Browsing Tag

Independent Music Promotion

Harness the Power of Bandcamp Campaigns

Posted on 9 May 2023
Bandcamp Campaigns

Even as we entered an economic recession, revenue continued to pour into artists with Bandcamp Campaigns pockets via Bandcamp in 2022. In the past year alone, Bandcamp users have spent $185 million on everything from digital albums to cassettes to limited edition vinyl to t-shirts.

In March 2020, Bandcamp launched Bandcamp Fridays to help artists earn more revenue from digital and physical sales by waiving their revenue share, typically 10 – 15% for downloads and 10% for physical merch and music.

27 Bandcamp Fridays have been and gone; in total, they have earned artists and their respective labels $95 million USD.

Bandcamp has created an invaluable aural ecosystem, for independent and established artists alike, due to its ability to provide direct revenue to artists and labels. Most payments for digital purchases are processed within 24 – 48 hours, and the funds will be paid directly into a PayPal account.

Another discernible advantage Bandcamp has over other mainstream music platforms, such as Spotify, is the pricing flexibility. With Spotify, you have no say in regard to how much you earn per stream. With Bandcamp, artists and labels can adjust the cost of their singles, EPs, albums and entire discographies to recoup the cost of writing and producing new music. Furthermore, the flexible pricing model also enables artists to adjust pricing based on the popularity and maturity of releases. But the perks certainly don’t end there:

Advantages of Bandcamp

  • Artists and labels can access direct income from the platform after a 10 – 15% cut is taken.
  • For music fans with cash to spare, they can pay over the base price for a digital or physical purchase.
  • Music fans can access and listen to music for life due to the download functionality.
  • Bandcamp is highly popular amongst radio hosts and DJs who want to purchase music legally and legitimately.
  • Unlimited streaming capacity on purchased releases.
  • Artists can create self-promo and discovery campaigns via the platform.

Disadvantages of Bandcamp

  • Bandcamp may be an artist and fan favourite, but in 2023, it is still far less popular than Apple Music and Spotify.
  • The user interface isn’t as intuitive, slick, and functional as other platforms.
  • The platform makes it hard for music fans to discover new artists and music with the lack of a playlisting feature.
  • Can be expensive for music fans if it is used as a primary music streaming platform.
  • Distribution is a little more complicated and time-consuming for artists.

Bandcamp Statistics

Every year, the criticisms around the unfairness of streaming royalties get louder; Bandcamp is one of the few music streaming sites which fairly compensates artists. It will take 1500 Spotify streams or 1200 Apple Music streams to equate to one £5 purchase made via Bandcamp. After the Bandcamp revenue share and payment fees, an average of 82% of every sale makes its way to artists or labels. For independent artists attempting to recoup their expenses, the revenues make the world of difference.

In 2022, Bandcamp facilitated the sales of 15.9 million digital LPs, 6.7 million singles, 2.3 million vinyl records, one million CDs, 500,000 t-shirts and 550,000 cassettes. So even if it does have a fraction of the community which makes its way over to Spotify and Apple Music daily, there is a thriving music community that is incredibly keen to support their favourite creators. For independent artists looking to grow their fanbase, there is just one problem: the increased competition.

How to Launch the Best Bandcamp Campaign in 2023

Bandcamp comes with a series of highly valuable features and promotional tools you can use to promote your music, including Bandcamp Live, Fan Subscriptions, and Automated Fan Notifications. You can also utilise Real-Time Analytics to look for improvement in your music promotion campaigns or use Bandcamp Pro to message fans using geographic targeting or stream to a private audience.

However, one of the best ways to promote your music on Bandcamp in 2023 is to release your music on Bandcamp one week before your music launches across all other streaming services. After you have launched your new release on Bandcamp, advertise the Bandcamp Campaign across your social media pages to give your staunch fans the opportunity to purchase your music on Bandcamp before it is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal and YouTube. If you have the extra money in your promotional budget, you can also advertise your Bandcamp Campaign via sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram.

If you have a loyal fanbase, you can also follow in the footsteps of the Welsh singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, The Anchoress, who has recently used Bandcamp Fridays as an opportunity to release singles on Bandcamp to give her fans the chance to snag ultra-limited-edition singles. Most recently, she released her ethereal reworking of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart. It was made available for one weekend only for a minimal cost of £2, and hundreds of her fans took the ethereal synth bait. Myself included.

May be an image of 1 person and text that says "Last chance to download THE LOVE ANCORESS WILL"

If you have a demo going spare and want to test your fans’ loyalty, a time-limited Bandcamp campaign can see just how dedicated your fanbase is.

