AMW

Ways To Connect With Fans More as an Artist

Taylor Brown - January 13, 2021

Connecting more with your audience to get more reach on your music projects can benefit you and your fan base! Most Artists enjoy letting their Audience know when they’ve released something or when they can expect to hear more of their latest projects; but on the fans end, they miss out on interacting with their favorite Artist and it can be more impactful to set aside time to actually get creative with sharing your work in different ways. Here are some tips that can benefit you as an Artist and your supporters as well.

Utilize All Platforms

Using all platforms that you may be social on is good to not pull all your energy into just 1 platform. You might discover that sharing music on other platforms like Youtube or Twitter can draw more attention to your music and there could be other potential Listeners as well! Instagram is a top platform for many users and they sometimes will get caught up on building an audience on just 1 platform which is great; but once you know what to expect from your audience on their try moving all your content to another one and see what reach you can get from there.

A nice way to build hype around your music as well is Tik Tok as it’s a much newer trendier way to get a song to go viral. You can connect with your audience by starting a fun trend or challenge utilizing the platform and seeing what fans or potential influencers could get some creative ideas together to help promote your latest projects. This way, You’ll be able to get good feedback on a new song, can make it easier to listen from new audiences and it’s a great way for others to remember you as an Artist by the dance challenge or trend that you or your supporters get to go viral.

Go Live with Audience

Many people forget to use all of Instagram’s resources. A good way to connect with your Audience is to utilize Live video chatting to be able to see what your audience is up to and they’ll be able to connect with you personally outside of listening to your music which can build trust and fan loyalty. Before going live to make the most out of the Live video session, set a reminder to let your audience know via insta story when they can expect you to go live so that they know when to tune in. This can be helpful to maximize the amount of viewers that are coming in and can build up excitement for them to expect to connect more with you.

When going Live, Instagram gave an amazing option to not just be able to show up and talk to people but now people can be able to hop on the call with you! You can set this up with your fans once you are live by telling them to use the Request to join button within the Live video call and this can create an overall more personable experience to let them know you appreciate them as a supporter and that you care about your fan loyalty! Most Artists or highly inspirational public figures forget that their supporters really do care about a 10 second recognition from their favorite person and this can make a huge difference in the way you brand yourself as an Artist.

Do giveaways

Giveaways are a way that you can draw more attention to your platform to bring in new listeners and also is a way to give back to current supporters. With giveaways, you have the freedom to get creative with deciding how you want to host what product you want to give away or what steps your followers have to take in order to win. This can also be a collaborative effort and you can bring in another artist to help with the giveaway as the objective is to gain a newer audience and to get people to actually engage with your post; In this case, the objective would be to get more engagement with streams, merch or to just get people to check you out as an Artist which is a great way to connect and for promotional purposes.

When setting up a giveaway it’s best to think about what you want to give away. It could be a high value of items or simply merch if you have something a part of your brand that you want people to check out. Once you decide on the product, decide on steps the audience would have to do in order to win: This could be tagging a friend under a post of your song, reposting your song or video on their insta story or page or following you.

This has been a good method to boost reach, engagement and to get discovered by new people that are interested in your work. Be sure when doing the giveaway that it closely relates to your brand and is on target to what audience you want to bring to your page as well.

Shoutouts

With taking time out to shout out your fans, it can show that you see their support and that you’re human! Usually, fans tend to do posts where they show off their favorite songs or artists and tag you but artists may not respond. It’s good to be able to like and engage with things that you’re getting tagged in whether it’s fan art, fun video clips that they’ve put together for you etc.. Simply liking or commenting as well as reposting things to your story and tagging them can show that you care about the time and effort that they put in to showing you off as their favorite artist and is one of the simplest ways out of all tips to connect more with your audience, but is also one of the fewer things that most artists don’t do as often as they should.

As an artist it can sometimes be overwhelming to receive so much support that you may forget that it’s okay to connect with your fans and take time out to let them know their support doesn’t go unnoticed. Trying out these tips can uniquely set you apart from artists that don’t really incorporate these tasks into their everyday schedule and you will be great for experiencing more genuine fan love!

Ways To Step Up Your Instagram Game In The New Year

Taylor Brown - December 29, 2020

Stepping up your Instagram game in the new year can increase chances of getting more recognized on the platform, expanding your influence, and pushing your brand which are all great ways to gain more opportunity! Switching up things like the way you go about creating content, staying consistent, and deciding how you want to interact with your audience can play a big factor in your growth. In 2021 It will be a great time to practice these things and come up with new ideas for your brand; So here are some top ways to step up your Instagram game in the New year.

Switching Up Your Aesthetic

With Instagram, knowing what type of look you’re going for can set your brand apart from others or let people that come to your page understand more clearly what type of niche you’re in and what they should expect from your page. If you want to be in the category of fashion, think of ways that you can shoot fashion content to give more details about products that you’re interested in wearing day to day; and think about how you would want to take photos like flat lays, just of the product or you wearing the product as well.

With Lifestyle, Travel, fitness, or even pets niches: Think scenery more for content! These niches can be very broad and exciting as you can be more creative and have a lot of options with choosing what scenery you want to be in, and you can choose different moods you want your content to come across as. Each niche has a special audience and there are many ways to switch up your content style for the best results with content.

Update Your Bio

The first thing we all see when coming to someone’s page is their bio. A little about me section to give an idea of what to know before coming to the page will really make the first statement about you before people discover the content that you create. Cleaning up your bio and adding necessary information is vital in the process of branding yourself and can also help you get more seen by others if you add the right descriptions! The most important thing when setting up a bio is to leave your contact information so that when people come across your page, they’ll be able to reach you and you won’t have to worry about missing out on opportunities.

In the Name section to reach more people; Instead of actually putting your name some people decide to put what their actual Job description is. For example: Social media manager, coach, manager, influencer agency. Although Instagram sets up business profiles to have their own category, placing this in the Name section is a good way to optimize newcomers to your profile and gain more profile visits. Aside from the basics of bios.

Be sure to leave an email as well as leave a fun detailed description of what others can expect from you and your page. The shorter and more straightforward your bio is, the better!

Plan out your content

Planning out your content can be easier in the process of coming up with new ideas and making sure that you stay on top of your timeline of getting your content out to your audience. Content calendars can be an effective way for brainstorming or drafting your content deliverables so that you have an idea of what an overview would be like for that week or month. This will be able to limit stress, increase more time in your schedule to prepare for other things and work on other projects and could be great for seeing consistent engagement for your audience as you would be on a schedule so they know exactly what times you usually post and when to look forward to your content.

Aside from content calendars, there are other convenient ways to map out your ideas through apps. You can strategies the way your feed looks by placing content in rows using the unum app and you can schedule posts directly from apps like Planoly or sites like later . These are popular platforms to distribute content ideas, make sure that your photos are flowing with the rest of the things you’re producing andis helpful in the process of automation for posting and setting your content up for a consistent schedule.

