RouteNote are partnered with PUSH.fm – a platform offering free marketing tools suited to all artists, from beginners right through to more experienced musicians. With a wide range of products, you can reach new audiences easily.

RouteNote provides all artists with the tools they need to get their music within streaming stores. Once it’s up there though, it’s down to you to promote it. That can be tricky, which is where our partner PUSH.fm come in.

PUSH.fm‘s aim is to help artists to connect with those who matter the most. Build personalised landing pages that contain all your relevant links under one unique URL. Provide your audience with an easy-to-reach hub for everything, from your streaming store links, to your social media accounts.


What is PUSH.fm?

PUSH.fm is a marketing platform, offering tools for creatives and musicians to promote their work. It acts as a one-stop-shop, placing all your content under one digital roof. You can customise your URLs, so they speak for you as a musician.

Make both yours and your fan’s lives easier by combining all your links under one Smart Link. PUSH.fm offer various promotional tools such as; Smart Links, Pre-saves, Reward Links and you can even create your own Competitions. Take your music to the next level, with their easy-to-use, free tools.

Open new doors and discover new possibilities with an all-in-one social marketing platform. Discover your real time analytics and track your performance. This will allow you to grow as an artist. See how your fans are interacting with your content and follow in depth insights into your music data. Allow yourself to reach new goals!


Smart Links are one of the most popular tools that PUSH have to offer. There are multiple templates to suit all types of creatives. Arguably the most popular being Fan Links. A tool for musicians to promote their latest tracks.

Being a free marketing tool, Smart Links allow you to combine multiple links into one URL. The URL itself can be customised to match your artist branding. Add your social media accounts, and artist streaming profiles to make an easy to navigate landing page for your fans.

You can even add a music preview through Spotify. Allow people to listen to a short clip of your song before heading over to the full thing. Stand out from your competition by creating a unique memorable link. Everything both you and your fans need at just the click of a button. Being a free, unlimited tool, you can create as many Smart Links as you require.


Fan Links can be customised to represent your music, or you as an artist. You have full control over how it appears to your audience. The idea is, you add your own artistic mark on your landing pages. You can edit the store logos, so they work best for you if you wish, or they can be left as the originals.

Each store can be reordered so that your landing page looks exactly the way you want it to. Perhaps you want stores near the top that you know the majority of your audience will choose. Or, you might want to grow a certain artist page following. If that’s the case, why not put that store nearer to the top to encourage people to stream there?

Push.fm Fan Link

PUSH’s auto-lookup tool will find your track details. By placing one store link or your release’s UPC into the search bar, it will locate all other stores where your release is available. Ensure you check the links are correct before continuing. It will also locate your track artwork. You can change this if you wish. Perhaps to an artist image.

You can decide if you want a description. This section isn’t compulsory, but some artists like to write a small comment about what inspired the track, or say a little thanks to their audience. You can always view how it will appear within the preview on the right-hand side while creating your Fan Link.

Add in a Spotify music preview. This is easy to do. Simply ensure your Spotify link has been added during the creation stage. Instead of inputting your UPC, add in your Spotify link to the search tool. From here, you can then include a music preview on the next page.


Smart Links statistics

Once logged into your PUSH.fm account, head to the taskbar on the left-hand side of your dashboard. There you’ll see a section for Smart Links. Click there, and you’ll be taken to a page that displays all your Smart Links.Both active and archived.

At the top of the page you will see the image above. It shows your total campaigns. This refers to every campaign you have created. Next to it, you will see the last 12 months, showing you how many of these links have been made in the past year.

Following on from that you’ll see how many visits your links have received overall. This is a combined number for all your Smart Links. Again, you can then see the amount of visits they’ve had within a year. Finally, you can see how many conversions you’ve had and how many were in the last 12 months.

Conversions relate to people following through with actions. For example, someone could click on your Fan Link, and it would count as a visit. However, they will need to then click on a streaming platform to head to for it to count as a conversion. The action needs to be completed.


PUSH.fm vs Linktree

One of the major competitors of PUSH.fm are Linktree. A company who specialise in Smart Links. But, how do they compare? Both offer free and Premium plans, meaning artists of all levels can create their own Smart Links despite their budget. With PUSH, you have template options for various categories, so artists are able to easily design a Fan Link. Whereas Linktree offer one blank canvas that you can build up from scratch.

