music marketing Archives | Right Chord Music Blog https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/tag/music-marketing/ A Music Blog For Incredible Independent Artists Mon, 27 Oct 2025 11:27:00 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.4 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/cropped-favicon-16x16-1-32x32.png music marketing Archives | Right Chord Music Blog https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/tag/music-marketing/ 32 32 Independent Artist? Free Promo & Music Industry Contacts https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/free-promo-independent-artist/ Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:54:13 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=188266 Are you an Independent Artist looking to break through the noise and get your music heard? New music service Beat ‘N Track have got a compelling opportunity for you and it won’t cost you a penny. Introducing Beat ‘N Track Imagine a platform that combines the connectivity of LinkedIn, the local discovery of Google Maps, and the […]

The post Independent Artist? Free Promo & Music Industry Contacts appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]>

Are you an Independent Artist looking to break through the noise and get your music heard? New music service Beat ‘N Track have got a compelling opportunity for you and it won’t cost you a penny.

Introducing Beat ‘N Track

Imagine a platform that combines the connectivity of LinkedIn, the local discovery of Google Maps, and the service marketplace of Fiverr all tailored for Independent Artists and music service providers. This is Beat ‘N Track.

Free Promo and Music Industry Contacts

Beat ‘N Track want to ensure every ad they run on social media features a real artist and real music. It’s refreshing not to see the same genric, stock music photos! 

They recently ran a paid ad featuring independent artist Anna Wolf, which reached over 16,000 views. Now, they are ready to spotlight their next featured musician, and it could be you.

How To Get Involved

To be considered, you have to be using the platform, so sign up here Beat ‘N Track and add yourself to the map.

You can choose to add either an Artist Pin (For released artists with music on Spotify) or a Service Pin for Musicians looking to network and find their next band or project. It’s free and takes under 5 minutes. The moment you add your Pin, the Beat ‘N Track team will listen to your music and consider you for inclusion in their next advertisement.

Free Music Industry Contacts 

What’s more, by adding your pin you automatically unlock full access to their Venues and Services map, where you’ll find contact details for key music services including Venues, Record Labels, Rehearsal Rooms, Producers, Radio Stations, Booking Agents and even other musicians looking to collaborate.

Why Beat ‘N Track Works

  • Free pins for venues, collaborators, and services
  • Free direct messaging for easy connections with other users
  • Save and share your favourite Pins – great for planning the venues for your next gig or tour
  • Connect directly with key players in the industry without gatekeepers

Discover more on Right Chord Music

The post Independent Artist? Free Promo & Music Industry Contacts appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Why Music Marketing Needs An Overhaul https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/music-marketing-21st-century-overhaul/ Mon, 28 Oct 2024 17:13:43 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=187618 Music marketing has changed. For too long, our image of music fandom has clung to the romanticised vision of ‘70s groupies or the “Band-Aids” of Almost Famous. But it’s time to face the music: the way fans consume has fundamentally changed, and today’s streaming-first culture demands a modern approach. Bryon Sharp – How Brands Grow […]

The post Why Music Marketing Needs An Overhaul appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Music marketing has changed. For too long, our image of music fandom has clung to the romanticised vision of ‘70s groupies or the “Band-Aids” of Almost Famous. But it’s time to face the music: the way fans consume has fundamentally changed, and today’s streaming-first culture demands a modern approach.

Bryon Sharp – How Brands Grow

The ideas of Byron Sharp—author of How Brands Grow—have transformed the marketing world since the book’s release in 2010. Sharp’s data-driven insights challenge long-held beliefs about brand growth and loyalty, and these ideas are equally applicable to the world of music, where today’s fans stream songs rather than pledge allegiance to artists. In this piece, Right Chord Music’s Mark Knight explores how Sharp’s lessons for brand growth may be the wake-up call music marketers need to embrace in a post-ownership, streaming-dominated landscape.

From Artists to Songs: The Changing Face of Music Consumption

In recent decades, music consumption has shifted from physical ownership to digital access. The rise of streaming services has not only changed the medium but also our connection to music itself. No longer are fans queuing outside record stores or pouring over sleeve notes for insights into the artists’ creative process. Today’s fans carry a world of music in their pockets, streaming songs on demand and, all too often, without necessarily knowing (or caring) about the artist behind them.

