Finding effective Amazon music promotion methods can be a game changer for your career. The minute you start actively marketing your tracks, you’ll see an uptick in your streams and followers. Luckily, you don’t have to look far to find strategies to get your music heard on Amazon Music.
Amazon Music is the third most used music streaming platform worldwide. It’s available in over a dozen countries, with about 70 million users preferring it. Therefore, artists on Amazon Music can reap immense rewards when they effectively and efficiently market their music on the platform. With Amazon Music for Artists, you’re set up with several tools to market your tracks.
This post will walk you through the best strategies to promote your music on Amazon Music. Let's look at the reasons you should put in the work to market your tracks on Amazon Music first.
Why Amazon Music Promotion is Important
Organic discovery of your tracks is possible on Amazon Music. However, given that it hosts millions of songs, the likelihood that listeners will discover your music is moderate. This is especially true for artists who have yet to make a name for themselves in the music industry.
The last thing you want is to leave listeners discovering your music up to chance. Therefore, understanding why you should promote your music on Amazon Music is essential.
Amazon is one of the most renowned brands worldwide. Its sub-service, Amazon Music, is just as popular. Beloved by nearly 70 million people, Amazon Music is the top choice for listeners in several countries.
In fact, Amazon Music is the third most used music streaming platform after Spotify and Apple Music. Therefore, you can draw millions of listeners to your music when you maximize your marketing efforts.
Listeners in over 10 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, France, and Brazil, use Amazon Music. Although it isn't available in every country, the platform still has a broad reach.
Amazon Music for Artists is a significant reason to promote your music on Amazon Music. This aspect of the music stream service is immensely valuable for musicians.
Amazon Music for Artists is built for song promotion. Therefore, you’ll receive access to several features that can help you market your music and boost discoverability. These include in-depth analytics for your tracks and the ability to pitch your music for playlist placement.
Key Features for Amazon Music Promotion & Discovery
Amazon Music is equipped for music promotion and discovery. The app contains some features you can use to get your music heard on the platform. While others are available through Amazon Music for Artists. Below are some Amazon Music features that’ll increase the chances of users discovering you and your music.
Playlists
Playlists are integral to most music streaming platforms because they help listeners find new music. They're also ideal for keeping listeners updated with new music from their favorite artists.
Amazon Music has several curated playlists. Some cater to the platform's biggest hits, while others feature the latest releases. They also have a playlist that highlights tracks by emerging artists.
Getting your music on a playlist on Amazon Music is your ticket to taking your career to the next level. It essentially promotes your music on Amazon Music for you. Luckily, you can pitch tracks for playlist placement, so you don’t have to leave getting on a playlist up to chance.
Artist Follow
Like several other music streaming platforms, Amazon Music allows listeners to follow their favorite artists. Following an artist keeps them up to date with new releases. Therefore, they won’t miss happenings with artists whose music they enjoy.
When a fan follows you on Amazon Music, you will promote your music on Amazon Music automatically. How? Well, Amazon Music notifies your followers whenever you release a new track or album.
Spotlight
Spotlight is Amazon Music’s creative twist on track promotion on the platform. It enables you to market your music with a personal voice message. As a result, fans and listeners may be keener to check out your new track, album, or playlist.
This feature is available to artists with over 1,000 followers on Amazon Music. However, this requirement is likely to change.
Amazon Originals
You may not engage with fans as much between the production and release of an album or track. Because of this, you might lose your fans' attention. Therefore, you should find ways to avoid losing your fans’ interest while you’re making new music.
That’s where Amazon Originals comes in. Amazon Originals enables you to keep your fans engaged by creating new content. This includes cover songs, alternate versions of released songs, or new compositions.
You’ll collaborate with Amazon Music to create those tracks. And the music you produce will appear as an Amazon Original on the platform for fans to listen to.
DJ Mode
DJ Mode is Amazon Music’s innovative take on playlists. It combines music streaming with the commentary you find on FM radio.
Listeners are treated to a combination of three of Amazon Music’s most renowned playlists through DJ Mode. These include All Hits, Rap Rotation, and Country Heat. In addition to the tracks, they hear recorded audio commentary from musicians in between.
The songs appearing in DJ Mode are personalized to the listener based on their listening habits. Therefore, they’re constantly exposed to new music. As a result, your track could come into the rotation, allowing them to discover you and your music.
Intros
Intros are another feature you can use to promote your music on Amazon Music. This aspect helps you market new releases with audio promotional liners of up to 15 seconds. They appear in the Amazon Music playback for listeners to discover.
In some ways, Intros are similar to Spotlight. They both use audio to promote tracks. However, Spotlight offers up to 3 minutes for artists to tell a story about the song, album, or playlist.
Stations
Stations are personalized mixes of tracks on Amazon Music that listeners can tune into. They’re specific to genre, theme, and mood. And they can be artist-based, meaning they include the musician’s catalog and tracks by similar artists.
With millions of tracks on Amazon Music, Stations give artists a chance to shine. They also make music discovery easier. Therefore, ending up on a listener's Station can bode well for your music and career.
The Best Strategies for Amazon Music Promotion
Once you get your tracks on Amazon Music, getting the ball rolling with a great Amazon Music promotion strategy is best. Leaving your music to be discovered organically may not reap the desired results. This is especially the case for emerging artists on the platform.
Therefore, you should have some strategies to promote your music on Amazon Music. First, ensure your music is available on the platform. Your distributor will handle this for you, so you don't have to do it manually.
If you don’t have a distributor, look into working with Sugo Music Group. They specialize in music publishing and distribution, offering these services to artists like yourself for over three decades. Their music distribution service can get your tracks on over 200 music streaming and download services, including Amazon Music.
