Are hashtags for music promotion still helpful in 2021?

Do hashtags matter in music marketing any more?

The music industry climate has changed and technology continues to shift. Hashtags for music promotion are no exception, we asked a social media expert for their opinions on using hashtags for music marketing.

Just Because You Can Use Hashtags for Music Promotion – Should You?

Don’t use too many.

Technically you’re allowed up to 30 hashtags per post on Instagram. Does this mean you should? No. It doesn’t look professional if you use more than a few hashtags, especially if you don’t hide them in the captions or comments. To understand the seriousness of using too many hashtags for music marketing, think about how you feel when you scroll through the explore tab on IG or t your TikTok feed. If you’re honest with yourself, it doesn’t look too attractive to see more tags than text on social media posts, does it?

Worse yet, mild annoyance often occurs when tapping on a hashtag only to find multitudes of content that don’t pertain to that post. On TikTok, they encourage hashtag challenge participation, but you can still be reported for tag misuse, such as those that would be offensive or spammy. Use as few hashtags as possible is the social media marketing best practice  — especially on TikTok because too many obstruct audience views.

Use the correct amount for audience size.

Social media experts recommend hiding Instagram hashtags in comments (first comment under a post) or by inserting them under your social media caption (after five dotted line breaks). Although this advice mostly applies to users with fewer than 5,000 followers, no matter how few or how many followers you have,  you don’t need more than 4-5 tags.

If you have a very large amount of followers, you don’t even really need hashtags. One or two may be fine if they add to the context of the post but ultimately with a large following the algorithms take care of discovery for you so hashtags will add very little value.

On TikTok, the recommendation is similar to Instagram. Using a maximum 4-5 tags is ideal. Make them count too. Your hashtags need to be relevant to your life and to the song you post or take advantage of trending hashtags and challenges when it makes sense to do so.

 

What are the best Hashtags for music discovery?

Although they are perhaps not quite as important as they once were, early-stage artists can find that using the right hashtags helps to expose their music to a wider audience.

Some of the most popular hashtags for music promotion are listed below:

  • #music
  • #love
  • #rap
  • #hiphop
  • #dj
  • #rock
  • #art
  • #musician
  • #newmusic
  • #newmusicfriday
  • #LiveMusic
  • #artist
  • #singer
  • #musica
  • #dance
  • #song
  • #guitar
  • #producer

 

 

Is posting more often better than using too many hashtags?

You don’t want to spam your audience but it is fair to say that the social media algorithms (particularly for Instagram reels and TikTok) seem to be rewarding quantity over quality at the moment. Regular posters that take advantage of the different features on each platform getting the most exposure.

Using dozens of hashtags for music promotion on social media won’t help if you don’t use them correctly. Instead of adding too many keyword tags to one post, try varying your captions and hashtags spread out over multiple posts. Pay attention to how your audience reacts and continue to post content pertaining to your music that captivates their attention.

 

What about music links on social media?

You should have a social media bio link or music songlink as the main link from your profile on TIkTok and Instagram.

Both platforms only allow you to have one link so it’s important that you make the most of it. You can create a bio link for free using Soundplate Clicks, watch the video below to learn how:

 

 

Soundplate Clicks is a suite of music marketing tools that will help you create smart links, presave campaigns, bio links and more for your music. It’s an essential tool for artists of all sizes.

 

 

Conclusion

Hashtags might not be as important as they once were for music promotion but using a few of them (especially in the early stage of an artist’s career) certainly won’t hurt, just don’t go too crazy with them!