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For more advice or information on how to promote independent music, contact our award-winning artist and development team, which can put you on track to score more fans, listeners and exposure.

Our cost-effective consultancy service has trained and developed hundreds of artists looking to establish their brand and make an everlasting impact in an oversaturated industry.

 

Article by Amelia Vandergast

What Will Replace Spotify?

Posted on 12 December 2022
Spotify

Every year when Spotify Wrapped rolls around, the social media posts highlighting the exploitation and unfair revenue for artists are quick to follow. This year, the laments came early after many Spotify users posted their Instafest line-up posters, generated by a third-party app from data based on users’ recent Spotify history.

While many people within the music industry are quick to tear into the streaming service, there is a distinct lack of voices pushing the conversation further and suggesting how we can move beyond the exploitative practices of the platform.

Spotify

Every decade, there has been a reformation in how we consume music. In the 70s, vinyl records were the popular music formats; in the 80s, cassettes increased in popularity; in the 90s, CDs resolved the issues from the previous two formats; in the 00s, mp3s started to digitalise music before streaming platforms became the most popular way to consume music.

In this decade, it is becoming increasingly less likely that we will see the introduction of a new superior format – regardless of how many artistic voices join the chorus on how the streaming format is obliterating their chances of financial stability and security. The lack of drive for innovation mostly boils down to the convenience and accessibility of music for music fans. For just £9.99 a month, Spotify users have access to most of the music recorded since the 60s.

Of course, the fact that the major labels and publishers are still getting a massive slice of the streaming royalty pie is yet another monolithic factor in the stagnation of progression.

Are Alternative Streaming Platforms the Solution?

Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, Tidal and YouTube are all often hailed as alternatives to Spotify, but the highest paying, Tidal, still only pays around $0.013 per stream. Furthermore, the platform only has 5 million registered users, compared to the 195 million premium subscribers and the 422 million monthly users on Spotify.

New streaming platforms will not resolve the issue that Spotify is presenting to artists in the music industry. In 2021, Spotify paid $7 billion in royalties; the real issue is that the bulk of that cash doesn’t end up in the pockets of artists, because, despite popular conception, Spotify doesn’t pay its artists directly.

Spotify Royalty Split

The money goes to the rights holders, publishers, and distributors before artists sniff the cash. So, in 2021, *only* 52,600 artists generated $10,000 or more via the platform. It is easy to blame Spotify for the current state of affairs. However, that is letting the major record labels and publishers still profiteering off the back of musicians off the hook.

Spotify is Reigning Supreme, But Other Revenue Streams Are Still Flowing

At this point, crying about Spotify not being able to pay the rent for all of the 11 million artists on Spotify is like shedding tears over the fact that you can’t get blood from a stone. Furthermore, it is misleading to suggest that streaming platforms are the only source of revenue for artists in 2022 or that streaming has completely replaced album sales.

It isn’t my intention to insinuate that every musician has the chance to rake in as much as the Rolling Stones by operating as an independent artist. What I’m alluding to is the fact that Spotify isn’t the only means of generating income in 2022. If recording an album and whacking it up on Spotify is the extent of your effort to create a viable income through your music, you’re not going to get far.

As the pandemic proved, most artists without a day job can only support themselves by heading out on tour, selling their merch and gaining new fans that will be happy to further invest in their careers. Even if you are the next big thing since the Beatles, fame and fortune aren’t just going to land on your doorstep; if you want it, you have to work for it. Only industry plants blow up overnight, don’t use the success of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish as a measuring stick!

The music industry is incredibly oversaturated due to its accessibility in this era. Now, it is impossibly easy to create a lo-fi recording at home, stick it up on streaming platforms, call yourself an artist and expect the royalties to come streaming in. It is in no way realistic to expect that every artist contributing to the music industry will be balling from their artistry.

Everything may be a commodity in our era of late-stage capitalism but there has never been an industry which gives everyone the equal opportunity to bankroll themselves based on their passions.

This unrealistic and mercenary view is abstracting the beauty of 21st-century technology, which gives every artist the chance to express themselves and share their art with the world. That isn’t to say the population will be falling over themselves to hear it; what it does mean is that more artists have the chance to make a cultural impact with their art than ever before. And as we have seen that there is no easy way out of the digital era of music; it is vital to maximise income revenues away from platforms such as Spotify.

Create merch your fans will want to part with their hard-earned cash for. Push for physical sales on Bandcamp Fridays. Promote your music online. Be willing to tour with your music. And if that doesn’t yield any results, get inventive and check out this list of 42 ways to finance your career as an artist!

 

Article by Amelia Vandergast

How Do I Find Spotify Listeners to Promote My Music To?