Spotify data tells us that people now listen to 30 to 100 times more individual tracks than artists each year. While this exponential access means that more artists can reach listeners, it’s becoming harder to cultivate the dedicated, repeat listeners of old. Music lovers are sampling an ever-wider array of songs and artists, leaving fandom spread thin.

If you’ve ever been surprised by your Spotify Wrapped playlist, the reason may be simple: the difference between your top five and top 100 songs could be as little as a handful of extra plays. Byron Sharp’s research draws a stark conclusion:

  • Brands grow by reaching more buyers, not by fostering loyalty.
  • Market penetration, not loyalty, is the secret to sustainable growth.
  • Loyalty programs rarely yield significant growth.

In music, we’ve long believed that success depends on building and nurturing a fanbase, creating loyal fans who will stick with us for the journey. But is it time to shift that thinking? In the age of Spotify, should our focus be on winning the next listener instead?

Sharp’s findings indicate that the benefits of customer acquisition often far outweigh the returns on building loyalty. It’s simply easier to persuade someone new to buy once than to secure a repeat purchase. Coca-Cola illustrates this well: while the average Coke consumer is thought to buy 12 times per year, in reality, most buyers purchase only once or twice annually. The average is skewed by a few heavy users. For Coca-Cola, a “heavy” buyer is anyone who purchases three or more times a year—an incredibly low threshold by brand standards.

What if we apply this to music? Think of Taylor Swift as the Coca-Cola of pop. Her fan base may include dedicated “Swifties” who stream her music non-stop, but her true success lies in her reach: a staggering number of casual listeners who might play a song or two but are unlikely to binge on her back catalogue. For Swift, those additional plays from light listeners add up to a mammoth reach, even if superfans drive the headlines.

Sharp’s principle of ‘Buyer Moderation’ suggests that consumer behaviour, even in its extremes, tends to moderate over time. In other words, this year’s superfan may not be next year’s, and music marketers would do well to bear this in mind.

Music Marketing for the Modern Age: Three Principles

  1. Don’t Over-Index on Superfans
    While superfans may be a vocal and engaged minority, they aren’t always dependable. Spending disproportionate time or resources on them can limit your ability to capture a broader audience. Their engagement is likely to moderate over time.
  2. Focus on Acquisition and Reach
    Artists should aim to connect with a wide and diverse range of listeners, including light listeners and potential new fans, instead of relying on heavy users alone. As today’s superfans inevitably drift, a robust acquisition strategy ensures that fresh listeners replace them.
  3. Leverage Incremental Reach
    Even a single additional stream or playlist inclusion can increase an artist’s visibility. Embrace opportunities to gain a light listener here or there. Over time, it’s this incremental reach that will propel artist growth.

In an era where fans are more likely to add a song to a playlist than join a fan club, it’s time for the music industry to tune into Sharp’s lessons. If music marketers want to grow in the streaming age, they’ll need to shift the focus from loyalty to reach—because the next listener is just one click away.

Discover more on Right Chord Music

Words Mark Knight

The post Why Music Marketing Needs An Overhaul appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> The Musician’s Census: “It’s Becoming Harder To Be An Independent Artist.” https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/the-musicians-census-2024-findings/ Wed, 02 Oct 2024 11:14:27 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=187514 Right Chord Music, joined Musosoup, the leading platform for independent musician promotion to conduct the Musician’s Census. The online study was completed by 300 independent artists across 64 countries in one of the most comprehensive studies of grassroots musicians and their challenges. The Musician’s Census – Key Findings These challenges are immediately put into sharp […]

The post The Musician’s Census: “It’s Becoming Harder To Be An Independent Artist.” appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Right Chord Music, joined Musosoup, the leading platform for independent musician promotion to conduct the Musician’s Census. The online study was completed by 300 independent artists across 64 countries in one of the most comprehensive studies of grassroots musicians and their challenges.

The Musician’s Census – Key Findings

These challenges are immediately put into sharp focus with 40% of respondents admitting, “I honestly don’t know if I get paid the money I’m owed.” A further 22% report “I definitely don’t get paid what I’m owed.” It’s hard to imagine many other categories of work where fair payment is such a challenge. 

