by Francesca | Feb 15, 2024 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
Want to learn how to build a fanbase and improve your skills as an artist from one of the best in the business? Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop offers all of that in their weekly Wednesday workshop. Here’s how to secure your spot for free.
Reserve Your Spot for Modern Musician’s Fanbase Growth Workshop
Here’s the rundown…
Founder of Modern Musician and host of the Modern Musician Podcast, Michael Walker is hosting an in-depth “fanbase growth workshop” for artists who are ready to level up their music career, and thrive during these challenging times. In this workshop, he’s revealing some of their best techniques that are usually reserved for his $5000+ clients at Modern Musician. This is the first time he’s given away this information for free, and you don’t want to miss out on the valuable insights he has to offer.
“How do I get involved?”
Every Wednesday @ 3PM ET, they offer LIVE training in 3 main topics:
- Artistic Identity: Hone in your music brand to give you clarity about who you are as an artist, so you can attract the best-fit audience who will love your music.
- Thriving Fanbase: Set up your marketing so we can build your loyal fanbase based on your artistic identity and your strengths.
- Revenue Multiplier: Create an automatic monetization system to fund your artist lifestyle so you don’t sacrifice your talent or lose touch with your musical identity.
If you’re interested in tuning in, click this link to register in one-click:
Reserve Your Seat – Fanbase Growth Workshop
Once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a “welcome pack” with all the resources needed to take part in this special, one-time event.
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Want to learn more?
In addition, you may have also heard about the Gold Artist Academy, Modern Musician’s flagship mentoring program. This program is a great resource for artists who are ready to truly commit and step up their game.
- Learn more about the program, plus testimonials and additional details, right here.
See you there!
by Francesca | Feb 8, 2024 | Music Marketing
It’s undeniable that TikTok has given many up and coming artists a chance at major exposure with its algorithm. As long as your music is on TikTok for you (and other creators) to use, you have the chance to promote yourself through challenges, trends and so much more. If you’re ready to promote your music on TikTok, here’s everything you need to know.
How To Use TikTok To Promote Your Music
First things first…
Before you can start anything, you have to upload your music to TikTok.
Back in 2019, we announced our partnership with TikTok which allows our clients to deliver their tracks onto TikTok for its millions of creators to use in their videos. This offers an amazing opportunity for our clients to spread their music through one of the most popular apps in the world, with us to guide them along.
In the meantime, think about what part of your track has the most potential for going viral. — That means 15 seconds of catchy, groovy greatness that you can imagine people singing or dancing along to. Don’t be afraid to dig into your back catalog to find songs that truly fit the bill. Oftentimes when one song goes viral, it may bring some of your other songs right up with it.
Hop On TikTok Trends
Every week, something new is trending on TikTok. Hell, it seems like something new has taken the platform by storm almost every day. Even if a trending challenge doesn’t necessary align with your brand, it’s still useful to get involved. If an unrelated video of yours goes viral, it may bring your other posts along for the ride.
Hopping on the latest trend is a great way to get seen by more people and blow up the engagement on your present and past posts. Whether you’re on the hunt for audio, effect or hashtag trends, there are tons of ways to find what’s popping off on TikTok. // To help you out, we wrote a whole post that gives you all the sneaky tips and tricks we know about how to find what’s trending.
Post Music Video Sneak Peeks
While you’re working on that new music video, take behind-the-scenes clips during the process. Even better, you can tease final cuts of the video by posting them as a Reel before the launch date. You can do this by using captions like, “Coming Soon… 👀” with the launch date worked in. You can even link to Spotify for presaves, YouTube premieres, or wherever else they can find your music once it comes out.
Create Your Own Challenges & Trends
If you want to go viral on TikTok, you’re going to have to get creative. The most popular challenges and trends on TikTok are lip syncing, dance routines and comedy type videos. That’s why it’s important to have songs on TikTok that are catchy enough to support these type of challenges.
Need some ideas?
- If you hate dancing, you can tell your fans to create their own dances to your song and tag you on TikTok.
- If you have a song with amazing lyrics, do a VoiceOver of you lip syncing along with the lyrics on screen.
- Want fan engagement? Tell your audience to do covers of your song and repost them when they do.
- Want to collaborate with others? Try the Duet, Stitch and Collaboration features.
Just how tagging other creatives can double your video’s reach, so can collaborations. Finding your niche is important in anything you do, as it helps engage a more loyal audience and helps you secure yourself in a more manageable, less saturated space. — Be sure to comment, like, share, duet, other artist’s work and encourage your followers/viewers to do the same.
