How Playlist Promotions work and Calculating The Results
By John Reynolds
You get a lot of insights from social platforms but how to calculate playlist promo and results is still tricky.
A performing, recording, or independent musician has a 5% chance to live solely off their music. This includes musicians who live with their family unit. Those who are a part of a large music label, and finally the ones who spend at least 30% of their working hours performing in venues, bars, and everything in between.
The stereotype of the starving artist has seldom changed over the last century. However, the hope digital outlets generate has given musicians of this generation a leg up on their senior counterparts.
CD sales and demo tapes dominated the revenue stream only 30 years ago. Today the individual track, the stream, the view, and finally the live show, are inescapable reaching one's fans and monetizing a career.
In light of this new form of digital dominion, the industry of playlist curators exploded and is the main gateway for artists to get their music out.
Riddled with bot accounts the market is difficult to navigate. Yet, there is hope if you find the right agency to rummage through the fraudulent accounts.
Playlist marketplaces are important to engage in Playlist Promotion
Playlist marketplaces are a jungle of questions for most artists. Will the streams count, will they lead to more, and is it really worth it? Usually composed of a shadowy SEO-jammed website with user-friendly buy buttons, playlist marketplaces are in the grey zone of the music promotions tool kit.
As buying views is pretty controversial on account of bot accounts and automation, the proper way of addressing playlist curators is the classic pitch, which an artist can do via submission portals or directly by finding the owner of the playlist in question.
Not always the simplest method, nor does it usually garner a lot of response, but if your music is fly, your pitch is clean and your timing on when you sent the message was properly throughout, you should expect at least a 15% positive response rate. Which is not bad, considering it's a question of numbers. The more playlists you are on, the more views or streams you get.
The Reality of Streaming Royalties
Despite streaming making up over 60% of all redistributed revenue in the music industry, the average artist will be making under 1000$ a year from streaming. In the case of Spotify, arguably the largest streaming platform in the world, a recent study by Forbes demonstrated that from their 7 billion dollars of royalty payouts, 28% of the artists received over 10 000$.
Now, that might seem like a lot, but consider that the 28% includes label artists, superstars, film scores, and legacy artists that have spent decades making a career. This essentially means that they are most likely equipped with a promotional or marketing team, that monitors, tracks, and adjusts their reach metrics to maintain a steady flow of listeners and onboard new fans.
How to Calculate Playlist Promo and Results
Calculating Playlist Promotion Campaigns
So, let’s do some calculations. At an average market payout of 0.006325 $ / stream, 159 000 streams would gross roughly 1000 USD, which means to reach that 10k revenue milestone an artist would need to generate close to 1,59 million views in the first year of their Spotify career.
With Spotify advertising starting at 250 USD per ad campaign, and pseudo-view marketplaces selling 10k views for an average of 50 USD, an artist would be able to hit 100k views with roughly 750 USD. Assuming that they would make an extra 30% viewership count due to the ad push, 130k views would have an average cost of 0.005769 $, at a margin of roughly 8% grossing 822.25 USD a profit of 72.25 USD. Following the numbers, the average value of your first batch of streams is 0.000556 $. That's right, dollars, not satoshi’s.
Streamlining your work and pushing with paid advertising is an option. But at an 8% margin, not counting the risk, the time, the constant monitoring, and the artists' scalable popularity, which needs to break through the industry's saturated market, it is not a good business case and does not offer a livable wage for anyone.
Creative Time
Firstly it is important to realize that your chances of reaching monetization amounts with a laissez-faire attitude on streaming platforms like Spotify are slim to none. All streaming platforms are marketing or promo dependent if you want to use them as a source of revenue, rather than just another profile. According to Spotify, 57 000 of its nearly 10 million creators represent over 90% of the streams, and therefore its royalty redistribution
Marketing Time
The rule of thumb for most professional artists is 50 / 50, 50% of the time you market and build your brand, and 50% of the time you make your art; fair enough. But this means your learning curve, the trial, and error of target markets, the engagement analysis, and of course the adaptation of your strategy can only be done during 50% of your waking & working hours.