Posted on 14 November 2022
Spotify Playlists

Spotify has become the best way for new independent artists to get discovered in the digital age of music. But driving up those streaming stats takes plenty more than just uploading your music to the platform. Even if you have released the next best thing since the Beatles’ White Album, Spotify listeners won’t just happen across it without you putting in the music marketing work first.

Given the recent trends in music consumption and discovery, investing time and money in ensuring that your music thrives on streaming platforms is a far better use of your promotional budget than traditional publicity. Influencers and playlist curators hold plenty of the power that used to belong to label managers, now that streaming is far more popular than purchasing physical music. The balance first tipped in favour of digital music in 2019 when streaming accounted for 56.1% of recorded music revenue globally.

In this article, we will cover some of the best tried and tested methods to increasing your Spotify fanbase, including contacting playlisters, reaching out to bloggers and growing your fanbase on social media before you herd them to your Spotify profile.

How to Find Spotify Listeners to Promote Music To

1. Reach Out to The Editorial Team & Shoot for the Editorial Playlists

As of August 2022, Spotify has over 182 million premium subscribers worldwide, which by any measure is significant, but considering that there are 11 million creators and artists on the platform, standing out and reaching them is no easy feat. Spotify playlists are one of the most effective ways to find new fans.

Spotify’s Editorial team currently run over 3,000 editorial playlists, the competition for these is incredibly tough, but if you succeed and land a placement on one of them, you will easily start clocking up 25,000 streams a day. To pitch to these playlists, you will need a Spotify for Artists profile, which will give you a direct line to the editors to send your pitches.

Pitch all new music three to four weeks in advance and explain in your pitch why your music is worth playlisting, here you can explain to the editors how you will bring users to the platform and impress the editors with details of any press, radio play, or dropping in big names such as collaborating artists and producers.

2. Don’t Dismiss Independent Playlists

If your pitches to the editorial team at Spotify have been successful, don’t overlook the powers of the independent playlists, which are curated by influencers who aren’t on the payroll at Spotify. While some independent playlist curators do it for the love of the music, be aware that some playlist curators charge a fee for a place. To make sure that a placement is worth a chunk of your promotional budget, set aside ample time for research before you embark on self-PR.

There are some great tools out there which help artists submit to the right independent Spotify playlists, including:

Playlist Supply – a search engine that allows independent artists to find the best playlists for their music before revealing the contact information for the curators. Playlist Supply gives artists a full view of the number of playlist subscribers and the number of tracks included on each playlist.

SubmitHub – a music submission site which connects artists and curators. With just one click (submission), you could contact over 900+ playlist curators. The $1 – $3 submission fee is infinitely cheaper than what PR companies charge for a music marketing campaign.

Groover – while SubmitHub works better on a global scale, Groover is better for artists wanting to make an impact in the European market. The platform was set up by an ex-SubmitHub employee, and while it hasn’t grown to the same scale as SubmitHub, yet, it is becoming increasingly popular with artists, playlist curators, record labels and radio stations.

PlaylistPush – this submission service takes the hard work out of distinguishing which playlists you should target with your submission pitches. The campaigns on PlaylistPush last for two weeks; during this time, curators will review your music and place them on Spotify playlists as they see fit. The platform also has an automatic notification system which pings you every time your song has been placed on a playlist.

3. Submit Music to Blogs

As we mentioned earlier, your success in landing a place on official Spotify playlists can boil down to your previous successes and accolades given to you by the press. One of the main reasons independent artists submit to blogs is to gain credibility in the industry, which will open doors further along the road.

Even if new fans won’t be heading to your Spotify profile in droves after a flattering review, what you do with those quotes and soundbites can make the world of difference in your music career. For example, if a blogger lauds your new album as the album of the year, music fans are far more likely to prick up their ears and give you the time of day, as will independent playlist curators.

4. Develop a Fanbase on Social Media First

Building a fanbase from scratch won’t happen overnight, but as a figure in the music industry, I can attest to how easy it is to make connections on platforms such as Facebook. Once I was connected to a few artists and other key industry figures, the friend requests came in droves from music fans, independent artists, promoters, and other music journalists. Regardless of your music genre, there are sure to be niche groups to make your mark in and find potential fans in. It is important to promote your music and Spotify links on your personal pages and your official band and artist pages and stay active instead of just popping up when you have new music to promote.

When you are growing your fanbase, don’t take any of your fans for granted; always take the time to respond to comments; the difference could be between a casual fan and someone who will support your every move! Once you’ve amassed a fanbase, always push your Spotify pre-saves to your followers. This will feed the Spotify algorithm positive data, which proves your music has a place on algorithmic playlists, such as the Discover Weekly playlists.

Article by Amelia Vandergast