The Musician's Census 2024 - Payment challenges facing independent artists.

Beyond payment ‘Getting music heard’ remains the most significant challenge for most respondents (54%). Meanwhile over two-thirds (68%) of respondents believe it’s becoming harder to be an independent musician. When asked why three major themes emerge:

  1. Oversaturation of the market: The sheer volume of new music being released daily makes it difficult to get noticed.
  2. AI-generated music: The rise of AI-generated music is contributing to the difficulty for independent artists. The presence of low-quality acts or AI-generated content is diluting the music landscape.
  3. Challenges in building a fanbase: The continued difficulty of gaining a loyal following and leveraging social media effectively.

The research highlights the lengths independent artists go to, to promote their music. It’s a time-consuming,  multi-channel process. On average artists report using five different social media platforms. Instagram dominates as the primary promotional channel. 

In addition to social media, artists typically use five more services.  A music distribution service was the most frequently mentioned, followed by a Link Page provider and a Press/promotion service. DistroKid was the most recognised distribution service, but also the most polarising, reported as the most liked and disliked service.

In return for completing the survey, artists were entered into a competition to win Free promotion across Musosoup, Right Chord Music and Major Labl Artist Club. Congratulations to US dream-pop band Waltzerr who scooped the prize. Discover them on our Explorer, new music playlist.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qblqyxOnHL52Niztsn0cQ?si=f9a98c76e8d54cb4

Read the Musician’s Census

  • Read the full report here.
  • Download the full report here.

Listen to the Podcast of the report

https://youtu.be/OjBj1Mtqo4c
The Musician’s Census Audio Podcast.

Discover more on Right Chord Music

Words Mark Knight

The post The Musician’s Census: “It’s Becoming Harder To Be An Independent Artist.” appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> 3 Ways to Improve Spotify Wrapped For Independent Artists https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/3-ways-to-improve-spotify-wrapped-for-independent-musicians/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:01:38 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=186090 Spotify Wrapped is a brilliant piece of marketing. It’s brilliant for Spotify, it’s brilliant for the featured artists and it’s brilliant for music. But here are three ways it could be improved for independent artists. Good for Spotify Spotify Wrapped is a genius piece of earned marketing. Every year artists and fans voluntarily share the […]

The post 3 Ways to Improve Spotify Wrapped For Independent Artists appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Spotify Wrapped is a brilliant piece of marketing. It’s brilliant for Spotify, it’s brilliant for the featured artists and it’s brilliant for music. But here are three ways it could be improved for independent artists.

Good for Spotify

Spotify Wrapped is a genius piece of earned marketing. Every year artists and fans voluntarily share the Spotify name and content across their social media profiles. For any non-Spotify users, the FOMO (fear of missing out) is off the charts. While for any existing Spotify users, it’s a reminder to listen again.

Good for featured artists

The biggest challenge facing independent artists is being heard. If you are included on a fan’s Spotify Wrapped you are getting free, third-party endorsement and promotion. It’s essentially saying, your music is good and you should listen.

Good for music

Can you think of another day when music is so front and central in your newsfeed? And it’s not just about a couple of artists like The Brits or The Grammy’s when Spotify Wrapped is released thousands or even millions of artists get to share their name and be shared.  

Here are three ways Spotify Wrapped could be improved for independent artists:

1. Call out your most listened-to independent artists

Did you know that ¼ of all Spotify streams in 2022 came from independent artists? Wouldn’t it be great if Spotify created a specific card in their Story Reel specifically calling out your most listened-to independent artist? Imagine the sense of pride to be name-checked alongside a major-label star.

2. Allow fans to tip independent artists

Spotify currently allows fans to thank their most listened-to artists. The mechanic for thanking an artist is to share this achievement on your social media platforms. But, wouldn’t it be great if you could go one step further and leave a tip or financial reward to show your love, a simple Paypal or Apple / Android Pay donation could be massively beneficial. Even a small £1 or £5 donation would go a long way to boosting the notoriously low streaming royalties payouts.

