Spotify. Apple Music. Amazon Music. YouTube Music. Pandora. TIDAL.

Your fans do not all listen in the same place.

So why make them sort through a pile of links to find the one they use?

A smart link is a single web link that gives fans several destinations for your music in one place. Instead of sending everyone directly to one streaming service, you send them to a landing page where they can choose their preferred platform.

One link. Several choices. Much easier.

1. Give fans one place to go

This is the most obvious benefit.

Instead of posting:

• Spotify link
• Apple Music link
• Amazon Music link
• YouTube Music link
• Pandora link

you can post one smart link.

The fan opens it and chooses where they want to listen.

That makes your marketing cleaner, but more importantly, it removes an unnecessary step for the listener.

If someone uses Apple Music, sending them directly to Spotify does not help much. A smart link lets the fan make that choice.

2. Use the same link across your marketing

A smart link gives you one destination that can work across much of a release campaign.

You can use it in:

• social media posts
• email newsletters
• digital advertising
• artist websites
• link-in-bio pages
• press releases
• QR codes

That keeps the campaign simpler for both the artist and the audience.

It also makes your call to action (CTA), the specific thing you want someone to do next, much easier to understand.

“Listen now” works better when the link beside it actually lets the listener choose where to listen.

Our guide to writing an effective call to action explains why making that next step clear matters.

3. Learn what people click

Depending on the smart-link service you use, the landing page can also provide useful marketing data.

That may include information such as:

• total visits
• link clicks
• which music services people choose
• general geographic information
• device or operating-system information
• traffic sources

Analytics are measurements that show how people interact with your marketing.

For example, you may discover that your audience chooses Apple Music far more often than you expected. Perhaps a particular ad sends a lot of people to the smart link but very few continue to a streaming service.

Both are useful pieces of information.

The exact data available depends on the smart-link platform, so do not assume every service tracks the same things.

4. Smart links are useful for advertising

If you are paying to send people somewhere, give them somewhere useful to go.

Sending every person who sees an ad directly to Spotify assumes every person uses Spotify.

A smart link removes that assumption.

It can also help you measure what happens after someone clicks the ad, depending on the tracking tools available through your smart-link provider.

That is why we recommend smart links in our guide to using social media ads without going broke.

5. Smart links can work before release too

Before the music comes out, a release campaign may use a pre-save or pre-add page.

A pre-save lets a fan connect an upcoming release to a supported streaming account so the music can be added when it becomes available.

After release, that same campaign page may become a standard smart link with live listening destinations, depending on the service creating the page.

Either way, you need to get the release into the distribution system before those destinations can be built properly.

That is one reason we tell artists not to start promoting music before their distributor has it. Our guide to why you should submit a release before promoting it explains the problem in more detail.

6. Do not confuse a smart link with a marketing strategy

A smart link makes the path easier.

It does not create the interest.

You still need a good song, compelling content and a reason for somebody to click in the first place.

Likewise, getting 5,000 visits to a smart link is not automatically impressive if almost nobody continues on to the music.

Look at what people actually do after they arrive.

The goal is not clicks for the sake of clicks.

The goal is getting interested people to the music with as little friction as possible.

One link is smarter than six

Your fans already have a preferred way to listen.

You do not need to choose it for them.

Give them one smart link, let them select their service and pay attention to what the data tells you.

It makes the campaign cleaner. It makes the fan experience easier. And it gives you a better way to understand what happens between “click here” and somebody actually listening.

That is what makes the link smart.