Guitarist, producer, and songwriter Jake Fine talks about his ‘cohesive vision’ for Lo-fi projects ‘azayaka‘ and ‘Tone Bo,’ retaining the essence of emotion in his music, how ‘the creative process kicks in,’ and using Downtown Music’s bespoke service to tackle unique music challenges.

The following recaps an interview with Jake Fine as part of Downtown Music’s series, The Music Industry Lives Here. Downtown Music is a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Jake Fine grew up in a ‘musical family.’ However, when he left his small Jewish school, which had 100 students for a public school in town with a jazz program, the moment marked a crucial step in his identity as a musician.

“I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to play Jazz and was yelled at by the instructors, but I had assimilated those steps into my identity. Those were the baby steps. [I questioned,] What does that mean in terms of what I do and how I navigate the world?”

Although Fine never sought a formal music education, he attended Berklee College to gain ‘a path to follow.’

Each step brought Fine an ‘in-over-my-head’ moment within that creative community, but he looked inward for the correct answers. “What’s my role at this music college full of skilled people? How deeply do I want to explore each aspect of the craft?”

That self-reflection followed Fine well through Berklee and beyond. “That existential question of what are the things I want to do to create within this community?”

Fine’s musical identity, he explains, is one that ‘doesn’t overwhelm or feel calculated. “It’s more fulfilling.”

“In my Lo-fi ‘azayaka’ catalog, you find melodies that you can hum to. Some people call it background music, but there’s jam. There’s the musical intention behind it. I try to retain that.”

Fine’s instrumental music catalog now has over 150 songs. “At the top of my mind is being perceived as [someone] retaining a high level of musicality, but also being intentional about giving the song what it needs.”

For Fine, true contentment comes from ‘making songs that last.’ He explains, “There are subtle ranges with jazz hop, chill hop, sad beats, and sleepy beats. Whichever one I’m making retains the essence of that emotional thread.”

Viewing his craft as a ‘sequel,’ Fine is constantly aiming to ‘achieve something just a little bit better, but with similar textures.’

“I like listening to my older songs. I had less skill, but my musical sensibility was still there. I’ll hear the instrumentation and the feel and the tempo and think: what was I doing in a beginner mindset that I can achieve better now?”

“As long as I can draw inspiration, I will be as prolific as I can. And there are plenty of artists out there to draw inspiration from. Hopefully, that keeps it fresh,” he said.

Fine is committed to going wherever inspiration takes him. “Ask me in two years. I’ll be making Lo-fi for 6 or 7 years at that point. Who knows? Maybe I’ll try to integrate more electronic sound design at that point. Maybe I’ll feel like I need something fresh?”

Diving into his collaborative creative process, Fine explains that it involves discussing life, then extracting the emotional context — ‘and trying to understand what they want to create and what they want to say.’

“If you’re doing something with an artist, you’re there to serve the music that they want to create — especially if there’s a writer involved.”

“Often, my job as someone more skilled in that setting with specific instruments is that I grab an instrument and offer up something. Certain chord progressions. Certain moods.”

“If you’re skilled with sound design or drums, you’re probably going to begin with that. So, I start with picking up a guitar. That’s just the way in. Find a chord progression everyone feels passionate about. Move forward.”

Although much of the creative process appears spontaneous, Fine clarifies that he has always made a lot of time investment behind the scenes.

“I’ve done my research. I know what [those] artists created. I’ve listened to their catalog. I’ve even thought of a few chord progressions.”

However, that preparation might fall short. “Sometimes I’m [collaborating with] an R&B artist, but they [say they] love Mitski.”

That’s when spontaneity comes into play. “Now, I’m trying to create a heavier indie world.”

When it comes to creative flow for his projects ‘azayaka’ and ‘Tone Bo,’ surprises and confusion are not part of the process.

“I know that whole ecosystem. I know the genre. I know what I want to create, and I know which drums I want to grab. That’s an easy flow state. I’ve written over 150 songs; I know what I want out of it.”

“I make a chord progression that I love on a felt piano or a guitar. Put the layers in and get the drums going. It doesn’t take too long now, but that’s after 200 reps.”

Fine’s cohesive vision for his Lo-fi tracks is about ‘finding my sound.’ “I want to create music that I genuinely feel proud of.”

As an artist, Fine aims to create music that people enjoy and appreciate. But as a producer, his goal is multilayered — with strategic ambition.

“There’s a certain level of success that I want to achieve. I’ve had to make space for that ambition. When you can circle back to allow yourself to be hungry to achieve something, it feels really good.”

“I want my name to be synonymous with a high level of quality. That journey is multifaceted because it’s such a hard craft to master.”

“After putting in 10,000 hours, it’s not wrong to want to achieve a certain level of quality in your work and a certain level of success to be attached to that. That is a positive thing.”

To fulfill his ambition, Fine requires a publishing process that can keep up. “Having a bespoke service with the Downtown team has made it easy for me. I’ve got my system going, and it works well.”

As most of Fine’s music is released independently, it requires a service that can overcome challenges unique to his genre. “I send in Atmos mixes and have them connected to the correct ISRC. I need all that done correctly because I don’t want to have to do it twice. With songs released every week and every two weeks, I need the Atmos connected.”

“Downtown has provided me with a good platform for consistently releasing songs, and my royalties are collected properly. And when something goes wrong, needs replacement, or that shaker’s too loud, [the team] have the ability to replace the master and update the publishing to different DSPs.”

To artists just beginning their journey as songwriters, producers, etc., Fine says, “Any platform that can help you collect money that is rightfully yours, and to capitalize on the intellectual property that is yours — that’s a good thing. A platform that helps you fairly split money without too much logistic complication. That’s a positive thing.”

“Downtown has checked those boxes for me. It’s part of my system as a producer and creator with multiple artist projects.”

About The Music Industry Lives Here: Downtown Music’s interview series allows powerful conversations with the voices shaping the music industry. To gain weekly access to exclusive interviews with music executives, artists, record label owners, and influential figures who drive the rhythm of the industry, join here.

Photo Credit: Cottonbro Studios

When it comes to Shamrock Capital’s acquisition of Taylor Swift’s recorded catalog, let’s be honest: it didn’t even seem like a good idea at the time. But is there more frothy fallout ahead when it comes to music IP?

Dialing back to late 2020, the collective industry head-scratching elevated when Shamrock Capital swooped in to buy Taylor Swift’s first six album masters for $300 million plus. The seller was none other than Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, who dropped the sullied asset after just 16 months of migraine-inducing ownership.

Of course, it’s always fun to buy the most sizzling catalog on the block. But to say there were red flags around this IP acquisition would be a drastic understatement.

For starters, Swift herself was already steam-rolling forward with her now vast catalog of Taylor’s Version remakes, complete with a fight-the-industry-oppressor narrative to fuel the Swiftie mob. Beyond the juicy targets of Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, Big Machine staffers were also getting harassed — and woe to any music company or investment house caught in those crosshairs.

Hence Scooter’s EJECT button — or at least part of the explanation for it. Enter Shamrock, which quickly found itself battling duplicate recorded music versions and a hostile artist. That’s tricky enough to manage, but given the edge-case nature of this calamity, building longer-term revenue projections seemed downright devilish. It was all unfortunately unprecedented, particularly for an IP asset of that size.

Then again, investment firms will tolerate almost any level of pain for the right return. This one – involving IP from one of the biggest musicians in history – apparently wasn’t worth it.

The bad math and endless headaches might explain the quick reversion sale – which may have also carried a boulder-off-shoulder post-signing high. Braun got out after 16 months — and now, Shamrock is bowing out after four-and-a-half years. None of that screams long-term portfolio jewel, but hey – now Taylor’s the proud owner of her own original recordings.

That’s great news for Taylor, but is Shamrock’s dump-off the latest episode in a protracted frothy fallout?

Hipgnosis was its own slow-motion train wreck, with execs accusing Massarsky n’ Merc of juicing up the valuations of catalogs into the stratosphere. But what about the rest of the multi-billion dollar music IP ecosystem?

That’s a tricky one, particularly in the daily rollercoaster of America’s economy du jour. Indeed, complementing the stomach-turning stock market is an ‘everything bubble’ terrain replete with endless possible ‘pops’ – including potential crashes in crypto, real estate, bonds, and maybe even music IP.

That has industry players feeling a bit nervous, according to our latest off-the-record convos. There’s still a significant amount of money ready to be deployed on catalogs, and specialized plays involving smaller catalogs and distinct rights tranches continue to emerge.

But is there a bigger correction ahead for music IP?

One problem recently outlined to DMN: even catalogs from storied artists like Bob Dylan (whose total publishing and recording catalog sold for as much as $600 million) only have so many recognizable hits—and sync-able tracks.

Indeed, b-sides blow up and get placed all the time (see Connie Francis’ ‘Pretty Little Baby’ and the Pointer Sisters ‘Hot Together’ for the latest exhibits). But how many people care about the hundreds of lesser-known tracks from legendary artists like Dylan?

In that context, perhaps the Taylor sale speaks volumes – particularly after such a short carriage period by Shamrock.

Not to harsh anyone’s mellow, though perhaps a measured cool-down is the best outcome in this terrain. Indeed, a soft landing might be the luckiest outcome we can get.

Meanwhile, music IP and other hot-button music and money concepts are on tap for next week’s Music Investor Conference, or MIC, in New York, where dealmakers will rub elbows and prognosticate on what’s next. That will be complemented by A2IM’s Indie Week confab in Times Square – with IP sure to receive healthy discussion time at both.

See ya there.

Photo Credit: Wesley Tingey

Part I of this article discussed the different type of works and copyright rights in music. In Part II, we discussed different types of music licenses. In this final part of the article, we’ll discuss what happens when someone does not have a license to use the musical work or sound recording and the use is not otherwise allowed by the law. This is known as copyright infringement.

When is a Musical Work or Sound Recording Infringed?

Anyone who, without the authorization of the copyright owner, engages in an act that is covered by one or more of the exclusive rights of a copyright owner is an infringer of copyright unless:

1. The musical work or sound recording is not protected by copyright (for example, if it’s in the public domain); or
2. The act is permitted by an exception in copyright law.

In other areas of law, in order to be culpable, the actor must have had knowledge or intent to do the wrongful act. Not so in copyright. Copyright infringement is determined without regard to the intent or the state of mind of the infringer. In other words, it makes no difference whether the infringer knew what they were doing constituted copyright infringement. The only time that the actor’s state of mind may come into play is when a court is determining how much money in to award to a copyright owner in damages for the infringement.

How To Prove Copyright Infringement

Courts usually require a copyright owner to prove that they owned the copyrighted work, and the defendant violated one of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner. In a case where infringement of the reproduction right is alleged, since there is seldom direct evidence of the offending act, a copyright owner may prove infringement through circumstantial evidence establishing that: (1) the defendant had access to the original work, and (2) the two works are substantially similar.

It is not necessary that the entire musical work or sound recording be copied for an infringement of the reproduction right to occur, nor that the copying be literal. All that is necessary is that the copying be substantial and material and that protected expression is copied. Likewise, the similarity between the two works must also be a similarity of protected elements, not unprotected elements. For example, in music, this means that copying of common musical ideas like chord progressions or basic scales will not qualify as copyright infringement, but copying of more unique melodies might.

The portion taken by the alleged infringer must also be more than a trivial amount to qualify as infringing. In music, this issue usually arises in the context of sampling. In most instances, a license is needed to use a sample of another song in your song. Typically, sampling (without a license) is only permissible in very limited circumstances, where the quantity and quality of what is taken is considered to be insignificant. 

Remedies for Copyright Infringement

If one or more of the exclusive copyright rights of the owner of a musical work or sound recording have been infringed and the copyright owner wishes to seek monetary damages and profits, attorneys’ fees, and/or an injunction, they can initiate a lawsuit in federal court against the alleged infringer for civil copyright infringement. Before a copyright owner can initiate a copyright infringement suit in federal court, they must have applied for a copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office for the work at issue in the case and the Office must have rendered a decision om the copyrightability of that work by either issuing a registration or rejecting the application on copyrightability grounds. 

The various remedies for copyright infringement in federal court are available to copyright owners who registered their works in a timely fashion. These remedies are explained in detail below.

• Injunctions: In federal court, a copyright owner may seek a preliminary or permanent injunction to prevent or restrain the infringer from continuing the infringement. Courts often grant permanent injunctions where liability is established and there is a threat of continuing infringement.
• Damages: At any time before final judgment is rendered, a copyright owner may elect to recover either (i) actual damages and profits of the infringer or (ii) statutory damages (i.e., damages determined by the statute, here the Copyright Act). Actual damages may be awarded in the amount of the copyright owner’s losses plus any profits of the infringer attributable to the civil copyright infringement. Statutory damages are only available when the copyright owner registers their work with the U.S. Copyright Office either (1) within three months of publication of the work, or (2) before the infringement starts. Statutory damages in federal court may be awarded in an amount between $200 and $150,000 per work infringed, with the former available only for “innocent infringers” and the latter available in cases of willful infringement. Remember, intent is not necessary to prove infringement, but it is factored into a court’s analysis on damages. 
• Court Costs and Attorneys’ Fees: Federal courts have discretion to allow the recovery of full court costs by or against any party, including the awarding of reasonable attorneys’ fees to the prevailing party under certain circumstances. However, plaintiff copyright owners cannot be awarded attorneys’ fees unless they have timely registered their works with the U.S. Copyright Office.
• Impoundment and Destruction: Federal courts may order the impounding of infringing goods at any time an action is pending. As part of a final judgment, the court may also order the destruction or any other reasonable disposition of the infringing goods.

An Alternative to Federal Court—the Copyright Claims Board (CCB)

The Copyright Claims Board (CCB) is a voluntary alternative to federal court for resolving certain types of small copyright disputes. The total monetary damages that can be awarded by the CCB is limited and cannot exceed $30,000 in one case and $15,000 per work. The CCB also cannot issue injunctions. However, if the parties reach an agreement where one party agrees to cease a particular conduct, the CCB can include a requirement in its final determination that the party abide by the agreement to cease the conduct. As a general rule, at the CCB, parties must pay their own attorneys’ fees and court costs. The CCB is often used instead of federal court where the infringement is not a large amount and/or the copyright owner may not be able to afford the cost of litigating in federal court.

Conclusion

Obviously, there is much more that we could discuss when it comes to music copyright. After all, there are many books written on the topic. Hopefully, the information provided in the three-part series offer a strong foundation for you to understand your basic rights and how to license your music to someone and what to do if they use it without your permission. It may have also sparked an interest to learn even more about music copyright. 

If you’re still looking for more information, here are few additional resources from the U.S. Copyright Office that we’d recommend:

• What Musicians Should Know about Copyright
• How Songwriters, Composers, and Performers Get Paid
• Musical Works, Sound Recordings & Copyright
• Sampling, Interpolations, Beat Stores, and More: An Introduction for Musicians Using Preexisting Music

If that’s not enough, two other books you might find helpful include All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald S. Passman, which includes information about the legal financial and practical information about music copyright and is considered by many to be the industry bible on music copyright; and Music Money and Success by Jeffrey and Todd Brabac, which includes detailed information about licensing and royalties. 

And don’t forget to join the Copyright Alliance’s FREE Creator Membership to continue your educational journey on how to protect your creative work.

Adaptive Music’s Tony Alexander chats with soul artist MAJOR at Music Biz in Atlanta last week (Photo: Music Biz)

Music Biz switched cities and kept most of the music business crowd. Now, Atlanta is the chosen city for 2026 as well — leaving a potentially juicy opportunity in Nashville.

Despite excessive hand-wringing over Music Biz’s switch to Atlanta from Nashville, the music business crowd showed up in droves last week. Attendance appeared slightly down from last year’s Nashville shindig, it should be noted, though the conference announced its intention to remain in Atlanta in 2026.

We’re still unclear on the machinations surrounding Music Biz’s shift from Nashville after several years in Music City, though organizers said they’ve always planned to shift cities periodically. Apparently, COVID complicated plans to jump around, though now the original game plan is being implemented.

That’s the official line and Music Biz is sticking to it, though some chatter suggests a political motivation for the shift — though that’s one hot potato we’ll politely pass along. Either way, the crowds showed up, and the event was chock-full of core music industry companies and execs.

Music Biz’s city-switch is vaguely reminiscent of the Grammys of yore, when ‘Music’s Biggest Night’ ping-ponged between New York and Los Angeles before largely being anchored in Tinseltown.

For Music Biz, it looks like a ‘build it in a new city and they will come’ dynamic is at work: for those bumping elbows at Music Biz at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly, crowds were solid and dealmaking brisk — all ingredients for a solid music industry fest that is poised to hop around.

So how does this shift the deck on the music industry conference scene?

Music Biz continues to emerge as a marquee music industry event in the US, particularly given SXSW’s waning reputation for actual business, dealmaking, and even showcase quality. Meanwhile, Nashville already has a smattering of good industry events — most notably CRS. But given the city’s density of music celebs, songwriters, and industry folk — not to mention its party getaway appeal — will somebody make a run at building a mega industry conference in Tennessee?

Separately, Nashville’s sudden importance to the music industry’s critical lobbying agenda can’t be overstated, particularly given the huge shakeup that just went down at the US Copyright Office. Suddenly, the music industry is waffling in Washington against the tech bros — can Nashville and its more red-leaning artists potentially turn things around on the AI and copyright protection fronts?

Shifting back to Atlanta, Music Biz kicked off just as Live Nation signed a major lease in the city’s $5 billion Centennial Yards mega-project. Specifically, the concert giant inked a long-term lease for a 5,300 seat venue in the downtown stadium and entertainment megaplex, a move designed to draw a string of superstar artists to the Centennial zone.

Perhaps Atlanta opts to sweeten the deal further and rope Music Biz into a longer-term relationship? It’s always nice to have an entire industry of movers and shakers strategizing in your town, particularly given the music industry’s tendency to bump local economies.

And with that, here’s just a quick canvas of the companies on deck at Music Biz this year:

Apple Music, Spotify, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, DiMA, ASCAP, A2IM, RIAA, SONA, The Orchard, OpenPlay, Empire Publishing, Rhymesayers Entertainment, Concord Music, CD Baby, Downtown Music Publishing, Columbia College Chicago, DDEX, The MLC, AllTrack, Sound Credit, Encore Music Tech Solutions, MusicWatch, Luminate, New West Records, Music Canada, Criminal Records, Elektra Music Group, The Vinyl Alliance, Stem Disintermedia, Lark42, Sureel AI, University of North Texas, Drexel University, Music Business Toolbox, 24/7 Artists…

… and the list goes on and on.

See y’all next year — in Atlanta, that is.

Credit: Distinctive Promo

We are Distinctive Promo. Distinctive Promo was created because new music was not properly being discovered. Independent artists and record labels had access to get music released on DSP’s, but they didn’t easily have access to tastemakers that could support these new releases such as DJs, radio programmers, curators and early adopters. We believe that getting music to the right people at the right time still matters, now more than ever.

The following was created in collaboration with Distinctive Promo.

So, how do you cut through the noise to get a new music release heard with an overwhelming number of new releases daily?

The answer is Distinctive Promo.

Distinctive Promo has integrated a more strategic approach. We focus on directly reaching industry professionals who can make a difference. Our service cuts through the noise and puts new releases directly in front of a global network of vetted tastemakers who are in positions to make a difference. They are the ones who start the buzz.

Building and leveraging a network of key relationships in the music industry is a valuable asset, and Distinctive Promo is well-aligned with this approach. By focusing on an influencer network of genuine connections, independent artists and record labels can increase their chances of getting their music heard in a crowded market. Here’s how having direct relationships with influential club and radio DJs, radio stations, playlist curators, music blogs, industry tastemakers and leaders in the music industry can benefit creators:

Credibility And Trust: Distinctive Promo’s relationships with influential figures in the music industry lends credibility to our client’s releases. Releases that come through Distinctive Promo are more likely to be reviewed and programmed, as well as added to playlists, because they came through a creditable source.

Access To Targeted Audiences: Distinctive Promo’s key relationships provide access to engaged audiences with followers that are more likely to appreciate new music releases. DJs, playlist curators and tastemakers have followers who trust their judgment, making them extremely valuable channels for promotion.

Strategic Analytics And Feedback: Distinctive Promo uses technology to streamline the discovery process and provide analytics and feedback to our clients. One noteworthy statistic to mention is the above average “open rate” for each music promotion delivered. The higher open rate for Distinctive Promo indicates a strong level of user engagement and interest among our vetted users. Additionally, the Distinctive Promo “click rate” is also well above industry standards. Data is important to our business model.

Our model is built on relationships and experience that we have developed over decades. We work closely with creators and their teams to make sure the music reaches decision-makers who care about new music.

In an industry as dynamic and competitive as music, we are a team with extensive backgrounds leading a promotion service that makes a significant difference for music discovery. Behind Distinctive Promo is our executive team with over a combined 60 years in the music industry. Our team leadership is comprised of forward-thinking music executives who have been responsible with everything from A&R, Studio Production, Artist Management, Marketing and Promotion.

What makes us different is simple: We understand what tastemakers want to hear and we’ve built trust by consistently delivering it to them. That trust is what makes our approach work. It’s also why our analytics and feedback are at the forefront with real and actionable data.

We are proud of the role we play in helping artists grow. The industry is changing fast, and it’s easy to feel lost in the noise. Our job is to help you cut through that noise and make sure your music gets in the right ears.

Learn more at Distinctive Promo.

In Part I of our Understanding Copyright in Music series, we explored the different types of works and copyright rights in music. In Part II we’ll discuss different types of music licenses.

There are many kinds of music licenses. What and how you license will depend on the type of work you are licensing—whether it is a musical work or sound recording (or both)—and what kinds of uses you are allowing the licensee to do with your work. Below is a list of several types of music licenses and how they are used:

Public Performance License

A public performance license grants someone permission to play a song in public, whether to a live or online audience. Recall that a performance is considered “public” when the work is performed in a public place, at a place where a substantial number of persons outside a normal circle of friends and family are gathered, or is transmitted to the public. If someone wants to publicly perform a musical composition, they must obtain a public performance license to do so. 

The owners of the public performance right in the underlying musical work typically authorize a Performance Rights Organization (or PRO), such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR, to license these rights. As discussed in Part I, owners of sound recordings only have a public performance right when the performance occurs by means of a digital audio transmission. That right is administered by Sound Exchange. But no license would be required when the transmission of the sound recording is by a terrestrial or other non-digital transmission, for example over broadcast radio. 

Mechanical License 

A mechanical license grants someone permission to reproduce and distribute a copy of a musical work and is required when someone wants to create and distribute copies of a song—whether in physical or digital form or whether it’s a recording of an original song or a cover version. This is because in all these examples, the musical work is being copied or a copy of it is being distributed. For example, if someone wants to use the musical work in a CD, a vinyl record, or a digital download of a song, they’ll need a mechanical license.

The Mechanical Licensing Collection (MLC) administers blanket mechanical licenses for musical compositions to eligible digital streaming and download services. A “blanket license” is a single license that allows the licensee to use any musical work in a catalogue. In the case of The MLC, the blanket license covers all musical works in the United States. The alternative to a blanket license is song-by-song licensing, which requires a licensee to obtain a license for every song they want to use on an individual basis. The blanket license covers interactive streams, limited downloads, and permanent downloads. The MLC does not administer public performance licenses for musical compositions (including for digital radio, or “non-interactive” streaming), and does not administer any rights for sound recordings.

Other organizations also administer mechanical licenses for other uses. For example, the Harry Fox Agency issues licenses for creating and distributing cover songs. Mechanical licenses can also often be obtained directly from the music publisher.

Print License

A print license is a license that allows someone to rearrange, print, or display the music notes or lyrics of a musical work in print. This type of license is required to reproduce or display sheet music or lyrics of a song in printed form. The difference between a mechanical license and a print license is that a mechanical license covers audio reproductions, while a print license covers printed reproductions.

Synchronization (“Sync”) License

A synchronization license (“sync” license) is a license that allows someone to use a musical composition along with a video in an audio-visual work. For example, a songwriter or music publisher would grant a sync license to someone who wants to use a song in a video format, such as a movie, TV show, advertisement, or video game. It would not give them the right to use a sound recording of that musical composition. In order to use the sound recording in the audiovisual, the licensee would also need to obtain a master use license from the owner of the sound recording rights. 

Master Use License

A master use license is a license that allows someone to use a particular sound recording in, for example, a movie, television show, or advertisement. Master use licenses are usually available from the record label. Many of the licenses listed above are particular to and only apply to the musical work. The master license is different in that it a license that someone gets from the owner of the master recording of the sound recording. 

Understanding Licenses is Important to Getting Compensated and to Protect Your Music

Understanding your rights and the various types of music licenses is important since the terms of those licenses will specify what rights you are licensing and how someone is allowed to use your musical work or sound recording. These licenses will also specify how much and when you will be paid for allowing such use (i.e., your royalties) and for how long these payments will continue, as well as many other aspects that govern the relationship between you, the music licensor, and the person or entity who is using your music, the licensee.

Don’t stop your copyright education here! Be on the lookout for Part III of our Understanding Copyright in Music series, and also be sure to check out Copyright Alliance’s FREE Creator Membership for additional educational resources.

Just how much distribution can be done on a phone? According to Too Lost, the answer is pretty much everything.

For many artists and labels, the complex tasks of music distribution are frequently handled on desktop. That’s a belief held by some of the largest distribution platforms, though Too Lost is now giving its artists complete mobile capabilities via a just-released app. The result is a completely portable distribution solution built for on-the-go artists, including those on tour.

According to the upstart distro, the decision to expand the platform into mobile was sparked by repeated client requests. Artists simply wanted multi-platform flexibility, so now it exists in their pockets.

In most cases, artists will toggle between both mobile and desktop environments, and Too Lost is smartly giving its artist clientele complete flexibility to choose their distribution environment. For Too Lost, a company DMN is thrilled to be partnering with, the key is to give artists a solid distribution solution from anywhere – at any time.

That means that the mobile app carries virtually all of the functions and features of Too Lost’s core distribution platform.

According to the company, uploading new music remains a swift process, achievable in seconds even while on-the-go. That means just-recorded music, including live cuts, jams, and even quick outtakes can be quick-released to fans from a phone. Alternatively, more conventional distribution work involving previously-recorded material and catalog management can also be handled on the small screen.

The app is also stuffed with real-time stats, including those tied to stream listening and audience demographics. For artists that love actionable data, that translates into quick engagement information and a powerful feedback loop.

Too Lost’s app also includes the ability to monitor earnings and transfer funds.

For those touring and building the early stages of their careers, fast withdrawals can make a big difference. Accordingly, Too Lost’s app offers fast and flexible payouts, allowing artists to withdraw their money whenever needed.

More broadly, mobile-based creativity tools are also blossoming. Just recently, DMN profiled the breakout success of GELO, whose ‘Tweakers’ started on Voloco, a ‘mobile recording studio’ that served up the featured beat. For Too Lost, the next step was simply to expand the possibilities to include the broader aspects of distribution.

According to Too Lost, this app is packed but manageable, and geared towards a client base that wants more functionality and flexibility than ever.

Too Lost’s just-released app is available on both iOS (Apple) and Google Play (Android) platforms.

Per a new estimate, the controversial Spotify stream minimum cost emerging artists big, to the tune of $47 million in would-be royalties, during 2024. Photo Credit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya

By one industry exec’s estimate, Spotify’s 1,000-play monetization minimum cost emerging talent close to $50 million during 2024. Now, the platform is defending its controversial royalties approach.

As many know, that approach sees Spotify pay recording royalties only for tracks with at least 1,000 annual streams. Implemented (along with other changes) at the behest of the majors, the revamped model is effectively preventing the vast majority of uploaded recordings from generating payments.

We know as much in part because of Luminate’s latest year-end report, which found that just 26.7 million works (not necessarily proper songs) had topped 1,000 global on-demand streams last year.

In light of the 202 million ISRCs identified in the same breakdown, this means some 87% of tracks failed to hit Spotify’s 1,000-stream minimum. Technically, these plays were divided across all DSPs; the percentage of recording-royalty-accruing works on Spotify might actually be lower than 13%.

And when it comes to the monetized pile of Spotify uploads, it’s also unclear how many of the works are human-made songs. Logic and a bit of evidence suggest AI “music” generations are (presumably thanks to the efforts of their uploaders) having no problem hitting 1,000 streams apiece each year.

But that multifaceted topic is best saved for another time. More immediately, Disc Makers CEO Tony van Veen crunched the streaming numbers to arrive at the initially mentioned estimate.

“I’m going to answer this question: How much in royalties earned by independent artists in 2024 did Spotify not pay out to you, the independent-artist community?” van Veen asked in a YouTube video.

Building on Luminate’s 2024 stream-volume pyramid, which groups tracks by play range (93.2 million works had between zero and 10 streams, for instance), van Veen attached “conservative” estimates to each category.

For the bucket of uploads with 10 or fewer streams, that refers to an average of two streams per track, against an average of 350 apiece for those with between 101 and 999 plays on the year.

The exec then used the figures to approximate total non-monetized streams, brought an average per-stream royalty rate of $0.0033 into the fold, and multiplied to arrive at an estimate of the would-be royalties.

All told, emerging artists missed out on $46.87 million in recording royalties during 2024, van Veen found.

While it probably doesn’t need saying, the situation is inherently beneficial for well-established acts and the major labels.

Factoring also for the majors’ advantageous DSP agreements and the ongoing tidal wave of AI tracks (commercially prominent artists needn’t worry about ending up at the bottom of the pile), it’s apparent that the indie community is receiving an increasingly raw streaming deal.

Like with AI audio’s precise streaming-service reach, this topic is best left for a different occasion. As things stand, Spotify, as highlighted, is firing back against criticism of its 1,000-stream minimum.

“99.5% of all streams are of tracks that have at least 1,000 annual streams,” a Spotify spokesperson retorted in part, “and each of those tracks earn more under our policy. This policy targets the population of tens of millions of tracks on Spotify that generate only $0.02 per month on average.

“In the aggregate, these tracks with under 1,000 annual streams represent ~0.5% of total streams (and therefore 0.5% of the total royalty pool). Now that Spotify’s royalty pool has become so large — $10B+ in 2024 alone — 0.5% is a material amount,” the rep proceeded.

Photo: Joshua Sortino

As someone who has spent years navigating the complexities of digital music, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is for rightsholders to take control of their content and data. The ability to manage your assets independently isn’t just a matter of convenience – it’s a strategic advantage that unlocks new opportunities, reduces operational headaches and gives you the flexibility to work with the best partners for your needs. In an increasingly complex digital landscape, direct control over your intellectual property, data and assets is the key to maximizing your income, minimizing costs and simplifying your business.

In this partner op-ed Digital Music News, Edward Ginis, CEO and co-founder of OpenPlay, explores why music rightsholders must take direct control of their content, data and assets to maximize revenue, reduce costs and stay agile in a changing digital landscape.

Too often, I’ve seen rightsholders struggle because their content is tied up in systems they don’t control, making it difficult to switch vendors, optimize distribution or even access their own metadata. As consolidation in music distribution continues, there are fewer and fewer truly independent options to manage deliveries. Now more than ever, maintaining independence is critical.

If we want to future-proof our businesses, we need to prioritize control. 

Here’s how you can do it:

Own your Content Management System

One of the most common mistakes rightsholders make is relying on distributors to manage their content within their own proprietary systems. While these platforms may be convenient, they ultimately limit flexibility. If you ever need to change partners, retrieve your data or adapt to new industry standards, you could find yourself stuck.

Instead, invest in a content management system (CMS) that you own and control – one that allows you to manage your metadata and assets independently. By having a CMS separate from service providers – one that can generate market-ready digital data exchange (DDEX) files for digital service providers (DSPs) – you give yourself maximum flexibility to use whatever delivery mechanism best suits your needs. 

With an independent CMS, such as OpenPlay, you’re not locked into a single vendor and you can deliver your music wherever you choose, ensuring seamless collaboration with any distributor, DSP or marketing partner. This was one of the drivers behind our recently announced OpenPlay Reach, a new service that allows labels and publishers of all sizes to select the distribution option that best fits their objectives. 

Establish a single source of truth

Metadata inconsistencies can be a nightmare, leading to missed royalties, incorrect credits, and operational inefficiencies. The best way to avoid this is by maintaining a centralized, authoritative repository – a “single source of truth” for all your assets and data.

This ensures that your entire team is working with accurate, up-to-date information, reducing errors and making collaboration more efficient. Everyone knows where to find approved masters, metadata and assets, eliminating confusion and improving workflow. By keeping data and assets in sync, updates happen in one place and are reflected everywhere they need to be. Storing only the highest resolution, approved assets – while allowing ancillary systems to generate necessary variations – ensures the best quality control. Additionally, logging every update or change simplifies troubleshooting, making it easier to maintain accuracy across your entire catalog.

When your data is consistent across all platforms and partners, you gain confidence in your reporting, royalties and overall business decisions.

Deliver your content on your terms

The way you distribute your content should be intentional. Rather than sending everything to everyone, focus on delivering only what’s needed, when it’s needed and in the correct format. This allows you to work with different distributors for different markets, negotiate better deals and explore new revenue opportunities without any unnecessary restrictions.

Maintaining control over your delivery process ensures that you can switch vendors seamlessly, scale efficiently and stay in command of your own content strategy. It also means you avoid being forced into vendor-specific formatting that can create long-term dependencies. By ensuring your content is always accessible in industry-standard formats, you can quickly adapt to new opportunities and partnerships without additional hurdles.

Build a future-proof infrastructure

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your operations. Royalties, licensing, analytics and finance systems all rely on a core set of metadata, and if that data isn’t properly managed, inefficiencies start to creep in.

By integrating systems through automation and APIs, you can ensure data consistency, minimize manual work and reduce errors. A well-organized infrastructure allows you to scale your business without being bogged down by data management challenges. When your systems work together seamlessly, you’re free to focus on what really matters – building and monetizing your catalog.

Stay agile in a changing industry

The music industry is evolving faster than ever. New platforms, revenue streams and business models are emerging all the time. To stay competitive, rightsholders need the ability to pivot quickly, experiment with different partnerships and optimize their distribution strategies without unnecessary barriers.

When you control your content and data, you gain the agility needed to respond to industry shifts with confidence. Whether it’s exploring new licensing opportunities, entering new markets or leveraging emerging technologies, maintaining independence gives you the flexibility to adapt and thrive.

Owning and controlling your content gives you ultimate independence and allows you to position yourself for long-term success in a changing digital landscape. By taking control of your CMS, centralizing your data, refining your distribution strategy and future-proofing your infrastructure, you create a business that’s not only more efficient but also more resilient.

I’ve spent my career helping rightsholders navigate these challenges, and one thing remains clear: control is power. When you own your data and content, you open the door to new opportunities, better partnerships and a more sustainable future in music.

Mock deal terms in beatBread’s Deal Comparison Tool, with an ‘Expected Case’ for content performance during the deal term (photo: beatBread)

For those artists and indie labels lucky enough to have multiple funding offers, beatBread now offers a potentially game-changing tool for weighing competing options. Surprisingly, beatBread’s initial results show that most artists and indie labels (60%) would likely sign a sub-optimal deal before thoroughly vetting their options.

Once upon a time, music financing was a dark art driven by elusive A&R instinct. These days, thankfully, there’s a lot more data behind funding decisions, and labels (and their distributors) aren’t the only game in town. And while indie labels and artists now have more choices, sorting through what is a good and bad deal is difficult, as terms are complex, hard to understand, and fraught with traps and pitfalls. But 2025 might be the year that artists and indie labels gain a serious upper hand.

Last month, we profiled beatBread’s recently released Deal Comparison Tool, a handy platform for weighing a stack of competing music financing offers. In a nutshell, the Tool allows an artist or indie label to view a number of offers side-by-side and weigh those offers according to a variety of parameters. Just recently, DMN partnered with beatBread to further amplify this newly released platform.

Artists and labels can simultaneously compare up to five offers, analyzing upfront cash, fees, recoupment time, and long-term costs. Even better, it allows artists, indie labels, and IP owners to ‘normalize’ offer metrics, which comes in handy if deals are being extended from labels, distributors, publishers, or investors.

Of course, any artist or label can manually compare offers before deciding. The problem is that there are so many variables to weigh, and headline terms don’t tell you how costs and recoupment will likely play out over time.

‘Headline’ deal terms can mask a deal’s actual costs. And understanding outcomes based on catalog and new release performance is extremely difficult.

“Even the most sophisticated executives are sometimes deceived by ‘headline terms’ in a deal,” beatBread CEO Peter Sinclair relayed. “The Deal Comparison Tool gives artists and labels the chance to cut through the fog and get a true understanding of a deal because it links the key terms of a contract to a real range of probable outcomes as music is released and continues to perform.”

Sinclair is hugely confident about the comparison platform’s power. To put it bluntly, he’s not sure there’s a better tool out there for weighing different offers—online or off—which is exactly the confidence you need to release something of this magnitude. Just a few weeks after its launch, the Tool is being used by a significant number of artists and labels to weigh their funding options.

The strange part is that a majority of those using the Tool have chosen not to work with beatBread.

“If beatBread is only funding four, three, or even two out of ten deals we’re helping to vet, then we’re winning,” Sinclair explained. “Artists or indie labels might choose a beatBread partner or select a deal on a party entirely unaffiliated with beatBread.”

But, according to Sinclair, they know they’re signing the best offer.

“I’d rather beatBread develop a reputation as a straight shooter than try and convince an extra three or four people out of ten to take our deal when it’s not the best deal,” he continued.

Sinclair clarified, however, that this isn’t a self-service tool.

Instead, beatBread has experts to help artists and indie labels visualize the trade-offs between deal structures, including revenue splits, term lengths, and long-run costs. Once everything is laid out, determining the “best deal” depends on various factors and preferences, including the artist or indie labels’ expectation of catalog performance, risk appetite, and need for upfront cash vs. long-term cash flow.

Among the early adopters is Dan Englander, founder of indie label KingUnderground.

“When I came to beatBread, I had what I thought were two quite attractive distribution offers,” Englander said. “After seeing the output of beatBread’s Deal Comparison Tool, I realized there were several scenarios where I could have ended up strapped for cash.”

Englander didn’t end up selecting beatBread’s deal, though he did sign with a beatBread partner, which means beatBread co-invested in the deal alongside its partner.

Sinclair noted that Englander’s situation is not unique. The landscape for music financing presents a number of choices to artists and indie labels, but those choices often have many pitfalls and traps.

“It has become standard industry practice to offer headline terms (nominal term length, total deal value) that simply do not reflect how a deal is likely to play out in the real world,” Sinclair added.

“In the worst cases, beatBread’s beta test showed that some independent labels would most likely end up forced into a distress sale after a few years had they taken the seemingly best distribution or label JV offer in front of them.”

“It’s no secret that indie artists and labels have more options than ever,” Sinclair said. “BeatBread’s mission is to help them make the right decision, even if they choose a funding partner other than beatBread.”

TikTok USA, circa 2025 (Photo: TCY)

Months after ‘the ban,’ there’s no telling what happens to TikTok next in the US.

After inching oh-so-close to a deal to secure TikTok in the US, China apparently pressed hard pause on the arrangement following Trump’s tariff slap. So what does that mean for the music industry?

If you love uncertainty, this one’s for you. Trump is now extending the ban by another 75 days, though a hard clock is now ticking on a deal that was apparently 99% done. Congressional pushback on the ‘phase 2 extension’ is already happening, and Apple is seeking White House assurance that the app can remain on its App Store.

This slow-motion cookie crumble could go in any direction. Among the possibilities within the next 30 days: TikTok shutting down for good or continuing business-as-usual — or, potentially, some insane variation in the middle.

Last we checked, TikTok is available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, though this situation is volatile. And certainly not a recipe for crafting stellar, long-term artist marketing campaigns — or advertising campaigns, for that matter.

Most music folks are smartly spreading their marketing efforts across the gamut of social media giants, with IG Reels and Shorts getting a nice stability bump. That said, as long as TikTok is ticking, it has the power to blow stuff up — including entire artist careers and dusty catalog tracks.

While the over-under on TikTok’s survival has gone haywire, some executive ship-jumping is worth noting — particularly TikTok Music ex-honcho Ole Obermann, who recently packed his bags for Apple Music. And he’s not the only one potentially pondering the writing on the wall.

Meanwhile, other platforms continue to seize the moment. On that note: what major social media platform just inked a broad-reaching deal with major music publishers? (Hint: the first letter isn’t ‘X’…)

On a broader note, few in the music business seem to be rooting for TikTok’s survival.

It’s not that TikTok isn’t making some effort to play nice with the music business. Just last week, for example, TikTok was among the supporting sponsors at the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) golf classic and fire relief efforts in Los Angeles. But for the most part, the vibe within the music industry isn’t warmly supportive, to say the least.

TikTok famously refused to reasonably compensate rights owners until absolutely forced, with the aforementioned Obermann battling it out with Universal Music Group for weeks before a deal was hammered out. Indies are also understandably cool on this low-paying platform, though TikTok’s marketing muscle is certainly potent — especially if the viral fairy gods tap your shoulder.

Then again, that’s the aspiration for rivals like Reels and Shorts, among others. And we get the sense that witnessing a heavy door slamming on TikTok’s derriere would be oh-so-satisfying for many industry folks.

Guess everyone’s replaceable — and let’s face it, life will go on in the music industry, with or without TikTok USA playing a role in it.

More as this develops.

Got a juicy tip? Hit me up at paul@digitalmusicnews.com or Signal (@digitalmusicnews.07).

Photo Credit: Sophie Sahara

After years leading marketing for major labels and shaping the careers of platinum-selling artists, Joe Aboud saw a shift happening in digital music promotions—one that called for a different approach. The days of relying solely on streaming playlists and viral moments were giving way to a new reality: artists needed to take control of their fan relationships. That realization led him to launch 444 Sounds, a music consultancy built around sustainable growth strategies for artists, labels, and management teams.

The following was created in collaboration with partner Industry Talks Network.

“The TikTok ban scare was a wake-up call,” Aboud explains. “A lot of artists and labels realized just how much their strategy depended on one platform. Now, we’re seeing a shift—artists are investing more in direct-to-fan platforms like Discord and Pinpoint, which integrate email and SMS, giving them more control over their audience.”

While short-form content and social media remain critical for discovery, Aboud argues they shouldn’t be the foundation of an artist’s career. “Short-form content gets you seen, but it’s not enough to build longevity. Artists need a strategy that blends discovery with retention—one that turns casual listeners into lifelong fans. Labels and management teams are catching on to this, but the industry still has a long way to go in breaking that old mindset of chasing momentary spikes over long-term audience building.”

At 444 Sounds, he’s putting that philosophy into action. The firm works with both major and independent artists to develop multi-layered marketing strategies that go beyond algorithm-driven engagement. His clients range from independent rising acts to global superstars like Jung Kook, Julia Fox, and Enrique Iglesias, each with distinct approaches tailored to their fanbases.

Aboud’s career is built on bringing long-term thinking to the fast-paced music industry. Before launching 444 Sounds, he led marketing for HITCO, where he worked with SAINt JHN, Jennifer Lopez, and Dixie D’Amelio, and previously oversaw campaigns at Atlantic Records for Anitta, Clean Bandit, Skrillex, and David Guetta. His experience has given him a front-row seat to the industry’s evolution, and he sees a fundamental shift happening.

“Streaming, short-form video, and traditional promo all have their place, but artists who own their fan relationships will be the ones who last,” he says. “At the end of the day, the artists with the strongest careers are the ones who create a space where fans feel connected—not just entertained.”

As digital marketing strategies evolve, the message is clear: artists who invest in owning their fanbase—not just reaching one—will be the ones who build lasting careers.

The beatBread Deal Comparison Tool dashboard, which compares proposed terms from labels, distributors, and others (photo: beatBread)

beatBread has launched a “Deal Comparison Tool” designed to enable artists and indies to weigh offers’ long-term value and secure the best available terms.

The indie-focused funding platform reached out with word of its Deal Comparison Tool, billed as a means of accessing side-by-side breakdowns of proposed agreements. Those deals can, of course, come from beatBread itself, which says it’s wrapped approximately 1,500 advances since launching in 2020.

But artists and indies can also use the Deal Comparison Tool to weigh terms floated by various distributors, major labels, and, against the backdrop of continued song-rights sales, different companies yet.

That includes beatBread partners and straight competitors – with Deal Comparison Tool users having “often” opted for third-party offers during the beta test.

“And that’s okay,” weighed in beatBread co-founder and CEO Peter Sinclair. “Our mission is to empower artists and independent labels, and to become the place where smart deal choices are made.”

According to an introductory video, the one-stop tool compiles each deal’s total value, fee specifics, and possible recoupment timetable.

Regarding the latter, the Deal Comparison Tool can adjust figures based on music’s anticipated commercial performance (whether “low case,” “expected case,” or “high case”), the video shows. Theoretically, the information will then help talent and indies make more informed dealmaking decisions.

Per Too Lost-partnered beatBread, the Deal Comparison Tool’s beta saw around 60% of artists (some with seven-figure contracts before them) and label owners (fielding up to $100 million proposals) ultimately select “a deal other than their original offer.”

“In the worst cases,” the company elaborated, “beatBread’s beta test showed that some independent labels would most likely end up forced into a distress sale after a few years had they taken the seemingly best distribution or label JV offer in front of them.”

Amid a steady stream of indie-label sale announcements, that seldom-discussed angle is significant. And in a statement, the former Universal Music higher-up Sinclair emphasized the Deal Comparison Tool’s perceived benefits for “[e]ven the most sophisticated executives.”

“Even the most sophisticated executives are sometimes deceived by ‘headline terms’ in a deal,” the beatBread CEO said. “The Deal Comparison Tool gives artists and labels the chance to cut through the fog and get true understanding of a deal because it links the key terms of a contract to a real range of probable outcomes as music is released and continues to perform.”