Allow independent artists to thank their listeners

It wasn’t that long ago that Taylor Swift removed her music catalogue from Spotify, now she is the platform’s poster child with 26.1bn streams on Spotify in 2023 alone. Any fan that had Taylor Swift included in their Wrapped this year would have received a video thank you from Taylor herself. Why should this feature be limited to Taylor Swift? Wouldn’t it be great if every artist had the chance to upload a 10-second thank you video, that would be shared with any fans who featured them in their Spotify Wrapped? After all, fan loyalty is built on personal engagement, not faceless Streams. 

Discover Right Chord Music’s most listened-to independent artist

Do you have further ideas?

Do you have other suggestions about how Spotify Wrapped could be improved for independent artists? If so drop us a note on X (Twitter) or Instagram you can find us @Rightchordmusic

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

The post 3 Ways to Improve Spotify Wrapped For Independent Artists appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> 2 Ways Indie Musicians Can Improve Engagement On TikTok https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/improve-engagement-on-tiktok/ Thu, 26 Oct 2023 14:00:39 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=185885 The biggest mistake made by independent musicians on TikTok is to assume that anyone cares about their music. In this article, we’ll show you two simple ways to improve TikTok viewability and engagement. Winning on TikTok starts with entertainment Let’s be clear TikTok is less of a social network and more an entertainment platform, its […]

The post 2 Ways Indie Musicians Can Improve Engagement On TikTok appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> The biggest mistake made by independent musicians on TikTok is to assume that anyone cares about their music. In this article, we’ll show you two simple ways to improve TikTok viewability and engagement.

Winning on TikTok starts with entertainment

Let’s be clear TikTok is less of a social network and more an entertainment platform, its closest competitors are Netflix and Disney Plus, not Facebook or Instagram. When you create a profile on TikTok it’s best to think of yourself as a TV channel or presenter. What kind of shows are you going to make?

Recent research by Major Labl identified successful content on TikTok falls under 11 different archetypes. Sadly there isn’t one called ‘Musician’. However, there is one called ‘The Entertainer’. This means everything you post must be entertaining! If all you do, is implore people to listen to your new single, you will fail.

The musicians winning on TikTok realise their music is unlikely to be the headline. It’s the soundtrack or the glue that helps the content hold together. Evoking emotion is always going to be more powerful, than rational or functional sales messages pushing your new release.

Here are two simple ways to improve TikTok engagement rates and viewability.

The Hook

The first words you say, and the first words that appear on your captions can be the difference between a view and a new follower and a swipe. So next time you post, try to incorporate a hook at the start to drive improved engagement.

  1. “Watch till the end!”
  2. “I need your help…”
  3. “I’ve got a secret”
  4. “This one is for ___”
  5. “Quick Reminder!”
  6. “ Did you know that…”
  7. “Hear me out…”
  8. “Stop scrolling!”
  9. I can’t believe what I just discovered!
  10. ___ type of people stop scrolling!
  11. Everything you knew about ___ is 100% WRONG! (+ a good example)
  12. Stop scrolling if you want to do ___
  13. Come with me to do ___
  14. Do you have problems with ___? Well, I just found the perfect solution!
  15. This is a reminder to do ___
  16. Follow this step-by-step process to successfully ___
  17. This is the story of ___
  18. Don’t make this mistake when doing ___
  19. Why does no one talk about this?
  20. You need to stop doing this!
  21. If you want to do ___, you need to do this!
  22. Red flags to look for in ___
  23. 5 mistakes you are probably making when you ___
  24. This free ___ is a game-changer!
  25. Here are 3 signs that you should ___
  26. I tried every ___ so you don’t have to!
  27. The BEST ___ I’ve ever used!
  28. Is it just me, or ___
  29. Stop everything you are doing___
  30. Can you believe____

The Thumbnail

YouTubers have spent years perfecting the video thumbnail and you should too. Take a moment to look back at your feed and ask yourself which video thumbnails most entice you to watch. Best practice elements include:

  1.  Your face in focus
  2.  Something intriguing or different
  3.  Words/title on screen

Look at a sample of images from Connor Price, an independent musician who is setting the benchmarks for success on social media.

