Tag: digital marketing

Categories
Artist Advice Editorials Industry News News

Five Painfully Embarrassing Emails Mistakes Artists Need To Avoid

Common Email Mistakes 2022

The only thing standing between you and where you want to be is the right opportunity, but a poorly written email can ruin everything. We can help.

Forget what the Wu-Tang Clan said. Until you are rich enough to ease your worries by throwing money at problems without a second thought, cash does not rule everything around you. That title is reserved for email.

Think about it for a second. What is the first thing you check everything morning? Your inbox. What is (typically) the most important tool throughout your work day? Email.

Email is the backbone of everything. Particularly right now, as the world continues to work through a global pandemic, our inboxes have never been more important. They also have been this crowded.

We have told you repeatedly about the value of email. Still, not a week goes by without someone writing us and making one of several glaring errors that leave us with no option other than to pass on their submission. Why? Because professionalism matters. If you can’t be bothered to learn the name of the person you’re emailing, then you shouldn’t be shocked when they don’t respond.

In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell reviews the basic elements of any successful email. He explains the most common mistakes he sees artists make weekly and offers suggestions to avoid those problems in the future. Check it out:

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

Categories
Industry News News

How To Win Fans Without Annoying Your Audience [VIDEO]

Everyone wants to win fans online, but not everyone can grow their audience without alienating their listeners.

Digital promotion is a complicated proposition. On the one hand, it has never been easier to reach your audience and engage with fans regularly. At the same time, every attempt to grow that audience runs the risk of alienating the people who already love your music. As with many things in life, successful digital marketing it’s all about finding a balance, and we are here to help.

We believe it is entirely possible to steadily grow your audience without feeling tethered to social media at all times or driving yourself crazy trying to develop content ideas. Figuring out the right recipe for your career and audience will take time, but we can give you several things to consider when planning your future promotional efforts. 

The most important thing you need to know about digital promotion is that people are more intelligent than you think. Nobody needs to be told where your music is available because they assume that it’s available everywhere. Very few artists only post their music to one or two platforms, so you don’t need to tell people where to find your art. Your music, like the music created by everyone else, is available wherever people consume music. That is the world we live in.

The next thing to consider is what type of contact you are creating. Most social media managers will tell you that they try to balance different pieces of content that entertain, educate, or inform. Some posts can do all three, but others may only tackle one or two. Here are some quick examples:

Entertaining content makes people feel something. Artists often use song clips and video teasers to elicit an emotional response from their audience. 

Educational content teaches us something, such as how to pre-order your new record or follow your account on Spotify.

Informative content tells us something important, such as tour dates. 

Once you figure out the type of contact you want to post, you may wonder how frequently you should be posting to various digital platforms. You can find many tutorials on maximizing reach online, but we recommend prioritizing your mental health above all else. You should only post every day if you have the content and time to do so. If that feels too overwhelming, then maybe posting two or three times a week instead is a better approach. Your fans will adjust their expectations to match your output, so as long as you develop a routine, whatever you choose to do will work.

In the latest Music Biz update, host James Shotwell teaches you how to win fans without annoying your audience. He walks through things most musicians do not consider before posting online and offers advice to make all your promotional efforts more welcoming to everyone they reach. Check it out:

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup​ for details.

Categories
News

Three common marketing mistakes artists make online [VIDEO]

Digital marketing is an essential element of music business success, and there are certain things everyone must do to get ahead.

Music is all about self-expression. A great song can tell the world who you are, what you feel, and what you believe matters most in life. That same material can make an impact on listeners that literally changes how they see the world around them. Music is a wonderful thing in that way, but to reach people, you need to know how to market your creativity.

Digital marketing is the backbone of music promotion today. It is impossible to imagine an artist getting ahead without having a strong presence online. Before you can reach the masses with your ideas, however, there are a few essential marketing concepts you need to understand.

First and foremost, consistent branding is what separates musicians people remember from the ones who are forgotten. There are way more good musicians no one remembers than there are great musicians everyone can easily recognize. The reasons for this are numerous, but more often than not, branding is at the center of it all. A great brand makes you seem more professional, more talented, and altogether better.

As for the other two elements, you’ll need to watch the latest episode of our video series, Music Biz 101. Embedded below, the video finds host James Shotwell breaking down the essential elements of successful digital marketing that many artists overlook when attempting to promote themselves online.

Don’t allow yourself to become another musician no one remembers. Watch this episode of Music Biz 101 and get to work!

