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125 Ways to Promote Your Music

125 Ways to Promote Your Music Music Marketing Blogs

125 Ways to Promote Your Music

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How To Earn Money With YouTube Channel Memberships

On YouTube, channel memberships let your viewers support your channel through monthly payments in exchange for member-only perks. Not sure how to get started? We’ll break it down right here…

How To Earn Money With YouTube Channel Memberships

Here’s the rundown…

If you’ve never heard of channel memberships, they’re a way for creators to engage more deeply with their audience that purchase monthly memberships. In addition, it helps creators like you earn more money at the same time. Viewers make monthly payments in exchange for access to exclusive badges, custom emojis, and other perks that you can decide.

What’s not to love?

Benefits

If you’re an artist looking to connect with your audience or provide behind-the-scenes/VIP content to your most dedicated fans, channel memberships are a great way to do that. With it, you have the freedom to decide what kinds of perks you want to offer depending on what’s best for your brand.

For example, if you and your fans have inside jokes, you can work those into custom emoji’s. On the other hand, you can post unreleased clips from the making of your latest music video or ask for direct feedback on an idea you’ve been working on from members in the Community tab.

Whatever you want to do, this feature is a great way to easily provide another level to your fan engagement. — It’s more personal, exclusive, and can earn you some extra money on the side to put towards making more content in the future, from music videos and new merch drops to recording studio time, touring, and more.

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Feed yo’ brain…

How To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

8 Ways Musicians Can Make More Money in 2021

How To Promote Your Music Video in 7 Easy Steps

6 Courses To Level Up Your Social Media Game

——

How does it work?

Your membership program can have up to 5 different memberships levels. According to YouTube’s Creator Academy, there are some important aspects to note before diving in head first.

Each level has to have 1-5 perks.

Members at higher levels are automatically eligible for perks you offer at lower levels.

You can add or remove a membership level at any time. However, when a level is removed all recurring payments by members in that tier will be cancelled.

You can set different prices for each level and offer different perks at each price (see here for price points per country).

Ready to try it out?

To set up Channel Memberships follow these steps:

Head to the monetization tab in Studio to turn on memberships. If membership isn’t available yet, check the eligibility criteria and apply for access.

Next, submit your perks, badges and emojis for approval. This usually takes about 24 hours.

Pro Tip: Avoid offering perks that will take more of your time to deliver as you get more members. — If you don’t know how to design badges and emojis, talk to someone who does or consider using 3rd party sites like Fiverr or Upwork.

Make an intro video. For tips, check out this video.

Choose the pricing for each level.

Publish the “Join” button to your page.

Build excitement with an announcement video to introduce memberships to your community.

Plan to keep promoting memberships. You can thank members at the end of your videos or even add cards.

Be patient! Building a robust membership program takes time and effort.

In Conclusion…

There are some eligibility requirements in order to implement channel memberships on your page, so be sure to check those out here. If you’re all set and ready to go, congrats! This is a great feature for artists, especially those who have a dedicated fanbase and are in need of something extra to offer as a special thank you for their undying love.

If you don’t know already, YouTube’s Creator Academy is an amazing resource for anyone looking to sharpen their skills of the platform and learn more about all the dope features they have to offer. (There’s even a course on Channel Memberships, which you can check out right here.)

In the meantime, good luck, be creative, and get to work!

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How To Boost Your Engagement On TikTok

TikTok is at the top of its game, and users from all over the world are addicted. Artists, producers, labels, songwriters and more have turned to TikTok as a new means to connect, share, create, and try their luck at going viral. If you find yourself stuck and looking to improve your engagement on TikTok, we’ve got some tips to help you out. Here’s how to boost your engagement on TikTok in no time…

How To Boost Your Engagement On TikTok

Post Regularly

Posting engaging content on a regular basis will increase your chances of landing on TikTok’s “For You” page, which is a sure fire way to get major recognition on your videos. More eyes equals a higher chance for engagement. Simple as that.

Stay On Top Of Trends

Speaking of the “For You” page, this is a great tool for staying on top of what’s popular on the app. Hopping on the latest trends is an easy way to get seen by more people and blow up the engagement on your present and past posts.

Be Original

Participating in TikTok challenges and trends is fun and all, but creating your own challenges can get you major exposure if it takes off. User-generated content is king, so keep that in mind as you move through the platform.

Be sure to mix it up and post unique content where you can show your personality to gain more traction in a sea of similarity.

Try TikTok’s Duet Feature

TikTok Duets work like this. First, someone creates an initial video, then other users respond with their own video to create a “Duet” with both videos appearing side by side on screen in a square format.

@lizzo#duet with @thomasalanng alliteration and rose♬ Introduce Yourself _ Thomas Ng – Thomas Ng

Duets have led to some pretty incredible results on the platform, because it essentially forces user-generated content (which is the strongest form of engagement on social media).

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Learn more about TikTok…

What To Do If Your Track Goes Viral on TikTok

5 Ways To Increase Your Reach on TikTok

Music Industry Biz 101: How To Upload Music To TikTok

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Track Your Content’s Performance

Taking advantage of all the metrics available to you takes the guesswork out of your posting strategy and will help you make smarter decisions in the future. To access these metrics (including the ability to track your content’s performance), you need to have a Pro Account.

You can switch to a Pro TikTok Account by following these steps:

Go to the “Manage my account” section by tapping the three dots in the top right corner of your profile page

Select “Switch to Pro account”

Choose your business industry

Your TikTok account will reload a Pro Account with a new analytics section!

Under the Content tab, you can see your posts’ performance over the last 7 days. Once you click on a video, you can see performance data on your content like total views, average watch time, traffic source time, and where in the world your views came from.

Check out your overall performance. Look at how many likes, comments, and shares your videos have gotten. If a video was a success, you can scroll down to the Audience Territories section to see where those views came from. Then, you can begin to put the pieces together by looking at what time you posted it and go from there.

Post At The Right Time

Depending on your audience, the best time to post can vary for everyone. Typically, Video Performance + Time Posted + Audience Timezone = Best Time to Post. To figure out what these are for you, check out “How to Figure Out The Best Time to Post on TikTok”. — In it, we break it down step-by-step.

Go Live

Going Live on TikTok is the perfect way to engage your audience instantly and effortlessly. During your Live, you can ask questions, share info about your newest release, or even tell some jokes if that’s your vibe. Take the time to put yourself out there and really connect with your audience. Your present and future engagement will thank you for it.

In Conclusion…

Here at Symphonic, we do everything we can to provide meaningful and effective insights to our clients and beyond. With TikTok undeniably blowing up the industry, we knew we had to create a TikTok guide to share our inside knowledge to artists looking to optimize their efforts on the platform.

