How to Promote your Music on Spotify

How to Promote your Music on Spotify

If your music isn’t online, then it doesn’t exist? Unfortunately, nowadays, this statement is true.

The importance of being online is due to changes in the music industry and the almost extinction of CD Sales. As a result, the strategy to release and promote music has changed drastically in the last few years. One of the reasons is the appearance of online streaming and music sharing platforms such as Youtube, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Deezer. 

Youtube still has the biggest impact among all the listed platforms, even though it is a video platform. However, Spotify follows just behind. If your music is not on Spotify, it might exist. Yet, you are not doing it right.

But why Spotify?

  • Spotify pays you the streaming of your songs
  • There is a great chance for you to be discovered
  • You get new fans and listeners
  • You are getting introduced to a new audience for your upcoming concerts and releases

Data is everything! On Spotify, you get to know important information about your listeners, such as where your listeners are from and what are their music preferences. To learn more check out The 4 New Engagement Stats on Spotify for Artists.

Would we say that Spotify is a digital music service that brings opportunities? Yes. Musicians quite often make more money from streaming on Spotify than doing gigs.

How to Promote your Music on Spotify

But, of course, you need a good fan base; read our 6 Pro Tips for a Raving Spotify Fan Base

But How?

It may sound like it’s easy to promote your music, that you just upload your songs and that overnight your music will have thousands of plays, new listeners, and that money will just start to appear in your bank account. But tht’s far from being true.

This is actually possible with a consistent strategy, but don’t forget the most important thing: your music.  

First, however, consider that you are the great artist you already are and that you have awesome tunes ready to be promoted. So which are the steps you should take?

Make your Playlist

Often musicians make lists of their favorite music. This way, you don’t have to count on other people’s lists, but you’ll have to take things into your own hands. Your music will be listened to within a list of music similar to yours and in this way, you will increase the number of song streaming. Why?

Spotify pays you for the streaming of your songs. An example of a successful playlist by musicians is Tom Misch, who did the same thing.

Engage fans on social networks. Not sure how to do it? Check out our 5 No-brainer Tips.

Share your music on all social networks. You can access directly through Spotify and
share the links and draw the attention of the fans you already have.

Data Platforms

These platforms know to be great. It makes things a lot easier. In one place you have in the genre you need, selected lists that are ready for cooperation and push your music to be discovered and get more streamings. And there are two options here. One is to get the data, and then it’s on you, and another option is to let someone use his sources and push your music to specific lists, actually do everything for you. In this case, a good service charges a sharing of data with you or an entire work if you decide on another option. With the cheap one for a few bucks, it’s not worth it to start.

Facebook Groups

Yes, that’s possible. Groups now have the strongest influence in
Facebook and are active. They are also ready to help. Find the right groups and share your music.

Manually search and contact Playlist Curators.

It is a good idea; it takes quite some effort. First, you need to choose a genre, keywords, and search perfect lists for your music on Spotify. Then, when you find the ideal lists, you need to find their creators, contact them and ask for their terms to find your song on their list.

How to Promote your Music on Spotify

But, don’t get demotivated by the word effort; we’ve got your back with tips on How to pitch your new music to Spotify playlist curators.

Spotify services

And finally, revise your Spotify options. First of all, you need to join.

Spotify for artists.

The next step is to submit your music before release, a minimum of 7 days before, to playlist editors to include your new song on their playlists for new music.

We hope you have a clearer picture of how to promote your music on Spotify. Now is, for sure, the perfect time to start.

Good luck!

Social Media Sites are stealing from your brand: Here’s how to regain control

Social Media Sites are stealing from your brand:
Here’s how to regain control

Have you noticed that a good percentage of your social media followers are not seeing your content?

The sad drop in engagement rate on your page is not accidental; it results from the greediness of tech companies (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and their disregard for creators who invest their hard-earned money and time to create breathtaking content.
I hate to break it to you but you have been played by the four horsemen and their cohorts. When their platform was young, they ensured that even newbies got exposure; however, once their Google play downloads exploded and became popular, they tweaked their algorithm to neglect the creators responsible for their success. Then, they slapped you with shadowban and continually obstructed your content from getting to your followers. The only time your content gets seen is when you give them your money. Isn’t that robbery?

It is becoming too expensive to get seen on social media; hence you need to take total control over your music career and build your fans using a mailing list. In this guide, we will inform you on the dangers of not building a mailing list and how you can build direct relationships with your fans without having to pay Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for miserly clicks.

Your Followers are not Your Fans

The beeping sound of a ‘follow’ notification from Instagram introduces an influx of dopamine into the bloodstream. However, if these notification alerts become unending, you get overwhelmed with a false sense of security. False? Yes, false as in not dependable, not in your control, and not good for your future as an artist.

