Using Last.fm to promote your band in 6 easy steps


Last.fm is a great site for music listeners, but it also has great potential for bands to promote their music. In this article I'll show how you can promote your music using Last.fm. In this article I assume you're in a band, and you have recorded your songs.

What's Last.fm?

Last.fm combines social networking and online radio. After signing in, you install the Last.fm software, which will detect your music player (for example Winamp, Windows Media Player or iTunes) and Last.fm will collect your listening habits on your profile. Last.fm uses this to calculate which bands are similar to the bands you listen to and which people have similar listening habits. This way LastyFm can recommend new bands to people based on their musical profiles.

Besides tracking what you listen to in your regular music player, you can also use Last.fm to listen to different kinds of online radio stations. You can listen to 'Similar Artist Radio' of your favorite artists, to 'Tag Radio' or to 'Neighbour Radio'. All these kinds of radio are based on your user input.

If your band is similar to other bands according to Last.fm, and your music is available, people will be getting your tracks on their individual radio stations. So, how do you get that to happen? Here are some simple steps you can take.

1. Sign up

Joining Last.fm is easy. Installing the Last.fm software is slightly more work, but still nothing major.

2. Claim your band/label & submit your songs

First check if your band name is still available, it's possible another band with the same name already uploaded music. If that's the case, well, I hope you aren't attached to your current name. It's possible to claim the name, but you'll have to proof the rights to the name belong to you.

If there's no music uploaded yet, check if the songs on the band profile page are your songs. If there are more than a few listens and they're not your songs, chances are you're gonna get a name conflict.

After you make sure you can claim your band, it's time to upload your music. Last.fm has made sure every step in this process is easy, and well explained. Make sure you have the songs you want to add to Last.fm ready in mp3 or wav format.

Added songs have a few extra options:
- You can choose if the song is available on the streaming radio stations
- You can choose if the song is available for complete on demand streaming or just 30 second previews
- You can choose to make the song available for downloads

If you want to spread your music as fast a possible, I recommend to make the songs as freely available as possible.

Rene SG

3. Tag your music

On Last.fm people can add tags to bands, albums and songs. After you have added your music, add tags to your band page, and to your songs. One of the streaming radio options is Tag Radio. If you tag your songs 'ska punk', and someone listens to 'ska punk' Tag Radio, there is a chance they get your songs. Try to add all tags that seem to make sense. For example, if you play in a German death metal band, add german, metal and death metal.

4. Start listening music

Listen to both your own music, and bands that you think are similar to your music. It really helps if your band mates do the same. This way your band will appear on the Similar Artist radio stations of those other bands.
The more music you listen too, the better this will work.

5. Make friends

You can add other people to your friend list. Search for some bands similar to your band, and check out their top listeners. If they like those bands, they might like yours. Add them as your friend, and use the recommendation system to recommend your band to them.

6. Join groups

There are hundreds of user groups on Last.fm. There's groups for major genres, obscure subgenres, bands, regions, websites. You name it, and there's a group about it on Last.fm. This is a great way to reach the right people. Join a few groups with people who like music like your bands, and use the recommendation system to recommend your band to them.

Try to use the system sensible when recommending your band to users and groups. Spamming is not done, and you don't want to turn people off of your band, before they even heard you.


I hope these steps will help you and your band to get some exposure. Tell me about how you use it. If anyone has other ways to promote their music on Last.fm or other places online, I'd be happy to hear about it!

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18 comments on “Using Last.fm to promote your band in 6 easy steps”

David Rose

February 8th, 2008 | 14:59

Nicely done! Last.fm provides a great opportunity for independent artists to get their music heard.

I posted a link to this at KnowTheMusicBiz.com.

Keep up the good work!

Jimmy Shelter

February 10th, 2008 | 11:44

Thanks, David!

Remergence

February 15th, 2008 | 19:32

That's a great read, posted a link on my blog back here and dugg it, nice one!

FreshNerd

August 3rd, 2008 | 14:46

Great post....hopefully bands will put these tips to good use and follow through with them. Good stuff

Matt Curney

March 10th, 2009 | 22:40

Your info has been a great help! Thank god for sites like last.fm and DIY.

Rock.

Jimmy Shelter

March 11th, 2009 | 20:08

Thanks Matt!

The music on your MySpace sounds good!

Dirk Radloff

October 19th, 2009 | 19:49

Thank you so much for your advice! I promote myself now for almost ten years, but I am still hungry for every advice. Actually I am starting to go this way on last.fm and I am curious about the results. Fortunately it's for free unlike other services like jango.

Anonymous

February 17th, 2010 | 18:21

I have a question. its probably something simple i have to do, but how exactly do you recommend a band to someone?

Anonymous

February 17th, 2010 | 18:23

sorry. how do you recommend a band after you have claimed that band?

john rapp

March 16th, 2010 | 14:52

I'm making a theme song for all 365 days of the year. Hear them on last fm!

365themesongs.blogspot.com

FroBot

July 31st, 2010 | 8:20

I detailed 30+ music promotion websites w/ reviews. All for promoting music. It was a 5 day experiment.

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/07/frobots-5-day-journey-to-promote-2.html

Hope this helps!!!

FroBot

Jeremy Gilbert

July 19th, 2011 | 7:53

oin social networks. I'm sure that you are familiar with MySpace, face book and twitter. You should setup an artist page with all of them and up date them periodically. I say this because it will be easy for you to waste time fooling around on these sites. Maybe just pick one day out the week where you go in and check all of your pages.

Ian Moore

April 13th, 2012 | 17:31

Howdy Jimmy,
Excellent article. I am doing all the things you asked of me. Thanks for the info you have gained another reader.
Peace

Mr Seeker

April 16th, 2012 | 9:33

I love Last Fm. Its cool

Lanajoseph@Bands Wanted

November 14th, 2012 | 8:36

Thanks for the info but my concern is the copy rights. What if Last.fm gets full ownership over our tracks.

Jennifer

March 7th, 2013 | 3:17

THANK YOU! Tip #3 was of great help! I've been tagging artist and albums, but never realized that tagging songs will make them play in the radios more easily! Great article :D

Marcel

July 18th, 2013 | 7:51

Have you heard of online radio shows? Just thinking
if you have considered starting your on line show
for free covering these subjects as well. I believe they have free
online accounts to join, please let me know should you end up
doing it!

Reed

November 1st, 2016 | 10:21

Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I
guess I'll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog.
I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I'm still new to everything. Do you have any tips and hints for rookie blog writers? I'd definitely appreciate it.

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