Photo Credit: Saydung89

The music industry faces a bevy of challenges in 2025 – as we’ll cover exhaustively in the pages of Digital Music News – but ensuring accurate and timely payments to rights owners shouldn’t be one of them.  In partnership with Tipalti, we’ve created a guide to address this issue: introducing our playbook on How to Pay People In the Music Industry.

The global music industry is now projected to exceed $100 billion in annual revenue, though payment structures and splits are becoming a lot more complicated. You can’t wing it anymore: the complexity of accounts payable in the music industry necessitates robust financial platforms and partnerships to guarantee prompt and precise payments.

To address this critical music industry need, Digital Music News and Tipalti have collaborated to provide a comprehensive playbook for streamlining payments in the music industry.  This guide offers solutions for payment challenges faced by music businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. We hope it offers some critical tips to companies in any industry sub-category, as well as entrepreneurs, investors, and music platforms of all varieties.

The playbook is available here – and it’s a great guide for plotting out your entire accounts payable stack or simply upgrading your existing one.

This was pretty fun to build, and also offered some optimistic takeaways.

The good news? We quickly realized that there are a number of companies who are already killing it in this sphere, pumping out millions of payments often within 30 days of a usage, license, or other triggering event. The reason is that music accounts payable (or AP) is now a manageable art, and no longer a hindrance to a company’s success in this space.

The available tools and infrastructure are advanced and can be implemented swiftly and efficiently. That was our biggest and most hopeful lesson learned while creating this playbook.

Tipalti also observed that the music industry is rapidly establishing competitive benchmarks for payments. Indeed, AP industry standards are quickly becoming established.

These benchmarks include capturing, accounting for, and paying rights owners for every play on any platform, in any territory, within 30 days.  Payment infrastructure must also accommodate various payment methods and automatically handle tax obligations across different regions (whether states, provinces, or countries). 

Furthermore, seamless integration with existing cloud ERP software is crucial for managing large volumes of payees and clients without excessive manual labor.

Something else Tipalti taught us during this process: you should always be able to definitively answer the question, “Who are we paying, exactly?”

A key step is to figure out exactly who you need to pay, where and when you need to pay them — and of course, how much they should receive. Then you can evaluate your current accounting and payment infrastructure against industry standards.

Anyway: the playbook kicks off with a number of checklists to assess your AP stack, with solutions on how to fill the gaps. 

We hope you’ll check out the playbook – and hope it helps!

Navigating the complexities of the music industry can be overwhelming. For independent artists, publishers, and smaller labels, managing royalties, rights, and registrations often feels like an uphill battle. With countless acronyms like ASCAP, BMI, and MCPS, plus the challenge of juggling numerous platforms, you might find yourself spending more time on admin than on creating music.

The following was created in collaboration with Melody Rights.

That’s where Melody Rights comes in—a comprehensive solution for rights management in the music industry. Melody Rights doesn’t focus on getting your music onto Spotify or Apple Music (in fact, they’ve intentionally avoided that route). Instead, they’ve specialized in the essential, behind-the-scenes work of ensuring musicians get paid whenever their music is streamed, downloaded, synced, or performed.

What Does Melody Rights Offer?

At its heart, Melody Rights ensures musicians can effectively manage their royalties. Think of it as having a dedicated team member who ensures you never miss out on the revenue you’ve earned.

Here’s what sets Melody Rights apart: they go beyond the usual distribution channels like DSPs (Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.) and open the door to a broader array of revenue streams. Their services include:

• Songwriter Royalties: Revenue earned as a composer or lyricist.
• Publishing Royalties: Making sure publishers (or self-publishers) get their due.
• Neighbouring Rights: Payments for public performances or broadcasts of your music.
• Traditional Mechanicals: Royalties for physical formats like vinyl and CDs.
• Digital Mechanicals: Royalties from streaming and downloads.
• Content ID Revenue: Capturing earnings from platforms like YouTube when your music is used.
• Micro Stock Licensing: Distribution to platforms such as Pond5 and DepositPhotos, where your music can be licensed for videos and other media.
• Gaming Marketplaces: Selling music for use in video games via platforms like Itch.io and Game Dev Marketplace.

Melody Rights ensures no revenue opportunity is overlooked. The best part? You have complete control, with the ability to pick and choose the services that suit your needs.

Why No Spotify Distribution?

Here’s where Melody Rights stands out. They don’t handle music distribution to DSPs like Spotify or Apple Music. Why? Because they focus on areas that other platforms, like DistroKid, CD Baby, and TuneCore, don’t. While those services are excellent at distributing music, they often leave the intricate work of rights management and royalty collection untouched.

By stepping away from the DSP space, Melody Rights complements existing services rather than competing with them. They’ve positioned themselves as a valuable add-on for artists who want to ensure every backend detail is handled professionally.

How Does It Work?

Getting started with Melody Rights is simple. Choose a membership plan that suits your needs, from a free option (for up to five tracks) to advanced plans for producers and labels. Once registered, you gain access to an intuitive dashboard where you can upload tracks, select endpoints, and let the platform handle the rest.

Customization is key. If your music is already distributed through a specific service, you can opt out of that endpoint. Whether you want to focus solely on micro stock licensing, gaming marketplaces, or other niches, Melody Rights offers flexibility tailored to your goals.

A Revenue Model That Works for Everyone

Melody Rights operates on a revenue-sharing basis. Depending on the plan you choose, they take a small percentage of the royalties they help you collect, while the rest goes to you. For instance:

• Artist Plan: A 50/50 split.
• Producer Plan: A 60/40 split in your favor.
• Label Plan: A 70/30 split in favor of the label.

For businesses like labels, publishers, and promotion services, there’s even a commission model for royalties generated through the platform, making it a win-win for everyone involved.

Why This Matters

For many musicians, the industry can feel like a minefield of missed opportunities. With so many revenue streams to monitor and a seemingly endless amount of admin work, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks. Melody Rights provides a streamlined system to ensure every artist, label, and publisher receives their fair share.

Most importantly, it offers peace of mind. In an industry where small details can have big financial implications, having a platform that guarantees your royalties are tracked and paid is invaluable.

The Road Ahead for Melody Rights

Melody Rights isn’t stopping here. They’re actively working to expand their services, including plans to partner with platforms like Unity and Unreal for gaming music, as well as increasing their reach into sync libraries and content platforms. Full API integration is also in the works, enabling other businesses to integrate Melody Rights’ technology seamlessly.

Why You Should Consider Melody Rights

In a world where musicians often have to navigate the industry alone, Melody Rights offers a dependable safety net. They don’t aim to replace your distributor—they’re here to enhance it. By focusing on the backend of music rights management, they’ve carved out a unique niche to ensure every sync, stream, or sale counts toward your bottom line.

If you’re ready to stop leaving money on the table and want a more efficient way to manage your music rights, Melody Rights is worth exploring. After all, isn’t it time to let someone else handle the admin so you can focus on what you do best—making music?

Unhurd founder and CEO Alex Brees. Photo Credit: Unhurd

AI-powered music promotion platform Unhurd has acquired IndieKnow, a release-focused education and marketing app.

London-headquartered Unhurd (stylized as “un:hurd”) officially revealed its buyout of Bangkok-based IndieKnow today. Founded in 2021 by Music Concierge higher-up Andy Haggerstone, IndieKnow is billed specifically as a service for “helping musicians get from zero to one when releasing music.”

According to the appropriate website, the app features a checklist-equipped “release planner” designed to help artists cover all promotional bases before their works debut. IndieKnow, which costs £7 monthly and £60 annually, also includes access to “a press release writing wizard,” “a database of over 1,000 PR & radio contacts,” and other tools.

Now, Unhurd says it intends to integrate the newly acquired company’s “educational resources and step-by-step learning guides” – thereby taking another step towards bridging “the all-important knowledge gap for artists in getting release ready.”

Though the purchaser opted against disclosing the buyout’s precise financials – each side is “very happy” with the terms, per Unhurd – it did note that the deal extends to seemingly all IndieKnow’s holdings but not personnel.

Existing subscribers will be onboarded to Willard Ahdritz-backed Unhurd, which expects to complete the addition of IndieKnow’s assets early next year.

Unhurd founder and CEO Alex Brees, currently en route to Riyadh to pitch prospective investors, in a statement described the deal as “a natural alignment” and a means of enhancing value for his business’s own subscribers.

“IndieKnow is a cornerstone of knowledge and empowerment for artists,” the former Universal Music exec Brees continued in part, “and un:hurd has always been about helping artists cut through the noise more effectively.

“…When I saw what IndieKnow had built,” the Unhurd head concluded, “I knew this solution would not only solve this specific challenge for artists, but also saw how beautifully the solution would fit into our new workflows which are launching early 2025. This is very exciting for artists on the un:hurd platform!”

Unhurd’s newest expansion initiative follows a seven-figure seed round in Q1 2023 – and, closer to the present, multimillion-dollar raises for several music promotion startups.

This past February, SongTools scored $3 million in funding before rolling out its SongFly “one-click advertising tool” in April. Also in February, Groover finalized an $8 million Series A and eyed a global expansion as well as the launch of fresh features.

Photo Credit: Michael Ghannoum

MPT Agency, MusicPromoToday, announced its official partnership with DimashAli Creative Center supporting internationally acclaimed vocalist Dimash Qudaibergen in his expansion into the U.S. and North American markets. 

The following was created in partnership with MPT Agency.

As one of the most versatile vocalists of our time, Dimash has established a global following through his exceptional musical capacity, vocal range, and diverse repertoire, blending genres from classical to pop, rock, and even dance. 

His work with international icons such as Plácido Domingo, Hauser and Lara Fabian and Grammy-winning songmakers such as Walter Afanasieff and Nathan Wang has underscored Dimash’s ability to bridge cultures effortlessly, creating a fundamentally unique experience for any audience. This partnership with MPT Agency will prioritize collaborations with established industry figures—artists with whom Dimash has long aspired to work—as well as strategic projects designed to solidify his presence in the U.S. and build a rapprochement between his international audiences and the American market. 

Globally, his work has been diverse and exceptional, contributing to box office hit soundtracks such as Jackie Chan’s Vanguard and Legend. Aided by MPT Agency’s long-standing experience with breaking foreign artists, Dimash’s expansion to the North American market represents a deliberate effort to introduce a talent, sound, and genre-defiance like no other to an audience that is starving for innovation in its entertainment industry.

Photo Credit: Michael Ghannoum

Known for his electrifying stage performances, death defying stunts on stage and his signature triple encores, there is no wonder he has sold out stages from Shenzhen to Moscow, London to New York.  His latest two sold-out performances at the closing of the World Nomad Games in Astana drew an audience of 60,000, with over 35% of attendees traveling from Europe and the Americas to Kazakhstan to witness the Strangers tour. His upcoming shows in Prague and Düsseldorf are drawing in global audiences for another one of a kind experience of pop, rock and opera. 

For the American music scene, Dimash’s arrival marks a rare moment of convergence between global talent and local industry. His vocal abilities—recognized as the most expansive of any contemporary singer—offer opportunities for artistic partnerships that could leave a lasting imprint on the North American music landscape. With rumors of a surprise visit before the new year, fans are wondering where this secret city will be.

MPT Agency is actively engaging with artists, promoters, and industry stakeholders to explore collaborations that align with this exciting phase of Dimash’s career. With their established global fanbases and proven records of success, their North American debut is set to be a pivotal moment for both artists and the U.S. music industry.

Dimash records under his own label, DimashAli Creative Center, and maintains a stoutly independent vision of his future. For inquiries about collaborations, media engagements, or concert dates, please contact his press representative at MPT Agency.

Dimash Qudaibergen’s stunning cover of the iconic “SOS d’un terrien en détresse” has captivated audiences worldwide, amassing over a billion impressions globally.

Dimash – TikTok – Instagram – Facebook – YouTube – Spotify – Apple 

Michael Arty – Michael@musicpromotoday.com

Apple Music has launched a playlist-powered concert-promotion feature called ‘Set List.’ Photo Credit: Brett Jordan

Apple Music has rolled out a “Set List” feature with which artists can make dedicated playlists to promote their shows.

The Spotify rival just recently unveiled Set List, noting at the outset that acts must have an artist image (which will double as the playlists’ cover art) uploaded to Apple Music in order to utilize the tool.

Connecting one’s artist page to Bandsintown is also recommended due to the concert-discovery advantages at hand, the platform explained in more words. (Advisable as well is creating an optimal Apple Music artist page; we took an in-depth look at that process earlier in 2024.)

As for the steps associated with generating Set List playlists, professionals can simply click the relevant button in the Artist Playlists section, select an event type (concert, entire tour, or residency), connect a forthcoming concert or concerts (manually or automatically via the Bandsintown integration), and add the desired tracks to seal the deal.

Per Apple Music, the playlists can be scheduled to go live on certain dates (so long as said dates are “no earlier than one day in the future”), and artists can make “as many Set List playlists as shows you have played or will play.”

Notably, on the aforementioned discovery front, these Set List playlists will also populate one’s Shazam profile, the streaming service relayed. Over the summer, the Apple-owned song-identification app started integrating Ticketmaster tickets.

Shifting from these technical details to the possible advantages associated with mapping out shows’ performed tracks via dedicated playlists, the latter can presumably help promote carefully planned gigs ahead of time.

Perhaps just as beneficially, the feature will seemingly make it easier for attendees to identify songs after the fact; the Super Bowl Halftime Show sponsor pointed as well to a potential upside in reaching “fans who couldn’t make the live experience.”

Bigger picture, Set List playlists mark the newest in a line of Apple Music (and Apple Music for Artists) feature additions on the year – including, on the Artists side, the ability to track worldwide radio spins.

Meanwhile, Apple Music flipped the script in late August by enabling subscribers to export playlists to YouTube Music (but not Spotify). Speaking of Spotify, the longtime Apple nemesis hasn’t lacked technical improvements on the year, referring in part to auto-generated offline playlists (kicking in when listeners lose internet connectivity) and various AI offerings.

Not to be left out, Amazon Music is continuing to leverage exclusive content (remixes, performances, and more) and lean into partnerships with the likes of Discord, which now supports the “Amazon Music Listening Party” activity.

Photo Credit: .MUSIC

The .MUSIC registry has announced the launch of the top-level .music domain name and its verified MusicID.

Members of the music industry can now register .music domains on a first come, first serve basis. The domain is designed to provide verified digital identities for music artists, creators, songwriters, industry professionals, organizations, and brands.

The registration and use of .music domains is exclusive to verified members of the global music community. The move comes as the industry is concerned about non-consensual AI deep fakes, voice cloning, and the unauthorized use of the music community’s intellectual property. In that soup, the .music domain could fans easily identify music or content created by real authenticated humans.

“For the first time in music history, the global music industry will be able to register their unique .music name and verified digital music identity,” Constantine Roussos, CEO of .MUSIC told Digital Music News. “The .music domain and its connected MusicID will provide a trusted, secure, and authentic music-centric internet where the global music community can safely connect, engage, transact, and thrive.”

“The .music launch marks a pivotal moment for the music industry to reclaim control of their digital footprint,” adds Marina Roussou, Executive Director of id.MUSIC, the exclusive music identity provider for .MUSIC. “By offering verified MusicIDs, we are giving the global music community the ability to secure their digital identity, protect their creative works, and ensure that their presence online is authentic and safeguarded from impersonation, fraud, and AI misuse.”

id.MUSIC is the exclusive music identity provider (IDP) for the .MUSIC top-level domain name. It provides verified .music domain names and global MusicID that protects music name, image, likeness, and voice intellectual property rights. The company says that by mandating identity verification for .music registrants, all .music digital music identities are protected from impersonators, fraudsters, AI clones, bots, and cyber squatters.

The .MUSIC initiative is supported by a substantial international music coalition. According to an estimate from .MUSIC, this coalition represents over 95% of global music consumed.

The list of supporting orgs includes the RIAA, CISAC, IFPI, NMPA, Recording Academy, A2IM, International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), Independent Music Publishers International Forum (IMPF), International Federation of Musicians (FIM), International Music Council (IMC), International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), and Music Managers Forum–US (MMF-US).

“As a domain for the global music community, available only to verified artists, companies and organizations active in the music ecosystem, .MUSIC will be a valuable tool, strengthening trust and assuring authenticity,” adds Victoria Oakley, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). “IFPI have been longstanding supporters of this initiative.”

“The .MUSIC domain is launching at a vital time for the music industry. The NMPA applauds this ambitious initiative and the protections it offers creators who face evolving threats to authenticity from AI,” says David Israelite, President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners.

“The Recording Academy is thrilled to continue our support of the .MUSIC initiative, especially during a time of such immense evolution of our industry where it has never been more important to protect human creativity. From its inception, the project has sought to provide a safe and reliable digital domain for music creators, and it will foster more trust and security for our entire music ecosystem,” says Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy.

“A2IM has supported the .MUSIC initiative from the outset, and we’re thrilled to see it become a reality. This domain fosters trust, connection, and reliability within the global music community. It will create a safe, innovative ecosystem that benefits artists, labels, and music consumers alike, fulfilling our shared vision for a stronger, more unified industry,” says Dr. Richard James Burgess, the President and CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) representing the collective voice of independent music.

Santa Monica is famous for many things, but three popular landmarks top the city’s list of must-see spectacles: the pier, the beach, and TrueTone Music. Run by musicians, for musicians, TrueTone is an independently owned and operated guitar shop that attracts local and touring musicians alike. Over three decades in business, TrueTone has established itself as a destination spot for the greater Los Angeles area—and the rest of the world as well. 

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today. In today’s episode, host and LA-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with TrueTone co-owners Sunir Patel and Paul Flynn to discuss the success story behind their legendary guitar shop. “[TrueTone Music] really is the people,” says Paul. “We can put whatever gear [we want] up on the walls. You can’t just get a room and put gear in it, and people will come in and buy it. It does not work that way.” 

“The vast majority of the [staff] has been there for 10-plus years,” Sunir adds. “That’s a really big thing. The most important part of the vibe and the culture of the store are all the guys working there.”

In today’s conversation, Paul and Sunir discuss TrueTone’s origin story, the timeless quality of guitar-based music, and the major differences between their indie shop and the big-box retailers. Tuning in, you’ll also gain insight into the inner workings of TrueTone, including their commitment to creating a welcoming community that treats regular customers like celebrities and celebrities like regular people. (That said, TrueTone has seen its fair share of musical luminaries, including Prince, Andy Summers, Reverend Billy Gibbons, Tenacious D, Tom Petty, and Steely Dan, among others.

As you’ll discover in today’s episode, both Paul and Sunir harbor a deep love for music and the people who craft it, regardless of their celebrity status. They believe it’s the people, not the gear, who make TrueTone Music the special place it is. “If we keep making customers happy, we can keep doing this,” says Paul on their plans for the future. “It’s as simple as that. We like what we do, we like the customers, we like the gear. It’s generally a very nice work environment!”

Photo Credit: Pexels

In 2023, vinyl sales experienced their 17th consecutive year of growth, reaching an impressive revenue of $1.4 billion. With 43 million vinyl albums sold in the United States alone, surpassing CD sales (37 million), vinyl continues to captivate all generations and represents a significant market.

The following was created in partnership with Diggers Factory.

Vinyl: A Medium with Multiple Benefits for Artists

As these figures show, vinyl is a highly sought-after listening format among fans today. In addition to offering exceptionally high sound quality, it creates a sense of belonging to a real community and provides a special, tangible connection between artists and their audience.

Moreover, vinyl offers significantly higher earnings than streaming. On average, streaming platforms pay artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream, while the sale of a single vinyl can earn an artist between $5 and $7. Vinyl is thus the most financially rewarding format for artists. While streaming offers minimal returns, selling physical products, especially vinyl, proves to be a much more lucrative way to earn money!

Additionally, physical vinyl sales have a disproportionate impact on chart rankings compared to streams. For instance, on the Billboard charts in the United States, 1,250 paid streams are often equivalent to one physical album sale, highlighting the advantage of physical sales in the charts.

Despite these various advantages, pressing vinyl often seems out of reach for many independent artists. The costs associated with production, coupled with uncertainties about demand and logistical challenges, tend to deter many talented artists from pursuing this path.

Press Your Music on Vinyl with Ease at Diggers Factory

A Fair and Advantageous Pre-Order System

With Diggers Factory, pressing your music on vinyl simply and without upfront costs becomes possible!

Thanks to our on-demand system, any artist, regardless of their level of fame or resources, can bring their project to life without having to advance any money. How? By launching a pre-order campaign! With this system, there’s no need to worry about stock management or overproduction. We produce only the number of products pre-ordered, tailored to the demand from your fans.

Comprehensive Management of Every Aspect of Your Campaign

Since vinyl production is a complex process requiring expertise in many areas, a wide range of services is included with your pre-order campaign, so you don’t have to manage anything.

We handle every aspect of your campaign, including pressing, printing, shipping (via our warehouses worldwide), distribution, design, customer service, and marketing:

Production: Receive personalized support from a member of our team who will guide you through every step of the production process!

Art Direction: Whether you already have existing visuals or are starting from scratch, our creative team offers a variety of services tailored to your needs: creation, adaptation and resizing, restoration, and more.

Marketing/Communication: Since communication is key to selling your products, our marketing team is here to assist you from the launch of your campaign to promote your products!

Logistics: We manage the global shipping of your products from start to finish. Once production is complete, products are sent from the factory to our network of partner warehouses around the world (including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and more). This allows us to offer local shipping rates for global markets and customers. We handle logistics at every step of the way!

Customer Service: We do everything possible to ensure the total satisfaction of your fans by managing their requests as quickly as possible.

A Wide Range of Fully Customizable Products

While we are experts in the production and distribution of vinyl records, we also offer you the opportunity to launch campaigns for a wide range of other products: CDs, tapes, merch, and soft goods.

Launch the product that perfectly meets your expectations and customize it as you wish! Whether it’s the format, its color, or the sleeve finishes, we enable you to define every detail according to your preferences.

With Diggers Factory, making your music available on physical formats has never been easier or more accessible.

Offer your worldwide fans a unique product that strengthens their engagement while maximizing your earnings. Whether you’re an established or emerging artist, our platform allows you to bring your ideas to life without financial risks and with complete support.

Don’t wait any longer to bring all your ideas to life! Get started here.

Photo Credit: Too Lost

Too Lost is switching up how music conferences reach the industry with a focus on reaching as many people as possible in a brand-new format. Say goodbye to the usual panels and lectures and get ready for an event that focuses on hands-on learning and real connections. The ‘Game From The GAUDs’ (Goats & Underdogs) music conference is hosted by top industry professionals Ray Daniels, Damien Ritter, and Nyla Symone.

The following was created in collaboration with Too Lost, a company DMN is proud to be partnered with.

Each date will feature music, live games, and prizes from Mackie, so industry vets should come ready to network with their fellow creators in a dynamic and inspiring atmosphere. Whether you’re an artist, producer, manager, label owner, or songwriter—’Game from the GAUDS’ is the ultimate opportunity to elevate your career while making connections with industry peers. Ready to get your learning game on? Here’s the who, what, why, when and where you need to know.

Too Lost Presents ‘Game From The GAUDS’ — Live Music Industry Experience Dates

• Philadelphia — October 9
• Washington D.C. — October 11
• Atlanta — October 12
• New York City — October 14

Ready to attend a date near you? Tickets are available at www.gamefromthegauds.com. General Admission price is $45. Remember—this multi-city music conference experience offers a new way to network in the music industry. It is not divided into panels to attend—instead there will be established music professionals present in every city to give their opinions on industry happenings while participating in the interactive sessions available.

About Ray Daniels

Ray Daniels is an entrepreneur, visionary, and media personality who intimately understands the intersection of music and culture. Daniels has found success weaving these two worlds together. Through his work as the founder of LYI Agency (Leverage Your Influence), the host of The GAUDS Show, and Founder of RAYDAR LLC, Daniels and the artists he represents have played a role in powering some of the most iconic artists and hits of our generation.

Daniels is the power player that every major artist, executive, and culture mover knows. Daniels was born in New York and raised in Atlanta with a contagious drive and passion that has lived on as he rose to prominence—first through his A&R work at Warner Music Group. That drive has continued through his management endeavors, with Daniels understanding the magic it takes to create a hit, as well as the collaboration that goes into delivering chart toppers for artists like Lizzo, Ciara, Usher, Saweetie, Latto, Future, and many more.

About Damien Ritter

Damien Ritter is the Director of Marketing at Too Lost, the former COO of BeatStars and a former Co-Founder of Funk Volume—a Los Angeles-based record label cited as a leader among independent rap labels. Funk Volume ranked up over 600 million YouTube views, consistent Top 10 chart placements on Billboard and iTunes, as well as high profile write-ups in media outlets including Forbes, Billboard, SPIN, and more.

About Nyla Symone

Born in Germany, raised in Maryland, made in Manhattan — DJ Nyla Symone brings her expertise in the music industry as well as her networking experience. She DJs and co-hosts alongside Charlamagne Tha God on Comedy Central’s ‘Tha God’s Honest Truth’ and Revolt TV’s ‘Off Top’ with Big Tigger and Rapsody.

Nyla Symone also hosts a weekly spot on Power 105.1, New York City’s #1 radio station for hip-hop and R&B and became the station’s youngest DJ at 23. In addition to the station’s YouTube channel, Nyla has done deep dives and sit-downs with some of the most prominent figures in the music business. On her own channel, Nyla Symone — The Pretty Tomboy, she has interviewed Roddy Rich, Megan Thee Stallion, Migos, Saweetie, Blueface, Masego, and many more.

About Too Lost

Too Lost is a music and technology company that provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for independent music rights holders. Their distribution and publishing services deliver, monetize, and protect songs across the globe for over 250,000+ musicians, record labels, studios, brands, investors, and platforms. Too Lost is a proud member of The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and MERLIN. The company is headquartered in New York City with satellite offices located in Los Angeles, Barcelona, and Reykjavik.

As a composer, songwriter, or other creative, with so many demands on your time, maintaining your online presence can often feel like a chore, or even worse, fall through the cracks and get ignored altogether.

The following comes from DMN partner Breeze Tunes and their insanely informative podcast, Selling Sheet Music.

In today’s hyper-online world, being mindful of how we present ourselves and our music in the digital realm is more important than ever. That’s why Selling Sheet Music has created this handy checklist to make it easier for you to manage your online profiles and take full advantage of the available tools and opportunities.

Whether you are a composer, artist, publisher, or something in between, following these steps will make it easier for clients and fans to find and discover your music.

1. Google Yourself

Putting yourself in your fans’ shoes is essential! So, as egotistical or odd as it might seem, it’s important to Google yourself from time to time. You can learn a lot by looking at what shows up under various search terms, and you can learn even more by what doesn’t come up!

One key thing to remember is that search results often vary by device, so make sure you try it out on mobile, desktop, and incognito mode to get the fullest picture of what potential customers are seeing. And don’t forget that images and videos have their own separate search algorithm.

This is one of the best ways of figuring out what kind of content to create and what kind of first impression you’re generating.

2. Set Up Home Base

Now that you have a better idea of what people are seeing about you online, you can use that to help steer your visitors online to where you most want them to go. Usually, that means a website, but a social media profile could work, too.

Whatever you choose as your home base, the goals are the same: You want to seem current and competent, and you want it to be really obvious what visitors should do. Maybe it’s buying sheet music, or maybe it’s listening to an album on streamers, but whatever your goals are, make sure they’re super obvious!

If someone has already gotten to the point where they’ve decided to click on your website, there’s no reason to be timid about selling to them. And, of course, make sure your photos, biography, and contact information are up to date!

3. Claim Your Public Profiles

There are two categories of what I call “profile sites” online. The first are your standard social media profiles: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc. You probably already have profiles on one or more of these sites.

However, you can do a couple of things to improve your performance. The first is to have a consistent handle across all your profiles to make it easy for fans to jump from one to the other. The second is to ensure that you are using the business or professional versions of these profiles because that gives you more scheduling, advertising, and analytic tools than a personal profile. You might also consider paying for a verified badge, depending on your situation and how much you use the platform.

The second category of sites are your “distribution profiles.” These are the third-party sites where you are selling or streaming music. This includes Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Sheet Music Plus, Sheet Music Direct, JW Pepper, Musicnotes, or anywhere people can find your music.

For some of these sites, you create an artist profile when you register; for others, like streaming services, they will need to be claimed after the fact. But these sites should not be ignored—because they have such a large footprint they often show up highly in search results even if you have a small amount of music on them.

Film composers should also claim their profile on IMDB, and for artists that are well established, you can also be eligible to claim your Google Knowledge Panel, which lets you edit or influence the suggested results that Google puts in the little box next to the search results.

4. Produce Content

Once you’ve updated all your pages, claimed all your profiles, and importantly, linked them to each other, you can start thinking about content. Keep in mind for many people the first place they discover a composer is not a search result or a web page, it’s a piece of content like a video or blog post. You don’t want to burn yourself out (or waste time better spent creating music), so prioritize quality over quantity. Focus on what makes you unique, and what you can do that others can’t.

One of the reasons to prioritize quality over quantity is that you should be repurposing this content for a variety of formats (text, image, video, audio), and when you do that, the quantity follows naturally. Some people batch content, for example, spending a day creating the posts for several weeks and then scheduling it out, while others take it one week at a time. Whatever your approach, consistency is the key.

Finally, don’t feel the need to post to all platforms all the time. Focus on the two or three that have the largest audience or give you the most interactions.

5. Schedule Maintenance

One way to maintain that consistency is to schedule time to update these profiles regularly. You can sort tasks according to how frequently they need to be done and put reminders in your calendar. I tend to do an annual “spring cleaning” at the end of the school year for major web updates, things like profile pictures and biographies. And then monthly updates to plan content based on whatever projects are going to be released next.

This stuff can be boring, and it’s not what we signed up to do as musicians. But the hope is that putting in the time up front to set things up in the right way makes it easier to maintain, especially if you’re checking in regularly rather than letting tasks pile up month after month.

Photo Credit: Rockstar Games

How much does Rockstar Games pay for its sync licensing deals for the popular gaming franchise Grand Theft Auto? While each deal is different—an offer made to Heaven 17 sheds more light on how much these licensing deals are worth.

Heaven 17 singer Martyn Ware took to X/Twitter yesterday to state that Rockstar Games approached the band about using their 1983 song “Temptation” in the upcoming soundtrack. Ware says he was offered around $7,500, which means the split between the three members would bring the sync deal to around $22,500 for inclusion of the song in the next Grand Theft Auto VI entry.

“I was recently contacted by my publishers on behalf of Rockstar Games [for] the possibility of using ‘Temptation’ on the new Grand Theft Auto 6,” Ware tweeted. “Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email about the offer—it was $7,500. For a buyout of any future royalties from the game forever. To put this in context, Grand Theft Auto 5 grossed $8.6 billion. Ah but think of the exposure,” he writes. “Go f*ck yourself.”

When asked what he perceived as a fair offer, Martyn told a fan on Twitter, “$75,000 for a buyout — or no advance required for a reasonable royalty.” While Rockstar Games isn’t getting into the nitty gritty of how it licenses its music for its games, including tracks featured on its GTA Account (such as songs played on in-game radio stations) a ‘reasonable royalty’ is probably not the approach the game developer wants to take since it must license mechanical and broadcast rights as these songs appear on fake radio stations in the game.

Rockstar licenses music for its games for around $5,000 – $30,000 per track, depending on the track’s popularity. Each of these tracks are licensed for around 7 to 10 years—with no royalty fee attached. Jeffrey Brabec, Senior Vice President of Business Affairs for the BMG explains in more detail how game developers license music for their works.

“If an artist does not agree to a buyout, then that artists’ work will not be put in the video game,” Brabec says. Since these music licenses are for a set period of time, we’ve already seen music removed from older versions of Grand Theft Auto in their subsequent re-releases. Some of the songs removed from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for its re-release include “Wow” by Kate Bush, “Bark at the Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne, “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” by Michael Jackson, and “Running with the Night” by Lionel Richie.

In the realm of music recording, small labels are not merely entities; they are hubs of ingenuity and resilience. Running an independent recording label can be both challenging and rewarding. Building a strong brand, nurturing relationships, and staying innovative are the keys to success for smaller music recording labels. California-based boutique record label RidingEasy, which specializes in classic rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal, embodies all the crucial aspects of prosperity within the indie sphere. 

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today.

In today’s episode, host and LA-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with RidingEasy Records founder Daniel Hall to discuss the label’s formation and subsequent success. “I have been really lucky with how things have flown with [RidingEasy],” he says. “I think the difference with independent labels is we are putting out records we feel great about, even if it does not sell a million copies.”

RidingEasy Records is more than a label; it’s a passion-turned-phenomenon. Their tracks have found homes in commercials, films, TV shows, and online content, making them an indomitable force in the industry.

Daniel himself is more than a seasoned professional in music marketing; he’s a trailblazer in the industry. From artist to promoter, his journey through the music industry is marked by life-changing relationships and a profound understanding of the mechanisms of success. “I think one of the things I learned about in the music business is that what you think you are going to be doing is not always what you are going to be doing,” he says. 

In our conversation, Daniel unpacks the roots of RidingEasy Records and how stoner rock band Salem’s Pot ignited the label’s formation.

He shares the experiences that shaped his belief in the power of music and waxes poetic about strong graphics as the backbone of a marketing campaign: “Pre-internet days, you would go to the record store, and a lot of times you couldn’t hear what something sounded like. You had to look at the [album] cover.” Daniel discusses the album art and labels that ignited his passion before forming RidingEasy Records, his contemporary marketing approach, and how his DJ background helped shape his career.

Grab a backstage pass into the inner workings of an indie record label by tuning into our conversation with Daniel Hall. 

Photo by Luke Heiber on Unsplash

As one of the earliest adopters of immersive music mixes, Alex Solano is the mixing engineer behind Dolby Atmos projects for labels like Atlantic Records, Photo Finish, NinjaTune, EMPIRE, Position Music, and many others. Solano’s company, AlexProMix, assists labels and distributors in leveraging revenue generation opportunities provided by Dolby Atmos formats.

The following recaps an interview of Alex Solano — Immersive Audio Specialist — with Music Business Insider. Solano’s AlexProMix is a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

When Solano entered the Dolby Atmos world in 2021, the tech was expensive and complicated. Now, even though the tech has shifted and immersive audio is accessible to anyone with headphones, Solano points out that there’s still a financial cost and investment to ‘doing Dolby right.’

Speaking about the future of audio mixing, Alex Solano revealed the learning curve that led him to become a certified Dolby Atmos engineer. Solano also highlighted the incredible opportunities in store for striving immersive mixes’ engineers.

Because Solano was one of the early adopters of immersive audio in 2021, he faced challenges finding learning resources for Dolby Atmos. By creating educational videos on YouTube, Solano believes he’s paving an easier path for aspiring Dolby mixing engineers.

According to Solano, to do Atmos ‘right’ and experience it correctly requires a room with specialized equipment. “That’s what differentiates a bedroom producer working on headphones, making beats, and publishing their music from somebody experienced in the field and mixing in an immersive room of 12 speakers.”

It was Dolby Atmos that connected Solano to major labels to be certified. “I’m on the approved Dolby Atmos mixer list, which means that any producer, artist, or engineer who wants to convert their music into Atmos can do so. I’m already certified with Universal Music and Warner Music.”

Solano insists that artists and producers need to be aware of the fast-paced segue into Dolby Atmos. “When you look at the history of recorded technology and the switch from mono to stereo, engineers who could only work in mono became irrelevant.”

With a clientele that includes labels, publishers, and distributors, Solano says he’s experiencing a drive toward spatial audio. “My clients pitch their song to Apple, and Apple says, where’s the spatial audio? They’re like, what spatial audio? Apple says go find an engineer.”

“Based on feedback from professionals, music industry events, and the majors, all music formats supported in Dolby Atmos will soon be the standard for converting new music and back catalog music. Otherwise, music streaming services will not support it.”

“To get editorial playlisting, you must have that Dolby Atmos Master,” says Solano.

But what about AI-converted Dolby Atmos mixes? Solano reveals Apple is only accepting immersive mixes if they have the original stamps from a mixing engineer. “From a creative standpoint, no artist that invested in making their music sound great in stereo wants to run it through an AI algorithm. They want it to be remastered correctly.”

Now that Dolby Atmos technology is available to music mixers, creators, and producers via Apple, Tidal, and Amazon, Solano believes it unlocks a world of opportunities to reimagine music arrangements and mix music in a way that immerses the audience and the listener.

With widespread adaptation of gaming, immersive audio has ended up becoming a normal, everyday-experience for this generation. Solano believes artists can ‘future-proof ‘their music by adopting immersive formats.

Solano believes that once the music industry catches up and adapts to immersive audio, the tech will be ‘very common.’ “The fact that you can experience spatial audio on earbuds makes it accessible to anyone.”

Photo Credit: Merch Cat

Live shows are where some of the greatest opportunities lie to capitalize on the artist/fan connection and drive home merch sales.

The following was created in partnership with Merch Cat.

Most of us inherently know that in today’s music landscape, artist merch is an important revenue stream, a great way to market and promote an artist’s brand, and a way to unite and engage fans. But something that no one seems to talk much about is merch strategy. 

We hear a lot of talk about music release strategy, booking strategy, tour planning, marketing strategy, rights protection and overall strategy for an artist, but what about merch strategy as a matter of course? As in approaching merch in an intentional way, with the goal of maximizing artist merch income and return on investment while taking a holistic approach and factoring in all of the pieces that go into the whole – i.e. building an actionable plan and then executing it, measuring results, and making go forward adjustments where needed. 

It may sound rudimentary, and I’m sure it gets discussed in some artist camps behind the scenes, but doesn’t this very fundamental and potentially very lucrative revenue stream deserve the attention to strategy that the other streams get?  After all, it is probably the lowest hanging fruit of revenue streams as far as getting real time cash in hand, especially for touring artists. Live shows are where some of the greatest opportunities lie to capitalize on the artist/fan connection and drive home merch sales.  

Artist merch strategy is needed because not strategizing results in lost revenue, lost data for future revenue generation, lost inventory control and lost opportunities. 

As fundamental a revenue stream as merch is, there often seems to be an undertone of afterthought or notion that it will somehow get done. And it may very well get done, but likely not with the optimal outcome. In fact, it’s probably not an overstatement to say merch is all over the place and super fragmented. 

From the way merch is sourced to the way it is sold, everyone has a different process. And a lot of merch out there lately seems like it’s a check the box item, and feels either disconnected from the artist’s brand or out of touch with what fans might actually want. Strategizing can help. Like other facets of an artist’s business, an overall merch strategy is necessary to provide an outline or game plan of how the desired objectives, namely profitability and marketing, can be achieved given all of the factors that go into it.

Speaking of factors, it’s not surprising that merch can be somewhat daunting. Merch can be super complex because there are multiple disciplines at play and not everyone is an expert at each one. Merch is a combination of: 

1) Branding/Logo/Design 

2) Physical Merch Purchasing (product selection, costs & shipping considerations) 

3) Product Decoration (printing/embroidery/imprinting) 

4) Touring & Logistics (if for live shows) 

5) E-Commerce (for online) 

6) Shipping to fans, venues, etc. 

7) Marketing; and 

8) Financial Planning/Budgeting. 

Sure, some of these factors might be out of our control, but rather than viewing them as stand-alone components aka “it’s not our focus”, “we don’t have time for that” or “the merch company is handling it”, we’d be better positioned if we took control by investing a little time into considering all of the pieces that go into the big merch puzzle, and how they work together as part of the whole picture. 

When we do that, things can become a little more cohesive. When things are cohesive, they are measurable. When they are measurable, they are able to be analyzed and improved. 

A merch strategy should consider the above factors and answer “What products and designs do we want to offer? Are they on brand? Are they items fans will want? How/where are we going to obtain them? What are we willing to pay for them and what prices can we sell them at to achieve targeted revenue? What is our target revenue and profit? Where will we sell these items? How will we use the merch to fuel relationships with fans? What platform/tools will we use to sell the merch and retain the data and information related to fans and sales? How will we use this data going forward?

By laying out a merch strategy this way, a few things will happen – 1) You will be able to determine if the merch you are planning to make is feasible. 2)You will be able to be thoughtful about products 3) You will be able to take time to consider whether or not fans are being served 4) There will be structure, organization, and a blueprint to follow which will remove some of the pain points involved in the merch process 5) There will be an accountability factor where you can and should check in and see what is working and what is not, re-evaluate and adjust accordingly. 

Merch is a journey not a destination, and needs to be evaluated in an ongoing manner to ensure the proper exploitation of this revenue stream. 

There may not be a one size fits all answer to the many challenges of merch, but putting strategy at the forefront can certainly help us get closer to clarity, organization, a game plan to follow, accountability, transparency, data insights, and ultimately increased revenue.

Merch is a fan connector and touches every part of an artist’s business either directly or indirectly. A merch strategy should be considered along with the other components of an artist’s business to create synergy so that all facets are working together to maximize the outcomes. Strategizing will help ensure that the main objectives of merch – revenue, marketing and fan engagement – don’t get buried in the process shuffle leading to lost time, money, and opportunity. 

Vanessa Ferrer is the founder of Merch Cat, a company that provides a user friendly live show merch management platform for artists and their teams, with a connected direct to fan app that enables fans to pick merch up at the show or ship to home. Merch Cat also provides merch strategy and sourcing services to help artists maximize the merch revenue stream.

Photo Credit: Amazon Music

Amazon Music is launching a documentary series focused on songwriters and their workflow—with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS on deck.

The new docu-performance series offers fans an intimate look at an artist’s songwriting process and the stories behind their music. The series premiere features Billie Eilish and her brother and long-time collaborator FINNEAS breaking down tracks from her critically acclaimed album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.

The Songline series invites song of today’s most intriguing artists to re-imagine their music in a stripped-down intimate setting. Each performance is interwoven with in-depth interviews with each artist, giving songwriters the opportunity to demystify the songwriting process and share their origins and cultural journeys with their fans.

Billie Eilish and FINNEAS rearrange four songs from her new album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Their re-imagined songs feature new, opulent strings and elaborate new choral arrangements. Through conversation interwoven between performances, they describe their songwriting process, Billie’s natural approach to singing, and the creative decisions behind the reimagined versions of these songs.

“Songline offers an opportunity for artist songwriters and their collaborators to showcase their songwriting process, detail their artistic journey, and reveal the stories behind songs typically hidden away in studios,” adds Tom Winkler, Head of Publisher, Songwriter, and Society Relations at Amazon Music. “By placing songwriters and their craft at the forefront of culture, fans can learn how their favorite songs and records were made, driving deeper connection with their favorite artists.”

Amazon Music says additional episodes of the ‘Songline’ series will debut in the coming months, featuring some of the biggest names in songwriting. It will be interesting to see if Amazon features some of the lesser known songwriters powering industry-wide hits—or if it’s just a showcase for additional material for album promotion among die-hard fans. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish is scheduled to hit the road on her North American tour in September.

“I am a music lover first,” says musical polymath Danny Holloway. “I don’t care where the tune is from.”

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Born on the West Coast, Danny is a producer and music journalist whose life is guided by his passion for creativity and music. From a young age, he knew he wanted to be part of the music industry, even if his own bands never made it big. “I was most dedicated to having a career in music,” says Danny, who tried on multiple hats before finding the right path. “It didn’t necessarily have to be playing it; I just needed to be a part of it,” he continues. A former employee of Island Records, Danny is also a record collector and DJ with Los Angeles-based internet radio station dublab.

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today.

On today’s episode, host and L.A.-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with Danny Holloway to discuss the producer’s long and winding road through the world of music. During their conversation, Danny shares stories about industry legends, his personal evolution, and the multiple turning points he’s encountered along the way. 

One such turning point occurred when Danny relocated to the UK for his career. There, he connected with Island Records head Chris Blackwell, who sent him to work with Bob Marley in Jamaica, an experience that allowed Danny to bring reggae to a larger, transatlantic audience.

“When you brought reggae to people for the first time that were unfamiliar with what it was, the beat was backwards to them,” he says. Danny also discusses writing for NME, a music journalism gig that kick-started his career, and why he eventually decided to return to the U.S. with his family.

Later in the episode, Dan and Danny chat about the changes that have upended the world over the last decades, including the fame, materialism, and the difference between today’s stars and the icons of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Ultimately, Danny’s story exemplifies how passion and tenacity can lead to bigger and better things over time: “Don’t get too locked into one thing!” he says, taking his own advice to heart. Tune into today’s episode of The Conduit for a fascinating conversation on Danny Holloway’s incredible career in music. 

Photo Credit: Songbox

If you’re using a service like Dropbox, SoundCloud, Songspace or DISCO to share audio and music files, you might want to reconsider whether that’s the best idea.

The following comes from Songbox, a company DMN is partnered with.

There’s a better solution that gives you much more control over how you share your music, and that comes loaded with useful features designed by tech-focussed musicians.

Songbox is a new platform with state-of-the-art, secure music-sharing capabilities. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Songbox is streets ahead of competitors in terms of what it can do for people who work with music files.

So, what makes Songbox superior to rivals like Dropbox and Songspace?

• Using Dropbox, you share the file itself, which means it’s out there and potentially shared with anyone. With Songbox, you send a private link via email or text message that only the recipient can play. They can’t download your file unless you want them to.
• Dropbox doesn’t include detailed listening analytics. With Songbox, you know who has listened, what tracks they’ve listened to, and for how long.
• You can’t share playlists with Dropbox. Every track you share via Dropbox must be opened in its window. Songbox gives you full control over how you share your tracks. One at a time or in a playlist – it’s your call.
• A Dropbox shared file does not include security, while Songbox includes multiple layers of built-in security. Nobody will hear it unless you want them to.
• Songbox allows you to attach lyrics to each track. You can also attach a PDF to your playlist, containing anything from a press kit to liner notes.

• Songbox’s writer submission workflow makes accepting tracks from writers a breeze—no more downloading WAV files from emails and manually uploading them.
• Songbox is ready to welcome new users looking for an alternative solution because their previous provider couldn’t meet their expectations—or they shut down and left customers hanging.