If algorithms were that simple to adapt to, there wouldn't be a 50 billion $ market cap in music marketing technology. The reality of the situation is that without professional help or some type of technological literacy, you are basically shooting in the dark hoping to hit a fly on the nose. Reliant on fan 2 fan engagement, the artist without a team nor the digital know-how is setting themselves up for failure and is unfortunately caught in the blaze of hopium offered by most platforms.
Taking into account that a salary of 10 - 30k USD may be an upper or middle-class income for the developing world, but in all major North American and European cities, where the average rent is between 1000 - 1800 USD, an annual income under 30k means you are spending over 50% of your net on basic housing before taxes and food are even brought into the mix.
Needless to say, if this is your only income, you are stuck in a literal poverty cycle and will most likely be going through serious financial stress as life is far from being a predictable path.
To stream or not to stream why it matters when you calculate playlist promo?
For MPT Agency, all industries throughout history have demonstrated, you cannot challenge technological innovation. All artists should be present on all streaming platforms, be it only for the visibility or convenience factor for fans. The one they ultimately choose to use in their conversion funnel is dependent on the artists' budget, their time metrics, and of course, their understanding of the algorithmic ecosystem that governs the how's and why’s of visibility.
Paying for streams can be a part of larger campaigns the artist adopts in their path to success, but in no way, shape or form should it be the be-all and end-all of their exposure strategy.
Make sure you check our blog about influencers who can be a huge help to your playlist campaign. We regularly post key artist content so make sure to follow us on Instagram for more music marketing-related updates.
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Posted on September 8, 2022
The Ultimate Step By Step Guide To Streaming Platforms For Musicians
By Barbara Drews
How does one define the ultimate step-by-step guide to streaming?
Streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora, Tidal, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music are well-known for paying artists when their music is played. But most of us are unaware of the technicalities behind how those payments really operate, which can occasionally result in misunderstandings.
For the same amount of streams, not all artists will necessarily be paid equally.
Let's get started by analyzing the key concepts that govern how music artists get compensated through music streaming.
Let’s get right into it!
How To Choose The Best Streaming Platform?
You should choose the music streaming services that will provide you with the ideal listening experience. selecting one that offers you music in a method that enables you to have a special satisfaction.
We have tried to simplify the decision-making process when selecting the top music makers app online in our assessment of the finest streaming services for artists. Using these five standards, we came up with five streaming services for musicians:
Pricing and Subscription Plans
One facet of the business is that most streaming services for artists use a freemium business model. While the essential streaming functions are available without charge, a membership is required to access the premium plans subsequently.
You'll see that regardless of your choice, you can still take use of the essential elements that guarantee a fantastic streaming experience. When you subscribe to the premium plan, you'll appreciate the basic plan so much that you'll want more.
User Experience
Pricing is vital, but usability is as critical. Who wouldn't want to use a stylish, appealing app to listen to music or podcasts? We need to give users more consideration and importance than mere appearances.
You shouldn't have any trouble finding your way around despite the fact that it's a music library. Whatever music streaming service you use, it must provide library sorting options, a navigation bar, a search bar, etc.
Music Discovery
Your musical tastes should be expanded by the distinctiveness that streaming services for musicians provide.
Expert music curators are also engaged, even if the online music makers' app uses computer algorithms to customize this music to your tastes. In the end, a combination of human judgment and computer algorithms leads to the musical output you'll like.
Content Library And Variety
Nowadays, streaming services for musicians provide more than simply music. They are growing their selection of audiobooks, podcasts, live radio broadcasts, live streaming, ASMR, and other content.
Streaming applications are well worth the money you spend on a subscription when they provide this diversity. On the app, there's always something to keep you interested.
That's not even mentioning the expanding music repertoire on streaming services. The features available on these platforms are inconceivably endless.