So, we created a free TikTok guide with tips for improving your TikTok strategy, getting more followers, learning the algorithm, and so much more. // Check out the guide and download it for free right here.

You got this!

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5 Ways To Write Social Media Posts To Promote Your Music

Interested in promoting your music through social media? Marketing expert, educator, and professional essay writer, Amanda Dudley breaks it down and explains the best ways to create engaging social media content that will help you promote your music and attract people’s attention. If you’ve just launched a new single or album, here are some content ideas to help you get the ball rolling…

5 Ways To Write Social Media Posts To Promote Your Music

Behind-The-Scenes Posts

When it comes to music promotion, social media users want authenticity. They don’t want to get bombarded by several promotions. Rather, they’d be more likely to listen to your music if you connect with them on a deeper, more personal level.

A great way to do this is by posting behind-the-scenes content. Whether it’s a photo of you having a writing session or a video in the studio, these types of posts make you more relatable to people on social media. It also reveals a huge part of your personality. — This way, you can illustrate your life as a musician and arouse users’ interest in the kind of music you make.

A Blog Post About The Song’s Purpose

You can create an engaging blog post about why you wrote your song and what the song will do for listeners. Sometimes, your audience wants to know the backstory of your songs. The more intriguing your story is, the more likely they’ll be to listen to the music in question. For example, something like this:

“After I lost my fiancée to cancer, I poured my heart and soul into writing a song that recaptures the memories we made and the moments we shared. My new single (insert name) will make you reminisce about special moments with your loved ones. Pre-order now…”

In addition, don’t forget to animate your post with pictures or videos and use new music hashtags to make it more visually engaging.

Reviews

As an artist, you’ve probably already shared your new release with a close circle of friends, professionals, or industry experts. If you’ve done this and the people had a lot of compliments about your song, you could use these “reviews” to promote your song.

Once people see positive reviews about a song, they tend to check it out to see if it’s as good as others claim. If you don’t have any reviews of your new song yet, you can actually get it professionally reviewed by several music listeners or critics and then use their feedback to promote your song.

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Check these out…

How to Repurpose Video Content Across Social Media Platforms

Best Times to Post on Social Media

How to Use TikTok’s Video Editor for Instagram Stories

Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

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Lyric Quotes

Lyric quotes are pretty easy and exciting to create. All you have to do is pick out a few lines from your song, add them to an interesting backdrop or picture, and post it on social media. It’s also an excellent strategy for when you run out of content ideas for your social media platforms.

Even though your audience hasn’t heard your song before, the lyrics will pique their interest and make them intrigued about the new release. Alternatively, you could also pick a few captivating lines from your song, put them on a t-shirt or mug, and introduce them as a new merch item. This way, you’d be making money from sales while promoting your song at the same time.

TikTok Videos

TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users and typically revolves around music-based content. As such, this social media platform is a potential goldmine for you and your song. It’s an excellent place for you to share snippets of your song or just authentic, vulnerable videos of yourself. Its algorithm also makes it easier for you to reach your target audience organically.

Once you manage to get snippets of your song posted on TikTok and it lands on someone’s For You page, there’s a huge chance that your social music might turn into a viral TikTok sound (if it’s catchy enough).

Final Thoughts…

Promoting your music and getting heard on social media can be a long, torturous process. However, there are tons of things you could post about to promote your new release and get your audience excited about it. If you aren’t sure how to create promotional social media posts about your music, these ideas are a great starting point.

Good luck!

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How To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

It’s no secret that YouTube is a huge platform with major potential for artists. Whether you post behind the scenes content or show off your latest music videos, content on the platform can reach a huge audience, help you grow your fanbase, sell more tickets, and so much more. Looking for some inspiration? Here are some of the best ways to support your music career with YouTube…

How To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

With approximately 1.86 BILLION users worldwide, YouTube is a huge player for artists looking to share their stuff with the world… What’re you waiting for? Click To Tweet

Plan & Promote Your Next Tour

YouTube offers detailed analytics to help you decide where to go on tour, what music to play, and how to promote it before the big day(s). For example, the music charts & insights tool lets you see what fans are listening to city-by-city. Data like this shows where your music is being discovered locally and globally, so you can make informed decisions on the content of your tour.

Before then, YouTube is a great place to promote your tour and sell more tickets. There are tons of ways to do this. For example, you can (and should):

Update your channel’s banner and description to keep fans excited about what you’re up to.

Hype up your fans by giving them a preview of what’s to come.

Use Cards (YouTube’s versatile pop-up screen feature) to sell tickets, merch, link to pre-release songs and other videos. — You can enable cards to push to approved ticket distributors, websites, and merchandise sites.

Schedule a Premiere and encourage fans to tune in.

Upload art tracks and make lyric videos.

Connect With Your Fans

If you’re interested in long-term growth (which you should be!), engaging with your fans and building a community that loves and shares your content should be a huge priority. On YouTube, you can create deeper connections with your fans by having two-way conversations on your channel and interacting as much as possible.

You should be doing things like pinning comments that start meaningful conversations to the top of the comment section, liking and disliking comments, replying as much as you can, and sharing fan-uploaded content. These things may seem small, but they show your fans that you care about what they have to say and take the time to show them that.

Did you know that with YouTube’s Creator Academy, you can take courses on this topic (and more) to sharpen your skills? — With them, you can learn at your own pace and once you pass with at least a 75% score, you get a letter of completion for your efforts.

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Feed yo’ brain…

5 Ways Musicians Earn Money on YouTube

Does Your Music Qualify for YouTube’s Content ID?

YouTube Release Checklist

5 Things You Should Know About YouTube Royalties

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Monetize Your YouTube Channel

The first step to monetizing your channel is to join the YouTube Partner Program. With it, you can earn money by using ads to generate revenue. While you focus on making music, YouTube matches ads with your channel and the fans who watch your videos. Then, they collect money from the advertisers and send payments to your AdSense account.

Note: In order to be eligible to apply to the YouTube Partner Program, a channel must have 1,000 subscribers and received 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months.

You can actually do this through Symphonic, too. We have a dedicated staff that will scan each and every song in your catalog to ensure that we either monetize or takedown videos uploaded by third party individuals. With YouTube’s Content ID system, we’ll ensure nobody else is using your content other than you, and nobody is earning money off of YOUR hard work.

Upgrade To An Official Artist Channel

Official Artist Channels are a channel layout that gives you more control over what your fans see first. Some of the major benefits include:

All your music can be found in one place.

You can customize the top playlist and trailer.

Auto-generated playlists appear with your ‘official music’ and full album discography.

Fans will have a single place to subscribe.

