Being a successful artist in 2022 calls for more than just being a good musician. Your music marketing strategy can make or break you. And with the vast majority of music promotion happening online nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to manage it all without smart links.

There are several different kinds of smart links out there, but they’re essentially all URLs that you can share, track, and customize according to your needs.

Some smart links come with landing pages that can route visitors to many different destinations instead of just one. Some can even auto-adjust the destinations based on the link visitor’s location and device. This creates a win-win all around: Fans get a tailored experience that matches their preferences, while you see better results from your marketing efforts.

On top of providing a frictionless experience for fans, many smart link platforms can provide you with music marketing insights. You can use this data to optimize your ad spend, route your tours, and so much more.

So, what are the best smart links for music? Let’s dive into five of the most popular platforms.

1. Linkfire

How does it stack up?

• Best for: artists and labels looking to promote their music (used by the major labels and most of the top 100 Billboard artists)
• Link types: release, pre-release, playlist, ticket, bio, content, reward
• Streaming insights: yes (via exclusive data partnerships with streaming services)
• Integrations: 50+ automated service integrations, hundreds of manual service integrations, retargeting pixel integrations, marketing/analytics integrations, and affiliate link integrations
• Pricing: Plans range from $10/month to $100/month (save by paying annually)

Linkfire is known throughout the music industry as the gold standard for smart links. Established in 2014, the platform is trusted by every major label and over 50,000 artists worldwide—including the vast majority of the top 100 Billboard artists.

Why is Linkfire so popular among DIY musicians and superstars alike? Besides providing one of the smoothest user experiences of any smart link tool, Linkfire focuses heavily on scalability and advanced insights.

As your music career grows, Linkfire grows with you. With 99.8% uptime and the ability to handle very high levels of traffic, you never have to worry about your landing pages crashing. On higher-tier plans, you can invite more team members to collaborate in your workspace, and add dozens of advanced features and integrations to your account when the time is right.

Another major differentiator between Linkfire and all other smart link tools is its exclusive streaming data partnerships. Just about every smart link platform can tell you how many fans have clicked on your link, but Linkfire is the only one that lets you see what fans do in popular streaming services after they click. With insight into the full fan journey from visit to click to stream, you can more accurately measure the success of your campaigns—and avoid wasting your marketing budget.

Linkfire plans start at just $10/month, and you can sign up for a free trial of any plan before committing.

2. Linktree

How does it stack up?

• Best for: general bio links that aren’t music-focused
• Link types: several bio link templates for different industries, but very limited for music
• Streaming insights: no
• Integrations: retargeting pixel integrations, marketing/analytics integrations, limited service integrations
• Pricing: Plans range from free to $27/month (save by paying annually)

Although Linktree wasn’t designed for the music industry, it’s a popular choice among artists who just want a simple bio link for their social media profiles. Linktree offers all the essential features that you would expect from a smart link tool, such as customization and third-party integrations. They also make it easy to monetize your links and collect payments from fans.

Linktree’s free plan is a big reason why the platform is so popular, and it’s great for anyone who’s just getting started. But if you want access to any marketing integrations or valuable analytics, you’ll have to sign up for one of the paid plans.

Another factor to consider is that Linktree only offers 16 automated music service integrations, and no streaming data. This is a major drawback if you’re targeting fans in regions where local streaming services are more prevalent. To put this into perspective, Linkfire has over 50 automated integrations, hundreds of manual destinations, and can tell you what fans do within popular streaming services.

3. Presave

How does it stack up?

• Best for: artists with small fanbases who only run pre-save campaigns
• Link types: pre-save
• Streaming insights: no
• Integrations: only 3 service integrations, retargeting pixel integrations
• Pricing: Plans range from €9/month to €100/month (save by paying annually)

Presave.io is the most niche of all the smart link platforms on this list. However, it’s a solid choice if you have a small fanbase and you’re only interested in running pre-save campaigns for Spotify, Apple Music, or Deezer.

There’s no free plan, and the lowest-tier plan limits you to 1,000 pre-saves per campaign. So if you anticipate reaching more fans than that and/or want access to geo-data and statistics, you’ll have to spring for the highest corporate plan. Other smart link tools like Linkfire offer many more features at a lower price point, so it’s worth comparing platforms and evaluating what’s best for your needs.

4. Feature.fm

How does it stack up?

• Best for: artists and labels looking to run campaigns
• Link types: release, pre-save, bio, tour, action page, short link
• Streaming insights: no
• Integrations: limited service integrations, retargeting pixel integrations, marketing/analytics integrations
• Pricing: Plans range from free to $199/month (save by paying annually)

Feature.fm is another popular smart link platform for artists, labels, and music marketers. Although the user experience is known to not be as smooth as other platforms like Linkfire, you’ll find many comparable features on its higher-tier plans.

Feature.fm lets you create smart links for free—but if you want more than seven days of insight data, customizations, integrations, or any marketing tools, you’ll have to jump up to a paid plan.

The self-serve ad platform is a valuable feature if you’re looking to reach fans where they already discover music. However, you won’t find the kind of in-service streaming data that you can only get with Linkfire.

5. ToneDen

How does it stack up?

• Best for: event marketers running ad campaigns
• Link types: FanLinks, StreamLinks, PodLinks, EventLinks, BigLinks
• Streaming insights: no
• Integrations: limited service integrations, retargeting pixel integrations
• Pricing: Plans range from free to $1,300/month (depending on ad spend)

ToneDen is a social marketing tool, and isn’t designed specifically for the music industry. But since it was acquired by Eventbrite in 2020, it’s become a powerful platform for event marketers. If touring is the backbone of your music marketing strategy, ToneDen could be a great choice for you.

The free plan comes with essentials like FanLink campaigns, contests, and custom domains, but all of the features that make ToneDen worthwhile only come with the paid plans. Unfortunately, the cheapest option is $50/month and can easily climb up to $1,300/month, which is out of reach for most independent artists. But if you have the budget for it and are serious about growing your brand, it’s worth checking out the automated Facebook and Instagram ads platform that comes with all of ToneDen’s paid plans.

Final thoughts

You’ll notice that many smart link tools are purposely designed to be general, so that they can appeal to as many industries as possible. Linkfire is one of the only smart link platforms that’s tailored to what artists, labels, and music marketers need. That’s why it has such a stellar track record across the global music industry—and it’s also why so many major music services exclusively partner with Linkfire on streaming insights.

Smart link platforms that offer free plans can be enticing. But when you take a closer look at what you’re actually getting, they tend to only make sense for total beginners who don’t understand or care about marketing data.

The good news is that most smart link platforms offer free trials of their paid plans, so you don’t have to guess and hope that the features fit your needs. We always recommend digging in and trying it out for yourself!