The Essential Music Industry News You Probably Missed These Days - February 2021
Soundcloud is testing direct fans-to-artists payments, Instagram teaches us how to make better content and there's a new free digital distribution service in town!
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Soundcloud thinks that fans should pay their favourite artists directly! What do you think? 🤔
This subject is as old as the internet: artists, especially those in a close relationship with what we call the independent music scene, are not getting paid enough to support their creative effort. This issue turned into a painful problem during COVID lockdowns, with no live performances anywhere in the world and gatekeepers like Spotify and Apple not really in the mood to cut down the profit margins in favour of the hard working musician. This is where platforms like Bandcamp, where fans could directly support their favourite acts, thrived. Under a new management, Soundcloud is heading this direction, too: direct artists payment. This is apparently still on the development stage. Read more about it here.
Tell me how many followers you have, to tell you how good your music is!
Not kidding with this one: a good deal of followers on social media could get you a better record label contract. Or it could boost your number of streams for your new release (avoid the streaming bots, as they could ruin your whole career). Or, the worst case scenario, it could feed your artist ego even on an empty stomach.
Nevertheless, nowadays artists should work on growing their digital fanbases. And the best way to do this is through content. Better content equals bigger engagement, which translates into a higher reach. And guess what: platforms like Instagram or TikTok are setting their algorithms in this direction: bring the best content on their users’ screen to keep them connected for longer periods of time, so they can be fed with more and more ads. Cynical, right? As cynical as now Instagram and TikTok started to teach creators how to get better at creating content: extensive how to’s, tutorials and nice examples, all free to use (are they really free? 🤔). Go check the TikTok Creator Portal or Instagram’s Professional Dashboard (within the app).
Is it us or music just got a bit more visual?
Good, now musicians are not just musicians, they’re also content creators. And not just any kind of content creators, but a reaaaally good one, because today you only have a few seconds to catch someone’s attention. Spotify understands this better than we, mortals, do, so they have Canvas: a 3 to 8 seconds video loop artists can add to any of their tracks on Spotify. Like an album artwork for the streaming age, right? Hell, yeah: Canvas is supposed to be shared really easy on Instagram Stories, just to get your audience engaged back into Spotify.
We stay a bit more on the visual side of music, to announce Spotify Clips! Sort of the Instagram Stories, but placed on playlists in Spotify. As Spotify announced them a few days ago, it’s “a new way for artists to use select playlists to share their stories and create connections with fans”: short artists videos placed on top of playlists.
Time for some relaxation: Lego has just released an album of brick sounds 🧱
Cascades of Lego bricks, clicks, pops, the sound of bricks joining together: 7 30 minute long tracks make up the LEGO White Noise album. The aim, says Lego, is to “help listeners find a moment of zen in their day, making it the perfect audio accompaniment for falling asleep, unwinding, or relaxing through Lego building”.
Well, at least they didn’t include the sound of the excruciating pain when stepping on one of these. Enjoy the album with a click below.