Digital PR for Music

Digital PR for music can be creative, fun – and even get widespread media attention. A digital PR campaign can be extremely useful for any musician or band with an online presence – or online asset that they want to promote, or make more valuable. 

It’s a delicate balance and a lot of work. 

But this is the way PR and online marketing are evolving – and musicians, DJs and artists have an incredible opportunity to have a breakthrough moment with it. 

What is digital PR? A brief introduction to the concept

Digital PR is a promotional tactic used by marketers to increase a brand’s online presence. It is a measurable and tangible strategy that can meet the goals of: 

  • Boosted awareness 
  • Increased merch and music sales 
  • Increased social following and engagement 

But digital PR is a term you’re more likely to hear used by people in SEO and web marketing. 

That’s because it’s origins and roots are from the SEO community – and a practice called “link building”. As it stands today, digital PR is its own thing entirely, but it is still used for SEO sometimes. 

That’s all by the by – and not really of interest to us (unless we have a website we want to promote, but even then we’ve got better means!). Here’s what it is, in simple terms: 

Digital PR is a highly measurable marketing tactic that involves applying the principles of traditional PR to promoting online. 

It requires that you have digital assets – like a merch store, TikTok or video channel, Spotify/SoundCloud, or a website – in order to measure the results against your goals.

Because it is all-digital, you can be far scrappier and more attention-grabbing. It can cost less (or nothing, if you go the DIY route) than traditional PR. Digital PR does include things like press clippings from online publications, but it serves a deeper purpose; delivering content to millions of people, building hype around a launch, driving video views, and getting more plays and streams. 

How can producers and DJs use digital PR campaigns to market themselves? 

Digital tools are everywhere. They’re either free to use or very cheap. This makes the entry level very low – and that means your bar for quality has to be very high in order to rise above. 

Your music has to be stellar; excellent productions that stand up next to any other commercial release. 

But, the content you use to promote it can be the exact opposite if that would resonate with your audience. Just look at the top content on TikTok; filmed on phones, usually of low quality – but hitting the right tone. 

Read more: Music Promotion on TikTok 

The first step is to research your audience and the content they consume in depth. As in – spend days researching, finding what ties all the most popular digital content together. Are they funny? Emotional? Rage-inducing? Educational? Did it tie in with another event, or respond to a trend? 

And it doesn’t just have to be videos (although this will help to promote your music). Create a “mood board” of sorts, filled with content that: 

  • Reached the people you want to reach 
  • Went viral 
  • Got picked up by the press 

Pick through it – and get creative. What could you create that could tick all of those boxes? 

Maybe it’s a stunt. You could be the first, the biggest, the loudest, the fastest. You could challenge other musicians, like Nandi Bushell challenged Dave Grohl, but in a way that strikes your target audience. 

Your creativity, bravery and scrappiness has to shine through. And of course, it doesn’t hurt if you’ve got some contacts in the music press to help you spread the word. But you’ll need a story, an angle – not just “stuff” to peddle.

This is where having a music PR agency on board becomes more important. Not just for the contacts and connections – but for the know-how, 

Examples of digital PR campaigns – and the results 

Using data: an easy way to make a story 

Here’s one from a broadband website. No, really. They used music (because, broadband, streaming – you get the picture) to make a compelling story about the biggest one-hit wonders on Spotify. 

It got picked up by huge websites like EDM.com, Mental Floss, Salon.com – and did good numbers on social media. 

Here’s another idea, that goes “Bach in time” to reveal the top-streamed classical musicians on Spotify, and how much money they would have made back in their day. 

It got picked up by Classic FM, the RouteNote blog – in fact, it went GLOBAL with coverage and thousands of social engagements across multiple platforms. 

Of course, these are just some scrappy ideas – you can get much more creative with what you do, and tailor it to your audience. 

But there’s no denying that, if you want to make an impact online, digital PR for music is a new, fresh way of driving awareness. 

A Music PR Agency for a Brave New, Digital World 

Talk to a creative music PR agency that gets results – with inspirational, creative PR for DJs, producers and EDM artists. We work with the most exciting emerging talent and established acts. Contact us: call +44 (0) 161 298 6650 or send your message to info@urbanrebelpr.com.