PUSH.fm allow users to make unlimited links for multiple creatives. This means it’s the perfect solution for labels and managers who need to juggle more than one artist. You’ll be able to see all links under one account, but the links themselves won’t be connected in any way. So, you don’t need to make different PUSH accounts for each artist you manage.

Linktree however don’t have this option. To make links for more than one individual you’ll need to create separate accounts. You can connect them up, so you can flick between them at ease. However, you will need different accounts per artist. This can make it tricky to oversee how all of your campaigns are performing. Your name will be displayed at the top of your link. Even though you can add a link title, it will still display your username.


Comparisons

With PUSH, you get to choose your own link artwork. Your background will then be based upon your chosen image. This is unless you upgrade your account. With PUSH’s Premium account, for $5 a month you get access to extra features. One being, Custom Backgrounds. This allows you to choose your own image as your landing page background.

Linktree however ask you to choose a theme, and this theme will decide your background. However, if you try to utilise their editing options and change your font or buttons, this will override your selected template. They do have multiple fonts and customisation options to choose from, however many are locked needing you to upgrade.

Linktree also offer far fewer analytics than PUSH.fm. As you’ll have seen previously, with PUSH you have access to your individual performance links, number of visits, conversions and your most popular URLs. However, Linktree offer just total views and total clicks. When it comes to customising your links, a lot of Linktree’s options are locked. Meaning, you’ll need to upgrade your account to access them.

With PUSH.fm, you can change your store logos and the text that accompanies them. This way you can make the link completely unique. If you have a specific style, you can make the store logos match you. This isn’t an option on Linktree’s free version. However, with PUSH, both free and Premium accounts can make these changes.

Both platforms allow you to rearrange your store links. If there’s a particular order you want to display the streaming stores in, you can change this to suit you. Along the right-hand side of both PUSH and Linktree you’ll see a preview of your Fan Link. So, you’ll know exactly how it will appear before launching it. This makes it easy to see if there are any errors before it becomes an active link.


As PUSH allow multiple link types and artists under one roof, it means you have more options when it comes to personalising your URL. Linktree takes your chosen name and places that as your link URL. This is fine if you’re an independent person promoting yourself through Bio Links.

However, as an artist it means any future releases will all fall under your name, rather than their own. With PUSH, you can edit your URL to name it after your artist name and/or your track name. Check out the example above, you’ll notice on the right-hand side the URL has been named after the artist and the track shown.

For more information on Smart Links, the different types of templates, how to create Smart Links, understand statistics and more, click here.


Pre-saves

As a RouteNote artist Pre-saves are something you can’t ignore. They not only help you promote your tracks ahead of release day, but they also make things much easier for your fans.

With 3 stores offering Pre-saves, you have the potential to market your music and have people prepared for it to drop. You’re happy as you can guarantee more listeners and your fans are happy because they don’t have to search for your tracks.

Creating a Pre-save can even help you stand a better chance at getting a spot on Spotify’s editorial playlists which in turn will gain you more listeners. They’re completely free to create, so it really is a win-win.


Example of a Pre-save

Pre-saves act as a promotion for your new release. They’ll state your Sales Start Date at the bottom, so fans will know when they can expect to see your tracks in their library. Take a look at what you can expect to see below!

Pre-save example on a Apple computer. To the left side is a closer view of the Pre-save buttons

Once your fans click on your link, they can choose which of the 3 stores is best for them. Following the link will require them to log into their account and authorise the action. That’s it! They can then sit back and wait for your music to drop!


How to find your Pre-save statistics

Pre-save statistics

To find your Pre-save statistics, you’ll need to head to your main dashboard. From there you’ll see the Pre-save option on the left toolbar. Head there and you’ll be shown your Pre-save statistics at the top of the page. It will appear similar to the image above.

In the first column, you’ll see how many campaigns you’ve created overall. Next to this you’ll be shown how many of these Pre-saves were made within the last 12 months. Following on, you can see how many visits your Pre-saves have received.

Knowing how many visits you have had is useful as you’re able to learn what worked for you and what didn’t. For example, did you promote your Pre-saves enough? If not, this number may be low. Next to the total visits, it will show how many were in the last 12 months.

Finally, you can see how many people have saved your music. Both overall and within the last 12 months. This is a really important statistic, because if you compare it to your total visits, you’re able to see how many more people are visiting your link compared to those who follow through and save your music.


PUSH.fm vs Feature.fm

Two websites that both offer Pre-saves. However, what are the differences between the two? Is one better than the other? Let’s compare.