There is a popular saying that goes like this; your followers are not your fans. Unfortunately, that saying can be perceived as quite accurate as it applies to all social media platforms. To best understand the difference between a follower and a fan, you must first comprehend the nature of the relationship between the users and social media platforms.

A user is a person who provides their mail to a social media company and agrees to abide by the rules of the digital platform (that no one reads) in exchange for the ability to connect with people from all over the globe and consume entertaining content. The social media company is the entity that ensures that the website is up and running while regulating the type of content shared on the platform. The company’s interest is to keep its users on the website, hence promoting entertaining content to more users and punishing the unentertaining ones.

On the other side of the spectrum, you are just another social media platform user, and the company treats you as such. Your followers are fellow users interested in your social media content, while your fans are genuinely interested in your music. A good percentage of your followers won’t stream your music until your true fans have listened and created user-generated content on your behalf. Even if a good percentage of your followers are devoted to your music, the social media algorithm won’t show them your content.

To take back control from the social media companies starving your followers on the app, you must turn the followers into direct users of your brand, and the best way to do that is to create a mailing list. With a mailing list, you can collect their emails and reach out to them regularly. Once your followers give you permission and access to their mail, they become lifelong customers. You can sell them your next album, merch, or tour tickets.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying you should dump your social media accounts. Social media is, of course, an excellent tool for building a fanbase, but it’s not a patch towards having a solid mailing list. When it comes to fostering long-term relationships with listeners, the mailing list is the bee’s knees. The Dangers of banking on social media to connect with your fans include;

According to a Buzzsumo report, Facebook engagement for business pages suffered a 20% fall in 2017 (roughly 5 years after it launched its mobile ads program). Although Facebook ads date back to 2004, there was no place for ads on the Facebook mobile app before 2012. The moment Facebook ads became a thing across all industries, brands previously enjoyed’ exposure plummeted significantly on Facebook pages. Think of it – the lesser exposure facebook pages get organically, the more money Facebook gets per impression/click. The idea of changing the way its algorithm operates is not just motivated by growth but also greed. The moment brands hack the algorithm, Mark’s’ zero support team’ Zuckerberg changes it.

Social Media Platforms come and go

When using a social media platform dwindles, the biggest losers are the influencers who have put in much effort to build a digital presence on the platform. At least the founders and shareholders get a share of the profit. But the influencers are left with nothing. Examples of dead social media platforms include vine, MySpace, DailyBooth, FriendFeed, iTunes Ping, Google Buzz, Yik YAK, Google Wave, Meerkat, Friendster, and Google Plus.

Your account can be hijacked by hackers or banned the company

I have lost count on the number of my friends whose Facebook accounts have been hacked in the past. But then, I remembered how my Instagram account was almost hacked in 2021 while helping a friend recover her account. It dawned on me that Facebook does not have a support team that anyone can contact to resolve an issue. If your account gets hacked, your best bet is to chat with a bot, and most people never recover their hacked Facebook accounts.

Also, your account can get reported for the silliest reasons, and the funny thing is you might get banned from Facebook for breaking obscure rules that no one ever reads.

You are always on the losing end

Facebook alongside Instagram or Twitter is already a successful venture for the early shareholders and founders. If these platforms stop operating at any point in time, the brands that depend on them lose the most.

Final Thoughts

Social media life is so fast that your followers are constantly distracted by a networking app. To make things worse, the social media companies hamper your posts from reaching your followers, let alone other users who don’t follow you. The mailing list is the best way to get their undiluted attention without bothering about an unfavorable Facebook algorithm.

How Tidal is Becoming the Best Streaming App for DJs

How Tidal is Becoming the Best Streaming App for DJs

While Spotify is trying to play catch-up in 2021, Tidal is already years ahead of other streaming platforms.

In 2018, Tidal announced its partnership with Dubset, a rights clearance startup that has previously collaborated with Spotify and Apple in 2016. The deal will help Tidal monetize DJ mixes and payout royalties to artists. Dubset, formerly known as The Future FM, is affiliated with popular labels like SonyMusic, Merlin, and Warner Music — making it easier for Tidal to get tracks cleared via the online mixed-audio distribution platform.

Decriminalizing the production of DJ mixes

The music industry hates bootlegs, mashups, or DJ mixes because the production of such materials encourages illegal usage of rights holders’ music and piracy. Although artists heavily criticize its use, the DJ mixset is an integral part of EDM, dancehall, and afrobeat genres. The inability to create innovative ways

to satisfy both the users of these genres and the artists pushes millions of music listeners to pirate bay (an online index of digital content that allows users to share entertainment files such as albums or mixtapes, and DJ mixes).