Subscribers from related channels (Topic channel, Partner-provided channel, etc.) will be automatically merged onto your Official Artist Channel — giving you one streamlined place to interact with them, rather than managing multiple channels and comment streams.

Currently, Official Artist Channels are available to channels that meet the following criteria:

Channels owned and operated by Artists, managers, or your label. An ‘owned and operated’ channel is considered a channel managed by you or your team.

You have at least 3 official music videos on YouTube delivered from a music distribution partner.

Experiment with Alternate Video Formats

No need to limit your videos on YouTube to official music videos. Consider different types of content like lyric videos, art tracks, teasers, and samplers. Even if it’s just a 30-second teaser video, you can build major hype for your next release and keep your fans engaged before the big release day.

Don’t think you’ve got the time? No need to go out of your way to craft something completely from scratch, there are tons of ways to repurpose existing video content into something new and exciting.

In Conclusion…

Step up your game and get more out of your YouTube presence. Utilizing everything the platform has to offer can bring you major growth, whether than be more streams and ticket sales to accessing more fans all around the world.

Don’t sleep on the power of YouTube! If you’re ready to build your career and reach new heights, YouTube can get you there.

Good luck!

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How To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

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Virtual Platforms For Your Next Meet and Greet

One thing the pandemic has taken away from touring musicians is the ability to meet and greet with fans. Meeting the people who support you the most is one of the best parts of the job, and losing that has created virtual alternatives to fill that void. We miss meet and greets, and I’m sure you do too! Here are 5 virtual platforms to host your next meet and greet safely from home…

Virtual Platforms For Your Next Meet and Greet

Mandolin

With the added bonus of a mobile app, Mandolin is a great meet and greet app that fosters a VIP experience for fans looking to connect with their favorite artists (like you, of course). Whether you’re in a venue or on the couch in your living room, Mandolin is a great option connect with fans and make some extra cash in the process.

Mandolin offers two options:

VIP: One //”One is ideal for artists wanting to host one-on-one events with superfans. Perfect for getting to know your fans more intimately, it’s just like Facetime, but with a host to help manage a queue of those waiting to meet you. And, at the end of it all, each fan walks away with a photo of them and their favorite artists; commemorating the experience.”

VIP: Party // “Party is great if you want to conduct VIP experiences with large groups and don’t have time to meet with each fan individually. It’s perfect for hosting exclusive soundchecks, cocktail hours, and larger Q&As—the possibilities are endless. Here, you can create video rooms with up to 475 fans—where attendees can raise their hands to chat personally with the artist.”

Ready to get started? Check it out right here.

Patron

Industry cult classic, Patron lets you host meet and greets with features like live celebrity chats, interactive waiting rooms, personalized videos, autograph requests, and more. With it, you can control who attends your virtual meet & greets by providing every customer with a unique access code for their session. During your meet and greet, you can even sell limited edition merchandise, autographs, and other physical keepsakes along the way.

Chatalyze

Another great platform to consider is Chatalyze. With this one you can create a queue that organizes your attendees into a virtual line, keeping you on schedule with ease. Along with a virtual photo booth and digital autograph feature, you can customize the experience to coincide with your branding by adding a logo and custom background skin, embed pre-roll content for fans to view in the waiting room, and more.

Want to check it out? Visit their website and request a demo here.

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Sharpen your skills with these additional resources…

5 Tricks To Get More Out Of Your Livestreams

Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

Text Marketing Tips for Independent Musicians

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

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Looped

Another great platform to consider is Looped. With the Looped app, fans can take a photo with the host using the on-screen camera button and receive a video recording of their call to keep and share. All your fans have to do is purchase a ticket on their website, download the Looped app for free, log-in, and get ready for their one-on-one chat with you.

To learn more, check out the FAQ here.

Cameo

You’ve probably already heard of Cameo for its popular pre-recorded video feature, but did you know they’ve added live calls to the app? The Cameo Calls page has a full list of who is available for conversations and how much it costs for a certain amount of their time. Cameo says that calls can last up to 15 minutes and that the average price for a call is $31 (which of course varies depending on popularity).

As an artist, you can apply to join Cameo as talent right here.

In Conclusion…

What’re you waiting for? It’s time to get back in the game and bring meet and greets back to life. Your fans will thank you for it, and you can get back to connecting one-on-one like the good ole days.

Virtual Platforms For Your Next Meet and Greet Music Marketing Blogs

Virtual Platforms For Your Next Meet and Greet

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How To Add Links To Your Instagram Stories

Instagram has announced that they’re replacing their beloved “swipe up” link feature with a “link sticker”. With it, you can promote anything from your website, tickets to your next show, links to your latest track, and so much more. Here’s how to use it.

How To Add Links To Your Instagram Stories

Did you know that the reach rate of IG stories is significantly higher than that of regular feed posts? — Try sharing links to merch, tickets for your next show, or even your latest music video. Click To Tweet

Let’s talk basics…

With Instagram’s link sticker, you can add a link to your Instagram stories to promote whatever you want. Not only do these help increase engagement on your stories, they also provide a way for your fans to easily access whatever content you want to share without leaving the app.

To add a link sticker, you follow the same steps as you would to add any other sticker.

Need a refresher? Follow these steps:

In the Instagram app, press the plus sign on the bottom center

Scroll to select Story (rather than Post or Live).

Create your Story to your liking.

Tap the Sticker icon in the top row.

Add your link.

Post away!

Can anyone use the link sticker?

Sadly, no. — Access to this feature has been limited to those who also had access to the swipe-up feature. That means your account must be a business account with 10,000 followers or be verified on Instagram to use a link sticker.

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Learn more about Instagram…

6 Simple Hacks To Improve Your Instagram Reels

How To Set Up An Instagram Merch Shop

5 Tips For Holiday Marketing On Instagram

Instagram Ad Basics for Musicians

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Before you sigh in defeat, don’t quit just yet. There are still ways for you to add and utilize links Instagram even if you don’t have 10k followers. If that’s you, you can share links by trying these other methods:

Add a link in the bio of your profile. // With this, you can write “link in bio” in your posts to redirect your audience there as well.

Post a Poll to your story asking who wants a link. // Reply to whoever is interested with a direct link via DM’s.

Add links to an IGTV video and share to stories. // With this method, you can add multiple links to the description. Then, all you have to do is share it to your stories and let viewers know there’s a link in the description for them to check out.

In Conclusion…

Being able to share links to your audience on Instagram is a very useful way for your fans access additional content with one easy tap. Don’t underestimate the power of the information! Whether you use the link sticker or any of the other hacks we’ve provided above, try sharing links to tickets, merch, music videos or whatever else your heart desires, and watch your engagement grow in no time.

Good luck!