Try Covers Of Your Song in Different Styles
One of my favorite trends that musicians like to do on TikTok is when they give new life to an existing song by creating new versions of it you would have never expected. For example, those videos captioned: “If my song, [blank] was a metal song” or “If my song, [song here] was an EDM banger”. As an artist, you have many strengths you can leverage when creating content. If you’re low-key really good at making beats, show off that talent with a cover. If you aren’t so good at another genre, you can ask your audience to do their own version.
Use The Right Hashtags
Hashtags are important on pretty much every platform. With the right hashtag strategy, you can increase the reach, engagement and visibility of your posts on TikTok in no time. Luckily, figuring out which hashtags will work best is fairly simple.
- First, go ahead and open the app, tap on the “Discover” tab on the bottom of your screen and scroll through the previews of all the trending hashtags.
- Now, let’s dive a little deeper. In the search bar at the top, go ahead and search whatever hashtags are relevant to you. Once you hit search, you’ll be able to see related hashtags and view counts for each of them.
- With a quick Google search, you’ll see that the most popular hashtags for musicians are: #music, #singer, #artist, #songwriter, #livemusic, #newmusic, and the list goes on and on.
However, these are just the most popular, overall hashtags. If you’re looking for more interactive engagement with a more segmented fanbase, we recommend looking into artists like you on the platform and checking out the hashtags that are popular in their circles. Then, you can make a solid list of these and keep them in mind for your own efforts.
Try TikTok’s Promote Feature
With Promote, you can turn any organic TikTok video into an ad, right from the app. You can start reaching new audiences, build a following, and drive traffic to your business website. Once you run a Promote campaign, you also get insights into your audience and how your videos are performing to help you improve your efforts moving forward.
We wrote a whole post that breaks down exactly how to do this; you can check that out right here.
Utilize TikTok Analytics
Driven by machine learning and a technical algorithm, TikTok thrives on data and metrics. If you want to improve your content’s performance, understanding your profile’s detailed analytics is the first step to improving your efforts. With it, your data-filled dashboard is separated into three main categories: Overview, Content and Followers.
By clicking through each tab, you’ll be able to see videos views, profile views, follower count, and follow demographics in terms of gender and geography. With this information, you can see which videos are working and which aren’t. Then, you can adapt your strategy as you go to improve in the future.
Not sure how to find them? Check out, “Where to Find Detailed Analytics for TikTok” to learn all the different ways to access these analytics.
In Conclusion…
Aside from being an addicting past time for most of us, TikTok is also a wonderful tool for your promotional efforts as an artist. If you work with the algorithm and all the features the platform has to offer, you’ll see your content start to thrive.
On that note… As you reach a wider audience on TikTok, you can funnel those users over to your socials and streaming platforms in the process. By taking steps like adding links to other platforms in your bio, cross promoting content on your feed and following the tips mentioned above, you can grow your audience everywhere in no time.
Good luck!
by Francesca | Feb 8, 2024 | Music Industry
Job hunting. We’ve all done it, and most of us will continue to have to do it until retirement comes along. Indeed and Glassdoor are great for seeing everything and anything all at once, but what if you’re tired of wasting your time sorting through thousands of unrelated jobs? Believe it or not, there are job sites just for us music biz folks. Here are some of the best music industry job sites to help you land your next job…
9 Music Industry Job Sites To Help You Land Your Next Job
The Digilogue
The Digilogue is a diverse community of creators and industry professionals in music and tech. They curate conversations and programming around industry education, artist discovery content, and a great career resource on their website. Under their Music Careers tab, click on Job Postings, and you’ll find tons of job listings up for grabs. // Check it out for yourself on their website here.
Music Business Worldwide
This site is one of the best resources for anyone looking to broaden their horizons in the music biz. Music Business Jobs is a website for the global music industry to find the best candidates for their open positions. They post openings all over the country, and you can filter results by location, companies, and job type. // Check out what’s available right here.
Doors Open
The world of electronic music is shaped not only by artists and fans, but also by thousands of small businesses, from clubs to booking agents to publishers and promoters. If you’re looking to work in the electronic music scene, this resource is for you. Doors Open is a place for people to connect with companies and projects they believe in, and for independent music companies to find the staff they need to turn ideas into reality. // Check ’em out here.
Shesaid.so
Shesaid.so is a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry. They’re absolutely awesome, and they happen to also provide a very useful job portal tab on their website where you can browse open positions and apply. // Click here to see what’s available.
Music Careers
Music Careers is built for music professionals by music professionals to help you find your next job in the music industry. They post up to date jobs, refresh every 30 days, and give you the ability to refine your search by specific niches within the industry. They even post freelance opportunities, too. // Check out what they’ve got to offer here.
