It’s always a good sign when a Spotify PR company rejects your song. It means they’re selective, a prerequisite to establishing fruitful relationships with influential curators. Virtuoso Music rejected my first submission, so I sent them three more. To my relief, they approved one of them: We really love “In Motion” and we think that has a…
Spotify launched their Ad Studio platform early last year. I was giddy with excitement. For the first time, I could make potential fans hear my music. If they liked it enough to click through, my entire catalog was at their fingertips, AND I’d earn royalties on every play. Maybe I’d even earn enough to pay…
You may have noticed that whenever you schedule a video release on YouTube or Facebook, you have the option of making it a premiere. In the spirit of “why not?” I tested the feature out on both platforms to determine the premiére premiere-er. The winner, in my mind, was cliére (I’ll stop). The idea is…
Drooble is a social network for musicians. Like Facebook, it has a news feed with comments and likes. Like SoundCloud, it has artist profiles, radio, charts, and playlists. And like Fiverr, you can pay for things like radio play, news feed exposure (Artist/Tune/Video of the Day), and even professional services like mixing and mastering. The…
I would never buy fake plays, and I strongly suggest you don’t either. You risk getting your material taken down, your account suspended, or worse. When I received an email from Vicky Edward of Midnite Blaster, an electronic music marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia, I was skeptical. She assured me that their SoundCloud promotional service is…
In a recent How I’m Promoting My Music This Month email newsletter (subscribe here), I mentioned that I was working through a long to-do list to promote my new album. Several subscribers emailed to ask for a copy of that list. It’s full of abbreviations, acronyms, and other indecipherables, so I figured I’d break it down…
Patreon has been doing a lot lately to help creators maximize their potential on the site. In addition to the recently launched Patreon U, I was invited to not one, but two special workshops: Special Offers & Membership Reboot. The former allows you to offer a limited-time reward at a particular tier. The latter involves…
You’re probably familiar with song share links that direct fans to the music service of their choice. For example, here’s one for my last single: There are several free and paid options. I can’t say that I’ve tried them all, but I’m partial to Feature.fm Smart Links. It’s comprehensive yet easy to use, and offers several advantages…
A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this giveaway from Taylor Davis, and was blown away by what I saw: With almost two days left, she racked up over 3K entries, just by giving away a few CDs! All that social media action probably cost her $100 — $50 for the CDs plus shipping, and…
Playlist Push promises to help independent artists get their music on Spotify playlists, and gives playlist curators a way to monetize their music discovery. As of this writing, they have 242 curators across 60 genres with a total of 8 million followers. Campaigns start at $185 and run for two weeks. The price increases with genre popularity,…
UPDATE: I’m doing things differently now! There are still some great pointers here, but don’t miss my latest post on the subject, Facebook Ads for Spotify Best Practices. As of today, I’ve spent $5888.35 on Facebook ads. Does that make me an expert? No way! Promoting music on Facebook, and Instagram through Facebook Ads, is…
UPDATE: Be sure to check out my latest post on Spotify Ad Studio here! I’ve been looking for ways to boost my Spotify streams. What could be better than advertising directly on Spotify with an audio ad? That way people will hear my music without needing to click on anything first. And if they hear…
Patreon consumed my last year. Between launching my page, promoting it, and delivering on what I promised to patrons, there was little time left for other musical or marketing activities. These days, most of what I make from my music comes from patrons. Starting at $1 per month, they get exclusive first access to new…
UPDATE: I gave Playlist Push another whirl in March, and they’ve come a long way since I wrote this. You won’t miss anything if you skip straight to my latest review, Playlist Push Revisited. My Spotify numbers are weak compared to my other social stats. I hover around 1200 listeners and 3600 streams per month….
$500 is a lot of money. As much as I love testing out promotion ideas and sharing the results with you, that’s more than I’m typically willing to spend. In this case though, I didn’t have to pay anything out of pocket. The referral link I included in my earlier article on Feature.fm (which will…
Which of my unreleased songs will people like? I have no idea. Friends and family aren’t much help either. Fortunately, I’m able to get unbiased feedback from fans of my genre through ReverbNation’s Crowd Review, which has been completely overhauled since ReverbNation’s acquisition of Audiokite last November. To call this market research simply “helpful” would be a gross understatement. My…
I haven’t bought a CD since 2011. If it isn’t on Spotify, to me, it doesn’t exist. Once you’ve experienced the convenience of having the entire history of recorded music in your pocket, why would you go back to schlepping files around? 50 million paid subscribers agree. Thus, it is with great sadness and a…
MusicSubmit is a music submission platform, similar to recently reviewed SubmitHub, but with a broader reach. They too cover music blogs, but their primary focus is online radio. CEO Michael Corcoran credited me with 25 “Best Shot” submissions to give MusicSubmit a spin. Now sit back as I share my journey from painful anonymity to online radio glory. Approximately. Step 1:…
Jango is a free internet radio platform similar to Pandora. Feed it an artist name and it generates a playlist of related songs. Radio Airplay injects songs from emerging artists into those playlists. I started using Radio Airplay a.k.a. Jango Airplay when it launched in March of 2009. Over the past seven years, my songs have racked up 340,246 plays at a…
UPDATE: I wrote this in March of 2016, and it quickly became my most popular post. Four years later SubmitHub has over 1100 curators including radio stations, YouTube and Twitch channels, Spotify playlisters, and Instagram influencers. Read about my latest experience, including tips and tricks from SubmitHub’s founder, here. I hate submitting my music to blogs. Hate…
UPDATE: Since writing this article, 8tracks disappeared and recently relaunched, so I’m not sure how much of this still applies. You can also promote your song on Feature.fm through Deezer. Read about my experience with that here. Right now my favorite Feature.fm feature is Smart Links. Every musical artist wants their work to be heard….
Someone is using your song in their video, and they didn’t ask. What do you do? You could tell them to remove it, or even report it to YouTube. It wouldn’t make you any friends, but you’d most certainly be within your rights. Or, you could just ignore it. It’s exposure, right? Even if you’re not properly…
Your album is mixed and mastered, finally! You’ve got cover art and maybe even replication lined up. Now what? This is the question I was hired to answer. Specifically, I was asked to create a to-do list for a band’s debut album. They were generous enough to allow me to share it with you. Keep in mind…
UPDATE: ReverbNation acquired Audiokite in November of 2016, and improved upon it with their new Crowd Review product, which I review here. This is the story of a mediocre song. An objectively mediocre song. My song. Curse you, data! If you’re looking for unbiased feedback on your latest track, you’ve got five options. Well, five-ish. There’s SoundOut,…
That's all, folks!
That's all, folks!