A musician's link in bio should hold the streaming services your fans actually use, your newest release, upcoming shows and merch, in that order, behind one URL that never changes. The URL stays put. Everything behind it changes with each release.
That second part is where most artist pages fail. A single drops, the bio still points at the last one for three weeks, and the people who came from the new video land on an old song. Instagram allows up to 5 links in a bio, TikTok gives you one, and none of those fields was built for an artist who releases every six to eight weeks. This guide covers what belongs on the page, how to run it through a release cycle, where tour dates and merch fit, and what the visit data can and cannot tell you.
Why a musician's page is not a creator's page
Most link in bio advice assumes a page you build once and tweak. A musician's page has a calendar. There is the month before a release, release day, the two weeks after, and then the tour or the next single. Each phase wants a different first card.
The other difference is the audience. A fashion creator's followers mostly do one thing: buy. Yours split three ways. Some want to listen, some want tickets, some want a shirt. And the listeners split again by app, because nobody switches from Apple Music to Spotify for one artist.
So the page has two jobs. It has to put the right streaming service one tap away for everyone, and it has to tell people what is new this week without making them scroll for it.
What goes on a musician's link in bio, in order
Build it top to bottom by urgency, not by importance. A good link in bio page for an artist usually reads like this:
- The current thing. The new single, the video, or the tour announcement. One card, at the top, with a label that says what it is ("New single: Night Bus, out now").
- Streaming links. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and whatever else your distributor report shows real numbers for. Put them in the order of your streaming split, not alphabetically.
- The video. A video card embeds YouTube, Vimeo or TikTok directly on the page, so a fan can watch without leaving.
- Shows. Dates in a text card, ticket links as separate buttons.
- Merch. Product cards with a photo and price.
- Your mailing list. The only fan list on the page that belongs to you and not to a platform.
Under the bio you also get a row of social icons. Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud and Deezer are in that row alongside Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, so your profiles can live there and the cards stay free for things that change.
If this looks like the layout in the podcast link in bio guide, that is because the listening problem is the same. The release cycle is not.
Change the page with every release, not your profile
Here is the part that saves you hours. The URL in your Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profiles is the page, and you never touch those profiles again. When a release goes out, you change the cards.
A cycle looks like this in practice. Four weeks out, the top card is the teaser video and the announcement. On release day, it becomes the single, and the streaming buttons point at the new track instead of your artist profile. Two weeks later, the single moves down and the tour card takes the top spot. Each card has an on/off switch, so the pre-release teaser does not need deleting. You turn it off and keep it for reference.
For the link you put in captions, stories, video descriptions and the end screen, use one short link with a name that does not belong to any single song. Something like linx.ly/yourname-new. Before release, point it at your pre-save page. If you distribute with DistroKid, its HyperFollow page is included for members and works as a pre-save page until the track is live. On release day, you edit the destination to the release itself. Every caption you posted in the last month now sends people to the song, without editing a single post.
Keep two short links, not one per release: linx.ly/yourname-new for whatever is current and linx.ly/yourname for the page. Fans learn both, and you never print or say a link that goes stale. Picking slugs that read well out loud is covered in the branded short link guide.
Tour dates and merch without a website
Tour dates fit in a text card, which holds 255 characters. That is roughly six or seven lines in the format "14 Nov, Berlin, Lido". Under it, add one link card per show that sells tickets, labelled with the city. When a show passes or sells out, switch that card off. The page stays short, and nobody taps a ticket link for a date that happened last Tuesday.
If you are doing a residency or a single big show, a map card puts the venue on the page, so nobody has to search for the address.
Merch goes in product cards: a photo, a name, a price, a sale price if you are running one, and the currency you sell in. The card links to wherever the order actually happens, whether that is Bandcamp, your Shopify store or a form. The checkout lives there. What the product card does is show the shirt and the price before the tap, which is the step a plain "MERCH" button skips.
What the numbers tell you, and what they do not
Every visit to the page is counted, with the country and the device type, on every plan. For an artist, country is the useful one. If 400 people opened your page last month and 120 of them were in Germany, that is a tour routing decision, and it is a number your streaming dashboard shows you weeks later and in a different shape.
On the Pro plan you also get the city, the referrer (whether the visit came from Instagram, TikTok or YouTube) and 2 years of history instead of 30 days. Two years matters more for musicians than for most people. You can put this release cycle next to the last one and see whether the video or the tour announcement brought more people to the page.
What the page does not count is which card was tapped. If you need that for one specific thing, say the ticket link for your biggest show, give that thing its own short link and use it as the card's destination. That link keeps its own count. Link in bio analytics goes through reading the referrer and country data in more detail.
Some automated traffic hits every public page. Most of it is filtered out, but not all of it, so do not trust a sudden spike from one country in a single hour, especially one you have no listeners in. A real wave of fans comes with plays and follows on your streaming side.
Where a dedicated music link tool does more
Music smart link services were built for one job: a release page that lists every streaming service, runs pre-save campaigns and plugs into ad pixels for paid campaigns. If you spend real money on Meta ads for every release, that is worth paying for, and an all-purpose link page is not a replacement.
Most independent artists are not in that position. They need a page that stays current, a short link for captions that can be repointed, a place for shows and merch, and a number that says where the fans are. Your distributor's pre-save page plus a link page you control covers that. It also costs less than adding a separate tool to every release.
Setting it up
- Sign up for Linxly and start the 7-day free trial.
- Create a bio page and set the slug to your artist name, so it matches what fans already search.
- Add your streaming profiles to the social icons, then add cards: current release, streaming links, video, shows, merch, mailing list.
- Create a short link called
yourname-newand point it at your current release or pre-save page. - Paste the page URL into Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. If the link field is missing on TikTok, adding a link to your TikTok bio explains the follower requirement.
- On every release day, edit two things: the top card and the destination of
yourname-new.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a musician put in their link in bio?
The current release at the top, then streaming links in the order of your actual streaming split, a video, upcoming shows with ticket links, merch, and a mailing list signup. Six or seven cards is plenty; past that, fans stop scrolling before they reach the ticket link.
Should my bio link go straight to Spotify?
Only if almost all of your listeners are on Spotify. Everyone on Apple Music or YouTube Music hits a dead end, and they will not switch apps for one song. A page with a button for each service lets every fan open the app they already use.
Can I run a pre-save from my link in bio?
Point your release short link at the pre-save page your distributor gives you, then change the destination to the release on launch day. The link you posted in captions stays the same and starts sending people to the song the moment you switch it.
Can I sell merch from my link in bio?
Yes, on every plan. A product card shows the photo, price and sale price, and links to wherever the order is placed, such as Bandcamp or your store. The purchase itself happens on that store.
How much does a link in bio for musicians cost on Linxly?
Plans start at $0.99 a month, which includes 2 bio pages, 5 short links a month, custom slugs, destination edits and visit data by country and device. Pro is $7.99 a month and adds city and referrer data with 2 years of history. Every plan comes with a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel anytime.