Utilizing IG New features

Instagram’s features change pretty frequently within the app. They change how you can interact with your audience through messages and being able to switch up the themes of chats, insta story features as you can add different businesses to support through stickers and make people more aware of what your posts are related to so that you can spread more awareness to topics and you can also request other people to join your live when trying to engage with your audience. These are all tools that you should pay attention to and try to find ways to use as it relates to your content. Instagram tries to push out more people’s content to whoever uses it the most and it helps to get your content seen by other visitors to your page.

One of Instagram’s new features today has been Instagram Reels. Instagram reels have been a game-changer within the app because it allows people to create 15 to 30-second content similar to TikTok, but this has been huge for small and big creators to go viral. Most people say that they’ve finally found a way to stop being stagnant on the app and they’ve seen their following and engagement increase just by utilizing the IG Reels feature. This has been very helpful as people haven’t seen these results with growing their following in ages! IG Reels can be tough sometimes with creators not knowing how to blow up and get that new content to get them the following and engagement that they deserve; but it’s best to stay consistent and maybe trying to even recycle content made from TikTok and putting it on IG reels to see if the audience on that platform will gravitate more towards it, vice versa.

All in all, it’s but to always come up with organic fresh content as well and putting them out on the platform and niching down on content to see what will best work for your page.

Invest in equipment/work with what you have

Your content can get as far as you want it to; With the right strategies, consistency, and sometimes your equipment. The quality matters more than the quantity of posts you’re making to grow your Instagram. Finding ways to make sure that the quality is up to par when you are finally being consistent and posting is just as important as anything else when it comes to stepping up your Instagram game.

This doesn’t have to be expensive when it comes to getting the latest equipment just to make sure that your content is right. You can always do things as simple as working on lighting if you don’t have the best camera. Most instagrammers use their phone vs. a digital camera but if you have the option to shoot occasionally with a dslr camera to improve your content quality that could be helpful as well!

Quality matters when you’re in content production as it will help brands recognize you’re taking the quality of your content seriously and that they’ll be able to depend on you if they need deliverables for promoting a product or service.

Instagram is a great way to establish yourself as a creator and can bring many opportunities based on doing things that you enjoy as a hobby! Following more creators that are in the same niche as you and that you genuinely enjoy can build up inspiration overtime and is a good way to progress through each post and project idea.

Check out our Blog Post on Top 10 Influencer Platforms To Use for tips on platforms to use for monetizing your content!

How To Use Influencers To Promote Your Music

Taylor Brown - December 16, 2020

Influencers are a great way to see results within marketing your business, product, or services. It’s also one of the new powerful, more popular ways of executing a music marketing strategy. We all know that the less modern times of marketing things are still billboard ads, or newspaper/magazine articles. With digital marketing itself and with the adjustments to the world today. With staying home, working remotely, and having to come up with creative ways to keep our music marketing strategy going; Influencers have become a top priority when it comes to acing it when it comes to marketing goals and is a more efficient way to seeing results.

With utilizing influencer marketing, it is an all in one. You don’t have to pay for a photographer, consultant to help you bring ideas together, a video editor, or an outside team to get every look and visual together. This is all in the influencer’s hand and this is why they are the new way to market and it is a more convenient strategy to use them to promote your music, product, or service if they align with what you are going for.

Where To Start

The first step before reaching out to influencers for marketing your music would be to come up with a strong brief/description of how you would like it to be with them creating the content. Whether it’s them being in a well-lit environment for filming, filming with others, being around friends or family or them vibing out to the song themselves; Brainstorming these ideas in ways you would like this to look helps get your idea across and is an important step for pitching to the influencer. Once this is done, you should start reaching out to some of your favorite most on niched influencers to make your vision come to life!

After coming up with what way you would like the influencer to promote, you can always negotiate a rate that is fair for you and the influencer for producing the content. Another great strategy is to offer other incentives that can go along with the promotion or that you think you would also be in need of. If you have merch or any type of gear that goes along with your song to promote it, the influencer could wear it while doing a viral dance or challenge. This can be a good way to really draw attention to your song as well as your brand as an artist.

Don’t Limit Yourself As An Artist

Don’t be afraid to get creative yourself and come up with a creative campaign idea and pitching your idea to the influencer. A lot of ideas for promotion that get received by an influencer can be as simple as posting an in feed post with a story or just posting a short video, and this can sometimes make the influencer have to come up with ideas themselves and not having a good idea on an effective way to promote the song. If you really want to stand out and intentionally have your music promoted as it relates to the song, use the meaning behind the song you want to be promoted to come up with your own idea.

For an example: If your song is moody and sad, come up with a campaign that involves the song playing in the background and the person showcasing things they do when they’re in a sad mood. Or, if the song is vibrant and upbeat, make the promotion involve being around friends and enjoying time together or them doing a happy dance/showcasing things they do that make them happy.

These are things that can help the Influencer in the creative process to get your music out there with a strong meaning behind the campaign. It can also be a good way to make your song go viral; so when people think of your song they are automatically thinking of the story behind it and that specific challenge!

Lastly, be mindful of the niche that your influencer is in. If you see an influencer that isn’t into doing dance challenges or following the latest dance trend; but it is a great influencer with a loyal audience in the food niche or travel niche. Reach out with a different idea that can cater specifically to their audience. Propose an idea that can just be simplistic: Your music in the background and the influencer cooking or doing a fun DIY project.

Be sure to not limit yourself as an artist and don’t be afraid to step out of your shell and try out different ways to market your music. This can help your music be geared toward a different culture of an audience and not just limited to one. Use this strategy as a way to test out what other audiences you can attract outside of your main target audience!

What Platforms To Go For

Tik Tok

Platforms that most influencers are promoting songs on and making viral is tiktok. Since the pandemic, tiktok has been a viral and trendy place to find new artists and new dance trends. Utilizing this platform is a popular way that you can get new listeners to want to engage and interact with songs from musicians. Being that this is a primary place to create content via dancing, diy’s, memes, transitional videos etc. Most of the content that goes on tiktok is then recycled and shown to people on Instagram via Instagram Reels which is another great way to find influencers to promote your music.

Instagram Reels

Instagram reels is another way to showcase your music and to get an influencer to create viral content to get your music trending. Like any other platform, there are always competitors. Tik tok being Instagrams other competitor, led Instagram to switch the Algorithm and make the new tool instagram Reels so that it can get more tik tok lovers to create viral content as well. Seeing instagram reels on the app makes it easy to find influencers that are into the dance trends and challenges as well.

Some ways to find what Influencers to reach out to to promote your music via dance trends are through instagram hashtag tools. Utilizing hashtags like #dancetrend, #popdance #hiphopdance #tiktokchalence #dancechallenge and scrolling through the content and left side section of the hashtags can show all the latest content creators are doing for these trends and makes it easier to niche down which influencers to reach out to for promoting your newest song.