How To Add Links To Your Instagram Stories Music Marketing Blogs

How To Add Links To Your Instagram Stories

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How to Define Your Audience Demographics to Better Market to Your Fans

From the effortlessly smart people over at SoundFly comes this guest post by Sarah Beth Perry of With the Band. All artists want to get their music into the hands of more fans, but the real challenge lies in how to properly target potential fans with your marketing campaigns. With the rise of social media, fans are spread out all over the world, and they want to feel seen and recognized by their favorite artists. In this post, you’ll learn how to better understand your fanbase by analyzing the demographics of fans who you interact with both online and in person.

How to Define Your Audience Demographics to Better Market to Your Fans

When fans feel connected with you and each other, they are more likely to market your music to others, buy merchandise, and drive ticket sales. — Sarah Beth Perry of With The Band Click To Tweet

Here’s the rundown…

There are so many ways to learn more about your fanbase, and this can be vitally important for knowing what your fans want to see. We use the following methods at my company, With the Band, to help create marketing campaigns for major artists like the Jonas Brothers and Kacey Musgraves.

Once you analyze your audience, you can then create your Average Fan’s Profile. You can then use this profile to help make business decisions such as where to tour, where to spend your time on social media, and more. This profile will constantly change, and this information will help you to know how to evolve as an artist as well.

Why Is This Important?

Creating a fan profile helps you better understand your fanbase and how to cater your content and strategies towards them. By learning your target fan’s demographic, you will be able to make better decisions about which platforms you spend the most time on, how to best communicate with your fans, and figure out where you should play more shows.

You want to go where your fans are — meet them there. When you are able to be there for your fans in a way that is specifically tailored to them, it helps them to feel noticed by you, and it’s as if you really know them well. This will only help to continue a sense of community within your fanbase. When fans feel connected with you and each other, they are more likely to market your music to others, buy merchandise, and drive ticket sales.

Use Your Social Media and Streaming Analytics

Analyze profiles of fans who have made comments or liked your posts to see what type of person is engaging. Look on all your social media and streaming platforms, as well as hashtags to get to know your fanbase. Some of the many platforms that offer analytic information about your fans include Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and Spotify.

Instagram will be most artists’ best analytic source. First, make sure your Instagram account is either a business or creator account to gain access to your Instagram analytic dashboard.

You must have over 100 followers to gain access to this dashboard, but once you have this setting turned on, you will be able to view age, gender, and recent activity.

Social media channels can also be helpful in a more unique way. Fandoms have a tendency to work together to get something trending, and one of the best places to see this can be Twitter. If you have a new single coming out or have been teasing a new project, a great way to learn more about your fans is to start a hashtag campaign and follow it. See what fans interact with your tweet and posts and use the hashtag the most, and you will learn what they are most interested in.

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Check these out…

Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

Facts About Instagram’s Algorithm You Should Definitely Know About

How To Determine Your Marketing Budget As An Independent Artist

What To Do If Your Instagram Gets Hacked

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It can also be important to recognize the cities where you are most popular. Spotify can be a great place to see where most of your listeners are coming from based on their city. It can also tell you who else your fans listen to, which will give you a more complete idea of the style of music your fans tend to stick with.

Some more detailed information could be found by looking back on past social posts to see which ones have gotten the most engagement. If your fans are more likely to watch a video as opposed to scroll through a carousel, then you will know what the best tactic is for your next promotional push.

Analyze Fans at Your Live Shows

Analyze your crowd at a live show. Notice, do a lot of them wear baseball caps? Is a certain brand associated with this type of person? If you notice a particular clothing item that is popular with your fans like baseball caps or tank tops, write this down! Then the next time you order merch, order the clothing items that were popular within your fanbase.

If it looks like almost everyone has bought a certain item of your current merchandise, order an updated version of it for the next tour! Fans like to have keep-sakes from each tour, and if you can keep a specific product within your merchandise, fans will want to collect the same piece of merch from every tour they are able to see.

This can also be an incredible way to seek out sponsorships. Pay attention to what fans are eating and drinking in the audience as well. If you notice that many fans in your audience have purchased beer, it could be a great opportunity for you to partner with a brewery.

Knowing your fans is important to them of course, but it will also help you tremendously with making strategic decisions.

Create Your Average Fan’s Profile

Create a fan profile based on your fanbase demographics. (Use social media and Spotify analytics to gain insights.)

Ask yourself these questions to create your average fan profile:

What is your fan’s average age and gender?

What are your fan’s interests?

What other artists does this fan listen to?

Where does this fan live? (country, state, city)

Where online does this fan spend the most time?

Where in person does this fan spend the most time?

By creating this fan profile, you are able to consistently show them what they want, which will make fans feel special, while also growing your fanbase and increasing engagement with existing fans.

Using your fans’ data to make better business decisions will help you grow an even bigger audience, but be aware, this is definitely not a one time exercise! Make sure to analyze your audience every 3-6 months and take note of any trend shifts in your fanbase. In the same way that artists are constantly trying new things and evolving, fans are too.

In Conclusion…

It is important to pay attention to changes in fans’ habits, age, lifestyle, etc. in order to continue your artist evolution in a way that best works for your fans as well. When fans feel special, they want to share that! Fans will promote your music as much as they can if they know that each and every fan is appreciated.

By paying attention to what your fans want most, it will only help to further your career and spread your music globally.

This post originally appeared over at SoundFly.

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Text Marketing Tips for Independent Musicians

Text and email marketing are the two very effective forms of direct marketing to consider as an artist looking to grow their fanbase. As an artist on social media, you can post to your hearts content and see what comes from it. On the other hand, you can use text or email marketing to send your message directly to your audience’s inbox. We’ve already done a couple posts in the past about how to use email marketing, so this one is all about text (also known as SMS) marketing. Here’s everything you need to know.

Text Marketing Tips for Independent Musicians

Did you know… SMS text open rates are as high as 98%, making it the highest of any marketing channel. In comparison, email open rates are usually around 20%. Click To Tweet

Let’s break it down…

Text marketing is different from email marketing in many ways. Some of the most appealing aspects include higher and faster open rates, increased click-through rates, a better chance of your audience actually reading what you send, and more.

In addition, SMS text allows only 160 characters per message. That means you’re forced to be clear and concise with your message, which your audience will absolutely appreciate more than a long, drawn out email.

To get started, you’ll need two things.

A smartphone. (duh)

An SMS marketing tool.

I’m sure we don’t need to explain why a prehistoric flip phone isn’t going to cut it here, so let’s skip right to the SMS marketing tool.

An SMS marketing tool is the software that allows businesses (like you!) to plan and execute marketing campaigns through text. This is done through whatever marketing tool you choose, which comes in the form of a smartphone app that lets you compose and send texts to the subscribers to your contact list.