Songbox was designed and created by a musician who has also worked in tech and the media side of the music business. Founder Michael Coll knows what features are important to music creators and what end users want when reviewing audio files.

Along with co-founder Ciaran O’Toole, Michael listens to Songbox users and responds to their questions or suggestions. That means Songbox is always evolving, with its users at the heart of the decision-making process.

Michael and Ciaran welcomed multi-platinum recording Artist and Grammy Award Winner Bryan Adams onto the team as a co-founder, and his insights have helped to enhance Songbox further.

The team is also confident that Songbox outperforms competitors other than Dropbox. SoundCloud, for example, restricts the type of audio files you can share and limits the file quality even with a premium subscription. With Songbox, you choose the quality your listener hears, your track and your preferred file type. Consider what that means if you’re sharing early mixes, for example.

Songbox’s simple, self-explanatory platform means you won’t need much help. However, our pop-up help flags have proven to be a hit with users who say the Songbox user experience is much simpler than Soundcloud’s interface.

If you’re using DISCO and finding the cost high and the feature set low, Songbox is here to change that.

And Songbox is confident its key features make for a superior experience to Songspace’s.

Try it today at Songbox’s website at no cost with no credit card required.

On this episode of ‘The Conduit,’ host Dan Ubick sits down with Paul Broucek to discuss the producer’s role as president of music at Warner Bros. Pictures.

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Crafting an engaging, emotive film score is a complex process that demands a harmonious blend of artistic flair, collaborative prowess, and an acute understanding of the film’s narrative. A great score transports listeners to the heart of the story, instilling the audience with awe, fear, elation, and despondence in the space of two hours.

The musicians behind these scores are responsible for compositions that imbue the story with an unforgettable essence, constructing themes that stimulate the imagination and evoke a range of emotions. Today’s guest, Paul Broucek, is an entertainment heavyweight who oversees Warner Bros. Pictures’ score production as their president of music. 

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today.

In today’s episode, host and L.A.-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with Paul Broucek to discuss the producer’s fascinating career in film scoring. “I wanted to be the kind of producer who understood the tools and understood how [making music] is done,” says Paul, who, as a talented pianist and composer, has written music for a variety of projects over the years. 

As the president of music at Warner Bros. Pictures, a position he’s held since 2012, Paul supervises all aspects of music production for the studio’s films, working alongside filmmakers and composers to craft scores that leave an indelible mark on audiences: “My favorite space in the world is to be in a recording studio,” he says. Paul is also a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events, generously sharing his insight and expertise with aspiring musicians. 

In our conversation, Paul discusses the path that led him to his career, the various projects he’s completed, and the magic of scoring a soundtrack for a film.

We dive into the art of managing expectations, the process of making music for a movie, and why composing scores is an ego-driven business.

Paul also shares the musical inspirations with the greatest impact on his work and why it pays to be prepared: “[Luck] is preparing yourself for things that you are interested in so you can recognize when an opportunity comes along—then you can act on it.” Tune into today’s episode of the Conduit and discover what it takes to excel in the film scoring industry with invaluable insights from Paul Brocek.

Starting a record label? Here’s how you can future-proof your operation early on.

The following comes from Lynn Lowe, President of Label and Publishing Administration at Music Services, a division of SESAC Music Group and partner of DMN. Music Services provides comprehensive licensing and administration services for independent record labels and music publishers.

Creating music is what artists love the most.  We get it and we love the songs as much as you do.  But, from the start of that first cut, artists need to put as much focus on protecting the    intellectual property, and properly planning for future success, even if that feels like a far-off dream right now. The temptation to act for today needs to be balanced by educated thinking for tomorrow. 

It’s thrilling to start a label as an artist, songwriter, or music lover, and it’s easier than ever. There are so many tools, technologies, and services to help manage every aspect of your business, from distribution to royalty collection. But as someone who’s spent two decades helping label owners clean up the mess after a well-intentioned start, I’m here to tell you: be slow to sign a deal until you get your house in order and build your systems as if success is already yours. Your future self will thank you for it.  Here’s five lessons learned from my career as a record label and music publishing administrator that will get you on the right track:

Think big before you sign.

It’s easy to be intrigued by free and easy-to-sign-up-for services when you’re just starting out, but instead, you should future-proof your agreements by adopting the mindset that you’re going to make it big, and that what you sign today will impact the years to come. 

A songwriter for one of the publishers we administer learned a song he co-wrote scored a valuable sync–but to his dismay, he realized that five years before, he had signed over his publishing to his manager. This meant that even after the songwriter had resecured these rights, the manager kept the songwriter share of that sync. The songwriter signed without thinking what a big opportunity might mean.

Good intentions don’t make you a good partner.  Systems do. 

A lot of cleanup is required in our world because people start with good intentions but have no idea who, what, or how they’re supposed to pay out royalties once they’ve collected them. And for a small operation, that cash flow can get confused with other expenses, leaving the label owner with lots of obligations—but no cash on hand. For example, you need to account for what you’ll owe producers and publishers for the tracks you’re collecting on, ideally setting aside 15-20% of your collections to pay these rights holders. Sadly, we’ve seen independent artists and labels, who had every intention of paying their collaborators, find themselves years behind on these payments, leading to debt and years of anxiety.

Before you’ve earned a penny from your releases, set up your systems to set aside a percentage of sales to pay artists, producers, publishers, and the songwriters the publishers represent. Also, make sure you have written agreements in place.  Even the best of friends with good intentions should have all the details ironed out before the first dollar is earned.  

Codes matter.

Make sure your Performance Rights Organizations songwriter and publisher IPI numbers are correct when collaborating and registering songs. Create a central point of truth to make sure you always get them right everywhere. Be meticulous with your data, and if you can’t, find someone who will for you.  

A song is a piece of art, but when you upload a song for distribution, the data has to be correct from the outset. You have to know the ISRC code is correct to link the master recording to the artist, and the IPI numbers are correct to link them to the correct songwriter and publisher.

This is not a minor detail. I have seen songwriters give out the wrong identifier and lose out on years of their royalties.  Managers and labels should support songwriters in ensuring this is handled correctly, as it will make a difference in the long run. These mistakes can take months to correct and cause a lot of heartache in the process.

Collect everything.  It all counts.

There are lots of ways for labels and artists to earn royalties, such as SoundExchange and other micro-sync avenues. It’s easy to look at a tiny revenue stream now and say it doesn’t matter. What if that turns into a steady stream? If you’re keeping track of things early on when it’s easy to manage, you won’t be caught off guard or miss out on a crucial revenue stream when it grows into something significant.

For example, I have repeatedly helped artists find tens of thousands of unclaimed royalties via SoundExchange. You need to sign up, of course, but you also need to maintain your account, making sure it includes all your works, and is connected to the correct bank account. Clients have had significant funds sent to dormant accounts, only to realize months later that they had sizable payouts waiting in some long-forgotten bank.

Cultivate a future-proof mindset.

Success is never guaranteed in the music business, but just imagine if you are successful. Will the deal that feels great right now make sense if you’ve scored a hit? What if that hit isn’t fully licensed? 

Adopt the mindset that the agreements you’re signing today will influence your money-making power years or decades from now. Because they really will. Don’t give your work away without really thinking through the alternatives, even if you aren’t sure what its commercial potential is.

And before you unleash a track on the world, make sure you have correct permissions for any sample or derivative work. Asking for forgiveness can lead to difficult decisions and to loss of significant revenue. Do the right thing, which in the case of clearances can take several months. That way, if things go well, you’ll be able to benefit fully from your and your artists’ hard work.

Starting a label can be an exciting endeavor and for many artists or creatives, and financially for many independent artists, it’s a beneficial thing to do. However, if you get the setup wrong or partner up with the wrong people (either nefarious or misinformed), you and the artists you bring on board can get in a world of hurt quickly and miss out on lots of money.

Administration is not the shiny side of the music industry, but it’s the engine. If you don’t want to dig into the data and the details of the business side of music, make sure you have a trustworthy partner that can navigate all the various deals and contracts on your behalf, and ensure you are creating sustainable systems to collect everything you’ve earned.  

Play MPE’s MTR dashboard (Photo Credit: Play MPE)

Given the endless industry coverage of all things streaming and UGC — thanks, DMN — you’d be forgiven for forgetting that broadcast radio remains a powerful platform.

But despite the meteoric surge of streaming platforms and social media, good ol’ radio remains a critical component of music marketing plans — with the power to blow up artists lucky enough to get airtime.

As will.i.am noted during Digital Music News’ recent Pro event, radio is “one of the most important conduits for the world of music” and serves as “America’s stage,” especially for artists in their breakout phase. Beyond that, the format offers a unique connection to communities that streaming services can’t replicate, particularly for stations that complement music with morning shows, celebrity DJs, and local concerts and events.

With that in mind, Vancouver-based music tech company Play MPE is launching MTR, a comprehensive radio tracking tool, in the US. Initially beta-trialed in Canada, MTR now monitors over 5,000 radio stations across North America. For Play MPE, the launch marks a significant expansion designed to complement a suite of tools serving artists and music industry professionals. Just recently, Play MPE partnered with DMN to broaden awareness of the launch.

Play MPE execs exclusively shared a number of components powering MTR with Digital Music News. 

Beyond the 5,000+ station spread, Play MPE emphasized a user-friendly interface, detailed analytics and reporting, and overall affordability. Let’s break down some of these components.

At its core, MTR provides real-time data on when and where songs are getting airplay. That’s the simple, core functionality. Complementing that is an interface stuffed with data, including a top-level song performance overview detailing spins by radio stations, cities, and dayparts. Artists and labels can also easily compare tracking periods by day, week, or month.

On the reporting side, data reports can be sliced by several metrics, including timeframes and geographic regions. Importantly, artists and labels can pinpoint exactly where a song is gaining traction and monitor broader reactions in real-time. This ability to track plays and engagement as they happen can be invaluable for optimizing promotional strategies and release rollouts.

This isn’t the first radio-monitoring platform to hit America, though Play MPE stressed that MTR offers accessible pricing plans that cater to a wide range of artists and labels. Pricing is affordable for most budgets (see current pricing tiers here), and Play MPE is planning to seriously undercut competitive platforms and dramatically expand accessibility as a result.  The company also noted that new stations are constantly being added, which will also impact the pricing tiers and options ahead.

Play MPE is a global promotional and tastemaker with capabilities that go far beyond radio monitoring.

The company operates in over 100 countries and oversees a massive promotional network worldwide. In that context, the company aims to integrate MTR as part of a critical promotional package for major record labels, promoters, and artists, with radio programmers and professional curators across six continents on the receiving end of this platform.

Distilling down the company’s expanded business model, Play MPE now revolves around three primary offerings:

• Caster: For music promotion distribution.
• Player: For music discovery.
• MTR: For radio tracking.

According to the company, thousands of independent artists, promoters, and record labels use Caster to distribute releases to radio, media outlets, music supervisors, and curators. Releases sent through Caster appear in Player, a secure music library employed by radio programmers for its comprehensive collection of broadcast-ready music files and essential metadata.

Play MPE told DMN that their platform is what professionals use when they grow out of using platforms like Dropbox or SoundCloud. The company’s major label-level asset vetting, delivery pipeline, and metadata management ensure that even indie artists can compete on the same level as top-tier acts. Basically, this is what professional programmers and radio stations use instead of links or random emails.

In that light, the combination of MTR and Caster provides a full spectrum of data and insights, from initial promotional engagement to real-time radio play monitoring. According to Play MPE, this enables artists and labels to target interested tastemakers effectively and adjust their strategies based on concrete data.

“At Play MPE, we are committed to empowering artists and industry professionals with the tools they need to succeed,” said Rocio Fernandez, Director of Product Development at Play MPE. “With MTR, we’re breaking down barriers and increasing access to crucial airplay data, enabling our clients to make informed decisions and maximize their impact in the market.”

In terms of clientele, Play MPE is going wide and pushing a serious democratization of the music industry.

The company said its platform is designed to be accessible to everyone, from major labels to independent artists and everything in between. You can feel that energy when speaking with this team. The democratization of professional-grade promotional and tracking tools is a big part of Play MPE’s mission to open as many music industry doors as possible.

For Michael “Fish” Herring, a veteran guitarist with 25 years of touring experience, playing with industry luminaries like Dru Hill, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake, and Prince is just a fraction of his diverse and illustrious career.

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today. In today’s episode, host and LA-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with Michael “Fish” Herring to discuss the musician’s philosophy on creativity, collaboration, and learning. “I try to listen and learn [from] people first,” he says. “That makes it easier to thrive in a situation, whatever the situation is.”

Michael grew up listening to a wide variety of music, including progressive rock, jazz, classical, and musical titans like Grover Washington Jr., who hails from Michael’s hometown of Philadelphia.

While he still tours with Christina Aguilera and other illustrious artists, Michael spends most of his time producing, recording, and developing new talent.

He also composes and arranges music for TV and film from his studio and home in Burbank, California. “Every time I meet a new person, a new musician, somebody creative, I’m [inspired],” he says of his career. “I think everybody has got to keep that mindset and help each other out and inspire each other.”

In today’s episode, Michael reflects on the influence his family and schooling had on him while growing up and shares some hilarious and inspiring anecdotes from his journey through the music industry.

From starting the band Psychedelic Mushroom at just nine years old to catching a joint thrown by Rick James as an adult, Michael has seen it all: “I have a fond memory of [Rick James] lighting a joint in the control room and the joint catching on fire and him tossing it to me while it was on fire,” he muses. “Rick can do whatever he wants!”

Tuning in, you’ll find out about Fish’s “listen and learn” approach (“listen to every note that every player is playing because that affects you”) and how he continues to push himself creatively by allowing recording artists to guide him. “The future of music is always uncertain,” he quips. “It’s constantly changing with technology. It’s constantly changing as an art form. It’s constantly changing as a job. Who knows where the next gig is going to come from, [but there are] always gigs.”

For world-class professional advice from musician, songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer, author, inventor, screenwriter, and all-around music industry veteran Michael “Fish” Herring, tune into today’s episode of The Conduit.

A new Logic Pro update has added several AI-powered features. Photo Credit: Apple

Apple’s Logic Pro has added a number of AI-powered features – among them a full “backing band that responds directly to feedback.”

The Apple Music developer unveiled the latest Logic Pro offerings earlier in May, but the news didn’t attract an abundance of attention out of the gate. Whatever the reason for the announcement’s flying under the radar, it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of fresh tools for the DAW, which Apple says takes “music-making to the next level.”

Elaborating on that bold statement and the mentioned backing-band buildout, Apple noted the arrival of “Session Players.” This feature expands on the existing drummer option with “key improvements” as well as the addition of AI-driven bass and keyboard “players.”

On the bass front, Apple said the AI had been “trained in collaboration with today’s best” bassists, the result being eight different performer options in Logic Pro. Besides the expected capabilities therein (like support for adjusting the complexity of the AI’s outputs), users can access “advanced parameters for slides, mutes, dead notes, and pickup hits,” per Apple, which further acknowledged 100 loops to help one “draw new inspiration.”

Moving beyond the other elements of Logic Pro’s AI bass player, the keyboard counterpart was “designed in cooperation with top studio musicians,” has four style options, and “can play everything from simple block chords to chord voicing with extended harmony — with nearly endless variations,” per Apple.

Also featured is a “lightning fast” stem splitter – several non-Apple products likewise harness AI to isolate certain components of recordings – and “ChromaGlow.” As described by the appropriate company, the latter encompasses “five different saturation styles to add ultrarealistic warmth, presence, and punch to any track.”

Bigger picture, it goes without saying that AI is fueling many unprecedented trends – including in music-making, where there’s a growing opportunity to try and secure income through machine-generated outputs as opposed to genuine artistry.

Of course, the industry-specific expansion of AI (complete with far-reaching economic effects) is hardly limited to Logic Pro or SoundCloud’s bevy of AI tools; different offerings yet are currently providing access to comparatively sweeping music-generation options.

To be sure, ADA-distributed Boomy says its “artists have created 19,583,332 original songs,” Google earlier in May showcased its Music AI Sandbox, and Universal Music-backed Soundful per its website generates “royalty free background music at the click of a button for your videos.”

Last year, a study found that nearly 30 percent of artists had “used some type of AI music tools” – despite the fact that 77 percent of respondents said they feared being replaced (in a professional sense) by artificial intelligence.

Songbox is changing how musicians handle and protect their music, and now the Scottish start-up is ready to disrupt the industry further.

The following comes from Songbox, a company DMN is partnered with.

A new platform changing how musicians handle and protect their music is making a huge splash with its state-of-the-art, secure audio-sharing capabilities. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, and co-founded by Multi-Platinum Recording Artist & Grammy Award Winner Bryan Adams, Songbox launched without external funding and already has thousands of global users.

The company is looking to partner with other businesses and collaborate on developing exciting new features. Songbox allows musicians and other audio content creators to store and securely share their music with anyone they choose, whether co-creators, collaborators, industry figures, or media outlets—the possibilities are endless.

The platform lets the content creator know that the audio has been received and whether it has been listened to, even confirming which tracks have been played and for how long. And it’s all done with built-in privacy and security.

The team behind Songbox is proud of its relationship with its users. They regularly incorporate their feedback in developing new features and have built the platform on this spirit of collaboration.

Songbox founder Michael Coll says: “From the moment we launched Songbox, we’ve quickly adapted the platform as needed and improved its capabilities. We’re in a place now where we know we can offer users many features that other platforms cannot. The insights of our users have been invaluable to us, and we love to hear from them.”

The idea for Songbox came from songwriter and musician Michael’s experiences when trying to get attention for his work. He also saw this from the other side of the fence when he later worked as a web developer at a major music industry player.

He adds: “Like many other bands, we’d send out demos and never even know whether they had been received, let alone listened to. In my job, I’d see people’s hard work in the form of hundreds of demos arrive every week, only to pile up in a corner without ever being opened. We called it ‘the corner where dreams went to die.’ I knew there had to be a better way.” His idea led to the creation of Songbox.

It’s designed for anyone who works with audio files, with various pricing options, including a free package for those who want to try without commitment.

Michael and co-founder Ciaran O’Toole want to grow Songbox and collaborate with other businesses. “We’re full of ideas, and we’d love to hear from other businesses about how we can further develop Songbox features,” adds Michael.

More information can be found at the Songbox official website.

Spotify this, Spotify that. It’s all we ever talk about. But we forget that tens of millions of listeners use Apple Music. It’s the second biggest streaming platform in the world, so we indie musicians shouldn’t ignore it. That’s why in this article, we’ll walk through how to optimize your Apple Music artist page.

Why Focus On Your Apple Music Artist Page

As of Q1 2023, Apple Music had 32.6 million subscribers (and probably more as of this writing). Plus, Apple Music pays artists better than Spotify per stream. So if you’re not paying any attention to your Apple Music Artist Page, you’re missing an opportunity to meet listeners where they are.

Your artist page should pull listeners in and help them get to know you better. It could increase the likelihood that they move from casual listeners to super fans.

Claim Your Apple Music Artist Page

The first step is to get access to the Apple Music artist dashboard. To do this, you need to claim your artist page. But before you claim your profile, your music has to have been live on Apple Music for at least 5 business days.

Apple has to “verify your identity or relationship to the artist or band,” so they advise you to give them as much info as possible. This includes sharing info on your digital distributor, your website, and your social media accounts.

Here are the steps to claim your artist page via the web:

1. Log in to or sign up for Apple Music for Artists
2. Click “Request Artist Access”
3. In the search bar, copy/paste your iTunes Store artist page link, or type in your artist name or the name of your release in the search bar to find yourself
4. Select one of your albums to make sure you’re claiming the right page (must be the primary artist)
5. Choose your role (Artist) then fill out the application

This process will go faster if you sign into your social media accounts and digital distributor account(s). The more info you give Apple, the faster they can verify it’s you.

How do I grant other people access to Apple Music for Artists?

Once you’ve claimed your Apple Music for Artists page, you can give your team members (like your manager or band member) access to update it.

To grant access to other team members, first download and log in to the Apple Music for Artists app (iPhone only). Then:

1. Tap and hold your artist icon
2. Tap Account
3. Scroll down to Users and click Invite User
4. Fill in their info and assign them a role(s)
5. Tap Invite

Personalize Your Artist Page

Once you’ve claimed your artist page and been approved by Apple, you can start customizing your page. To edit all of this info, go to the Artist Content page at the top then click the Artist Profile tab next to your artist name.

Here are the main aspects to focus on…

Add an artist image

The preferred dimensions of your artist image are 2400 x 2400 pixels or greater, 800 x 800 pixels minimum. You can see Apple Music’s full guidelines here.

Fill out the About and Biography sections

How do you get an About page on Apple Music? Well, the About section on your Apple Music artist page is limited to basic info (genre, birthdate, other names you have, hometown) as well as your answers to Apple Music’s predetermined questions. Then the Biography section will be filled with your Q&A answers.

Add Q&As

Answer as many questions as you can (these will appear in the Biography section). This is a chance for listeners to get to know you, so don’t be afraid to open up.

List band members, collaborators, and influences

Have you collaborated with any artists? Make sure to add them in this section. Then list your musical influences, giving the listener more context for why your music sounds the way it does.

Add Your Lyrics

A really cool and convenient feature of Apple Music is that you can directly add your lyrics. In contrast, if you want to get your lyrics on Spotify, you have to use Musixmatch and wait for it to be delivered. (However, Musixmatch offers a time-sync feature while Apple only offers this “at Apple’s editorial discretion”).

To add your lyrics to Apple Music, go to the “Music and Videos” tab next to your artist name. Then hit “+ Lyrics” next to the song to add the lyrics. Check out the guidelines for lyrics here.

List Your Concerts

Apple Music partners with Bandsintown, so any concerts you list with Bandsintown will be viewable by Apple Music listeners.

Your concerts will automatically appear in the Spotlight Search, which lets listeners swipe down on their app’s Home Screen to search for artists, songs, or shows. Your concerts can also show up in Apple Music Guides and Set Lists.

Add Team Members

You may have a team that you want to grant access to your Apple Music, like a manager or band member.

To add team members, download and login to the Apple Music for Artists app (iPhone only), then:

1. Tap and hold your artist icon
2. Tap Account
3. Scroll down to Users and click Invite User
4. Fill in their info and assign them a role(s)
5. Tap Invite

Promote Your Music

Apple Music doesn’t have a way to promote your music directly to Apple Music listeners – like Spotify does with Showcases and Marquees.

But they have a page that lets you create “promotional assets” that you can download and share on social media. They’re basically cool-looking images with your artist name, release title, the Apple logo, and “Listen now” in big letters.

Make Sure You’re On Shazam

In case you don’t already know, Shazam is an app that listens to and identifies a song. Apple owns it, so when you use it, it pulls up the identified song on Apple Music.

To get your music on Shazam, just use any Apple-approved distributor and they’ll deliver your music to both Apple Music and Shazam. After your song has been released, you can verify it has reached Shazam by going to the web version and searching for the song or your artist name.

Final Thoughts

In a music industry that is so focused on Spotify, don’t forget to give your Apple Music artist page some love. Claim your artist page, personalize it, add your lyrics, list your concerts, and answer Apple’s Q&A’s. This will make sure you don’t alienate your fans who exclusively use Apple Music.

A revolution of sorts is happening in the sheet music industry.  Just like recorded music, anyone with access to a computer can become a publisher, creating and distributing sheet music with relative ease.  Many artists wish they could publish sheet music of their songs, and this article will walk you through the steps to make it happen!

The following comes from Breeze Tunes, a company DMN is partnered with.

Why Sell Sheet Music?

Sheet music is a valuable revenue stream for your song. It may not be big money (single-song sheet music typically sells for around $5.00), but at least we’re talking about dollars rather than the fractions of cents generated by streaming.

In addition to being a valuable merch item, sheet music opens the door to many creative promotional opportunities. Icelandic Jazz/Pop artist Lofey “leaked” her new album in sheet music form, which led to 24,000 fan pre-saves. Legendary rock band Metallica hosted a marching band competition, encouraging groups around the country to arrange and perform their music. Singer-songwriter Cody Fry has used creative score videos of sheet music to rack up millions of views.

Most importantly, sheet music is a powerful way to connect with your fans, giving them the tools to recreate and experience your music on their own terms.

Step One: Notate Your Song

The obvious first step is to write your music down. Depending on the genre, you may also need to arrange it to make it suitable for your target audience. This is most effectively done in notation software like Finale, Sibelius, or Dorico, which are all professional-level applications (comparable to DAWs like ProTools, Logic, or Cubase). Once you are finished, export the music as a PDF file, which you can distribute online or print hard copies.

If you’re not comfortable with music notation (or don’t want to invest the time in learning), you can outsource this step of the process to a professional copyist, engraver, or transcriber who will make your music look top-notch! Think of them as another member of your support staff, like a producer, mixer, or audio engineer.

Step Two: Make a Cover Image

Just as albums typically come with artwork, sheet music needs a cover page to help it stand out. This image will also serve as your product thumbnail in online stores. The easiest way to make one is by using Canva, which has an extensive collection of templates and stock images you can use.

It also makes it easy to resize an image (for use in social media) or export your cover page in formats like PDF, JPEG, or PNG files.

Step Three: Write a Product Description

You’ll also want to write a short description (usually two or three sentences) explaining the basics of the song, who it’s written for, etc. This will help potential customers, but it’s also what search engines will use to display your music in results.

Step Four: Provide an Audio Demo

Nowadays, no one will buy sheet music without hearing it first. Most publishers demo their music using an MP3 recording or a YouTube video. If a live recording or performance video is not available, a quality MIDI mockup is acceptable.

Step Five: Distribution

In addition to your artist website or merch table, you can use several third-party retailers to get your music in front of more people.

The first is ArrangeMe.com, which Hal Leonard owns. Think of it like DistroKid for sheet music. You upload the music, set the price, provide the images and description, and within 24-48 hours, your music is available for sale on sheetmusicplus.com and sheetmusicdirect.com. Composers earn a 50% royalty on all sales and retain their copyrights. In addition, it is a non-exclusive agreement, meaning you can also sell your music on other sites without restriction.

ArrangeMe also has a database of more than four million songs for which it can provide copyright clearance, allowing you to legally sell arrangements or covers of popular songs. However, there are more restrictions for these arrangements, and arrangers only earn a 10% royalty on each copy sold.

Another option is MyScore, a program run by JW Pepper that allows you to sell original music on the JW Pepper website. It does not allow for sales of copyrighted arrangements; however, it offers customers the ability to order printed copies of music delivered through the mail—a big plus for school ensembles that frequently order from Pepper.

Musicnotes.com is another digital publisher that works with many independent musicians (especially on YouTube) to clear copyrights and distribute sheet music of their cover songs. Artists can work with one of their editors or upload music through the Musicnotes Marketplace website.

Step Six: Marketing

Like recorded music, getting your songs online is the easy part. Next comes the hard work of getting your sheet music in front of the right people. In many ways, this is more difficult than promoting your music on streamers because your target audience is smaller—either trained musicians or students of a particular instrument.

For ideas on successfully marketing your sheet music, follow the Selling Sheet Music podcast!

Photo credit: Techivation

To many indie artists, mastering music seems like a magical process. So let’s break down what mastering actually is, why it’s important, and whether or not you should learn how to do it.

What Is Mastering Music?

Mastering music is the last step you need to take before releasing your song to the world. The most noticeable thing about a mastered track is that it’s louder than its unmastered version. But there’s a lot more that goes into the mastering process.

At its core, mastering is about carefully and intentionally boosting the loudness of the track while maintaining the sonic components of the original stereo mix. During mastering, you must also ensure the track sounds good regardless of how someone might listen to it.

This whole process involves compression, equalization, limiting, stereo enhancement, and any other tools the mastering engineer may decide to use based on the end goal.

The term “mastering” comes from the concept of a master copy. Every duplicate or reproduction of the audio comes from this master, and the mastering process ensures that these duplicates can be flawlessly played back wherever.

In the context of an album, mastering helps maintain a consistent and cohesive sonic landscape across all the album’s tracks.

Mastering vs. mixing

How is mastering different from mixing?

Mixing music is about getting all the individual instruments (channels) in a song to blend well together. And mastering music involves taking the final mix that has been bounced to a lossless audio file and making sure it’s ready to compete with all of the other professionally mixed and mastered songs on streaming platforms.

Is Mastering Music Necessary?

If you want your song to sound as good as it can and if you want to release it on streaming platforms, yes. Mastering your track is a must.

A master cannot fix bad production or a bad mix. But if your production and mix are as good as possible, mastering takes the track from amateur to pro-level. A well-done master on a well-mixed and well-produced song will sound so much better than an unmastered track.

Plus, Spotify will normalize the loudness of your track. So if you deliver an unmastered track to Spotify, their loudness normalizing may ruin the track. And what people hear will probably end up sounding like trash.

The expert engineers at Sound On Sound say mastering is a must.

“A good mastering engineer will know how to hit the ‘sweet spot’ where your tracks are exactly loud enough to sound at their best on Spotify or YouTube without getting turned down,” writes Sam Inglis, veteran recording engineer and producer.

“…A human mastering engineer is a safety net,” he continues. “They are a fresh pair of ears who can listen to your music on a really good reference monitoring system, identify potential problems with it, and help you get your project ready for release.”

What a mastered song sounds like

I want you to hear the importance of a good master. So below you can listen to the unmastered version of one of my songs next to the mastered version (mastered by John Behrens).

Should You Learn To Master Music?

Every song you hear on Spotify or Apple Music is mastered (some of them done well, some not so much). We’ve talked about the importance of good mastering. You’ve heard the difference between an unmastered track and a professionally mastered track.

The keywords here are “well” and “good.” A master can’t fix a bad production and mix, but you can definitely ruin a good production and mix with a bad master.

So should you even learn to master music? Or should you outsource this step to the professionals?

Any time you learn something new, there is a learning curve. You’re going to suck at it in the beginning. For example, I learned how to start mixing by mixing one of my albums…it’s no longer available anywhere because I realized it stunk.

So if you have the money, I suggest hiring a good mastering engineer.

But if you don’t have much of a budget, it may be worth developing the skill and art of mastering. You have some affordable options, including learning on your own (see below). The thing is, if you’re going to learn how to master music, give yourself plenty of behind-the-scenes practice before you release a track that you’ve mastered.

Finding a Mastering Engineer

If you’ve got the budget to pay a mastering engineer, you’ll want to make sure you’re using someone who knows their stuff.

The two best ways to find a good mastering engineer are 1) find a musician who makes similar music to you and ask them who mastered their music (or check the song credits) or 2) use a website like SoundBetter or Fiverr to find mastering engineers who work in your genre.

Using A.I. Services To Master Your Music

Companies have been offering A.I. mastering services for years. The most notable ones are LANDR, eMastered, and Aria Mastering.

With each of these services, you upload your fully mixed track, set some parameters, and they’ll master it for you. And you can usually hear a sample clip of the mastered version before you make your final decision to download and pay.

The Best Plugins for Mastering Music

If you don’t want to master your track from scratch, there are plugins that can give you a starting point, or just master the song for you.

The best option I’ve seen is Ozone from iZotope, a plugin you put on your master track. You can start with one of the many, many presets or you can let the A.I. feature master the track for you. In either case, you can make your own edits afterward.

Mastering Music Summary

What is mastering vs mixing?

Mixing involves making all the individual instruments (channels) in a song blend well together. Mastering music involves taking the final mix, making it louder, shaping the sound, and making sure it’s loud enough to be streamed on streaming platforms.

Do you need to master your music?

Yes, to get the best possible final recording you should master your music. You’ll also want your music to be at a similar loudness level to everything else on streaming platforms (i.e. what listeners are used to).

How much does it cost to master a song?

How much it costs to get a good master varies, but you can expect to pay between $50-100 per song. Any less than $50 and you should be wary of the quality. If you pay $200 or more, make sure the engineer is worth the money and has the portfolio to back it up.

Can you master a song yourself?

Technically, yes. But any time you learn a new skill, there will be a learning curve. Nowadays, there are plugins that can assist you in mastering your track. Whatever you do, make sure you compare your master to a track that has been professionally produced, mixed, and mastered.

What Is Radio in 2024? The question is surprisingly complex — so we assembled a panel for recognized radio experts to help pick it apart.

The result is a comprehensive discussion on the state of radio in all of its iterations, including broadcast, streaming, satellite, DSP-generated stations, AI DJs, car dashboards, and more. In this DMN Pro exclusive discussion, we pick apart radio’s reach, the format’s surprising competitive advantages, and where non-interactive listening is heading next.

We also had a few good laughs, with will.i.am keeping things light. Jump in!

DMN Pro subscribers only.

Panelists:

• Joel Denver | Founder, All Access Music Group
• RJ Curtis | Executive Director, CRB
• Mike Huppe | CEO of SoundExchange
• Rahul Sabnis | EVP, Chief Creative Officer, iHeartMedia
• will.i.am | Producer, Award-winning Artist, Technophile Futurist, Founder & CEO of FYI
• Lee Abrams | Commander, Lee Abrams MediaVisions
• Moderator – Paul Resnikoff | Publisher, Digital Music News

On this episode of ‘The Conduit,’ host Dan Ubick sits down with Ric’key Pageot to discuss the musician’s upbringing in Montreal among a family of musicians.

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Location and geography hugely impact a child’s development, from the friends they make to the schools they attend. While it’s not always recognized as such, Montreal is a uniquely vibrant city with exceptionally high rates of integration that differentiate it from cosmopolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles, both diverse cities that contend with significant levels of segregation.

Today, accomplished L.A.-based musician Ric’key Pageot joins us to discuss his unusual upbringing in Montreal among a family of talented musicians. “Montreal is so integrated; you’re surrounded by every culture,” Ric’key says. “Montreal is really underrated for that.”

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music business today.

In today’s episode, host and LA-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with Ric’key Pageot to discuss the musician’s journey from “classical nerd” to pop-star-supporting touring artist. “Anything outside of classical, I really wouldn’t [listen to],” says Ric’key of his years at McGill University in Montreal. “I don’t think I really listened to anything other than hip-hop, R&B, and stuff like that. It’s only when I grew older [that] I started appreciating other types of music.”

Today, Ric’key is a Steinway Artist, a title granted to only the very best pianists. In the past, he’s played piano and accordion on tour for the likes of Diana Ross, Madonna, and Cher.

During today’s episode, Ric’key shares details about his upbringing in Montreal, how it exposed him to a multitude of ideas and cultures, and why he chose to attend McGill University: “It was a great school. I loved it. And it’s kind of sad today. I don’t even think they have the same program anymore. They lost government funding. And it’s really unfortunate that music is not a priority anymore. The arts are not a priority anymore in schools.” Ric’key also describes what it was like growing up in a family full of talented musicians—and the concerts they held—before reflecting on his life as a performer.

“I’m all about tradition and moving tradition forward,” says Ric’key, describing Parlor Social, the band he formed with his wife, Dessy Di Lauro. “That’s how Parlor Social came about. It was about paying homage to the Harlem Renaissance culture and moving it forward.” Ric’key’s life as a musician has led him down incredible paths; in today’s show, he reflects on his journey, the many lessons learned, and the amazing people he’s met along the way.  

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Even the sexiest music industry deals crash into reality when the contracts come out. Flou is determined to simplify the necessary evil.

Unfortunately, music industry contracts and licensing agreements are typically intricate and dense documents fraught with legal terminology, making them difficult to generate and manage. Once filed away, they become challenging to store and retrieve efficiently.

It’s a mess we’ve all experienced, but the confusion often lasts for the life of the deal. Headaches are best enjoyed with a confusing paper trail or contentious disagreement, with piles of legalese and contradictory details adding to the excitement.

Sadly, the cliché that ‘only the lawyers win’ seems to fit more often than not, though one guy is trying to change that.

His name is Alexiomar Rodríguez, and his disruptive vision doesn’t revolve around new-fangled AI or anything tech-sexy. Instead, Rodríguez’s company, Flou, has a simple mission to revolutionize the cumbersome, painful, and inefficient process surrounding music agreements.

“As an attorney myself, I realized that there’s no central software package for all music contracts,” Rodríguez said. Flou just recently joined forces with DMN to further expand awareness of the platform.

In a nutshell, Flou is an all-in-one platform designed to streamline and simplify every aspect of music contract management.

Think of the aspirin required to get through a music contract and multiply it by 10,000. That’s the general idea here.

Flou’s platform manages every micro-step of the music contracting process, starting with the document creation phase. That’s where a range of industry-specific templates come into play, with subsequent collaboration features guiding the reviewing, negotiating, and editing stages with AI assistance.

The platform also includes other steps and details, including e-signature approvals, centralized storage, deliverable tracking, and reminders.

“Flou is not just a software solution; it’s a revolution in music contract management. We’re committed to empowering music companies, artists, and other stakeholders with the legal tools they need to thrive in today’s industry,” Rodríguez continued.

Of course, many different types of music industry contracts and legal agreements exist. Flou aims to address them all, including work-for-hire agreements, production contracts, collaboration agreements, copyright assignments, artistic management and representation agreements, split sheets for dividing royalties, and good, old-fashioned artist-label contracts.

Unfortunately, all of these contracts face similar pitfalls. Traditionally, music contracts have been notoriously time-consuming and expensive to create and manage. Once finalized, these agreements often become buried within filing cabinets or lost in digital voids, posing significant legal risks and liabilities to music companies.

Additionally, the dynamic nature of music contracts, with their deliverable contingencies, critical dates, ongoing rights, and complex royalty payment triggers, further complicates their management. Apart from the initial challenges, music contracts must also account for tracking recoupments and documenting each release properly (including splits and side-artist agreements, among other specifics.)

These ‘living contracts’ demand a meticulous tracking system, which has been sorely lacking until now. By enabling music companies to create, review, approve, sign, store, and track all their contracts in a centralized platform, Flou seeks to bring unparalleled efficiency and clarity to contract management.

There’s also the business of translating legalese for better tracking, accountability, and understanding.

Through the application of AI, Flou translates complex contract obligations into manageable, actionable tasks. This process simplifies legal compliance and management through reminders, updates, and tracking necessary deliverables.

“We designed Flou to address the unique challenges faced by the music and entertainment industry,” Rodríguez explained. “Our platform offers a much-needed solution for contract management, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.”

Flou is to the music industry what platforms like Contractbook and LinkSquares are to other sectors — a digital revolution in contract management. By ensuring greater contract clarity, both pre-and post-execution, Flou also hopes to significantly reduce litigation risk.

Additionally, Rodríguez noted that Flou recognizes the importance of education in contract management, offering resources and tools to aid users in navigating the complexities of legal agreements.

Having successfully raised $250,000 in March 2023, Flou is now focused on expanding its capabilities to keep pace with the rapidly evolving music industry. The roadmap includes drafting a wider variety of contracts from automated templates.

Furthermore, Flou aims to incorporate music data analytics, facilitating better deals for music companies, whether signing an artist or buying and selling intellectual property.

By simplifying the process and providing educational support, Flou is striving to make legal compliance easier and helping the industry forge better, more transparent deals. This sounds like great news for the music business — and bad news for anyone in the business of racking up billable hours.

cover image by Crasianne Tirado

In an age dominated by short-form content, it’s becoming increasingly common for today’s top music videos to go unseen. Should artists still invest in these art forms, and if so, what can we do to support them?

The following comes from Chartmetric, a company DMN is partnered with.

If you’re an ’80s child or earlier, you probably remember a music video featuring a man in a red outfit leading dancing zombies. Those who grew up in the 1990s might recall a music video of a schoolgirl swaying through crowded hallways with pink bowed pigtails. For the generation born in the 2000s and later, you might remember a video of a pop star dressed as Cleopatra sitting on a Sphinx-like throne. Even if none of these examples resonate with you, it’s doubtful you’ve forgetten when one of the world’s biggest rappers released a video at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, calling attention to issues of systemic racism in America.

From Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1983) to Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” (1998) to Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” (2014) to Childish Gambino’s “This is America” (2018), these iconic music videos have left an indelible mark on popular culture and cemented their artists’ place in the history books. Music videos have played a significant role in our lives in the past, even if we weren’t aware of it.

Once a staple for fan engagement and artist promotion, music videos are navigating a dynamic landscape where streaming platforms play a significant role in music discovery and consumption. Today, a track can make it to our Spotify Wrapped without us knowing what its music video looks like. One might question whether modern music videos still stand in an age where everything is short-form, attention span is minimal, and the music industry is fragmented and saturated.

When looking at the most streamed tracks on Spotify in 2023, 36 out of the top 40 tracks released between 2022 and 2023 had accompanying music videos. On average, these videos garnered 374M views, whereas the tracks themselves accumulated an average of 1.1B streams. This resulted in an average gap of 731M between the number of views on the videos and the number of streams on Spotify. While this data does not offer a comprehensive view of the entire music industry, it does suggest a shift in the role and impact of music videos compared to previous eras.

2010s and the Golden Age of music videos

While modern music videos have been around since the mid-20th century, YouTube's arrival in 2005 and Vevo's in 2009 transformed the way people consume music videos. Enabling artists to interact with global audiences directly, the 2010s saw music videos evolve further due to the digital revolution.

The most-watched music video on YouTube is "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee from 2017, with over 8.39 billion views, followed by Ed Sheeran's 2017 "Shape of You" at 6.21 billion views and Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's 2015 "See You Again" at 6.19 billion views. Most of the top videos date back to the 2010s, when Western pop music was at it's peak on YouTube. These tracks were massive hits during that era and could be heard everywhere from the radio to retail stores.

To better understand the relevance of music videos today, we can zoom in on the most-streamed tracks on Spotify in 2023. Examining the average daily changes in both YouTube views and Spotify streams, we're given insight into how these songs perform on a daily basis over time across both platforms.

The death of pop music videos?

Most pop music videos are centered in the second, lower half of the graph. This suggests that while these pop tracks may still be popular on Spotify, their music videos on YouTube are not experiencing substantial daily changes in views compared to other genres, such as Latin. This includes big hits such as Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" (10th most streamed track), which has 1.41B streams, SZA's "Kill Bill" (2nd most streamed track) with 1.68B streams, and JVKE's "Golden Hour" (29th most streamed track) with 1.08B streams. This doesn't mean that fans are not watching pop music videos, but rather that fans tend to use other platforms to consume the track after the initial release rather than watching its video repeatedly.

Many music fans nowadays prefer quick and easy ways to enjoy their favorite tracks rather than diving into the full visual experience. This trend stems from our love for short-form videos, which allow us to consume content on the fly. Traditional music videos, on the other hand, require jumping through hoops like ads on YouTube before you can even watch them. That's why fewer people bother with them these days, opting instead to listen while doing other things. But the superfans will go the extra mile and watch the music video for a deeper connection with their favorite artists.

One of the most successful pop music videos in recent times is Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" video, which was the No. 1 most streamed track of the year. It premiered on January 13, 2023, and within 24 hours, grossed over 13.8 million views. In just 32 days after its release, the video hit 202.8 million views. As of now, the video has reached 719.9 million views with an average of 1.76 million daily views. The music video is notable for its simplicity, featuring Cyrus moving through various activities at her home in Los Angeles, from outdoor exercises to dancing on the roof at night. The video's narrative is deeply personal and female-empowering, and it allegedly integrates easter eggs that hint at Miley Cyrus's personal journey and past relationship with Liam Hemsworth.

Another example is Doja Cat's "Paint The Town Red" (35th most streamed track). Released on August 4, 2023, the video is visually striking, featuring dark and symbolic imagery like Doja Cat peeling out her eyeball and scenes with death (grim reaper), reflecting the song's unapologetic anthem, where she emphasizes her indifference to others' opinions. Doja Cat showcased her artistic talent pre-release by creating paintings during Instagram Live, which served as inspiration for the music video.

While the video initially lagged behind its Spotify counterpart, which garnered 128.2 million views within a month, it still amassed a notable 27.4 million views on YouTube a month after the release. Although impressive, this figure is overshadowed by it's Spotify's performance. By that time, the track had gone viral with 989k TikTok posts, resulting in a significant boost in views, particularly on September 8, with 2.9 million views. It subsequently debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 16. This surge appears to be attributed to the track's viral success on TikTok and its cross-platform popularity. However, it raises the question: would such growth in YouTube views have been possible without its viral traction?

A music video released after a track's initial release is a common strategy to revive interest, maintain chart performance, and engage the audience. This approach is often used to release singles after an album launch. Released on April 25, 2023 as the sixth single of her second studio album, "SOS," SZA's "Snooze" (37th most streamed track) peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video premiered on August 25 (258 days after the initial release and 123 after the single release) and features artists Justin Bieber and Benny Blanco. The music video, alongside a four-track bundle that includes a sped-up version of the track and the acoustic version featuring Bieber (released on September 15), helped the track reach a peak number of 2 on October 7.

Despite these promotional efforts, the music video has garnered relatively modest views, with only 53.8 million views in six months, averaging around 2.9 million views per day with a daily median change of 250k. In comparison, the official audio of the track on YouTube, released with the album, has amassed significantly more views, totaling 172 million views and surpassing the 93.1 million views of "Kill Bill."

The domination of Latin music videos

Latin music videos on YouTube have consistently remained popular over time without any significant fluctuations. Seven of the ten tracks with the highest average daily change are Latin. Moreover, the top three tracks from these seven have very similar average daily changes on YouTube and Spotify, and even "TQG" (12th most streamed track) by Karol G and Shakira has 2.66 million average daily streams on Spotify and 2.7 million on YouTube. It is the most-watched music video of 2023 and earned Vevo's most-watched global premiere title with 181.9 million views in its first two weeks. Similar to "Flowers," the track's lyrics feature "shots" directed at Shakira and Karol's ex-boyfriends.

The second track in the graph is "La Bebe (Remix)" by Yng Lvcas featuring Peso Pluma (13th most streamed track), which was released on March 17, 2023, and has 797.9 million YouTube views with an average of 2.37 million daily views. The official visualizer and the accompanying cover audio, both released simultaneously with the music video release, have garnered 31 million and 35 million views, respectively. This indicates that despite its longer duration and less convenient listening format than the cover audio, the music video continues to attract attention.