Digital Music News
You may already be a fan of Digital Music News‘ industry articles to keep up to date on the latest news, but have you checked out the jobs tab on their website? There, you can check out music industry jobs from major record labels and streaming services to universities, merchandising companies, startups, and more. // Check it out here.
A2IM
A2IM has their own job board to help you find your perfect position. Whether you’re looking for temporary work, an internship, or full-time, their database can search jobs by keywords and location. // Check out jobs on A2IM here.
Music Jobs
Music Jobs is part of a global publication and online community which brings their subscribers industry opportunities and daily news from the world of film, TV, music and gaming. On their site, you can also sign up and subscribe to emails with job opportunities tailored specifically to what position you’re looking for. // Click here to check out the site and search for jobs.
Entertainment Careers
Entertainmentcareers.net is a great site which features jobs in in Film, Television, Music, Production Companies, Radio, Animation, Acting, Production, PR, Design, and more. Whether you’re interested in the music industry or something adjacent, this is the ultimate place to check. // Browse available jobs on their site here.
You got this!
⚡️
by Francesca | Dec 20, 2023 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
Are you on TikTok and wish you could make some money from your efforts? No problem! There are a couple ways you can make this happen in no time. From their official Creator Fund to independent marketing and more, here’s what you can do…
How To Make Money On TikTok as an Independent Musician
TikTok’s Creator Fund
Many creators complain about how much money, or lack thereof, they’ve made with the TikTok Creator Fund. However, they’re failing to keep in mind that a couple factors influence how much money you can rack in with the Creator Fund. From views to engagement and many other details, adhering to their community guidelines goes a long way.
Typically, users see around 2 to 4 cents per every thousand views. But if you regularly see a million views on your videos, you can expect a pretty penny in your account every year… and as we’ve all seen time and time again, consistency is key. The more you post, the better your videos will continue to perform over time. If you’re creating TikTok videos anyway, why not get paid for it?
To apply for the program, you have to meet a plethora of requirements. Some of which include:
- You must be 18 years or older.
- A legal resident of one of the 50 states, District of Columbia, or the territories and possessions, of the United States.
- Minimum 10K authentic followers.
- At least 100K authentic video views in the last 30 days.
- Post original videos in line with their Community Guidelines.
If these all sound like you, you’re ready to go. — Just open your account settings, click on Creator tools, then TikTok Creator Fund.
Then, just wait to be approved by their team and that’s all there is to it.
Royalties
Making sure you are collecting all the royalties owed to you across all platforms is an essential part of being an artist. On TikTok, it’s no different. However, while most DSPs pay creators based on the number of streams or views, TikTok has a very different model when it comes to royalties. TikTok pays royalties based on the number of videos created using your music (video views do not matter when calculating TikTok royalties).
Live Stream Donations and Gifts
On TikTok Live, your fans can interact with you in real time and gift you virtual gifts or monetary donations. Whether you want to just get on and chat, play a new song, or give a behind the scenes look right before your show, you can go stream for as long as you want (although 30 minutes is the recommended maximum time).
Influencer Marketing
As an artist with a distinct style, you are in a great position for sponsored posts or collaboration opportunities. Consider reaching out to brands who have a similar vibe or mission as you do, and spark up a conversation about how you can mutually benefit one another. This can range from either promoting their product in a video, doing a full review of said product, and more depending on the brand or product in mind.
Alternatively, you can do a version of this with other musicians within your TikTok community. From promoting each others merch to hyping up their upcoming show, this industry thrives of collaboration! And TikTok is no stranger to nurturing community.
Fans = Streams = $
Although many artists go viral on TikTok from sheer luck alone, there are many ways you can improve your chances and work with the algorithm to reach thousands of potential fans. In turn, you can translate those fans into followers and those followers into streams on Spotify, Apple Music, and more.
How? — Well, if your music is available on TikTok for other people to use, you’ll earn royalties ad exposure every time someone uses it in their video. In addition, if your other profiles are linked properly in your TikTok bio, people will be able to discover more of your work whenever they visit your profile. (Linktree is a great tool that gives you one link you can put in your bio that goes to everything you have to offer instead of having a million separate links.)
To wrap it all up…
No matter how good your music is, gaining recognition for your work on TikTok lies within how much effort you put into promoting yourself, making good content, and consistently posting on the platform. These efforts, however, will pay off… literally! In addition, authentically engaging with your audience, being creative, and being confident in what you have to offer will all help you grow your presence on the platform and, in turn, increase your potential to make money along the way.