Categories
Business Advice Editorials Industry News News

How media sites inflate traffic stats and why it never works out

Sites raise money and gain access based on traffic, but the numbers can be deceiving.

The beginning of 2019 has been hard on writers and creatives at a number of the web’s most recognizable sites. Between recent cuts at Buzzfeed and Vice, not to mention a number of smaller publications, estimates show at least 2,000 people lost jobs in media over the past six weeks. Some analysts are referring to these losses as a ‘bloodbath,’ and many expect more downsizing announcements in the near future.

The explanations for the cuts run the gamut from restructuring to cost-cutting. Either way, traffic most likely played a role. Everything related to online media companies boils down to traffic, especially for businesses who rely on outside investors to keep their properties afloat.

To gauge traffic, most investors and industry analysts rely on ComScore, a company dedicated to measuring media online. Faking a score in their system is practically impossible, but some forward-thinking media conglomerates have found a way to game the service’s measurements, at least in the short term, to raise their value.

As Tim Pool explains in the video above, digital media companies adjust their traffic and engagement by acquiring clickbait-heavy platforms and folding that audience into their brand. Here’s an example of the kind of articles these sites generate, which you’ve probably seen promoted at the bottom of articles on numerous media sites:

Articles like these offer little information, but boost engagement by requiring numerous clicks to view their content in full.

Between the clicks and added traffic, media companies can boast big numbers for their community of sites without having to show the performance of individual publications. Big numbers attract big investors, and investments keep the lights on.

Believe it or not, there is nothing illegal about this approach to promotion. The numbers are legitimate. The deception lies in how sites describe what pulls in readers. Here’s an example:

Let’s say a media conglomerate buys a clickbait-heavy site to boost its numbers. The conglomerate may claim their audience turns to them for news and essays on culture when in reality their audience is driven by articles like, ’25 celebrities who had plastic surgery.’ The investors would need to sift through the data for all sites to determine whether or not the company is lying, which requires time and money most do not want to sacrifice.

Over time, however, the truth about most sites comes out. Whether through internal investigations or a drop in traffic that the conglomerate cannot explain away, investors and readers inevitably see through the deception of inflated numbers. Even if they don’t, a number of services have emerged in recent years that can separate real and fake engagement into easy to read reports that anyone can follow.

The cuts we are seeing in media right now are bound to continue unless this trend changes. The problem is that few, if any sites have found a way to generate a committed audience large enough to draw the investment capital needed to build a media empire through legitimate means. When Facebook boasts a potential audience in the billions, what incentives do investors or advertisers have to work with sites whose monthly audience lies in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions?

But there is a catch-22 to the entire affair that will inevitably need to be addressed. Facebook and similar social media platforms are the primary way people consume news and media, but those services rely on countless third-party publishers to create the content users click. Without investors and ad sales, those publishers will go under, which will leave social media giants to generate news and content on their own.

Something has to give. The only questions are, what will it be and when will it happen?

Categories
News

The Old School Music Marketing Trick That Still Works in 2019

Marketing is everything in today’s music business. Between the increased number of artists competing for attention and the shrinking amount of attention people are willing to give talent they are unfamiliar with, marketing has become the primary focus of most day-to-day music professionals. It would be easy to say that trend will change in the years to come, but the chances are high that the competition will only grow fiercer from here.

A quick Google search for ‘Music Marketing Tips’ will return well over a million results, with dozens more added every week. The vast majority of these articles will offer you some variation of basic social media marketing tactics that apply to any business or personal brand. They will tell you to post regularly, preferably at peak traffic times, and to follow popular trends in an authentic voice. They will also encourage the creation of original content daily, and to make replying to comments or messages a priority.

All this advice is sound and valid, but it’s also what everyone — including your competition — will do in hopes of finding success. Everyone is screaming into the void that is the internet, just like everyone is doing their best to create original content that holds people’s fickle attention for long enough to promote or sell something.

When everyone is doing the same thing the chance any one person or group stands out is virtually non-existent. Social media is good for general engagement, but regarding audience retention and community development, its usefulness is limited.

The solution is, as it has always been, for artists to have their own newsletter.

Before social media gave everyone the ability to connect with anyone, newsletters were essential for creating meaningful artist to fan engagement. First distributed through the postal service before moving online with the rise of email, newsletters offer fans the chance to learn everything new and exciting about their favorite artist(s) without needing to cut through the clutter of the digital space. They provide album and tour information primarily, but they can be incredibly personal as well.