Feature.fm are a marketing tool company that offer both Smart Links and Pre-saves. Their main target audience is musicians, however it seems other creatives are able to use some of their tools. Their Smart Links can be used for Bio Links and Fan Links, but it seems this is as far as they stretch.

That’s great news for musicians who only require Fan Links, but it doesn’t offer much further support if they also want to create other link styles. Whereas with PUSH.fm you could create Event Links for your next gig, or even E-commerce links for any merchandise you might design.


Comparisons

Feature.fm’s layout is a bit difficult to get your head around, but once you have it’s straight forward. However, there’s a lot you can’t access unless you pay to upgrade. When creating a Pre-save, you can only add Spotify as a store unless you upgrade your account. This is extremely limiting and begs the question, why would you even create a Pre-save if you can’t give your fans choice?

PUSH however, allow Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music. All under a free account. You’ll need to add your Pre-save store links under each store’s section, and then you can even change the order of your stores if you wish. So, if you want Deezer to appear as the first option, you can easily do this.

Both companies offer a free plan. However, Feature.fm only include unlimited Smart Links within theirs. Their Pre-save option is quite limited. To upgrade, you need to pay $17 per month which is huge in comparison with PUSH.fm. You’re quite restricted with your options with Feature.fm.

You don’t have the option to add extra store links with Feature.fm. As you can see above PUSH, allows you to include extra links below your Pre-save. This could encourage your audience to follow your socials and keep updated with what you’re doing ahead of your release. Whereas, you need to pay to use this tool with Feature.fm.

PUSH has unlimited tools for all creatives, there is no catch. So, you don’t need to worry about running out of Pre-save campaigns. You can create one for each track you have coming out. Not only that, but PUSH.fm offer far more marketing tools than Feature.fm currently do.

Click here for all the info on Pre-saves, including how to get your pre-saves links as a RouteNote artist, creating pre-saves, understanding your statistics and more.


Reward Links offer both yourself and your fans benefits. They interact with your campaigns, and they get rewarded for it. You’re in control of the actions they must complete, and also their reward.

Set your audience tasks such as; follow my socials, follow my Spotify or subscribe to my YouTube channel. Once they’ve completed the relevant tasks, they can access a digital reward. PUSH.fm offers free Reward Links to all customers.

Allowing you to grow your artist name, while also giving back to your fans who have supported you. Reward Links are a brilliant way of making your fans feel special, because they get something back for all their support.

Reward Link example on both smartphone and laptop

How your Reward Link will look will depend on a few factors. These are things such as; what type of reward you decide to set up, what your artwork image is, and also, what stores you include within the tasks. Your link backgrounds are either based around your featured image, or you can add your own custom background.

To add your own background to your Reward Link, you will need to upgrade your PUSH account. With their $5 per month Premium account, you can access custom backgrounds. This allows you to choose your own artwork to display behind your landing page. Alternatively, you can stay on the free plan, where your background will be based upon your feature image.

As you can see in the images above, you can add extra links here too. You might decide to include a link to your latest music video, or perhaps a link to your website. These links aren’t involved in the tasks, however they remain permanent links at the bottom of your landing page.

People heading to your link can therefore get a good idea of who you are as an artist before interacting with you even further. It’s a great place to sell yourself as a musician. These links will remain throughout the entire process.

Once your audience have clicked on the lock button, in this example it says download file, they will be presented with the tasks you have set. You can decide how many they must complete to earn the reward. After they have done this, they can go ahead and collect their reward.


Reward Link statistics

In the same way as your other tools, you’ll need to head to your dashboard. From there, head to your Reward Links. You’ll find the button for this on the left-hand side toolbar. Once there, you’ll see your Reward Link statistics. This again is for all of your links combined.

The first section shows how many campaigns you’ve made and how many of these were within the last year. You can then see how many visits your links have received overall. Remember, people can visit multiple times, so this doesn’t refer to a number of people, but instead a number of visits.

Again, you’ll then see how many of these visits have happened within the last 12 months. Following this, you’ll see the total conversions and how many were within the past year. A conversion is someone clicking on your link and then interacting with it.

So, in regard to a Reward Link, it means someone has clicked your link, and followed the instructions to receive their reward. It’s important to be able to see how many times your links are being viewed compared to people completing the tasks. This will help you understand any changes you could make for future campaigns.

Head here for more on Reward Links, such as how to create a Reward Link.