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Still not sure how to get your music on TikTok? Check this out…
Good luck!
by Francesca | Dec 13, 2023 | Music Marketing
If you want to make sure you and your music are getting as much exposure as possible online, your SEO strategy can make or break your efforts. In this post, Dayna Young (Founder of Fred & Augustus, FANDA, and music marketer of 10+ years) gives the ultimate SEO rundown every musician needs to hear…
The Basics of SEO for Musicians
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or, “SEO” for short. This fancy acronym is defined as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.”
Simply put, for musicians, this means optimizing how you appear in search results so that you can grow both your online presence and revenue, and the number one reason you want to optimize your online presence is for your fans. After all, it is your fans who will search for you, your music, music videos, merch, and tour dates online.
When each fan does so, they’ll be at a different stage of their fan journey.
Fan Journey
A fan journey is the path that fans take between discovering you and becoming advocates for your brand. Perhaps they just read an interview about you, and now they want to search for and listen to the song mentioned. That’s the discovery phase; you’ll want to ensure you have an artist profile on all streaming sites. Perhaps they are in the exploration stage and want to watch the music video for the song they just listened to—do you have a YouTube profile?
At every stage of the fan journey, your fans are looking for varying degrees of detail and information, and it’s entirely within your power to curate their search experience.
What can you do?
The first step in any SEO project, whether for musicians or otherwise, is keyword research. To best structure your website, content, and online presence, you need to know what people are searching for about your artist brand. This means conducting research into your personal artist keywords, building a master list of those keywords, and then applying those keywords to your online strategy. (Don’t worry, we’ll address keyword research in a later section.)
We know that to be found online, you need a presence on key platforms. The most obvious and important place to start is with your own, branded URL and website. We cover how to build a functional website in this book, but for now, it’s important to know that an artist’s website is a key tool in engaging fans during the exploration, retention, purchase, and advocacy stages.
An artist website should draw fans further into your unique story. The essentials you need are a website with strong visual imagery, links to your music and social icons, and an email subscriber capture form. However in order to really engage and delight fans your website should also include music listening and video watch tools, your biography, your e-commerce store or fan club, tour dates—all displayed within an aesthetically appealing design.
However, your online presence extends beyond your website and across multiple platforms. In addition to your website, these platforms include social media, video, streaming, tour or ticketing sites, and your e-commerce presence.
Together your website and these platforms help infer information about you as an artist, and they are returned in searches fans conduct when they want to know more about you.
Keywords
Keywords are the words or phrases that fans use to search for your band online. There are three groups of keyword types:
- Short-tail keywords: “Lady Gaga tour”
- Medium-tail keywords: “Lady Gaga show Los Angeles” or
- Long-tail keywords: “Is Lady Gaga playing a show in Los Angeles near me soon?”
You can break these keyword groups down into two main categories.
- The first are keywords that can be used to build a brand. These are keywords that include your name, a song lyric, your band members’ names, album names, tour names, etc. An example of a branded keyword search might be “David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era.”
- The other category is non-branded keywords, which typically don’t include anything specific to your project name, band members, or the music you play. For example, if you’re a heavy metal band in Hollywood, California, a relevant non-brand keyword might be the search term “heavy metal bands near me” or “heavy metal bands in greater Los Angeles.” This said, non-branded keywords usually won’t be useful to artists, unless you’re the type of entity that targets and plays performances at corporate gigs, weddings, and other community-focused events.
How to Research your Keywords
Firstly, create a spreadsheet, which you’ll use for sifting through the keyword suggestions. You’ll add what makes sense (based on larger search volumes or more immediate relevance to your project) to your spreadsheet. This process can take some time, and you might need to try different combinations yourself to really dig deep and find the best keywords.
There are a number of tools available for your keyword research. Some of the best places to start are Google AdWords Keyword Planner, TubeBuddy Tool for YouTube, Free keyword tracker, Google Trends, or even a simple Google search will give you results.
To wrap it all up…
Obviously, it makes sense to Google your potential artist or band name before you commit to it. In much the same way you’d research whether a company name is taken and if the domains exist for that entity, you should do the same with your potential project name.
Of course, there are circumstances in which a conflict might be unavoidable. For example, when you have a common name like Mike Johnson or when your band name includes the name of something famous or common phrases, In these circumstances, it will be even more important that you build your SEO ecosystem, research and implement your keywords, create an aesthetically pleasing and functional website, and implement SEO, voice search, and more to cement yourself in such a grand landscape. But with these tips, you’re on the right track.
Good luck!
