A strong digital profile is the single most effective way to get your music heard by as many people as possible globally. The internet has made it easy for artists to develop direct relationships with their fans worldwide, however, not all musicians use their online presence to their full advantage.
You never know who could be looking at your profile, whether that be editorial or playlist teams, music publicists, labels or booking agents. A strong online presence can only advantage you, and the more up to date information you have out there, the better chance you have of getting a breakthrough.
Even if you have only released one or two singles, having something is better than having nothing at all. Most musicians will have a Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud account, but signing up to less-known services as well can increase your reach.
Keen to start? Here’s how you do it, for streaming services from A-Z!
Sign up at dash.anghami.com to set up your artist profile. From there, you can directly upload your tracks for sale. From the artist dashboard, you can easily manage your channels, organise catalogues, publish your latest releases and send live updates to fans. Check out your stats in the analytics tab for information on the age, gender and location of your listeners, as well as your top songs and fans.
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Amazon Music has recently launched a mobile app and desktop website for artists to track the success of their tracks on the platform and recieve insights on their Fan and SuperFan audience segments. You can also find out how many people are asking for your music using their Alexa devices! The app is available globally and on both Andriod and iOS operating systems so go on, download it and claim your artist profile.
Be sure to register at artists.apple.com first, so you can gain insights into your listeners, like where in the world your fans are based, as well as playlist stats. The site can also tell you how many times your track has been shazamed, and how many people are listening to your music over time. Distribution services (like US!) can now update your profile on Apple Music for you. From 23/01/20, Shazam for Artists will be moving over to Apple Music, and operated from the same dashboard.
Deezer have a back end service portal called Deezer Backstage. https://backstage.deezer.com/user/login
You can request access to see your analytics. And once you’re in the below things are what you can add to your profile to jazz it up.
Genius is a place where fans and artists can share their stories behind the music. It’s where Spotify gets this information from when you listen through the app. Want to be a part of it?
Get your music verified at genius.com. Once approved, you can share your lyrics, hidden meanings and stories behind your music, and even reach out to fans who have started collecting the information on the site on your behalf.
Netease is the biggest platform in China for Western music. Here’s a link to an extensive rundown of the service and how you can make the most of it.
It’s an extremely social platform and provides quite a few tools to engage with fans. Fanconnect is the best way to update your profile and make announcements on the platform. You can access fanconnect here or at https://music.163.com/fanconnect/mine
You know when people have lyrics that come up on insta stories? That info is pulled from Musixmatch which is why it’s super important to have your lyrics up to date on here. Visit musixmatch.com/contribute and get those lyrics up stat!
Pandora offers a unique feature in their artist profiling system where you can record your own voice messages and have them displayed alongside your tracks. It’s a pretty popular service in America so if you stream well there on other platforms it could be worth making sure you’re engaging with this one too. This adds a nice personal touch that could be useful for promoting your latest release or upcoming shows in a creative way. Sign up at http://amp.pandora.com to get started!
The big cheese! Register for your artist profile at artists.spotify.com and await verification. Once your profile’s been approved, get ready to set it up! You need to include a biography, a photo and a cover photo. It’s especially important to include the photos on Spotify because sometimes the service sends emails to your fans to let them know about upcoming tours and releases, but they only do this for artists who have uploaded photos. Spotify also has another handy feature when you write or edit your bio – it allows you to tag artists/playlists/songs/albums as direct links. Always link to your social media platforms from Spotify too.
Email distrohive@distrosupport.freshdesk.com with a bio, social media links, two press photos, and the URL to your Tidal artist profile.
YouTube is the premium platform for music videos. It offers useful stats like views by city and play counts. Sign up here: artists.youtube.com
