How To Promote Music Internationally Free: 7 Tips

Here are some proven strategies to promote music internationally without spending a dime. From online platforms to social media tips, learn how to connect with global audiences and grow your fan base abroad.

How To Promote Music Internationally Free

by Michael Gallant of Disc Makers Blog

It can be easy to think that musical popularity in your own community, city, or country is all that matters — but that’s only the beginning of the story. What if your newest love song enchants listeners in Indonesia, your traditional jazz album unexpectedly resounds around Europe, or your socially conscious hip-hop track makes waves in Brazil? 

Thanks to a wide range of tech innovations, independent musicians can now reach a global audience and find the listeners who will feel the most lifted by their music. Taking the time to find and cultivate those artist-fan relationships can help artists grow their careers in amazing ways. 

Read on for seven tips on free ways to get started promoting your own music overseas.

1. Leverage social media

For better or worse, social media is a global force — so in your quest to grow an international audience and your music career, you may as well take advantage of what it has to offer. When used well, social media can help you efficiently connect with potential fans anywhere in the world. Don’t hesitate to share your music via Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and any other social media platform that you feel has potential. A few strategies to experiment with:

• Try to connect with influencers or music bloggers in the geographic area you’re targeting, actively engage with their material, introduce yourself and your music, and see if there’s a way for them to help you spread the word.
• Get creative with hashtags and try to use ones that people in the area you’re looking at might be drawn to. 
• Find people whose feeds you admire in the country you’re looking at and explore ways to collaborate on content that includes your music.
• Contact international artists you respect and ask for their advice when it comes to introducing your music to audiences in different countries.
• Stay cool, don’t rush things, and focus on building relationships of mutual respect while trusting that the musical and career benefits will follow.

2. Engage with international music communities

From casual chat groups to international organizations, there are countless ways to connect with fellow musicians around the world. Check out your favorite music-making publications, musical instrument or software companies, or reputable music-making social media feeds to see what’s out there in terms of online forums and beyond. Reaching out to organizations like ASCAP, BMI, and the Recording Academy to ask about connecting with international music communities can be great as well.

If you’re in the U.S., public diplomacy tours sponsored by the State Department are also intriguing ways to get connected overseas.

Collaborating with artists living in other countries can also be a great way to build your own audiences around the world. For starters, try finding international artists whom you admire, and whose music you love, and reach out via social media. Being a guest artist on a foreign artist’s latest track or inviting international artists to be part of your next project can be a great way to forge bonds while introducing your name and music to a wider audience.

3. Focus on content that a global audience will enjoy and share

This can be a tricky one, because there’s no formula for what an audience in any given country may find magnetically awesome or may write off as trite and off-putting. The answer? Do your research, follow your gut, and do your best. 

A great way to start is by looking at the type of content that the international audience you’re targeting enjoys, engages with, and shares. Gain inspiration from your favorite artist in your geographic area of choice and try to pay attention to what they do in common that seems to get good results. Don’t rip anything off of course, but if you see patterns or best practices, try to apply them to your own content creation to help you build a fanbase.

4. Maximize the power of streaming services

The downside of a streaming platform like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music? They pay fractions of a penny per listen. The upside? The global audience and reach are unparalleled. So if you’re looking to build your international fanbase, it can help a great deal to have your music streamed as widely as possible.

Different streaming services cater to different parts of the world. Do your research, find out which streaming services are most popular in the areas you’re targeting, and make sure your music is submitted and stream-able. Services like CD Baby and TuneCore are affordable go-to options that indie artists often use to increase their global reach.

It can also help to get your music featured on prominent playlists. Again, research is key — find out which international playlists feature music like yours, get in touch with the curators, and see if you can build relationships and introduce your music. Unless you’re highly connected or highly lucky, this will likely take effort and patience. Remember that effort and patience can pay off big in the long run.

5. Nurture relationships with fans everywhere

Your enthusiastic listeners in Finland deserve engagement just as much as your super-fans in Côte d’Ivoire and your longtime supporters in Cleveland. Here are a few ways to meaningfully connect with all of them:

• Conduct livestreamed concerts and Q&A sessions targeted to different geographic locations (keeping local zones time in mind).
• Send out geo-targeted newsletters to let fans in any given country know what’s happening in their area, where they can hear your newest music, and more.
• Honor country-specific holidays and events in the areas you’re targeting.

If language barriers become a problem, get creative with solutions. Could you enlist multi-lingual local fans to serve as real-time translators? Will your fans be excited to submit questions in writing ahead of time, which you can then translate via any number of tech utilities? With anything multilingual, just be mindful that even the most sophisticated AI translation software isn’t going to get everything right, so if you’re putting out an international newsletter in a language you’re not personally fluent in, try to get it reviewed by a native speaker first.

6. Be part of international music contests and festivals

There are tons of opportunities to enter your music in international competitions, showcases, festivals, live shows, fellowships, and other opportunities. A few ways to find the right opportunities for you:

• Lean into search engines, or even your favorite AI, to find interesting musical opportunities in your regions of choice.
• Reach out to local artists and arts organizations in whatever areas you’re targeting and ask about contests and festivals that welcome international applicants. 
• Touch base with your home country’s embassy and consulates in whatever areas you’re trying to make a splash in. See if they can point you towards regional artists, organizations, or other resources that can help. 
• Follow other artists who have successfully built international followings and see which competitions, showcases, etc. they’ve taken advantage of. 
• Talk to folks who have traveled recently to your area of focus and see if they have any tips to share to find gigs. 
• Keep your ears and eyes open. You never know what you’re going to find when you start making yourself aware.

Showcasing your music on an international stage can open up unexpected opportunities and attract untapped audiences to your work, so don’t hesitate to go for anything and everything that feels right. Just remember this: The more famous and lucrative the opportunity, the more competition there will likely be. Don’t hesitate to go for smaller opportunities as well, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t strike gold on the first try.

7. Independent musicians must keep learning

When it comes to music promotion and growing your international audience, there are always new people to meet, fresh skills to develop, and useful knowledge to attain. Continue to broaden your knowledge of how to promote your music, then you can enjoy the benefits and perks. Keep learning and exploring!