Connor Price. 2 ways independent musicians can win on TikTok

If you combine entertaining content with great music a hook and a strong video thumbnail your content viewability will increase. So get posting!

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

 

 

The post 2 Ways Indie Musicians Can Improve Engagement On TikTok appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Try Drop Rocket For FREE And Plan To Release Music Better https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/drop-rocket-free-trial/ Thu, 03 Aug 2023 08:03:08 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=185463 We’ve teamed with Drop Rocket to offer Right Chord Music readers a 6-week FREE trial. Introducing Drop Rocket Drop Rocket is an online project management tool for musicians. Their mission is simple: To help you to release music better. Founder Elina Felice is a musician and understands how complicated releasing music can be. Elina also […]

The post Try Drop Rocket For FREE And Plan To Release Music Better appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> We’ve teamed with Drop Rocket to offer Right Chord Music readers a 6-week FREE trial.

Introducing Drop Rocket

Drop Rocket is an online project management tool for musicians. Their mission is simple: To help you to release music better.

Founder Elina Felice is a musician and understands how complicated releasing music can be. Elina also knows you only get one chance to get it right. Drop Rocket aims to solve this problem. What began as a simple release checklist, has quickly evolved into an intuitive, online, project management tool and task manager. Now you can add tasks, assign tasks to band-mates and track your progress.

Users can choose between Drop Rocket’s existing templates and battle-tested strategies, or create their customised project management flows. Using this simple online tool musicians have everything they need to release tracks with ease and optimise for success.

Drop Rocket & Right Chord Music

Right Chord Music has been championing incredible unsigned and independent musicians since 2010. We’re delighted to join forces with Drop Rocket to provide our readers with an exclusive offer. Sign up for Drop Rocket today using the promo code RIGHTCHORD and get a 6-week FREE trial of Drop Rocket. We recommend you test it out on your next single, EP or album release.

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

The post Try Drop Rocket For FREE And Plan To Release Music Better appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> The A-Z Music Glossary For Independent Musicians https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/music-glossary-for-independent-musicians/ Mon, 12 Jun 2023 06:58:17 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=185096 We have created the ultimate A-Z music glossary to help unsigned and independent artists navigate the music industry. A&R A&R stands for Artists and Repertoire; it’s the department at a record label or music publisher responsible for discovering new talent and signing them to the company. A&R also works to guide the artist’s career once […]

The post The A-Z Music Glossary For Independent Musicians appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> We have created the ultimate A-Z music glossary to help unsigned and independent artists navigate the music industry.

A&R

A&R stands for Artists and Repertoire; it’s the department at a record label or music publisher responsible for discovering new talent and signing them to the company. A&R also works to guide the artist’s career once they’re signed.

Aggregators

A digital aggregator (or digital distributor) is a company that helps to distribute your music to streaming platforms like YouTube and YouTube Music.

AAC

AAC is a music file format. It’s Apple’s alternative to MP3 and stands for ‘Advanced Audio Coding’, Used for Apple Music streaming.

AIM

AIM is the not-for-profit trade body exclusively representing the UK’s independent music sector, which makes up around a quarter of the recorded music market.

A-B Testing

Also known as split testing, refers to an experimentation process where two or more versions of a variable eg ad creative or audience are run at the same time to determine which version performs best.

Acquisition

Research shows the best way for a brand or band to grow is by focusing on acquisition over retention. It’s easier to get new people to listen once than existing listeners to listen twice. So while you shouldn’t ignore retaining fans, your focus should be on broad-reaching acquisition.

Blanket License

A blanket agreement is a standard music rights licence which the BBC and other broadcasters have in place which allows them to use any song from their music catalogues, in exchange for an annual fee. They are less time-consuming than acquiring the licence for every song they wish to use individually.

Blogs

A blog is a regularly updated website or web page. The primary value of a music blog is credible, third-party endorsement. A good blog like this one, should show up in Google when people search for your band or artist name. 

Blog Aggregator

Blog aggregators allow musicians to submit their music once in exchange for the opportunity to pick up support from multiple blogs or music promoters. See our very own Right Chord Music’s Indie Collective, Musosoup or Submit Hub.

