How To Get Your PledgeMusic Campaign On Apple Music
Looking for a way to put your PledgeMusic campaign on Apple Music? This article offers detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make it happen, from opening your account to connecting with other artists.
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Guest Post by Paul "Barney" Barnes on PledgeMusic.com
With Taylor Swift’s open letter to Apple driving discussion about Apple Music on social media feeds worldwide over the last few weeks, it’s been difficult to avoid the arrival of the global tech giant’s new streaming platform. Amidst the fallout concerning artist royalties and trial periods, the introduction of Apple Connect along with Apple Music has slipped slightly under the radar. The good news is that Apple Connect is potentially a huge boon for the digital marketing of your music.
Connect allows artists to share updates, songs, soundbites, photos, videos and, crucially, links via their Connect account, which are viewable in the Connect tab in iTunes and in the Apple Music app. Apple Music has essentially replaced iTunes on iOS, meaning these updates are viewable whether you’re a subscriber to the streaming service or not. Any artist on iTunes is able to use the Connect service and anyone who has ever bought a track by any artist on iTunes will automatically follow the artist on Connect. This means that we’re now able to post updates and links out from iTunes and Apple Music to our artist websites, social media and stores; for those with a PledgeMusic campaign, Connect is an exciting new piece of real estate to publicize our project.
Before we get too excited, it’s worth saying that currently Connect is only updatable via iOS (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) so constructing substantial updates with text and images is a convoluted and somewhat drawn out process. Thankfully, PledgeMusic has provided bespoke links to each product in the backend, and corresponding images to accompany the links, specifically for Apple Music. These can be found on the Links page, accessible under PROMOTE on the menu on the left of your Project page. This means that, with a little patience and cross-platform editing, we can create attractive and efficient calls to action that take advantage of Apple Connect and give our PledgeMusic campaigns a boost in the process.
N.B. If you’ve already claimed your Apple Music Artist Account, have Apple Music, and are ready to start posting, feel free to skip to PREPARING OUR UPDATE
OPENING AN APPLE MUSIC ACCOUNT
1. First you’ll need to grab your Apple Music Artist Account HERE. You’ll need to sign-in with your Apple ID. If you don’t have one, you need to create one in iTunes.
2. Click the plus symbol on the top left of the screen to request to manage an Apple Music artist account.
3. Search for your artist name. You’ll need to be an artist on Apple Music already (if you’re on iTunes that will happen automatically). If not use one of Apple’s approved aggregators, such as The Orchard, CDBaby, Finetunes, Believe Digital, Space Shower etc.
4. Request to Manage Artist, by entering Artist Management Contact and Label Contact details.
5. Apple will receive your request, and email you to confirm.
Thanks for reaching out.
We received your request to be a part of Apple Music Connect. We’ll be in touch soon, once Apple Music is live, about getting access to the following account.
6. When your account is approved, you’ll receive an email from Apple Music with the subject ‘Welcome to Apple Music’.
Apple Music
You’re in!
Share your art, your experiences, and your ideas—connect with your fans on a deeper level, and make new ones. The tools are in your hands, and we can’t wait to see what you create.
7. Click GO TO APPLE MUSIC PROFILE on the email and you’ll be taken to a page that displays your accounts that are verified. Perplexingly, you cannot post to Connect from this page. Instead, we must now move to an iOS device — an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch — to post to our approved Apple Music account via Connect.
LAUNCHING APPLE CONNECT
8. To post to Apple Connect, you’ll need the latest Software update, so update to iOS 8.4 if you haven’t already. General " Software Update " iOS update.
9. With your iOS updated, you’ll notice that your Music app has changed colour from red to white. Open the app and, presuming you don’t want to click START 3 MONTH FREE TRIAL right now, click GO TO MY MUSIC.
10. At the bottom right of your Library, you’ll see a new icon, @Connect.
11. By clicking the face on the top left of the Connect page, you can edit your Apple Music Account, where you’ll see the artist you’re managing on the page.
12. On the Connect page, you’ll see a timeline of artists you’re automatically following based on your iTunes purchases, (follow more by pressing FIND MORE ARTISTS & CURATORS) with the post update icon at the top right, next to the search function.
Now, we’re ready to post our update.
PREPARING OUR UPDATE
13. Go back to your project page on PledgeMusic. Choose your current project, then click Links on the menu on the left, under PROMOTE.
14. On the Links page, you’ll see a list of your individual exclusives and your Project Page, alongside Promotional Links and an associated Image for each item.
15. To create your update copy, open a new Note or Wordpad file.
16. Choose your item and open the Promotional Link and its associated Image in separate windows (Right Click: Open In New Window). Today, I’m going for Handwritten Lyric Sheets.
17. With these windows open, copy the text description of the exclusive from the Promotional Link and the Image into your Note or Wordpad file. To copy the image, simply right click and copy, then paste at the end of the text.
18. Amend the text as you see fit. Then finally, copy the Promotional Link URL from the Links page for the chosen exclusive and paste it at the end of your item description.
19. Email the Note or Rich Text File to yourself and open it in the Mail app in your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
20. Open the email and copy the text, then save the image to your photo library.
POSTING OUR UPDATE
21. Reopen the Apple Music app in the New Post page, then begin your update by adding your image by pressing the plus symbol at the bottom left of the text window, then choosing Upload Photo or Video.
22. Paste your text into the update by holding your finger on top of the cursor at the top left corner of the window. Be sure to be very accurate with your finger, because the cursor is rather unforgiving!
23. Click As under the post, to select your artist, rather than personal profile.
24. With the text pasted in, we’re ready to post!
25. Click Post, and the update will upload to the Connect feed.
26. You’ll get an alert from Apple and your update is done. Open the Connect page in your iTunes and your update will be on the feed.
27. Don’t forget to engage with your fans with a comment!
And that’s that!
Please let us know how you get on with Apple Connect and new ways you’ve found to include PledgeMusic in your updates. I’d love to hear from anyone who has used Apple Connect, and your experiences with posting songs and videos. As ever, drop me a line at askbarney@pledgemusic.com.
