The Essential Music Industry News You Probably Missed These Days - August 2020
Will Smith is a playlister now, Spotify's CEO goes for the quantity over quality ratio and TikTok is getting harassed all over the world, as Instagram caught the smell of fresh blood.
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Hello TikTok, Time To Die! It’s Time For The New Short Video Star: Instagram Reels
After India banned TikTok alongside other 50 Chinese apps, the US are preparing to do the same, accusing privacy and security issues that smell like Chinese government interference. Why is TikTok, an app used mostly by teens, so important for the music industry? Because it proved itself deadly efficient to turning musicians into TikTok sensations overnight, while boosting streams, plays and eventually revenues. Meanwhile, Instagram, the app owned by Facebook, rolled out Reels, a TikTok clone, in more than 50 countries, while expecting to see a high increase into generated content, especially in countries where TikTok has become unavailable, like India. Reels is actually Instragam’s second ripp-off, after implementing Stories, a feature copied from Snapchat a few years ago. Nice one, Instagram!
Don’t know how to use Reels? Just follow the short video below
Spotify’s CEO Offers Free Advices For Musicians And They’re Terrible :D
“…You can’t record music once every 3-4 years and think that’s going to be enough.”
So, why did you become a musician in the first place? Express yourself through music, create beatiful things and trigger emotions for your fans, right? But for all these, it takes some moments of inspiration to get into the flow and put your creativity to work. Well, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO, doesn’t think the same.
“…You can’t record music once every 3-4 years and think that’s going to be enough.”, Mr. Ek said in an interview for Music Ally. Now imagine Nirvana living in these post-Covid times, with no live gigs nor merch sales, trying to produce 2,5 minutes long singles every month or so, just to keep up with Spotify’s algorithms 😲
Mr. Ek also stressed out about the importance of keeping the fanbse engaged at all times, while explaining that the Spotify podcasts revenues, that saw a 21% usage increase over the past year, would never be shared with the musicians. Weird and a bit unfair, right?
Stuck On The Playlist Pitching Chapter? Spotify Is Lending You A Helping Hand With These Excellent Advices!
We’re pretty sure that by now you have tried all the imaginable and unimaginable tactics and techniques to get your music playlisted on the Holy Grail of editorial playlists as well as on a shitload number of independent ones. Did it pay for the effort and money you put in? From our experience, we can only assume it didn’t (in most situations, at least).
Following their efforts into becoming more transparent and human, while still trying to please the major labels, Spotify published an interesting article where its own playlist editors answered questions picked from Spotify’s official Instagram account. They insist on giving your best when it comes to filling the pitching form, offering accurate and detailed information about your song, the story behind it and how will you promote when it would be launched. Easier said than done! Buuut, the 20% acceptance rate in the editorial playlists sheds an optimistic light for the humble artists: there’s still a one in five chances to get your music listed in the editorial playlists. At some point. In the near future :D
Useful Tips On Promoting Your Music, By Brian Hazard
If I had a penny for every article, app or service that had promised me a way to becoming a successful artist in 2020, I would be super rich and already making music just for fun. Instead, I received only ways to waste my valuable time into testing stuff with low to nothing results in terms of fans, engagement, streams of whatever metric you can measure your music success.
Now this guy, Brian Hazard, who owns www.passivepromotion.com, is on a quest to test all kinds of strategies, channels and services for promoting music. Take some time to browse his experience with all these. I recommend you to start with this one, pick up the strategy that best resonates with you and your music and adapt it to your own audience and music.
Will Smith Is Now A Famous Music Curator
Yeah, you read it well: The Fresh Prince has jumped on the music bandwagon, releasing Lo-fi Summertime Beats to Social Distance To, a 90 minutes Lo-Fi Hip Hop mixtape that has racked over 600K plays in a little over 3 weeks. Time to pitch those dusty jazz samples on top of your own hip hop beats to Will Smith!