The most common mistake in modern music marketing is both frustrating to fans and deprives artists of precious plays. It is also very easy to avoid.
“I’d say one of the most misunderstood marketing essentials, even in 2019, is that marketers tend to simply direct listeners to a single track on a streaming service,” says Cindy James, VP of streaming and playlist strategy at Island Records.
“The problem is that if the user who clicks on the link isn’t a premium subscriber of that service, they won’t be able to play the song on demand,” James told Music Ally. Most music services, including the mobile version of Spotify’s free tier, do not enable full single song plays. If you are not a paying subscriber, most only deliver 30 seconds of music, if they offer anything at all.
Alternatives
James suggests that, “it’s far better to direct listeners to a playlist of that artist’s music on a joint premium and ad-funded service.”
Other alternatives include pointing fans to the track on Soundcloud or YouTube. Bandcamp also offers the option to allow full song playback. Services like Linkfire (pictured to the right) and AmplifyLink quickly create a landing page that allows the fan to use the music service of their choice.