Posted on January 20, 2020

The 5 Most Important Steps For An Outstanding Spotify Profile

By Yvonne Martin

First launched on October 7, 2008, Spotify got its way to be the most popular streaming platform on the market. Undoubtedly, it has improved the way people enjoy music, and how artists promote their music. 

The competition on Spotify is no joke, and musicians need to put a lot of effort to find their way to the top. Listeners are getting more demanding, and the industry is getting more saturated every year. 

According to Spotify Over 20,000 songs are added everyday on the platform, so you need to find a way to shine like a diamond among them, and have yourself featured on top playlists. To do it, you need to sparkle some magic on your profile, and MusicPromoToday is here to explain how to do it. 

Many beginning musicians struggle to find the best practice to create an outstanding profile that will make a professional first impression, and will make users listen to your music. Check out the 5 important steps to create an outstanding Spotify profile. 

1- Artworks

52% of users are listening to songs on Spotify from their smartphones, and if you ever opened  the app on your phone you know that artworks are the most exposed visuals out there. That is why you need to put extra efforts in uploading eye catching covers and canvas for your singles! 

Recently Spotify introduced feature of adding gifs and short videos to singles. They have the same resolution as Instagram Stories, and can be personalized by you! Learn here how to take the most from your Spotify canvas.

Make sure you also add a relevant banner to your Artist profile, that will look good both on phones and computers.

2- Bio

You should know that 25% of Spotify users are millennials, who needs to know everything about everything! That is why you better include a detailed bio in your profile - tell your story, explain who you are and what inspires you. Don’t forget to add all your social media channels, and your best pictures!

3- Playlists

Being featured on official Spotify playlists is the best way to reach new listeners and build a solid fanbase. An average user devotes time to 40 artists weekly, so there is plenty of room for you to find your niche. 

You can get featured by submitting your songs on platforms like SubmitHub, reach out to magazines and influencers, and Spotify curators. If you don’t know where to find their contact, check out the free ebook “5 Secrets To Reach Over 25k Streams On Spotify” and get access to our contacts database! 

4- Concerts

Spotify operates in exactly 79 countries, and As recorded by June 2019, the number of monthly active users is around 232M which is a huge market of potential listeners. To reach out to them, you can use Concerts features!

To promote your concerts to fans on Spotify, you just need to add your show on one of Spotify’s ticketing partner sites: Ticketmaster, Songkick, Eventbrite, AXS, or eplus (in Japan only). It will then automatically display in Spotify, in the Concerts section of Browse and artist profiles. 

Users can discover your gigs based on their location and music they like. If they have listened to your songs, or similar artists, your concert will be recommended to them.  

5- The Blue Badge!

Getting verified on Spotify is essential for artists since credibility on the digital streaming platforms is important in today’s streaming economy. Spotify's Blue Badge unlocks additional features, profile control, and access to analytics. 

Requesting Artist verification on Spotify has been recently simplified to a minimum! The only thing that needs to be done is to become a part of Spotify for Artists, and from there only claim your blue badge!

Posted on January 20, 2020

Fake A Star: The Artificial Business Of Instagram Influencers

By Shawn Spence

MusicPromoToday takes a closer look at fake Instagram followers: we investigate how to spot them, why artists still strive to pay for bots, and what consequences getting fake followers can create. 

There are many strategies to organically increase your social media engagement and grow the number of followers you have. Unfortunately, it’s time consuming and requires a lot of effort, creativity, and consistency. 

Many Instagram users, including major artists and celebrities, decide to take a shortcut and simply buy followers or use bots to increase engagement. Bots become more advanced in an attempt to fool the social media network: with a profile picture, bio, and posts, they look like regular people. But don’t let them fool you. 

Wired estimated that there are over 95 million near-perfect human bot-accounts available to be purchased at anytime. You can get them from thousands of available services online that provide you with followers within a few hours. 

Celebrities And Fake Followers 

It’s a common practice for celebrities and top artists to support themselves with fake followers. The recent research carried out by the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) proved that celebrities worldwide, including the Kardashian family members, top musicians, actors and models have a great amount of fake Instagram followers.

The queen of purchased fans is Ellen Degeneres with over 49% of fake Instagram followers! In this top 10 you can also find stars like Ariana Grande (46%), Miley Cyrus (45%) and Katy Perry (44%). 

How to spot a fake Instagram account.

1. The profile is usually private and has no followers. Or a lot more following than followers. They usually do this to generate at least a few dozens or hundreds of followers in return. 
   
   
2. If the profile has no profile picture, it’s almost 95% sure it’s a fake profile. On a visual platform as Instagram, having a profile picture is simply a must. 
   
   
3. There are no posts or only a few images that are not real photos. Bots very often download images from a network and share them with no description, so once you spot a profile like that be sure it’s a fake one. 
   
   
4. They leave spammy and meaningless comments. Fire, hearts, and thumbs-up emojis that can be spotted all over Instagram; stay tuned, these profiles are fake. 
   