Dubset scans and detects the songs in a DJ mix, making it easy for Tidal to pay artists and DJs.

With the aid of a proprietary software named MixSCAN, Dubset can identify the songs and their respective rights holders. Before a mix can be analysed, it is run via MixSCAN, which identifies audio content using audio fingerprinting and textual fingerprinting. Dubset production engineers further analyse the report of the software. A mix that has gone through the three-step identification process will be given a special mixDNA. The mixDNA consists of metadata that helps identify the tracks used in a particular mix.

A new dawn at Tidal

Following Jack Dorsey’s acquisition of the majority stake at Tidal for $297 million, there seems to be an instant turnaround in the way things are run in Tidal.

The audio-streaming platform initially created by Hov is fast becoming the DJ’s favorite DSP. Tidal made two brilliant changes that are aimed at making the lives of amateur and professional DJs easier. These two changes are;

Equipping DJs with more DJ apps

Tidal has seen a growth in the population of DJs using its DJ software integration service. In response to this development, Tidal announced that it would integrate more DJ apps such as Edjing Mix and Hercules’ DJUCED. Currently, the Tidal app houses integrated apps like Rekordbox, Algoriddim Djay, and Serato.

Providing new sets of DJ-friendly playlists

Any run-of-the-mill playlist can keep regular listeners on the Tidal app for hours, but DJs require more. The audio-streaming platform added BPM-specific, artist-curated, instrumental, and era-specific playlists to its platform to make DJing easier using Tidal.

Final Thoughts

Tidal is doing everything within its capacity to keep growing its DJ fanbase. By creating a safe space for DJs to operate in today’s royalty-driven world, Tidal is improving the music experience on its platform.

How to write social media copy for your music

How to write social media copy for your music

Don’t waste your hard-earned money on ads until you know how to write an effective copy. An effective copy is to your music what a mini skirt is to an endowed damsel, short and attention-grabbing.

Let’s skip the part where I try to sell you the generic facade that I’ve written “thousands” of copies that have brought in millions of dollars for my clients just to get you to stay glued to your screen for the next five minutes. While it is true that I know my onions and I’ve been doing this for a long time, I’m pretty much an avid learner just like you, and I believe there’s more to learn about copywriting regardless of how much you know. In this guide, you will learn about the nitty-gritty of copywriting, how you can upgrade your copywriting skills, and the little tricks you may have been missing all this while.

Are you set? Let’s go!

The purpose of copywriting for musicians

The purpose of copywriting for musicians is to draw listeners closer to an artist’s music/merch (without letting the copy distract them) using social media captions, images, or videos.

How to write social media copy for your music

Copywriting is simply the act of writing an ad copy. A copy can either be short-form or long-form. Short-form copywriting aims to convert listeners or create awareness using a minimal number of words. The word count for a short form copy can range from 5 words to 1000 words. Examples of a short form copy include captions, brand names, product names, direct mails, CTAs, Banner ads, PPC ads, magazine ads, etc.

On the flip side, a long-form copy utilizes more than one thousand words. However, the ultimate aim is to convert listeners just like its short-form alternative. Examples of long-form copy include website copies, eBooks, guides, white papers, lengthy articles, and many more.

Every industry has its unique ways of getting the attention of its targeted audiences. For example, the way a doctor would write a copy is different from how an artist would write a copy. In addition, some professions require a certain level of formality while others use informal words like ‘lol’, YKTV’, ‘LMAO’.

Also, the demographics you are targeting will determine the words and phrases you can use or not use.​For instance, when LGBTQ singers want to target their community, they use gender pronouns more.

Generally speaking, there is no one-size-fits-all rule for copywriting. You have to first understand your audience. Determine your aim, and make your rules along the way. When writing to a specific audience, you must consider their age range, sex, race, and interests. You cannot afford to use a slight misnomer, as such mistakes can ruin your brand.

How to write an ad copy like a professional

When promoting your new release, understand that your goal is to sell an experience. The choice of words you use, the slang/slogan you chant, and the story you tell must be in sync with the music. If you use trap terms to promote a soul track, the trap fans would angrily leave your Spotify page or dislike your music on YouTube.

Research

The first thing you ought to do before writing your copy is to research. You can use platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, or YouTube to see what copies are working and those that have failed.

Facebook ads work well because it allows artists to target potential fans where they are gathered, meaning you can target music-related groups and fan pages of other artists. Before targeting them, check those groups to know what the trendy conversation there is. Note their likes, dislikes, and different cultures.

You can do this by searching for a specific genre or popular musician fan groups. You don’t want to duplicate another artist’s copy as they can take down your ad. Searching for the most successful captions can give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t.