Blogs

Blogs are a nice way to reach out to those specific influencers that are active on their blogging site as well. Getting a video promoted with your song with some other ads are effective but getting a more lighthearted review on the song can be just as powerful for readers that interact with that specific influencer you might want to reach out to. There are many content creators/influencers that just do videos and photos but asking for a blog post for them to write about how they enjoyed the song, and how it correlates to their personal life or experience they’ve had before can also be a different way of getting your music promoted.

There are so many ways that your music can get in the hands of a different audience or your targeted niche. Coming up with a simple yet effective campaign to share with an influencer is probably the strategy that your music may need to get it to the next step! With these tips, be sure to practice your pitching and have fun with reaching out to influencers that are related to your music or influencers that you can see their audience enjoying!

Check out our blog post on How you can raise brand awareness when you can’t perform live: How To Keep Raising Brand Awareness When You Can’t Perform Live

What They Don’t Tell You About Building Your Own Brand

Taylor Brown - November 24, 2020

Building a Brand can be very discouraging to others and many can hold off years until wanting to start up their own Business or Services and chase what they’re passionate about. There are pros with having your own Brand and can be Cons, but whether you’re just starting up a Brand or have already established one for yourself, here are some things that You should know that people don’t talk about when starting up a Brand.

Costly

Building your own Brand can sometimes be costly depending on what you want to base your Business around. The most important thing to keep in mind are start up costs. You can start a Brand with no cost at all and simply promote yourself, but if you want to be taken seriously or get yourself out there more, you should eventually look into start up costs like: Business cards, Websites, Investing in Ads and maybe even Photoshoots to get Content out there as well!

These can add up but they are the basic fundamentals to starting a Brand once you get the hang of things. Websites can be specifically for a Portfolio of who you are and what your Brand stands for, and if you’re into providing Business Services it can be a great tool for Clients to pay for Services and for you to track results! The start up cost can be as big as you want to make it or as little but the beauty of Building your own Brand is that you are in control of most of the Work you put in and what goes out!

Time Consuming

Building a Brand can be time consuming just as much as it being costly. The two things in Business and in life that you can always assume to be the most important is time and Money. Putting in time can improve and shape the quality of your Brand in many ways. One being that you can choose how much time you want to put in, which can sometimes be a lot and other times you may overwork yourself and want to go at a slower pace; but the consistency is always key with Building your own Brand.

Building a Brand certainly doesn’t get done overnight, but it is rewarding to know that when your brand is where you want it to be, You can look back at all the time and hard work you put in and it will always pay off!

Testing Phases

You will notice some trial and error with Building your own Brand and start seeing that things will not always go as planned. When in the process of Building your Brand, there are different Strategies that you may have to test out to see what works or what doesn’t work for you. You have to be strategic with how you promote your Brand and how you would want the overall exposure to be when showcasing your brand to your Audience. An example of this would be how you Market yourself during the testing phases to connect with your audience more.

During the testing phase you can find out what the best way to Market your Brand is, What Niche you should try out and be consistent in for your Brand and what audience you should target as well.

With all the ins and outs to Building a Brand, It is worth the time, Money and patience to see progress when Building a Brand to start to finish. There’s a learning process just like any other thing when starting a Business and learning how to run it as well. The outcome will be one like no other, because you can build Financial Freedom, a comfortable work like and a social life that can leave you happy and self-sufficient. Building a brand is the new way of life during these times and there’s so many Opportunities to do so.

How To Create Social Change As A Brand

Laurel Daggers - November 22, 2020

As Millennials and Gen Z come up in the world and begin to take charge, we also carry with us socially conscious values to make the world a more empathetic place. We are slowly injecting it into everything we do, from creating comprehensive inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community to spreading awareness and protesting civil rights atrocities. So it follows that more brands are tuning in to this increasingly candid world. Every brand out there, from individual artists to worldwide companies are finding ways to create positive social change.

The end game of social change is to use real-world actions to create long-lasting positive improvement of human and social conditions. Few brands have been left untouched by the overwhelming need for change. Research has consistently shown that consumers will be more loyal to a brand that they feel aligns with their values. Not only is it fiscally responsible for a business to openly promote a strong stand on public issues, but people value a company that understands in a world where you can choose to be anything… choose to be kind. Whether your brand is just starting out or has been around for years, here are a few ways that your brand can create positive social change.

Find A Genuine Personal Connection

Get as specific as possible when defining your brand. Regardless of what point in your career you’re in, every artist needs to have their brand defined. In order to be successful, your audience needs to know that they’ll consistently get whatever it is that makes you great. Craft your story and create a distinct personality for your brand. Once your brand has a life of its own, you’ll be able to start connecting with other established brands in similar fields.

Be Inclusive

Showing inclusivity and diversity is important for every brand these days. The goal of inclusivity is to make your target audience feel seen and human. Find a personal way to express your brand’s values to your audience. For example, if you’re a female musician, you may want to partner with brands that promote teaching music to young girls or kids in predominantly poor areas. Take something meaningful from your own experience and use it to connect with your listeners in a positive way.

Partner With Like Minded Brands

Once you have defined your own point of view towards the change you’d like to see in the world, you can create a pitch document and start looking for other like-minded brands to partner with. Ideally, those brands would share a similar audience, similar goals, and a similar brand identity to your own. Through this process, your brand is put in front of new audience members who are already inclined to be interested in your brand and values.

Get Involved

Verbalizing the desire for change will only take your brand so far. Find community activities to get involved with. This will give you the opportunity to meet new people to introduce your brand to as well as show your current audience that supporting your brand means supporting important causes as well.

Socialize

Promote other socially conscious brands on social media. Make friends with like-minded influencers, companies, and fans online and promote any events or giveaways that they do. They’ll be more likely to return the favor and get involved with your brand if they know you support theirs. In other words, free promotion and more credibility in your genre. When you’re seen with other credible brands that they trust, people will be more likely to explore your brand.

Becoming a socially conscious brand is not about responding quickly to the latest pop culture emergency. It’s about aligning with the needs and values of your audience in a meaningful way and continuing to work towards positive change throughout the existence of the brand. In other words, it’s a marathon, not a race. People catch on quickly to “performative support” and they’ll call a brand out just as quickly for being fake as they will for actively participating in an event that affects the world around them negatively. Any brand can make a difference as long as they genuinely care.

Now get out there and be the change.

What Events Will Look Like in 2021 and Beyond

Amber Curtis - November 18, 2020

In 2020, nothing went the way anyone thought it would. Kids were sent home from school. Trips were postponed. Weekly group gatherings were no longer in person. Events were canceled. One of the good parts about this year, however, was the availability of the internet. Even though we weren’t able to meet together this year in the same way we have in the past, the internet was, and still is, able to connect us in new ways. Online video chat services we created. The number of individuals working and going to school from home has skyrocketed. Screen time likely grew as well.