Luckily, there are a bunch of options to choose from. Some of which include:

While trying to decipher which tool is best for you, you should consider a couple things. Whatever you decide on, the most important features it should have are 1) the ability to give your audience the ability to opt-in or out and 2) the ability to track data and analytics like open rates and click-through rates for each campaign.

——

Sharpen your skills…

Best Email Marketing Services for Musicians

Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

Best Music Industry Newsletters You Should Subscribe To In 2021

8 Types of Repurposed Content You Can Create From Your Music Videos

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Once you’ve chosen the right SMS marketing tool, it’s time to grow your audience.

If you’ve built an email marketing list before, you already know how to do this. If not, here are a couple tips for getting your fans phone numbers.

Collect phone numbers at your live shows.

Offer free merch to fans who sign up to receive texts.

Create a CTA (call-to-action) on your website where people can sign up.

Offer a free link to exclusive song downloads for those who sign up.

Not sure what to write in the messages? Try these…

The whole point of using SMS text marketing is to be able to share essential news like tour & show announcements/cancellations, new music, exclusive features/events/releases, new merch, ticket sales, etc.

Don’t get crazy and send random messages that are going to annoy your fans. Keep it to the most important details and exclusive features that people really want to hear about. Receiving texts rather than emails is inherently more personal. You don’t want to take advantage of your fans trust by sending spam. They’ll just opt-out as soon as they opted in.

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Quick Tips

Don’t forget to consider what time you’re sending your messages. As a rule of thumb, keep it to 9-5 your time. Please don’t text your fans at 1am… It’s creepy.

Don’t use abbreviations like “ur” or “lol”… Just write in full sentences like your friends would normally text you. Trying too hard makes it seem like a bot is texting you rather than a real person.

Always say who you are in every message. You never know who might’ve deleted the previous messages or who just signed up for the first time.

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In Conclusion…

When used properly, text marketing can be a very lucrative marketing tool for independent artists. It’s easy to set up, goes directly to your fans, and can help you share important insights to your audience quickly and efficiently.

So, what’re you waiting for? Get to work!

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Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

Advertisers and marketers aren’t typically known for being the most honest online. Believe it to not, independent musicians work as both an advertiser and marketer for their own careers. Although you aren’t exactly enhancing the look of a burger on TV with special effects, you’re still faced with the task of crafting a meaningful and authentic presence online. The great thing about user-generated content is it’s not coming from you. They’re genuine interactions from your fans, authentically created on their own by their own merit. What’s better than that?

Looking to utilize more user generated content in your own strategy? Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling…

Ideas For Utilizing User-Generated Content as a Musician

Fun Fact: Did you know that users who create and share content on social media channels get 28% higher engagement compared to standard company posts? Click To Tweet

Repost Fan Photos From Your Shows

Whenever you play a show, there are tons of people with their phones out recording the moment. Those people are probably going to post them online to document the experience, too. While onstage, remind everyone to tag you in their posts! You can even tell them you’ll reposting some of them to encourage them to do so.

This content is perfect for increasing engagement on your socials while also shouting out the dedicated fans who took part in the process.

Encourage Fans To Use Your Songs on TikTok

TikTok is the ultimate source of UGC. If your music is on TikTok, you can tell your fans to use it to create their own content. Whether they blind react to it or use it as background music, it’s awesome to be featured this way. (Especially with TikTok’s track record for blowing up small artists overnight.)

In addition, you can utilize TikTok by taking those videos and compiling them into a big promo video to use on other socials. This extended exposure is another great way to encourage people to take part.

Create a Hashtag For Merch

Did you just drop some new merch? Create a hashtag for the line and encourage fans to post themselves wearing the items with said tag.

Design a Contest

The best thing about UGC is how natural and down to earth it feels. It’s a great way to represent yourself as an artist and your commitment to your audience as authentically as possible. By hosting a contest, you can encourage your audience to participate by tagging you, commenting, or reposting whatever you like. In addition, you can reward the fan with the most UGC content with an additional prize.

You could even kill two birds with one stone by giving away merch as the prize. Then, they can post themselves afterward with the amazing merch they won.

Don’t Forget To Always Ask Permission & Give Credit

No matter where you share anyone else’s content, you should always be sure to ask permission to do so and give credit where credit is due. Don’t just assume everyone is down to be shared without asking, you never know if it’ll cause any issues down the road.

Taking this simple extra step will save you a lot of headaches, trust me.

Make Sure Your Content is Monetized

To say the least, you work hard on your music. You spend endless hours perfecting your craft and creating killer content that deserves to be recognized. You deserve to get paid for every iteration of your work, wherever it may end up.

Whether your work is posted on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more, you can monetize this content and make sure you’re still getting paid. — This post, “How To Monetize Your User Generated Content” tells you everything you need to know.

In Conclusion…

We hope these ideas help you utilize some user-generated content of your own! There’s nothing better than seeing your fans engage with you and work, especially in a positive light. By using this content on your own page, you can show your thanks for all the support they give, all while helping attract more fans in the process.

Good luck!

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How To Maximize Your Chances Of Getting Featured on Spotify Playlists

For artists looking to get their music shared with listeners on a global scale, getting featured on Spotify playlists is a great way to get there. Whether you’re interested in landing on unofficial or official playlists, these tips can help your chances by a long shot. Here’s what you can do to maximize your chances of getting featured on Spotify playlists…

How To Maximize Your Chances Of Getting Featured on Spotify Playlists

Did you know that as a Symphonic client, you can monitor if your music is getting on Spotify playlists within the SymphonicMS? Click To Tweet

Get Verified

Making sure your profile is verified on Spotify is not only super important, but very easy to do. It ensures that your profile is really you and solidifies your commitment to the platform and your artistry. To get verified, all you have to do is claim your profile on Spotify For Artists. To do this, follow these steps:

Head over to https://artists.spotify.com

Click Get Access. (Located in the top right corner of the page.)

Then, you’ll be redirected to a page that will give you the option to either paste your URL or search for your profile.

Once your request is accepted, your profile gets the blue verified checkmark.

Simple as that.

Focus On Your Songs With The Highest Potential

We know you love every song on your album, but not all of them can make it onto the playlist you desire. Shift your focus onto the song with the highest potential for acceptance. — The best way to get to the bottom of this is to check out whatever analytics you have access to for your songs.

With this data, you can see a clear favorite among your fans. Choose wisely!

Don’t Forget About Metadata

Metadata is the foundation of the modern digital music industry. More specifically, it’s that set of data that you need to submit whenever you upload and register an album with us.

Releasing music without accurate metadata is like writing a book report and not signing your name. Without it, you miss out on getting the proper credit and revenue you deserve for your work. Spotify has said many times themselves that when submitting a song for consideration, “the more info we get, the better chance it has.”

