What Is a Street Team?

A street team is a group of fans who volunteer to promote an album or musician. They're usually organized by a record label or by the artist.

Find out how a street team can help with the marketing and promotion of your music.

What Is a Street Team?

A street team is a grassroots team, usually comprised of a group of an artist's fans, who volunteer to promote a band or album. The street team is dedicated to supporting the artist and their career and wants to see them succeed.

A street team is a type of street marketing. It is a valuable avenue of promotion because music fans have credibility with other music fans that no amount of advertising or number of reviews can quite match. Their support of the band is earnest.

Having fans of an album or artist reach out to other music fans about how much they love an artist's new release helps word-of-mouth advertising, increasing an artist's exposure. It also helps connect an artist or band with people who are looking for new music to enjoy.

How Does a Street Team Work?

You don't have to have a big record label to have a street team. If you're an independent artist, assembling a street team to help with promotional efforts frees you up to focus on what you love—making music.

A street team can help you get the word out about you and your latest release, and they can do it from a place of sincere love and appreciation of what they're promoting.

A street team will typically be organized by the record label or by the artist. There may be an open call for fans to apply to the street team, and applications may request the fan tell a little bit about themselves and why they love the band.

The street team organizer will manage the members of the street team, explaining what they'd like the street team to do, coordinating their activities, and providing incentives.

Being on a street team is typically an unpaid position. Team members usually work for free, motivated by their love of the band or artist. However, that doesn't mean they're not compensated in other ways. Savvy street team organizers will show their appreciation for their street team members by giving them event tickets, free merchandise such as exclusive band T-shirts, and access to private meet-and-greets with the artist. This gives additional incentive for the street team to participate in promotional activities.

The work street teams do can vary but includes efforts such as passing out promotional stickers, putting posters up for live shows and new releases, and calling local radio stations to request songs. They may send emails, write about the artist or new release in chat rooms, and post about them on social media.

For example, a band without a record label may find it difficult to get the kind of exposure they need to be successful. They may not have the resources they need to buy advertising, or they may find that advertising isn't effective at netting them album sales or ticket sales.

However, putting together a street team of passionate fans helps the band spread the word, increasing their exposure. Thanks to the street team's efforts to share the band's music to new people through video clips, social media posts, and flyers, the band is able to sell more tickets to live shows, improve their reputation, and further their music careers.

Starting a Street Team

Consider beginning your street team online. You can put together a group of people through social media, for example, who are excited to talk about you and recommend you. This will also give you a chance to try out promotional ideas and strategies and to get feedback from your team on what's popular and what works. As you get better at promotions and organizing your team, you can move on to an offline street team.

Offline street teams are best begun in local areas where you are popular. It will make finding people who love your work and want to promote you easier, and you won't be trying to break into a brand new market when you're still building your promotional talents.

Do I Need a Street Team?

Whether you need a street team depends on where you are in your career. Do you have something to promote? If you don't have a new release, it may be too early to worry about a street team. You also need enough money to buy the promotional materials, such as stickers and posters, that you'll want your team to distribute.

Also, ask yourself if your music is polished enough to start pushing for wider appeal and a bigger audience. If your music is still unpolished, a street team may be a waste of time, turning off potential fans who are unimpressed by an unprofessional sound.

Is a Street Team Worth It?

In exchange for their work, street team members get exclusive merchandise, concert tickets, and other special gifts. They also get experience. If someone is serious about getting into music promotion, having some street team experience can be a good way to get their feet wet, learning the process and strategies of promotion from the ground up.

For musicians, street teams can create the kind of excitement about a band or an album release that is unmatched by other methods. With the help of eager fans, artists can reach audiences they otherwise might never have touched.