We have moved quickly towards a more electronic or virtual world than ever before. The event industry is most likely one of the largest industries that came to a halt earlier this year. This year’s VMAs were held to strict standards, as they pre-recorded the entire show, using proper social distancing practices, and no live audience. While it may not be like this forever, it’s safe to say liver in-person events are going to look very different in 2021, and possibly a few years to come.

Read below to find out exactly what events will most likely look like in 2021.

Event Conditions

Some events are able to be in person, however there still are great conditions and restrictions in order for these to happen. The most basic conditions for in-person events right now is social distancing (6 foot distance), continual sanitation and disinfectant availability to all event goers, and wearing a mask in higher traffic areas. While these are the minimum requirements of in-person events, some are going beyond, with mandatory temperature checks and other testing for everyone before they enter the event.

Phases

Events will start coming back in phases based on each state’s different regulations or mandates. However, the general consensus is to come back in 3 stages.

Starting with Stage 1, groups will allow no more than 10 people to gather at once. Additionally, travel will be limited. Companies are now having local, satellite events which will allow for attendees to still experience the event but with little to no travel and less people gathered together.

Stage 2 will allow groups of up to 50 people gather together, with social distancing practices in place. Nonessential travel, or recreational travel, to the event will be allowed. Most large venues will be able to open and operate, however most likely not at full capacity and within proper distancing protocols.

Stage 3 is not much different from Stage 2. The main difference will be the ability for all large venues to operate. However, mass gatherings will still not be allowed to happen. Therefore this will most likely mean venues won’t be able to operate at full capacity, as they could before.

Keep in mind these stages could change or be postponed as new updates to the virus are still emerging. Additionally, these stages may look a little different countrywide, as each state is left to decide what is best.

Hybrid Events

Combining a mixture of virtual and in-person events may be the best idea for the time being. Virtual events provide more safety, while in-person provides a certain experience or connection that can’t be mimicked electronically.

In order to put on hybrid events, hosts will need a few things:

Event HQ (the office, living room, outdoors, etc.)
Virtual Streaming Provider (Zoom, Adobe Connect, GoToWebinar)
Participant Engagement (comment section, mail-in content, etc.)

An event headquarters can be anything you want, for business meetings perhaps the office is best, or for a concert maybe an outdoor venue or spare bedroom would be enough. The headquarters serves as a meeting place, so perhaps you have some people physically there, but the majority of members should meet via a virtual streaming service. Depending on the streaming provider, you should be able to customize it to better fit your events needs. Scheduling and registration options should also be available on most virtual streaming providers. Now more than ever, it’s all about the experience. With the obvious restrictions on in-person gatherings, event planners and entertainers are going to be looking for new ways to still give audiences that enjoyable experience from home.

Food

Eating food is part of the experience of going to an event. The pandemic has certainly changed every aspect of events, and unfortunately, that means food too will be affected. While there is always a safe option to opt-out of providing food, it certainly is not the only option. Some event coordinators are moving away from the self-serve buffet-style feast. Catering companies that follow the correct guidelines could be a safe alternative and a classy one for all in-person attendees. Pre-cooked and single packaged meals may not be everyone’s first choice but it does allow the option for food if participants choose to partake. Sending a care package or comping delivery dinners of their choice would be a nice treat for those who can’t attend in-person.

How to Build Social Media Presence for Your Music Brand

AMW - November 10, 2020

So you want to start working out your social media? Get it in shape! Well, you’ve come to the right place. We tell you all about how to build social media presence for your music branding and keep it that way!

Now building social media presence for a music brand is not very different than for other industries but you should always keep in mind what works best for your audience. We are here to take you step by step into creating quality social media to get your music out there!

Building Social Media Presence in 9 Steps

Every current brand owns at least a few social media channels, but how many of those have an actual presence? How many of those interact with their followers to create real-life relationships? This is the key! Having social media isn’t enough if there is no presence at all!

Social media is a business tool to help you and your brand nourish true relationships, not followers. Follower counts don’t mean a thing if they don’t engage with you!

To achieve and increase social media presence, you need a social media strategy to get to your goals. Right there, that is the very first step, writing down your social media goal by channel. Meaning, what’s the intention behind your Twitter, your YouTube channel, or your Instagram. Different social media platforms may work differently for your brand. So let’s dive right into it:

1. Set Your Goals

You need goals that are specific, measurable, realistic, and relevant. You also need to set a timetable for each one of these goals.

Also, we recommend that you set different goals according to each social media channel.

2. What’s Your Target Audience?

Once you have your goals defined, is time to target the right people! When you understand who your audience is, you can set a schedule, tone, and content of interest. This doesn’t mean that you will be shaping your brand to fit your audience, but you will be approaching them in a way they will love!

In order to post valuable content it is important that you understand what your audience’s interests are, but more on this ahead.

3. Connect on a Personal Level

Even when people know they are following a brand, they like to talk to humans. You can achieve this by showing your followers the faces behind your brand. Introduce yourself, your collaborators, your team and tell their stories.

4. Engage!

As said before, making relationships is way more important than increasing your follower count. A way to do this is to answer their questions, incentivize customers to generate content, share their stories whenever you are mentioned as well as reply to those mentions.

Basically, start a conversation with your fans. You can ask questions, make a poll, start a live video to answer doubts, and so on.

5. Plan Your Content Calendar

This helps you keep it consistent so that you don’t disappoint your followers. You want to keep your presence constantly throughout the week. Maybe even make a few posts daily in some cases! Remember presence is what we are looking for.

Research the best time to post on each different platform. This might take a lot of experimenting, there is actually no secret formula to it. Music followers may not be online as other audiences might.

Valuable Content

So as we mentioned before, your target wants to see relevant content according to their interests. Which means one, you need to understand what those interests are, and two, make up valuable information for it!

6. Optimize Your Profiles

Write in-depth and enchanting descriptions of your brand or yourself in case you are promoting a personal brand. Add relevant keywords to them too.

You need a great profile picture or logo, banner, or cover, and you definitely need to keep them consistent all through your social media channels. Brand consistency all over your social media channels to make it easier for your followers to find you!

7. Content Design

Again not all social media are the same. Make specially designed content for each platform. For example, as we all know Instagram is a very visual platform, images are key! Twitter gets even better results when a twit comes accompanied with visuals or graphics. This means you will be needing good material and arts to go with your posts!

Facebook notes that Live videos get six times the engagement versus any other type of content.

Also, don’t post the same content on every social media platform, try to keep it varied!

Videos are a Biggy

Video content engages way more than regular content. Whether it’s a short video story or a larger YouTube episode, use the same logic: brand, target, and promotion.

8. Experiment with Ads

Don’t be afraid to pay for a little promotion on your social media. In fact, it is safe to say social media is no longer free so you might want to invest a few bucks in some awesome ads!

You can try influencer marketing, this is collaborating with fellow musicians or people involved in the music industry whose following could help uplift yours!