Getting this right makes sure your song links to your profile, gets you more streams, and ensures you get paid. If you want to make sure you do it right, check out “How To Submit Accurate Metadata” to learn more.

Complete Marketing Drivers

The underlying forces that compel you to buy or pay for certain products and services are called marketing drivers. As an artist, these are the key details you want to be shared with DSP’s like Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, YouTube, Soundcloud, Pandora, etc. to help you stand out.

With these unique details, our team can help your music catch the attention of the tastemakers in the industry. The more details that you can provide, the better your chances.

“What Are Marketing Drivers And Why Do I Need Them?” breaks it down even further and gives you everything you need to know to get this right.

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Sharpen your skills…

6 Marketing Strategies To Land On Playlists

Types of Algorithmic Spotify Playlists and How to Get on Them

How Independent Labels Can Benefit from Spotify For Artists

How To See Your Spotify Playlist Placements in the SymphonicMS

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Help User-Curated Playlists Find You

If you didn’t know, there are tastemakers who aren’t among Spotify’s in-house playlisting team who create curated playlists. These are the people out there making playlists independently, who have a lot of followers, and who the DSP’s trust as a respectable source for new music. — Check out some examples of these here: Best 3rd Party Playlisting Services.

The more of these you can get accepted to, the more likely the official playlists will accept you too. The first thing you should do is reach out to them by following them on Spotify. Then, you can go ahead and share your track with them. Include a note asking them to consider adding your song to one of their playlists. Whether or not they decide to add your track is largely influenced by your social presence. If you’ve got a lot of followers, this could be the thing that convinces them to give you a shot and close the deal.

Promote Your Release with Spotify

There are a bunch of ways to promote your release with Spotify. With Spotify Codes, you can share any track, album, playlist, or artist profile with the click of a button. If you’ve got a Spotify URI for it, you can generate a Spotify Code.

Since it can sometimes be difficult to link followers to external URLs on socials, you can share a picture of your Spotify Code instead. Ask fans to take a screenshot, and they can link right to your music with it. These are also perfect to use on visual media such as posters, flyers, merch, and also on Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

To find a Spotify Code, click on the ellipsis (“…”) next to the artist, song, album, or playlist you want to share. Then, you’ll see the code on the bottom of the artwork.

Click on the artwork with the code, then save the image to your camera roll by clicking, “Save to Photos”.

In addition, you can also set up an advertising campaign on Spotify. Spotify’s ad format has proven itself to be more engaging and successful than traditional display ads. With an average of 4,000–10,000 ads being seen every day, audio is steadily climbing the charts. Not to mention, audio ads drive an 81% lift in ad recall and a 26% lift in brand awareness in comparison to its traditional display ad counterparts.

The foundation for building your campaign starts with Spotify Ad Studio. This tool is where you’ll build and manage your ad campaigns for your releases. Spotify’s platform makes it easy for anyone to create and manage audio ads.

To learn more about advertising on Spotify, check out this post.

Build Your Brand

Brand awareness is a key part of breaking through a sea of thousands of hopefuls looking to get their music featured. This extends outside of just streams and followers, too. You need to be nurturing your social presence and connecting with your fans as much as you can. Nobody does this thing alone. You need support to really go the distance.

Spotify’s playlist curators listen to thousands of songs every day. The bigger your brand, the better chance you have of getting picked among the masses.

In Conclusion…

Although there’s no perfect method or process to get you featured, these steps will definitely increase your chances. With a little luck and a great strategy, all your hard work will pay off.

Good luck!

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Facts About Instagram’s Algorithm You Should Definitely Know About

If you’re on Instagram, you know its algorithm can be an elusive mistress to the untrained eye. Luckily for you, we’ve got the inside scoop on what really works and what doesn’t. In the past, we did a rundown of how the algorithm works overall in this post. Now, we’re spilling some additional facts that you should definitely know about…

Facts About Instagram’s Algorithm You Should Definitely Know About

Did you know Instagram uses machine learning to analyze your past behavior to give you your own unique feed?

Click To Tweet

Your Feed Is Determined By 4 Factors.

On Instagram Live, Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram) broke it down like this:

Information about the post itself.

Information about the poster.

Your activity.

Your interaction history.

The first factor comes down to things like if it’s a photo or a video, the subject matter of it, if it has a lot of likes. Then, it looks at whether or not the person who posted it is a friend or if they post often. When it takes a look at activity, the algorithm takes note of what kind of content you typically engage with, like if you watch a lot of videos. Lastly, it all comes down to how you interact with that persons content. Do you comment or like a lot of their stuff?

According to Later.com, “Based on this information, the algorithm calculates how likely someone is to interact with a post, known as a score of interest, which ultimately determines the order in which posts are displayed in someone’s feed.”

Every Comment Counts As An Interaction.

Even if it’s a single emoji, every comment is taken into consideration by Instagram’s algorithm. That’s also why it’s important to reply to all your comments as a content creator looking to increase your engagement.

Although it still depends on the independent user, the more they comment definitely brings your content up higher in their feed… Even if it’s just a

emoji.

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Sharpen your IG skills even further with these helpful resources…

How to Create Instagram Reels with Your Music

How to Make Your Own Instagram AR Filters

How to Use TikTok’s Video Editor for Instagram Stories

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The Feed Actually Doesn’t Favor Video Over Photos.

For the longest time, it’s been a common misconception that Instagram favors video over photos. On Instagram’s official page, they clarified this directly in a Q&A on their Stories. They said, “We don’t universally favor photos over videos. Your feed is customized for you, so it really depends on how you use Instagram. If you consistently watch a lot of videos, that will be reflected in your feed.”

There ya go, folks.

Using Bots To Fake Interaction Doesn’t Work

In the same Q&A, Instagram also clarified that its machine learning algorithm knows how to weed out fake interactions like bots and comment pods. It identifies these and ranks them as such, so trying to cheat the system simply doesn’t work. (Sorry, not sorry.)

If you really want to get better results on Instagram, you’ll have to do it through authentic, consistent content.

In Conclusion…

Instagram’s algorithm continues to improve every year, constantly evolving to ensure its users have the best experience possible. Nowadays, Instagram loves discovery. They’re doing their best to help its users become exposed to more than ever before, giving you a better chance of getting your content out to potential fans all over the world.