The Bzrp Music Sessions comprise a series of music collaborations between Argentine producer Bizarrap and several artists. The music videos of these sessions have a raw and energetic vibe as the artists lip-sync to the tracks in dynamic and colorful shots that appear to be filmed in Bizarrap's recording studio. Both "Vol. 52" with Quevedo (32nd streamed track) and "Vol. 53" with Shakira (9th streamed track) had a significant YouTube performance, crossing over 626.2 million and 694.2 million views, respectively. This proves that a great concept is crucial and often more impactful than a high-budget production, and that concept should align with the song's vibe, energy, and feel and cohesively blend with the entire project.

The global popularity of Latin music and the collaborations within it boost both YouTube and streaming numbers, broadening the genre's global appeal. Secondly, trigger cities, mainly in Latin America, play a crucial role, with dense populations consuming and sharing music, leading to significant views, especially since YouTube is a free and accessible platform. Despite the gap between the number of Spotify streams and YouTube views, music videos appear to remain a prime driver in Latin music.

Music videos in K-Pop

Similar to Latin music, K-pop recognizes the importance of high-quality music videos. This trend has led to the production of high-budget, meticulously crafted music videos that serve to entertain and enhance the global reach of these artists and their music. Nine of the 10 most viewed YouTube videos in 24 hours are by the same K-pop artists: BTS (5) and BLACKPINK (3). BTS's "Butter" broke the record for the most viewed YouTube video in the first 24 hours with 108.2 million views in 2021. A recent example illustrating this trend is the release of Jung Kook's "Seven" featuring Latto (4th most streamed track). Within just a week of its release on July 14, 2023, the video garnered 86.4 million views on YouTube. Within a month, it surpassed Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" (10th streamed track), accumulating 115.4 million views. To put this into perspective, "Anti-Hero" took 467 days to reach the same milestone that "Seven" achieved in just 47 days, hitting 184 million views.

So, what's happening?

The current landscape of music videos varies by genre, with Latin music maintaining consistent popularity on platforms like YouTube, while K-pop emphasizes high-quality production, and pop music might have lost its relevance and appeal, at least when it comes to daily consumption.

However, this evolution in music video popularity is part of a broader cycle, reflecting the ever-changing landscape of pop music. Major labels face criticism for prioritizing viral sensations over talent, as they once did back when MTV was in its prime. As a result, the industry is suffering from a lack of artist development, with platforms like TikTok providing rapid exposure before artists are fully prepared. On the other hand, pop music fans still value traditional music videos for their artistry, however, recent ones are criticized for being uninspired and low-budget, making it challenging for artists to innovate while keeping audiences engaged.

And what can we do?

We must prioritize artist development, support emerging talents, and preserve traditional media outlets. While the music scene has evolved significantly, creativity should guide us, and we've even seen unexpected comebacks. Who knew that CDs would experience a resurgence in popularity even in an era dominated by digital streaming services?

While Spotify streams may exceed YouTube views for many popular tracks today, the role of music videos in the industry remains substantial. They are not just promotional tools but integral parts of an artist's creative expression and a key element in the music ecosystem, offering unique experiences that audio alone cannot provide. Remembering that music is a passion, not just a race for views or likes, is crucial for maintaining artistic integrity. This might be a transitional period rather than a permanent downturn.

No matter what genre, great music videos evoke strong emotions and leave a lasting impression on viewers through iconic moments that become part of pop culture. Who could forget Kelly Rowland's memorable Excel text to Nelly in the "Dilemma" music video, "Where you at? Holla when you get there," a moment that puzzled us for years?

Edited by Sarah Kloboves, cover image by Crasianne Tirado

Indie artists like you and I are always looking for ways to get our music in front of new people. Sometimes we can do that organically. But sometimes we have to pay. And Spotify Marquee is another way to spend some money for exposure to new listeners.

What Is Spotify Marquee?

Spotify Marquee is “a full-screen, sponsored recommendation” for your new release. It’s a pop-up ad that Spotify will show to listeners who are likely to enjoy your music, both new and existing listeners. When a listener clicks on your Marquee, it takes them to the release.

How is Marquee different from Spotify Showcase?

Well first, Marquee is an ad that pops up on a listener’s home screen that they have to hit “Dismiss” to get past, while Showcase is a banner that appears on a listener’s home screen on the app.

Also, Marquee is only for new releases (released in the past 18 days or fewer) while Showcase is for any of your releases (older than 18 days). The ad will run for 10 days or until your budget is spent, whichever comes first.

Spotify Marquee Real-World Results

Let’s look at some real-world results to figure out if Marquee is worth your money.

Band Builder Academy looked at the Marquee results for the artist Loveless. The target audience was Spotify’s default targeting, which is defined as “listeners who are most likely to stream your release after seeing the recommendation.”

Loveless did three Marquee campaigns – two singles and an album.

Spending a total of $650, here are the average stats between the two singles campaigns…

• Reach: 3,386
• Clicks: 720
• Converted listeners: 773
• Conversion rate: 22.63%
• Streams per listener: 4.82
• Intent rate: 31.60%
• Playlist adds: 139
• Saves: 246

And here are the stats on Loveless’ $250 album campaign…

• Reach: 1,617
• Clicks: 509
• Converted listeners: 761
• Conversion rate: 47.06%
• Streams per listener: 33.57
• Intent rate: 47.17%
• Playlist adds: 1,058
• Saves: 2,507

Next, let’s look at indie artist Andrew Southworth’s Marquee results. He ran a $750 campaign for one of his songs…

• Reach: 8,375
• Clicks: 1,549
• Converted listeners: 1,136
• Conversion rate: 13.57%
• Streams per listener: 5.3
• Intent rate: 33.1%
• Playlist adds: 250

Lastly,  let’s look at my Marquee campaign results. I spent $88.92 on one of my songs…

• Reach: 2,122
• Clicks: 234
• Converted listeners: 144
• Conversion rate: 6.74%
• Streams per listener: 1.38
• Intent rate: 11.11%
• Playlist adds: 3

Is Spotify Marquee Worth It?

Just like Spotify Showcase (and with any advertising to drive streaming), you can’t expect Marquee to have an immediate ROI.

It’s not about getting your ad money back in streaming revenue. It’s about building your following on Spotify and therefore increasing your exposure to new listeners. From there, the idea is that your streaming reach snowballs via Spotify’s algorithm, gradually growing your audience.

So is Spotify Marquee worth it?

If you view it as a way to invest in your long-term career growth, yes. If you have room in your marketing budget for it, yes.

In my opinion, your money should first go toward making the best music you possibly can. If you have anything left, that should go to marketing. And if you have $100 available to drop for your new release, I would say it’s worth trying Marquee. When the campaign concludes, you can decide if its impact was great enough that you would run another Marquee.

Spotify Marquee Requirements and Eligibility

Before we talk about how to set up a Marquee, let’s see if your release is even eligible.

First, you have to be in one of these countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• United Kingdom
• United States

However, your Marquee ad will be targeted to 36 countries (see the full list here).

And here are the artist and release requirements for you to run a Marquee:

• At least 5,000 streams in the last 28 days, OR…
• More than 1,000 followers in at least one of the target markets

How To Set Up a Spotify Marquee

If you want to give Marquee a whirl, here are the steps to get started…

1) In your Spotify for Artists dashboard, go to the Campaigns tab

If you don’t yet have access to your Spotify for Artists page, claim your profile here.

2) Click “Create Campaign” next to your release

All of your eligible releases will appear here along with how many days you have left to run a Marquee campaign. If nothing is there, you don’t have any songs that qualify.

3) Choose your audience targeting

By default, Spotify optimizes your targeting “to reach listeners who are most likely to stream your release after seeing the recommendation.”

But you can also customize your audience. Here are your options…

• Active audience
  • Super listeners: Your most dedicated active listeners in the last 28 days. They are also the most likely to keep streaming your music.
  • Moderate listeners: Active listeners who intentionally streamed your music many times in the last 28 days, and could still develop into super listeners.
  • Light listeners: Active listeners who intentionally streamed your music once or a couple times in the last 28 days, and could develop into moderate listeners.
• Previously active audience
  • Listeners who used to be in your active audience but haven’t intentionally streamed your music in at least 28 days. They may still stream your music from programmed sources.
• Programmed listeners
  • Listeners who only streamed your music from programmed sources like editorial playlists, Discover Weekly, Radio, Autoplay, or playlists by other listeners at least once in the last 2 years.
• Potential listeners
  • Listeners who aren’t currently in your total audience. Based on their listening habits, they may stream your promoted release.

4) Set your budget

The minimum budget is $100. The higher you set your budget, the more people you’ll reach, as shown in the sidebar to the right.

Spotify Marquee FAQs

What is the Marquee mode on Spotify?

Marquee is “a full-screen, sponsored recommendation” for your new release. Basically, it’s a pop-up ad that Spotify shows to listeners who are likely to enjoy your music. When a listener clicks on your Marquee, it takes them to the release. The listener has to hit “Dismiss” to get past the ad.

How do you qualify for Spotify Marquee?

You have to have had at least 5,000 streams in the last 28 days OR have more than 1,000 followers in at least one of the 36 target markets Spotify will show your Marquee to.

Is Marquee Spotify free?

No, Spotify Marquee is an advertising tool with a $100 minimum spend amount.

Global, US, and Spotify paid streaming music subscriber growth, 2019-2023 (data sources: IFPI, RIAA, Spotify)

Wall Street’s positive response to reports of additional Spotify price increases pushed shares to a 52-week high. But what would larger monthly costs mean for the platform, labels, artists, and the wider industry?

On April 3rd, 2024, Bloomberg reported that new Spotify price increases were imminent. While the streaming company itself didn’t immediately announce or confirm plans to roll out more expensive subscription options, anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter indicated that bumps of $1 (for the individual tier) and $2 (for Duo and the family package) would arrive in markets including the U.K. and Australia by the end of this month.

The same reports relayed that price boosts would hit the U.S. sometime later in 2024, with other higher-cost offerings like the Supremium package possibly on the way.

Notwithstanding the lack of a formal confirmation from Spotify, the prospect of heightened prices (and more significant revenue streams) fueled an enthusiastic response on Wall Street. After touching the mentioned 52-week high of roughly $313, SPOT cracked a value not seen since a Joe Rogan Experience-powered rally in early 2021.

Beyond this decidedly bullish market reaction—one of several that have propelled Spotify stock’s price into the stratosphere since 2020—there’s been relatively little discussion about what the increases mean for the company’s revenue and especially the industry.

Accordingly, here’s a closer look at how Spotify price bumps could shift the deck for different music industry sub-sectors — and Spotify itself.

Report Table of Contents

I. Introduction: A Recap of Spotify’s Reported April 2024 Price Increases

II. Reported Price Increases and Spotify’s Balance Sheet: What the News Means for the Company’s Revenue and Profitability Aims

III. SPOT’s Wall Street Boom: Why Is the Market Responding So Positively to the Prospect of Spotify Price Increases?

Graph: Global, U.S., and Spotify Paid Streaming Growth, 2019 – 2023

IV. How Much Money Will Spotify Price Increases Bring in for Labels – Especially Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music?

V. As Spotify Raises Prices, Are Artists Positioned to Benefit?

VI. Spotify Price Increases for Publishers: A Look At How MLC and Public Performance Payments Could Change

VII. The Bottom Line: Does Spotify’s Retooled Cost Structure Mark the Beginning of a Lucrative New Era or An Attempt to Keep Pace With Inflation?

VIII. By the Dates: A Timeline of Spotify Price Increases, Non-Music Expansions, and Other Selected Developments, January 2023 – April 2024

Please note that reproduction or redistribution of this report is not permitted — thank you!

Introducing revamped Social & Streaming Stats.

The following comes from Chartmetric, a company DMN is partnered with.

We at Chartmetric are excited to present the latest enhancements to our Social & Streaming Stats, accessible on every Artist Page. In the last few months, we have worked to tailor the platform further for music industry professionals and have updated our interface to deliver a sharper, more discerning look at an artist’s data.

Our new powerful and customizable tool makes it easier to view top level stats for your artist at a glance, while also giving you the ability to drill down and learn exactly why and when your artist is seeing movement in their stats!

Streamlined & Focused Insights

We have redesigned the view to provide you with all of the metrics you care about at a glance. Our refined approach grants you a clear, immediate understanding of your artist’s performance and influence.

However, at any point you are a few clicks away from unparalleled accuracy and depth, where we have made it effortless to navigate through various time frames and stats to help you analyze both macro and micro trends. More importantly, it is now easier than ever to identify the impact of individual campaigns and events on your artist’s career.

Feature Overview

From the way we display daily changes with our new bar chart feature to the refined full-screen options for in-depth analysis, we have redesigned these charts to make them as practical as possible.

Granularity Control

Depending on the length of time frame you’re examining, our charts will automatically adjust the granularity or you can manually select your desired level of detail.

Use the granularity drop down to chose the frequency of the data shown. Source: Chartmetric

Line and Bar Chart Clarity

We’re now displaying cumulative data via line charts and period-specific data such as daily/weekly/monthly changes via bar charts! This differentiation will allow for instant clarity and easier visual trend recognition.

Line charts are used for cumulative values, like Spotify streams over time. Source: Chartmetric

Bar charts are used for non-cumulative measures, like daily YouTube video views. Source: Chartmetric

Consolidated Table View and Export to CSV

A new table format offers a comprehensive snapshot of all metrics over time in one convenient location. Better yet, you can now hit “Download as CSV” to quickly download all of the data at once!

A table view of multiple metrics for an artist, measured each day and downloadable as a CSV. Source: Chartmetric

Full-Screen Deep Dives

Enhanced full-screen options allow for a focused music data analysis tools of metrics without distractions. This view allows you to view incredible detail over extended time ranges for any stat.

A full screen view of an artist’s Spotify monthly listeners. Source: Chartmetric

Average Value Indicators

With averages for metrics clearly displayed for both cumulative and daily measures, you can quickly gauge performance against norms.

A bar chart for daily Wikipedia views with a dashed line showing the average value is 6.39k. Source: Chartmetric

Reorganized Metrics

We have reorganized the section to put the most relevant stats for you and your artist at the top of the pages. You can also customize and re-order these to whatever suits your needs best!

Customizable options for which metrics are shows on the Social & Streaming Stats tab. Source: Chartmetric

Main Benefits

Switching Between Big Picture Views and Deeper Dives

The platform’s automatic adjustment of data granularity ensures that you’re always viewing the most relevant information for any given time frame without the need for manual data sifting. This smart feature streamlines your workflow, allowing for quick insights at daily, weekly, and monthly levels.

Customization

All of the above features give you the ability to delve into the precise level of detail you require, enabling customization from your end. We provide a starting point but allow you to control all of the elements of your analysis, ensuring that the data you see is exactly what you need for informed decision-making.

These enhancements to Chartmetric’s Social & Streaming Stats are more than just aesthetic improvements: they represent our commitment to providing industry professionals with the most efficient and accurate tools for music data analysis. By fine-tuning the functionality to match the pace of the music industry, we empower you to quickly harness the insights you need to make strategic decisions.

We invite you to explore these updates and see for yourself how they can streamline your work!

Have any ideas or feedback? Reach out to our product management team at productmanagement@chartmetric.com, we would love to hear any thoughts you have about this feature or what you think could make it even better. Let’s continue to shape the future of music analytics together!

Hype Deck is Amazon Music’s take on promotional asset generation, and a powerful tool for those that maximize its impact.

Hype Deck delivers artist teams a deck of unique Hype Cards that can be shared with fans via social media, messaging apps, email, and other marketing channels. With that in mind, Digital Music News recently joined forces with Amazon Music to create the ultimate guide for using this powerful new marketing tool.

Table of Contents

• • What is Hype Deck, and how are artists using it to reach their fans?
  • Are all artists eligible to use Hype Deck?
  • How are Hype Cards generated?
  • What are the different types of Hype Cards available?
  • How can I activate, deploy, and maximize Hype Deck for my songs and other music assets?

What is Hype Deck, and how are artists using it to reach their fans?

In January of this year, Amazon Music for Artists released Hype Deck, a feature available on both mobile and web versions of their app. The tool equips artists and their teams to effectively market music assets to fans globally.

Artists can generate assets to promote their newly released songs (and previous releases), upcoming albums, or milestones like landing on a playlist.

The feature allows teams to select from almost 170 global Amazon music playlists, which currently include Rap Rotation, Country Heat, Breakthrough, All Hits, Viral Hits, Pop Culture, and many more.

Are all artists eligible to use Hype Deck?

Whether you’re a rising talent, indie artist, or a well-established musician, Hype Deck can help promote your profile, songs, albums, or showcase your milestones.

Anyone on an artist’s team, label, or distributor with access to an artist’s profile in Amazon Music for Artists can create Hype Cards. Artist managers and record label execs with access to multiple artist accounts simply choose a specific artist profile before they navigate to the Hype Deck section.

At the end of the day, it’s all about sharing successes, milestones, and new releases with fans.

How are Hype Cards generated?

Hype Cards can be generated in line with an artist’s brand or vision. It’s whatever an artist wants to promote and where they want to share it.

Fully customizable, artists can choose background colors and layout orientations. Hype Cards can also be shared with fans in multiple languages. Besides English, the feature supports Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Japanese.

What are the different types of Hype Cards available?

All your music moments — whether big or small — can find a Hype Card to share the celebration with fans and hype them up.

Artists planning a new release can use the Song Hype Card to highlight a song from an older album to build anticipation for an upcoming song. Artists can also promote previously released tracks on special occasions such as release anniversaries.

In a similar manner, Album Hype Cards can promote a new album release, while other Hype Cards can highlight and share artists’ successes with fans.

How can I activate, deploy, and maximize Hype Deck for my songs and other music assets?

The process is as simple as opening the Amazon Music for Artists app, selecting a song, album, or playlist to promote, and customizing the layout, colors, and language of your Hype Card. Artists can choose to share directly from the mobile app, or for desktop, download to share later.

Grab the associated link when downloading the visual asset, and users clicking on that link will be taken back to Amazon Music to listen to the artist’s music.

We hope this guide was helpful — and more importantly, helps you reach more fans more often!

Images: Mohamed Hassan, Walkerwandern, Spotify

Streaming music has been booming for years. But amidst all the rapid growth, how is the accuracy of reporting and payments faring?

In our latest DMN Pro Weekly report, we take an in-depth look at the data to rank today’s leading platforms on payouts and overall reporting accuracy.

The results may surprise you.

Report Table of Contents

Introduction: Streaming’s Growth and the Corresponding Importance of Accurate Payments

Graph: DSPs by 2022 Payments Accuracy

Spotify’s Recent Recording Royalties Calculation Changes Could Drive Continued Payments-Accuracy Growth

YouTube’s Payments Accuracy Is Solid in a Comparatively Quick-Moving Content Environment

TikTok’s Positioning Provides Telling Insight Amid an Evolving Licensing Confrontation

Please note that any authorized redistribution of this report is prohibited — thank you.

Emerging artists could be hardest hit by a TikTok ban. The United States produces the most emerging artists globally, according to Chartmetric data.

TikTok is battling its greatest regulatory threat to date in the U.S., where the ByteDance-developed app’s shutdown would affect a multitude of individuals, companies, and spaces. But what does this mean for the music industry — and all of its complicated sub-sectors?

In this white paper, DMN Pro takes an exhaustive look at the post-TikTok music industry’s winners and losers, from the major labels to DSPs and artists to UGC competitors.

REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: The Post-TikTok Music Landscape Could Give Rise to Unprecedented Changes – With Implications for Fans, Artists, and Companies Alike

Record Labels: Majors and Indies Stand to Lose in Several Areas (and Win in Others) With TikTok’s Ban

Graph: A Breakdown of Global Recorded Music Revenue from UGC and Ancillary Licensing Sources
Graph: 2023 Global Recorded Music Revenue by Segment

Publishers: Short-Term Losses, Particularly for Smaller Indies, Could Make Way for Long-Term Improvements

Songwriters: A Possible Licensing Revenue Upside Won’t Offset Immediate Discovery Setbacks, Especially for DIY Professionals

Artists: Post-TikTok, Artists At All Career Stages Will Suffer Varied Near-Term Professional Consequences

Graph: Selected Artists’ Social Media Followers, YouTube Subscribers, and Spotify Monthly Listeners
Superstar and Legendary Artists
Mid-Level Artists With Substantial Followings
Developing and Emerging Artists
Pre-Traction Artists
Graph: A 2023 Breakdown of Emerging Artists by Home Country

Competing UGC Platforms: Reels, Shorts, and Others Will Be the Clear Winners

Overall Licensing Revenue: Ancillary Setbacks Aside, TikTok’s Ban Will Have a Minimal Licensing Revenue Impact

Graph: Universal Music’s Estimated TikTok Revenue Versus Permanent Downloads Revenue, 2020 – 2023

Non-Label Sync Platforms: The Post-TikTok Industry May Look Different for Sync Platforms and Music Libraries

The Fans: More Than a Letdown for Fans, TikTok’s Ban Will Dramatically Affect Music Discovery

DSPs: What Does a TikTok Ban Mean for Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music?

Promoters and Venues: The TikTok Ban’s Significance for Live Music

Report Summary: The Post-TikTok Music Landscape’s Many Changes

By the Dates: A Timeline of TikTok Regulatory Scrutiny, December 2022 – April 2024

One-Sheet Infographic: The Post-TikTok Winners & Losers

Join the DMN Pro subscriber-only discussion below.

Also please note that any authorized redistribution of this report is prohibited — thank you.

If you have at least $100 in your marketing budget, you can run a Spotify Showcase campaign….but should you? Let’s talk about what Showcase is, some real-world results, and how you can set up a campaign.

What Is Spotify Showcase?

Spotify Showcase is a promoted banner for your new release. It appears at the top of the Spotify app’s homepage for some listeners. Spotify feeds the promoted release to listeners the algorithm thinks will listen to and enjoy it.

So basically, it’s a targeted ad you can run directly on Spotify.

You can let Spotify use the default audience, which is “listeners who are most likely to stream your release after seeing your campaign,” or you can choose your specified audience. We’ll talk more about the campaign targeting options in the “How To Set Up a Spotify Showcase” section below.

Spotify Showcase Real-World Results

According to Spotify, people who see a Showcase are, on average, six times more likely to stream the release you’re promoting. But that stat feels a little too esoteric. So let’s look at some real-world examples and results.

Indie artist Andrew Southworth ran three $100 Showcase campaigns, one for an album and the other two for two different singles. The album and one of the singles were targeted at United States listeners and the second single was targeted at Brazil listeners.

I want to look at the results from his album campaign, for which he used Spotify’s default targeting (he goes into more detail in the video below)…

Album (U.S. listeners)

People reached: 9,862

Clicks: 289

Converted listeners (people who listened from the Showcase): 173

Active streams per listener: 5.51

Playlist adds: 1

Saves: 249

In addition to these numbers, his Showcase got 10 listeners from his active audience to stream the album for the first time, 5 listeners to rejoin his active audience, and 122 listeners to join his active audience for the first time.

Now let’s look at a $100 Showcase campaign from two indie artists, Thomas Austin and Jon Henry. They ran a Showcase for their single with Spotify’s default U.S. targeting. Here are their results…

Single (U.S. listeners)

People reached: 5,820

Clicks: 262

Converted listeners (people who listened from the Showcase): 180

Active streams per listener: 1.87

Playlist adds: 17

Saves: 35

In addition to these numbers, their Showcase got 9 listeners from their active audience to stream the song for the first time, 14 listeners to rejoin their active audience, and 157 listeners to join their active audience for the first time.

Lastly, let’s look at the $100 Showcase campaign I did for my album. I also targeted only U.S. listeners and used Spotify’s default audience targeting.

Here are my results…

Album (U.S. listeners)

People reached: 8,146

Clicks: 334

Converted listeners (people who listened from the Showcase): 201

Active streams per listener: 6.15

Playlist adds: 53

Saves: 177

In addition to these numbers, my Showcase got 9 listeners from my active audience to stream the album for the first time, 5 listeners to rejoin my active audience, and 187 listeners to join my active audience for the first time.

Spotify also tells me what else my converted listeners did after interacting with my Showcase. It looks like 10 of my converted listeners also streamed my other releases with an average 2.1 streams per listener. It also led to 2 saves of my other releases.

Is Spotify Showcase Worth It?

In my opinion, the most important metrics to focus on are playlist adds and saves. This tells you that the song resonated with the listener so much that they added it to their Liked Songs and/or their personal playlist(s).

And I don’t know about you, but I’m very picky about my personal playlists. They each have a different vibe so I can play a playlist based on how I feel or want to feel. So if you get added to my playlist, I’m going to hear your song a bunch of times and I’m more likely to become your lifelong fan.

Plus, according to Spotify, playlist adds and saves correlate with a 2.5x streaming increase for an artist 6 months later. And who wouldn’t want that?

So for $100, I got…

• 201 people to listen to my album who may not have listened otherwise
• 53 playlist adds
• 177 song saves

I definitely don’t regret running a Showcase campaign. It may not be a regular part of my marketing plan, but it’s a good way to reactivate listeners and get back into people’s algorithms. You can’t expect to make a profit from a Showcase, but you can count on growing your audience.

How To Set Up a Spotify Showcase

From your Spotify for Artists dashboard, go to the Campaigns tab. If you have any music eligible, you’ll see a “Create Campaign” button.

Next, choose what release you want to promote.

Then you get to the campaign details. Choose your target country and campaign start date.

Then choose the headline that will appear above the banner on Spotify – you can’t write your own headline but you can choose from one of Spotify’s pre-determined headlines. They offer different headlines based on the target audience you choose to hopefully engage more listeners.

Before you choose your audience, I suggest checking out Spotify’s tips on how to choose based on your goals.

Keep in mind, the minimum amount you must spend on a Showcase is $100. The campaign will run for 14 days or when your budget is used up, and it starts at $0.40 per click but can vary based on your targeting choices.

The eligibility requirements for running a Showcase campaign are:

• Must be an album, EP, or single (no podcasts, karaoke versions, or soundalikes)
• You must be the main artist
• Can’t promote music with more than 3 main artists
• Only available in Australia, Canada, France, the UK, and the US
• Release artwork needs to comply with Spotify’s advertising Terms and Conditions

Spotify Showcase FAQs

How do I access my Spotify Showcase?

You can access your Spotify Showcase by visiting the Campaigns tab from your Spotify for Artists dashboard. If you have eligible music, you’ll be able to click the “Create Campaign” button to get started.

Is Spotify Showcase free?

No, Spotify Showcase is a targeted ad that is fed to listeners who are likely to stream your music. The minimum you need to spend on a Showcase is $100.

How do you create a Showcase campaign on Spotify?

From your Spotify for Artists dashboard, go to the Campaigns tab. Click the “Create Campaign” button to get started. From there, you’ll choose what release you want to promote, your targeting preferences, the campaign start date, and your budget (minimum $100).

Photo credit: Brandon Hoogenboom

This article is for two types of songwriters: those who have never written a song and those who have only just started and need some guidance. Let’s talk about song structure, the parts of a song, and how you can use them to write.

The Parts of a Song

The main parts of a song are the Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus/Lift, Chorus, Instrumental Break, Bridge, and Outro. Obviously, not every song needs every one of these parts, but most songs have verses and a chorus (the two most important parts of a song).

Intro

According to Spotify from 2014, about 35% of listeners skip a song in the first 30 seconds. And nearly half of them will skip the song before it’s over. Despite these stats being from many years ago, this trend is probably still somewhat accurate. Our attention spans definitely haven’t gotten better, and the average song length continues to decrease.

The point is, your intro is important. If you want to increase the likelihood that people will keep listening, you need to make it interesting enough for them to stick around.

Verse

Verses present the idea of the song, usually through a story or some other writing method (see “Writing Techniques” below for more).

Verses should always support the main idea of the song. There’s a saying, “Write to your title.” This means all of the verse lyrics should point to, prepare us for, or support in some way the point of the song.

Pre-Chorus/Lift

This is where you prepare the listener for the chorus. It can be a bridge between the verse and chorus, either as a continuation of the verse or an intro to the chorus.

It usually helps build anticipation, often by changing the dynamics so it’s clear when we get to the chorus.

Chorus

The chorus should present the main idea of the song. The takeaway. The message. The big payoff. Ideally, it also has the most memorable melody. It’s the part you want stuck in people’s heads, both the melody and the lyrics. It hooks the listener, which is why it’s often called the Hook.

If you don’t win over the listener by the chorus, then you’ve lost them for good.

Bridge

The bridge is a good way to add a new angle to the big idea of the song. You can use it to expound on the main message, taking the listener deeper into it. You could think of it like another verse with different chords and melody.

“Bridge” and “Tag” are sometimes interchangeable. A tag is a repeating line that usually first appears in the chorus.

Instrumental Break

This usually comes in after the chorus, but you can put it anywhere you like honestly.

Outro

The outro is an opportunity to end the song with a lyric that makes the listener feel like they went on a journey. So you could write a spin on the opening lyric, the hook, or a new line that provides some closure. Alternatively, the outro could just be the tag, or it could be totally instrumental.

The Most Common Song Structures (and Variations)

Everything is recycled from something else. Every new song uses the same chords. Many of your favorite songs use common chords and chord progressions. And most songs follow one of the common song structures.

But this is not a bad thing. This should actually be comforting. We’re all working with the same tools. You have access to the same stuff as your favorite songwriters.

And because you’re new to songwriting, it can be really helpful to start with one of the most common song structures. So let’s look at what those oft-used song structures are…

Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus (ABAB)

This is probably the most common song structure in most genres. It’s the simplest, so it often works well in pop music.

Examples of an ABAB song structure…

“HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar

“We Are The Champions” by Queen

Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus (ABABCB)

This is also a very common song structure, and it can be considered a variation of the ABAB structure.

Examples of an ABABCB song structure…

“Light On” by Maggie Rogers

“Set Fire To the Rain” by Adele

Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus – Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus (ABCABC)

This is very common in pop music although it’s a bit more subtle. And sometimes, a pre-chorus type section might have been written as the end of the verse before it.

Examples of an ABCABC song structure…

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana

“Imagine” by John Lennon

Verse – Verse – Bridge – Verse (AABA)

This song structure is very common in folk and singer/songwriter genres. Many times, the “Hook” is a one-liner at the end of each verse, sometimes with slightly different lyrics.

Examples of an AABA song structure…

“Peace Like a River” by Paul Simon

“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin

Writing Techniques

Before you decide what song structure to use for your next song, let’s talk about some different writing methods. Once you know these songwriting techniques, it may make it easier to choose a song structure.

Allegory

An allegory is when you tell a story that can be interpreted as meaning something other than what’s on the surface.

Examples of allegory in songs include “The Temptation of Adam” by Josh Ritter,  “The Fox, The Crow and The Cookie” by mewithoutyou, and “American Pie” by Don McLean.

Alliteration and assonance

Alliteration is when you use the same consonant sound at the beginning of words next to each other in your lyrics.

Like when Taylor Swift said, “And, baby, now we’ve got bad blood.” Or when Frank Sinatra sang, “I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king.”

Assonance is when you use similar vowel sounds near each other in your lyrics. It’s not an exact rhyme but it’s close.

Like when Edgar Allen Poe wrote in The Raven: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”

Or when Eminem rapped, “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy / There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.”

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is when you exaggerate something in order to make a point.

Examples would include Coldplay saying, “It feels like a million miles away.” Or when Mariah Carey sang, “I can’t live without you by my side.”

Metaphors

A metaphor is when you refer to one thing by mentioning another thing.

When June Carter wrote the lyrics to “Ring of Fire” – “Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring” – she was talking about the all-consuming nature of her and Johnny Cash’s love.

And “Blackbird” by The Beatles is a metaphor for racial inequality and a call for true freedom for everyone.

Personification

Personification is when you attribute human characteristics to something nonhuman.

Like when Led Zeppelin said, “And so today, my world it smiles.” Or when Bob Marley wrote, “The high yellow moon won’t come out to play.” Or when JAY-Z rapped, “The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien.”

Similes

A simile is similar to a metaphor except it uses the words “like” or “as.” While a metaphor says one thing is another thing, a simile says one thing is like another thing.

Similes have been in tons of songs throughout history. Like Oasis when they said, “But her soul slides away like a ghost.” Or when John Mayer sang, “She shines like a diamond in a coal mine.” Or when Def Leppard said, “Melt like sugar, sweet and slow.”

Storytelling

This is my personal favorite type of songwriting because you can do this without being overly poetic. It’s too easy to try to sound poetic but end up sounding confusing or like you’re trying too hard. But by telling a story, you can create an emotional impact without overdoing it. People connect with and remember stories. It’s how we’re built.

The best tip I’ve heard for writing story songs is to zoom in on one moment and dissect it. Focus on the five senses involved in that moment. And show us the moment, don’t just tell us about it.

Then think about the lesson of that story – that’s your hook/chorus. Then you can express your thoughts about that lesson in verse two.

How To Find the Right Song Structure

Like almost everything in music, song structures are guidelines, not rules. You don’t have to use one of the common song structures. You can do whatever you want.

Ultimately, it all comes down to feel. What feels natural for the song you’re writing?

Here are some further guidelines to try for yourself:

• Telling a story or using allegory: Verse – Verse – Bridge – Verse
• Writing a pop song: Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus – Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus
• Writing a rap song: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus (with an optional Bridge)

Try this: write songs in each song structure to get a feel for what you like and what works for your style of songwriting.

Song Structure FAQs

What is the basic structure of a song?

There are many song structures you can use, but here are some of the most common options: 1) Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus, 2) Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – Bridge – Chorus, 3) Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus – Verse – Pre-Chorus – Chorus, and 4) Verse – Verse – Bridge – Verse.

What are the six sections of a song?

The six main sections of a song are Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus/Lift, Chorus, Bridge, Outro (you could also include Instrumental Break as a seventh section).

What is the easiest song structure?

If you’re new to songwriting, try starting with this song structure: Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus. It’s simple and will help you become familiar with the two most important parts of a song.

All over the map: selected artists’ social media followers, YouTube subscribers, and Spotify monthly listeners.

TikTok is facing its greatest regulatory threat to date in the U.S., where lawmakers are rallying behind forced-sale legislation. TikTok says this would effectively amount to a ban in the app’s biggest market, with ripple effects impacting dozens of industries. But what exactly would a ban look like for the music industry?

TikTok’s possible U.S. shutdown would bring music-specific consequences affecting licensing, supplemental artist income, promotion, discovery, fan interaction, and more. Though nothing to scoff at, the lost licensing revenue would pale in comparison to the absence of what has quietly become a go-to promotional tool for artists and labels of all sizes.

In this DMN Pro Weekly Report, we attempt to pick apart a post-TikTok world.

Report Table of Contents:

I. A Recap of the TikTok Forced-Sale Bill’s Legislative Progress 

II. The Music Industry Without TikTok: How a U.S. Ban Could Affect Labels’ Revenue and Artists’ Income

A. Graph: Selected Artists’ Social Media Followers, YouTube Subscribers, and Spotify Monthly Listeners

III. TikTok As a Music Marketing Tool – Will a Viable Replacement Emerge in the Event of a U.S. Shutdown? 

IV. TikTok and the Future of Music: Should We Expect Fundamental Industry Changes Post-Ban? 

V. By the Dates: Key Music Industry Revenue- and Promotion-Related TikTok Developments, 2022-2024

New! Join the DMN Pro subscriber-only discussion below.

Also please note that any authorized redistribution of this report is prohibited — thank you.

Photo credit: Brett Jordan

Now that recording setups can be totally mobile and remote, headphones have become a much more important tool for indie musicians, producers, and engineers. So we’re going to review some of the best mixing headphones and how to mix on headphones.

Should You Mix On Headphones?

You might’ve heard people say you shouldn’t mix on headphones. And while it’s better to mix on monitors, you can still get a good mix with headphones.

“While it’s certainly tricky to replace loudspeakers completely during the mixing process,” writes Sound On Sound, “it’s quite possible to do about 90 percent of your mixing on headphones.”

Let’s look at the benefits and downsides of mixing on headphones…

The benefits of mixing on headphones:

• Better bass response (if your room is untreated): if your monitors are set up in a room that’s not treated to handle bass, you can get a lot of bass buildup. In this scenario, headphones may give you a more accurate bass response.
• Fewer room reflections: again, if your room is untreated, using monitors to mix may not be ideal. In this case, headphones can help you dial in your mix without the sound of the room.
• Mobile: headphones are really the only way to mix music on the go. You’re not going to bring your monitors with you when you travel, but headphones can easily fit into your backpack.

The downsides of mixing on headphones…

• Higher potential for ear fatigue or hearing loss: when you’re mixing on headphones, the sound is getting pumped directly into your ears. There’s no distance between the sound and your ears like there is with monitors. This can cause ear fatigue and, over time, hearing loss if you’re not careful.
• Gives you a different soundstage: when you listen on monitors, some of the sound from the left monitor hits your right ear but slightly behind the sound from the right monitor. And vice versa. This creates a totally different stereo field than if you were listening on headphones.

So how do you take advantage of the upsides and avoid the downsides? Here are some tips for how to mix music on headphones…

The key is to check your mix on other sources. If you’re going to mix on headphones, make sure you’re also mixing on monitors. If you don’t have monitors, listen on earbuds, your computer speaker, in your car, and wherever else you can. This helps you ensure the mix sounds good regardless of the source.

Opt for open-back headphones if you can. Closed-back headphones are meant to completely cover the ears, making them great for tracking live instruments. But open-back headphones allow bleed from the earcups, preventing ear fatigue. Also, they usually have less of a low-frequency response, potentially giving you a more accurate sound for mixing.

Don’t turn it up too loud. It can be tempting to keep bumping up the volume because louder music sounds better to our brains. But if you turn it up too loud, you can get ear fatigue, a headache, and eventually hearing damage.

Take regular 5-10 minute breaks. This helps protect your ears and also keeps your mind and ears fresh.

Try adjusting your headphones on your head. If you wear your headphones slightly off of your ears (ex. slightly lower and slightly forward on your ears), it can give you a sharper image of the soundscape. And it can help you avoid ear fatigue.

Lastly, use headphone mixing software. Some software can emulate what it would sound like if you were listening through monitors or in a certain room. These programs can help you make sure your mix sounds good regardless of the listening source.

Most headphones have a built-in bump between 40Hz and 500Hz to make up for not “feeling” as much of the bass through headphones. And most headphones also have a gentle roll-off of the higher frequencies, often around 20kHz. So calibrating your headphones is important.

Software To Improve Your Mixing Experience

Let’s take a quick look at some software that will help you get more accurate mixes through your headphones. These programs model the sound of different listening contexts, like professionally tuned speakers, your car, a club, and many others.

Probably the most well-known option is SoundID from Sonarworks. It will “calibrate your headphones and speakers…to trust every mixing decision.” And you can use the free trial before you buy.

You can also try The VSX Headphone Mixing System from Steven Slate. Mike Kosacek, an experienced engineer, writing for Tape Op Magazine, said this program is “a tool that I will 100 percent be using on future mixes to ensure I’m hearing everything I should be hearing!”

There’s also Nx by Waves, which Sound On Sound called “a very cost-effective” plugin that’s “surprisingly three-dimensional.”

10 of the Best High-End Mixing Headphones

If you’ve got a bit of a budget, you may want to spend a little more to get a better pair of headphones for mixing. So below are some of the best high-end headphones, their approximate cost, and reviews that represent the general consensus of users.

AKG K712 PRO (open-back) – $500-700

Photo credit: AKG

Sound On Sound: “…the open‑back design delivers a natural, spacious sound with precise stereo imaging as well as helping to avoid listening fatigue.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.8/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “…boosted bass that created a muddled midrange and a tepid soundstage…”

Audeze LCD‑X (open-back) – $1,200

Sound On Sound: “…promises to deliver a listening experience comparable to high‑end speaker systems, with a neutral response and low distortion figures helping to combat listening fatigue.”

Amazon rating: 4.2/5 stars

Reddit user review: “The LCD-Xs present instruments and vocals on top and close around of you…”

Audio Technica ATH‑R70x (open-back) – $300

Sound On Sound: “…promises a natural and spacious sound thanks to acoustically transparent aluminium honeycomb mesh earcup housings, as well as minimal distortion, a balanced tonality with an extended high‑end frequency response and detailed transient reproduction.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.7/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “It’s a phenomenal headphone, but the thin pads lead me to feel physical discomfort around my ears in a matter of minutes…”

Austrian Audio The Composer (open-back) – $2,700

Photo credit: Austrian Audio

Sound On Sound: “…said to deliver precise reproduction throughout the frequency range along with low THD levels.”

Reddit review: “Detailed but never sibilant or fatiguing, these are truly endgame material for me.”

Avantone Planar (open-back) – $400

Photo credit: Avantone

Sound On Sound: “…offering an accurate sound that couples a detailed high‑frequency response with natural low‑end reproduction and a fast response time.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.1/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “…the Avantone is a fairly underrated headphone…”

Focal Clear Mg Professional (open-back) – $1,500

Photo credit: Focal

Sound On Sound: “…said to create an extremely precise sound that delivers detail across the full audio spectrum whilst maintaining a flat and natural tonal balance.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.8/5 stars

Reddit review: “…Focal made the new MG model slightly fuller in the bass and almost no peakiness in the treble.”

Neumann NDH 30 (open-back) – $650

Photo credit: Neumann

Sound On Sound: “It shares the same high‑quality spring steel and aluminium construction as the earlier NDH 20, but with an open‑back design that helps to deliver a fast transient response and maintains a natural, transparent sound throughout the entire frequency range.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.8/5 stars

Reddit review: “The tuning is excellent. One of the best I’ve ever heard.”

Sennheiser HD 600 (open-back) – $400

SoundGuys: “…one of the most venerated headphones in the audiophile space over the last few decades for good reason: it’s great.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.7/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “…tried and true. There are fancier (more expensive) models out there with wider soundstages, but they’ve been good enough for tons of engineers since 1997 and that’s good enough for me.”

Shure SRH1840 (open-back) – $600

Photo credit: Amazon

Sound On Sound: “The 1840 offers an extended high‑frequency response, accurate bass reproduction and a wide stereo image…”

Sweetwater rating: 4.7/5 stars

Reddit review: “It’s like musical nirvana. Very clear sounding and great imaging. Bass is tight. Has some nice sparkle and a very large soundstage.”

Sony MDR‑MV1 (open-back) – $400

Photo credit: Guitar Center

Sound On Sound: “…promises unparalleled spatial accuracy for all listening formats thanks to a precision‑tuned open‑back design loaded with drivers that have been optimised to deliver a natural, balanced sound with minimal distortion.”

Sweetwater rating: 5/5 stars (two reviews)

Reddit review: “…I think they are very good but I still don’t trust them enough to mix without also checking the monitors.”

Best Mixing Headphones on a Budget

If you’re like many other indie musicians and you have a smaller budget, there are still really good options for you. Here are a few of the best mixing headphones at a lower pricepoint.

Audio-Technica ATH M50x (closed-back) – $150

Photo credit: Audio-Technica

Tape Op Magazine: “They’re comfortable, I can wear them for extended periods of time and can hear a lot of detail on them.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.7/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “M50x seems to have fixed some of the tuning problems [present in the M50]…”

Sony MDR-7506 (closed-back) – $100

Photo credit: Sony

New York Times: “…our listening panel of audio experts and musicians chose the MDR-7506 set over nearly 150 headphones in the same price range, as well as dozens that cost over $200.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.5/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “I bought a pair and they’ve been great. I’m sure there’s benefit in paying more, but these are well balanced and work for me…”

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO (closed-back) – $100

Photo credit: Sennheiser

SoundGuys: “…may be a little lightweight on bass, but if you’re mixing or recording, it’s a solid tool and offers a good value.”

Sweetwater rating: 4.4/5 stars

Top-voted Reddit comment: “I rarely ‘mix’ on them, prefer monitors at lower volumes for most of those hours, but I will pull them out for ‘details’ if I am trying to get an instrument to fit, and I ‘confirm’ a mix towards the end on the cans…”

Author’s note: these are my main headphones. I normally mix on monitors, but I’ve done a lot of mixing on these can, and I always check my mixes on them. They have a relatively flat response, which I prefer for mixing.

Headphones for Mixing FAQs

Open-back headphones vs closed-back headphones…what’s the difference?

Open-back headphones allow air and sound to pass through the ear cups from the back. This means there’s much less low-frequency buildup than closed-back headphones. Closed-back headphones fully cover the ear, making them better at sealing in sound and isolating your ears from outside noise.

What type of headphones are best for mixing?

Open-back headphones are preferred for mixing because they are less likely to have unnecessary bass buildup. Also, because they allow air and noise out of the back, they’re less likely than closed-back headphones to cause ear fatigue.

How do I choose headphones for mixing?

When buying headphones for mixing, opt for open-backed headphones if you can afford them. One of the main things to remember is, you want the flattest possible frequency response. This will let you hear everything in the mix without certain frequencies getting boosted more than others.

Alex Solano of AlexProMix recaps the incredible evolution in Dolby Atmos and spatial audio mixing, how the current shift and technology upgrades underscore the industry’s commitment to innovation and enhanced listening experiences.

The following was developed in collaboration with AlexProMix, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

In 2021 when spatial audio came into the picture, the landscape was packed with technical limitations and challenges.

Music mixing engineer and early adopter of Dolby Atmos, Alex Solano, sat down with DMN to reveal his take on the monumental evolution of Dolby Atmos, the opportunities and challenges the shift now offers professionals, and how his mixing template allows professionals to create immersive mixes and stereo mixes simultaneously, within one session.

Today, the immersive audio landscape looks extremely promising for audio professionals, and opens up a multitude of creative and monetary opportunities. But the transition was a painstaking process, involving significant technical upgrades — including a minimum requirement of a 12-speaker setup and an investment in high-end equipment — alongside mastering the complexities of immersive audio mixing.

