Gaining commercial success in music has never been an easy undertaking. From breaking into the industry to making it as a musician, a career in music is not without its challenges. However, with the advent of social media, musicians can now launch influencer marketing campaigns that launch their careers. When musicians collaborate with influencers, they can access warm audiences across the digital landscape. Influencer marketing can promote music online rapidly and vastly, whether through a viral TikTok trend or music playing on a Twitch stream. Let us explore the promotional prowess of influencer marketing and the many ways it’s empowering musicians, managers, and record labels today.

Influencer Marketing for Music

Collaborating with influencers is akin to being seated at the popular table: you get instant exposure, mass visibility, and social credibility. Musicians, their managers, or record labels can capitalize on this reach by partnering with Creators to promote songs online. Because most social media platforms have built-in features that let users add music to their videos, photos, or live streams, creating content with selected tracks or sound bytes can easily lead to viral trends anyone can join. Content creation allows for the creative marriage of music and visuals, and Creators are masters at pushing this content front, center, forward, and out.

TikTok alone has reshaped the music industry and led to the rise of today’s biggest musical stars, including Lil Nas X, Dixie D’amelio, Jack Harlow, and Doja Cat. In fact, promoting music through social media has become so effective that most scouts discover talent through TikTok and other popular platforms. Musicians are replacing demo submissions with video clips, and those who go viral consistently get signed by record labels almost immediately.

Circulating Music on Social Media

Social media is integral to any contemporary music marketing strategy. With over 2 billion users on TikTok and Instagram, distributing your music to the right people can be guaranteed if a data-driven approach is taken. There are a plethora of ways music can be integrated into social media content from UGC music challenges to private listening sessions. Influencer marketing offers musicians a creative way to circulate their music without maintaining a consistent online presence that may otherwise impact their mental health adversely.

As experts in their fields (and on their feeds), Creators can navigate social media and their followers better than anyone else. Collaborating with Creators opens the door to new musical outlets, audiences, and talent. Musicians can partner with Creators on Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and TikTok to get everyone playing their songs and piquing their popularity. TikTok, however, remains the go-to platform for music discovery—so much so that it released an in-app song distribution platform called SoundOn in 2022.

TikTok Virality and Streaming Success

A recent study by Vox and The Pudding revealed a correlation between a song’s TikTok virality and its streaming success on Spotify. Vox dubbed this phenomenon the TikTik-To-Spotify Pipeline and explored how 15 seconds of TikTok fame can lead to a spot on one of Spotify’s curated editorial playlists. Getting listed on these coveted playlists sustains the song’s shelf life and surges the artists’ streaming stats. It has become such a predictable formula, that many musicians are bypassing record labels altogether and using TikTok users as their marketing team.

Alamo Records Campaigns

Alamo Records sought to harness the power of influencer marketing through two very successful TikTok campaigns created to promote Rod Wave’s new album Beautiful Mind. Using Glewee, the record label built the campaigns and partnered with fifteen pre-vetted Creators to reach younger audiences online. By crafting authentic content, the Creators successfully shared the tracks Alone and Sweet Little Lies across TikTok. The campaigns garnered 210,912 impressions and 9,486 likes, with an average cost of $400 per Creator. Beyond high levels of engagement, the campaigns allowed social media users to connect with the music in intimate, novel, and personalized ways.

@isabella.laurengetting back into routine>♬ sonido original – LMC

@lollyzlexireal issues i’m having here♬ original sound – GivingTheLyrics

@collin_c_stormit actually be the worst feeling ever♬ original sound – GivingTheLyrics

@michaeljamescaa Is Rod Wave under appreciated?! #rodwave #rodwavemusic #rap #rnb #underrated ♬ original sound – GivingTheLyrics

@titosuave941We can have a whole concert if you bring your friends who need a car😂♬ original sound – GivingTheLyrics

Atlantic Records Campaign

Atlantic Records is another label that used Glewee’s all-in-one influencer marketing platform to launch a music campaign on social media and bring mass awareness to OHGEESY’s new song GEEKALEEK (feat. Bia). Three Glewee Creators partnered with Atlantic Records to produce five pieces of content that featured the song. These Creators were selected for their targeted and expansive online influence. The content ranged from dance challenges, lip syncs, and duets on TikTok and Instagram. The dual-platform campaign resulted in over 5 million impressions, 26 thousand likes, and viral circulation. Since the launch, the song has been used on 500 TikTok videos and 200 Instagram Reels.

@thescene_creativestudios Ring Ring Ring @PAIGE @Jamie #geekaleekremix #fyp #geekaleek #transition #heels #ohgeesy #bia ♬ GEEKALEEK REMIX – OHGEESY

Find Your Fanbase

Getting music off your computer and onto everyone’s AirPods doesn’t have to be a dream. With Glewee, it can be a reality easily fulfilled through influencer marketing. Influencers can excite, engage, and involve their fans by creating relevant, relatable content. This grants musicians access to a global fanbase, and enables them to circumvent the many roadblocks traditionally associated with a career in music. With end-to-end features like audience insights, a pre-vetted Creator Marketplace, and start-to-finish campaign management, Glewee gives musicians, managers, and record labels access to online stardom. If you’re ready to rock ‘n’ reel with Creators across social media, create your Glewee account now.