Every artist not only wants to become famous with his music, but also to be able to live of it. However, the world of music business changed dramatically thanks to companies of music stores like Spotify that reform the way to consume music without relying on a certain number of copies sold around the world. The streaming music services
Be heard now is much easier because you can be on digital music stores thanks to services like Indiefy, however, develop a music career now is more competitiveness.
We have it clear; music is a business and as such has its rules and now with this new era of streaming this rules have been rewritten. That’s why when we ask ourselves “how much can I earn for my music?” The answer is more complicated than it seems.
Music stores like take account various elements to determine when it will pay, let’s see just one example: Spotify
Spotify pays per stream, however it has requirements to count as good a stream for example
- The plays of a song, are not cumulative by user
- The song must be heard completely
- The number of reproductions that are shown in the TOP songs of an artist are the result of the users who have listened to their music during a certain period (one month)
- These are just some examples of the requirements to count a reproduction within Spotify
You should also consider that the streams are not always worth the same, this will depend of other elements such as the region, country, type of account or if the user heard publicity during your session or not, all these elements can increase or decrease the cost of the stream
So what is the formula for living music?
Undoubtedly, if you take seriously your musical career you should work hard on it, Spotify and other streaming services have many opportunities to grow and one of them are playlists. in an earlier article we talked about that the more lists you have, the greater the impact that causes within the platform and the more opportunities to appear in the search algorithm or that you are considered in any of the official Spotify playlist. Curators are constantly looking for new artists and putting them on playlists.
Here are some tips that you can go practicing to make it a habit every time you take a new release.
Plan your releases: Choose carefully the next topic you are going to launch, ask yourself if it is the kind of music you would like to hear in your weekly spotify discovery. Once you choose it, now is the time to choose a date, not so close or so far away as the musical trends change from month to month.
Make noise: Prepare your fans before, during and after launching your new material, create expectation, take a moment to plan the post you will do on your social networks. You can even pay for one day advertising on facebook or instagram to reach more people, these platforms have many plans with low costs.
Always work on new songs: Do not waste your time fixing details of your music that most likely only you will notice, people want fresh things, not just live from the memory!
Apply to be in various playlists: Remember, the greater the number of playlists, the better chance to get the attention of a spotify curator and that you can be in an official playlist. For this there are several services that help this, in Indiefy you can also find this tool.
More stores: The greater the number of stores, the better the opportunity to obtain royalties. Remember, in the previous example we only talked about Spotify for being the most popular but there are many more streaming services that increase your chances of obtaining royalties.
Invest in your career: The business of music is not only talent or have potential, it is competing with other artists who want to be famous, so many things move with money, dedicate a bit of that money for your musical career.
Don’t be discouraged: This is the most important thing, if this is what you want, go for it. Search tools, tips, articles, EVERYTHING IS SERVED!
And finally.
Stay active in networks: Keep all possible communication in your social networks.
Remember that nobody has the real numbers of the stores since this is a black box on your part and that the sales reports may vary by the elements mentioned above.