To fully appreciate Dolby Atmos music mixing advancements, it’s essential to understand the early obstacles and creative hurdles faced by audio mixers.

During the early days of immersive mixes, collaborative innovations between Avid Pro Tools and Dolby were designed to optimize the music-mixing process. But Dolby Atmos mixing in Pro Tools involved complex setups, with separate applications for Pro Tools and the Dolby Atmos Renderer.

The configuration also limited the use of outboard gear due to the integrated closed-system linking Pro Tools with the Dolby Renderer.

Typically, audio experts also needed a separate computer to operate the Dolby Renderer for speaker routing. This setup was expensive, and required the coordination of multiple systems to function effectively within a music production environment.

“No longer could you create a mix on headphones and check the mix in your car,” explains Solano, adding, “With Atmos, a minimum requirement of a 7.1.4 speaker setup is necessary to ensure your immersive mixes translate to multi-channel playback systems.”

The initial setup also enforced a two-stage creation and approval process, stifling creativity and workflow.

After creating an artist’s stereo mix, mixing engineers would have to seek approval before they exported the pre-mastering processed stems into a new session that was designed for immersive audio. After making a Dolby Atmos mix, the engineers would then be required to seek out artist approval once again.

Apart from this constant back and forth for creation and approval, the process of matching the tonality of the stems to the stereo master was also incredibly complex.

Mixing engineers needed a solution that would allow them to implement multiple sound cards simultaneously. According to Solano, that turning point came with the launch of AUX I/O in Pro Tools.

The feature laid the groundwork for more integrated solutions, and more flexible audio routing — including the Dolby Atmos Renderer to different destinations. Although the solutions improved the workflow, Solano says mixers and engineers still faced stability and latency management challenges with AUX I/O.

“Expanding track widths in Pro Tools to accommodate up to 9.1.6 configurations opened new possibilities for mixing, enabling more seamless integration of stereo and immersive formats,” Solano explains. But despite the initial challenges, Solano says these developments opened up possibilities in mixing technology, and hinted at the development of a unified mixing template — ‘one that could cater to stereo and immersive outputs.’

AUX I/O in ProTools marked a significant turning point in allowing the implementation of multiple sound cards. (Photo: AlexProMix)

However, ‘the game changer in the spatial audio space’ came at the end of 2023, when Pro Tools introduced the integrated Dolby Renderer.

The integration facilitated the simultaneous processing of immersive and stereo mixes, and directly routed stems to the Renderer. Furthermore, the capability to monitor binaural and stereo mixes through dedicated AUX tracks further enhanced the mixing process, ensuring consistency across different listening formats.

“Multi-channel plugins offer tailored processing for immersive formats, and multi-mono plugins apply uniform effects across all channels.”

Solano also points out that the distinction between multi-channel vs multi-mono plugins, and understanding their unique application is vital for achieving the desired tonal balance and dynamic range — in both immersive and stereo mixes. “Multi-channel plugins offer tailored processing for immersive formats, and multi-mono plugins apply uniform effects across all channels.”

Parallel to these advancements, early adopter Solano was investing his expertise in creating a mix template that streamlines the mixing process, while ensuring the quality and emotional impact of music is elevated. “The template brings the artist’s vision to life in an immersive sonic environment, while creating an Atmos and Stereo master that are consistent in the emotional impact of the mix,” he says.

Solano’s immersive music template shares insights and practices that can enrich the mixing workflow, opening the gateways for more creators to explore immersive audio’s incredible possibilities.

Music Merch Manager App by Merch Cat

What happens when merch stops being an afterthought and turns into an active revenue-generator? Merch Cat says its elevated focus on technology and analytics can boost artist merch revenue by as much as 20%, while strategically crafting a more reliable process for inventory management, sales tracking, and decision-making.

For artists and managers, merchandise typically takes a backseat to music creation, releases, and touring. As a result, merch presents itself as a chaotic afterthought — ridden with routine disruptions of procurement, quality checks, inventory issues, data tracking, and fulfillment challenges.

Vanessa Ferrer, founder of Merch Cat, recently sat down with DMN to discuss how a sophisticated system of inventory management and tracking allows artists to significantly expand their merch revenue stream. In a bid to ensure merch represents a refined and reliable revenue category, Merch Cat has monumentally expanded its focus on tech to amplify merch processes for artists, managers, and labels.

“It’s all about merch strategy,” says Ferrer while adding that the industry needs to adjust its approach to merchandise and ‘place merchandise strategy at the forefront since merch is a lucrative business component.’

The company dedicates comprehensive attention to merch metrics management ‘to optimize value for artists.’ “It’s an intuitive process and streamlined workflow, with tech that does the work behind the scenes to ensure an optimized data output consisting of usable reports and analytics,” says Ferrer. Just recently, Merch Cat joined forces with DMN to further expand its merch footprint.

Merch Cat’s continuously-expanding roster includes artists and bands like The Marshall Tucker Band, George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic, Noel and Ben Haggard, Jesse Dayton, Struggle Jennings, Britnee Kellogg, and others. Also on board are industry advisors Ted Cohen (TAG Strategic), Rich Stumpf (Hawkeye Music Group), and Lou Plaia (Sentric Music) — a trio that Ferrer says ‘aims to help expand the client base, extend industry reach, and consult on business strategy.’

Ferrer believes streamlining merchandising processes with technology can generate usable insights from sales data. With user-friendly tech aimed at tackling inventory management and metrics, Merch Cat is ‘helping change the game for live show merch sales, where a vast majority of sales happen.’

With a focus on that aspect, Merch Cat’s Music Merch Manager App offers an upgraded analytics dashboard with ‘Merch Metrics’ — packed with essential insights to enable artists and their teams to easily make merch decisions.

The app places the entire merch business on one mobile device, allowing artists to quickly and easily enter inventory, import shows from Bandsintown, track sales and profits at a glance, automatically generate settlement reports with the venues’ music and merch splits, and more. Merch Cat is also integrated with Square as its payment processor, making it a seamless transition for pre-existing accounts.

Ferrer explains that artists gain a complete snapshot of essential information such as what sizes, styles, and quantities fans are purchasing. It also shows which items generated the highest sales. “It keeps all the data centralized, and the analytics in one place.”

“It keeps all the data centralized, and the analytics in one place.”

This data is core to optimizing revenue, Ferrer believes, as it ‘further expands your merch strategy, offers central inventory, sales tracking, and analytics.’

On the other hand, Merch Cat’s FAN app is the artists’ virtual storefront, which Ferrer says ‘allows fans to buy merchandise before, during, or after the show.’

She adds, “Fans receive a code for their purchase and can pick it up at the table. Or they can choose to have it shipped to their home.”

Merch Cat FAN Band Merchandise App

With an ‘artist-friendly interface,’ Merch Cat is deepening the connection between artists, their merch, and fans. Apart from the integration of the web store via a widget, the app has also added a Spotify player to the artist’s profile.

To ensure that artists can offer merchandise that they’re proud to put their name on, Merch Cat also offers merchandise procurement as a value-added service, ensuring quality merch at artist-friendly prices.

Ferrer says this will allow artists to earn higher revenues with more competitive margins — and lead to happier fans.

New York-based rock band Hollis Brown can testify to that. On their summer tour, following a ‘merch strategy’ tie-up with Merch Cat, the band witnessed a 20% increase in merch sales. According to Hollis Brown’s management company, ‘Merch Cat helped strategize to revamp the merch line,’ and provided accurately-tracked information on inventory levels that optimized organization and revenue.

Other musicians and bands have also revealed the many ways in which Merch Cat has helped them achieve their merch goals. Via Merch Cat’s Merch Metrics, Hannah Wicklund’s vinyl and CDs became top-sellers at live shows. Melissa Menago found a means to sell merch before her record release show — also during the show and after it — via Merch Cat Fan. Rock band Broke City attribute their ‘biggest merch night ever’ to Merch Cat streamlining the merch table process. And metal and classical fusion band The Breathing Process say Merch Cat has been a ‘game changer,’ enabling them to solve their merch inventory problems.

So what exactly does Merch Cat bring to the table that enables artists to have a successful merch business? Ferrer believes that apart from its technology, it’s the ‘human aspect’ and ‘personalization’ that differentiates Merch Cat from its competitors.

“Merch Cat brings the whole gamut, Ferrer relayed. “We’ll develop your merch strategy, get you the merchandise at a targeted price point, put it on Merch Cat, use Merch Cat to sell, and then look at analyses and insights to optimize the strategy even further.”

Putting together an effective ‘merch mix’ Ferrer says, requires a focus on ‘understanding your fans, maximizing your profits, and reducing waste.’

“With a robust strategy backed by data, you ensure you capitalize on every opportunity of a sale. Our technology and insights bring you the information you need so you don’t lose sales because your fans arrived at the table and left because they had to wait too long, or you don’t have the style or size they want.”

According to Ferrer, one of Merch Cat’s most prominent upsides is that it doesn’t require days of set-up time — thanks to a user-friendly workflow and interface.

“If you know your merch inventory, you can use Merch Cat after you’ve arrived at the venue,” explains Ferrer, adding, “You can do it all on a mobile device — in a pinch.”

When artists embrace a more sophisticated system spanning inventory purchase, real-time reports, and payment tracking, Merch Cat promises they can ‘merch better, increase profits, make their fans happier, and spend more time doing what they love.’

Just how little is TikTok paying UMG? A comparison between Universal Music’s estimated annual revenue from TikTok versus permanent downloads (Source: UMG statements and financials).

More than one month into the TikTok and Universal Music Group standoff, all signs point to an intensifying dispute between the companies. Here’s an analysis of where the high-stakes impasse stands – and how the episode’s fallout could drive a fundamental shift in the way music factors into the UGC space.

It can be safely stated that February delivered little concrete progress toward a resolution for TikTok and UMG, thereby setting the stage for a possible multi-month (or longer) standoff. As a result, the conversation naturally transitions to what UMG’s aggressive approach means for TikTok and the broader UGC space.

Report Table of Contents:

I. Universal Music Execs’ Earnings Call Comments Point to a Deepening TikTok Disagreement – And a New Approach to Deals With the App’s Competitors

II. How Are Universal Music and TikTok Faring Amid Their Escalating Licensing Battle?

Graph: Universal Music Group Permanent Downloads vs. Estimated TikTok Royalty Revenue, 2020-2023

Graph: TikTok Active User Net Changes, 1/21-1/27 and 2/18-2/24

III. As TikTok and UMG Square Off, Are We Witnessing a UGC-Licensing Realignment?

IV. By the Dates: A 2024 Timeline of the Universal Music-TikTok Dispute

New! Join the DMN Pro subscriber-only discussion below.

Also please note that any authorized redistribution of this report is prohibited — thank you.

Photo credit: David Pupăză

As an indie artist, you’re always looking for a way to get ahead. An edge. You could even say a shortcut. Well, Spotify Discovery Mode is not a shortcut, but it could help you grow your music career. The catch is, Spotify takes a portion of your streams in exchange.

What Is Spotify’s Discovery Mode?

Spotify Discovery Mode is a tool that lets you, the artist, push your music out to more people through its algorithm. In exchange, Spotify keeps a 30% commission on all streams pushed out via Discovery Mode contexts (currently Spotify Radio, Autoplay, and Daily Mix) and not from anywhere else.

So if someone listens to your song via Discovery Mode, Spotify keeps 30% of the payout for that stream. But if that listeners adds your song to their own playlist, you would get 100% of the streaming royalties when the song is played from that playlist.

This tool does not guarantee more streams, but it “increases the likelihood of the selected songs being recommended.” Spotify looks at song engagement, both within and without Discovery Mode, to determine if it will get pushed to more listeners.

So it doesn’t push your song to random people. It uses the algorithm to recommend songs to listeners who may like the song.

Discovery Mode operates on a month-to-month basis, so when you opt in a song, it’s opted in for a month. After that, you can choose to opt it out or opt it in for another month.

And you’re not giving up any rights to your song. You’re simply asking Spotify to show your song to more people, and in exchange Spotify keeps a portion of the streams from its Discovery Mode efforts.

Is Spotify Discovery Mode Worth It?

According to Spotify, on average, artists who use Discovery Mode see a 50% boost in saves, a 44% boost in playlist adds, and a 37% boost in follows.

They calculate these increases by looking at a track’s stats in the 28 days prior to it entering Discovery Mode. Then they compare these numbers to that track’s stats in Discovery Mode contexts during the campaign period.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, let’s see if Discovery Mode is actually worth it based on people who have actually used it.

Indie artist Nic D said on the NDPNDNT podcast that it’s a “really a great tool if your song is actually good.” And as Spotify says, “It only works if fans love [the song] too.”

Nic D points out that even though Spotify takes a commission from Discovery Mode streams, these are streams you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

Artist Brian Hazard wrote a case study on his experience with Discovery Mode. Overall, it sounds like he had positive results.

“It looks like the more songs you opt in, the more streams you get,” he writes. “The effect is large enough that, for me at least, streams per song is irrelevant. I want as many streams as I can get, so I’m going to opt in as many songs as I can!”

Last year, Ari from Ari’s Take published the results from an artist who had been using Discovery Mode for 5 months.

“Every month it has brought a healthy lift in listeners in streams,” he writes.

“…If you use Discovery Mode,” he continues, “it’s safe to say that you will see a bump in streams and listeners.”

Also last year, indie artist Andrew Southworth said Discovery Mode is a “no brainer.” He shares all the stats and results from his experience, which will give you a good idea of what to expect. Keep in mind, this was last year when Discovery Mode was relatively new. So is it still a no brainer?

“Eventually, down the line,” he says, “when everyone’s using Discovery Mode, it’s effectively like no one having Discovery Mode.”

Does Discovery Mode Decrease Your Monthly Listenership?

In my research, I noticed a common theme: artists who noticed a decrease in monthly listeners after using Discovery Mode.

“It works okay-ish/well for a couple of genres but it’s awful for the most,” said this Redditor five months ago. “…In my case it brought me down from 35k [monthly listeners] to 20k and dropping.”

Also, this Redditor said four months ago that after using Discovery Mode, they went from 80k monthly listeners to 52k.

But they said “even if I hadn’t opted into Discovery Mode my listeners and streams would’ve dropped as songs aren’t being pushed as much via the algorithmic playlists as Spotify is actively focusing on pushing Discovery Mode plays so they can make more money.”

Another musician says they went from 30k monthly listeners to 5k after using Discovery Mode.

“When it was just…Beta I tried it and got good results,” they said three months ago. “But only the first time I did it. It gave me a good bump in followers and monthly listeners. So I thought cool, this is worth it. But when I did it again my monthly listeners went way down from 30k to 5k. Normally I range between 10k-20k monthly listeners without doing anything but just releasing music and making content for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.”

We can’t confirm why this decrease in monthly listenership has happened for these artists, but we do know there are so many factors that could have caused this drop.

And this might be why Spotify has since increased the monthly listenership minimum for Discovery Mode to 25,000. Whereas before, artists could use Discovery Mode with much fewer monthly listeners.

When (and When Not To) Run Discovery Mode

According to Venture, a music marketing company that says it was invited to a Spotify for Artists masterclass, there are certain times when you should and should not opt your songs into Discovery Mode.

Apparently, the best time to opt in your song to Discovery Mode is when it already has good traction, whether organically or algorithmically.

And the worst time to opt in a song is when it has not been doing well on streaming. Doing so can negatively impact your algorithmic success because you’re teaching the algorithm to learn negative things about your song.

Remember the artists from the previous section who said they saw a drop in monthly listeners after running Discovery Mode? It’s possible they may have opted in songs that weren’t doing well in the first place, hence the negative results. But again, we can’t confirm each of the artists’ situations.

The Overall Takeaway

There’s a reason it’s called “Discovery Mode.”

It’s not about making a profit, it’s about getting discovered. It’s not going to blow you up to superstardom, but it can definitely get your music in front of new people. And it can do that well if you haven’t confused the Spotify algorithm by making multiple different unrelated genres, or if you’ve opted in a track that hasn’t already been doing well.

The good news is, it seems Spotify is making changes to improve the efficiency of Discovery Mode, like adding a bunch of eligibility criteria (see the next section for that).

Using Discovery Mode is about finding new fans who, over time, will help you build a music career. Yeah, I don’t love that Spotify takes a bigger commission on Discovery Mode streams when the per-stream rate is already terribly low. But remember, these are extra streams you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

Ultimately, Discovery Mode seems worth a try. It couldn’t hurt to opt in one or two of your top performing tracks as a test. If it doesn’t work for you, then stop. But it could definitely boost your monthly listeners, streams, and (hopefully) lifelong fans.

How Do I Join Spotify Discovery Mode?

Discovery Mode is still technically in beta mode, so not everyone will have access. But here are the requirements in order to get access:

• You have at least 3 tracks that meet the following criteria:
  • Distributed via Amuse, CD Baby, CmdShft, Dance All Day, DistroKid, EmuBands, Horus Music, recordJet, Stem, *TuneCore, UnitedMasters, Venice Music, Vydia
  • Released for at least 30 days
  • Streamed via Spotify Radio, Autoplay, and/or Daily Mix in the last 7 days
• You have at least 25,000 monthly listeners
• Available in select countries (see full list here)

So yeah, there are a lot of stipulations. If you don’t meet these criteria, you could try using Spotify Showcase or Marquee. Either way, you should be creating content to promote your music.

But if you do meet the Spotify Discovery Mode eligibility requirements, you’ll see it in your Campaigns tab in your Spotify for Artists dashboard.

*Not listed by Spotify as one of the distributors who have access to Discovery Mode, but a TuneCore representative told Digital Music News that TuneCore does participate and offers artists access.

Photo credit: Techivation

If you’ve never mixed music before, it may feel daunting to learn. There’s so much depth to it that even experienced mixing engineers continue to learn and improve. But in this article, we’re going to walk through the basics of how to mix music. And I’m going to give it to you straight and keep things simple.

What Does It Mean to “Mix Music”?

Mixing music just means blending all the instruments of a song together so it sounds good.

You use gain levels (volume), panning (left and right), and effects to make the whole song sound like the players are in the room with you. You’re trying to create the illusion of left, right, front, and behind.

Here are some general mixing tips to keep in mind:

• Bass frequencies (bass guitar, kick drum) should always be up the center
• Keep the vocals up the center (and usually upfront in the mix depending on your preference)
• Cutting and boosting frequencies with an EQ can help highlight certain frequencies and de-muddy your mix
• A compressor helps tame the loudest peaks of an instrument so its perceivability stays balanced throughout the song
• Reverb can help fill out your mix and make it sound more interesting

Step 1: Get Good Recordings

The first step is to make sure you capture high-quality recordings. If you’re just the mixing engineer, you don’t have control over this. But if you’re doing the recording, doing it well will make mixing so much easier.

This article is not about how to record music, so I’d recommend checking out these articles:

• 5 Methods That Will Improve Your Recordings
• How To Treat Your Home Recording Studio

Step 2: Edit the Takes

Recording, editing, and mixing have a lot of crossover, but you’ll want to make sure all the takes are fully edited before really diving into mixing.

First, you’ll want to comp the takes. “Comp” refers to a compilation of the best takes, using crossfades in between edited sections. Everyone has different comping preferences. On one end of the spectrum, some editors will edit word-by-word or note-by-note. On the other end, other editors will only comp when there’s a mistake or they’ll comp entire sections.

Here’s one of my favorite videos on vocal comping…

Next, you may want to fix timing issues. Ideally, there won’t be many (or any) timing issues because the parts were performed and recorded well. If you’re spending hours editing the timing, maybe you should re-record the parts.

When editing timing issues, use your ears and your eyes, making sure things snap to the grid. And apply crossfades when shifting items.

Here’s a walkthrough of how you can fix timing problems…

Pro tip: many singers tend to be slightly ahead of the beat, so it can make the vocals sound a lot more professional if you nudge them back 5-10ms.

The third main thing you’ll want to do is tune the vocals. Any good DAW has a pitch correction stock plugin. And for autotune that doesn’t sound like autotune, start the response time between 65-80ms.

However, instead of slapping an autotune plugin on the entire vocal track, it’s a much better option to only tune the notes that sound off. You can shift individual notes on your vocal track with a plugin called Melodyne.

Lastly, you may want to do volume automation. This is where you go through a track (usually a really dynamic one) and adjust the volume so it’s more even across the whole song. You should definitely do this on your lead vocal track, if nothing else.

Step 3: Set Up Your Mixing Session

Before you start mixing, you need to make sure your channels are properly labeled and organized.

If you recorded the tracks, they’re probably already labeled. But if a client sent you a mix, you’re going to get a folder of probably lots of tracks, some of which may not have clear names.

So it’s important you make sure you know what each thing is, label it appropriately, and then organize the channels to your preference.

Personally, I put the vocals a the top, then acoustic guitar, then supplemental instruments like electric guitar, piano, and synths. Then bass, and then drums and percussion at the bottom.

But you’ll find your own organizational preference. The goal is to be able to quickly navigate your session so your mixing experience is as efficient as possible.

Step 4: Begin! How To Mix Music

Now it’s time to actually mix music.

Before you start, you should know that a great mix doesn’t rely on the plugins, it relies on your knowledge and your ears. Yes, there are some cool plugins that can definitely help. But you don’t need super fancy plugins, especially if you’re just learning the basics of mixing.

Monitors vs. headphones: which is better?

Ideally, you would have a nice pair of monitors in an acoustically treated room. However, not everyone has that. And good records have been mixed on headphones.

The main goal is to become familiar with what you have. Whether you have sub-par monitors in an untreated room, a pair of studio headphones, or an expensive, high-quality home studio, you can mix music.

You first have to learn what good music sounds like in your mixing context. So listen to your favorite songs that are professionally mixed and mastered. This will train your ears and brain to know what a good mix should sound like. That way, you know what to aim for when you’re mixing.

The first step to a mix is to set the gain levels and pan percentages. This is called a static mix – you try to get the mix sounding as good as possible with only gain levels and panning, no effects.

Here’s how to do a static mix:

1. Set all the volume/pan knobs at zero or in the middle
2. Begin by raising the volume of one instrument at a time, starting with the most important, until they sound balanced
3. Next, adjust the panning levels so you have a wide, balanced mix
4. Loop 4-5 times, continually re-adjusting the volume knobs
5. Find the volume/pan position for each instrument that works for MOST of the song (effects can take it the rest of the way)
6. Leave about -5 dB of headroom on the master track (effects can make things louder, you may adjust the gain levels more, and you also want to leave headroom for the mastering engineer)

Here’s what a static mix looks like…

Now we turn to EQ (“equalization”). Basically, EQ helps you cut unwanted frequencies and boost (or simply keep) desirable frequencies.

Just to keep things simple, here’s how I approach EQ, and you can try this too:

• Listen for too much bass
  • If so, try cutting the low end starting at 50-150 Hz and adjusting from there
• Listen for any “weird” or harsh sounds in your mix
  • If so, go find the track that’s causing the problem
  • Using a narrow bandwidth that’s fully boosted, slowly sweep across the frequency spectrum until the unwanted sound pops out
  • Once you find the unwanted sound, cut the Hz at that spot
• Sometimes it can be nice to boost the high end (around 10k Hz), especially on vocals
• If the mix is muddy, check the 200-500 Hz range and cut as necessary with a broad bandwidth

Now let me clarify some things. These tips will vary widely depending on many things, including but not limited to:

• The microphone you used
• How close or far away the voice/instrument was to the mic
• The room in which the recording happened
• What else is happening in the song

The main takeaway is, keep it simple. If it sounds good, it is good. It’s important to know how to use EQ, but you also don’t want to overuse it.

The next tool you need to know about is compression. This essentially brings down the loud parts of a sounds and effectively makes the quieter parts more perceivable. It evens out the dynamics of a track.

As a beginner, you can use one of your DAW’s compression presets then adjust the threshold from there. You’ll end up with some pretty good results.

However, you should still be aware of what’s happening. So here are the parts of a compressor that you should be familiar with:

• Threshold: determines the level at which the compressor starts to act. Any audio signal that exceeds this threshold will be affected by the compressor (ex. if you set the threshold to -20 dB, any signal louder than -20 dB will be compressed)
• Ratio: controls the amount of compression applied to the audio signal once it exceeds the threshold (ex. a ratio of 4:1 means that for every 4 dB that the input signal exceeds the threshold, the compressor will only allow 1 dB of that to pass through…so higher ratios = more aggressive compression)
• Attack: determines how quickly the compressor responds once the audio signal crosses the threshold (fast attack time = compressor kicks in quickly, slow attack time = compressor take longer to act)
• Release: controls how quickly the compressor stops compressing the audio signal once it falls below the threshold (short release time = compressor stops acting quickly, fast release time = compressor takes longer to stop acting)
• Knee: determines the compressor’s transition from uncompressed to compressed signal levels around the threshold (hard knee = the compressor applies full ratio immediately once the threshold is exceeded, soft knee = gradually applies compression as the signal approaches the threshold)

Regardless of your compression plugin, here are some general tips to get you started:

• Have a goal with compression, don’t just apply it because you “should”
• Compression works best if you’ve already done volume automation
• If you’re a beginner, try starting with one of your DAW’s compression presets and adjust the threshold from there

Here’s some more context for how to use compression…

Now let’s talk about bussing. It’s a method that will make your mixing experience way easier.

A bus channel (AKA send or aux track) lets you effect multiple tracks equally at the same time instead of adding an effect to each individual channel and adjusting them separately.

Simply put, a bus channel receives all the channels you send to it and output a copy of those channels but coming out of one channel. You then apply an effect to the bus channel, which applies your chosen effect to the copy of these channels.

Think of it like a literal bus: you’re picking up each channel, putting them all on the same bus, and taking them to the same place – applying your chosen effect.

Here’s how to create a bus track:

1. Create a new track and apply your desired effect
2. Open the FX option for this new track
3. Under “Receive” or “Input,” you can choose which tracks to send to this bus track
4. Alternatively, you can go to each individual track and route them to the bus track (under “Send” or “Output”)
5. Make sure the signals you’re sending to the bus track are stereo, not mono
6. From here, when you adjust the effect on your bus channel, it will affect the tracks you routed to it
7. If your DAW gives you the option for a track type, choose AUX
8. This lets you send only a portion of the signal to the bus track, allowing you to control how much of your chosen effect is applied to each routed track (some DAWs let you control this for each routed track directly on the bus channel)

Here’s a video that walks you through how to set up a bus/aux channel…

The last thing we’ll talk about is reverb. Reverb is basically room emulation (big room, small room, cathedral, small bathroom, etc).

Before you apply reverb, know what you’re trying to achieve with it. Most likely, you’re trying to add depth, encourage cohesion, or make the mix more interesting.

To add depth, keep in mind that more reverb makes the instrument sound further away.

For cohesion, you can bus multiple tracks to the same bus track with reverb applied to it.

And to make things more interesting, try adding reverb to just specific parts of specific instruments (ex. chorus vocals, acoustic guitar on just the strum going into the bridge, on just the drum fill, etc).

Here are the main settings you’ll see on a reverb plugin:

• Room Size/Type
• Pre-Delay: determines the time gap between the original sound and when the reverb kicks in
• Decay Time: controls how long it takes for the reverberated sound to decay to -60 dB below its original level
• Damping/EQ: shapes the frequency response of the reverb effect by letting you cut or boost specific frequency ranges
• Wet/Dry Mix: determines the balance between the original dry signal and the processed reverberated signal

I highly recommend ValhallaVintageVerb. It comes with any kind of preset you’d want, and you can adjust the effects from there.

Once you become familiar with how to mix music, you can ignore every single guideline in this article if you want to. Mixing is an art. But if you’re just starting out, I’d suggest sticking to the basics. You can’t break the rules until you first understand them.

“Everyone is on the same starting line in Dolby Atmos,” says Alex Solano. (Photo: Apple Music)

Back in October, Digital Music News first reported that Apple Music was introducing higher royalty payouts for Dolby Atmos mixes. That has sparked some pushback, particularly from indie and unsigned artists who feel Atmos upgrades come with a hefty price tag. AlexProMix is hoping to dispel that notion.

An early adopter of Dolby Atmos immersive formats, AlexProMix founder Alex Solano recently shared his thoughts on  how the rapid evolution in the Dolby Atmos ecosystem paves the way for musicians to gain ‘creative and monetary benefit.’

According to Solano, labels already understand the need and value of the format, with high-priority playlisting and better revenues. However, artists are still unaware that spatial audio doesn’t just make music ‘sound expansive and immersive’ but offers an incredible monetary benefit.

But can they afford it?

Absolutely yes, according to Solano. AlexProMix is currently offering fully-upgraded Atmos mixes for ‘as little as $350 per song,’ a more workable price range. Suddenly, the math could make sense for artists hoping to score a bumped-up royalty rate on Apple Music.

Solano, a music mixing engineer and educator for artists, labels, and music studios, also sees a big opportunity for producers and mixers as well. He predicts that gaining expertise in the heavily invested space of immersive audio could be ‘the biggest opportunity for audio professionals today.’ Just recently, AlexProMix partnered with DMN to further expand awareness around spatial audio possibilities.

Diving into his take on the importance of spatial audio in the current music industry terrain, Solano clarified that despite popular belief, spatial audio is ’not just an exclusive service available to the majors.’

Solano points out that many of the largest distribution platforms for indie artists — such as Avidplay, CD Baby, The Orchard, Audio Salad, Distrokid, Golden Dynamic, Rebeat, and Rock Mobile (to name a few) — currently support Dolby Atmos as a deliverable format. “Any indie artist who’s self-publishing and self-distributing can hire an independent immersive mixer and upgrade their audio to Dolby Atmos,” he added.

Backed by almost two decades of experience in music mixing and his unique position as an early adopter of immersive audio processing, Solano believes the evolving technology will be ‘creating a whole new set of job opportunities for audio professionals who want to have a sustainable career in the music industry.’

“There’s going to be a huge need for Dolby Atmos mixers like myself and thousands of others who have become early adopters.”

Before Dolby Atmos, anyone could have the tools and gear to mix and master — all from a home studio using headphones. But Spatial Audio, Solano says, is ‘different.’

Immersive mixes require expensive gear, specifically equipped studios, and distinct professional knowledge. These extensive requirements for Dolby Atmos have reset the terrain for mixers and offer a blank slate for experimentation, Solano explains. “Mix engineers at all levels are exploring new ways to expand the sonic possibilities with Dolby Atmos,” Solano noted. “Everyone is now at the same starting line with Dolby Atmos, with lots of new possibilities ahead.”

Speaking about AlexProMix, the spatial audio professional told DMN that his background has allowed him to ‘build a complex type of service’ for artists, labels, and studios.

His journey to becoming a spatial audio professional started in 2005, when Solano says he began ‘working behind the scenes for companies ahead of the curve,’ such as Avid Technology, the makers of Pro Tools. From there, Solano went on to gain early certifications from Universal and Warner. 

Speaking about the advent of his role as educator, Solano says he had to go through the whole process of educating his clients on spatial audio, why it’s needed, and the required equipment details.

“So I took that format and basically started creating videos on YouTube on what immersive audio is and how it benefits music producers and artists,” says Solano.

Solano admits he’s in a ‘unique position’ as an early adopter of immersive audio because he’s a music mixer, an online educator, and is ‘flying out to studios to teach immersive mixing.’

“All of that centers around something that I enjoy doing — my passion for music technology and music services and my early adoption of immersive audio.”

Solano also recounts his recent stint in Dubai, where he was called by LPME to assist with three recently built studios with two Dolby Atmos rooms. “They made the investment but needed a seasoned professional to train their in-house staff of producers and mixers in the new format.”

“That’s significant because you can have a multi-million dollar studio. You can have a lot of capital and resources, but there’s a very steep learning curve on knowing what to do when you sit in a room with speakers.”

The technology has been quickly growing and evolving, but audio professionals still need guidance and education when setting up a studio. “A Dolby Atmos music studio is a dedicated room for immersive mixing,” Solano explains, adding, “It’s not like a traditional recording or mixing room — it’s not a multi-purpose room.”

“It’s much easier to get into it now than two years ago, but it’s still quite a bit of an investment. You’re talking about 12 speakers plus all the rigging gear and acoustic treatment everywhere. And everything needs to be treated because sounds are coming at you from different directions, so there’s more possibility that audio reflections will bounce around the room,” explains Solano.

Solano believes his work impacts the music ecosystem beyond artist and label knowledge, adding, “As an early adopter, I’m supporting both Dolby and all the companies who are creating software compatible with Dolby.”

Looking at the bigger picture, what does the future of spatial audio look like in terms of traction on major streaming platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, and the 20+ other DSPs supporting Dolby? Moreover, in the spatial audio realm, what’s happening at Spotify?

Recalling a panel discussion he attended at MUSEXPO 2023, Solano pointed out the possibility that by the end of 2024, Apple Music and Amazon will require Dolby Atmos to be a deliverable format. Similarly, he mentioned that in March of 2022, major labels had set a mandate to go through the archives and convert everything into Dolby Atmos.

And leading from that progression, Spotify can’t possibly be so far behind. Solano relays that even though Spotify isn’t currently in a financial position to make that jump or investment into spatial audio, the streaming giant built a Dolby Atmos studio at its facilities in late 2022.

However, Solano predicts that when the streaming giant finally steps into the field and adopts Dolby Atmos as a format, ‘every music mixer who’s working in immersive audio will see their rates going up. Because there will be such a high demand for their skill.’

AI ‘singer-songwriter’ Anna Indiana (photo: @AnnaIndianaAI on X/Twitter)

Can AI create a superstar on the level of Elvis, Prince, or Taylor Swift? There’s ample reason to believe that the musicians that truly connect and drive the culture will always be ‘human-generated’ — deeply flawed, just like us.

So what are the real limits of AI-generated music?

That’s a question worth reflecting upon as Universal Music Group continues to battle it out with TikTok, partly over AI-generated music. It’s no secret that TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, are gung-ho on AI-generated music and triggering serious copyright concerns in the process.

But perhaps it’s useful to consider the limits of AI in music, particularly as it surrounds the human element of superstardom.

Check out our recent DMN Pro Weekly report for a complete breakdown of the recent UMG-TikTok standoff and what we know about TikTok’s music deal structures. We dive deeper into what this standoff means, what led to the breakdown, TikTok’s royalty contributions to the music industry compared to other UGC platforms, and an eye-opening comparison between the revenues of UMG versus TikTok owner ByteDance.

It’s not that there aren’t attempts to create an AI-generated idol or pop superstar — not to mention AI-generated best friends and even sexual partners. But there may be serious limitations to this game.

If only it were ‘all about the music,’ to quote an old industry cliché.

One could argue that the music industry is powered by hits — those beautiful, perfectly-timed songs that ripple throughout the world, racking up billions of plays and taking residence in our collective consciousness. But powering every hit is a personality, a human that is typically relatable on some level to fans. In most cases, it’s not just the hit, it’s who’s delivering that hit to the world — and that’s a huge part of what Universal Music Group and companies like it create.

It’s not that AI isn’t attempting to replicate that. But it might be fundamentally impossible to replace the superstar musician, simply because superstars only exist because of the people that love them. And the superstars we form connections with are often deeply flawed, vulnerable, and tragically human.

Nobody particularly likes overdosing on toilets, murderous producers, classical geniuses who die at 35, heroin-addicted singers, bickering band members, or the ’27 Club’. But the dirty, dark history of music is not only tragically human; it might also be the flip side of genius. And it’s something AI isn’t designed to replace.

But maybe that’s a feature, not a bug, for music fans who favor the sometimes ugly — and very human — real thing.

And for proof of that, simply look at the most successful and celebrated ‘catalog’ artists of all time.

Jim Morrison was, at times, a semi-functional alcoholic who had trouble showing up at gigs and exposed himself when he did. But damn, he had a powerful and magnetic charisma — not to mention beautiful lyrics. Elvis helped to redefine and popularize rock n’ roll like nobody before him, yet his waning days were spent popping pills in a Vegas penthouse suite.

Prince seemed like the model of squeaky-clean creativity and control — until the shocking details of his sudden death emerged. Chet Baker couldn’t kick heroin and fell out of a window to his death.

And Michael Jackson, whose catalog was recently valued at $1.2 billion? I rest my case.

The list goes on — and on, and on, and on.

Indeed, the list is filled with extreme meltdowns,  murderous rampages, descents into insanity, suicides, and too many debilitating drug and alcohol addictions to count. It’s a depressingly checkered past, and a stark reminder that flawed human beings — just like us — are on that stage.

The Universal Music-TikTok Licensing Battle Is in Full Swing — But What Do We Actually Know About TikTok’s Licensing Agreements?

Perhaps an AI compositional platform can perfectly concoct the music for a chase scene in 1.4 seconds. But for the biggest stars and the fans who love them, is it ever just ‘all about the music’?

And that goes for the happily non-screwed-up artists as well. Perhaps in a sign of positive societal change, many of the biggest music superstars today — Taylor Swift, Drake, Beyonce, Olivia Rodrigo, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa — aren’t defined by their vices but by their togetherness. They show up on time, stay healthy and kick ass.

(That’s not to say there aren’t troubled artists out there, but maybe we’re doing better these days.)

But the real connection goes far beyond the music and into the relatability, the human charisma, and the feeling that despite the searing levels of celebrity, there’s still a human that sleeps, eats, drinks, screws up, and even gets dumped — just like you.

Even if you hate them and wish they didn’t get so much airtime at Chiefs games, that’s engagement — you’re sucked in. There’s a connection, not just to the artist but the entire culture surrounding them.

What’s true in music may also be true for other areas of entertainment, including sports. We love a comeback because it’s human. A hole-in-one shot by an AI-powered humanoid would be a novelty, not a daring exploit for the ages.

And no matter how sophisticated the Black Mirror dystopian future plays out for the music industry, it’s hard to imagine AI touching that human connection. Because AI isn’t human, it’s designed to do better than humans and eliminate their flaws. And if the Black Mirror AI hellscape truly emerges, you may prefer to listen to a human artist battling against dystopia than an AI-concocted singer feeding you happy vibes.

But if the human connection isn’t replaceable, what is the real threat that AI music poses to the industry?

This isn’t a light question and serious threats are looming on the horizon. It’s part of what pushed Universal Music Group and TikTok past the brink. But UMG also builds superstar careers and fame, which is extremely difficult to replicate and requires deep expertise and experience.

Does that offer UMG more leverage in the TikTok standoff? Even subconsciously, a viral video with a superstar-associated soundtrack feels more powerful. And even TikTok stars are relatable humans, not AI-concocted personalities.

None of that solves the UMG-TikTok standoff, particularly as it relates to copyright concerns. But from the perspective of UMG, a company that specializes in finding and building human superstars, it’s worth noting. Perhaps there’s only so much that AI can replace.

Super Bowl LVIII halftime show performers’ net Spotify monthly listener gains between February 10th and 18th (Source: Chartmetric)

The longest and most-viewed Super Bowl in history featured performances from a number of artists – chief among them Usher, who headlined a star-studded halftime show sponsored by Apple Music. But what kind of commercial results did the big game drive for the acts?

According to Nielsen, Super Bowl LVIII attracted a record 123.7 million average viewers, up markedly from LVII’s approximately 115 million watchers and over 20 percent higher than LVI’s viewership. Fueled by a competitive match-up that culminated in a nailbiter overtime ending – and, of course, the presence of Taylor Swift – LVIII, besides being the most-viewed Super Bowl to date, scored the “largest TV audience on record,” Nielsen noted.

With all that said, relatively little attention has been directed to the precise commercial impact of the Super Bowl – including streams and more – for the involved artists.

So how did the Super Bowl’s musical superstars fare?

Report Table of Contents

I. Super Bowl LVIII’s Halftime Show by the Numbers

Graph: Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show Performers’ Spotify Monthly Listener Growth

Graph: Selected Halftime Show Tracks’ Spotify Streams Growth

II. Did Super Bowl LVIII’s Ratings Magic Translate Into a Popularity Boost for Pregame Performers?

Graph: Super Bowl LVIII Non-Halftime Show Performers’ Spotify Monthly Listener Growth

III. Can Super Bowl Commercials Spur Career Growth for Artists?

IV. By the Dates: A Timeline of Super Bowl LVIII’s Music-Related Developments

Please note: Redistribution of this report is prohibited.

Photo credit: BandLab

Let me start by saying, you can do whatever the heck you want as a musician.

But this post is about the growing trend of short songs, why you may or may not want to make more short songs, and seven examples of timeless short songs.

Let’s Define “Short Songs”

Before we talk about the benefits and downsides of making short songs, we have to define what a “short song” is. For the purpose of this article, let’s define a short song as between 30 seconds and 2:30 minutes.

We’ll say at least 30 seconds because that’s the minimum stream length required for Spotify to pay out a song. And we’ll cap it at 2:30 because we want it to be below the average song length of just over 3 minutes.

The Average Song Length Is Going Down

Since the 1990s, the average song length has been going down, settling at about 3:15 today, according to The Washington Post. And it may continue to decrease because “social media is nudging song lengths downward.”

“The attention span for any entertainment has changed a lot,” said Erika Nuri Taylor, a Grammy-nominated songwriter. “People are interested for two minutes and then they want to switch to the next thing – the next song, the next video, the next TikTok. It’s constant scrolling and bouncing around.”

For example, at this year’s Grammy Awards, 28 of the 144 nominated songs were under three minutes long. That’s 19% of the songs nominated. While in 2023, 14% of the songs nominated were under three minutes.

Now, I know the Grammy Awards are not the best representation of the music industry as a whole. It’s mainly just famous artists patting each other on the back. But it does somewhat match the downward trend of song length.

Are You Stuck…Or Is the Song Done?

As a songwriter, you have a folder on your phone or computer (or maybe a paper folder if you’re old-fashioned) with unfinished songs. I know this because I am also a songwriter. This is what songwriters do – start songs and only finish a small portion of them.

But ask yourself, did you get stuck on those songs? Or are some of them actually done? Who says a song has to have two or three verses, a chorus, and a bridge? Maybe the song just needed a verse and a chorus. Maybe it just needs a verse, refrain, verse, refrain. Maybe it’s simpler than you think it has to be.

These are really interesting questions to ask yourself. Because, as full-time indie artist Nic D says in the video above, the most common hangup for songwriters is trying to write one more verse. That extra verse can cause a song to stop dead in its tracks and never see daylight. Usually, it’s verse two that’s the obstacle.

Music has guidelines, but not rules. You can structure a song however you want. But you should never write more of a song just for the sake of making it “long enough.” Maybe the song is done, and maybe you just wrote a short song. Free yourself of the hard-and-fast rule that a song must be a certain length.

As the famous saying goes, “Done is better than perfect.” This means finishing something is better than working on it forever until you think it’s perfect. Perfect will continue to move away from you as time goes on because your taste will keep improving. So you will never reach perfect.

The Downsides of Short Songs

Now, there are some downsides to writing short songs (30 seconds to 2:30 minutes). Let’s briefly talk about them…

Less time to tell a story

If you’re a storytelling songwriter, you may feel constricted by short songs. It may feel like there’s less time for you to tell a story, and that can definitely be true.

Less time to build the song

Short songs mean there’s less time to build the song the way you may want to. If you want it to go from quiet and gentle to big and epic, it can be hard to do that in under 2-and-a-half minutes. So the musical journey may not feel long enough at times.

The Benefits of Short Songs

Now let’s talk about how short songs can be good for you as a songwriter and artist.

Can be more creatively fulfilling

I don’t need to tell you this because you already know it, but finishing a song feels so good. Even if it’s just an okay song, it’s rewarding to finish creating something that didn’t exist before. And writing a short song is easier to achieve and can lead to feeling more creatively fulfilled more often.

Could lead to more repeat plays

Short songs leave the listener wanting more if it’s a good song. So what do people do when they want more? They stream the song again.

Satisfies shorter attention spans

The average attention span is shorter than a goldfish. And short-form content seems to be shortening our attention spans too. For better or worse, short songs fit right in with the human attention span.

Can be more memorable

A song’s memorability is based on good, catchy songwriting. But if a song is shorter, that means it probably has fewer parts for the listener to remember. And this can increase the chances of a short song being more memorable.

Successful Artists Who Make Short Songs

Let’s look at some artists who are putting out short songs and succeeding, both independently and on a label.

Nic D

Indie artist Nic D shares his thoughts on short songs in the video above. He has about 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. And he regularly puts out short songs, according to our definition. It’s rare to find a song of his over 3 minutes.

Connor Price

At first, artist/rapper Connor Price was a student of Nic D, learning from him how to succeed as an indie. But he’s since surpassed Nic D in monthly Spotify listeners at give or take 7 million. And like Nic D, he puts out a lot of short songs.

Dan Reeder

Dan Reeder is a visual artist and songwriter who makes his own album covers, instruments, and recording gear. Phoebe Bridgers cited him as an influence, and her band covered one of his songs.

And he has no problem putting out very short songs, many times 1 minute or less. He’s doing alright too, getting about 135,000 monthly listeners on Spotify with his top song currently at 4.7 million streams.

Grindcore music

There’s a genre called Grindcore that combines elements of heavy metal and punk, and it’s common for bands in this genre to experiment with song lengths. Bands will make songs that are double-digits long. And many bands, like Pig Destroyer, write very short songs, sometimes under 1 minute.

Lomelda

Hannah Read, AKA Lomelda, releases plenty of short songs. Currently, seven of her top 10 songs on Spotify fit our definition of “short.” And she has over 650,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Short Songs That Have Lasted Generations

There are so many short songs that have become classics, even being covered by more modern artists. Here are seven examples…

Nick Drake – “Pink Moon” – 2:04

Paul Simon – “April Come She Will” – 1:47

Aretha Franklin – “Respect” – 2:27

Ray Charles – “Hit the Road Jack” – 1:59

Louis Armstrong – “What A Wonderful World” – 2:19

Fleetwood Mac – “Never Going Back Again” – 2:14

The Lovin’ Spoonful – “Daydream” – 2:19

What’s the Takeaway Here?