The RCM Indie Collective gets more new music heard
The RCM Indie Collective gets more new music heard

BPM

BPM stands for beats per minute. The BPM of a piece of music is also called the tempo. A piece of music’s tempo can vary from extremely slow (20 bpm) to very fast (200+ bpm).

Big Three

The music industry’s three biggest record labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.

Breakables

When you play a gig drummers might share the bones of a kit, but they’ll rarely share the whole kit. Breakables are the pricey parts of a drum kit including the snare, cymbals, and kick pedal, for example, that each drummer brings themselves.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal right by which creators claim ownership of their original material. There is no official method to copyright work in the UK. You can mail (post or email) or save a copy of the work in any way that will help to establish when it was created with a time stamp. As the owner you have the sole authority to: copy the music, issue, lend or rent copies to the public perform, show or play the music in public or communicate the music to the public (i.e. broadcasting it via TV, radio, internet etc.)

Consistency

Brand consistency is making sure that your image, style and messaging is consistent across all channels. This makes it easier for fans, blogs and music industry people to confidently know they have found the right artist when they search.

Cover Versions

A cover song appeals to our minds on a basic psychological level. “Our brains like both the familiar and the novel.” (Jason King) Cover versions provide a proven strategy to help artists grow their fanbase by leveraging the existing equity of a well-known and loved song.

Conversion Ads

A conversion occurs when an ad click leads directly to a behaviour that’s valuable to you, such as a stream, purchase or mailing list sign-up. You can set them up on the Meta Ad Manager to track conversions on a landing page set up to promote your latest release. Read more.

Custom Audience

A Custom Audience is an ad targeting option in Meta that lets you find and retarget audiences that have previously engaged with your content. You can build custom audiences from sources including Video viewers, Page followers, website visitors, or advert interactions.

DSP

Stands for Digital Service Provider a DSP is a streaming platform like Spotify or an online service that distributes digital audio to consumers.

Disney

Musicians can learn a lot from Disney. Disney understands that a good story is always a good story. They also understand that once they have a good story, they have endless new audiences for that story. Disney ensures each new generation is exposed to the story in the latest consumption format. How can you be more like Disney? Read more

Door Deal Split

A door-split deal is a financial arrangement between a venue and the performer, in which the musician doesn’t get paid a fixed fee to perform, but receives a percentage of the profit generated from ticket sales.

Demo

A demo is a basic recording designed to showcase the quality and style of a musician’s work. Demos are often sent to A&R representatives, booking agents or management companies who might be interested in working with the artist.

Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos removes the limits of creative expression for artists to create a spatial sound experience that puts you in the centre of your entertainment.

EPK

Short for “electronic press kit,” an EPK is a digital promotional package of assets that an artist can send to journalists, radio DJs, record labels, and booking agents. The EPK should provide a summary of the artist’s career and latest work. The assets typically include a biography, promotional images, current singles and videos, social media links, and highlights of the artist’s streaming, sales, and radio statistics. If you want one designed get in touch!

Eyes Before Ears

When creating social content remember that on most social platforms (excluding TikTok) content is consumed with the sound off as the default. That means you have to engage the eyes in order to engage the ears. If your content looks boring, nobody will click to listen.

Engagement

Engagement can take many forms, but not all engagement is the same, so always think of it as a spectrum and focus on driving the highest forms of engagement EG Buying, listening, and joining the mailing list rather than the lowest: A like or 5-second view. Read more

Fit For Format

When creating social media content ensure it is correctly formatted to fit the full screen, it’s way more impactful. Avoid widescreen YouTube videos in vertical Stories or Reels.

Fans

They are more than listeners. Fans listen to everything, they buy your merch, join your mailing list, come to your shows and tell their friends about you. Take time to get to know them and do everything you can to get more fans at every turn.

Fake It To Make It

‘Fake it to make it’ means to consciously cultivate an attitude, feeling, or perception of competence or success that you don’t currently have by pretending you do until it becomes true. If you look and sound professional, people will believe you are. Read more

FLAC

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files are another example of lossless audio, but there’s limited support for them. You can play an MP3, AAC, or WAV file on almost any device, but not FLACs.

Fake Followers

Avoid the temptation to boost your social media follower base by buying followers. It’s counter-intuitive, fake followers or bots won’t engage, and it prevents you from creating meaningful lookalike audiences as the base audience is fake.

