Link Building for Entertainment and Music Brands

Entertainment — music, events, film, comedy, venues — is covered by listings sites, reviewers, local press and dedicated fan communities. Links come around specific moments: releases, tours, individual events. Being genuinely ready for those moments, with the right assets in place, is most of the work.

Press kits (EPKs)

An electronic press kit with a biography, photos, music or video, press quotes, tour dates and clear contact details gives journalists and bookers something concrete to link to. Keep it updated after every significant milestone rather than letting it go stale between releases.

Event listings

Listings sites, local what’s-on guides and ticketing platforms link to events and venues as a matter of course. Submit every event consistently, with complete details, rather than only the ones you expect to sell out — consistency itself builds a track record listings sites come to rely on.

Reviews and features

Pitch releases and shows to reviewers and blogs covering your specific genre, and to local press for local shows. Genre relevance matters far more than a site’s overall size when it comes to actually connecting with the right audience.

Festivals and collaborations

Festival line-up pages, collaborators’ sites and label rosters all link to participating artists as standard practice. Venues, in turn, get links from the acts and promoters they host, which is worth tracking rather than assuming happens automatically.

Fan communities

Fan sites, forums and wikis link to official sources readily. Give them official news, assets and reasonable access; don’t try to control or restrict them, since attempts at control tend to damage the relationship more than any inaccurate fan content would.

Paid placements

The entertainment niche includes culture blogs and event sites of varying relevance. For venues and events specifically, local relevance matters most (local business link building).

Evergreen pages

Create lasting URLs for recurring events, such as a permanent “/summer-festival/” page, rather than a fresh page each year, so links accumulate over time instead of resetting with every edition.

Assets worth maintaining year-round

Asset	Why it matters
Electronic press kit	The single reusable asset every pitch depends on
Evergreen event URL	Accumulates links across multiple editions instead of resetting
Fan community relationship	Produces organic coverage with minimal ongoing effort
Local press contact list	Speeds up coverage for every future show or release

Cross-promoting with other acts and venues

Shared bills, support slots and venue partnerships create a natural reason for two or more parties to link to each other, since each has an interest in promoting the shared event to their own audience. This kind of reciprocal promotion is far less contrived in entertainment than in most other niches, because the audiences genuinely overlap and the promotion serves both parties’ actual interests rather than being purely link-motivated.

Working with local government and cultural bodies

City and regional cultural bodies frequently maintain event calendars and “things to do” pages that welcome submissions from independent venues and promoters, and these are often underused compared with commercial listings sites. They tend to carry additional local credibility, since they’re seen as a neutral civic resource rather than a commercial platform with its own promotional interests.

Building your own content around each release

Behind-the-scenes content, track-by-track explainers and tour diaries give fan sites and blogs something to reference beyond the release itself (what makes content genuinely linkable). Treat this the same way any other niche treats linkable assets: a durable, specific piece of content earns more links over time than a press release alone (how data and original content earn coverage).

Working with streaming platforms and playlists

Beyond traditional press, curated playlists and platform editorial features can drive significant listening and, where the platform or an associated blog publishes a written feature, a genuine backlink as well. Building a relationship with playlist curators and platform editorial teams, much like with traditional press, tends to pay off over multiple releases rather than a single pitch.

Evaluating entertainment sites before paying

The entertainment and culture space includes plenty of sites that publish sponsored posts on almost any topic without real editorial focus. Check that a site’s recent content is genuinely about your genre or scene before paying for a placement (a full evaluation checklist), since relevance here matters more than a large but unfocused audience (red flags worth checking first).

Handling cancellations and changes gracefully

Events get postponed or cancelled, and how that’s communicated affects whether listings sites and fans continue to trust your announcements. Update every listing promptly when a date changes, and communicate clearly rather than quietly, since listings sites that get burned by outdated information are less likely to prioritise your future submissions.

Where to go next

Build or refresh your press kit before your next release or event, since it underpins every other tactic here. Use the entertainment niche marketplace for paid coverage alongside the earned listings and fan community work.

Frequently asked questions