The main point is, don’t be afraid to write, record, and release short songs.

You obviously don’t have to, you can do whatever you want. But it could be a fun experiment in creative limitation. Limiting yourself to a 2-minute song could force you to get to the point in your lyrics, write only catchy melodies, and create a song people will listen to over and over.

At the very least, try writing a short song as an exercise. Just see what happens. You don’t have to release it, but see what you end up with.

Lastly, it’s not about the length of the song that determines its success. What causes a song to do well is whether or not it makes people feel something they want to feel. So focus on feel first, length second.

A percentage breakdown of the approximately $1.6 billion in global recorded music revenue attributed to UGC and ancillary licensing sources for 2022 in Goldman Sachs’ “Music in the Air” report.

Predictably, the nuances of TikTok’s deal (or lack thereof) with Universal Music aren’t publicly available and will likely remain confidential. But that doesn’t mean we lack insight into the deal TikTok sought to secure with the major label. Here’s a much closer look at the standoff and its bones of contention.

On January 30th, Universal Music Group (UMG) announced the imminent end of its TikTok licensing deal. As described in an open letter, a lowball offer from the short-form app on a new agreement, along with user safety and AI content concerns, had prompted UMG to “call time out.” 

The ByteDance subsidiary then fired back with a comparatively concise message, taking aim at what it described as Universal Music’s decision to leave behind an invaluable marketing resource due to “greed.” Subsequently, no shortage of TikTokers lamented the absence of their favorite artists’ music on the app and, more pressingly, the removal of audio from videos containing the impacted works.

But are the bones of contention in this debate? The answer — like many music industry matters — is complicated.

Report Table of Contents

I. Is TikTok’s Value As a Promotional Tool Enough to Justify Lower Rightsholder Payments?

II. TikTok Licensing At a Glance: What We Know About the Platform’s Rightsholder Deals

III. Graph: Universal Music and ByteDance Annual Revenue, 2019-23

IV. The Bottom Line: Can TikTok and Universal Music Put Their Dispute in the Rearview?

V. By the Dates: A Timeline of the TikTok-Universal Music Licensing Dispute and Related Developments

If you’d like to download this report, simply send an email to support@digitalmusicnews.com.

Photo Credit: Ashutosh Sonwani

The Allure of a Musical Journey

The following comes from CyberGhost, a company DMN is in collaboration with.

In a world saturated with creative expression, the dream of making it big in the music industry remains as alluring as ever. The prospect of creating something unique, resonating with an audience, and achieving fame has captivated generations. However, in today’s digital age, where everyone can be a creator, the path to musical stardom is simultaneously more accessible and challenging than ever before.

The Challenge of Discovery

The paradox lies in the sheer abundance of musical talent coexisting with the difficulty of getting discovered. With countless artists vying for attention, breaking through the noise becomes a formidable task. Unlike the days when record labels held the key to success, independent artists now navigate a landscape where standing out demands a combination of talent, strategy, and a robust online presence.

Navigating the Digital Landscape

The Power of Online Presence

While the crowded digital landscape poses challenges, it also opens up unprecedented opportunities. An artist’s online presence has become the cornerstone of their journey towards recognition. Research has shown that social media platforms, in particular, have emerged as powerful tools for artists to connect with fans and industry professionals alike. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok enable musicians to showcase their personality, share snippets of their work, and engage with a global audience in real-time.

TikTok Triumphs

TikTok, with its short-form video format, has proven to be a game-changer for musicians. From unsigned talents to established artists, the platform provides a level playing field where creative content can go viral in an instant. The app’s algorithm, driven by user engagement, has propelled songs from relative obscurity to mainstream success. Artists can leverage TikTok’s trend-driven environment to not only showcase their music but also participate in challenges that can exponentially boost their visibility.

Instagram’s Visual Symphony

Instagram, with its emphasis on visual storytelling, allows musicians to curate a captivating narrative around their craft. Through posts, stories, IGTV, and live sessions, artists can offer an intimate glimpse into their world. Collaborations with influencers and cross-promotions further extend the reach of their music. As a visual platform, Instagram complements the auditory experience, creating a holistic connection between the artist and their audience.

The Call to ‘Growth Hacking’ in Music

In the pursuit of a thriving musical career, the concept of ‘Growth Hacking’ becomes increasingly relevant. Growth hacking involves employing unconventional strategies to rapidly expand one’s audience and influence. Musicians, akin to startups, can benefit from adopting growth hacking principles to amplify their online presence, engage fans, and elevate their career trajectory.

Embrace Unconventional Strategies

From creating shareable content to collaborating with influencers, growth hacking encourages musicians to think beyond conventional promotional methods. Engaging with online communities, utilizing data analytics, and tapping into niche markets can provide the competitive edge needed in today’s dynamic music industry.

Conclusion

As you embark on your musical journey, remember that success is not just about talent; it’s about strategic growth. Explore the world of growth hacking to unlock the full potential of your musical career. Delve deeper into innovative strategies, embrace the digital landscape, and let your unique voice resonate in the vast expanse of the online world. The stage is set, and the audience awaits—time to turn your musical aspirations into a symphony of success.

In the dynamic realm of music, the key to growth lies not just in notes and chords but in mastering the art of visibility. As you tune your instruments and fine-tune your compositions, remember that the digital stage is where your audience awaits, and growth hacking is your backstage pass to musical stardom.

Apple’s AirPods Max are a cornerstone of Apple’s premium content+hardware ecosystem, which includes Apple Music’s Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos (photo: MaxWdhs)

After years of investing in lossless and spatial audio, Apple Music and Amazon Music have cemented premium audio as a key part of their offerings. But the market leader, Spotify, is still plotting its entry into high-definition and spatial audio, raising questions about the streaming landscape’s trajectory in 2024 and beyond.

Nearly three years have passed since Apple Music and Amazon Music announced (on the same day) far-reaching premium audio expansions, extending both to spatial audio and lossless formats. Almost simultaneously, Spotify users uncovered a HiFi icon on select versions of the app. And with the Stockholm-based platform having revealed plans earlier in 2021 to adopt high-fidelity audio, a launch seemed imminent. 

As frustrated users frequently lament on social media, though, Spotify has yet to move forward with these plans. Inversely, Apple Music and Amazon Music are framing premium audio as a major reason to choose their services. “Hear sound all around,” reads central text on Apple Music’s subscription landing page, with the Amazon Music Unlimited counterpart encouraging listeners to “experience spatial audio” and enjoy “the HD difference.”

But a distinction in the approaches to premium audio – an all-in strategy on the one hand versus, at least to date, no strategy whatsoever on the other – suggests a significant competitive differentiator between the services. Following uncertainty about the interest in and reach of lossless and spatial audio, it’s become abundantly clear that higher-quality listening options are here to stay.

Report Table of Contents

I. The Premium Audio Imbalance: Apple & Amazon vs. Spotify

II. Graph: Premium Audio Today: A Quick Look At Who Offers What (and for How Much)

III. Spotify’s ‘Supremium’ Tier: The Long-Rumored Package At a Glance

IV. Spotify Playing Catch-Up With Premium and Spatial Audio – Will Premium Audio Be a Gamechanger for Apple Music and Amazon Music in 2024?

V. By the Dates: A Timeline of Premium Audio’s Streaming Integration

VI. Source Documentation

If you’d like to download this report, simply send an email to support@digitalmusicnews.com.

Music industry veterans (and identical twins) Jason Jordan and Joel T. Jordan originally founded earthprogram in 1996, relaunching it in 2020 with a guiding mantra to ‘give honest advice to everyone.’ The industry incubator offers expert consulting and business development services to artists, labels, startups, and ‘green’ investors.

For artists, earthprogram’s goal is to expand creative output and capture audience attention by strategically collaborating and marketing across multiple platforms. According to Jason, principal and cofounder of earthprogram, his team’s expertise and extensive network of music industry partnerships place it ‘at the tip of the spear’ with the right relationships.

In that vein, Jason revealed a collaboration with Virgin Music for distribution and IP protection, RoyFi for ‘no bulls—t funding options,’ and That Pitch ‘to supply music to sync and licensing companies.’

Apart from consulting and business development, other primary verticals include publishing and licensing via a joint venture with Empire, as well as sync and music distribution for qualified artists and labels. Just recently, earthprogram joined forces with DMN to further expand their footprint.

Earthprogram was born out of the realization that many artists are blatantly green about how the business actually works, with preconceived ideas causing them to make moves — early in their careers — that irreversibly destroy any chances of future success.

Jason relayed that multiple artists he met at Canadian Music Week were shocked that their tracks didn’t capture any attention on streaming platforms and that ‘no one cared about their music.’

What went wrong? “Playlisting is not a marketing strategy,” says Jason, explaining that musicians that had put their entire album online at once and ‘simply blew their investment when we could have strung that out over a year, and they could have built a story leading to a career on it.’

As for the potential of DIY platforms to kickstart artist careers, Jason agreed that it can be a great idea to do it yourself. However, artists shouldn’t ‘do it alone’ — because expert advice can help them ‘do it better.’

In an industry where a major label deal is considered a ticket to surefire success, Jason clarifies that the odds are not in favor of rising artists who want to build a career on the back of a viral track.

Jason dives into the practice of labels picking up successful or viral musicians with ‘predatory’ label deals. “Labels expect artists to arrive with an audience and team that’s ready to go,” he adds, explaining that on the contrary, earthprogram’s infrastructure and significant label knowledge cultivate an ecosystem where artists, musicians, writers, and producers can connect to the channels and resources they need to ‘produce high-quality content and distribute it commercially.’

“Rising artists have close to zero chance of ever being heard,” says Jason, adding, “Nobody is cheerleading for these artists, or going to a distribution company and saying ‘please put this on a playlist or get this to the right person at Spotify’.”

“That’s what we’re offering: the expertise and channel relationships to make all the difference,” relays Jason. The brothers forged these relationships over 30 years while holding key music industry leadership positions — but it all started in their parents’ basement.

After creating a ‘highly collectible hardcore punk label’ out of said basement — one that snowballed into a real business by the time they turned 18 — the duo experienced incredible success. As a result, Jason was only 20 years old when he became Director of A&R at Sony Music Entertainment’s Columbia Records.

From Columbia Records, Jason went on to serve as VP A&R at Disney’s Hollywood Records, President of Imagem Music Publishing, Senior VP A&R at Universal’s Republic Records — plus notable senior positions at ONErpm, Symphonic, and self-founded Watermark Records.

Creative director and cofounder of earthprogram, Joel T. Jordan — similarly driven from the pair’s basement punk label success — is also the founder and president of Synchtank, a cloud-based licensing and rights management platform launched in 2011 — with clients like NFL, ESPN, Vice Media, WMG, Disney, and more.

According to Mike Glaser, partner and General Manager of earthprogram, it’s essential to ‘bet on yourself’ and build something sustainable that can be embraced by multiple platforms — ‘instead of a shot up on TikTok and a quick 6-month burst of attention before you’re dead.’

Glaser calls earthprogram the ‘expert tour guide for the jungle of the music industry,’ helping artists strategize, create content that matters, and ‘figuring out exactly what is missing in the puzzle to get the results they’re looking for.’

The platform’s successfully incubated artists include Grace Gaustad, who was — not so long ago — barely scratching the surface of viral stardom. Today, Gaustad boasts over 25 million views on a 2018 cover song, released an album and multimedia experience titled BLKBX: What r u hiding?, has starred in a film of the same title, and was featured in 2021’s Stand Up For Heroes benefit alongside Bruce Springsteen and Brandi Carlile.

Then there’s earthprogram’s rising hard rock artist, Josh Lambert. Known for working with the likes of Sleeping With Sirens’ singer Kellin Quinn and North Ave Jax, Lambert has charted multiple times on iTunes in the Top 5, is rated among the top 50 artists on Chartmetric, and successfully toured twice with RIVALS. Lambert’s latest album, Escape from Alcatraz, released in October 2023 and gained critical acclaim for pushing forward the punk genre. Earthprogram continues to work alongside Josh on strategy and global distribution.

Jason emphasizes the importance of ‘having a plan,’ adding, “If there’s no strategy, nothing’s going to happen.”

Anyone considering diving into the music industry can leverage earthprogram’s network and experience to create a plan.

“We also like to say, ‘we have the map,’” Jason relays, adding that even though the consultancy runs the plan, ‘it’s the artists and creators helping create the plan, based on what they want strategically.’ Jason also reveals that earthprogram’s consultancy is ‘either high-touch or low-touch’ — depending on how much they want them involved.

“So we can be in their laps or at arm’s length; they can decide. If they don’t need anything beyond just a quick kick in the ass, we can do that too.”

Jason believes earthprogram’s strongest suit is its relationships with distributors ‘that make all the difference.’ “We have the same facilities as the majors. We know the same marketing people, techniques, and tactics. But we get the results faster.”

It’s common knowledge that rising artists rarely have the financial resources to invest in publishing and marketing — so paying for success consultancy seems like a stretch. On that front, Glaser reveals that earthprogram offers a hybrid of retainer fees or a percentage of earnings. “We have fair deals that are expedited though our funding partners without offering predatory record label deals.”

According to Glaser, artists who qualify for consultancy can advance their earnings without selling their rights, and earthprogram’s retainers are so small that anybody who’s serious about their career can benefit from the offering. “We offer packages that start at only a few hundred dollars all the way up — depending on what they need. We can provide something useful for everybody.”

Photo Credit: Pexels

The Allure of Online Music Platforms

The following comes from ExpressVPN, a company DMN is in collaboration with.

In the digital age, music has become an integral part of our daily lives, and the convenience of accessing an extensive library of tunes is now just a tap away. Recent research has shown how online music platforms have revolutionized the way we discover, stream, and share our favorite tracks. Whether you’re into the latest chart-toppers or obscure indie gems, services like Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal offer a gateway to a musical universe that transcends boundaries.

Unveiling the Titans

Spotify: The Pioneer of Streaming

Spotify, the trailblazer in the streaming world, boasts a vast catalog that spans genres and eras. Its freemium model allows users to enjoy a wide selection of music with occasional ads, while premium subscribers revel in an ad-free experience. What sets Spotify apart is its personalized playlists and recommendations, driven by robust algorithms that understand your musical preferences better than your closest friends.

Apple Music: A Seamless Integration

For the Apple loyalists, Apple Music seamlessly integrates with the Apple ecosystem. Its vast library, coupled with exclusive releases and artist interviews on Beats 1 radio, gives users an immersive musical experience. The service stands out for its curated playlists and the ability to integrate your existing music library with the streaming platform.

Pandora: The Radio Maestro

Pandora, often hailed as the radio king, takes a unique approach with its Music Genome Project. This algorithmic system analyzes songs based on a multitude of characteristics, creating personalized radio stations tailored to your tastes. It’s the perfect choice for those who enjoy the element of surprise in their music discovery.

Hidden Gems: Bandcamp and Qobuz

Bandcamp: Empowering Indie Artists

In a world dominated by major labels, Bandcamp emerges as a haven for independent musicians. The platform empowers artists to directly sell their music to fans, offering a fairer revenue share. Bandcamp Fridays, where the platform waives its revenue share on selected days, further incentivizes music lovers to support independent creators.

Qobuz: Elevating Audio Quality

For the audiophiles seeking the utmost sonic fidelity, Qobuz stands out with its emphasis on high-resolution audio. With a library rich in FLAC and Hi-Res files, Qobuz caters to those who value the nuances of sound quality. It’s a premium choice for discerning ears.

Price Wars and Plans

When it comes to pricing, the battle is fierce. Spotify’s free tier is an enticing entry point, while its premium subscription competes closely with the likes of Apple Music. Pandora’s ad-supported model is budget-friendly, and Qobuz positions itself as a premium offering for those willing to pay a premium for top-notch audio quality.

Choosing Your Sonic Companion

In the grand symphony of music platforms, each contender has its unique melody. Whether you prioritize a vast catalog, exclusive releases, personalized radio, support for independent artists, or uncompromising audio quality, the choice is yours. Consider your listening and spending habits, the functionality of the app, and the overall experience each platform provides.

Conclusion: Make Your Melodic Decision

As the Battle of Music Platforms rages on, it’s essential to choose the platform that harmonizes with your individual preferences. Are you swayed by Spotify’s algorithmic brilliance, Apple Music’s seamless integration, Pandora’s radio magic, Bandcamp’s indie spirit, or Qobuz’s audiophile paradise? The decision is yours to make, and with the vast array of options available, the perfect sonic companion awaits you. Embrace the music revolution and choose rightly.

Make your move, and let the music play!

DMN Pro Q1 2024: Missing Payments? A Look At Loss Prevention In Music

A comprehensive discussion on the state of music licensing, streaming fraud, metadata, and getting paid — with a panel of the foremost authorities in the music industry. Missing payments? Tune in!

• Moderator: Paul Resnikoff, Publisher of Digital Music News

Panel 1: UGC Licensing Pitfalls

• Virginie Berger – Chief Business Development and Rights Officer of MatchTune
• Alexander Baynum – Director of U.S. Operations for Exploration.io
• Ryan Born – Founder of HAAWK and Identifyy

Panel 2: Fixing The Data Debacle

• Jeff Price – Co-Founder and CEO of Word Collections
• Ryan Edwards – Founder and CEO of Audoo
• Jack Cyphers – Founder and CEO of Border Fox Consulting
• Edward Ginis- Founder and CEO of OpenPlay

Panel 3: Streaming Fraud

• Andrew Batey – Co-Founder of Beatdapp
• Abby North – President of North Music Group
• Nermina Mumic – CEO of Legitary

Photo credit: Bailey Zindel

We live in an attention economy. And there are more artists today than ever before. So you really have to focus on engaging with your fans, connecting with them in a way they won’t forget.

What Fan Engagement Does

Fan engagement is not just about popularity. It’s about building a community around you and your music. This community becomes a driving force behind your success, supporting you throughout their career.

And by fan engagement, I mean real connection with other humans (as much as we can in today’s digital/social media age). When your music hits them deeply, they’ll want to connect with you. Open up and allow that connection.

Here are some of the benefits of truly connecting and engaging with your fans…

Finding True Fans

Nurturing a connection with fans can turn them from casual listeners to true fans. A true fan is someone who will most likely follow your journey for life and support you along the way. This is what you need if you want a sustainable music career.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is the best way for you music to spread. And when someone feels a deep connection to not only your music but also you, they’re most likely to share you with their friends.

Feedback and improvement

I don’t think you should ask fans for help writing or producing songs. But I do think you can put song ideas out there to gauge how people react and use that information to decide what to do with the song.

You can also ask fans to vote on which of your finished songs should come out next.

And you can also zoom out and look at which of your released songs resonate with people the most, which can direct how you create going forward. You can look at stats like song saves, playlist adds, comments and DMs about the song, and overall streaming numbers.

Crowdfunding and support

When you connect with fans, they’re more likely to financially support you. Many indie musicians rely on crowdfunding to fund their next album, and many artists rely on fan subscriptions to make ends meet. Engaging with your fans creates a supportive community that may be more willing to contribute to your success.

Social media presence

In today’s digital age, social media is the main way for musicians to connect with fans. So it’s important to post regular updates, share your music (even if it’s not new), and respond to every comment and DM.

Live performances

Fans who feel connected to you are more likely to go to your live performances. A strong turnout at gigs not only makes the performance more fun, but it reminds you why you do music in the first place. This is where you can connect with fans in real life, and there’s nothing like it.

Merchandise sales

True fans are more likely to buy your merch, especially at your live performances. For many artists, merch is one of the main ways they make money.

Simple (But Effective) Ways To Connect With Your Fans

Here are three methods that will help you better connect with your fans. These may not be easy at first, but they are straight-forward.

Let them see you

There are tens of thousands of songs uploaded to Spotify every day. The market is saturated with mostly indie musicians. So for someone to really connect with you, you have to do more than just post your music and hope for the best.

You have to show people who you are. Show your personality. Show your sense of humor, or lack thereof. Share some of your life.

You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) share every single thing that’s happening in your life. But show enough of it online that people can see you as a real human. Whether it’s through your Instagram captions, TikTok videos, or however else you interact with fans, be authentic to yourself.

Respond to everything

I’ve lost track of how many times someone has followed me on social media after I respond to their comment.

People want to feel seen. So when they take a minute to drop a comment on your post, it’s only respectful to take a minute to respond. This goes a long way, especially when your fanbase is still small.

When someone DMs you, you need to respond. It takes even more guts and effort for someone to write a private message saying how your music has affected them. The least you can do is reply with gratitude.

Release consistently

It all starts with the music. Usually, people connect with your music first and then you. So by releasing music consistently, you’re keeping your fans happy (gradually turning them into super fans) and you have a better chance of finding new fans.

Right now, the internet is run by algorithms, whether it’s social media platforms or Spotify. Consistent releases give you more of an incentive to share content, which drives online engagement, encourages fan connection, and helps you find new people.

Also, Spotify loves when you release music regularly, making it more likely you land in people’s Release Radar, Spotify Radio, and the other algorithmic playlists.

As an indie musician, it’s more important to connect deeply with the fans you do have than to try to get as many casual listeners as possible.

Alex Solano became a music tech enthusiast when, at age 12, his older brother brought home an electric guitar. His journey since then has led to him becoming one of the leading voices in spatial audio production and engineering, having worked with countless independent and label artists and catalog remasters.

The following was developed in collaboration with AlexProMix, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

AlexProMix founder Alex Solano believes Spatial Audio has revolutionized the audio world. Past multi-channel high-resolution audio formats like DVD-A and SACD (super audio CD) were held down to the status of a ‘niche product’ due to requiring a physical media format with proprietary disc players and 6+ connected speakers to enjoy. For artists and distributors, the new Spatial Audio formats can easily be integrated into existing DSPs.

The adoption and massive push for Spatial Audio by music streaming services is a game-changer, Solano explains, and allows artists to ‘get more exposure and future proof their music.’ Moreover, the format’s core qualities of better fidelity and dynamic range also bring IP owners higher per-stream royalty payments from platforms like Apple Music.

Solano calls Dolby Atmos ‘an amazing immersive experience’ that engulfs the listener with sound, adding, “For music producers, songwriters, and artists, this is truly the way of the future. “Once you hear your music in Dolby Atmos, you can’t be satisfied with Stereo again.”

Solano emphasizes that amplifying the expression of music isn’t a technical process — and is more about finding the ‘sound of the song and the message of the lyrics.’

“There are endless opportunities for creating immersive sounding mixes that will be able to distribute your song and your message — and who you are as an artist — in the days to come.”

Solano provided DMN with a few examples that he points to as ‘reference quality’ in Spatial Audio mixing:

1. Stressed Out, Blurry Face — twenty one pilots
2. Renegades, VHS — X Ambassadors
3. Blessed, (feat. Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Made In Lagos: Deluxe Edition — Wizkid

The tools artists use for mixing in Spatial Audio can be an important differentiating factor.

We plan on covering some of Solano’s favorite plugins for mixing in our next article, but in the meantime, we wanted to highlight some of the most used tools. Tools like NUGEN Audio Halo Upmix, Perfect Surround Penteo Pro, and Sound Particles’ Energy Panner and Brightness Panner are invaluable. They enable creative sound placement, which is essential in immersive audio.

Photo credit: Derick Daily

Grants are an often overlooked way for musicians to get financial support. So to help bring awareness to this, let’s talk about what grants you can apply for in 2024 to help grow your music career.

Financial Support for Indie Musicians

Most musicians are focused on the more common sources of income, like music streaming or playing shows. But on top of that, indie musicians can earn money in a few other, more creative ways.

Grants

A grant is a financial award given by an organization or non-profit to support specific aspects of your music career.

In addition to the financial support, you can also get a bit of exposure. Usually, the granter will put out a press release and post the winner on social media. Also, winning a grant is definitely something you should include in your Electronic Press Kit.

And, as long as you’re eligible, grants often come with artistic freedom, allowing you to maintain independence and control over your work.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is when you tap your audience to help fund a specific project. Recording an album? Going on tour? You can launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds and give your supporters exclusive stuff in exchange.

The most well-known crowdfunding platforms right now include Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe.

Patronage

Another way to tap your fanbase for financial support is patronage. This is when fans subscribe to your exclusive content for a small monthly amount. If you do it right, patronage can be a lucrative and sustainable way to make a career in music.

Two of the best subscriber platforms are Patreon and Grouped.

Grants for Musicians

Now let’s look at actual grants you can apply for based on where you live and what you plan to do with the money…

Apply for Grants in the United Kingdom and Europe

Brighter Sound – A Week with Wu-Lu

Northern England, UK

Deadline: February 4

Apply here

Catalyser Fund

United Kingdom

Deadline: May 10

Apply here

Developing your Creative Practice

United Kingdom

Applications open March 14 – April 11 / July 25 – August 22 / November 14 – December 12

Apply here

Factory Sounds 2024

Manchester, UK

Deadline: February 12

Apply here

Jazz and New Music Creative Grant

France

Deadline: February 29

Apply here

Jazz and New Music Touring Grant

France

Deadline: February 29

Apply here

PRS Foundation

United Kingdom

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

Steve Reid InNOVAtion Award

United Kingdom

Applications open soon

Apply here

Trailblazer Fund

United Kingdom

Applications open August 30 – December 13 / November 22 – March 21 (2025)

Apply here

Apply for Grants in the United States and Canada

New Music USA

United States

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

BMI Foundation

United States

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

Factor

Canada

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

Apply for Grants in Australia

Creative Australia

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

Independent Artists or Groups Fund

Multiple grants with varying deadlines

Apply here

Live Music Events Fund

Adelaide, Australia

Open year round

Apply here

Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preez

If you’re serious about your music career, you should create an Electronic Press Kit. It looks professional. It helps tell your story. And it can help you get gigs and music reviews.

What Is an Electronic Press Kit?

An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) is a digital promotional package you can send to venues, festivals, and people in the press. It’s usually something hosted on your website on a page not shown in the menu – it’s just for the recipients you send it to and not your fans.

An EPK is a great way to give music industry people a simple overview of who you are, what your music sounds like, your story, and why they should care about you.

Who Needs an EPK?

The short answer is, every musician. Especially if you’re independent because it can help your “legitimacy” in the eyes of the venues and press people.

Traditionally, physical press kits were used mainly by performing musicians. They would mail them out to venue managers, music review publications, festivals, etc. But nowadays, EPKs are good for any kind of musician, not just performers.

Here’s how an EPK benefits musicians based on their career goals:

• Performing musicians: a short and simple way to share your music, performance history, performing highlights, and any info the venue/festival requires.
• Recording artists: you can create an EPK as a centralized source for everything a press person may want to know about the release, like the concept, story behind its making, or any interesting ways it was recorded.
• Artists in sync licensing: an EPK can give sync licensing agents and companies a quick overview of you, any previous placements you’ve gotten, and what other sync artists your music sounds like.

How To Create a Good EPK

Above all, your EPK needs to be good looking and easy to navigate. If it’s confusing and looks bad, that’s a poor first impression and may turn off some industry professionals.

While you should make your EPK authentic to you, there are several things that need to be in your EPK…

Your artist bio

Your EPK needs an interesting story of who you are and where you came from.

Start with a few sentences that show who you are, any interesting aspects of your background, the type of music you make, and your biggest accomplishment. This is like your elevator pitch.

Next, you can write a bio that goes a little deeper, one that’s about 1-2 paragraphs long. Last, create a more in-depth bio that’s about 3+ paragraphs.

Why have different length bios? Because different venues, festivals, and press people often have word-length requirements, so you want to be ready.

Here’s a simple outline you can follow when writing your artist bio:

Introduction

Briefly introduce yourself. Include your stage name (if applicable) and your real name. Describe your musical genre or style, focusing on how it makes the listener feel.

Background

This is where you tell your story. What about your life and musical career is interesting and different from other artists? Show who you are as a person.

Musical Style

Describe your musical style in a unique way and mention any influences. This will give people a better idea of what they’re about to hear.

Accomplishments

Highlight any notable achievements or milestones in your music career. Include awards, sync placements, or important performances.

Current Projects

End your bio by looking to the future. Mention what project you’re currently working on, upcoming tours, or any other exciting developments.

Professional photos

Smartphone cameras have gotten really good, so you can get by without hiring a professional photographer. But if you have a little bit of a budget, it’s totally worth it.

A photographer can get shots you wouldn’t be able to on your own. And they can help bring out the aspect of you that fits whatever vibe you want, whatever fits your music. You should ask for both horizontal, vertical, and square photos, just so you have options.

Your Music

Obviously, you need to include your music. On the EPK page of your website, embed a player so people can stream your music while checking out the rest of the page. But also include a downloadable version of the EPK that has links to stream your music. Just make it easy for the person to listen to your music. This is the most important part of your EPK.

Videos

Include any music videos or performance videos you have. Music videos may show you’re serious about your career, and performance videos will show venues and festivals what you offer.

Press and reviews

Press about you and reviews of your music help show music industry professionals that your music is worth listening to. When respected music publications – or just other people in general – praise your music, it then becomes more than just you saying, “You need to listen to this!”

Career highlights

List your career highlights so people can quickly see what you’ve accomplished. This could be awards you’ve won or been nominated for, impressive streaming numbers, or a notable act you’ve opened for or toured with. Any big accomplishment you’re proud of, list it.

Social media and contact information

Including links to your social media profiles gives music industry people a chance to get to know you even better. They’ll see you’re posting regularly and interacting with fans. If you have an engaged audience, that’s good for them because it means you may be able to get people to come to a venue’s show or read a music blog’s review of your music.

And then of course, include your contact info. Preferably, a professional email address (hello@yourname.com) and your phone number.

Electronic Press Kit Examples

If you need some EPK examples, check out my EPK for my 2023 album and also this list of EPKs from Bandzoogle. Steal ideas and make them your own!

Photo credit: Possessed Photography

A music career is like running a business. And every business owner will tell you, you have to adapt to the changes in your industry and in the world at large. So as an indie artist doing everything yourself, you need to know how to pivot your music career when the industry pivots.

How the Music World Has Changed

The music industry has undergone drastic transformations over the past 20 years. With the internet came a whole new set of opportunities and problems for musicians.

Looking back, music piracy seems inevitable. From there, we got music streaming, which now dominates the music world. This led to the downfall of the sale of physical CDs and the birth of music distributors, CD Baby being the first one accessible for indie musicians.

The internet and other technological advances put more power in the indie artist’s hands. Musicians were able to put their songs in the same places as the big label artists, which was near impossible before the internet. Now, no-name artists can become national or worldwide sensations thanks to social media.

To make a living 20 years ago, you pretty much had to get signed, record an album, then tour, tour, tour and sell merch. Thanks to the internet, you have so many other options for income sources.

However, copyright laws in the United States have not kept up with the advancement of technology. And with AI music here, we need to start tackling copyright and privacy concerns.

How To Adapt To the Changing Music Industry

Now let’s talk about some practical ways to adapt to whatever changes will come in the music industry. We don’t know what the music industry will look like in 5, 10, 20 years. So it’s best to build practices that will prepare us no matter what.

Stay Informed and Educated

Keep yourself updated on industry trends, technology advancements, and changes in listener behavior. Read reliable news sources (like this one), listen to podcasts, and stay in conversation with the musicians in your life.

Learn about music promotion, and the business side of the industry. Understand the basics of copyright, licensing, and contracts to protect your work and make informed decisions (or work with a music lawyer).

Keep Your Digital Presence

Maintain a strong online presence through social media, streaming platforms, and your own website. Engage with your audience, share updates regularly, and continue to build your email and texting lists so you can stay in touch with people regardless of changes with platforms.

Stay On Streaming Platforms

Embrace streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and others. Boycotting them only makes it harder to get discovered by fans. So create playlists, encourage fans to follow you, and make sure you have access to the backend artist view of these platforms so you can understand your listenership better.

Diversify Your Income Streams

Don’t rely solely on one income source. Stay open to multiple revenue streams. Some of the most common ones right now are streaming, merch, live performance, sync licensing, and producing other artists. But there are so many others, and the opportunities will change over time. So always be looking for how you can use your skills and songs to bring in money.

Focus On Building a Fanbase

Focus on building a loyal fanbase rather than trying to get as many followers as possible. Yes, you always want more people to find you, but focus on connecting with your fans. Engage with your audience, respond to comments, and create a sense of community. Word-of-mouth is powerful, and a dedicated fanbase can help you navigate changes in the industry.

Collaborate and Network

Collaborate with other musicians, producers, and industry professionals. Cross promotion is a powerful tool.

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

While maintaining your artistic integrity, be open to experimenting with your sound. Trends in music can change, and adapting your style (without selling out) can help you reach a broader audience.

Embrace Technology

Explore new tech and tools that can enhance your music creation and promotion process. New things can be scary, but that’s mainly because we don’t understand them at first. Do your best to understand technology so you can decide if you want to use it.

Attend Industry Events

Attend conferences, workshops, and industry events to stay connected, learn from others, and discover new opportunities. Getting to know people at these events can also be invaluable for your career.

Photo credit: Jordan McDonald

I recently went to a concert to see Kings of Convenience, a folk/pop duo from Norway. They’re one of my favorite bands, and I also learned some things from their performance. So I want to share the lessons I picked up from this show.

(Almost) Flawless Performance

The two guys in Kings of Convenience each played an acoustic guitar. One had a nylon string guitar and the other had a steel string guitar. And they played flawlessly with each other. Almost.

Maybe they made multiple mistakes, but there was only one moment where I noticed one of the guys messed up. He played the wrong chord then quickly got back on track. Other than that, they sounded as good as they did on their records.

My point is, when you play a show, your performance needs to go smoothly. You might make a mistake or two because you’re not a robot. But you need to have practiced enough that you don’t even have to think about the next chord or next lyric or if people are getting their money’s worth.

It will be a better experience for the audience and you’ll feel freer to enjoy yourself.

Having a Good Time

It was clear the duo were having a fun time. During songs, they would look at each other and smile or stand back to back as they played their guitars. And in between songs, they would say things that made the other smile.

They were clearly enjoying their night.

And when a performer is clearly having a good time, it encourages the audience to have a good time. Because a good time is infectious.

So make sure you’re having fun at your shows. Your audience will pick up whatever vibe you’re putting off.  

Stories

In between several songs, one or both of them told stories. They would talk about what inspired a song or where they were when they wrote it. One of the guys even made up a whole story about a guy who was eating at a diner down the road, and it led them into the next song.

Stories are engaging. Humans are curious and want to know what happens next. So tell the stories of how your songs came to be and include any interesting factoids people may not pick up on by just listening. 

Roster of Performers

For the first half of the show, it was just the two main guys. But then they brought on a drummer and bassist and gave them each a proper introduction. The four of them played the rest of the set and also the encore songs.

Bringing these new performers out acted as a reset button for the audience. It helped us forget we had already been standing on a cement floor for 45 minutes to an hour. It made things a little more interesting and gave the songs a whole new, higher-energy feel.

Try a version of this at your next concert. If you can’t bring a full band on, bring one other musician or singer on stage with you for a few songs. I did this at one of my house shows and it made my whole set more dynamic and interesting.

Crowd Engagement

Throughout the night, the duo joked with the audience. They encouraged conversation. They looked out into the faces of the people, which goes a long way.

There were several times they had to tune their guitars, which left the room quiet for a minute or so. One of these times, they asked if anyone had any questions while they tuned. This led to them answering which of their songs was their favorite. It led to stories about where they had lived over the years. It led to to conversation.

Remember that the audience is made up of people. Talk with them, joke with them, look them in the eye. This is a huge part of giving someone a memorable experience at your concert.

Here are the top pro tips to ensure you make the most out of your time at the NAMM Show — from DMN and NAMM organizers themselves.

The NAMM Show, organized by the National Association of Music Merchants, is one of the largest music industry events in the world. Aimed at uniting the global music, sound, and entertainment technology communities, the annual show serves an incredible experience — whether you’re an influencer, content creator, musician, producer, retailer, instrument manufacturer, or buyer. Here are some top tips for attending NAMM like a pro.

NAMM is right around the corner and will take place on January 21-25, 2025, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California.

Every year, NAMM produces this epic trade show to strengthen and promote the music products industry — specifically instruments, gear, and the technology that backs them all. But the show offers more than just a showcase of these products.

If planned correctly, the event can unlock opportunities to kickstart lucrative deals and make lasting business connections. NAMM isn’t just a retail-focused show, it’s a broader industry gathering that surrounds you with tens of thousands of like-minded people. Just recently, NAMM partnered with DMN to showcase the extensive opportunities that sometimes get missed by attendees.

Pete Johnston, Director of Marketing at NAMM, explains how The NAMM Show kickstarts new avenues of music businesses. “The NAMM Show is a launchpad for a lot of careers,” Johnston told DMN, adding, “I always talk about the inspiration — I come home so fired up after some NAMM sessions.”

“Companies and ideas are born at NAMM,” says Johnston.

“I see people morphing and changing and playing different roles — with music being the core. The foundation underneath all of this is active music — the art of actively participating in music.”

Whether you’re an influencer, creator, musician, producer, or a tech developer, you can leverage the NAMM Show to grow your audience, brand, and business. If you’re planning to network, make valuable connections, score an endorsement deal, or nab a spot on an interview or podcast, the time to prep would be right now.

Here are the top pro tips to ensure you make the most out of your time at the event — from DMN and NAMM organizers themselves.

1. If you’re a content creator or influencer, “Leverage NAMM for collaborative opportunities and endorsements,” says Alex Solano from AlexProMix.

Solano says arranging meetings with software and hardware companies before the event will maximize opportunities — for channel growth, scoring a feature on a panel or podcast, or to nab a brand endorsement deal. “Initiate conversations through emails or direct messaging on social media to book slots,” Alex advises. “Engage in dialogues about potential video projects, and synchronize your content timeline with their product release dates. This proactive strategy secures exclusive content that aids in expanding your channel’s reach and enhancing the company’s market presence.”

Solano shares that companies are on the lookout for influencers who can attract the next generation of music creators. He emphasizes that NAMM can be a tool for artists and producers to evolve from regular users of music products to brand endorsers. “Compile a portfolio or EPK that shows your use of a brand’s equipment, highlighting its integration into your performances or productions. Visit the brand booths with confidence, present your portfolio, and propose a partnership for endorsements.”

2. Whether you’re an artist, producer, or a music tech mastermind, don’t shy away from connecting with media outlets in advance.

“Request interviews to discuss your innovative contributions to the music industry, whether it’s through recent works or new technologies like AI and Dolby Atmos,” Solano also advised.”Landing features on podcasts or video interviews can boost your brand’s narrative and solidify your footprint in the music industry.”

3. Prepare for a ‘NAMM Show Week.’

Johnston reveals that even though the four official exhibit days run Thursday to Saturday, ‘we also have events, meetings, and education sessions starting on Tuesday, January 21st’ adding, “We’re calling it a NAMM Week. It’s a gathering spot for the week for a lot of the industry.”

4. Attending the NAMM Show as a member and non-member.

A NAMM membership is specifically tailored to provide relevant benefits and support. It also entitles members for year-round benefits, including access to the NAMM Show. Register as an individual member, Service Provider, Manufacturer Representative, Commercial Affiliate, Retail Affiliate, or Retail Professional. Your NAMM Show badge will reflect membership type.

If you’re not a member and want to attend the show, NAMM requires every user to register directly with a unique email address.

5. Don’t look like a tourist with a map — download the NAMM Show+ App for effective floor and time management.

Head over to the NAMM schedule on the NAMM Show+ App — for attendees and exhibitors — well before the show. It has everything you need, including hotel reservations backed by NAMM and its official housing partners.

Plan your vendor appointments around the sessions that you want to attend. Strategizing from the get-go is the best approach to get the most out of NAMM.

View the terrain to map out a plan that works for your goals and your company’s. The NAMM Show+ App gives you everything you need to access educational sessions and details, guiding you where you need to be – and when. Connect with attendees, get navigation tools to help plan your meetings (using the map of the show floor will help you avoid walking back and forth), and stay up to date with post-event stuff.

Head over to the NAMM schedule on the NAMM Show+ App.

6. Leverage the 200+ educational opportunities for NAMM member communities.

NAMM has also announced over 200 industry and educational opportunities for the show for NAMM member communities. These professional communities include retail, brands, professional audio, music tech, live event production, artists, music education, nonprofit and community leaders, college music business students, and more.

Johnston talks about a program called TEC Tracks where it’s all about music production, dissection, how people made albums, mastering, immersive audio, AI, and others. “There are so many people that started businesses because of somebody they met at The NAMM Show, or an idea they gathered from the opportunities there,” said Johnston, adding, “Get in with the developers, the engineers, and you never know what you’ll create or what you’ll start.”

John Mlynczak, president and CEO of NAMM explained how this years’s show is aiming to reconnect the global music industry and excel on every level, ‘from our music stages, to educational and industry programs, to incredible exhibitors on the show floor,’ adding, “The NAMM Show will provide critical platforms and industry innovations that will drive growth to create a better future for the next generation of music industry leaders.”

As a snapshot of 200+ educational sessions up for grabs, members can check out the following:

Music Business Track features 45+ sessions to educate business leaders in our industry, with a focus on artificial intelligence as a marketing and business-efficiency tool, along with key sessions on leadership, social media and online marketing, finance, music lessons and retail tech.

Audio Production and Music Technology Track with 65+ sessions covering the latest innovations and new ideas in recording, live sound, music technology and music business.

Entertainment Technology Track brings 25+ sessions and training opportunities for professionals in lighting and production design, rigging, touring — even event safety to navigate a post-pandemic world.

College Students and Faculty Track; K-12 Educator Track offers 46+ sessions, workshops, and events for music students and faculty in collaboration with the College Music Society (CMS) and others — with multiple opportunities to network with industry professionals.

Non-Profit Track will offer sessions that cover tools of community building via the creation of and support to non-profit music service organizations, alongside best practices, fundraising, and governance.

NAMM’s education sessions are free, and Johnston says, “If you have a NAMM badge, you get to come and get educated.”

7. Take advantage of the NAMM U Breakfast Sessions

Coffee, food, and music is on the menu with early morning sessions and panels. You’ll get to network before the venue gets packed and crowded.

8. Balance fun with goals — but don’t get distracted.

Even though it’s fun to watch every demo, concert, and artist signing (whether you’re a regular attendee or it’s your first time), don’t let all the fun distractions cannibalize your time. Decide exactly what’s worth seeing, pick up innovative ideas that apply to your business or brand, and remember to take notes.

9. Prepare to be overwhelmed — but remember you can ‘choose your adventure.’

The NAMM Show is big — many football fields big. Picture a small town that’s packed with the population of a small city. The NAMM Show is a broader music industry gathering rather than just a retail-focused show. The buzzing global marketplace is a massive celebration — it will be loud, chaotic, and a bit mad.

According to Johnston, people who feel the NAMM Show is too big are forgetting that they can pick portions that excite them and suit their goals. “You can choose your adventure. And whichever adventure you choose, it’s going to benefit you. It’s like a campus with all the different majors. you have your communities, and you can grow your knowledge and your skills.”

10. Avoid bottlenecks: travel, shuttles, dining tips, more.

If you’re flying to attend NAMM, your trip will be smoother if you pick a flight on lower-traffic days. Tuesday or Wednesday are generally the best to ensure you miss the crazy rush.

And here are a few last tips; wear comfortable shoes (you’ll be walking a lot), and grab a pair of earbuds (NAMM gets loud!). Plus, arriving early to avoid the pouring NAMM crowds can save time and energy. For meals, aim to eat outside of normal mealtimes — say, grab a bite at 11:00 am instead of 12:30 pm.

Enjoy!

Projection of royalty collection changes for major industry players following Spotify’s 1,000-stream minimum payment transition (Image: Digital Music News)

In our latest DMN Pro Weekly Report, guest author Jeff Price offers an exhaustive breakdown of Spotify’s updated payout structure for sound recording royalties — and what if means for everyone in the music industry food chain.

The most remarkable takeaway from this report? For Spotify, the percentage of total revenue allocated to sound recording royalties doesn’t decrease when its new model rolls out in 2024’s Q1. So Spotify’s bottom line won’t benefit from the revamp.

But rising, developing, and indie artists will no longer receive royalties from their sound recordings that stream less than 1,000 times in 12 months. We follow the money to see where those royalties are headed — who stands to benefit monumentally from this updated model?

Report Table of Contents

1. Model Update: Spotify’s Sound Recording Royalty Change

Spotify has provided what appear to be non-related reasons to justify its proposed model that will not pay sound recording royalties to sound recordings with less than 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months.

2. What About The Law: Can Spotify Make This Change?

Does the law allow Spotify to make this leap? Licensing agreements, contractual provisions, term changes, and Spotify’s take-it-or-leave-it offering.

3. Winners And Losers: Major Labels, Higher-Streaming Artists, Spotify

Spotify isn’t changing the total amount of sound recording royalties it pays. What changes is who gets the money.

4. Example #1: Calculating Spotify’s Current Sound Recording Royalties

We explore payouts under Spotify’s current model, where all sound recordings with a 30-second stream earn a royalty.

5. Example #2: Calculating Spotify’s Sound Recording Royalties Payout In 2024

We explore payouts under Spotify’s soon-to-rollout in 2024 model, where sound recordings have to meet an annual minimum threshold of 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months to get paid a sound recording royalty.

6. Example #3: Sound Recording Royalties Based On Actual Spotify Data

• • • • Example 3A: Backed by actual reported data on Spotify streams and revenue reported by The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), we make market share and streaming number assumptions for six distributors/labels to calculate how sound recording royalties work under Spotify’s current model.
        • Table #1: Current Spotify Model — % share of all streams eligible for royalties
        • Table#2: Current Spotify Model — $ share of the big pot of royalties

• • • • Example 3B: Backed by actual reported data on Spotify streams and revenue reported by The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), we make market share and streaming number assumptions for six distributors and labels to calculate how sound recording royalties will work under Spotify’s new 2024 model.