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4 Ways To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

It’s no secret that YouTube is a huge platform with major potential for artists. Whether you post behind the scenes content or show off your latest music videos, content on the platform can reach a huge audience, help you grow your fanbase, sell more tickets, and so much more. Looking for some inspiration? Here are 4 ways to support your music career with YouTube…

4 Ways To Support Your Music Career with YouTube

With approximately 1.86 BILLION users worldwide, YouTube is a huge player for artists looking to share their stuff with the world… What’re you waiting for? Click To Tweet

Plan & Promote Your Next Tour

Before then, YouTube is a great place to promote your tour and sell more tickets. There are tons of ways to do this. For example, you can (and should):

Update your channel’s banner and description to keep fans excited about what you’re up to.

Hype up your fans by giving them a preview of what’s to come.

Schedule a Premiere and encourage fans to tune in.

Upload art tracks and make lyric videos.

Connect With Your Fans

All these things seem small, but they show your fans that you care about what they have to say and take the time to show them that.

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Feed yo’ brain…

5 Ways Musicians Earn Money on YouTube

Does Your Music Qualify for YouTube’s Content ID?

YouTube Release Checklist

5 Things You Should Know About YouTube Royalties

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Monetize Your YouTube Channel

Note: In order to be eligible to apply to the YouTube Partner Program, a channel must have 1,000 subscribers and received 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months.

Upgrade To An Official Artist Channel

Official Artist Channels are a channel layout that gives you more control over what your fans see first. Some of the major benefits include:

All your music can be found in one place.

You can customize the top playlist and trailer.

Auto-generated playlists appear with your ‘official music’ and full album discography.

Fans will have a single place to subscribe.

Currently, Official Artist Channels are available to channels that meet the following criteria:

Channels owned and operated by Artists, managers, or your label. An ‘owned and operated’ channel is considered a channel managed by you or your team.

You have at least 3 official music videos on YouTube delivered from a music distribution partner.

Don’t sleep on the power of YouTube! If you’re ready to build your career and reach new heights, YouTube can get you there.

Good luck!

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Instagram Ad Basics for Musicians

Interested in advertising on Instagram? No problem. The possibilities are endless, and Instagram makes advertising easy for beginners and experts alike. Before you get started, here’s a rundown of everything you need to know…

Instagram Ad Basics for Musicians

About Instagram Ads

It’s important to remember that Instagram is a visual content filled platform. Users are not as prone to clicking on things here compared to other sites like Facebook and Twitter. That means your ads need to be as visually appealing as possible to catch the attention of the viewers.

As a musician, you can use Instagram ads to advertise anything from new tracks, albums, and playlists to tour announcements, merchandise releases, music videos and more. Whatever you’ve got going on, you can get major traction with Instagram ads.

Types of Instagram Ads

There are many different types of ads to choose from, including:

Image ads

Stories ads

Video ads

Carousel ads

Collection ads

Explore ads

IGTV ads

Shopping ads

Reels ads

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Sharpen your skills…

Advertising AMA with Andrew Faraone

How To Determine Your Marketing Budget As An Independent Artist

How to Evaluate the Progress of Your Marketing Campaign

——

How do you choose the right ad type for you?

Because there are so many types of ads to choose from, it can be overwhelming to choose just one. Luckily, Instagram’s Ad Manager is build with the ability for users to try out multiple options before running the real thing.

In the meantime, think about your goals in mind.

Are you trying to drive fans to your website or other social platforms?

Are you trying to drive purchases?

Maybe you just want to drive users to Spotify to stream your latest album?

It’s up to you, but it’s important to consider this before you choose any ad at random. Each of them offer different benefits. For example, Stories, IGTV and Reels ads are typically better for driving video views. On the other hand, Shopping and Collection ads are best for driving ecommerce purchases.

Ready to get started? // Click here to learn how to create Instagram ads in the Facebook Ads Manager. OR you can create ads directly within Instagram by following these steps.

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8 Essentials Every Independent Musician Should Always Have On Them

Opportunity can strike at any moment. As an independent musician, you’re always on the lookout. Whether it be through making connections or showing off your skills at a moments notice, these essentials will back you up every time. Here are 8 items you should always have on you as a hustling musician…

8 Essentials Every Independent Musician Should Always Have On Them

Business Cards

If you frequent music conferences, you’re already aware of the power of a good business card. Even when you’re not heading to a big event, it doesn’t hurt to keep some cards on you at all times. You never know who you’ll meet out in the world. No matter who you meet, be ready to leave them with something to remember you by.

QR Code Stickers

Business cards not quite your vibe? I get it. If you want an innovative version for the modern musician, try QR code stickers. Exactly what they sound like, you can make your own QR codes that will link to your socials, music, YouTube channel, and more. Then, just print it on a cool sticker and you’re ready to go.

Zazzle and Stickermule are two great websites that can help you out with this. — With them, not only can you make a good quality sticker with a QR code on it, there are thousands of designs to choose from to make it unique to you.

Portable Phone Charger

Pretty self explanatory. I prefer my phone alive and well, don’t you?

Mints

Like we mentioned earlier, you really never know who you’re going to meet out in the world. Having some fresh breath definitely doesn’t hurt your chances of making quality connections.

Google Calendar App

Definitely need a charged phone for this one! There are tons of apps out there than can help you keep track of meetings, events, and whatever else you’ve got going on. This one just happens to be my favorite. I use the Google Calendar app to quickly log anything I need to remember.

Next time you’re at your next live show, event, etc. and make a great connection, you can schedule your next meet-up right from your phone. Not only that, I also use it to jot down some notes about the conversation. That way you can go back in the next day and see exactly when and where you agreed to meet them while also refreshing your memory on what you talked about.

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Expand your mind…

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

Understanding YouTube Content ID Claims and Disputes

How to Get Your Music Featured in Video Gaming Channels

5 Ways To Make More Money Off Your Songs

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USB

This one goes out to all the DJ’s. The amount of times I’ve been to a house party where I could’ve hopped up and played a set are too many to count. You really never know who is going to be there, and every chance to shine is a chance to get your face and music out there. As @itstiedye once told me at a house party in Tampa, “Never forget your USB! That’s Rule #1, man.”

20 minutes later, @carnage hopped on the deck. — Never again will I forget my USB.

Hard Drive

For those who travel with their laptop in hand, this one is absolutely essential. No matter where you’re working on your next track, you should always have a hard drive ready to back up whatever masterpiece you create. The last thing you want is to get a burst of inspiration and lose it to a bad wifi connection.

Headphones

We probably don’t need to tell you this one, but a solid portable pair of headphones definitely comes in handy on the go. Sometimes you may find yourself somewhere where it’s hard to hear the person right next to you. If you want to show them your latest demo, you can hand them a headphone and play away. On the other hand, you may find yourself working on the go and in need of some peace and quiet. I never leave the house without a pair of AirPods.

In Conclusion…

Wherever you go, you should always be prepared for anything! In this industry, it’s all about connections. Being in the right place at the right time is one thing, but being prepared to make the most of any situation is the next step up.

