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Your release gets taps but no streams. The web player is usually why. Here is how musicians use deeplinks to turn taps into streams, saves and follows.
6 min
TL;DR. For a musician the only job of a bio link is turning a tap into a stream, a save and a follow. Most links fail at the last step because they open a signed out web player instead of the app. A deeplink opens Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, SoundCloud, Amazon Music or YouTube Music directly on your track. Free, and it works on the audience you already have.
If your snippets perform but your streaming numbers do not follow, read this before blaming the song.
The gap between a tap and a stream
A play on a signed out web player is worth very little. It often does not count the way a play in the app does, your listener cannot save the track to a library they are not logged into, and following you takes several taps they will not make.
So the click shows up, the stream does not, and you conclude the snippet worked but the song did not land. Usually the song was fine and the link was the problem.
Why this hits musicians harder than anyone
Because music has three actions rather than one. You want a stream, a save and a follow. A shop only needs a purchase. Every extra action you need multiplies the cost of a signed out visitor, and the save and the follow are the two that compound over your next release.
Your audience is also split across services in a way most businesses are not. Some fans are on Spotify, some on Apple Music, some on YouTube Music. One link that behaves correctly on all of them matters more for you than for almost anyone else.
What to set up for a release
Decide which service carries most of your audience and make that your primary destination.
Generate a deeplink for that destination with a slug carrying your artist or release name.
If you need several services, build a bio page where every entry is itself a deeplink rather than a raw URL.
Use the same link in your bio, your Stories, your other platforms and your QR codes for merch and gigs.
Watch the per link statistics to learn which service your audience actually uses, then lead with that next release.
The QR code case for gigs and merch
The same link can generate a QR code. Printed on a poster, a merch tag or a flyer at a show, a scan opens the music app directly rather than a browser. Offline and online use one setup, and you can see the scans in the same statistics.
What changes for a fan
For a fan tapping your music link | Plain link | OpenUp deeplink |
|---|---|---|
Opens in | Signed out web player | Music app |
Signed in | No | Yes |
Play counts properly | Often not | Yes |
Save to library | Requires sign in | One tap |
Follow the artist | Rarely happens | One tap |
A note on link in bio pages
A bio page does not fix this by itself. Your page opens in the in app browser and so does every link on it. If you use one, make sure the individual entries are deeplinks rather than raw URLs, otherwise you have organised the problem rather than solved it.
The bottom line
You cannot control the algorithm and you cannot make people like the track more. You can control where the tap lands, and a signed out web player is the most expensive place for it to land. This is a one minute change that applies to every release from now on.
Frequently asked questions
Which services are supported? Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Apple Podcasts among others.
Can I have one link for multiple services? Use a bio page where each entry is a deeplink, or one link per service for cleaner statistics.
Does it work for presave links? Any URL can be the destination.
Can I use it on printed merch? Yes, via a QR code from the same link.
Is it free? Yes.
Last updated: September 2026. Written by the OpenUp.to team.
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