Musicians: Use Your Coronavirus Downtime To Do Some Research

With much of the music industry on hold following the coronavirus outbreak, we here look at some helpful topics artists can brush up on to help them weather the downtime and be more prepared to hit the ground running when the crisis eventually lets up.

Guest post by Andrew Farone of the Symphonic Blog

Society has taken an interesting turn lately and the music industry has taken quite the left hook. We’re here to provide you with some topics to help you float like a butterfly and sting like a bee in the digital world during the recent setbacks caused by the Coronavirus. From online marketing, streaming ideas and how-tos to licensing and organizations available to you, we’ve got you covered.

Research Video Platforms

In today’s day and age, video content reigns supreme. With resources like Triller and TikTok, you can create high-quality, viral video content that can be shared across all your social accounts. These platforms are constantly changing as new trends go viral every day. So, it’s important to stay in the know.

As an artist, consider taking your skills to TikTok or Triller to gain some major traction. Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• Create a challenge or push your fans from other platforms to create a challenge featuring your song
• Reach out to influencers to feature your song
• Scroll through the trending content on either platform to get a feel for what works

Who knows? Maybe you have the next online sensation just sitting on your hard drive, waiting to be unleashed into the world.

Performing Rights Organizations

You need to make sure you’re registered with a Performing Rights Organization like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. This is crucial because these are the people that make sure you’re getting paid every time your song is played. But don’t stop there. You’ll also want to look into mechanical royalties, (the money you make when something is downloaded or sold on say, iTunes, which ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI don’t cover.)

If your personal research isn’t enough, always consult a professional. Don’t worry if this sounds like a lot, there are people whose job it is to help you with these types of things…

(That person is a Music Publisher, and this post will tell you more about them.)

Digital Advertising

There are many forms of digital advertising available for musicians. From social media ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to ads on platforms like Spotify or YouTube, you’ve got numerous opportunities to take advantage of. What it boils down to is where your audience currently consumes your content and where you want them to be.

Facebook and Instagram // With Facebook and Instagram being siblings, it’s easy to get going with ads on these social media platforms. Whether it’s a new release or a new video, effective campaigns on either of these platforms can help increase traffic to your content. You can also build campaigns to increase your following on these platforms, further expanding your community.

Twitter // Although not as popular as its competitors in the advertising marketplace, Twitter does have increasing popularity among the music industry with its ability to produce reminder campaigns that can effectively remind users of releases, on-sales, etc.

YouTube // You can’t talk about social media ads without including YouTube. With their many ad placements across their platform, advertising a new video release on YouTube can be done in a multitude of ways, from pre-roll ads to suggested content. Advertising on YouTube can increase video views as well as subscribers when done correctly.

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Sharpen your skills…

• How To Create A Killer Facebook Video Marketing Strategy
• Instagram Stories Analytics: The Metrics You Need to Know
• Marketing Strategies You Should Know as a Musician

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Spotify

There are some great advertising opportunities on Spotify that are ripe and for the picking that any musician can take advantage of. From advertising your latest song or album directly to people who have recently listened to a certain playlist or who’re even feeling a certain way, there are many options available via the Spotify Ad Studio that can help get your music heard. Another cool thing to note with Spotify Ad Studio is that they offer you free voiceover creation on their platform, which is a dope thing to take advantage of!

With the ever-growing popularity of live streaming platforms & experiences like those offered by Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s almost a no-brainer to make sure you’re including this in your content creation schedule.

The glory of streaming is the fact that not only are you sharing your content with a viable audience, but you’re growing a community you can interact with on a regular basis and foster deeper connections with your fans that couldn’t be achieved elsewhere. In addition to securing a loyal fanbase, you can also increase revenue via subscribers and tips on some of them as well, like Twitch.

• You can grow your success on streaming platforms with consistently scheduled streams and content with events such as live studio sessions, Q&As and AMAs, listening parties and more.
• The more unique the content and experience the more likely you are to gain and keep your audience.

Sync Licensing // How Do You Make Your Music Licensable?

Sync Licensing is a great way to earn significant revenue while simultaneously helping you build your profile as an artist.

• ‘Sync’ is short for synchronization. So, when you’re talking about synchronization licensing in the music business, synchronization refers to the act of synchronizing a piece of music with any form of visual media. (This includes movies, TV episodes, commercials, video games, etc.)
• “Licensing” refers to the act of getting the rights to use the music. Music supervisors on film, TV, commercial, gaming and trailer projects must ask the rights holders of the song(s) for permission to use the music in their projects.

As a Symphonic Distribution client, you’d have the opportunity to apply for representation by our in-house sync licensing division, Bodega Sync.

But how do you make sure your music is licensable? Check out, “5 Steps to Prepare Your Music for Sync Licensing” to learn how before you submit.

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Learn more…

• How to Prepare Your Music for Sync Licensing
• 4 Steps to Licensing Your Next Single
• Protecting Rightsholders from Fake Artists

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In Conclusion…

We know. This is a lot to take in. To make things easier, we’ve made sure to provide links throughout this post to help point you in the right direction. In addition, our team is always here to provide solutions and resources for anything you may need.

Andrew Farone: Starting at a young age, Andrew’s passion for creativity has propelled him through a 20-year career in marketing and design. His wide-ranging skill set keeps him busy; whether he’s wrapped up in a web development project or building a social media campaign from the ground up, Andrew (or Faraone as we call him) is always looking forward to the next challenge.