So once we know how a fake IG account looks like, can we spot accounts who use them to grow vanity metrics? 

How to spot if someone buys followers

1. Look at the ratio between following and followers, and how it changes every day. Bots that follow and unfollow accounts are a real plague. If someone uses them, followers drops are easily noticeable: one day the profile will have 3,5k following users, and a few days later, it will have dropped to 2,4k. If the process repeats every day, it means that bots are active out there. You can also spot the following increasing and fluctuating everyday. 
   
   
2. If one has many of the spammy comments we have already mentioned above, you can be sure they are followed by fake profiles. Generic comments like “Love this”, “Beautiful!”, “Awesome”, and many emojis are automatically posted. High-quality engagement is more honest and conversational. 
   

As much as fake engagement is extremely easy to notice, users still spend a lot of money on purchasing it. You might ask why? Well, let’s review a few reasons. 

Why people buy fake followers

1. Vanity metrics matter! Let’s be honest, numbers are critical to Instagram’s success. Brands and sponsors are attracted to quantities and want their product to be shown to the biggest possible audience, which is why many influencers decide to use bots, buy followers and fake engagement. It’s a shortcut to monetize your account basically. 
   
   
   
2. In simple words: it’s also an investment. According to Hypebeast, celebrities like Kim Kardashian with millions of followers earn up to $300,000 for a single sponsored post, while other top fashion influencers are said to earn around $12,000 for each product placement. Meanwhile, influencers who want to increase their social presence need to spend only $16 for 1000 followers on Instagram.
    
   
   

Roberto Cavazos, a University of Baltimore professor and economist in the Business of Fashion report, admits that buying followers is an investment that brings revenue but is also dangerous for branding, “There are significant further indirect costs — notably erosion of trust and potential brand impact,” he explains. 

1. Because of the algorithm, Instagram decides what to place at the top of the feeds. It means that if a post gets a lot of engagement within the first few hours, it will be shown to more people as it seems to be interesting and engaging. Bots step in and create fake engagement increases, so more real users can see the post in the feed. Spot influencers asking people to type words letter by letter or inviting followers to comment more than once on a post. 
   
   
2. Last but not least: competition. Instagram’s influencer market has grown enormously in the past few years and reached over $2 billion industry in 2018. No surprise that many want to snatch a bit of it, become Insta famous and fake followers seem like a great start to some. 
   

Instagram is obviously not OK with what is happening. Curators and developers are fighting with bots that create fake profiles and users who decide to purchase them. 

What are the consequences of buying fake followers 

1. It destroys your insights. Buying fake followers will screw up your metrics immediately and you will not be able to plan your organic growth activities, or even find out who your real audience is, or use it while setting up ads. 
   
   

The Cut recently published a piece about a user who described experiences of supporting accounts with bought follows, “My follower demographic went from mostly women in Chicago, to being 60 percent foreign men between 18 and 24. It’s not a big deal, but if you’re trying to market yourself as having a certain niche, it could make a difference,” she confesses. 

1. Once Instagram finds out that you buy likes, comments or followers they will be immediately removed from your profile. It will cost you losing the credibility that is essential for marketers who look for influencers to work with. 
   
   
2. If you think that numbers drops are bad, imagine being shadowbanned, which means that your content won't appear on anyone's feed unless they intentionally go to your profile and view the post. It’s a punishment for using engagement bots.
   
   
3. In a more serious case, Instagram can permanently block your username with no possibility to recreate your account. 
   

Wrap up 

In the age of Instagram influencers, many think that having a bunch of followers is a must to succeed in marketing. A report by cybersecurity firm Cheq shows that fake fans will cost brands $1.3 billion in 2019 alone, and in 2020 this number is predicted to grow. 

If you are a beginning influencer or a marketing specialist who runs your company’s social media, remember that by using bots you are sabotaging your own marketing strategy. Bought engagement never brings real results in business. 

If you want to grow your audience organically, make sure to check out what we offer at MusicPromoToday. From customized Instagram Influencer Campaigns to content and visual creation, to execution with real results, everything to bring loyal fans and valuable engagement to your profile. 

Posted on January 8, 2020

Fast And Easy Steps To Promote Music On SoundCloud

By Shawn Spence

SoundCloud is one of the biggest streaming platforms out there, and since its launch in 2007 artists have been uploading millions and millions of songs. In February 2019, the Berlin-based streaming giant reached 200 million songs which heavily beats 35 million Spotify catalog and 45 million that are uploaded on Apple Music!

And with millions of songs to listen to, come millions of listeners. According to Forbes, SoundCloud counts over 175 million active and unique registered users, and a dozen times more unregistered users everyday use the platform to discover new music.

But how to break through the crowd where millions of musicians want to catch the attention of consumers and build a solid fanbase? Well, MusicPromoToday has prepared for you a few fast and simple steps to get more recognition and promote your content within just a few clicks. Time to break through the noise!