After confirming your tracks are available on Amazon Music, you can start marketing them. Let’s look into the different ways to promote your music on Amazon Music.
Claim Your Amazon Music for Artists Profile
If your music is available on Spotify, you use Spotify for Artists to promote it. Amazon Music has a similar hub for musicians, giving you access to several tools and features for track promotion.
To access Amazon Music for Artists, you’ll need to claim your artist profile by following these steps:
- Visit the Amazon Music for Artists website
- Sign in or create an Amazon account
- Search for your artist name and select it
- Complete the fields with the requested information
Amazon Music will review your claim and verify your identity before giving you access. To speed up the verification process, be sure to include your social media links. And add any information that's relevant to your music career.
Once you’ve claimed your Amazon Music for Artists profile, you can access tools to market your songs on the platform. In addition, you can view powerful analytics and data such as:
- Fans and superfans: groups your streaming data to help you determine how many fans and superfans you have.
- Voice requests: tracks how many people request Amazon’s voice recognition software like Alexa for an artist's name, album, track, or lyrics.
- Playlists and Stations: highlights track additions to Amazon's playlists or Stations.
- Stream counts and top songs: displays the total streams and listeners on the platform.
Pitch Your Songs for Playlist Placement
Landing on an Amazon Music playlist can make your career. Therefore, pitching your songs for playlist placement is another strategy to promote your music on Amazon Music.
You can pitch one new release for playlist placement. Ensure up to 14 days have passed since the street date for the release to be eligible. And that Amazon Music has received the streaming rights.
Once you find a track adhering to those requirements, follow these steps to submit a pitch:
- Open the Amazon Music for Artists app
- Select ‘Profile & Tools’, then navigate to "New Releases"
- Choose a track under the ‘New Releases’ header
- Create your pitch
- Review and submit your pitch
According to Amazon Music, you should pitch the top track in a release. Alternatively, choose the track you think listeners will love.
When putting together your pitch, you’ll need to sell why Amazon Music should include your track in a playlist. They’ll ask you to share why you think listeners will enjoy your song. Also, they’ll want to know your promotion plans for the track, like your marketing strategy.
You can also include other information to spruce up your pitch. This includes your fan count, similar artists, and tracks’ vibe and themes. Including as much information as possible and displaying your love for the music you create in your submission can pay off.
After submitting your pitch, you’ll hear back from Amazon Music in a few weeks. Your existing fans and followers will receive a notification about the new release. While listeners on the platform can discover your track in the playlist where they placed it.
Create a Spotlight
If you have over 1,000 followers on Amazon Music, you can use Spotlight to promote your music on Amazon Music. Spotlight is a great way to market your tracks on the platform. This is because it helps you get the word out about your music while forging deeper bonds with fans.
You can create a Spotlight in the Amazon Music for Artists app. Simply head to 'Profile & Tools' to get started. Once you create a Spotlight, listeners can discover it on your artist profile page in the app and through the activity feed.
Marketing your songs on Amazon Music can be effective. However, you can take your promotional efforts to the next level by leveraging your social media accounts.
Chances are you have a following across various social media accounts. If you don’t, check out our post to learn how to grow your following by promoting your music on social media.
Your social media following doesn’t have to be in the millions to promote your songs on Amazon Music. As long as you have people paying attention, you can draw them to the platform to listen to your tracks.
Sharing any song on Amazon Music to social media is simple. Simply click the share link in the Amazon Music for Artists app or the Amazon Music streaming app.
You can create an Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat story featuring the track. Alternatively, make a reel on Instagram or Facebook with one of your tracks to grab your followers’ attention. Publishing a tweet on Twitter prompting viewers to listen to your music on Amazon Music can also be effective.
Create an Intro
An Intro is an alternative to Spotlight to grab a listener’s attention when they first play your new release. Intros can be up to 15 seconds. Therefore, you’ll have to choose your words wisely.
You can create an Intro for any new release in a full or single-track album. Also, you can create Intros for multiple tracks. And more than one Intro can be live at the same time.
To create an Intro, visit the Profile & Tools section in the Amazon Music for Artists app. Then head to New Releases.
Host a Livestream
Amazon Music partnered with Twitch to enable listeners to watch live streams by their favorite artists on the app. This means you can host a live stream on Twitch, which will appear on your Amazon Music artist profile page.
To use this feature, you’ll first need to link your Twitch channel to Amazon Music by following these steps:
- Log in to Amazon Music for Artists
- Tap ‘Profile & Tools’
- Click ‘Connect your Twitch Channel’
You'll have to authorize Twitch live streams in the Amazon Music streaming app by signing in with your Twitch credentials. Note that if you don’t have a Twitch account, you should click ‘About’ and then ‘Get Started with Twitch.’
Once your Twitch and Amazon Music account are linked, you can start hosting live streams. Visitors to your profile can watch your live streams. And anyone who follows you on Amazon Music will receive a notification whenever you go live from Twitch.
The Bottom Line
Amazon is in the big leagues of music streaming platforms. It ranks in the top five of the most used music streaming services worldwide amongst giants like Spotify and Tencent Music.
Millions of listeners in several countries use Amazon Music to discover and listen to songs. Therefore, you should actively market your tracks on the platform. The more buzz you create around your music, the greater your chances of success.
You can utilize Amazon Music for Artists as part of your Amazon Music promotion plan. It’ll set you up with various features to boost your music’s visibility and discoverability. For instance, you can create a Spotlight.
Remember, with all the promotional strategies you put in place, you’ll need to keep an eye on your analytics. They’ll help you see what’s working and where you can tweak your marketing strategy.