PUSH.fm vs Linkfire

Linkfire offer a similar product to PUSH.fm however their products aren’t free. With Linkfire you can create Smart Links, Pre-saves and Reward Links which can be customised to represent you. The options they include within their Reward Link creation differs, however. You can choose from; a secret link, a coupon code or a competition entry to reward your fans with.

With PUSH.fm you can add a secret link, or a coupon code could be included in a secret message. As for competitions, that is its own product with PUSH. Rather than being included within Reward Links. The bonus to this is, you can access Competitions if you choose to upgrade your account, it becomes an extra perk. However, if you don’t want this feature, or aren’t interested in upgrading right now, you can still access everything else.

With Linkfire’s $10 per month account, you only have access to Smart Links. You cannot create Reward Links unless you upgrade even further. Reward Links are a really handy tool for artists as they encourage fans to interact not only this time around, but also in the future. PUSH.fm however, include both of these features within their free plan.

It continues to jump up in price, to $50 and then $100 per month. Whereas with PUSH.fm, the most you will ever pay is $5 per month. A drastic difference. Also, PUSH, don’t keep their tools locked. Almost every tool they offer is accessible on the free plan. This means new artists and those with more experience in the industry get access to the same level of marketing.


Comparisons

Linkfire’s interface isn’t as sleek as PUSH.fm’s. It can be quite hard to read each different section. You need to upload your artwork, link title and link details – this is the same process for PUSH too. However, a major difference is PUSH.fm offer a preview on the side. Linkfire don’t offer any preview, throughout the entire process. How do you know your link is accurate until launching it?

With PUSH, you have a step-by-step process. You begin with your reward selection and then head through each page adding in your relevant details. Linkfire however, have a sidebar which you can walk through, adding your information into each section. The difference between the two is with PUSH it feels like an organised process, whereas with Linkfire you can jump back and forth between the options, easily missing something.

Both stores allow you to customise your URL, so you can name it after your artist name or perhaps a release you’re aiming to promote. With PUSH.fm you can add extra links at the bottom of your landing page too. So, if you want people to check out your Instagram, but aren’t encouraging them to follow you there, you can still include a link to your account. It might help new people decide to listen to your music and follow your streaming accounts if they can see who you are behind the artist name.


Competitions

A Competition is the latest of PUSH.fm’s features. It allows creators to set up their own contest for anyone to enter. You get to set the rules and decide the prize. The process is completely down to you from the very start.

Get your fans to share your campaign link with everyone they know. The further it spreads, the more people getting involved and learning who you are as an artist. By creating a competition, you are likely to grow your name as an artist.

Unlike some competitors comps, when creating one with PUSH those entering don’t need a PUSH account themselves. They can simply follow your link and enter. It opens up the contest to everyone.

This feature does come under PUSH.fm’s Premium Plan. However, it could help boost your audience to a whole new level. Typically, people will enter competitions for anything they can, simply because they’re free to enter.

With PUSH’s competitions, this is no different. While they might be a Premium feature, your fans don’t pay a penny. It encourages your audience to enter, because they could win something great!


Example of a Competition

Example of a Competition

A Competition Link will show your audience the end date within the black text box at the bottom. This makes it clear how long they have to share the link and also enter it. Once the competition has come to an end, it will change to say it has ended. Also the option to enter will no longer be available.

You can add in a description to let people know what they’re in with a chance of winning and why they should enter. It’s important to add this section, because otherwise why should people take part? Make a catchy heading for the link too, so as soon as anyone clicks on it, they’re met with a brief summary of the contest.

Adding in your own artwork will determine the background too (unless you upgrade your account). Your background will become a larger version of your chosen image. Upgrading your account will allow you to add a different background to your feature image. If you’re hosting your own contest, it might be a good idea to either include a company/brand logo, or an image of the prize!


How to find your Competition statistics

Competition statistics

If you’ve upgraded your PUSH account to their Premium plan, you’ll be able to access Competitions. Head to your dashboard and you’ll see the Competition option on the left-hand side toolbar. This won’t be visible if you’re on the free plan.

In the first section you will see how many links you have and how many of these have been created within the last year. Then you will see how many visits you’ve had. This is for all Competitions overall. You can see how many times your links have been clicked.

Next to it, you can see how many clicks they’ve had within 12 months. You can see if your older links are still popular this way. Then finally, you can see how many people have entered your contests, and how many of these entries were within the last 12 months.


PUSH.fm vs Gleam.io

Gleam.io is an online platform allowing users to create Competitions, Rewards, Photo Contests and also Contests across various social platforms. However, unlike PUSH.fm you can’t access any of their tools for free.