Run highly targeted ads! Now that you know who your audience is, make sure your ads are targeted to them and to those that don’t know you just yet.

9. Track Your Results

Keeping track of your analytics is important in order to measure the success of your social media channel and to actually see what’s working and what’s not.

Every social media channel offers its own analytics tool or you can use an external tool like Google Analytics itself or a social media manager.

A Few Extras

Use automation tools to make your life easier, they are real time savers.

There are tools for scheduling your posts for instance.

Use design templates

Using pre-made templates you can easily customize your templates in order to get awesomely designed images and videos for your posts. For instance, a Youtube intro maker makes it super easy for non-designers to create professional assets for their videos and brand them in just a few clicks!

Stay on top of trends

Share with your followers the latest news and use trending hashtags.

Cross-promote your social media channels.

Link your social media channels on your description or make posts to send them across channels. For example, an Instagram story to promote your next YouTube episode.

Share adjacent content.

You can share content from other channels that are in sync with your brand’s personality. No one wants to hear someone talk about themselves all night right? In other words, don’t be self-centered sharing valuable content from others can also benefit your brand.

Last Words

The result of all these efforts will turn out into an effective social media presence! Every emerging musician and even established music brands, can take enormous advantage of social media to position their brands, gain fans, and build strong relationships with their following and other fellow artists. Don’t stay behind! Give your social media game a new refreshing face and get your music out there!

How to become #Instafamous

Laurel Daggers - November 5, 2020

Is there a real way to get famous on Instagram? And if there is, is there a secret to it? There actually is a way to be successful on the gram and the secret is, there is no secret. Just like any successful business (or diet plan, for that matter), getting the desired results takes planning, research, and hard work. Your lunch isn’t going to photograph itself, after all.

Brand Yourself

Know what you want to be recognized for. Do you want to show the world your baking talents? Or how about your life as a parent? Whether you’re a world traveler or you have a talent with make-up, pinpoint the focus of your account and then look for a unique angle to set yourself apart. Don’t let other people define your brand for you, be so specific and so prepared that your audience will know exactly what they’ll be getting when they scroll through your feed.

Do Your Homework

You can’t set goals or know what to expect if you don’t know how the industry you’re trying to break into really works. Instagram provides useful information about it’s algorithms online, so that’s a good place to start. Then you should look into thriving Instagram accounts that are line with what you want your brand to be and see what they’re posting, how they’re interacting with their audience, and how often they’re posting.

#Blessed

Hashtags can help define a brand. Creating your own hashtags will help spread brand awareness, which helps you build up your community of engaged followers. While it’s still a good idea to use other established hashtags as well (research shows that using more than 11 hashtags gets more engagement), having at least one or two of your own hashtags makes you look more professional.

Check Yourself

People search for new content all the time using hashtags to find topics of interest. In order to be featured in the ‘top posts’ section on Instagram, your posts need to pull in a substantial amount of engagement in a short period of time. Check your hashtags within a few hours of posting, did they make the cut? This is a good way to do active research to see what’s working to your benefit and what is not. If your posts aren’t making it to the top of any of the top post sections, there’s a good chance the hashtags you’re using are too broad. Try using some that aren’t as well travelled to narrow the scope. Start out by being a big fish in a small pond, so to speak.

Story Time

Think of building your Instagram feed in terms of curating an art gallery. You want the colors, themes, and overall feeling to coincide. Plus, it actually makes it much more simple to plan out content if you are able to narrow down what lines up with your branding in a clear and concise way. There are generally three reasons that people would engage with your particular Instagram, they want to be educated, inspired, or entertained. Keep this in mind as you brainstorm content while lining it up with your brand’s aesthetic and you will become and #InstaSuccessStory.

What You Should Know Before Starting Your Own Brand

Taylor Brown - October 30, 2020

When building your own brand, people may make things look easier than what it is if you’re looking at social media and others online businesses, or when you’re seeing others try to get you to join their team to start your own brand or you might have thoughts on what it would be like to start something up yourself. It can be tempting or discouraging and there are definitely pros and cons to building a brand. Here are some things you should know before getting started.

Why you should build a brand

You should be willing to build your own brand because there are many opportunities that you can create for yourself and also ways that you can connect with yourself and other people. Building a brand isn’t always easy but it can surely pay off if you stick with being true to what you believe in and there are benefits of inspiring others, making a positive impact, being able to make an income for yourself and more. There can be ups and downs to this but the best thing to do is learn ways you will be able to get started, here are some tips that can help.

Ways to Invest in building your brand

The first thing people should know is that building a brand can sometimes be an investment. With starting from scratch you can always use your resources that you already have access to (free of charge) like utilizing social networks to get your name out there and promoting yourself, but with this can also come with investing in yourself. Signing up for some Elearning courses to help better assist your knowledge for what it’s like growing a brand (Checkout AMW Pro Elearning courses)

Or even joining a marketing agency to help you grow so that experienced people can help with photoshoots, ads, leveraging your following and help with all tools needed to progress with building a brand.

Reaching out to others about your brand/networking

Along with Investing in your brand it can help with building your own connections and network to meet others and gain exposure . There are good ways to getting started with doing this virtually and meeting like-minded people that could also be trying to get their foot in the door with branding themselves and building an influence over time or before corona was a thing, you could also do things like attend events or even do hostings, which would be a great way to start off with meeting others. Here are some good platforms to use for connecting with others in your community that are freelancers, entrepreneurs, and creatives:

www.musesapp.com

www.perlu.com

www.influence.co

Finding a niche for your brand

Finding a niche is important for influencing or making a name for yourself because it will be what you are mostly known for. If you’re into fashion or want to make a name for yourself for a product or service, it’s good to pick your passion and stick with it. You don’t always have to make a brand based around yourself but can also make a name for yourself and attach it to a niche product that you may be interested in selling and sharing with others to make an income for yourself!

How your brand can make you a business (and income for yourself)

The freedom of building a brand for yourself can be freedom for making an income and long-lasting partnerships with others. Building a brand and sticking to one thing at a time and progressing on it can land opportunities as an influencer, business partnerships or even change using your social media platform as fun and games to becoming an entrepreneur.

Once you’ve established a brand for yourself, some things you can take advantage of doing to earn an income are: Checking out ways you can get into influencer marketing and creating an online business selling your own products or services. Influencing can be a main way to leveraging income for yourself because you may have an audience built up or once you’ve built a brand people will be more likely to be interested in what your lifestyle is like, and what your interests are. This can create different streams of income because you could work with brands, (Check out our blog post on best platforms to use for influencers. Get into affiliate marketing as you recommend products to your audience and you can convert your audience into sales!

If you’re interested in selling a product or service and have established your business/brand It could be an easy way for you to get others to check out what you have to offer and for them to see how you could benefit.