1- Host a remix contest

Remix contests are super popular among musicians who are looking for a way to get more shoutouts and promote their singles. Choose one of your songs, then publish separate tracks of this single, and enlist your fans to create killer remixes. To look professional, you can prepare a landing page with all the required info, and place to submit the remix.

3- Try Playlist Grouping

Playlist Grouping is a way to create a playlist that can help you gain more exposure. It works by blending newly released songs of mainstream artists who are getting millions of streams and hits with your own songs in a playlist. If you want to learn more about this method to increase your reach, check out our article A Top Secret Strategy That Will Increase Your SoundCloud Exposure. 

4- Use Buy links feature

SoundCloud allows you to edit or add a Buy link to let your fans purchase the track from another site (such as iTunes, BandCamp, etc.) through your track’s edit page in the ‘Metadata’ tab. While listening to your music, users will know where you’re selling your music on and offline. Be sure to add links to CD Baby or your distributor so your audience can purchase your music!

5- Share your music privately

If you have already built a fanbase - spoil them with some new content you have been working on recently. SoundCloud provides users with a private sharing feature that helps in managing digital music marketing campaigns and enables them to offer exclusive material and to solicit feedback without having to officially drop your tunes publicly to the world. 

Wrap up

SoundCloud can boost your career right after your music is uploaded the platform.. but the most important question remains: What efforts is the artist putting in to increase awareness?

SoundCloud has launched dozens of features to help you grow your reach and break through the crowd. The stats show that every minute 12 hours of new music is being uploaded to SoundCloud, so stay focused and make your content matter! Learn more about music marketing on our blog. At MusicPromoToday, we provide artists with tailor-made music marketing strategies to improve your visibility on all streaming platforms and to catch the attention of potential fans, impactful bloggers and music journalists.

Posted on December 25, 2019

15 Great Music Marketing Tips for 2020

By Yvonne Martin

The options for online music marketing and promotion are growing year by year, and in 2020 you will find a lot of new and different ways to promote your music online. 

As new possibilities arise, social media and online music promotion have become the most empowering solution for musicians who run their own music marketing in 2020.

And guess what - it’s not difficult! This is our guide to the freshest music marketing and promotion tips you should put to work in 2020.

1- Fanbase Segmentation 

Guide your fans to your best content, especially the new ones. That can be a very successful single or a music video that had lots of views. It’s always tempting to release new content every month, but make sure you lead with your best stuff when directing new fans. It is also very important to direct old fans to NEW stuff through newsletters or social media, linking through your site and news feeds. Most importantly don’t keep pounding your existing fanbase with the same content over and over again.

2- Crowdfunding is Always an Option

It takes approximately $15,000 to start a band, along with the expenses you might need to keep going as the months and years go on, which makes up a very big number. 

3- Stream Your Music

Streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, and Deezer make up the majority of streams worldwide, so make sure to get hold of these services. Those are great tools for music monetization. Share your music with millions of new listeners in playlists, and make sure to handle the ticket sales through these platforms as well as merchandise.

4- Do More Merch

For up and coming artists with a new audience, merchandise can be an essential part of their business. To be good at merchandising you got to follow-up the same style trends that any clothing or fashion label would. 

5- Performance Royalties

Performance royalties are globally known revenue streams. Those are usually generated from radio airplay, music venues, malls, bars, sports venues, college radios, etc. The more you pay attention to those, the bigger these performance royalties will be. Make sure to pitch to various organizations like radios and venues to have your music played there. 

6- Synch (Synchronization) Fees for Television, Movies, Video Games and Ads

If a company or an individual wants to use your music in “synchronization” with motion picture, they need to get a “synch” license and a negotiated price to pay you for that use. More precisely they need two licenses. One for the track, and one for the master license. Typically those licenses have different fees. If you own your master, they need to get the master license from you personally. And if there’s a label that owns your master, they need to obtain the master license from the label. Every “synch” has two fees included; A master fee (recording), and a publishing fee (composition). Both of those need to be agreed on in two separate contracts. Be wary of signing any agreements to “Synch” your music, or you might risk to not get signed by a publisher or label.

7- Create a Spotify Playlist

Another way to add your music exactly where your audience might want to listen to it is to create a Spotify playlist. People go to Spotify to listen to music, so why not make them listen to your music too. Create cool playlists that include a mix of other artists, but don’t forget to also add your music too. You can also get in touch with popular playlist creators and ask them to feature your music on there too. This is a great way of promoting your music, but also a possibility for you to promote other musicians too.

8- Post on TikTok for Gen Z

Of course, depends on your music genre and the fanbase you want to attract, but in case if this is true, don’t underestimate the power of TikTok. TikTok is an app where users upload fun and short video clips adding a lot of effects and music. Currently, the app has more than 500 million monthly active users globally every day. They are constantly on the lookout for new music to mix with their videos, so why not add yours to it?