Starting a newsletter is easy. Most artists begin by signing up for a service like MailChimp or MadMimi. From there, artists can generate a shareable link that is then posted to social media (often on a recurring basis) and/or through a specific promotion, such as a song premiere. Fans then click the link and insert their email. All acquired addresses are kept on the newsletter platform, which then recalls the email information whenever a new mailing is created.

Some artists choose to make newsletters a premium offering similar to a fan club. For a small contribution, either one-time or monthly, fans can gain direct access to the latest news and information, as well as exclusive benefits such as music streams or tour pre-sales.

Given the low cost of creation and the potential for a high return on investment, starting a newsletter should be part of every artist’s promotional plans. It’s the one way to guarantee fans know what’s happening in an artist’s career, and it establishes a connection to an audience that no other service can offer (without regularly paying for ‘promoted’ content).

Cut out the middle man and take your relationship with fans into your own hands.

Categories
News

YouTube has a plan to help your view counts

The only thing worse than not being able to listen to music all the time is having to stop the music you’re currently enjoying to find the next song you’ll play. Streaming services have traditionally solved this solved this problem by anchoring the music player to the bottom of the application or mobile app, but video platforms are another story. On most platforms, to move from one video to the next users must accept a playlist determined by algorithms or leave the clip they’re watching in search of whatever will follow. That action creates gaps in the listening experience, and in the case of views, the decision to leave a clip can mean the difference between whether or not your enjoyment of the track counts toward the total view count.

Google, who owns YouTube, found a solution to these gaps earlier this year when it introduced a ‘mini-player’ to the YouTube Android app. The update created a picture-in-picture experience that allows those with a  YouTube Premium subscription to continue watching their favorite videos while simultaneously searching for other content on the app. Now, that same functionality is being made available to desktop users.

Here’s how it works: 

Hover over the video player to see a new “mini player” button, which allows you to continue watching your video while you browse YouTube.

The video appears in the bottom right-hand section of the screen and cannot be moved around, but users are free to browse YouTube while watching the video. The mini-player also comes with controls when you hover over the miniaturized player. Users can click an ‘X’ on the player to close it.

Studies have shown that YouTube is one of the main reasons many music consumers refuse to pay for services such as Spotify and Apple Music. A report released in April of this year revealed that 55% of people claim to discover new music through YouTube or similar video platforms. The same report noted that 85% of YouTube users claim their primary reason for engaging with the platform was music consumption.

With the release of their mini-player, YouTube is actively working to increase video views for all creators. More views are good for everyone, and this tool will (hopefully) aide in discovery by giving people fewer reasons to click off something they might not initially enjoy.

We have more tips for navigating the world of YouTube in our archives. We also have additional content on the subject coming soon. Follow Haulix on Twitter and Facebook to ensure you never miss any valuable advice.

Categories
Job Board News

New openings:

Email Marketing Coordinator (AEG Live – Los Angeles) 

The email marketing coordinator is a junior-to-mid level role. The incumbent will own, produce, and execute multiple email campaigns per week in a fast paced, rapid-growth environment dedicated to helping customers get to see their favorite performers at events across the country. If you are a detail-oriented person who can quickly master new tools and manage multiple deliverables at once with accuracy, we want to talk to you.

Day-to-Day Manager (Little Empire Music – Los Angeles) 

Assist in day-to-day management for Little Empire artists, with an emphasis on in-house marketing, digital and publicity coordination. You will be working hand in hand with the executive management. Applicants should have prior experience in a similar position.

Sr. Marketing Manager, Social Impact (Spotify – NYC) 

As a Senior Marketing Manager for Social Impact, you’ll be responsible for developing programs that change the world through music.  

You’ll have ownership over programs that aim to solve real social issues and contribute to brand and business goals.  You’ll be responsible for the development, execution, communication, and measurement of programs that align with our global strategy.  

You’ll source and evaluate public sector partners and work cross-functionally across all of Spotify to turn strategy into tangible programs.  We’re a small team, so come prepared to lead projects from research through optimization, and help us shape the future of Social Impact at Spotify.  