Building a brand is also a way of building trust and building personable and beneficial relations with people. It’s vital to be able to have good ethics while staying true to your purpose, and building your reputation in a way that you’ll be able to influence others and make an impact. Knowing these steps will help you along the way with building your brand and leveraging your income and a way to slowly be an entrepreneur.

Top 10 Influencer Platforms

Taylor Brown - October 26, 2020

As an influencer or starting out as a creator, it’s important to get connected with networks and gigs that can pay you and your content for what it’s worth! These are 10 great influencer platforms that you can utilize to get started getting paid, or to start getting gifted exchanges with products that hold great value.

Some of these platforms require 10k+ following, and others you may join with just under 10k or free. Be sure to apply and go for it anyway; as some of these platforms may accept you based on how much they genuinely like your content, authentic reach, and your community!

1. Octoly Platform

Like many other influencers/content creators, you want to get paid for your work, but a great perk of influencing and connecting with your audience is that there are major opportunities to receive gifted products as well in exchange for producing content. Octoly is a great platform to get started on with this. Octoly is a big platform most creators use when looking to produce content in exchange for gifted products.

Once accepted to Octoly platform you receive 5 points which are equal to 1 product. Once accepted, you also have access to the Marketplace where you can shop in any category with the use of your points. Once you see a product you like, you can place an order and wait until the brand accepts you. Be sure to read over guidelines to see what content you have to produce in exchange because there are deadlines. Once you produce the content you earn another point back and this is how Octoly keeps free products in exchange for content in rotation.

Learn more: www.octoly.com

2. Heartbeat Platform

Heartbeat is where many creators get some of their first startup gigs and land their first promotions. Heartbeat doesn’t have strict requirements for joining, and is fun to personalize your account to get matched up with different campaigns by answering a ton of survey questions! Some campaigns are free content in exchange for free products, and others are also payment+free products in exchange for creating the content. The only downside is that Heartbeat pays at a scale in which whenever your following increases your pay will increase: which is fair however their system doesn’t consider drastic payment when your following does increase. The pay can be little compared to other platforms and as you get bigger or more experienced with pitching, reaching out to brands and brands contacting you for campaigns you may tend to move onto other platforms or strategies to working, but Heartbeat is enjoyable if you want more of lighthearted content, and if you are wanting some experience!

Learn more: www.heartbeat.com

3. Social Fabric Platform

Social Fabric, also known as SoFab, is where you can find some top paying collaborations that are worth applying to! Social Fabric not only focuses on Instagram content but it also focuses on bloggers. If you are actively blogging and have one up and running this platform may be for you, as it has higher paid campaigns for bloggers specifically. It has many collaborations for Instagrammers as well with good pricing but with blogging needs for campaigns, they double the price! This platform is also good for mother creators, family related pages, and pet pages as well. There are a lot of campaigns geared toward this niche but they also have beauty, food, and health-related campaigns.

Social Fabric campaigns can be competitive with applying to things and they require a detailed proposal when applying to their campaigns. You must be detailed on what it is that you’re offering for the content, how the setup will be, what ideas you have for posing and promoting the product, and why you are a good fit as well as examples related to past content that you have already produced.

Within the Social Fabric platform, they also have forums that everyone in the SoFab community can chat about with what they can do better to approve with promoting, how they can increase chances on getting accepted as well as public discussion on other topics. Social Fabric has become really competitive over the years with getting accepted but keep applying and rejuvenate your feed, and blog once in a while to gain new eyes on your content and to increase the chance of a partnership.

Learn more: www.socialfabric.us

4. Phlanx Platform

Phlanx is a useful tool as well as a platform to use for applying to campaigns and exploring new brands. Phlanx is a good platform that can help businesses market their platform and helps brands find influencers as well and also is used for a calculator when finding if a page has good engagement. Not everyone knows that this is also a good tool to use for finding collabs. Phlanx has a free month trial that you can try out to see how you like it and then purchase to have full access to email brands. Check Phlanx every other day or week as random businesses post what they are looking for and you can email brands directly through the platform.

Learn more: www.phlanx.com

5. Perlu Platform

Perlu is a platform that you can use for connecting with other creators as well as use as a platform to connect with other brands. What makes Perlu unique is that there are packs that you can join which are groups of people with similar niche and interests and when you are accepted to these packs, there’s a whole community of creators and brands that share different opportunities. Once you sign up to join the Perlu platform, you can have access to customizing your profile and seeing what packs you would like to join. The more packs you join, the more access to different campaigns you can have. When searching for campaigns you may also filter what you’re looking for: Either paid or unpaid campaigns. There are many opportunities for affiliate campaigns, product promotion, and some paid campaigns as well that are fixed rates or you can negotiate with the brand. Perlu requires a payment set up with a stripe account and is great at sending payments on time!

Learn more: www.perlu.com

6. Socialix Platform

Socialix has a requirement for creators over 5,000+ followers to join. Once you are accepted to this platform and have access to seeing campaigns, you can create a proposal for content you would like to produce and include your price for each piece of content. Within the Socialix platform, there is a dashboard where you can upload your content to wait for approval and guidelines to follow in order to complete your project and to earn for your work.

With Socialix, you’re not allowed to join more than 3 active campaigns at a time until the others are complete, and it is a safe community for recommending brands to work with as you can give an honest review of your campaign experience after your collaboration is complete.

Learn more: www.socialix.com

7. Activate.Social Platform

Activate Social welcomes all creators that have a following over 5,000 in order to apply and have access to competitive campaigns. Activate is great for bloggers as well and although it may take up to a month or sometimes not hearing back from brands, it is worth applying to each campaign you match up to and a great way to build a media kit as an influencer. Activate Social has opportunities with gifted collaborations and you can sometimes find high paid collaborations with rates starting from $100-$1,000.

Activate Social is a highly professional platform where there is a range from nano influencers to macro-influencers, so sometimes they may have specific campaigns that meet those requirements. This is a straightforward platform and they list what they’re looking for, what they expect you to create for collaborations, and may have a fixed rate or a rate that you can offer them for your work. They also work with a range of platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, blogs, and now TikTok!

Learn more: www.activate.social

8. BrandBassador Platform

BrandBassador is an app that allows you to create content for your favorite brands while also earning commission and points that can be converted to money or gift cards! Once you are accepted into BrandBassador you will be able to see what brands are on the platform and wait to be accepted on their newest collaborations!

Learn more: www.brandbassador.com

9. Grapevine Platform

Grapevine’s requirement to join is 5,000 followers and you must be an active creator on your platform in order to use their platform. This platform has updates ever so often with unique collaborations that you can apply to after you’ve customized your feed on the site and check off the content you’d be interested in. Grapevine’s payment terms have recently changed from 14-day payouts to 45-day terms so although you are able to sometimes work with a lot of brands here pay attention to payout dates as they can sometimes be very long-awaited, and be sure to upload content on time.