 9- Create Facebook Events

Before creating an event on Facebook you have to make sure that you have a Facebook Page for your music. This way, not only your loyal fans can easily keep up with your gigs, but also people who are looking for something fun to do for the day might stumble upon your event. Also, consider buying Sponsored Facebook Events Ads to effectively target your audience interested in similar music to yours. 

 10- Traffic is Key 

Think about traffic as when someone is looking for something and is being redirected to your music. Examples are Google Search, your website, Facebook, Pandora, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Make sure your Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube links are easy to find in all of these places when potential fans might encounter them.

 11- Advertising 

As simple as this sounds you are going to need some paid traffic and awareness. Especially if you manage to convert your traffic right it will bring you income. Advertising is not just for new releases. You need to advertise for gigs, merch, and even streaming. For example, Facebook ads can generate 3x income.

12- Pre-orders

The bigger your pre-order is, the better your first week sales will be. Therefore your music will gain a much bigger footprint. As a result of all of the preparation, ad campaigns, and branding in the pre-order stage, you will increase your sales during the release of the music. 

13- Don’t sell yourself short

You can ask for a Follow for a track or share for a track as a promotion. Unless its charity you should always get paid for your time and effort and don’t do too much free stuff.

14- Money Saved is Money Earned

The most essential thing to take into account is to be smart with money. Try to have everything inhouse wherever possible, look for endorsements and sponsorships from fellow artists (strings, drumsticks, microphones). Also, used gear is a good way to save money and using artist discounts when it's possible.

15- Plan Your Development

In the new streaming dominant marketplace, music development plans are the key to a successful album cycle. 

We hope you learned a few things about how to make money with music online and elsewhere. Most of all, we would love to hear your comments, questions, and additions in the comments below.

Posted on December 17, 2019

6 Essential Steps To Successfully Launch a New Single, EP or Music Video

By John Reynolds

1- Publish your new release — Music Distribution

Since downloads and streaming have become the most preferred way to consume music in 2019 according to the IFPI, Spotify and iTunes have become the ideal platforms for independent artists to release their new music. If you make music, it is important to find the right channels to publish it and share it with the world to collect the music royalties your work deserves.

Independent digital music distributors such as CD Baby and Tunecore will publish and license your music (copyright your songs), and offer musicians and rights-holders the opportunity to distribute, sell, or stream their music through digital retailers such as Spotify, Deezer, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Music, Tidal, and other platforms.

CD Baby is the largest online distributor of independent music in the world and has been described as an “anti-label” company since it is the most popular distributor among self-publishing artists, with more than 700,000 artists and 10M tracks made available via over hundred digital platforms and services around the world. Always get a consultation with an attorney for the laws regarding music licensing in the country where you intend to publish your music if you’re not sure about how to proceed. Our team of experts at MusicPromoToday is here to help you throughout the entire process.

2- Write a press release — create a unique story

Writing a press release is a key element to successfully launch your project. Clearly identifying what you are promoting by choosing a very specific promotion goal to build your press release around is key. Finding your unique story is important so it can be presented as a story worth telling. It is necessary to highlight why your story is unique and to find a hook to keep the audience reading until the end. In case the reader does not go through the complete press release, make sure to highlight the essential info in the first few lines.

After all, so many other musicians are competing for coverage and promoting their releases. Finding all the interesting things that set you apart from the storm of competition out there is key to catching the eye of the reader in your press release.

3- Pick a Premiere Blog — exclusivity or not? Pick the right target!

Why do a premiere?

The real power of the premieres is to build an online momentum and excitement for the release, even among people who might not have clicked to hear every single track released. It has an exponential effect, leading to radio play and good press quotes. At the end of the day, it’s all about hyping your release, making the media privileged to have your record first.

Posting on the right blogs

It is important to send your track or release to genre-appropriate blogs — where your targeted audience surfs. For instance, not to send your pop-rock track to an EDM or Hip-Hop focused blog.

4-Have a press kit ready. This might be very useful!

Your press kit should ideally include:

1. Your Discography
2. Bio
3. Press Clippings
4. Any awards, special recognitions you have received
5. Contact Information

The purpose of a press kit is to summarize to journalists and people in the industry who you are — what you have done in your career and briefly what they should know about you. In order to build professional relationships or meet executives, your press kit might come handy too. It’s always good to have it, it’s like your resume or artist card. The press Kit is the lure and the trap is for them to click on your website, social media gaining interest, and information about your work. When developing your Press Kit, the questions to answer are: what do you want the recipient to know, to understand and to feel about you, the artist? What is the connection between the journalist and the artist? How can that connection be strengthened through a press kit? Make sure your accomplishments, awards or successes are highlighted properly.

5- Target The Right Mediums: Radio, PR, News sites, Tv stations, digital influencers.