Senior Manager Marketing & Promotions (Staples Center -Los Angeles)

The Senior Manager of Marketing & Promotions is responsible for all marketing assets for shows at Microsoft Theater. This position will work closely with talent buyer(s) to develop, execute, manage and sustain marketing and promotional plans as well as identify venue and community strategies to advance new and current commerce. This position will work in conjunction with artist management, radio/TV, print, outdoor, digital and venue marketing team to create and develop an effective marketing plan that will reach the correct demographic and target customers appropriate for each show. This position will also be responsible for maintaining and tracking budgets to make sure funds are allocated correctly.

General Manager, Live Music Venue (Live Nation – Houston) 

Full responsibility for all aspects of venue business operations.  Recruits, hires, trains and develops Department Heads and Managers;  resolves TeamMember and Guest conflicts/concerns;  complying to workplace standards;  communicates; ensures optimal guest experience and guest relations;  maintains and enforces all HOB standards and policies;  enhances revenues and controls costs.

Director of Marketing, Fender Digital (Fender – Los Angeles) 

The Director of Marketing, Fender Digital is responsible for setting the strategy and leading the planning and execution of all marketing initiatives to drive global growth and consumer adoption of Fender Digital (FD) products and services. Fender Digital is focused on the development of digital products and services designed to compliment Fender’s core physical product experience and accompany players on their musical journey, from first-time player to lifetime musician.

Reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Officer, and dotted line to the GM Fender Digital, the head of marketing will build and lead a fast-moving, growth-oriented core Fender Digital marketing team, accountable for the development and execution of all marketing initiatives, branding strategies, content and marketing programs across all FD product platforms and channels, including .com, Ecomm, Fender Connect, Fender Applications and new Fender Products scheduled for release, starting in 2017.

Marketing and Publicity Assistant (Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) – New York) 

Marketing assistant duties entail the creation of digital and print marketing collateral, the collection of sales data, and other tasks as needed to expand awareness of cinema at BAM and cultivate film audiences while helping to meet revenue and strategic goals.

Publicity assistant duties entail research on film programming, the creation of press materials, responding to journalist requests and inquiries, assisting the Publicity Manager at events and screenings, and other tasks as needed to help BAMcinématek – BAM’s repertory film program – garner press and publicity, enhance its reputation in the field, and reach its revenue goals.

Junior Designer (SFJAZZ – San Francisco) 

Under the direction of the Director of Marketing, the Junior Designer is responsible for brand management for SFJAZZ, design, production of advertising (online, print, digital and broadcast), collateral development, and graphics. This is a hands-on position requiring a positive attitude, organizational and communication skills, clear understanding of and experience in branding, the ability to work in a collaborative team environment, the talent to create compelling and appropriate design solutions, and the discipline to manage multiple large projects responsibly. This person works collaboratively with another Graphic Designer within the Marketing Department.

Categories
News

This is why automated Twitter promotions are (always) a bad idea

Ah, Twitter. Where would our culture be without you? After all, Twitter is one of, if not the best place in the world for people to gather and discuss the events of the day while using names other than their own. You can choose to use your actual name of course, but most people prefer for a humorous or clever nickname instead, and therein lies the problem with any automated Twitter promotion. 

You would be hard pressed to find a single artist, brand, or company that doesn’t rely on Twitter every single day for their marketing efforts. The approaches these entities use to engage their audience varies drastically, but they all aim to accomplish the same goal of keeping people interested in whatever product, song, movie, or related offering the account has to promote. In theory, those that feel connected to a brand are more likely to support it, and if they have fun engaging with a brand they’re likely to share their enjoyment with others who in turn may start following the brand as well. This is the entire concept behind social media marketing: Make something people want to click and share, make it easy for them to do those things, then create more content with the same goal in mind and repeat. It has been this way since the dawn of the digital age and it will likely remain as such for the foreseeable future.

Automated promotions, in theory, make it possible to engage more people without doing more work. The idea is that these campaigns, which usually offer followers the ability to create shareable gifs or images, is that brands are giving fans something they will want to share with others that reflects positively on the brand. The most popular approach to this idea so far has been custom jerseys using followers’ Twitter handles, which is an approach that has been disastrously utilized by both the New England Patriots and, more recently, the Montreal Canadiens. Both teams didn’t see the harm in making it possible for any fan to create a jersey with their name on it, but neither team could have imagined the type of ridiculous handles some fans would use to align themselves with their organization(s). Here are a few examples of what happened next…

The above images are all incredibly offensive, but truth be told they are not even the worst examples of automated promotions we’ve seen. Some tweets we discovered were too offensive to even post on the blog! 