Streaming Quality
This often depends on the subscription plan you are on. Free and premium plans differ from one another. Free plans might not go above 128 kbps, but expensive plans might go up to 320 kbps, and HD plans can give up to 9,216 kbps.
The audio quality improves with greater bitrates.
What Music Streaming Services Pay Artists
There are currently several streaming services that provide unrestricted access to a wide variety of musical genres. Even if the quality of these streaming services for artists varies, these are excellent times for fans of music since there is tremendous competition.
In order to provide all the aspiring artists out there who want to make money from their skills some much-needed clarity, today we're diving into the complex topic of revenue per stream.
One of the first players, Tidal actually ruled it like a king.
On Tidal, there is a growing collection of tracks and music videos that will keep you fascinated and entertained. There is a 30-day trial period available if you're not sure if Tidal can satisfy your music needs.
Depending on what you need, there are four different audio quality levels available, ranging from 96 to 9,214 kbps.
We may also conclude that Tidal has a simple, effective design that makes it easy for you to navigate the app.
With special music-finding tools, a huge content collection, and top-notch audio quality, Disctopia is targeted toward independent music and podcasts. There are roughly five plans: the Agency plan, Free, Basic, Creative, and Creative+.
Along with its expanding music collection, Disctopia is quickly establishing itself as a podcasters' haven.
Let's now discuss Disctopia's slick, lag-free, and vibrant user interface. Even while you'll adore the UI as it is now, there are constant upgrades being made to the bells and whistles.
The purpose of this content is to provide you with more alternatives when it comes to music streaming services. Twitch, a website that allows artists to stream live, is added to the discussion.
As an artist, Twitch enables you to stream live and directly to your audience. No other network lets you develop a personal relationship with your audience the way Twitch does. Your streams may be self-scheduled whenever it's convenient for you.
In essence, Twitch is a streaming platform that gives you the opportunity to develop into the artist you've always wanted to be.
How Much Do Music Streaming Platforms Pay per Stream?
There are thousands of music streaming services available, from industry heavyweights like Spotify to specialized offerings like Tidal. Because each platform has a different price structure, selling proposition, and user base, the amount of money artists make from each stream varies.
The amount of compensation that streaming services provide to the artists they feature will be covered in this section.
Apple Music
With over 72 million active users in 2020, Apple Music will trail only Spotify as the second-most popular music streaming service in the United States. The business has made it known that its typical compensation per stream is $0.01 in public.
The artists' pockets do not, however, instantly get that one cent. Like other significant streaming services, Apple Music uses a pro-rated approach that gives music companies a random 52% of the platform's ad income.
Deezer
By no means the most well-known music streaming service, Deezer boasts more than 14 million monthly users, with half of them paying members.
The business said that its "Pay who you play" user-centric payment system aims to properly compensate artists. As a result, if a subscriber pays and only listens to one artist each month, their whole membership price will be given to that artist (with a minor platform fee reduction).
However, depending on who you talk to, Deezer's per-stream compensation fluctuates greatly. T-Pain, for instance, previously stated that Deezer pays about $0.0064 for each stream, although other musicians might receive as little as $0.0011.
Once more, this is dependent on a variety of variables, including location & subscription.
Spotify
Spotify, the most popular music streaming service with over 200 million active users per month, has a rather negative reputation for paying out artists.
Artists can make as low as $0.0033 per stream, according to a 2020 Business Insider report, however, the firm has not yet disclosed specifics regarding its payment structure.
Furthermore, not even all of it gets to go to the artists. Only around 70% of the overall earnings get to the artist directly. The remaining 30% is absorbed by the platform itself.
Now that you’ve learned how much each streaming platform pays its artists, you should be able to pick one that’s in your favor!
At MPT Agency, we will help you get your music heard! We will assist you in building your fanbase via the best music streaming services and guide you in choosing one that is the most efficient for your campaign. To find out what other services can improve your musical career, make sure you check our blog regularly and follow us on Instagram for more music marketing-related updates.
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