Targeting the right mediums is another key element in the music promotion and music pr of your new release. In today’s digital world, even the most innovative, original and exciting idea out there can die tragically if the wrong medium delivers to the wrong audience. Similar to the music industry, the best songs are not necessarily breaking or # 1 on the Billboard charts.

Choosing the right medium and digital influencers to work with is an art in itself and 3 main factors come as variables: the audience, the budget, and your core message.

The heaviest research takes place in looking for whom you are trying to reach; from Tik Tok to Instagram and previously on Vine — basically; from the first social platform your potential fans usually find you through a well fit ‘hashtag’. When running a social media influencer campaign, it is important to go with social/digital influencers that attract your targeted audience as well as share the type of content your music is about and engage the fans you ideally want to target.

The budget is to be taken into account in relation to the type of service you are buying. Compare a Tik Tok share price to an Instagram timeline share vs. an Instagram story share price. Sometimes — It is much more efficient to spread your budget over a few smaller influencer accounts rather than spending a one time large amount on a bigger influencer account. At other times — it’s best to go with 1 or 2 very famous influencers. Make sure to ask about the reach, impressions, profile visits and click counts of the last 5–10 posts of the influencer before paying anything.

In advertising; your message has to be short, captivating — the average attention span is very short on Tik Tok and Instagram as most users scroll through their feed very fast. Our marketing team at MusicPromoTodayrecommends that you make sure to target the appropriate media so that your content is exposed to the right audiences.

When running a PR campaign, make sure you earn your media coverage. Do not work with journalists that will take your dollars in exchange for an article. This is called Payola, also Pay for Play seen as the “dark side of PR” in the news. An artist can earn media free of charge when dealing with the proper journalist that likes the music or content. Earning media will allow you to build a long term relationship with the media person in question instead of being dependent on paying them every round. This will also allow you to work with people that actually enjoy, care and admire the work you do.

6- Follow up emails and contacts you reach out to

Let’s get to the point — following up on emails and contacts you reach out to brings solid results!

Since most people get a ton of emails every day, one of the only ways of reminding them that you exist is through follow-ups. These are all key elements in sustaining and growing a network of connections over time and expanding the base of contacts you can reach out to when needed. To start your relationships with media contacts — ‘follow-up emails’ are a must and the key to developing these relationships. With follow-ups, your average reply rates increase exponentially!

Wrap up

MusicPromoToday’s decade long experience has highlighted the importance of implementing a strategic plan for artists wishing to work with digital influencers, getting media attention and succeeding in the industry.

MusicPromoToday is here to help you create and improve your press, social media, and digital presence, as well as everything you need to make more noise around your music and propel your career to unprecedented heights.

NOTE: We’re launching an e-book in January 2020 on all of the above and much more. Stay tuned!

Posted on December 14, 2019

Billboard Announces Including YouTube Streams In Its Album Charts

By Shawn Spence

For over 125 years, Billboard was basing its impactful 200 album chart on numbers of CDs, vinyl LPs or tapes that were sold at stores. On December 13, Billboard announced that YouTube streams will be included in the chart, as well as video streams from other platforms such as Apple, Spotify, Tidal, and VEVE.

Billboard has been shifting from being purely sales-based to a “multi-metric consumption” model since 2013, when video streams have been incorporated into many song-specific charts. “It’s an important part of music consumption, and it’s time to recognize that,” said Deanna Brown, the president of the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, “Our decision to add YouTube and other video streaming data to our album charts reflects the continuing evolution of the music consumption market and the ways in which consumers connect to album-related content.”

However, the 200 album chart and its streams will be counted slightly different than other Billboard’s charts. While song-specific charts consider official videos, and user-generated content such as lyrics videos, karaoke, and dancing/choreography videos, the 200 album chart will be influenced only by “officially licensed video content uploaded by or on behalf of rights holders.”

Even if only official videos are counted, undoubtedly YouTube’s streams will be a gamechanger for artists that are featured in the charts. Since launched in 2005, YouTube has built a streaming empire with currently 1.9 billion logged-in monthly users in 91 countries.

According to Brandwatch, in 2018 95% of the most-watched videos were music videos which will heavily influence Billboard’s album chart. Just to mention that the video with the highest number of views is currently the music video for ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, and it has over 6.5 billion views (!).

Pitchfork says, “According to research, 55% of online music streamers use YouTube, while the rest of the platforms have 37% of the market.”

Shocking statistics like these above expose how far YouTube has come and what type of influence it exerts over what people listen to.

The big changes kick into effect next month with the charts dated Jan. 18, 2020, which will reflect sales and streams for Jan. 3-9.

Posted on December 13, 2019

4 Reasons Why December Is The Best Time To Release New Music

By John Reynolds

Timing is everything when it comes to picking a release date for any genre of music. Major labels kick off their promo campaigns as early as possible, so it is important to start banging about a project at least 6 weeks ahead if you want to stand out from the storm. 

