How to Collaborate with Music Artists & Musicians

Here are tips on how to use social media to find music artists and musicians to work with, and how to how to collaborate with them.

As a music artist, you may find yourself in a creative rut at times. One way many artists fight past creative blocks is by collaborating with other music creators.

Alternatively, maybe you aren’t in a creative rut and are simply looking for mixing or mastering engineer to help your project sound more professional.

Either way, where do you find other musicians, producers, and beat makers to collaborate with?

Why Facebook is your best bet for finding other musicians

You could try Craigslist as a channel for finding other musicians, but with everyone posting on there anonymously, it’s hard to know what you’re getting, and there are too many non-responders.

Facebook is a better alternative than Craigslist for finding musicians, in my opinion, for three reasons:

1. It has strong networking potential – You can easily build relationships through Facebook groups.
2. You can learn about others before approaching them – Most profiles have everything set to public.
3. It’s easy to find musicians – You can easily find musicians if you target the right Facebook groups.

So, how do you actually find other artists to work with on Facebook?

Let’s get into it.

3 Steps to Find Music Artists to Collaborate With on Facebook

1. Find the right groups on Facebook

The first step in finding artists to collaborate with on Facebook is to put yourself into a place where other musicians are active – and what better place than a Facebook group designed for musicians!

The first step, obviously, is to find these groups.

Here’s how to do that.

In the search box at the top, you’ll need to type in keywords that represent what you’re looking for in a group.

If you’re looking for Hip Hop artists to collaborate with online, you can type something like “Hip Hop Musicians”, “Rap Artists”, or whatever else you can come up with related to finding musicians into the search box. Make sure you include the words “musicians” or “artists” in your search to filter out groups intended for music fans rather than artists.

If you’re looking for artists in your city, then add your city to the beginning of that – so something like “city name hip hop musicians” will work.

You should see group based search results on the next page – like this:

Ideally, you want to find groups that aren’t too big, but aren’t too small. This is because, as I explain in the next section, you want your engagements with other members to actually be noticed in the community. Anything between 1,000 and 10,000 members would make for a good target – less if you’re targeting local groups.

Once you’ve verified that the group is intended for musicians, just click the join button.

2. Network with group members

Before you start trying to ask people to work together, it’s important that you start by building relationships with other artists.

Luckily, Facebook makes this extremely easy – all you have to do is like and comment on other people’s posts to strike up a conversation.

Instead of simply commenting on the post, respond to the other commenters. In my experience, this is a much better way of striking up a conversation because these people are the most engaged in the group. For all you know, the person who made the post is just seeking attention.

I’m not saying don’t comment on something if it interests you, I’m saying pay special attention to the comments section and reply to any of them that you feel can lead to a more engaging conversation.

This is an important step – so don’t skip it. If you comment on every post in a popular group, people will begin to recognize you by name and will be more likely to respond to you when you reach out to them or make a post of your own.

Comment on posts regularly for about 2 weeks, at least, before asking for anything.

3. Start asking

When looking for people to work with from a Facebook group, there are two approaches you can take:

1. Post in the group.
2. Message group members.

I recommend both of these because they each work differently.

Posting in Facebook groups

Since you’ve been engaging the members of the group, posting into the group seeking collaboration won’t be viewed as spammy, and you’re likely to get a few replies.

When posting to Facebook groups, you want to make sure your posts are actually engaging.

The easiest way to do that is to have your post include a question.

So instead of posting something like this:

“Hey guys, I’m looking for someone to collaborate with. Let me know if you’re interested!”

Try this instead…

“Hey guys, anyone want to have a go at writing a song together?”

This is much more likely to grab the attention of the community of musicians.

Message group members

Remember the conversations you had in the comments section during your networking process? This will be helpful here.

Look back at your notifications from the group, and message the people you’ve come into contact with over the last few weeks.

Don’t just ask them if they want to collaborate. Frame it in a way that allows them to also recommend their friends.

Here’s a message you can use…

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“Hey [name],

I saw that you were a member of [Facebook group name] and thought I’d reach out.

I’m looking for someone to [collaboration type] with, and I thought you might be able to help.

Do you know anyone who might be interested?”

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Conclusion on How to Collaborate

Finding other artists to work with is a time consuming process. However, if you’re dedicated, you should have no problem investing the time in executing this properly.

Find the right Facebook groups, network with the members, and then seek out interest in a collaborative effort. This is the most effective way to get what you want without ruining your reputation within the music community.

Related: How to Promote Beats on Facebook