You got this!

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How To Determine Your Marketing Budget As An Independent Artist

Effective marketing is a fundamental part of being an artist. Without it, you won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. To get yourself out there and recognized by the world, you need thoughtful marketing, and thoughtful marketing requires thoughtful budgeting. Trying to determine your next marketing budget? Here are some things to consider…

How To Determine Your Marketing Budget As An Independent Artist

Think Long Term

When it comes to marketing, timing is everything. It’s important to consider when the right time to pull certain triggers will be for you. For example, “Should I be focused on building an audience and a social following organically right now?” or “Is it time to invest in spreading the word more widely?” You need to consider which roads will give you the most success over time, not just for right now.

The time it’ll take to make these goals a reality will effect the amount of money you’ll need to allocate towards whatever means it’ll take to get there. Remember, each paid avenue should yield a sufficient amount of action from your audience.

You don’t want your efforts to be “dust in the wind”. Make them count.

Consider Your Goals

First, consider your strengths from an internal perspective.

What seems to be working you?

What generates recognition or revenue?

Secondly, consider your weaknesses from an internal and external perspective.

Are other artists performing better?

What are they doing differently?

Finally, take a look at your strengths and ask yourself whether or not they make way for any opportunities. Based on the weaknesses and the opportunities you’ve come up with, now you can decide what your goals need to be in order for you to improve.

——

Sharpen your skills…

How to Evaluate the Progress of Your Marketing Campaign

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

Marketing Strategies You Should Know as a Musician

Best YouTube Promotion Channels To Submit Your Music To

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Know Your Priorities

Once you’ve uncovered which areas will need the most attention, you can allocate funds accordingly. Some of the services you may find yourself considering range from copywriting services and release packages to video marketing, social media analysis, public relations, playlist placements, release campaigns, and more.

These services will cost you depending on how much you need and where you get them from. For example, one of Symphonic’s most popular marketing services is a marketing diagnostic and brand analysis service which includes:

In-Depth Audience Analysis with location, ethnicities, age, gender, interests

Digital Surfaces/Presence Analysis & Optimization Recommendations

Popular Social Engagement Tactic Recommendations

High Affinity Creator Targets

Notable Followers Analysis

All for a $400 one time fee. Other companies offer different services for prices way more than this and offer much less. It’s up to you to do your research to find what works for you and your needs. Once you’ve done that, you can tally up everything you need and adhere to whatever budget you’re able to meet.

In the meantime, here’s a basic budgeting sheet to help you out:

Advertise Meaningfully

Meaningful advertising is a big part of any successful marketing plan. When it comes to ad spending, sit down and ask yourself the following questions first:

What platforms do I want my ads to appear on? (FB, IG, YouTube, etc.) // It’s best to stick to platforms you are actually active on.

How much budget do I have to spend in total? // This could limit your placements depending on platform minimums.

Do I have more than one release in my strategy? // If you have more than one, you will need to allocate accordingly based on priority.

What is the end goal? // Do you want more streams, more views, more fans, etc. If you have a limited budget, it’s best to focus on one and go from there.

“I typically suggest to start with $500-$1,000 for individual releases depending on the amount of placements; if you want more, you need to spend more, essentially.” says Symphonic’s own Digital Advertising Specialist, Andrew Faraone. If anyone knows best here, it’s Andrew. He works with artists every day advising them on inquiries just like this.

In Conclusion…

Your marketing budget should be based on all the services you’ll need to accomplish whatever goals you set for yourself as an artist. To make your budget as concise as possible, you’ll need to go through each action item and come up with the approximate cost of each.

Everyone is different. Assess what you need and what you don’t. You don’t need to break the bank to create useful marketing solutions for yourself. Be smart, do your research, and don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Need help creating your marketing plan? // Click here to download our free Music Marketing Guide.

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7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

Looking for new resources to boost your productivity? Manage your finances, form better habits, and get shit done with these useful productivity tools. Here are some of our favorites for independent musicians…

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

“Music changes, and I’m gonna change right along with it.” -Aretha Franklin Click To Tweet

Band Mule

Band Mule is an easy to use private band organizer and band calendar. With it, you can plan gigs, manage your set list, share files, chat, and share songs. It’s like having a mini manager in your pocket.

Lifeline

Lifeline is a great app developed by the smart people over at Saent. It works by ensuring you take sufficient breaks and better manage your time so you can experience productive, healthy, and fulfilling days. It mainly functions like an innovative timer app, providing flexible session lengths, perfectly timed breaks, and a real-time progress bar to help you develop an optimal daily working rhythm.

If you’re looking to better manage your time and maintain a healthier workflow, this app will change your life.

Mint

Mint is a budgeting app that can help you keep track of your spending and balances. Mint suggests how you could be saving money based on your financial information and transactions. As an independent artist, you’re in charge of how you decide to spend your money. From investing in your team to spending money on Spotify ads, it’s important to keep track of your spending no matter how big or small. — This app can help you do that.

(To learn more about managing your money as an artist, check out “Money Management Tips for Independent Musicians”.)

Fluence

Fluence is a platform that lets you connect with influential people in the industry without having to build up years of contacts. According to their site, you can get feedback from the pro’s, including A&Rs, bloggers, company managers, industry professional, label manager etc., all in one place.

Kompoz

Kompoz is the perfect tool for remote collaboration. With Kompoz, you can use your favorite audio editing software, like Pro Tools, GarageBand, Logic Pro X, PreSonus StudioOne, REAPER, etc. Just upload your song idea to Kompoz, invite others to jump in and you might get a drummer in France, a keyboard player in Nashville, or a bass player in Malaysia.

It’s super easy to use, and you can create public collaborations to work with artists from their worldwide community or collab privately with your friends and bandmates. It’s up to you.

Streaks

Streaks is basically a to-do list that holds you accountable, every single day. With it, you can choose up to 12 habits per day that you’d like to implement into your daily life and track their progress. Want to spend more time learning music theory? Add it to the list. Want to make more beats every day? No problem. You can add that, too.

Working on something every day is the first step to forming a long-term habit. Every day that you complete on Streaks adds up, and if you forget a day, your score goes back to zero.

HelloSign

This website offers free online contract signing. For those who do a lot of remote collaboration, this is a godsend. Let’s say your vocalist lives in Los Angeles, your producer is in Atlanta, and you live in New York… Sure, you could mail everything back and forth or meet up somewhere in-between, but HelloSign lets you electronically request and add legally binding signatures to any document. From licensing agreements and split sheets to cowriting agreements and more, you can sign all these with HelloSign.

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Want more? Sharpen your skills with these helpful resources…

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians Music Marketing Blogs

7 Useful Productivity Tools For Independent Musicians

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