Genre

Genres are a simple, if somewhat lazy way to categorise your music. In reality, most people choose music to soundtrack a mood or moment. For example, you might never choose to listen to Country music, but you might enjoy love songs which happen to be Country in style. Consider this when writing your next press release.

Growth

How do you know if you are growing if you don’t track growth? Record benchmarks before the release of every single to understand the impact on Followers, Engagement, Listeners and Fans. Set targets and understand what success looks like.

Help Musicians

Help Musicians is a charity for professional musicians of all genres, both in work and in retirement. They help at times of crisis, but also at times of opportunity, giving people the support they need at the crucial stages that could make or break their career. They love music and want a world where musicians thrive.

Hashtag

A hashtag refers to the hashtag symbol (#) used before a relevant keyword. Hashtags provide a way to link your content to a wider conversation or theme. 99% of the value of hashtags comes from linking to an existing conversation. Creating your own hashtag is only effective if a large number of other people use it.

Hi-Hat

In a drum kit, a Hi-Hat is the double cymbal on a stand, usually positioned next to the snare, which can be played with a foot pedal and/or by the top cymbal being hit with a stick.

Income

A recent study of independent artists conducted by Major Labl, discovered only 18% of musicians are confident they get paid what’s owed to them. To solve this issue, they are launching a new service. You can be the first to try it by registering here.

Income Per Stream

Spotify pays artists between $0.003 – $0.005 per stream on average. That works out as an approx revenue split of 70/30. 70% to the artist/rights holders and 30% to Spotify. If you want to calculate your approximate income from Spotify streams make use of our free calculator Right Chord Music.

ISRC

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a string of 12 unique alphanumeric characters that is used to identify any sound recording or music video. ISRCs are like ISBNs for books. ISRCs make recordings automatically identifiable, which helps ensure that royalties are properly distributed.

Jack Your Body

Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley hit the UK number one in 1987 with the track ‘Jack Your Body’ and helped launch dance music in the UK. It arrived with no promotion, a video cut from black-and-white films and barely any lyrics. 1987’s dance hits also included Pump UpThe Volume by M/A/R/S Frankie Knuckles’s Your Love and Coldcut’s Say Kids What Time is It.

Jokes

Q: What do call a guitar player without a girlfriend? A: Homeless.

Q: What do you call a drummer in a three-piece suit? A: The defendant.

Key Man Clause

A clause within a contract that names an individual, where the contract depends upon the named individual remaining in their role. For example, you can’t imagine Radiohead without Thom Yorke.

KPI

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. At the start of every year or before a new release, you should set some to help determine whether your objectives have been reached. KPIs could include monthly listeners, follower growth, press coverage, or the number of headline shows you perform this year.

Latency

The time delay experienced between a sound or control signal being generated and it being auditioned or taking effect, measured in seconds.

Load In / Load Out

When you play live the Load in time is when you need to get your instruments and gear from the van into the venue and on stage. Load-out is the exact opposite.

Layering

Layering is a production technique which refers to the blending of similar, multiple musical parts or vocals at once, often combined on one channel or assigned to one controller. The aim is to create a fuller, richer sound than the vocal/instrument by itself.

Music Marketing

If music promotion is the output, music marketing is the input, it’s the thought and plan behind the action. The what, the why and the where. Music marketing considers the bigger picture and the best solution rather than racing to the quickest or cheapest solution. Music marketing is about building a plan for success not just expecting it. Read more

Metadata

Metadata is the data about your audio files, which is embedded in them. It includes, among other things, artist name, song title, album title, year of release, songwriter credits, and genre. Without accurate and complete metadata, your files aren’t searchable, won’t display correctly, and royalty distribution can’t happen.

Manager

The ‘Manager’ is the business manager for a band. Their responsibilities vary greatly from one manager to the next. Typically, band managers are paid in the region of 15%–25% of total earnings. It’s hard to attract a manager as an independent artist because 15% of nothing doesn’t pay the bills! Major Labl offers a pay-as-you-go solution for independent artists who need help and support. Discover more.

