3 Basic Questions That Drive All Music Marketing in 2025
Over the last five or six years, I have been making notes on my perspectives of music marketing and shifts in listener habits . I recently re-read something I wrote in 2022 which spoke about the reliance on data, the short-lived nature of viral videos and fatigue from customers of endless scrolling and over saturation. This was 3 years ago. All of it still rings true - only now, it's even more pronounced.
Marketing now a lateral dimension. Gone are the traditional funnels where audiences fall in the top and driven down to becoming super fans.
Today, fans enter the funnel wherever they want - directly via your website or mailing list, or passively through an algorithmic playlist or a YouTube video. They come and go as they please. The funnel has holes everywhere, and its efficiency is diminished.
So where do we begin? For artists and labels, I think it starts with three simple questions:
Who are your audiences
Where are they
How do you reach them
These answers shape everything - from the content you make, to the message you share, to the platform you choose.
Marketing today is strategic. One tool or tactic alone won’t cut it. It has to be a connected, 360-degree system built around two clear goals: build an audience and make money.
The good news? Making money is where artists and labels still have real control. You don’t earn on social media in specialist music. Audiences aren’t there to be sold to. At the same time, email isn’t where people discover music. Discovery happens - occasionally - on Bandcamp, more so on YouTube.
Each platform still starts with those same three questions. And each will give you different answers.
So if you want to put this into practice, start there. Keep your answers simple. Be honest. And go from there.
Good luck.