Learn more: www.grapevinelogic.com

10. Influence.co Platform

When joining Influence.co, this site has a mix of connecting influencers with brands and connecting them with opportunities to get to know other creators, joining zoom calls on topics about using creator platforms, and also has hosting opportunities for creators to connect with a broader audience. You can also use the Influencer platform as a social platform by setting statuses and chatting with people that are in your niche. In order to connect with paid collaborations be sure to fill out your profile and customize it to what content you’re already producing or would be open to producing. Some collabs you may be interested in have their own requirements in order to apply and a minimum requirement is different for each brand. A lot of brands on here are open to negotiating or setting fixed terms with payouts.

Learn more: www.influence.co

These Top 10 Influencers platforms can help you gain knowledge on how to perfect pitching to brands, how to increase chances of building long-lasting partnerships with some of your favorite brands and how to progress with creating content to build a better relationship with your audience. Whether you are looking to be paid for your work or looking to do gifted campaigns these can help better your chances in turning content creation from a hobby to a full-time job!

Advice when signing up for these platforms: Be yourself, Be detailed in applications, Make sure that your Instagram feed is a cohesive business page (not private), so that these platforms can check out your analytics and engagement. You want to look at your profile as a portfolio and business when you are ready to start working with brands and making your content. So before signing up and submitting applications for these networks, do take a look at what can be done better on your feed to attract more viewers and if you are sticking to a niche that best fits you.

The Ins and Outs of Editorial Playlisting

Laurel Daggers - October 9, 2020

One of the top five items on every artists’ bucket list is making it onto an editorial Spotify playlist. Getting onto one of these playlists is a clear indicator of your rise to the top. Like many aspects of the entertainment industry, figuring out how to be placed onto one of these highly sought after placements can appear to be a catch-22.

It almost seems as if you have to already be at the top of your game in the industry for these playlists to want to add you, so that you can get to the top of your game. Once you peek behind the curtain, you will see so many more moving parts to promoting your music than you thought there were. So let’s get into it, how do you prioritize what to do in order to get your music onto editorial playlists?

What’s important:

A great single
Not only do you need to think that you have a great song, everyone else does, too. Before you release an album, get as many people to listen to it as you can and get their honest feedback on which of the songs they liked best. This will help you narrow down which song to use as your single. You’ll never please everyone, but you can get a better idea of what the most people respond to. The Spotify editorial board gets around 40,000 song submissions PER DAY, if you’re single doesn’t set itself apart, it’s not making it onto a playlist.

Verification
I’m not talking about instagram verification, Spotify has its own verification system. All you have to do is register on Spotify for Artists. Previously, an artist needed a minimum of 250 subscribers so at least this step is relatively easy these days.

Pitching
When you submit your song to just about anything, you’re asked to send a brief pitch as well. If all it says is “I wrote this song after I went through a break up”, chances are they will not be all that interested to listen to it. In fact they’ve gotten several thousand that day that say the exact same thing.

Maintaining a professional relationship with curators
Read and follow Spotify’s best practices carefully. Behave professionally and you will be treated as a professional. The best thing you can do when interacting with people who deal with tens of thousands of amateur musicians every single day is to show them that you know what you’re doing and that you’re easy to work with.

What’s not important:

Prior media coverage
Of course, media coverage and publicity are taken into account, but it’s not the most important piece of the submission puzzle. Your pitch and the initial information you send to Spotify when you submit your music, that’s what will really set you apart.

Previous Spotify placements
Spotify has created designated playlists to promote newer artists who have not been on major playlists in the past. Playlists like “Fresh Finds” and “On Our Radar” were specifically created to highlight newcomers.

Finding “the right” distributor
Obviously, it’s important to find the music distributor that best works for you. What you don’t need to worry about is looking for a distributor that could give your music a better chance of being picked.

Maintaining a personal relationship with curators
It’s always a smart move to act like a professional among other professionals. However, attempting to foster a personal relationship in order to get more placements with the curators is not. Having a personal relationship with any of the curators does not improve your chances of getting onto them. The main goal for any digital streaming site is to provide the best possible listening experience to their audience, so when it comes down to making a decision on placements, they look at the current social climate, data, musical characteristics, and what makes each artist unique in order to put together an immersive listening experience.

Artists Who Have Made it Big Using Social Media

Laurel Daggers - August 21, 2020

Many new artists who are just starting out get tunnel vision when it comes to growing their careers. They think there’s a specific path set with vague instructions that they have to follow: make music, wait to get picked up by a label, be famous “overnight”. However, if you approached any other job like that ( do one basic task and then sit back and do nothing while you wait for a raise and a promotion) you’d likely be fired from that job in less than a week.

Recording Artist Tori Kelly

There are many moving parts to the music business that every artist should be aware of and actively incorporating into their business endeavors. If you’re not interested and actively invested in growing your music career, no one else will be either. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to stop waiting and start moving forward. Today we’re going to talk about some creative ways current popular artists have used various forms of social media to grow their brand.

Halsey had been making music and putting it on YouTube and Tumblr for a few years before she made it. She was also performing live at small venues while off and on living homeless on the streets of New York City. She had never recorded her music in a professional studio until a chance meeting with an industry professional at a party. He gave her access to a studio to record her song “Ghost” and the rest, as they say, is history. A few weeks later she posted it onto Soundcloud, resulting in multiple offers from major labels the very next day.

Shawn Mendes used Vine to make 6 second videos of cover songs. He made the most of those measly 6 seconds and learned how to make a big impression in a short amount of time. By the time he had amassed over 300,000 followers – at the age of 15, no less- several major labels were knocking on his door.

You can’t talk about social media success stories without mentioning Justin Bieber. He started out by putting videos of himself covering songs by artists such as Justin Timberlake. Eventually Usher and manager Scooter Braun ( T Swifts current nemesis), took notice and signed him.

Tori Kelly had a bumpy start, pushing through ten years of creating and promoting her music before she was picked up. She even auditioned for American Idol, but didn’t make it onto the show. Tori started putting covers and original songs on YouTube, which again grabbed the attention of Scooter Braun. Braun showed up at one of her live performances after that and signed the now Grammy-nominated singer.

My personal favorite on this list, though, is Lizzo. Two years after her now hit single “Truth Hurts” came out, it made its way to TikTok. Her popularity spread like wildfire after that, it also earned her 8 Grammy nominations including Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year.

There are many other musicians, artists, models and actors whose careers have flourished because of social media. We may have never heard of some of them otherwise, in fact. Social media is not just for cute dog videos and hashtags, it provides endless opportunities for creative people to show off, promote, and grow their brand. From engaging with some of Instagram’s one billion users to starting a challenge with the other 800 million members of TikTok, artists are finding new ways to get their music noticed.

6 Ways to Advance Your Music Career During A Global Pandemic

Amber Curtis - July 31, 2020

The recent pandemic has affected everyone in a different way. If you’re a musician, artist, producer, etc. COVID-19 has made it harder to create and perform your music. People all over the world are trying to figure out how to navigate this time. They’re discovering and implementing a new “normal” by putting systems in place that allow them to do the same things they did before while keeping everyone safe.