To ultimately decide when to reveal the outcome of your hard work, you need to define your end goals. 

If you are aiming to catch influencer shoutouts, garner as many press or radio for your single or album as you can, then there is a lot of scheduling and timetable planning to prepare for. 

At MusicPromoToday, based on insights, data, and market analytics, we help artists find out the best time for them to drop their music. One of the most frequent questions we get is whether or not to release music between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and our answer is always: DEFINITELY YES! 

Below we pointed out 4 reasons why December is the best time to release new music. 

1- There are not many big releases 

For some reason, many labels decide not to drop any new music after December 15 and to stop all promotional efforts around the same time. Why? They defend their decision by explaining how busy everyone is and how the industry is overloaded by consumerism and Christmas vibes. It’s “the end of the year”. 

As much as music and Christmas-related industries are overlapping, they are still separate branches. When major labels step back to rest, it gives independent artists a lot more room to market their new releases and steal the whole spotlight! 
Canadian Music Blog prepared research of album releases in 2014 and 2015. The findings are shocking: less than 15 full-length albums were dropped in December, while a month before in November the number was six times higher. It means that the industry is sleeping during this time, so be bold and release your music in December, the competition is very low and that’s your time to shine!

2- Summer Festivals Pre-Game  

Most of the summer festivals are booked at least 6 months ahead. Scheduling usually starts in Autumn and ends in February, leaving plenty of time for artists to pitch to festivals and secure gigs. 

Kicking off the marketing campaign in September or October gives great chances that your release will be spotted by the festival's organizers and they will try to book your show. Also, if you put the effort in promoting your music throughout Autumn and Winter, and build a solid fanbase till January / February, your fans and booking agents spotting you will eventually start asking about your next move, release, and event. 

3- Christmas Fever 

In general, the winter holidays mark the most consumer spending at both the individual and national levels. Generally viewed as the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many major artists and labels should plan their own release dates during these weeks in order to fully take advantage of gift purchases to boost their own sales. 

HowMuch.net estimates that the average American spends over $1k during the Winter Holidays season. Moreover, sales in November and December are projected to even increase between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent in 2019, reaching between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion. There is a lot of money to spend! Why not promote your music before Christmas, and snatch a little bit for yourself? 

4- Traffic During Holiday Season 

It's often believed that people unplug on Christmas Day and it’s a poor time to run any online advertising. As much as everyone likes to brag about social media rehab and enjoying time with family, the data, however, shows quite the opposite and proves an increase in online activity. 

The only time that users turn off their socials for a bit is for a few hours on Christmas Eve. The rest of that holiday week marks higher-than-usuals online movement. Traffic peaks happen especially on Boxing Day increasing 15-20% higher than the previous week. That day, users start their internet usage very early in the morning and stay online till later at night.

What do people do online during the Christmas holidays? Sandive’s research shows that YouTube and Facebook are the most used apps, which leaves plenty of marketing opportunities: ads, sponsored content, boosts, and so on.

Wrap Up

If you decide to release your music video or single or EP around the Christmas season, remember to start hyping your promotion and publicity 10 to 15 days in advance so you can reap in the most benefits by the end of the month. 

If you need help in building a winning December release plan and don't know where to start, schedule a call with MusicPromoToday and let’s get the ball rolling. 

Posted on December 9, 2019

MusicPromoToday’s 10 Tips To Properly Run a Spotify Account

By Yvonne Martin

MusicPromoToday listed the 10 crucial advice to help artists who are struggling with their Spotify, and those who feel a bit confused about how to use it in the most efficient way possible. Those keypoints are easy to implement and can turn out to be extremely efficient:

• Don’t sit and wait for Spotify to discover your music. Instead of waiting a long time for Spotify to take your music into account, knowing that they might have their own agenda, and that your music might not fit in with their plans of the moment. So take control to create your opportunities and build your own community. It’s your duty as an artist to ensure people are finding and streaming your music. You can, and you should steadily build your monthly listeners' streams in order to catch the attention of Spotify and its powerful playlists.

• An easy step is to create a Spotify profile that shines bright. Make your page look amazing by using all the features offered by Spotify: add the best photos you have in the gallery section, don’t forget to link your socials, a fresh biography, cover, and your most eye-catching artist profile picture.
• Another useful tool is to use your “Artist Pick.” You can easily feature a playlist, a live show, or an album. It’s preferable not to feature singles, as the goal is to give listeners an opportunity to hear more of your music. Don’t forget, all features will disappear after 14 days, so you can experiment with what works, replace the features every 14 days while monitoring the number of followers you gained in those 14 days.
• You can create a “Full Discography Playlist” of all your music, and add all the tracks you have been featured or participated in. This way, users will have the opportunity to have all your music in one playlist.

