24 Ways to Promote Your Streams Part 1

Posted: May 3, 2021

music venues promotion call-to-action restaurants bandsintown videos plan ahead hashtags artist collective reward live streaming

**Guest post written by Leonard Patterson of Artist Collective AKA @ac_leonardp. This is an excerpt from his new book, 365 Livestream Ideas For Musicians.

"1. Custom Domains: Secure an easy-to-remember custom domain name that leads to your website or social channel where your livestreams are held. Example domains you could brand:

.live
.show
.cam
.rocks
.band
.video
.fm

+5 Reasons to Have a Website for Your Music

2. Custom Overlays: Use 3rd party livestreaming tools like StreamYard, OBS, or Ecamm Live to include custom, branded overlays and in-screen graphics. These callouts can promote upcoming events or even encourage fans to share to their timeline. 

3. Partner with Venues: Approach a local venue and offer to do a weekly “house gig” on their social media pages. This could be a great fit whether or not the venue has in- person shows or not.

+IOTM Music Venues Directory

4. Reward for Sharing: Increase your organic reach by enticing viewers to share your livestream. Offer a discount code for everyone who shares or host a giveaway of a single merch item or some other value-added perk for 1 random winner. 

5. Restaurant: Offer to do a parking lot party during their lunch or dinner rush if they are providing take out or have outdoor seating available. 

6. Video Ads: Use a clip from a previous livestream performance as a Facebook ad to promote the next. Use “video views” as your goal when setting up your ad.

+How to Harness the Power of Targeted Facebook Ads to Build Your Fanbase

7. Promote In-Person: Unlike announcing your next gig at a competing venue (rude), you shouldn’t have any issue with mentioning your upcoming livestream from the stage of where ever you’re playing that day (provided the livestream isn’t from another venue).

8. In-Video Calls to Action: Build it into your broadcast to ask viewers to share your livestream on their timeline. Try to do this a few times depending on the length of your show.

9. Use a branded hashtag: If you’ve got a recurring series, coming up with a name for the stream and a branded hashtag will help with retention. Ex: #ContentandCoffee is the name of a Saturday AM show I host focusing on content creation tips and tricks.

+Hashtags 101: How to Use Them & Why They Matter

10. Bandsintown for Artists: Like many artist-centered platforms, Bandsintown has shifted its focus to include easy access to virtual concerts. As an artist on the platform, you are able to create, add, and promote your livestreams. And a ton of other musician tools.

11. Livestream Listings: Enter your show details on promotional livestream listing sites for added visibility. A few examples (at the time of this publishing).

12. Schedule Ahead: Using 3rd party streaming tool, schedule your broadcast ahead of time to be able to announce the time and share the link. Call to action “click on get reminder."

Related Blog Posts:

+TRIPLE your livestream audience

+Live Music Industry Predictions For 2021

+What To Do When Your Gig Is Cancelled