5 Ways Indie Labels & Artists Can Increase Music Monetization
From the INgrooves newsletter.
1. Today, the marketplace is dynamic! Understand how to maximize monetization for all platforms. Two key examples are YouTube and Spotify. YouTube channel maintenance should focus on: regular updates, thorough claiming procedures and integration with other social media channels.
2. On Spotify, fanbases should be built from within: get profiles verified, create dynamic playlists to engage fans, preview exclusive content on Spotify where appropriate, use the embeddable Spotify player across social platforms and explore the D2C merchandising opportunities that Spotify now offers.
3. Music marketing mind-shift: Marketing teams need to begin moving from driving "sales" to driving "listens". Placing streaming links across the web from playlist domination to fan-to-fan social sharing… driving the listen is the future.
3. Capture additional and ancillary sources of incomes like publishing & neighboring rights. Also, be sure to consider and include all of your metadata for future opportunities (i.e., Neighboring Rights requires metadata that most labels have not captured anywhere over the past few years. This is lost money!)
4. Focus on your core fan base. Create focused D2C strategies and high value physical products (CDs, Merch, experiences, etc) for your core fan base(s). Stay connected to those fans by offering them something unique, as opposed to a simple anonymous sale in a shop.
5. It's all in the data! Use data to inform and market. Big or small, know how to analyze key data points from multiple sources and take actionable next-steps based on what you learn. Look to break apart, aggregate, match, and compare data from social accounts and multiple revenue streams.