For instance, if I wanted to write a copy for a new Afrobeats track, I would search for keywords like Afrobeats, Wizkid, or Burna Boy on YouTube. The second and third keywords are names of popular Afrobeats artists. For your genre, you can use the names of popular artists.

When you search for the keyword on Facebook, you will be shown the popular groups, pages, people, images, videos, forums, events, related searches, and infinite posts on that particular genre.

Define the essence of your copy

Whether you want to trigger your audience to comment, like, follow/subscribe to your social media channel, or you want to tell a story about our upcoming release – setting a goal for your campaign will help you boil the copy ideas down to the slogans and sentences that matter the most.

Use powerful headlines

Your copy headline is the title of your copy. Frequently, it is the first thing people see before proceeding to read your copy. The headline can be designed with your art cover (the picture or video accompanying your copy) Many people would forget the message of your campaign. However, if your headline is good enough, it will stick around for a long time. For example, we all remember Nike’s “Just do it” campaign, but many have forgotten the campaign’s details.

Paint an interesting picture

A good copy seeks to engage and paint a picture. Copywriting is like poetry because the two fields require telling a story with the briefest words possible. The only difference is that copywriting aims to sell an idea without the use of ornate language. As a copywriter, you must use simple words, not complex terms.

When writing your copy, opt for words that stimulate a gut feeling or a visual image. Also, ensure the first sentence of the copy makes the readers curious to read more. In line with the impeccable advice of a legendary copywriter, Joe Sugarman, “the main purpose of the first sentence is to get you to read the second sentence.

Structure your copy using the AIDA model

The AIDA is an acronym for attention, interests, desire, and action. A good copy must;

  • Make the reader of the genre, song, or artist.
  • Incite the consumer’s interest in the music using stories they can relate to or mirroring their lifestyle.
  • Seek to bank on the consumer’s desires. To know their desires, you need to be an excellent researcher.
  • Propel the consumer to act.

Use CTA at the end of the copy

People love to be told what to do. When someone enjoys your 30 seconds music snippet on Facebook, you would expect them to automatically like or save the song on Spotify, but the reality is that they won’t do so if you don’t tell them what to do. If you want them to listen to your new song, use captions such as “listen on Spotify now, check out my new release on Spotify” or “join the release party on Spotify.”

If you want the audience to comment, you can tell them to drop a fire emoji in the comment section if they love the snippet. You can also ask the listeners for ideas since everyone wants to be heard.

Keep Rewriting

No matter how ridiculous your first idea is, pen it down. Then, keep rewriting. Don’t be fooled into thinking professional copywriters get it right at the first trial. Your first thoughts are like unrefined gold; the more you refine it, the more it sparkles. According to David Ogilvy, a British advertising tycoon, I am a lousy copywriter, but I’m a good editor. So I go to work on my own draft. After four or five changes, it looks good enough to show the client.”

How to get on Spotify DJ mixes

How to get on Spotify DJ mixes

Dance and electronic music slap harder when multiple tracks are sequenced and mixed in a way that creates a live sonic experience that is way different from what listeners would typically get from playlists.

Once listeners get used to a Spotify playlist to the point of being able to predict the next song, the music experience becomes boring over time. DJ mixes come with unpredictability, smooth transitioning, and intelligent live mastering. These qualities are missing in regular Spotify playlists. The Spotify DJ mode helps create fading transitions between tracks in a playlist; however, the feature does not match professional DJ services. Third-party DJ controller apps like Algoriddim DJAY used to be a go-to option for listeners who wanted to create DJ mixes, but Spotify discontinued the DJ apps in 2020.

Return of Spotify DJ Mixes

Spotify cannot continue to run away from its consumers’ cravings. Considering that Apple Music is doubling down on its devotion to creating DJ mixes, it’s only a matter of time before Spotify starts losing dance and electronic music fans to Apple Music.

Spotify DJ mixes returned to Swedish audio-streaming last month. The Spotify DJ Mixes feature allows DJs in 8 countries – namely, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Indonesia – to create DJ mixes for Spotify listeners. The feature will allow listeners to have a different feel of their favorite tracks, discover new music from unexplored terrains and interact more with artists.

The DJ mixes feature is still in its early stages, and Spotify tipped fans on their blog to “expect” a better experience as time goes on.
On the first day of the launch, the original DJ

mixes for Spotify were curated by DJ Adam Beyer, DJ AmyElle, DJ Shingo Nakamura, DJ Moti, and DJ Noise.

How do Spotify DJ mixes work?

For the time being, it is still unclear how Spotify DJ mixes works for the upcoming DJs who may not yet have enough clout to be invited by Spotify. The DJs who made it to the first row during the launch were handpicked, and it seems Spotify is still testing the waters.

The feasibility of Spotify DJ mixes would depend on its audio identification, payment, and clearance model.

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