Both the Patriots and the Canadiens were quick to apologize for any offensive tweet that may have been seen, but the damage to their brands was already done. There are literally hundreds of screenshots from these campaigns circulating online, and they will more than likely continue to appear in searches for custom jerseys for the foreseeable future. Like everything else, once these images were available online they were part of the internet forever, and there is no way any organization will be able to fully erase them for the digital landscape.

while we have yet to see any record labels just on the automated promotion bandwagon, it’s not hard to imagine a point in the near future when some type of similar campaign is mounted by one of the majors or an independent artist who is trying to further utilize their strong online following. If and when that time comes I promise there will be more disastrous results, and there is really no way that can be stopped. As it stands now, there are no tools available for filtering automated promotions, and because of that anyone who chooses to use such marketing techniques is making themselves and their brand incredibly vulnerable. 

Learn from those who have tried and failed to make these promotions work in the past. Automated Twitter promotions are simply a bad idea.

Categories
News

5 Ways To Ensure Your Band Is Making The Most Of Instagram

Instagram has long been the go-to platform for anyone hoping to share photos and short videos of their lives with the internet, but in recent weeks the company has gone to new lengths improve brand relations and provide long-desired improvements to their platform (account toggling, video view counts). Social media tips and tricks are talked to death as is, but considering these new innovations now seems as good a time as any for a quick refresher on how artists can make the most of their IG marketing efforts. Whether you’re new to the platform (which probably means you’re also a new artist – HELLO!) or simply trying to figure out if having an IG account even matters for your musical endeavors, the followings tips offer easy to apply techniques that we guarantee will deliver results.

Strategize first, post second.

Your band or solo music account is not your personal account and it should not be treated as such. Where the former offers spontaneous insight into your life, the latter needs to offer a far more focused look at your life. Before you can begin to do that in a meaningful way you should first decide what it is you want the world to see and how you want those images to reflect the music you create. Who are you as an artist? What do you represent? Be real with your audience and those who connect will engage regularly in the content you share. More importantly, they feel as if they know you in a way simply hearing your art does not allow.

When you do post, make sure you provide fans with quality content

The basic outline for musicians on Instagram is the same everywhere you look, and that’s because it works. You want to share your journey from the bottom to the top, along with all the highs and lows that ensure in between. You want to share the place where you write, the studio where you record, life in your van (be careful on this one), life on stage, life in the green room (this one too), and the day you make your big signing announcement, as well as various newsworthy tidbits like tours and song premieres. Your brand’s Instagram should sell your music through photos and video the way your music sells people when they hear it through speakers or headphones. This is the visual representation of yourself as an artist, and as more users begin to follow each post’s impact on your overall image will grow in perpetuity.

As always, communication is key.

Did you really think you could get away with simply posting images and videos on Instagram? Fans are going to react to the things you post and you should respond whenever possible. Talk to the people who care enough to talk to you (except the haters – never engage those trolls), and be sure to @them so they know you are speaking directly to them despite being connected solely through the internet.

Use meaningful hashtags. Yes, hashtags can and should have meaning.

We’ve all had our fair share of fun with #silly and #meaningless hashtag use, but if you want to make the most of your Instagram following you would be wise to take the pound sign a bit more serious moving forward. A hashtag can make people aware of a new album, tour, single, or any other development you could hope to market. 

Hashtags can also bring people together. Take defunct emo rock deities My Chemical Romance, for example. Their fans, the creatively named MCRmy, uses #MCRmy whenever posting about the band online. Fans then use this hashtag to connect with others who enjoy the group, which in turns strengthens the fan base as a whole. Black Veil Brides’ fans have used a similar technique, with followers of that group posting #BVBarmy in their tweets and IG posts. Again, fans connect with each other while also sharing fun or meaningful media related to the group. The brand is spread, as is news about new albums and tours, all while fans are connecting with one another and developing a community built upon mutual admiration for the band. Everyone wins!

Make your Instagram a unique destination

While Ingstgram does allow users to share posts on other social media platforms it’s important to remember that not everyone will be connected with your brand on every site or app. With that mind, you should make an effort to treat each online community as its own hub for your group. Do not assume the people on Facebook know about the promotion you have on your IG and do not assume people on IG will want to give you a ‘Like’ on Facebook. Some of them probably don’t even have a Facebook! 

