outperforms twenty from a stranger, and the stranger version usually gets removed. This is slow and it is the highest-converting free channel there is.
Week four: the second push
Almost everyone posts on release day and stops. The song is still new to everybody who did not see that post, which is nearly everybody. Post the strongest clip again two weeks after release with different text.
Then check which clip performed best across the whole campaign and make three more like it. That is your next release's week one, and you built it for free by paying attention.
Frequently asked questions
How can I promote my music for free?
Pitch in Spotify for Artists, claim every artist profile, add the track to playlists you already run, then make ten clips from one song and message fifty people individually. The first three take under an hour and are the highest return per minute available.
How many posts should one song get?
At least ten, and they do not need to repeat. The hook, another section, the original voice memo, a lyric card, hands playing it, a mix before/after, the artwork being made, a walk clip, a story, and a question.
Does posting in music forums actually work?
Yes, if you are there for a couple of weeks before mentioning your own song. A post from a recognised member outperforms twenty from a stranger, and stranger posts are usually removed.