• Create a playlist that features artists creating similar music that you like, and include your tracks within the track-list. Preferably, choose bigger artists (in popularity) in order to maximize your exposure. This way Spotify’s algorithm will slowly but surely make the link between your music and the other artists’ music you have featured on your playlist.
• Another important key point is to make your Spotify links accessible from your social profiles. Your goal is to sell your music, so the easier it is for potential listeners to access your Spotify (and other online platforms where your music is sold), the more you will have an impact on your music’s sales. Always put yourself in the shoes of your potential listeners or fans, and try to make your social media pages and profiles user-friendly with clear links to directly and instantly access your Spotify.
• Try to promote a small amount of playlist, ideally one or two. Promoting too many playlists can lead you to have your followers too much spread out. A playlist with an important following is more powerful than a few with little following. Remember, it’s all about trying to create a snowball effect, so always aim for a playlist with the highest number of followers possible.
• This one might be the most useful advice we have for you today. Be patient. Do not sleep at one time actions and never lose hope. Never stop promoting your main playlists over a long period of time, the viral effect can take place in weeks, months, or even a year. Lots of artists think that posting about a playlist once or twice will be enough to see a significant improvement. However, it is often over long term strategies for your project that major results start taking place. Always keep in mind that the work you are putting in today will bring its results over the long run/course of your career.
• The last tip is to create your own hype by creating a genre specific playlist that also caters to your potential fans. You can use your artist’s page to promote a major label playlist or artist track. They will be grateful too — make sure to have an important streaming flow on your own playlist when you do this so you can highly impress them with your reach.

Wrap up 🔑

Running a Spotify account like a pro can be difficult, but as long as artists stay consistent and use all the amazing tools the platform provides, it can really help anyone. Just follow the hints above and step up your Spotify game!

If you are looking for more tips on how to organically grow your Spotify account, check out the free ebook created by MusicPromoToday’s marketing pros entitled “5 Secret To Reach 25k Streams.”

Posted on November 27, 2019

What Impact Removing Instagram Following Activity Will Have On Music Marketing

By Barbara Drews

Instagram did what all stalkers all around the world feared — the feature of looking at what others like, comment, and follow, does not exist anymore. MusicPromoToday took a closer look at how the decision on ditching this feature can influence digital marketing and music promotion.

In the official announcement, the spokesperson of Instagram admits that the number of people who used Following Activity was low:

“We are removing it because only a small number of people use the Following tab regularly. Additionally, we’ve heard from people that they think the Following tab is a very hidden feature that they don’t find to be very useful, especially when compared to a similar feature like Explore.”

How does removing Following Activity influence marketing

Although liking forbidden photos and following ‘guilty-pleasure’ profiles will stay private, social media and digital marketing teams all around the world lost a free promotional tool.

Almost all beginning musicians, influencers, and artists loved Following Activity for an easy way to expose their feed and profiles.

If someone noticed that a friend liked eye-catching photos from a concert, followed a mysteriously looking band’s profile, or commented on a post that announced a new single or album, it was very likely that this person will visit or even follow the just-discovered musician. Then it’s a short way to click on the link in bio, open Spotify or YouTube, and become a fan.

How to get more exposure on Instagram without the Following Activity tab?

The following tab was a great way to reach a new audience and increase engagement, but fortunately, it wasn’t the only one.

Reaching fresh viewers and listeners may be more difficult, however, with unique and valuable content alongside a growth strategy, it’s possible and achievable.

If you need extra help on how to boost the number of your Instagram followers and increase your reach, check out the MusicPromoToday website, or follow us on Instagram, and connect with us — we’ll guide you through!

Posted on November 25, 2019

Search Engines & Why They Matter For Artist Or Band

By John Reynolds

If you are trying to build your artist brand, you probably heard about the term ‘SEO’, a mystical way to grow traffic, build an audience, and make yourself matter online. Although everyone talks about it, not everyone knows how it works. MusicPromoToday is here to not only tell you what stands behind this acronym but more importantly, we will explain to you how it can help musicians to break through the noise.

What Is SEO?

Let’s get to the basics: SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s the process of increasing the quality and quantity of a website’s traffic by increasing the visibility of a website to users in web search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

In simple words, SEO is an art of making users click on your content after googling something relevant. A good SEO strategy allows you to climb up the Google rankings and top the search results by using good content full of relevant keywords. Basically — appearing on top of page 1 of search results.

SEO For Artists & Bands

So how can SEO help musicians? Well, as every company or brand, you need it to take care of the searching experience of your fans. Whenever someone is googling you, SEO makes sure that content related to you and essential info and profiles (your Spotify, SoundCloud, Youtube) pop up first. Moreover, if you want fans of your genres to come across your music, you need to be present in Google results and be at the top of rankings.

Google decides what to put as the first result, but you can simply influence it by practicing accurate and solid SEO. How to do it? Here at MusicPromoToday, we get our musicians all over the internet and post as much information about them as possible. In music marketing, it’s essential to create profiles on all social platforms. When practicing music pr, we make sure you are getting press and interviews or getting featured in important blogs and magazines.

