Header for The most common mistake artists make when sharing their new music

Use Smartlinks to Keep Your Album Links In One Place

You’ve got new music. You’re excited to share it. So it’s understandable that you want to include ALL the links to streaming platforms where your music is available when you write an email or social post. However, that is NOT the best way to promote your new music.

While you may think you’re being helpful gathering all those links to your music on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, it actually does three things that are detrimental to your promo efforts.

Having multiple links in a single email or social post:

  • Hurts your email “deliverability,” which can land your email in Gmail’s Promotions tab. This causes your open rates to plummet, because who actually looks at their Promotions tab? You want your emails to be in the regular ol’ inbox of any email protocol, right alongside any other normal email. 
  • Destroys the organic reach of your social posts. You want people to see your posts without paying, right? While organic reach isn’t as huge as it once was, it’s still an important way to get fans to engage with your music, and to attract new fans.
  • Looks like unruly clutter. You don’t want someone’s first impression of your online presence to be, “Wow, this is a mess.”

How do you send listeners to their preferred platform?

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to add to your music release plan: Use a smartlink!

A smartlink is a one-page site that gathers all your important links in one place, so you only need to post that one link when you talk about your new music online.

Your smartlink will function as a hub for all the relevant platforms and pages related to your music, including:

  • Streaming platforms
  • Social profiles
  • Your website and artist profiles on Bandcamp, Bandsintown, etc.
  • Donation sites like PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, etc.
  • And even a link to buy physical product if you’re selling CDs or vinyl through Amazon

How do you build a smartlink?

As a CD Baby client, you’ve got access to HearNow — so making a smartlink is simple. You can even preview your HearNow smartlink right in your CD Baby account.

Just follow these steps to preview your HearNow page:

  1. Log into your artist account
  2. In the Featured Tools section, click “Release Your One Page” website
  3. Click Preview on the release you want to promote
  4. If that release is available on streaming platforms, the links will be populated automatically
  5. Customize your page’s design, text, and other links
  6. Create a URL for the page
  7. Promote, promote, promote!

Your HearNow smartlink is really the most convenient way for fans to engage with your music. People love easy. Don’t make it difficult for fans (or especially potential fans) to find you online, listen to your music, buy merch, or (eventually) see you live, when you can gather all that stuff in one place.

Preview your HearNow page!