• • • Table #3: 2024 Model — Change in % share of the big pot of royalties
    • Table #4: 2024 Model — Change in $ share of the big pot of royalties

7. The New Boss: Same as the Old Boss?

Rather than focus on innovation, working to find more artists that would thrive in their system, or creating a lucrative business to support these developing artists (think DistroKid, TuneCore etc.), the majors instead come up with new schemes to take other artists’ money.

Me at a recent sold out/at capacity house concert

I recently played an at-capacity (AKA sold out) house show with a fellow musician. Some things went wrong, but mostly it was a successful and very fun evening for everyone involved. So in case you’ve been thinking about playing a house concert, here’s what I learn from the experience.

Find a Host

The first step is to put your feelers out there for someone to host the concert in their home. For this reason, it’s best to play in a town or city where you have friends. That way, you can ask them directly and then they can invite their friends.

Here are the details to hash out with the host…

Ask them how many people can comfortably fit in their space. This will tell you how many RSVPs to offer.

Figure out what the host will and will not provide, like drinks and/or food.

Make sure there’s sufficient parking.

Work out the compensation agreement, if any. Here are a few options:

1. Friend host: if the host is your friend, they may be cool hosting the show for free just to support your music.

2. Upfront fee: this is when the host pays you a set fee upfront then can recoup that fee by selling tickets or donations. Then any amount above the recouped amount would be split between you and the host.

3. Percentage of tickets/donations: this is when you and the host agree to a percentage they will get of the tickets/donation money. Because it will be a small audience, the host’s cut may be small.

4. Paid in merch: you can offer to give your host a merch bundle as a thank-you and instead of giving them a cut of the tickets/donations

Do a Joint Show

Because I did a show with another artist, specifically a local artist, we were able to pull twice as many people as either of us would’ve been able to alone. Also, my fans got to hear his music and his fans got to hear mine.

And even though we were both acoustic acts, it gave people two different vibes to enjoy. He was more soulful acoustic and I’m more sad/bittersweet acoustic. It adds variety and makes the night more interesting.

Collect RSVPs

There are many reasons to collect RSVPs for your house show…

First and most obvious, you’ll know how many seats to have available.

Second, you don’t want to post the host’s home address all over the internet. So by collecting RSVPs, you can email the address only to RSVPers.

And third, all of the emails you collect from RSVPers go onto your email list. I would suggest sending a follow-up email after the concert to let the RSVPers know they’re now on your email list and will be getting updates about your music (and make it clear how they can unsubscribe).

Consider a “Suggested Donation”

I’ve always done a “suggested donation” instead of selling tickets. Why? I want people to come to the concert even if they don’t have the money in their budget, or if they just want a free night out. Then if I wow them, they can make a donation at the show.

And what usually happens is that some RSVPers donate much more than the suggested amount while some people don’t donate anything. So in my experience, it ends up averaging out.

When To Post on Social Media

I suggest doing an announcement on social media about 4-6 weeks before the show, then take a break from talking about it. Then during the two weeks leading up to the house show, start getting more consistent with posting the date and city of the show and how people can RSVP. Then do a last-call post a few days before the show, making sure you mention you’ll be sending the address only to RSVPers the day before the show.

How To Email Your Subscribers

About 4-6 weeks in advance, email your subscribers who are in the zip code of the concert location. Then shoot them another email a week before the show. Usually, your email subscribers are more receptive to each communication, so you don’t need as many announcements. And you don’t want to send too many emails that people feel like they’re getting spammed.

Prepare for Your Performance

At my recent house show, my guitars kept going out of tune. Even though I tuned them, there were points where they got worse. Fortunately, the audience was amazing and chill and we all had a laugh about it.

So here’s what I suggest: Run through your entire set in your bedroom as if there’s a crowd there. Figure out what you’ll say in between songs. Plan for any changes in tunings. Make notes about what needs to change, what songs should be moved to another spot, etc.

Promoting Your Merch

At my house show, the other artist decided to drink hot cider from one of my merch mugs, and he plugged my merch table a few times. But you may not be so fortunate.

I suggest plugging your merch table toward the end of your set, maybe before you play your last 2-3 songs. Then before your last song, tell everyone you’ll be hanging out by your merch table and you’d love to say hi. I did this and sold some T-shirts.

Talk To People, Be a Normal Human

When the show is over, stick around and meet the people who just sat through your set. Thank them for coming and say, “It’s good to see you.” Be a normal human and socialize and have conversations. Meeting the people who listen to your music is one of the best parts of being a performing musician.

Photo credit: Emma Simpson

As a long-time independent musician, I know how hard this life can be on one’s mental health. I’ve taken a break before. I’ve felt like I should just quit. Things can get dark if you’re not careful. So I want to talk about how to care for your mental health as an indie musician.

The Pressures of Being an Indie Artist

As an indie musician, you do it all. Maybe you have a small team, but most of us are out here doing it all on our own. Regardless, here are the biggest problems I see indie artists struggling with regularly…

Comparison

Have you ever gone down the rabbit hole of comparison on Spotify? You land on an artist’s Spotify page and immediately look at their monthly listenership and stream counts. And then you compare that to your Spotify stats, knowing you’re nowhere near their level of “success.”

This is a prime example of the comparison trap, but there are so many chances for indie artists to compare themselves to others. You start beating yourself up because you’re not as “good” as another artist. And that’s when you begin digging your own grave.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism freezes so many aspiring artists. They think everything they make has to be absolutely perfect. But you will never reach perfect. Because when you finally get to where you previously thought perfect was, it has moved further down the line. Your taste has gotten better, so the bar for perfect has moved.

I’m not saying you should settle for okay. Do your best. Try to make the most meaningful music you can. But also recognize that you could endlessly tweak a song. Instead, focus on what moves you. If a song makes you feel something, put it out.

Financial stress

If you work a cushy day job or career position and you make music at night and on the weekends, you don’t feel the financial stress of being a working musician. And that’s totally fine. Nobody wants financial stress.

But if you’re giving a music career a proper go, you probably feel a bit of stress around money. Being a full-time musician is a hustle. You’re doing whatever you can to make money with your musical skills. And for many working musicians, money is tight.

Balancing creativity and business

As an indie musician, you’re running a business. But you’re also the creative force behind the business. So it can be challenging to play both of those roles and still feel like you’re staying authentic.

You will have to learn how to compartmentalize. Art over here, business over there.

Unclear goals

Nothing feels like flailing in the ocean than not knowing where you’re going. If you know you want to be a full-time musician but you’re not sure exactly what that looks like, that’s stress-inducing.

Practical Steps To Care for Your Mental Health

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the main stressors and depressors for indie musicians, let’s talk about solutions. Because whether or not you make a career in music, it’s essential to prioritize your mental health. Here are some strategies to cope with the pressure of being a musician…

Set realistic goals

Find your ideal career, specifically what it involves. Then figure out what goals would get you there. Then break down those goals into things you can do today. This way, you can do one small thing each day and know you’re making progress. But you’re less likely to feel overwhelmed.

Be realistic about what you can accomplish

Be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day. It’s okay if things take longer than expected or if you need to adjust your plans. But you don’t want to overdo it or overwhelm yourself.

Celebrate your wins

Every time something good happens, I write it down. So I have a list of accomplishments for the past few years of my music career. Whenever I feel discouraged, I skim through this list to remind myself of how far I’ve come. You need some version of this. Celebrate and track your wins. (You can use my free worksheet to do this).

Balance work and rest

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a calendar. It helps you know when you have time to do music and when to rest. It helps you separate the different parts of your life, including creating music and doing the business side of music. You’re not lazy if you need to rest after working.

Connect with others

Community keeps you afloat and can even help you thrive. As an introverted recluse, even I recognize the necessity of community for mental health. So go to open mics and meet people. Find a songwriter’s circle. Hit up a local musician doing what you’re doing and offer to buy them a coffee. Get connected.

Stay physically active

A walk around the block every day can do wonders for your mental health. It’s simple and stupid and annoying. But it helps.

Financial planning

Create a realistic budget and financial plan for your music career. Track how much you make from music each month, then don’t spend more than that on music stuff. This will help you stay afloat and even save up for that new piece of gear.

Learn to say no

Derek Sivers (CD Baby founder and author) says if something isn’t a “hell yes” then it’s a “no.” This way of thinking helps you focus more on your yes’s. When you’re selective about the opportunities and projects you take on, you can give the important stuff more of your creative energy.

Professional help

I think everyone should try therapy at least once. A trained therapist can give you coping strategies and a non-judgmental space to discuss your feelings. The goal is to learn tools to help you cope on your own.

Mental Health Resources for Musicians

Clearly, I’m not a mental health professional. I’m just a fellow indie musician passing along what I know from research. So I want to point you in the direction of some organizations and programs that offer practical help for those struggling with their mental health.

MusiCares

MusiCares, run by the Recording Academy, offers a bunch of health and human services to the music community. This includes mental health services, financial assistance, and addiction recovery resources.

Backline

Backline is a non-profit organization that provides mental health and wellness support to music industry professionals. They offer a helpline, therapy grants, and wellness programs.

Help Musicians UK (United Kingdom)

Help Musicians UK provides a range of support services, including a 24/7 helpline, financial assistance, and mental health resources specifically designed for musicians in the UK.

The SIMS Foundation (Austin, Texas)

The SIMS Foundation offers mental health and substance use recovery services to musicians, music industry professionals and their families in the Austin, Texas area. I personally benefitted greatly from this organization when I lived there.

CrewCare (Australia)

CrewCare is an Australian organization that offers mental health support for music industry professionals, including roadies, crew members, and technicians.

Photo credit: Markus Winkler

We’ve already seen so many court cases over copyright infringement. Sometimes, one artist has a similar idea to another artist and inadvertently makes a song that sounds similar. And sometimes it may be on purpose, who knows. The point is, you need to protect yourself. So let’s talk music copyright.

(Note: I am not a lawyer or copyright expert and this is not legal advice. I’m a fellow indie musician who did a bunch of research so you don’t have to. I’ve linked to all my sources within the article).

What Does Copyrighting Your Music Do?

Let’s ask the United States Copyright Office what copyrighting your music does.

“As the owner of your music,” they write, “copyright gives you the right to make and sell copies, distribute those copies, make new works based on your work, and…publicly perform or display the work.”

In other words, copyrighting your music provides legal protection for your creative work. Specifically, here’s what a copyright gives you…

Exclusive Rights. Copyright grants you, as the creator or copyright holder, exclusive rights to your musical work. This means you’re the only one who is allowed to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display your music. And this applies internationally.

Legal Recognition and Ownership. A copyright gives you legal and public evidence that you’re the rightful owner of the music. You’ll need this in case there are legal disputes.

Prevention of Unauthorized Use. A copyright acts as a deterrent against unauthorized use of your music. No one is allowed to use, reproduce, or distribute your work without your permission.

Protection Against Infringement. If someone has the audacity to use your music without your permission, a copyright lets you to take legal action against them for copyright infringement. This may involve seeking damages or stopping the unauthorized use of your work.

Ability to License. With a copyright, you’re allowed to license your music to others. This includes allowing your music to be used in films, commercials, TV shows, and video games.

Posthumous Protection. Copyright protection lasts for a specific duration, usually for the life of the creator plus a certain number of years (70 years in many jurisdictions). During this time, you or whoever controls your estate has control over how your music is used.

Resale and Transfer Rights. A copyright allows you to sell or transfer your copyright to others.

What’s a “Poor Man’s Copyright”?

A “poor man’s copyright” is when you try to establish a form of copyright protection for your music without officially registering it with the copyright office.

The idea behind it is to create a dated record of the music’s existence and authorship, using a low-cost and informal method. Usually, this involves mailing a CD of your music to yourself so it’s stamped and dated by the USPS, and then you keep the package sealed and stored away just in case.

To be clear, this is not a legally recognized alternative to official copyright registration.

The U.S. Copyright Office does say “…your work is protected by copyright from the moment it is fixed…”. However, registering an actual copyright gives you more benefits and overall more reliable protection.

Musical Composition vs. Sound Recording

When you record a song, you’re very often generating two distinct copyright-protected entities: a musical work and a sound recording. When you register a copyright, you need to copyright both the musical work and the sound recording.

The sound recording refers to the actual recording of a song, which includes the music, lyrics, or any other content recorded onto a CD or a digital track.

The musical work refers to the fundamental composition of a song, which includes the underlying music and any accompanying lyrics. This type of work is typically owned by a songwriter or composer.

How To Copyright Your Music

The two main benefits mentioned by the U.S. Copyright Office are “access to federal courts in the case of infringement” and having “a public record of your ownership.” So once you’re ready to copyright your music, here are the ways you can do that:

1. Standard Application (register an individual sound recording or musical work)
2. Group Registration of Unpublished Works (register up to 10 unpublished works by the same author)
3. Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music (register up to 20 musical works or twenty sound recordings by the same author)

What To Do If Someone Infringes On Your Copyright

If someone infringes on your music copyright, here’s what you can do to address the situation…

1. Gather Evidence: Collect evidence of the infringement, including any relevant dates, communications, or instances of unauthorized use. Make sure you have a record of your copyright registration.
2. Contact the Infringing Party: Send a cease and desist letter. Clearly state your ownership of the copyrighted music, describe the infringement, and demand that the infringing party cease using your music immediately. Include evidence of your ownership and give them a reasonable deadline for them to comply.
3. Use Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Takedown: If the infringement happens online, you can submit a DMCA takedown notice to the website hosting the illegally used music. Most online platforms have procedures to do this, so follow the website’s instructions.
4. Seek Legal Advice: If the infringing party does not comply, you can explore your legal options. So consult with an intellectual property attorney to figure out if you have a strong enough case. You may be able to solve the issue through mediation rather than filing a lawsuit, which would be much more affordable for everyone involved.
5. File a Lawsuit: If the infringing party does not comply and if your lawyer thinks your case is strong enough, you can file a lawsuit. Your attorney will guide you through the legal process, and if successful, you may be entitled to damages and injunctive relief.

This whole process will be so much smoother if you register your songs with the U.S. Copyright Office. Save yourself a potential headache by spending a little bit of time and money to copyright your music today. 

P.S. – what about A.I. and copyright? The U.S. government is still trying to figure it out.

Photo credit: Erwi

Mixing music can feel overwhelming to those who haven’t ever tried it. And that makes sense. It involves lots of tools and settings and technical stuff. But is mixing also an artistic endeavor?

The Importance of Both

So is mixing music more technical or more artistic? Short answer: it’s equally both. It’s important to know the technical aspects of EQ, compression, phasing, etc. But once you know those things, you can really get into the creative side of mixing music. You can start doing what you want to do even if it’s not technically “right.”

The Technical Aspects of Mixing Music

Here are the main technical aspects of mixing that you should know before you get all artsy with it…

Equalization

Equalization (AKA EQ) is a must-have tool for mixing. It basically lets you control the frequencies in a sound. Here’s a simple breakdown:

Frequency bands: sound is made up of different frequencies, like high-pitched tones (treble), mid-range tones, and low-pitched tones (bass). EQ divides these frequencies into bands, each representing a specific range.

Boost and cut: using these bands, you can boost (increase) or cut (decrease) the volume of specific sections of frequencies.

Q Factor: controls the width of the frequency band you’re adjusting. A narrow Q focuses on a specific frequency, while a wider Q affects a broader range.

High-pass and low-pass filters: high-pass filters allow higher frequencies to pass through, cutting the lower ones. Useful to remove unwanted low-frequency rumble. Low-pass filters do the opposite, letting lower frequencies pass and cutting higher ones. Useful for taming excessive brightness.

Shaping sound: EQ helps shape the overall tonal balance of your mix. It’s like adjusting the bass and treble on your car stereo, but much more precise.

Fixing issues: EQ can help fix problems like muddiness, harshness, or imbalance in a recording. Ideally, good engineering and production would avoid these problems. But EQ can help if needed.

Creating space: EQ is a powerful tool for carving out space for different instruments in a mix. By adjusting the frequencies of each instrument, you can make sure they complement each other rather than compete.

Just remember, while EQ is a powerful tool, it’s important to use it intentionally. Overdoing it can lead to an unnatural or unbalanced sound. A good mix often involves a delicate balance of EQ adjustments to enhance the clarity, warmth, and character of each element in the music.

Compression

Compression helps control the volume of sounds, making the dynamic range sound more balanced. Here’s a breakdown of compression…

Dynamic range: if you have vocals that go from whispering to shouting (AKA dynamic range), compression can help maintain a consistent volume by reducing the loud parts and making the soft parts sound more prominent.

Attack: a setting determines how quickly the compressor responds to a loud sound. A fast attack catches sudden peaks, while a slower attack allows some transients to pass through before kicking in.

Release: controls how long it takes for the compressor to stop reducing the volume after the loud sound has passed.

Threshold: is the volume level at which compression starts to kick in. If the sound goes above this level, the compressor starts working.

Ratio: determines how much the compressor reduces the volume once the sound exceeds the threshold. For example, a 4:1 ratio means for every 4 dB (decibels) above the threshold, the compressor allows only 1 dB through.

Remember, just like EQ, compression is most effective when used subtly and with a specific purpose. Too much compression can make a mix sound lifeless or unnatural. The goal is to find the right balance that enhances the overall sound without sacrificing the dynamics and character of the music.

Phasing

Phasing in music happens when two or more audio signals that are very similar in frequency interact with each other in an undesirable way. This interaction can result in a phenomenon where certain frequencies reinforce each other, while others cancel out.

If the peaks of one wave align with the peaks of another, they add up and get louder (constructive interference). If the peaks of one wave align with the troughs of another, they cancel each other out (destructive interference).

Phase shift happens when one of the signals is slightly delayed compared to the other. This delay causes the peaks and troughs of the waves to align. You don’t want this. It can lead to a thin or hollow sound.

Usually, phasing happens when you’re recording in stereo with two microphones. And the distance between the microphones can create phase issues, usually in the lower frequencies.

If you realize there’s a phasing issue during the mixing process, you can adjust the timing or alignment of the audio signals with a phase-correcting plugin or potentially by flipping the phase of one of the signals.

The Artistry of Mixing Music

Once you know and are familiar with the technical aspects of mixing music, you can explore the artistry of it. You have to know the rules before you can break them.

Making yourself feel something

@greazywilmusic #stitch with @Beat Kitchen Production School #mixing #greazywil #music #artist #engineer #producer #mixer #songs ♬ original sound – GreazyWil

Making music is all about making you feel something. If it makes you feel something, it will make other people feel something. So if you approach mixing music with this mentality, you’ll be thinking more like an artist. Make mixing moves because it makes the song more impactful, even if it doesn’t include all the “right” steps or processes.

“If it sounds good, it is good”

You may have heard people say, “If it sounds good, it is good” or “Just use your ears.” But the thing is, these phrases are only helpful for people who are familiar with mixing. If you’re new to mixing music, these are not helpful pieces of advice.

First, you need to learn the technical aspects of mixing. Then, once you know the general concept of mixing, how to use the tools, and what actually sounds good, you can start to tell yourself, “This sounds good, so I’m not going to mess with it.”

One way to speed up the process of knowing what sounds good is to use reference tracks. This is when you listen to songs that you love that have been produced and mixed by experts. By listening to these professionally mixed tracks in your own mixing environment, you’ll have a better idea of how to make your mix sound good.

When it comes to mixing music, it’s all about finding the intersection of the technical and the art. It starts with knowledge and it leads to artistry.

It’s that time of year again. Artists are posting their Spotify Wrapped, a collection, synthesizing, and summarizing of their streaming stats. For some artists, it’s an encouraging season and it’s fun to celebrate with their fans. But for many artists, it’s a “dark night of the soul” type of vibe. It’s complicated. Here’s why, and here’s how you can approach it (this year or in future years).

The Comparison Trap

Comparison is the biggest hangup for many indie artists, regardless of their level of success.

It’s natural to be curious about industry benchmarks and how other artists are doing. But it’s so important to approach it with a healthy perspective.

Comparing your stats with other musicians’ stats is dangerous for many reasons. It’s bad for your mental health and your artistic growth.

Whenever you’re tempted to compare your stats with someone else’s, keep these things in mind…

Success looks different for each person

Every musician’s path to success is unique. Success in the music industry doesn’t follow a one-size-fits-all formula. What works for one artist may not work for another. Comparing your stats will lead to unrealistic expectations of yourself and frustration if your trajectory doesn’t mirror someone else’s.

We all have different starting points

We each start with different opportunities and natural abilities. We have different backgrounds, financial support, connections, and resources. So comparing stats without considering these factors is misleading and demoralizing.

Quality vs. quantity

Streaming stats do not equal success. Numbers don’t necessarily reflect the quality of your work. So obsessing over the number of Spotify followers, streams, saves, playlist adds, and likes will only distract you from creating meaningful and authentic music. Quality and artistic integrity should be your primary goals, not just the quantity of engagement.

Mental health impact

Constantly comparing yourself to others takes you down a dark road. It can make you feel inadequate, jealous, or like an impostor. That’s why it’s important to prioritize your mental health and focus on your personal growth rather than external benchmarks.

Fluctuating metrics

Spotify stats can fluctuate for many reasons, like changes in the algorithm or the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Standing your success on these metrics leads to frustration.

Long-term artist development

Building a sustainable and fulfilling music career requires long-term commitment and growth. Comparing your short-term streaming stats to others’ stats probably doesn’t accurately reflect your potential for long-term success and development as an artist. Think long-term.

Different artists have different audiences

Your music may not be generic pop that will appeal to most passive music listeners. My sad folk music isn’t going to appeal to as many people as Olivia Rodrigo’s heart-broken rock-pop songs. So just focus on your unique audience instead of trying to appeal to everyone.

Spotify and Artists: a Toxic Relationship

Now we need to talk about the toxic relationship Spotify is causing with artists. Namely, how they value the music based on what and how they pay out streams.

First, there’s the average payout of $0.003 per stream. Initially, the low payout is why some artists boycotted the streaming platform, like Taylor Swift, The Beatles, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell. As an artist myself, it does feel insulting.

Another more recent issue is that Spotify will not pay artists for songs that get less than 1,000 streams in 12 months. This will increase the per-stream rate for songs that do get at least 1,000 streams, but it’s only alienating smaller artists.

All this to say, even if you’ve gotten streaming stats you’re happy with, posting your Wrapped may feel strange. You’re basically giving Spotify free promo, but they’re not paying you fairly. So, while I usually post my Wrapped, I understand why some artists wouldn’t want to.

How To Approach Spotify Wrapped

Here’s how to approach Spotify Wrapped every year. Here’s how you should approach your creative output and your entire music career.

Only compare yourself to yourself.

Only measure your growth against yourself from last month, last year, 5 years ago. Only focus on how far you’ve come and how much better your music is now than it used to be. Don’t pay attention to other artists’ streaming numbers.

This is easy to say but hard to do. So I recommend writing down your goals and where you want to be as a musician. Then just focus on pursuing that.

Photo credit: Caspar Camille Rubin

The internet has made it easier than ever to share your music with more people than ever. One way you can do this is through live streaming. Artists do make money from live streaming, but is it anything substantial? If so, how do you get into it?

How Much Money Streamers Make

Like most career paths in music, a small number of artists succeed at making a living while most others make a middle- to lower-class income from the same path. Some artists make a living from live streaming. But is it realistic to think you’ll be able to do the same? Let’s look at the numbers.

According to StreamYard, if you have an average of 5-10 daily viewers on Twitch for 30 days, you can make $50-200 a month. While if you have 10,000 average daily viewers, you can make $30,000 a month. This income is a combination of viewer tips, subscribers, and affiliate marketing.

According to QQTube, the average per-view payout on YouTube Live is $0.018. So if you stream every day and you average 100 viewers a day for 30 days, you’d make $50. While if you have 1,000 viewers a day, you could make about $540 in a month.

Ultimately, it can be difficult to make significant money as a live streamer. This is the overarching feeling in this conversation of streamers.

One streamer said they work between 12-18 hours a day on streaming and they make less than half of what a part-time fast food job earns. Another person said they’ve been streaming for a year and made about $3,000 total. And another commenter said they invested $2,000 into their live-streaming setup and made $200 that year.

Can You Make a Living Live Streaming?

Based on the numbers and the input of live streamers, you need to approach streaming with a healthy and realistic mindset. Like most things, you should do it because you enjoy it, not as a cash grab. Yes, you can make money doing it, but most streamers won’t make a living solely from streaming.

“Going into streaming to make money, you’re gonna have a bad time,” one streamer said.

So if you really love streaming, then go for it. As you build your music career, it’s all about focusing on the things you enjoy most, and then trying to make money from those things. And if live streaming is one of those things, do it!

How To Succeed at Live Streaming

According to people with experience in live streaming, here are the factors you should focus on as you start your streaming endeavors.

Streaming consistency

The time invested in live streaming significantly impacts your earnings. Generally, dedicating more hours to streaming increases the likelihood of attracting viewers, subscribers, and donations. Consistent streaming builds a loyal audience base over time.

Content quality

The quality of your content may be just as important as consistency. Streamers who deliver engaging, entertaining, and interactive streams are more likely to get more attention. So make sure you have high-quality audio and video, an interesting background, and engaging energy.

Audience connection

Engage with your viewers through chat, responding to comments and questions, and fostering a welcoming and inclusive community. This will make people feel seen and want to come back to your future streams.

Collaboration and networking

Collaborating with fellow streamers and engaging in the community of the platform you use can broaden your reach and exposure. This can lead to cross-promotion, a win-win for both you and the other musician.

Income diversification

Successful live streamers almost always make money in multiple ways. They get tips and subscriptions, sell merch, get sponsorships, and do affiliate marketing. This is the way to make a reliable income streaming.

The Best Websites and Apps for Live Streaming

If you’re serious about live streaming, you might as well harness the money-making opportunities of all the platforms. The most well-known places to stream and make money today include Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

But to make your life easier, you may want to use a multistreaming service that lets you go live on all of your platforms at the same time. There are several of these services, but some of the most relied-upon places are Restream, StreamYard, and Switchboard.

Photo credit: Faith D

Playing music on the street is a grind. It can take a lot of trial and error and days with little pay. On the other hand, you can have very good days where you pull in hundreds. So the question is, does it end up being enough in the end? Can you make a living from busking?

How Much Do Busking Musicians Make?

Here’s the thing with making money as a busking musician: it fluctuates aggressively.

For example, this relatively unknown busking duo made $3 in two hours, but they also made $98 in two hours. This renowned violinist made $32 in 43 minutes. And based on the responses in this Reddit thread of busking performers, the hourly wage for a busker ranges from about $30 an hour up to $100+ an hour.

So it’s all over the place, even if you’re a really skilled musician. Yes, you can make a living playing music on the street. But it seems to require long hours, a knack for entertaining, and many days where you only make a little bit of money. So you have to love performing, even if no one’s listening.

Successful Busking Musicians

Let’s look at some good examples of how to perform on the street. I know there are plenty of busking musicians in the United States, and many of them are very talented and make decent money. But a few musicians that come to mind include Marc Rebillet, Ed Sheeran, and Allie Sherlock.

Rebillet makes up music on the spot, using a looper, a MIDI controller, and a laptop. All of this sits on top of a fold-out table that he sets up around New York City. His performance energy is electric. His positive vibe is infectious. He’s funny. And he’s very musically talented.

Then there’s Sheeran. He started out busking, playing anywhere he could, catching as many ears as possible. He started out with a loop pedal, his guitar, a decent talent at beatboxing, and a library of cover songs. He kept at it, and he’s doing just fine. I’m not saying his level of success will happen to you, but good things can happen from busking.

Lastly, we have Sherlock. According to her YouTube uploads, she’s been busking for at least 7 years. She was a kid when she started, playing music for people who mostly weren’t listening. And now, her recent videos show a large crowd gathering as she performs with her band.

Tips To Help You Do Well Busking

If you’re looking to give busking a try, I’ve crowd-sourced some tips from this thread and expounded on each.

Pick a good location

For busking to work, people need to hear you for long enough to decide if they like you or not. And they need to have money on them, so places like outside a mall, near small businesses, or at/near a farmer’s market are good spots to try.

Pay attention to the time

Before you set up and start playing, scout your location at different times of the day. Try first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, and as people are getting off work. Pay attention to when there’s the most foot traffic at different locations and take notes. You could then hit a different location each day depending on when they’re each busiest.

Have a unique hook

If you have some way to get people to stop walking out of interest, you’ve got a hook. It could be your look, your looping pedal, your unique cover of a pop song, or playing an uncommon instrument. You need something to grab people’s attention so they stop and listen.

Play famous songs in your style

People love hearing songs they know but played in a new way. So find some pop songs that everyone knows and play them in your style. You’ll enjoy it and so will others. Playing covers is the way to succeed as a busker.

Charisma and confidence

Part of busking is engaging with people. Yes, you need to be talented. But something as simple as making eye contact with people can make a difference. If you can talk and laugh and joke with people in between songs, even better. If you can make someone’s day better with an interaction, that will increase your chances of making an impact and getting more tips.

Live stream your performance

On top of performing on the street, you should consider streaming your performance on your social media channels. Places like Twitch and TikTok Live give viewers the opportunity to tip, so it’s another way to engage with fans and make extra money.

Get people in their emotions

Your performance needs to make audience members feel something. It needs to make them smile or tear up or feel seen. This will make the performance more memorable.

Photo credit: Ben Collins

Theo Katzman is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, solo artist, and member of the funk band Vulfpeck. And he recorded the songs on his album Be The Wheel live, all one takes, with a band, all straight to tape. It’s a bold move, but he has a clear reason for doing it this way.

It’s Not Digital Vs. Analog Recording

In an interview with Ari Herstand (and also in his appearance on the Third Story podcast), Katzman talks about his new approach to recording: doing it live. One takes, right to tape, minimal editing.

He makes it clear that he’s not trying to say analog recording is better than digital recording. It’s deeper than that. It’s about performance.

“I don’t feel religious about the sonics of tape,” he told Herstand. “…What’s much more important is the performance, getting a performance, whether you do it live or not.”

He says if you do record digitally, which most indie artists are, then record a performance of your voice and instrument instead of recording 50 takes and then picking out the best options from each take to comp the final take.

“You don’t even have to put it out,” he said. But do a full take just to see what you get.

“It’s about committing to a performance,” he said.

The Temptation To Edit Into Oblivion

Why might a one-take performance be better than editing together the best parts of many different performances?

Because nowadays, it’s easy to edit your track into oblivion, into humanless perfection.

“Recording digitally with the ability to overdub every part…it can sound incredible…and I’ve made many albums that way,” he said. “But I realized that if the task is documenting the fiercest Theo Katzman, the most vulnerable Theo Katzman, most raw – if that’s the task…there’s only one way we can do that.”

And that’s through an honest, real, sometimes imperfect performance. 

Imperfections Are Human

Showing imperfections is human. It’s authentic.

“When you let [imperfections] be heard,” Katzman said, “The audience has this experience of realizing that you are playing at your edge, and then you’re going beyond it. And that is the most thrilling thing for them.”

Why do imperfections work so well sometimes in recordings?

Because the 2-3 notes that are slightly out of tune remind the artist and the listener that the rest of the notes are totally in tune.

The Reward of Recording Authentically

Katzman says, yeah you could make your recordings perfectly in time, in tune, and super polished. But he also says, what if you record an authentic performance and it resonates with people?

He said making a living in music is ideally a second-hand result of focusing on authentic performance during the recording process.

He wants every musician to engage “in processes that really force us to accept ourselves and hopefully learn to love ourselves.”

“Imagine doing that and then making a living,” he said. “Wow, you’d be kind of like, the happiest person that ever lived. That’s not bad.”

And Herstand pointed out that Katzman’s fans are loyal fans. 

Katzman sells out venues that seat 1,000-3,000 people. He’s built his career deep, not necessarily wide. He doesn’t have crazy high streaming numbers (but make no mistake, they’re still impressive). But he’s doing music as a career because he lets his humanness shine through in his songwriting and recording.

And that resonates with people, people who stick around and support him as an artist.

Tips for Recording Your Performance as a Solo Artist

So how do you capture an authentic performance in a recording? Here are some tips to try if you’re a solo artist recording from home (as most of us are)…

Ask a friend for help

Get a music or engineer friend involved in your recording process. It takes some pressure off of you so you can focus on the performance. This friend has to know the basics of how to use a digital audio workstation (DAW).

Find your BPM

Before you hit record, you have to settle on the BPM of the song. Unless you want to have an extra raw performance and don’t record to a click. But if you’ll be adding other instruments, it’s best to record to a click.

Create a generic drum beat

Create the simplest beat you can. This is just to supplement the click track and help you stick with the beat better.

Play and sing the song

Have your friend hit record. Then play and sing your song the whole way through, even if you mess up. Just keep going. Don’t focus on singing every single note perfectly, just focus on getting into the emotion of the song. Play it like you did when you first wrote it.

Add the other instruments

Once you’ve done a few front-to-back takes of your voice and instrument, now you can add other instruments if you want. But record those instruments with the same mentality. Do just a few one-take performances.

Go easy on the editing

Once everything is recorded, don’t go crazy with Melodyne if you don’t have to. Try to keep the performances of all the instruments intact. Don’t edit away the authenticity you captured.

Because really, you’re trying to get a recording of a human performing a very personal song.

“This is what I’m trying to warn about: it’s gotten too easy to avoid performing,” Katzman said. “…Performing something is the doorway to authenticity.”

Photo credit: Alexander Grey

Spotify is making a few changes to the way it pays artists, and these changes are expected to take effect in Q1 2024. But the one change we’re going to talk about is its new payment threshold.

What Spotify Is Changing With Its Payment Threshold

Spotify just confirmed that a song must generate at least 1,000 streams per year or they will not pay you for it. If your song gets 999 streams in a year, Spotify will not pay you for that song.

To clarify, songwriters and publishers are still getting paid for those streams under the threshold, which is why you should register all of your songs with a Performance Rights Organization. The only thing that’s not getting paid is the master usage, AKA the streaming royalty that gets paid via your digital distributor.

What Type of Artists This Will Help

Because Spotify is not paying out songs with fewer than 1,000 streams a year, they estimate that will move $40 million back into the royalty pool. What’s a royalty pool and how does it work?

Put simply, all of the money generated from streams in a month goes into a pool. That pool is then divided up by percentage. So if your song earned 1% of the streams, you would get 1% of the money.

So this means songs that surpass the threshold will get a higher per-stream rate. We don’t really know how significant this bump in pay will be, but every little bit helps when you’re an indie artist.

There’s a good chance artists garnering over 1,000 streams in a year rely on their streaming income to some extent. So the new payment threshold is good news for them.

We’ll call these artists middle-class musicians.

What Type of Artists This Will Hurt

Now let’s talk about indie artists below the “middle-class musician” title. These are artists just starting out or those who don’t rely on streaming to get by.

The first misconception is that these artists are not working musicians. I know of so many musicians who make a living playing shows but probably don’t get enough streams to pass this new 1,000-stream threshold. For these musicians, they will be losing money that could help them in the long run.

Another argument in favor of the new threshold is that these artists wouldn’t be getting paid anyway because distributors have a payout threshold. But a payment threshold and a payout threshold are two different things. A payout threshold is simply a delayed payment until your songs collectively (across all streaming platforms) meet the threshold, while a payment threshold means you don’t get paid for your songs at all.

Because here’s the thing, streams add up. If I have 20 songs that each get 900 streams in a year, that’s 18,000 total streams. Which, with the current average per-song rate of $0.003, that’s $54. Yes, that’s not a lot of money in a year. But for artists just starting out who don’t have a lot of expendable income, that $50 could go toward promo, guitar strings, or a new plugin.

And to be clear, low stream count does not mean “bad” music. I know a bunch of indie artists with less than 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify that make really good music. The problem for many of these musicians is marketing. Usually, they don’t put enough effort into marketing.

But all of this aside, the biggest thing that bothers me with this new payment threshold is that if someone streams my song, I should get paid for it. Period. And this is coming from an artist who will probably benefit from the slight bump in the per-steam rate for songs above 1,000 streams a year.

Photo: Vlad

Spotify overlooked a few details in its much-ballyhooed ‘royalty modernizing’ plan — including the illegal parts. What else is about to blow?

On paper, it all seemed so simple. A well-considered, 1,000-stream-per-year minimum threshold — and a benevolent redistribution of $40 million in funds that would have been locked up anyway. Actually, make that a billion dollars, according to Spotify’s five-year calculations of the ample redistributions its ‘royalty modernizing’ plan would yield.

Yes, this plan to reimagine streaming royalties was that good — and that beneficial to the artist community.

It was also illegal, at least on the publishing side. Turns out that the entire publishing side has strict royalty payout rules under US Copyright Law (and the copyright laws of other countries), with little room to make things up. A 1,000-play threshold might fly on the recording side, but withholding funds for publishing-specific licenses like mechanicals is against the law.

The problem came to light in a bombshell DMN report earlier this month — with a showdown between Spotify and an army of litigants potentially next.

After word of Spotify’s royalty revamp started circulating, activist songwriter George Johnson promptly raised the matter with the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

“This fraudulent scheme is apparently a way for Spotify to not pay almost two-thirds of all American music copyright authors for their performances, reproductions, and distribution of their individual works already licensed to Spotify,” Johnson fumed in a CRB filing.

Fast-forward to Tuesday of this week, and Spotify’s officially unveiled royalty remake suddenly applies only to recordings — with words like ‘publishing’ and ‘songwriters’ not even mentioned.

“Starting in early 2024, tracks must have reached at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months in order to generate recorded royalties,” the streaming giant clarified.

Translation: Spotify won’t be paying for streams 1-999 on the recording side, but will still comply with statutory requirements on the publishing side. One payment will be withheld while under the threshold, while the other will be immediately distributed to comply with various laws.

Which means that instead of simplifying the royalty accounting process, Spotify has invented a way to double the complexity. And keep the fun times rolling in the accounting and legal departments.

Beyond that successful pushback, however, the rebellion may be muted.

Despite continued kvetching within indie, distribution, and artist rights corners, it’s unclear if Spotify will face any serious challenges ahead. In an email to Digital Music News, indie label organization Impala promised to discuss Spotify’s plan at its upcoming board meeting on November 30th. But outside of a broad pledge of ‘ensuring a fair, diverse and sustainable music ecosystem for all,’ the organization didn’t offer any concrete resolutions or demands.

And it’s uncertain if any will come. Part of the issue is that most serious artists, even unsigned emerging artists, have long since crossed the 1,000-song threshold that Spotify now requires. And for those struggling to get those plays, it won’t make a difference anyway. For starters, the money is already extremely low. And as Stem Disintermedia’s president Kristin Graziani recently articulated, most of that sub-1,000-stream money gets trapped in distributor accounts anyway.

Spotify’s plan just isn’t that bad — or damaging — at least at this stage. It might even be helpful (though be cautious with Spotify’s grandiose redistribution claims.)

However, the fallout from the changes for ‘noise’ recordings remains uncertain.

For starters, Spotify has decided to denigrate one of its most important sub-categories as ‘noise,’ a term that typically refers to aggravating sounds that people want to escape, like a jackhammer or screaming baby.

Gentle raindrops on a tin roof may not be the pinnacle of musical achievement. Still, people enjoy listening to this ‘noise’ for hours and hours while studying, working, or focusing on something demanding. In that light, does it make sense for Spotify to launch an attack on this ‘noise?’

This is actually a fairly large category for Spotify, with listeners tapping the platform for raindrops and Drake alike. With that in mind, it’s difficult to understand Spotify’s sudden shift in tone towards this creator group.

Perhaps Spotify felt pressure to appease UMG chief Sir Lucian Grainge, who’s adopted a sneering attitude towards sound effects and non-musical focus tracks. Whatever the reason, Spotify now looks condescendingly at this class of audio. Some changes certainly make sense, including forcing minimum length requirements on ‘noise’ tracks to block royalty-gaming schemes. But even for those following the rules, royalties will be severely chopped.

In its Tuesday disclosure, Spotify promised to “value noise streams at a fraction of the value of music streams,” with “white noise, nature sounds, machine noises, sound effects, non-spoken ASMR, and silence recordings” facing the cut. That will make Grainge and other major label executives happy, though it may also result in a thinner ‘noise’ selection on Spotify.

Perhaps you study best to that smattering of raindrops for hours. But will you be able to find what you need on Spotify? If not, other platforms like YouTube will happily fill the void, with Spotify suddenly becoming less competitive and functional for millions of subscribers.

From an early age, Bernie Grundman knew he wanted to dedicate his life to sound. “I knew where I needed to be when I was a little kid,” says the world-renowned mastering engineer. “I already knew the things that attracted me, and I was wide open to it. I knew where my passions were.”

The following comes from Crewest Studio, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.

Welcome to The Conduit, a podcast featuring candid conversations with professional musicians who give listeners the unvarnished truth about being an artist in the music industry. In today’s episode, host and LA-based DJ, producer, and musician Dan Ubick (aka Constantine “Connie” Price) sits down with Bernie Grundman to discuss the legendary engineer’s Hollywood studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, and its long-term impact on the music industry’s soundscape. “Music is an expression, emotionally, of the human experience,” says Bernie. “We all are the same. We all have the same emotions.”

A jazz fanatic who followed his passion for music through the Air Force and on to Hollywood, Bernie is the man behind a myriad of landmark recordings, including Carole King’s Tapestry, Steely Dan’s Aja, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Prince’s Purple Rain, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle. Since opening his Hollywood recording studio in 1983, Bernie has mastered thousands upon thousands of records, winning numerous awards along the way. In 1997, he opened a studio in Tokyo, Japan, with engineer Yasuji Maeda.

Bernie began his career with Roy DuNann and Lester Koenig at Contemporary Records, where he mastered gems by jazz greats like Art Pepper and Sonny Rollins. Before long, the engineer moved on to Herb Moss and Jerry Alpert’s famed A&M Records in 1968, where he worked for the next 15 years before launching his own studio. As you’ll discover in today’s episode, Bernie’s easy-going demeanor, his never-ending quest to better himself, and his attention to detail are unrivaled—scrolling through his discography could take up the better part of your day.

In today’s podcast episode, Bernie talks about his decision to become a recording engineer and the steps he took to pursue that passion. He also emphasizes the importance of demonstrating enthusiasm, responding emotionally to music without prejudice, and making yourself unconditionally available to the artists. Ultimately, Bernie believes that if you do what you’re passionate about, you’ll never run out of steam. “I’m 81 years old, and I’m still enthusiastic and excited about this business,” he says. “The thing is, if you’re working in your passion area, you’re never going to run out of energy.”

Photo credit: Chris Ainsworth

The end goal for many musicians is to go full-time. That’s my goal. I want to wake up every day, make music, and do all the things needed to build a sustainable music career. But it’s not for everyone. It’s difficult. It can be discouraging. And you probably won’t get rich. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for it.

The Reality of Being a Full-Time Musician

Most full-time musicians are blue-collar, middle-class musicians. They’re making a living, yes. They can pay rent and their bills, and maybe they can afford fun stuff now and then. But they’re not rich.

The stats on how musicians actually make money are slim, but we do have some resources. We do know performing live is the main source of income for most active musicians.

It’s the main income stream for 5 of the 6 professional musicians I wrote about.

This very small study of 75 musicians shows performing is the second largest income stream.

And this study, last revised in 2015, shows us that performing is the biggest revenue stream.

Anecdotally, my friend makes a decent living playing corporate events and weddings.

Lots of artists make a living from house shows.

And most of the full-timers in this Reddit thread play a ton of shows, and it sounds like shows are their main source of income.

However, many full-timers are pulling from multiple income streams. So if you’re going to go all-in, expect to be juggling many things at once.

For example, I’m fully self-employed. I’m not a full-time musician – it’s about half music and half other random stuff. Here’s what a normal workweek looks like for me:

• Writing marketing emails for small businesses
• Writing blog posts that help other musicians (like this one)
• Producing/mixing music for other artists
• Editing podcasts for clients
• Writing songs for my next project
• Posting content that promotes my music (which leads to more song streams)
• Playing the occasional house concert
• Submitting music to the sync licensing companies I work with

See how many things I do just to get by? This is the reality for many musicians trying to make music their career. Just so you’re aware of what it looks like.

What Happens If You Fail?

There’s a saying: “There are no failures, only quitters.” As long as you’re still pursuing music as a career, you’re not failing. Yeah, maybe you’re not at the stage you want to be at (this feeling never goes away). But you’re hopefully still making progress.

If you decide to quit pursuing music as a career, that’s your choice. You’re not a failure, you’ve just realized it’s not for you. For example, this music marketer talks about how he “decided” to quit being a professional musician.

And if you decide to quit, to change paths, that’s totally fine. Like I said at the top, full-time musicianship is not for everyone. You can still make great music even if you have a day job or another career.

Just ask yourself, “Will I regret this decision when I’m older? Will I wish I had kept trying?” Really take time to think about your answer. It can bring you a lot of clarity.

What Happens If You Succeed?

Success is subjective, so you need to figure that out for yourself. But for me, the goal is to make my entire living from my musical skills. Ultimately, I want to spend every day making music or at least doing things that further my music career.

I want to continue to be my own boss and set my own schedule. And I’m not alone in that feeling.

“I’m 38 now,” one Redditor said. “And I realized several years ago that what I value most is freedom and independence. Freedom from an alarm clock. Freedom to make my own schedule and spend my days how I choose. Freedom from bosses and supervisors and corporate culture and politics. Freedom to pursue projects that excited me.”

I can confidently say that every musician who’s trying to make music their career would resonate with this comment.

This musician continued, laying out their typical daily work schedule:

1. Wake up “without an alarm clock”
2. Go for a long walk by the water
3. Come home and do some work on a side hustle or tinker around in their studio
4. Have an afternoon nap
5. Around dinnertime, pack up their guitar
6. Play a 3-hour gig
7. Connect with people, have a couple of drinks
8. Go home to their own bed beside their wife

Sounds pretty cool, right?

And this type of work life isn’t exclusive to performing musicians. Lots of people make a living from sync licensing. Or related hustles like being a YouTuber.

