I recently published a [guest blog post](http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-promotion/how-to-get-your-songs-heard-on-8tracks/# "target="_blank) on CD Baby's Blog, The DIY Musician, and think it's an important article to re-share on the feature.fm blog. Below is the original article.

How to get your songs heard on 8tracks

As an indie artist, 8tracks is an extremely powerful platform to get your music heard and to find your fans. The playlists I’ve personally published on 8tracks have a combined song play count of almost 200,000 as of the writing of this article leading to a growing base of followers.

As CD Baby has recently started to distribute directly to 8tracks, I am excited to share my experience with 8tracks to help artists get the most out of it. feature.fm is also providing a special offer to you at the end of this article to help make sure your songs are heard in 8tracks.

What is 8tracks?

The 8tracks masthead explains:

8tracks is internet radio created by people, not algorithms.

8tracks is an amazing mix of playlisting and streaming radio. 8tracks users create playlists and then publish them. When you search for music on 8tracks, the results that pop up are actually playlists created by its users. When you play one of these playlists, it will play in a streaming radio style format just like Pandora. The songs play in order with a limited number of skips.

Think of it like streaming radio, except all of the “stations” are actually playlists created by real people.

Why is 8tracks great for artists?

8tracks is a true friend of the indies with over ⅔ of its listening hours going to independent artists. The reason 8tracks is so helpful for artists is that while other platforms offer playlists only as a feature, 8tracks’ entire focus is on creating and discovering playlists.

On 8tracks, people can actually do something with the songs they favorite rather than sending them into an algorithm that robotically generates recommended music. Because all of 8tracks’ “stations” are created by real people, it means that 8tracks users can add the tracks they favorite into their own playlists for others to hear.

Reaching more people and getting added to more playlists will exponentially increase the potential of your total exposure.

8tracks has over 8 million monthly active users making it the 3rd largest radio streaming service in the US among millennials after Pandora and iHeartRadio.

How to get started

The first thing to do as an artist is [create an account](http://www.8tracks.com "target="_blank) on 8tracks. Follow the instructions [here](http://8tracks.com/artists "target="_blank) to get an official Artist Badge as well as set up your profile.

Making a playlist

Now you’re ready to create your first playlist. When you create a playlist, you’ll be able to choose songs from your “Crate” which includes songs you’ve favorited, personal uploads, and tracks that are distributed directly to 8tracks by CD Baby and other distributors.

There are 5 main things that you can control to get your playlist discovered, clicked on, and enjoyed. Here are some tips that can help get your playlist noticed and trending:

1. The Song Selection – The most important thing you can do is create a great playlist that flows with music that people will enjoy. Some people choose themes, genres, or just a great overall selection of songs.

2. Playlist Title – My strategy is to use a catchy title that describes how your playlist feels, or to take a note from the “click bait” playbook. You want your playlist clicked on.

3. Playlist Image – People are visual. A provocative image that stands out and pulls them in will get more interest to see what your playlist is all about.

4. Five tags – A lot of people make mistakes with the tags choosing ones that are too specific. When choosing tags, think of what people will actually search for when you want them to find your playlist. Typically, these are genres, moods, activities and popular artists.

5. Description – The description is really an expansion of the title. Explain what’s in the playlist and try to make it personal.

Once your song is published, it will be public for the 8tracks community to discover and listen to!

Badges

8tracks adds badges to playlists based on their performance.

More cool stuff

Artists can use 8tracks to promote their material, but more importantly to engage with their fans in a meaningful and authentic environment. 8tracks has a ton of other cool features that you’ll run into that let you connect directly with your audience, grow your following, and establish your status as a tastemaker in your genre.

How to guarantee your songs reach people on 8tracks with feature.fm

[feature.fm](http://www.feature.fm/ "target="_blank) is the first digital advertising platform designed exclusively for music, giving you access to play your songs to the right people at the right time inside streaming services. We are currently live in 8tracks through an amazing partnership to help artists reach new fans and get into more playlists.

As an artist, simply upload songs that you want people to hear and we’ll play them to your target audience inside of 8tracks. When people get your song, you’ll stand out and they can interact with it just like any other song in 8tracks — including adding it to playlists.

Our goal is to get your songs in front of the right people so that your exposure can grow exponentially. Feature.fm is the only way to guarantee your songs are getting heard to help give you a bigger boost on 8tracks. We’ll also let you know how people respond to your song so you can make better, more informed decisions about how to further develop and promote your music.

Follow [feature.fm](http://www.8tracks.com/featurefm "target="_blank) and our playlists on 8tracks to stay connected to our great artists

feature.fm Artist Mix