For artisans in the music industry, it may be hard to navigate what a new “normal” looks like. Read below for 6 ideas on getting started or advancing your music career during the pandemic.

1. Promote on Social Media

With lots of non-essential businesses closing and events being canceled, people have more time to spend on social media platforms. As fans and potential listeners increase their time on social media, so should you. Although you may not be able to record music in the studio or perform live there are so many ways you can use social media to promote you and your music.

Posting your music on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook are quick and easy ways to promote your music if you know what you’re doing. First, make sure your music accounts are public so it’ll be easier for new people to discover your music. Post snippets of new music in feed posts or stories and provide links to sites, such as Spotify and Apple Music. On TikTok, you can easily upload origins audio files by using the InShot – Video Editor app. You can also schedule posts in advance, via Hootsuite, for ease.

If you’re sad you don’t get to perform live this year, try live streaming. It is one of the quickest and easiest ways on social media to connect with your followers. If you want, you can also advertise on your social pages, schedule a weekly set, and ask for song requests leading up to the stream.

2. Create a Website

If you don’t already have a website, this is the perfect time to build one for your music. A website is the hub or headquarters of your brand. This is where you can provide an in depth biography, previews/links to your music and social accounts, contact information, merchandise page, and include information about upcoming projects and events.

WordPress or Wix are easy to use website creators. They both have hundreds of templates and ideas for bringing your site to life and their most basic packages are free. If you have the budget, it is best to upgrade from a free account so that you can have a custom domain. Custom domains allow you to forgo “wordpress” or “wix” in your url.

These services also allow you to add your own domain if you happen to already own one. Squarespace and Bluehost are online services that help you easily set up your own web host and domain, which will only increase professionalism and ease for your website.

3. Get on Spotify Playlists

If you’ve been in the music business for a minute, you’re probably already trying to get your music on Spotify playlists. If you’re not, you should start now. Similarly to the increase of social media site viewing, music streaming has increased due to the pandemic. Whether you’re targeting playlists or hiring a company to do it for you, there are some things you can do to increase engagement and a following.
Like a fast food drive thru, listeners want their music and they want it now. They don’t want to wait to access it and they don’t want to wait to hear the best parts of the song. Songs that are shorter, usually around 2 minutes in length, are optimal for listeners. Songs with long intros or slow builds often encourage listeners to skip them.

Create an account on Spotify for Artists. This allows you to verify your Spotify profile, tell your story, promote your music, and measure engagement.

4. Make the Most of Your Down Time

Most artists don’t realize that it’s impossible to truly become a sensation overnight. Artists like Lizzo or Lil Nas X seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it took them years of creating music and working hard before their efforts paid off. When thinking of your career, you have to look at it as a long game.

Use the downtime you have now to create a long term plan for your career. Set a specific, achievable plan, methods to measure your success, and realistic, time-bound goals. Review the music you’ve put out so far, look at what has worked and what maybe hasn’t. Base your future projects on the information you find.

There are likely hundreds of thousands of people that are dealing with the same issues, thoughts, and emotions you’re going through during quarantine. So why not write some songs about them?

Additionally, now may be a good time to learn a few things from the experts. Platforms like MasterClass can educate and reinforce your methods for creating, writing, and producing music.

5. Gain Media Coverage

When creating a long term plan you also have to develop a long term release plan, factoring in media coverage. Specifically, online media coverage is the most effective form of media coverage nowadays. Electronic press releases can increase the legitimate Google search results and are easily shareable on social media.

Whether you’re new or seasoned in the game, hiring a professional PR company to help you navigate and publish your upcoming releases/accomplishments.

6. Sell Merch

Selling your merchandise is a skillful way to promote yourself even if you don’t have current music out. Post giveaways on your social media pages, send exclusive promo codes to winners of a fun, online contest. Try to come up with fun, creative ideas to engage your audience when you’re not performing or releasing music. For example, send a “merch box” to the winner of a contest. Include a t-shirt,, laptop sticker, magnets, or whatever other merchandise you have.

Lifestyle Influencer Taylor B x AMW Group

AMW - July 17, 2020

As part of our brand ambassador program, Lifestyle Influencer Taylor B discusses different marketing strategy options using AMW Group services. Check the video and reach out with any questions.

To learn more about the different services we have available visit:
https://www.amworldgroup.com/our-services

The Benefits Of Internet Radio Promotion

Laurel Daggers - June 29, 2020

It seems like there are a million places to go when it comes to placing your music these days. And there are just as many questions. Is it more important to focus on digital streaming or traditional radio? What about internet radio? Which one counts towards charts and which one is dying out? Do any of them give you a better bang for your buck?

Fortunately, there are simple answers to all of those questions. If you don’t know where to start, internet radio is a great place to look. While you can find success with any of these outlets, internet radio airplay has some decidedly clear benefits, particularly for newer artists. It’s a cross-section of all the best parts of each music playlisting platform. Internet radio is responsible for almost 80% of listening hours in regards to music, 70% of that usage coming from the mobile market. This means that more than half of an artist’s potential audience is using this to listen to their favorite music. That also makes this a perfect opportunity for artists who do not reside in highly populated areas and are therefore less likely to reach a large audience even if they were to get their music played on a traditional radio station.

Exposure

Internet radio stations can be reached from anywhere in the world. This means that not only can your audience find you whether they’re home or on the go, but it’s also easy to get consistent plays from your followers.

Audience Targeting

Artists can select other mainstream artists whose genre is similar and be placed on the same radio stations with internet radio, so their music can find just the right audience. You can even choose specific demographics once you know your audience well, to ensure successful targeting.

Metrics

Metrics are so important to any brand and with internet radio, you get important data about the audience your music attracts. When someone plays your music you will get detailed information almost immediately on the audience demographics, how they rate your music, and which of your songs have more growth potential. You’ll also be able to find out where your music does well geographically.

Better Sound Quality

Internet radio can offer better sound quality than regular radio, so your music can be listened to the way it’s meant to be heard. Since the reception is not dependent on faulty radio towers and other environmental factors, your audience will receive more consistent sound quality whenever they seek out your music.

Perks

Several internet radio channels also have the added benefit of awarding points to artists who are doing well on their station. These points allow artists the opportunity for sync licensing (this allows visual media outlets i.e. television and movies, to purchase your songs to use in their projects) and label submission.

Fewer Advertisements

Artists don’t have to worry as much about losing audience members from the station their song is playing on due to them trying to avoid commercials. There aren’t as many on internet radio and listeners often have an upgrade option to avoid them altogether. When your audience has an all-around smoother user experience than they do on other outlets, they’re more likely to tune in more frequently, for longer periods of time.

To learn more about our Internet Radio Promotion campaigns
https://www.amworldgroup.com/radio-promotion

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