Wrap Up

Search engines are extremely important for music marketing and can help drive traffic to one’s career over time.

It takes a lot of strategic planning and constancy to practice good SEO, collect data and use it effectively in the music promotion. However, all the effort will pay off eventually — when you start showing up on top of the Google search results, and as an outcome; gain fans, sell music, merchandise or tickets to your shows.

If you are a musician and you are trying to make a buzz around your music but you don’t know where to start with SEO, contact us — MusicPromoToday provides artists with tailor made strategies to improve your search engine optimization, to catch the attention of potential fans, impactful bloggers and music journalists.

Posted on November 21, 2019

Snapchat & Spotify Integration — Music Marketing Opportunities For Artists

By Shawn Spence

MusicPromoToday’s team is constantly on the look for new + unique ways to promote artists + music — to help YOU make more buzz with your MUSIC!

Spotify and Snapchat recently launched a feature that can boost one’s career and step musicians reach all around the world.

Spotify, with 217 million monthly active users worldwide, and Snapchat with 190 million daily (!) active users are undoubtedly the most popular apps in the Apple Store. After Instagram launched a Spotify share for stories in 2018, Snapchat’s integration to Spotify was the next logical move.

Spotify And Snapchat Feature

The new Snapchat and Spotify integration allows you to easily share what you are listening to a particular song, full albums, and playlists. Once you share them in Snapchat Stories, you can still spice it up with stickers and a text.

When your Story is live, your audience can simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and start playing the tracks on Spotify! Of course, as long as the app is installed on their phones.

Our team at MusicPromoToday believes that this feature is another great opportunity for music digital marketing. Musicians gained another simple (and free) way to promote their music and reach a new audience, and as an outcome, boost the Spotify streams.

How artists can use Spotify and Snapchat’s new feature to promote their music?

The MusicPromoToday team has a few ideas on how the new feature can be used in music marketing and in promoting new releases.

Firstly, share your music in Snapchat Stories.

As simple as it sounds, as effective it is. To reach a bigger audience, promote your Snapchat profile on other social media platforms, eg. ask your Instagram and Facebook followers to add you on Snapchat.

Secondly, create a Snapchat group for your fans, and share your music or podcasts with them.

Spice your stories up with lyrics explanations, or by describing what inspires you. Name the group in a funny and catchy way, and mention your fans in your stories as much as possible. It’s essential to create an intimate and personal connection.

Thirdly, create playlists on Spotify, and snap them!

Reach out to other artists from your niche, let them know they are featured of your playlist and ask them to post it in their stories.

Last but not least, reach out to Snapchat influencers and ask them to share your single or album on their stories.

Influencers marketing is a huge opportunity to gain new listeners and make more buzz around your music! Create a list of effective and impactful influencers, and contact them with your inquiry.

If you are looking for more tips on how to boost your Spotify streams, make sure to download the ebook we are releasing this November!

We recently published a press released on how to use TikTok, read more on TikTok Music Marketing here.

Our founders, Anthony Katz and Raffi Keuhnelian recently spoke to Digital Music News about viral music marketing and recent music marketing trends.

Posted on November 29, 2015

Is MPT Agency Real? Yes.

By MusicPromoToday

MusicPromoToday has worked with the best in the music industry for 12+ years and has established partnerships with Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music.

MPT Agency started in 2010 by Anto Dotcom and Raffi Keuhnelian in Montreal, Canada.

Internationally present, MusicPromoToday, or MPT Agency for short, has triggered the viral rise to fame for some of today’s top independent musicians and labels. The agency works with more than 10 music categories, not limited to pop, electronic, hip hop, classical, jazz and more.

With a long history of building some of the music industry's most powerful campaigns, MPT Agency now holds a selective roster of artists and offers a wide range of promotional tactics to scale their careers to new heights. 

Known as one of the most trustworthy promotional agencies in the music industry, MusicPromoToday reaches hundreds of thousands of viewers a day. Through its digital platforms, blogs & articles, and relationships with the media: traditional press and influencers, they create, brand and coordinate content for new/ emerging and mainstream artists. MPT Agency has an active role in the distribution of music industry information at a global scale.

For artists at any level, MusicPromoToday’s catalogue of products and expertise gives a realistic development of musical careers by taking the artist step by step through the jungle of media outreach. 

They also offer specialised media projects that push viral engagement for short-term campaigns like releases, concerts, and even music NFT launches. 

From music PR, media and press campaigns to radio plugging and playlist/ influencer campaigns, MPT Agency always uses a mix of media outlets to optimise the exposure of your new music release and streamline your long-term objectives as a creator. 

Don’t take my word for it, just check out their 5-star reviews on Google!

Colin Brittain is a super-producer for many top rock bands including Papa Roach, American Teeth and many more.

MPT Agency and founders Anto Dotcom and Raffi Keuhnelian featured in the print issue of Billboard Magazine in 2016.

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