Starting at $10 per month for Competitions alone, Gleam.io increases quite rapidly in price depending on what tools you want to access. Ideally, you would have a platform that has one Premium price that then includes every tool they offer.

This is how PUSH.fm’s platform operates. One price for everything. With Gleam, to get the most out of the products, you will need to spend $97 each month. This might be achievable for large businesses, but not independent artists. You can access basic versions, however there isn’t much adaptation that comes with these choices.

Comparisons

Gleam.io offer multiple template options so creating a contest is really easy. However, it possibly isn’t suited to musicians as much as it is large corporate businesses. Most of the templates aren’t available under a free version, you’ll need to pay the large subscription fee if you want to use them.

The idea behind Gleam is to encourage people to sign up and purchase from your service. Most of their products are designed in a way that offer your audience a small discount if they sign up for a cost. From here, the idea is they continue to purchase from your company.

However, what if they don’t? You’re then spending a large amount on a service that isn’t bringing in enough revenue to make a profit. Competitions are half the price with PUSH.fm, and you also get tools like Facebook Pixel included within this cost.


Understanding how to use Gleam and the products they offer isn’t that straight forward. They do offer a blog which can walk you through various processes, but finding the blog you need can be tricky. However, PUSH’s process is really simple. They also offer a blog that could help explain anything you need to know, but their products are extremely self explanatory. Don’t waste time trying to figure out how to get the most out of these tools, just start using them!

How to create a Competition and more super useful info here.


Overall account analytics

Overall dashboard view

Looking at your main dashboard will show you the overview of all of your links and how they’re performing. They’ve each been broken down into their relevant category so by now you should have an understanding of what they all mean and how they operate.

However, the main one here that hasn’t been touched upon is Today’s Campaign Performance. This relates to how your audience are interacting with your campaign right now. You can see how many people are active, which should give you a good idea of whether you’re promoting your links enough, or if you’re promoting them across the right channels.

There are many factors that come into your promotion. Timezones, social platforms of choice, what media you use to promote your links. If your success rate is high then you know you’re doing something right. However, if it’s low and continues to drop while your campaigns are active, then you might need to consider shaking things up.

These statistics shouldn’t be ignored, because once you start to break them down you will see just how useful they are. When your links are new, it’s all about trial and error. So, perhaps give things a go and see what works. If your analytics start to grow you’ll know you’re doing something right.


PUSH.fm Pricing

PUSH.fm pricing plan

Above is our partner PUSH.fm’s pricing tiers. Their free plan has a lot to offer. You can access unlimited Smart Links, Pre-saves and unlimited Reward Links with a storage of up to 1GB. This allows you to create all the promotional material you may need.

PUSH.fm was created with artists in mind. Its aim is to offer creatives the tools they need to market themselves, their music or their products effectively and with ease. This is why most of their tools are free.

If you do want to upgrade to access even more tools, it is just $5 a month. This will give you even more storage. Now, up to 50GB compared to the free plan’s 1GB. You’ll also be able to create unlimited Competitions.

With PUSH, you aren’t tied into a contract. So, if you want to try out contests and then decide you don’t need them any more, you can always downgrade your account. There is no pressure to keep up with either plan. However, do be aware if you downgrade your Premium products will be archived.

Upgrading your account couldn’t be easier. Simply scroll down your dashboard, and you will see the option on the right-hand side. You can upgrade with either your bank card, or with PayPal. To cancel your Premium plan, you simply repeat this step and choose the free plan option.


Summary

We’d recommend to all our RouteNote users to check out PUSH.fm. It’s quick and easy to sign up. All you need to do is register, and you’ll be emailed to confirm your account. The marketing tools they offer are fantastic and could help you reach a whole new audience. There aren’t many companies that offer such powerful tools at no cost.

Each of their tools are designed with creators in mind. PUSH are regularly adding new features and updating their current ones, so they can offer the best possible products. The two main features we would recommend to all artists are their Smart Links and also Pre-saves.

These can help you get your music heard, while gaining a name for yourself as an artist. They even have the option to turn your Pre-save into a Fan Link automatically once your release is live within stores. Meaning you don’t have to worry about setting both up.

Their automatic lookup tool will do the work for you. If you then want to go back and change any information, you can. It will be updated instantly, meaning your links are never outdated. Their features are designed for all levels of artist, so why not give them a try?