Make your IG community a unique place to engage with your music and fans will begin to view it as something special, which it is. This will aide in developing your online community, as well as increase overall engagement with your audience. It also means more work, but it’s worth it.

James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.

Categories
News

Three Reasons Artists Should Consider Creating A BitTorrent Bundle

Hello, everyone! Thank you for finding a few minutes in your schedule to spend with us. This post was created after learning of a fantastic new service made available from a company that would have been considered an industry pariah a decade ago. It’s a little crazy in theory, but it’s working to connect artists with their fans in a more direct way than ever before.

This blog exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Sitting at my desk this morning following a brief brainstorming session for the coming month of editorial content, I could not help thinking that a decade ago it would have been considering craze for someone to suggest promoting new music through BitTorrent. The service, which rose to fame/infamy because of its ties to illegal file sharing, has worked extremely hard to build a legitimate business out of questioning beginning in recent years. One of the biggest components of this positive resurgence has been the company’s ability to partner with innovative and influential members of pop culture to share content in a way that artists and other content creators are able to control from beginning to end. Their ‘Bundle’ series has partnered with everyone from G-Eazy to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke in recent months, each offering a different variety of media and promotional materials, and every campaign has widely been considered a massive success. We’re not talking about thousands of engaged listeners, but millions, and they’re receiving content curated by the people who created it with little to no voice from the middle man (BitTorrent) bringing them together.

This week, roughly 18 months after launching in beta, BitTorrent has opened its digital magnetization platform BitTorrent Bundles to all musicians and other creators of digital content. I know there is a lot of skepticism around the idea of embracing a company once known as the knife slicing the achilles heel of the music industry, but a lot has changed in the last decade and BitTorrent are doing their best to leverage their massive user base in a way that promotes the continued support of creative people. You may have used services in the past that allowed for sharing of free media and other promotional materials, but none of them had the built-in audience, nor the transparency, that this service offers. For further explanation, we put together a list of three reasons artists, labels, and other industry folk should seriously consider using BitTorrent Bundles as part of their next promotional push. You can read those reasons, below. Those interested in signing up for access to the BitTorrent Bundles program can do so here.

 1. The cost and distribution fees are so low it makes Apple look like a school yard bully.

Signing up for BitTorrent Bundles is absolutely free, as is choosing to share your material without a paywall, but if you choose to charge fans for access to your material BitTorrent will charge you for using their service. The company charges 10% of the purchase price of each Bundle plus about 5% in transaction fees. This is almost the exact same right as Bandcamp, not to mention being only a fraction of the $40+ distribution fees that are deducted from iTunes sales. And let’s not even get into how this compares to the average per stream payout offered by services like Spotify or Rdio.

2. The access to information you receive may be worth more than your financial gain

iTunes and Amazon Music are two of the biggest digital music stores in the world, and they’re recognized by almost anyone with an internet connection. Those are two facts that cannot be denied, and it’s completely understandable why artists choose to have their music on those sites even though the fees and costs associated may often be viewed as unfair. Something else these companies fail to do very well when working with artists is provide any information relating to the types of consumers who purchase their product. BitTorrent shares the email and other purchase data of every transaction with artists. That’s something almost no commercial competitor can offer.

When BitTorrent Bundles went public this week,  Straith Schreder, director of content strategy for BitTorrent, spoke about how this lack of transparency hurts artists in the long run. “Platforms like iTunes take up to 40% of sales revenue – without disclosing fan contact information or data. Which means that, as an artist, you have no idea who’s buying your work, and how to reach them. To deprive artists of this data is to deprive them of the ability to build a viable business.” 

3. In a world of tired ideas, BitTorrent Bundles are still considered ‘cool’

Though every John Hughes movie would like you to believe there is nothing wrong with staying far away from emerging trends and whatever it is the quote/unquote ‘cool’ kids are up to, a big component in digital marketing today is the ability to adapt the latest trending topic/craze to suit your needs. BitTorrent Bundles offer a low cost method of engaging fans with new and unreleased material that otherwise may never get to them without first cutting through miles and miles of industry nonsense. In a time where it’s harder than ever to forge lasting connections between two regular people, let alone a person and a brand, this service has found a way of reaching passionate music fans that has proven results for a large variety of talent. Anyone choosing to not try and further connect with their own fan base out of fear of being thought a sell out or something equally ridiculous need to realize their ego will forever hold them back from achieving their dreams. Embrace the now, embrace what’s popular, and find a way to make it your own. 

Exit mobile version