How to Promote your Music in Nigeria: 8 Secret Ways

Are you a Nigerian artist or you are a musician living in Nigeria and you are looking for ways to promote your music in Nigeria? Read this article to the end. In today’s article, I will be guiding you on different ways you can promote your songs with or without money using the internet and other platforms.

The music business is a multi-million dollar industry in the world. Nigeria has no exceptions to this. Even as an upcoming artist in Nigeria, you can make good money from music despite the fact that you are not popular but you have to be able to promote your songs successfully first.

Put more effort into music promotion than into your music recording. Just as a clothes seller will put more effort into advertising his or her than effort into buying you need to put more effort into the advertisement of your music than how you will sing or record.

It is important to note that despite mentioning all this you still need to make dope music. Because making good songs will make your music promotion yield much more interest faster. If your songs are dope, people and organizations will be eager to promote them (even for free).

But when it is bad it is considered a wasted investment because no matter how much promotion you put into it, it would not yield recognition and returns.

What is Music Promotion?

Music promotion is also the same as music marketing. This is the process of raising awareness for a song or music – making people or fans know it exists through different means like the internet, TV, and radio. As an upcoming artist, if you do not promote your songs you cannot become a popular or famous artist in Nigeria.

Cost of Music Promotion in Nigeria

How much does it cost to promote a song in Nigeria? I guess this is another question on your mind as an artist or musician in Nigeria. The cost of music promotion in Nigeria depends on many factors like where or which platform you want to promote your songs. There are three common platforms in Nigeria most artists promote their songs.

These are:

1. Internet (YouTube, Websites, other streaming Platforms)

2. Radio

3. Television 

However, on average it costs a minimum of #10,000 – #200,000 to promote a song or music in Nigeria. TV and radio are the most expensive options while the internet is cheap and almost free depending on the method you use.

Top Music Promotion Websites in Nigeria

When it comes to marketing your songs in Nigeria, there are free and paid websites that are good with music promotions. These music websites will make sure your songs are downloaded by everyone who comes across it.

Here are the top best music promotion websites in Nigeria.

1. NotJustOk.com

2. TooXclusive.com

3. NaijaPals.com

4. Naijaloaded.com

5. 9jaflava.com

6. 360Nobs.com

7. Jaguda.com

8. 36Ng.com

9. Afrocadio.com

10. NaijaHitSongs.com

How to Promote Your Music in Nigeria

Here are the ways to promote your music in Nigeria whether by paying or for free.

1. Use YouTube and Other Streaming Platforms 

If you are looking for how to promote your songs for free in Nigeria as an upcoming artist or musician, this is the first step. YouTube is free and it allows you to upload songs on its platform as long as you have a Gmail account.

You can start promoting your songs in Nigeria now by uploading your songs to YouTube music and if you have a music video upload it to YouTube too. With this, many music lovers can listen to your music and even share it with their friends.

If you want to get more views on the song you can run YouTube ads to make people listen to the song before watching any video they click on YouTube. YouTube also has analytics. After some time of uploading the songs, you can look at your YouTube analytics to see how people interact or enjoy the songs.

Asides from YouTube there are other music streaming platforms. Some of them are paid while some are free. They are:

1. Spotify 

2. SoundCloud 

3. Dozmia

4. iTunes 

5. Shazam

6. SongKick

7. Bandsintown

8. DbBaby

9. TuneCore

iTunes and Spotify are the most common online streaming platforms in Nigeria aside from YouTube. Read our guide on how to become a YouTuber in Nigeria.

2. Share your Music on Social Media

This is another way you can promote your music in Nigeria for free. If you have an account on all social media platforms you can simply upload your songs on them and tell your family and friends to share them for you. This might not look effective but trust me it goes far especially because you are not paying them any money to do it for you.

To share your music on social media successfully, upload your best song with a good caption telling family and friends to listen and share it. Do this continuously to every single person you know. You can upload some acapella videos too to show people how good you really are.

Instagram and TikTok are good for this kind of promotion but it depends on the followers you have on these platforms.

3. Give out your Songs for Free

As an upcoming artist that wants to promote his or her songs fast in Nigeria, you need to be able to give or share your song with people for free. The reason is you do not know who will play it and who will be listening to it at any time. If you are a gospel musician in Nigeria you can share your songs with your choir mates, pastors, and church members.

There are two major ways you can share your songs with people. You can give them by sending it to the phone or as a CD for them to play in their cars. I once heard of an artist who said someone he knew once played his song at a place Davido was and when Davido heard it, he decided to sign him to his record label. So never say never.

4. Promote with Music Blogs

Earlier, I listed the ten most popular music websites for Naija music promotion. You can use these websites to promote your song for a while. Depending on the music website some charge little fee while others charge high fees.

These sites charge based on the traffic they have and the recognition they have from the music industry in Nigeria and all over the world. How much you can afford will determine which of these websites you will promote your music.

5. Invent a Dance or Start a Challenge 

There are some songs in Nigeria that do not become famous until a dance is invented for them. This is why dancers or video vixens are now making plenty of money from the Nigerian entertainment industry. You can invent a dance for your song especially if your song can be danced to.

After doing this, share the dance on social media and followers will react by practicing the dance. Another way you can promote your songs in Nigeria is to start a challenge. Although this is quite expensive it also goes a long way too.

To start a challenge you have to share your song on social media telling followers to video themselves while singing the song and send it to you. The best person that knows how to sing your song will be paid. How much you pay the winner depends on what you can afford.

6. Pay DJs or Radio Presenters

This way of promoting your music in Nigeria is expensive except if you are connected and you know some DJs or radio presenters. If you do, you can send your songs to them begging the DJ to play your songs at parties while the OAP should please play your song on the radio. If you do not know anyone you will have to pay to get your song aired. 

7. Promote with Influencers

You can use Nigerian social media influencers to also promote your music in Nigeria. If you know these people you can convince them to do it for you for free but if you do not know them you will have to pay them to upload and share your songs on social media.

8. Collaborate with other Artists

Do you know other upcoming or popular artists like you? Collaborating with other artists is another good way to market my music in Nigeria. All you have to do is connect with them on social media and hang out with them once in a while. Collaborations do not just happen.

It is based on relationships. Go to clubs and every other place where artists hang out. From there they will spot you.

Conclusion

Music promotion is very important in Nigeria, especially for an upcoming music artist. You can choose any of the methods above to promote your song in Nigeria either for free or with money. But due to finance I will strongly advise you to use the options that do not require money and as time goes by when your songs start making money for you, you can now use promote your new single with money to get a faster result.

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• How Nigerian Musicians & Upcoming Artists Make Money