Whatever path you choose to become a full-time musician, it will probably involve multiple streams of income, a lot of hard work, and stamina. If you never quit, you’ll keep getting closer to your ideal career and life. 

Photo credit: Chase Yi

Whenever you see musicians complaining about not being able to make money from music, they’re probably not making money from music. Because there are definitely ways to use your musical skills to earn a part-time or full-time income.

Is it difficult? Yes. As Russ says, you have to be delusional to make a living as a musician. In other words, you have to be ridiculously passionate about music. If you are, you can provide value to listeners and get paid for providing that value.

So, below are 12 ways to make money from music. I’ve made or currently make money from most of these income streams, so I know it’s possible.

Streaming Royalties

Music streaming platforms notoriously don’t pay a ton of money. But that’s not a good enough reason to not take advantage of this passive income stream. You make a song, distribute it, and it can potentially make you money for the rest of your life.

Yeah, you need a lot of streams to make anything substantial. And we should push for better payouts from streaming platforms. For example, to make $500 from Spotify, you need to get about 210,000 streams.

But isn’t it better to make as much money from streaming as possible?

Teach Music Lessons

Whatever instrument you play, you can bring in some money by teaching others how to play it (you’ll have to be exceptional on that instrument). You can get paid $20-40 per hour, depending on how good you are and where you live.

It can be difficult to get your first students, but once you do, you’ll retain more students mainly by word of mouth. To find your first students, start with your personal network. You can also start by working with a company that finds students for you. And you can

Session Musician Work

If you’re good enough on your instrument to give music lessons, then you’re probably good enough to be a session musician.

You’ll do better as a session musician if you live in a city with a vibrant music scene, like Nashville, Austin, Los Angeles, or New York. But you can start right away by getting set up on SoundBetter and Fiverr and offering remote session work.

Play House Concerts

If you’re an artist with original music already released, don’t overlook house concerts.

They’re my favorite kind of show. As an introvert who loves people, I do better with smaller crowds. It’s not as intimidating and I get to meet everyone there. And you can be sure everyone in attendance wants to be there, as opposed to playing songs in a bar for people who don’t even know who you are.

This means house-show attendees are more likely to support you financially. Here are some resources to help you with the house concert industry:

• Team up with your friends and local fans to host house concerts in their homes
• Read No Booker, No Bouncer, No Bartender: How I Made $25K On A 2-Month House Concert Tour (And How You Can Too)
• Sign up as an artist on Side Door (they connect you with hosts)
• Apply to be part of the Listening Room Network (if you’re accepted, they connect you with hosts)

Play Live-Streamed Shows

Artists make money by live-streaming their concerts. Apparently, you don’t need many fans to make a living on Twitch. You can also make money directly on TikTok through follower “gifts” (tips).

But most importantly, it’s a fun way to connect with your fans from all over the world.

Play Corporate Gigs

Corporate gigs seem to be the secret sauce to making a living as a performing musician, as long as you’re willing to get rid of the fantasy idea that every show you play will be a sold-out theater.

I have friends who make a living from this type of thing, and I’ve played a few corporate gigs myself.

These gigs involve being background music for private parties, business get togethers, performances at senior living communities, and weddings. If you’re also a DJ, that’s a huge plus.

And, like any other type of public performance, you can earn performance royalties on top of what the client pays you.

Here’s how to get started.

Performance Royalties

Whenever you or someone else plays your songs in a public place, you are owed a royalty. In my experience, it ends up being about $1-2 per song per performance.

This can vary depending on what Publishing Rights Organization (PRO) you’re with. With BMI, I simply upload my setlist to their website and get paid every quarter. Oh, and this whole process is free.

A “public place” has to be anywhere open to the public, so house shows are not considered a “public place.” So don’t try to file for royalties from a house concert.

The first step is to sign up with a PRO.

Merch

Any shows you play, you should be selling merchandise, whether it’s in a house, at a bar, or for a corporate event (just check with the client first). For a lot of performing artists, merch sales are their biggest income stream.

For merch apparel, look for a local company that can make your custom T-shirts, hats, stickers, and whatever else your fans might like.

Sync Licensing

Sync licensing is when your song is synced with a moving image – in other words, a TV ad, show, or film.

You’re getting paid a lump sum of cash in exchange for allowing a filmmaker to use that song in their project.

Depending on the project, you can earn anywhere from $10 to thousands of dollars per song used. And you can license the same song multiple times if you’re under a non-exclusive agreement.

Plus, you’re owed performance royalties if your song is on TV (another reason to sign up with a PRO).

Produce and Mix Artists

This is currently my biggest income stream. I partner with indie artists to bring their songs to life through production and mixing.

To get started, you’ll first need to show people what you can do. This is why it’s important to have music of your own that you can send to potential clients.

Just record a song or two for starters. Then you can send those songs to fellow musicians to whom you pitch your services.

And, if you’re new to this, it’s best to offer to mix 1-2 songs for free. Then you’ll have more portfolio items to show other clients.

I highly recommend SoundBetter. I get most of my clients through this platform.

Start a Subscriber Community

A subscriber community allows your superfans to support you financially while getting exclusive goodies in return. By sharing exclusive stuff, early access, and just being yourself, you can run a successful subscriber community.

Some of the top platforms that let you do this are Patreon, Bandzoogle, and Bandcamp.

Launch and Grow a YouTube Channel

This one is tough. I’ve not done it, but I’m a big consumer of YouTube and I’ve seen plenty of musicians do it.

The trick is figuring out how to grow. To do so, you first need to have irresistible content. You’ll also need to post frequently, be a part of the community, and know how to add effective tags to your video.

Then, as you grow your audience, you can earn money from sponsors and YouTube’s ad revenue program.

YouTube actually put together a free course on how to succeed on YouTube. Looks like it covers everything you need to know.

Personalize Your Music Career

The way you make money from music is up to you. I’m just letting you know there are plenty of options. You have to find your own path and keep going.

I suggest focusing on 2-3 of these income streams.

But why three income streams?

Well, Thomas C. Corley, author of Change Your Habits, Change Your Life, spent five year studying millionaires.

And he found that three income streams “seemed to be the magic number.”

He found that 65% of the millionaires he studied had at least three income streams “prior to

making their first million dollars.”

He added that “the more income streams you can create in life, the more secure your financial house will be and the more wealth you will create.”

And these millionaires “built their businesses while employed full time. If they can do it, so can you.”

I know, you may not be shooting to become a millionaire musician. But if you want a full-time career in music, it’s best to listen to people who are financially successful.

In our latest DMN Pro Weekly deep-dive, we track the dizzying developments surrounding the music industry’s potential shifts in streaming platform compensation and catalog the proposed changes across both user- and artist-centric compensation methods. Critical players in this report include Deezer, Universal Music Group, Spotify, Believe, AIM, A2IM, SACEM, Wagram Music, and Stem Disintermedia.

Report Table of Contents

1. Artist Centric Royalties: A Bigger Cut?

Universal Music Group and Deezer partnership ‘reimagines’ how monetization of publishing rights occurs, aiming to ensure ‘fairer’ compensation for rights owners.

2. UMG & Deezer: Four Basic Enhancements For Artist-Centric Royalties

Reward ‘professional artists’ and fan engagement, demonetize non-music content and tackle fraud.

3. UMG CEO Sir Lucian Grainge: ‘Merchants Of Garbage’

Blunt words for those opposing the artist-centric royalties remuneration system.

4. Impala, Believe, A2IM, & AIM: Indies & The Artist Centric Controversy

Recognized players in the digital music ecosystem have weighed in on how the model might play out in practice.

5. Spotify’s 1,000-Stream Threshold

At least two-thirds of Spotify’s catalog may no longer qualify to receive royalties. In all likelihood, more than 80% of creators will be cut off.

The whole point of this post is to show you that, yes, you can make a living as a musician. It takes great music, a lot of hard and smart work, and a solid music community. But you can do it. This post also shows you the specific ways six indie musicians are making money today (and how you can too).

Vo Williams – sync licensing

Vo Williams’ first sync placement was in a Big Game trailer around 2014. Since then, he’s landed over 1,000 placements.

And he said a trailer placement can pay the artist $20,000 on the publishing side and $20,000 on the master side ‒ and that’s on the low end!

He got started in this niche working with a music library (which is different from a sync licensing company). And now he works directly with music supervisors and others in the film industry.

Lucidious – streaming royalties + touring

Lucidious has garnered 200 million streams on Spotify. And as of this writing, he has over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

He makes around $20,000 a month from streaming alone. How is this possible? Even though DSPs pay fractions of a penny per stream, most of his fans listen to several of his songs every month.

But streaming isn’t the only way he makes money ‒ he also tours and sells merch. But his career is thanks in large part to his success on Spotify.

Learn how to promote your next song (and your old ones too).

Carey Rayburn – special events

There are about 1,400 Performing Arts Centers (PACs) located in most major cities in the United States. And each one books about 50 performances each year.

Trumpeter Carey Rayburn is one of the premier acts in the PAC market. He and his band, Good Co, have earned major agency representation, and they’ve appeared at most of the major Special Event conferences, playing over 500 shows in the Special Events market.

And they make over $200,000 a year performing in the PAC market, according to Ari’s Take.

Even though Rayburn trained under some renowned trumpeters and got a degree in Orchestral Trumpet Performance, that doesn’t mean you need to go that route too.

A PAC will pay between $1,000 to $15,000 (or more) for unknown performers. And then they’ll pay tens of thousands for the known, more experienced performers.

The types of performers that do well in Special Events include cover bands, tribute acts, world music, reggae, R&B, lounge singers, soul, blues, funk, a cappella, comedy, and niche acts.

Learn how to book high-paying private events.

Dave Ruch – educational performances

Dave Ruch is a full-time musician, mainly performing for families and at schools. He started out playing 4-hour performances in clubs but ended up getting tendinitis.

That brought him to the world of educational performance.

He says you can make “$1,000-2,500 a day doing educational performances in schools, museums, libraries, and arts centers.”

He told me via email he charges $500 for a ~45-minute educational performance locally, and he’ll charge more if he has to travel. And he will sometimes do 2-3 of these shows a day.

He’s also been offering online educational performances, charging $149 per school.

So if you’re an entertaining performer, good with kids, and love to educate people, this niche could be perfect for you.

Joy Ike – live performance + live streaming + sync licensing

Joy Ike is a singer/songwriter/artist who left her publicist career in 2008 to become a full-time musician. She confirmed by email she has been a full-timer ever since.

Her biggest source of revenue is performing (in-person and live streaming), which includes merchandise sold at her shows.

Her second biggest income stream is licensing music through Musicbed.

Here’s her income breakdown in percentages for 2021:

• 51% – live performance + live streaming (includes merch sold at shows)
• 26% – licensing music via Musicbed
• 12% – streaming and downloads
• 7% – online merch sales (on her website and Bandcamp)
• 4% – musician coaching and workshops

Clare Means – live streaming + street performing

Clare Means makes her living from live streaming and busking (street performing).

She started out playing on the streets of Los Angeles five days a week. She began live streaming her street performances with her smartphone, soon streaming from her home. And over the past five years, she’s spent an average of 20 hours a week live streaming.

And she’s unique in that she mainly plays original songs. In fact, she’s had so much success that Ari’s Take partnered with her to make a step-by-step guide on how to livestream on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram. And some of the students are making several hundred dollars a week just from live streaming.

Clare has also set up tip jars on PayPal and Venmo, and she has a small group of supporters on Patreon.

Basically, music is her full-time gig. And she’s now considered one of the top experts in the niche of busking and live streaming.

How To Make a Living in Music

As you can see from this list, most of these musicians have multiple streams of revenue, usually 2-3. This is smart because if one stream dries up, you have others to rely on.

However, a few of these artists just got really great at one thing. They’ve gotten so successful at that one thing, they most likely have enough reserves to fall back on if things go south for them.

The point is, you can make a living as a musician in many different ways. These indie artists are proof of that.

Photo: Olichel

Spotify is implementing a royalty-payment threshold of 1,000 streams per year, according to preliminary details now surfacing. So what’s the problem with that?

The shocking answer to that question is ‘not much,’ even though the move technically cuts off a vast majority of creators on the platform. Take a closer look at the numbers, however, and it becomes obvious that this isn’t a lot of money — both in terms of the overall percentage of the streaming pie and the actual payments themselves. There are also some interesting benefits that immediately come into play.

As a quick recap, details on Spotify’s planned royalty-payout changes were recently revealed by Stem Disintermedia president Kristin Graziani. Aside from fraud-monitoring requirements on distributors and changes to the minimum length of non-music tracks like raindrop recordings, Spotify will also implement a minimum play threshold for a song at 1,000 streams per year. Pass that threshold, and you get paid. Miss that threshold, and there’s no payment.

It’s shocking how many artists will get cut off by this simple shift.

Just how many are we talking about here? Yesterday, we estimated that roughly two-thirds of artists would stop receiving payments due to this shift. But that’s based on Spotify’s data on the number of tracks that cross 1,000 streams during their lifetimes — not one year. Shift the timeframe from ‘lifetime’ to ‘annual,’ and it’s reasonable to estimate that more than 80% of artists and creators on the platform will suddenly lose their royalty checks.

For reasons that make sense and are entirely defensible, that is provoking protests and howls from the indie sector and artist advocates (we’ll have more on that later). They aren’t wrong to be upset, especially since the money may be directly transferred from those underperforming artists to better-performing artists (or, more likely, their labels). In other words, bigger, more successful artists will receive money for streams they didn’t earn.

So how is that okay?

The answer is complicated. On one hand, this non-payment redistribution is technically unfair, and arguably theft if shifted into the hands of more successful artists. Perhaps Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie nailed it by calling this sort of redistribution a ‘reverse Robin Hood system.’ But Ladegaillerie was referring to a very different and more serious recalibration being cooked up by Universal Music Group and Deezer.

In the Spotify context, however, this probably doesn’t add up enough to matter. For evidence of that, consider what 1,000 streams mean for an artist on Spotify.

The penny payout rates from streaming platforms are shockingly low: Graziani estimated that 1,000 streams translate into $3 for the average Spotify artist. Imagine an artist with ten tracks, each drawing 500 streams. The missing payout would be $15.

And what’s wrong with a minimum threshold? Graziani further points out that most distributors have minimum thresholds already in place. In this case, the money isn’t hitting artist bank accounts at these lower levels.

“$3.00 is well below the threshold at which almost every distributor allows artists to transfer earnings into their own bank accounts,” Graziani noted. “In other words, this is money that isn’t currently making it to artists in the first place.”

So where is that big pile of pennies sitting?

“Right now, artists don’t benefit from the millions of tiny payments that Spotify pays for content that receives a few streams per month,” Graziani continues. “It’s the distributors who benefit from the hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in their bank accounts earning interest. Redirecting those tiny payments can immediately increase the royalty pool by $40 million dollars each year, and that number can grow over time.”

$40 million sounds like a lot of money — and it is. But placed into the context of overall streaming revenues, it’s actually a tiny portion.

Billboard, citing an anonymous source, has claimed that the new payout approach would shift only “about 0.5% of Spotify’s royalty pool to more popular tracks.” All of those tiny crumbs aren’t adding up to a very big cake.

But that 0.5% accounts for a disproportionate amount of the headaches involving metadata mismatches and unclaimed funds. Delve into the bowels of the SoundExchange and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) databases, and vast piles of dangling, disconnected, and otherwise unclaimed cash surfaces. But what if the smaller stuff — defined by tracks garnering fewer than 1,000 streams per year — were simply removed from consideration? Maybe the war against bad metadata is about to take a fortuitous turn.

Still, from an ethical standpoint, is it fair to shift that money to bigger artists? Graziani says yes, though that’s certainly worthy of debate. But how important is that debate in the grand scheme of things? Given the broader and more controversial changes happening at Deezer at the behest of Universal Music Group, perhaps not so much.

Perhaps a middle-ground solution would be to not distribute that money to bigger artists that didn’t generate those streams. Instead, why not use the funds to support up-and-coming artists, even in a for-profit scheme? 

Stem knows plenty about this: the company recently raised $250 million to help fund emerging artist careers. According to the company, the fund “provides advances against future projects without taking any ownership” and represents a model that’s “had a profound impact” on certain indie acts’ careers.

Now we’re talking.

Photo credit: Fausto Sandoval

As an indie artist, I’m always looking for the best way to engage with my fans. And I’m sure you feel the same way. A few years ago, SMS marketing for musicians became the new hot thing. But is it still relevant? Is it still effective? Short answer: yes and yes. But only if you do it thoughtfully and intentionally. Here’s how you can get started…

What Is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is just text message marketing. (In case you’re curious, SMS stands for “Short Message Service”). So people give you their phone number and allow you to text them about your music.

Why Use SMS Marketing?

We’ve seen social media platforms change drastically since they launched. For example, we went from chronological feeds to curated algorithms. The companies behind these platforms change how their apps work all the time.

And that’s the thing: these apps belong to the companies, not to you and me. We don’t have direct access to our fans through these platforms.

This is why SMS marketing can be really good for indie musicians. If and when social media apps change how things work – or worse, if they go away completely – you will still be able to contact your fans directly.

It’s the same idea behind email marketing, just with people’s phone numbers.

How To Grow Your SMS List

So how do you get people to give you their number? Here are some methods you can try:

• Collect numbers at your live performances
• Offer people an unreleased song in exchange for their number and use a keyword they can text in (all the best SMS platforms let you do this)
• Do a giveaway of your merch
• Just ask – post on social media something like “Hey you should text me: [YOUR PHONE NUMBER]”

How To Use SMS Marketing the Right (and Legal) Way

Using SMS marketing effectively as an indie musician means you have to be thoughtful and strategic. So here are some ways to approach text message marketing so you’re staying legal and also not annoying people.

Stay legal

This is obvious, but you have to get permission. Don’t buy phone number lists. Don’t just text random numbers. People hate that, and they will hate you. It’s also a legal thing.

You also have to stay in compliance, but any reputable SMS marketing platform will ensure you do this (or at least provide resources for your education).

Lastly, make sure it’s clear how people can opt-out. Respecting a person’s choice to opt-out helps them respect you, even if they don’t want to get your texts.

Use it for (mostly) essential messaging

You can’t text your fans too often or you will annoy them. So here are some essential reasons why you may send out an SMS campaign:

• Tour or show announcements
• New music
• Unreleased music
• New merch
• Sales on merch

If you think of some interesting conversation starters that fit within your brand, feel free to send out an SMS campaign. Just make sure you respond to every text. People expect a reply, and you don’t want to leave your fans on read.

Segment and personalize

On your SMS marketing platform, assign your subscribers to different lists and use tags. This will make it easier to contact your fans based on location, purchase history (concert tickets/merch), and how they opted into your list (like via a keyword or giveaway).

And whenever you send a campaign, use the “first name” tag so it will autofill the person’s name. If you have the names of some subscribers but not others, you can make the no-name subscribers’ first names “there.” That way, your message would be something like “Hey there…”, while still including the name of the subscribers who have given you their name.

Ultimately, you’re trying to build a lifelong connection with your fans through SMS marketing. Think long-term. Don’t annoy your fans. Always respond to their texts. Message them the way you would be okay with if you were in their position. 

Tell me if this has happened to you…

You find a musician on social media. You like the song you hear, so you look it up on Spotify. Once you land on their Spotify page, the first thing you instinctively look at is the Monthly Listeners stat. It’s right at the top so it’s hard to miss.

And at that point, you make an instant judgment of them as an artist and the quality of their music. I’m sorry to all my fellow indie artists, but I definitely do this as a listener.

It’s either “Why doesn’t this artist have more listeners?!” or “How the heck does this person have so many listeners?!”

And as an artist, I check my Spotify for Artists every single day. It’s kind of embarrassing. I want to be the artist who just puts music out and doesn’t even pay attention to the numbers. But in today’s world, being an independent musician is like running a business. So you have to know the numbers.

The thing is, while tracking stats is important to see what’s working and what’s not, it’s very easy for it to become an obsession.

So all this to say, check yourself. Make sure your stat-checking is not becoming an obsession.

There’s a much deeper meaning to being a musician than stats. Let’s talk about it.

How Do I Find My Purpose as an Artist?

Purpose is what keeps you going and gives you meaning as a musician. But how do you find your purpose as an artist? Here are some things that have helped me…

Match your career goals to your personality

Everyone’s music career will look different, so you have to figure out what you want yours to look like. And to do that, there are two big questions you can ask yourself.

What are you doing when you lose track of time?

When you’re doing music and you lose track of time, that means you’re doing what you love. You’re in the zone. This is also called “flow state.”

For me, my flow happens when I’m writing and recording songs. I might be in my studio for what seems like 20 minutes, but it turns out to be two hours.

What are you doing when you get into the flow? That will tell you what kind of musician you want to be.

What do you really want to do all day?

Imagine something with me.

Imagine one of your super fans comes to you and says, “I want to pay you an annual salary. But you have to do something every day to move your music career forward. Treat music as your new day job — your new career.”

If that happened, what would you do all day? If money were no concern and you could do music 7-8 hours a day, what would you fill the time with?

Your answer will tell you what you want to be.

Build a plan based on your ideal career

Once you figure out what you want your music career to look like, you need to set goals to get you there. This way, you’re only competing against yourself, not other artists. You’re only tracking your progress and focusing on your success.

To build a full music career plan, check out this guide.

Focus on the process, not the destination

Remember why you got into music. Remember the high you got from playing your first chord progression, writing your first song, or playing your first show. Intentionally remind yourself of the joy music brings you.

This will keep you focused on the process of creating instead of your stats or even your income.

Success is the release

You have to define your own success. And I can confidently say that releasing a song is a success. To write, record, mix, master, and release a song is a big deal. You should be proud. When you put a song out into the world, you are successful, even in that small way.

Share and connect

When one of your songs connects with a fan on a deep level, there’s no feeling like it. Something you made has altered someone else’s life (hopefully in a positive way). And there’s no better feeling as a musician.

So put your music out there. Talk to and connect with the people who like your music. The human-to-human connection is the reason why I keep releasing music.

I’m sure you’ve heard music marketers talk about email marketing. “You have to ‘own’ your fans,” they say. “Social media algorithms come and go!” And I’ll be honest, the idea of bypassing the whim of algorithms sounds appealing. But is email marketing still worth it? Let’s crowdsource the answer…

Email vs. Instagram vs. Discord, Etc.

Someone on Reddit asked how musicians prefer to stay in touch with their fans. Social media? Email? Discord? Something else?

Here’s what musicians in the comments said…

Opinions AGAINST Email

Let’s start with musicians who are against email marketing, or at least put something else before it.

“1) Discord, 2) Email list, 3) Instagram”

Discord is a great place to have a communal conversation surrounding your music. It’s a way for your fans to interact with each other and with you. The interface is a little clunky, but many artists use it as a way to create a sense of community around your music and brand.

“I’m sorry but no one’s going on their email for new music”

This is true. But the thing is, that’s not the point of email marketing. The point of an email list as a musician is to connect directly with people who already know about you and love your music. It’s not a discovery platform, it’s a relationship builder.

“I have not read an email in 8 years…”

This is a crazy take. If you haven’t read an email in 8 years, you need to get your life together. You kind of need an email address to be able to do anything in today’s world.

Opinions FOR Email Marketing

Now for the comments in favor of email marketing for musicians. These were also some of the most upvoted comments on the Reddit thread.

“Email is still king”

Email is definitely more direct than social media, so in that regard, it is “king.” The average open rate (what percentage of people open your emails) in the music industry is just over 21%. It’s not amazing, but it’s still pretty good compared to the other industries!

“Email is the one that has stood the test of time”

This is true. Email came around in 1971. It’s now over 50 years old and still a very important part of our digital lives. I personally check my email multiple times a day, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.

“Discord and Instagram are not in your control”

We’ve seen social media companies change their algorithms. We went from chronological feeds to curated feeds, for example. And these platforms could change things again whenever they want. But email is pretty much the same as it was 10-20 years ago. It gives you direct access to your fans.

“If the long term is important, own your contact list”

“Owning” your fans just means having direct contact info for them. On Discord and social media platforms, you don’t get access to members’ email addresses. So if these platforms go away, you have no way to contact those fans after the fact.

How To Build Your Email List

Email is still important for keeping up with your super fans, so it would be smart to invest some time into building a list. Here are a few ways you can do that…

RSVPs to your concert

I like to play house concerts. And because I don’t want to share the host’s address publicly, I ask people to RSVP, then I send the address only to the RSVPers. This is also a way to collect email addresses. Everyone who RSVP’d is now on my email list and will likely be interested to hear what’s happening with my music career.

Sign-ups at your shows

If you don’t do RSVPs beforehand, like if you’re playing a traditional venue, you can collect email addresses at your show. For a walkthrough of how to do this, check out this article (yes, it’s nearly 10 years old, but it’s still good advice)

Offer unreleased music

If you’ve released a song that you know people like, it could be a good move to give the demo of that song to people who give you their email addresses. Or you could give them a song you recorded but didn’t make your album, or you could give them a song a month early. You can do all of this through the email automation of your email provider.

Pre-saves

I personally don’t run pre-save campaigns nor do I pre-save other artists’ songs – I don’t want to add a song to my library if I haven’t heard it. But you may have the itch to try a pre-save campaign. If so, you will get the email addresses of every person who pre-saves your song.

Final word: email marketing is not dead (yet). It is still a viable way to converse with your fans directly without algorithms or other platforms getting in the way. That may not be the case in a decade or even three years. But we don’t have evidence right now to believe that email marketing will become obsolete any time soon.

Users can quickly sign up for the Splash Pro free tier, reveals Splash General Manager Tarika Wickremeratne.

Generative AI platform Splash just released its Gen-2 feature, allowing users to generate new music, lyrics, and vocals from a text prompt. Splash’s models are exclusively trained on a self-owned music library of loops composed by the platform’s music team — allowing Splash to offer broad and flexible commercial licenses to users.

Tarika Wickremeratne, General Manager at Splash, recently sat down with Digital Music News to explain how the generative AI platform transcends the standards set by other generative music companies that do not own their proprietary datasets.

Splash enlisted an entire music team that recorded hours of several musicians playing music and singing to create a fully generative AI music and vocals library. This in-house library trained their AI model to generate music and vocals via a simple text prompt.

“We own all of our music in our Splash library,” Wickremeratne relayed. “We want people to go out and monetize their creations, either by putting it on YouTube and earning money that way, or if they want to use it for their actual production work, video content, etcetera.” Just recently, Splash joined forces with DMN to further broaden awareness of its Gen-2 release.

Wickremeratne reveals that the company has published a comparison that shows precisely where Splash Pro stands in the competitive AI space, specifically with other text-to-music or generative AI platforms on the market.

Compared to features other text-to-music platforms bring to the table, Wickremeratne says Gen-2’s biggest flex is its ability to issue ‘very broad, very flexible commercial licenses to users.’

Wickremeratne says Google’s MusicLM and Facebook’s MusicGen cannot offer full commercial licenses. “They don’t have the rights to the music their models were trained on,” she explains.

Speaking about Stable Audio, she notes that even though the company is offering commercial licenses to users, ‘Stable Audio’s dataset has been licensed from an external production music company called AudioSparx.’ Wickremeratne relayed that Splash Pro’s datasets — on the other hand — are custom-created, so they can be tailored ‘to suit their customers’ evolving needs.’

Ownership of music libraries isn’t Gen-2’s only differentiating factor. The platform also offers proprietary text-to-vocal AI generation across multiple genres, using a Splash-exclusive catalog that is constantly expanding and growing.

“You can generate lyrics and get a generative voice that sings for you, choose whether that voice raps or sings. Even select different voices across different genres. As far as I know, we’re one of the only companies that do that,” said Wickremeratne.

“You can generate lyrics and get a generative voice that sings for you,” says Wickremeratne.

“Ownership and rights give us the ability to control our own destiny and not be at the mercy of legal complexities that come with partnerships and licensing agreements,” she adds.

Gen-2 also boasts an extensive list of genres that users can generate. Wickremeratne says they specialize in a Gen-Z and Alpha-inspired music catalog because, in the past, they ‘have always been a core audience of Splash.’ She adds, “A lot of EDM, hyperpop, lo-fi, funk, hip hop, trap, dubstep — those kinds of genres. We feel like that’s a key differentiator for us.”

This constant diversification and growth of the Splash catalog, according to Wickremeratne, remains one of the key goals for the company. “Our catalog is always growing because our music team’s work isn’t done. They are continuing to widen and expand the genres and music styles we offer.”

Wickremeratne says Splash Pro Gen-2 is all about more control and customization options— the intuitive user interface allows just that. “The platform is set out so that people get music that matches their prompt much faster than others — and they get a lot more choices.”

“Users can leverage many levers to tweak their music, whether it’s adding lyrics or changing the length of the song,” explains Wickremeratne, concluding with, “Splash brings many nuanced customization options for users.”

Elaborating on the tool’s ease of use, Wickremeratne reveals how users can quickly sign up for the Splash Pro free tier. “Users can experiment with unlimited track generations before deciding whether they need a paid version with more features.”

She adds, “You type in a description of the song you want to hear — say, a romantic ballad or a house track from the nineties. Add BPM, and add the genre you want. In just a few seconds, you’ll get five short samples that you can listen to that match your prompt.”

Users can extend these samples to different lengths. They can add lyrics, singing, or rapping to the track to create downloadable full-length songs in multiple file formats.

After multiple AI releases over the years, Wickremeratne shares that the biggest pivot for the company occurred after various breakthroughs in Machine Learning (ML) technology. “Our products are heavily inspired by companies like ChatGPT and Midjourney, which revealed to the world how powerful text could be as an input method.”

Wickremeratne explains that these ML breakthroughs ‘allowed us to achieve a longstanding, ambitious goal for Splash — to allow people to make music with AI.’ This shift led to Splash’s March 2023 release of Beatbot, a text-to-music experiment to gauge the usage of an AI music service with AI rapping.

Just three months later, in June, Splash launched Splash Pro Gen-1, calling it the tool that brings ‘AI-powered music at the speed of a text prompt.’ Gen-1 offered customization features such as BPM specification, generative and editable lyrics, 15 AI rappers and singers, as well as song length and arrangement options. Wickremeratne reveals that amateur DJs, creators, and bloggers on YouTube and TikTok had been early takers of Gen-1.

With the September release of Gen-2, Splash now boasts its fully generative music model, producing 44.1kHz stereo quality audio, with AI mastering tools, high-quality wav and stem downloads, and even the ability to create lyric videos.

The generative platform isn’t new to the AI business. Splash (formerly Popgun) first appeared on the music landscape in 2017, led by ex-Twitter alums Stephen Phillip and Richard Slatter, who also founded We Are Hunted. In 2012, Twitter purchased this machine-learning music discovery tool.

Splash went on to secure seed funding in 2018. By 2020, the ‘Splash — Music & Skate’ game had been introduced on Roblox, allowing players to create music and perform to live audiences inside virtual venues. The company then completed a $20 million Series A round in 2021 — co-led by Amazon’s Alexa Fund and BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Khosla Ventures and King River Capital.

Wickremeratne recalls how Splash focused on growing the Roblox game as the biggest virtual music festival, reaching over 4 million monthly active users. “We created the Roblox game to build our loop library. The game allowed players to perform music live on a virtual stage using a beatmaker instrument — a DJ pad with 48 buttons for different sounds that could be combined in different ways to make really cool music.”

Splash began building its ‘proprietary music catalog’ in 2019, ‘first for our app, then Roblox, and now for Splash Pro.’ Wickremeratne adds, “All the while, we’ve continued to invest in R&D to improve our music and voice generation and other AI capabilities.”

Wickremeratne relays that these efforts eventually led to the data that now underpins Splash AI training. The platform deployed this music across their Roblox game and mobile app while also training their AI models on it.

“There’s always been an engine running in the background,” Wickremeratne explained. “Splash has always been about democratizing music creation — putting really easy-to-use, simple, intuitive music tools in the hands of as many people as possible. There’s a real joy to creating music that you can’t get in quite any other way.”

Gen-2 has only been on the market for two months, so predicting the next developments is difficult.

As Splash’s AI model grows bigger and gains more sophistication, new sounds or even genres could emerge. It’s also inevitable that competitors will continue to innovate in the generative music space with gusto. However, with their models trained on entirely different datasets compared to Splash AI, will these new entrants bring completely unique sounds to differentiate themselves?

There’s also the possibility of text-to-music AI becoming mainstream. If producers start incorporating the sounds of Splash Pro into their work, it could signal a seismic shift in music creation and redefine what it means to ‘make’ music.

For now, Wickremeratne is closely watching how it all develops and adjusting Splash Pro’s roadmap accordingly.

Splash Pro subscription options include a Free tier, followed by a Starter tier ($10 per month) meant for creators looking to monetize their content. A Max tier ($49 per month) is meant for teams, developers, and companies. Splash also offers an Enterprise option for companies that require special API access or other advanced support.

Photo credit: HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan

Music marketing intimidates many indie musicians. We don’t want to feel sales-y, spammy, or like we’re yelling at people. Fortunately, there’s a way to share your music authentically while being considerate of others.

How To Market Your Music a Different Way

Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby and multi-book author, presents a very interesting way of approaching music marketing. In his book Your Music And People, he offers very thoughtful, considerate, and authentic ways indie musicians can share their music with people.

It’s specific enough that it has concrete steps you can take but general enough that it’s timeless advice. Here’s what I got from the book…

Get Creative

Marketing your music is simply sharing something you made that you’re excited about. It’s an extension of your art. So if you’re really proud of your music, you’ll put time into being creative with your marketing. Spend as much time cooking up ways to share your songs as you did creating them.

Be Considerate

Being considerate in your marketing means you think about what people actually want. You don’t spam them or “yell” at them. Ask yourself why someone should care about you and your music.

“Marketing,” writes Sivers, “means making it easy for people to notice you, relate to you, remember you, and tell their friends about you.”

Think of People

The phrase “it’s all about who you know” is actually true. Could you do everything yourself and then blow up on social media? Yes, but the chances of that are slim.

What’s more likely is that you build relationships with people who then help you succeed. Just be a good person. Think about how you can help others. It’s the right thing to do, and karma may actually be real.

Dive Into the Industry

We say “the music industry,” but the industry is just made up of people. So go meet those people. Get to know them. And don’t beg people for a leg up – show them you can succeed before asking for help.

Be Resourceful

Work with what you have. Keep your overhead low. Assume nobody will help you (even if they might). You are running a small business as an indie musician. So make a plan that will lead to a profitable career and keep going after it.

Describe and Define Yourself

If you’re going to be meeting people in the music industry, you need a way to quickly describe your music. A one-sentence or even 2-3-word description is best.

It should tell people what to expect (I tell people I make “nostalgic folk”). Or you can make people curious so they just have to listen (Sivers’ example: “a cross between James Brown and The Beatles”).

And try to avoid genres or what instruments you play, unless you play a super unique instrument like the Theremin. Use visceral words that describe the vibe and feeling of your songs.

Who To Target

Many people won’t like your music. Music is subjective. So you need to focus on finding the right listeners, not finding the most listeners. Aim for the edges. Find your people.

“Have the confidence to find your niche, define who you are,” writes Sivers. “Then declare it again and again and again and again.”

Keep a Database

Create a spreadsheet. Then store information on every single person in the music industry you meet. Sivers recommends tracking:

• Name
• Contact info
• Location
• Tags so you can find the right people (songwriter, publisher, manager, etc.)
• Notes on your last communication
• When you should contact them next

This will help you stay in touch with people instead of letting their emails fade into the ether of your inbox.

Making Money and Promoting

If your friends aren’t telling people about your music, then don’t promote it, Sivers says. If this is the case, you need to go back and keep improving your art until people can’t not share it.

He also recommends waiting to share your music until it’s out, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Do you know how many times I’ve seen an indie artist online saying, “My song comes out in two weeks” only for me to move on and forget about it? I’ve missed out on so much good music! And as a listener, pre-saving is annoying to me. Just put the song out and then promote it.

Adjust Your Mindset

Sivers points out that moving to a city with a vibrant music scene will help you. You’ll be able to meet musicians, network with industry people, and easily support local music. Remember, it’s about who you know. And it’s also about being available and ready for opportunities. Doors will open that you didn’t expect to, so keep your career goals broad enough so you have room for them.

Ultimately, Sivers says, follow your interests.

“Whatever excites you, go do it,” he says. “Whatever drains you, stop doing it.”

– – –

*This is not a sponsored post. Derek Sivers did not ask me to write this. I just really enjoyed the book and wanted to share the big ideas it covers.

Photo credit: Tim Toomey

A recording can have many problems. Bad timing. Thinness. Blandness. So I want to share five methods that will improve your recordings. These are things I do as an indie songwriter and artist who records all my stuff from home and also produces and mixes music for other artists.

Simple Beat + Click Track

A click track can be difficult to hear when you’re recording. So to help yourself stay in time, layer the click with a simple beat.

Create a new MIDI drum track. If the song is in 4/4, put the hi-hat on all four beats, put the kick on 1 and the snare on 3. For a song in 6/8, put the kick on 1 and the snare on 4 (or whatever emphasis with which you’re playing the song).

It doesn’t matter what drum sound you have, it’s not going to be in the final recording. This is just to play in your headphones as you record your parts to help you stay in time.

Layering

If you want fuller, warmer productions, layer stuff. Layer everything. Then when you realize you’ve layered too much, pull it back a little. But literally, you can layer anything.

I like to record three or four takes of acoustic guitar (all playing the same part) and pan them left and right to varying degrees. It feels like the guitar is giving you a hug.

You can layer an 808 beat underneath your drums. Layer your lead vocal, background vocals, and harmonies. Instead of just one cello, layer it 2-3 times.

Try it. You’ll see what I mean.

Using a Reference Track

You make music you like, right? And you’re influenced by others’ music, yeah? So why not go directly to the source?

Before you record your next song, find another artist’s song that you love. Then listen intently and find things about the production you want to incorporate into your track.

Is it the guitar sound? The groove of the drums? The softness of the piano? How the synth pierces through the mix?

Try to get that sound, vibe, feeling, what have you into your song. This is how you use a reference track during the production stage.

Involving Others

Look at your all-time favorite songs. I bet they were written by more than one person. If not, I can still say with confidence, the creation of that production involved more than one person. The engineer, producer, session musicians, mixing engineer, mastering engineer. One or more of these roles were probably filled by someone other than the artist.

Could you learn how to perform all of these roles, from songwriter to mastering engineer?

Yes, you could. But the downside of doing literally everything on your own is you miss what others might bring. You create in a bubble and run the risk of your song not reaching its full potential.

Invite others whom you trust into your creative process. It may just heighten the end result and it will be a lot more fun.

Experiment, experiment, experiment

The key to being a good music producer is to try every idea you have. You won’t know what something sounds like until you hear it in the song.

So just record that crazy, stupid, “out there” idea. It may just work. It might not, it might sound like garbage. Or maybe it doesn’t work, but it gives you another idea you wouldn’t have gotten without that first bad idea.

Experiment. Try it. You won’t regret the attempt.

Photo credit: Mike Tinnion

I started doing something called Morning Pages a few weeks ago. They’re supposed to help you unlock your creativity and improve your life overall. Big claims. So let’s talk about what this practice is and how it’s meant to help you be more creative.

What Are Morning Pages?

There’s a book called The Artist’s Way and it’s supposed to help you unlock and heighten your creativity. It’s laid out like a course and has assigned reading and tasks to do, all with the goal of helping you get in touch with yourself and get creating.

One of the things the book says you have to do is Morning Pages, an “apparently pointless process,” say the authors, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan.

They say this because people have shot down the idea…until those same people try this practice and flip to being Morning Pages advocates.

“Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream of consciousness,” they said.

It’s basically like dumping your subconscious onto the page. And there is no wrong way to do Morning Pages. They’re not meant to be art, or even good at all. It’s a no-stress practice.

And they’re not meant to be revisited later or saved like a journal. Rip them out and hide them away if you want. I plan to burn my notebook after it’s filled up.

No one else is allowed to see these pages. Ever. You need to free yourself of any sense of perfection when doing your Morning Pages.

And they are non-negotiable. If you don’t feel like writing, then write about how you don’t feel like writing. Write down your negative thoughts, your nonsensical meanderings, and opinions you don’t share with anyone. These pages are for you and you alone. Dump it all on the pages and leave it behind you.

The Benefits of Morning Pages

Morning Pages are meant to help you get out of your own way, that part of you that edits yourself. The book calls this the Censor.

The more you hear the voice of your Censor, the better you get at ignoring it and paying attention to the real you. If you let the Censor win, you will stay creatively blocked. Morning Pages help you beat the Censor.

“Who wouldn’t be blocked if every time you tiptoed into the open, somebody (your Censor) made fun of you?,” they write.

According to The Artist’s Way, here are the benefits of consistently doing Morning Pages:

• Get to the other side of your fear, negativity, and bad mood
• Overcome your Censor
• Find your center, and therefore your creativity
• Get to know yourself better
• Remember your dreams more often and with more vividness
• Improve your problem solving skills
• Clear your mind

I’ve been doing Morning Pages for about four weeks now. To be honest, I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like to be. I’m not sure I’ve even done them seven days in a row yet, but most days I do them.

Even still, I’ve noticed I’m hearing more of my own voice in my head instead of ignoring it. I’ve been remembering my dreams. I’m more confident with my choices and knowing what I want. And part of being creative is knowing yourself.

How To Keep Writing Your Morning Pages

According to The Artist’s Way, the full benefits of Morning Pages only happen when you stay consistent and write your three pages every day. And this will require you make Morning Pages a habit. It means it has to become part of your routine.

The problem is, many of us wait around for motivation to hit us. Once that arrives, we say, then we’ll start a new habit. But that’s totally off. What you need is discipline. Discipline is how you form habits. And habits can actually get you somewhere.

Author James Clear has a 5-step process for forming new habits…

1. Start with a small task/habit

Three pages of brain-dump writing is actually not that much. Especially because these pages are not meant to be good. No one else will see them. They could be gibberish. Just keep your hand moving and it won’t take that long or be that difficult.

2. Gradually improve that habit

When you first start Morning Pages, it may be hard to do them every day. So improving this habit means doing your best to do them every single day. Set an alarm. Give yourself a reward when you’re down. Offer yourself extra incentive than just the inherent benefits of Morning Pages.

3. As you improve your habit, chunk it into pieces

The book takes you through the artist’s way process week by week, so it may be helpful to do Morning Pages week by week. Keep track of how many days each week you did your Pages. It will give you a small, clear goal to reach.

4. When you miss a day, quickly get back on track

When you miss a day of writing, don’t beat yourself up over it. Shame cycling is real. Just make sure you do Morning Pages the next day.

5. Be patient

Again, I’ve been doing Morning Pages for four weeks and it’s still hard for me to do them every day. Be patient with yourself. Don’t get lazy, but also don’t talk negatively to yourself for missing a morning.

AirGigs has been a long-term partner of Digital Music News, which is proud to be sharing this massive announcement.

The evolution of the song “Sunny Days (Are Comin’ Once Again)” is definitely one to be remembered. Remote collaboration allowed songwriter and independent artist Greg Poulos to work with ten-time Fiddle Player of the Year and Grammy winner Michael Cleveland through AirGigs to release a new single together.

In the world of bluegrass music, collaborations are the heart and soul of artistic expression. Michael Cleveland, a renowned Grammy-winning musician, and Greg Poulos, a talented singer-songwriter, found themselves collaborating together on a new track.

The Genesis of a Track Through Remote Collaboration

At the time, still deep under lockdown during the pandemic, nobody could tour. So musicians turned to remote production, which is exactly what Michael and Greg did, leading to their paths crossing on AirGigs.

Greg Poulos was looking for a session musician to work on his new song “Sunny Days (Are Comin’ Once Again).” He connected with Michael Cleveland on AirGigs to play on his original song. Interested by the song’s bounce, swing, and blues melody, Michael quickly accepted the offer and ended up playing the mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and a bit of guitar.

What made the project all the more meaningful was the theme. Remember that this collaboration happened during the pandemic, and “Sunny Days” was full of hope. Michael Cleveland was excited to get involved; at the time, collaboration was challenging and the song spoke to the musician.

“Thanks to AirGigs I’ve been able to meet, record and collaborate with musicians and singers from all over the world,” Cleveland said. “It still blows my mind that I can receive a track from someone, in say Ireland for example, I play on it in my basement, send it back and it somehow all lines up correctly.”

“I remember Greg sent me a version with just him singing and playing guitar and I liked the song immediately. It was such a relevant song for what we were all going through and I knew that I wanted to record it if I could.”

Creating Lasting Bonds Between Artists

So the two musicians hit it off, and Michael liked the tune so much that he decided to re-record the song on his new album Lovin’ Of The Game released in 2023.

One of the unique aspects of AirGigs is its ability to create lasting connections between artists. You never know what will happen when you hire a high-caliber musician to play on your track. AirGigs wants to help artists discover each other and build their production network by working through remote collaboration.

“As a songwriter, this is a dream come true for me, especially since I don’t have time to actually record more than a vocal and guitar,” said Greg Poulos when asked about their collaboration. “There’s no way I could find time to record my songs locally with multiple studio sessions.”

”The completely unexpected bonus to all this was when Michael asked me if he could record my song for his new album. That was shocking and gave me the highest level of validation I’ve ever received as a songwriter.”

The Safe Space for Remote Collaboration by AirGigs

Considering the high-caliber artistry and enterprise buy-in on AirGigs, it’s understandable why the platform is building  towards an even more secure remote collaboration experience. Success stories such as Michael Cleveland’s and Greg Poulos’ can only happen if the infrastructure allows it. AirGigs recognizes the importance of maintaining a secure environment for artists.

The platform will soon roll out a deep verification system to create AirGigs Verified Profiles in response to this need. AirGigs aims to protect musicians and their creative works from potential fraudulent activities to keep unveiling unexpected great collaborations such as “Sunny Days.”

AirGigs has been a long-term partner of Digital Music News, which is proud to share this massive announcement.