Meaningful Difference

Research from the brand marketing world conducted by Kantar highlights the importance of 1) meaningful and 2) difference. If you can build a business that combines these two behaviours it’s proven that you grow at a faster rate. Think AirB&B. Consider how as a musician you can stand out by being both meaningful and different.

Marquee

Spotify Marquee is Spotify’s own in-platform advertising and recommendation service. It enables musicians to activate their fanbase by recommending new releases to their current and previous listeners. To use the platform musicians need to have a minimum of 5,000 streams in the last 28 days and have more than 1,000 followers, so sadly it’s not for everyone.

NFT

NFT is a (Non-fungible Token) Ok think of this analogy… As a kid I collected football stickers, imagine if they only printed one Lionel Messi sticker and you owned it, had proof you owned it and there was no way you could lose it. That’s basically the principle behind an NFT. An NFT could also be a unique piece of art, music, video, invite to an exclusive event or even an item of clothing. Discover more

Harry Heart sold the tracks from his latest album Cambistry as NTS before releasing it on Spotify.

Organic

Organic reach is the number of people who have seen your social media post through unpaid distribution. We recommend you always start by posting content organically to test which content resonates the most with your audience. Paid promotion can be used to boost content that is proven to engage. Discover more

One Sheet

One Sheets are used by Record Labels, Distributors, and Independent Artists as PR summaries to sell a new release. As their name suggests they should be one page long. They normally include: Short Bio, Press Photos, Upcoming Release Details, Tour/Shows and key selling points or achievements.

PRS for Music

PRS for Music pay royalties to their members when their music is: broadcast on TV or radio, performed or played in public, whether live or through a recording or streamed or downloaded. The MCPS have an agreement with the PRS, they pay royalties to their members when their music is: copied as physical products, such as CDs and DVDs, streamed or downloaded or used in TV, film or radio.

Playlist

There are three major types of playlists on Spotify: Spotify editorial playlists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, and listener playlists. The key algorithmic playlists are: are Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Daily Mix, Repeat or Rewind and Radio. You can increase your chances of Spotify playlist support by pitching new music to them, increasing streams, followers and saves.

Push Marketing

Push marketing is as the name sounds about pushing content at their audience and hoping some of it sticks. EG. ‘We have something to tell you and you will listen’. The problem is 90% of the content on social media has become about passive push, and consequently, 99% of it becomes bland wallpaper that is ignored or skipped. Your challenge is to create content that pulls people in Read more.

Pre-Save

The pre-save was designed as a way to increase engagement with music ahead of release. However, for independent artists, it rarely works as the fan base is too small to drive any pre-saves beyond the core fans that were going to listen anyway. It’s often more effective just to ask people to listen and save on release day. Read more.

Pay to Play

Never pay to play. If a promoter asks you to pay your way onto a live bill in return for exposure don’t do it. It rarely if ever pays back, know your worth and ensure you always get paid for your art and your time!

PR

Public Relations can be a key part of the music marketing effort. But for independent artists, it’s rarely worth the outlay. Remember anyone can set themselves up a PR, sending emails to a mailing list is not PR. A review published on a blog that can’t be found on Google isn’t helpful. Build your own relationships with blogs and do it yourself. Read more.

Queen

Did you know… Brian May’s father actually made his guitar for him by hand. Affectionately known as “Red Special”, May even helped work on the guitar himself. The wood used to make it was over 200 years old. They took the wood from an antique mantle.

Radio Pluggers

Daytime radio playlists are controlled by major record labels. Your best bet is a one-off spot play. Don’t waste your money on radio pluggers. Start with free plays via BBC Introducing and Amazing Radio, build relationships with local radio, student radio and Podcasters and build buzz until the radio stations have to come to you. Read more.

Royalties

Whenever someone uses your intellectual property, they have to pay for the right to do so and those payments are usually in the form of royalties. Make sure you are registered with your local PRO to ensure you are receiving the royalties owed to you. See PRS for Music.

Rider

​​A rider is a part of your contract that stipulates what extras the promoter must provide. This is most often in the form of food and drinks in the green room before and after a live show. Remember: the rider comes out of your money at the end of the day.

Release

The biggest mistake made by independent artists is to spend months writing and recording their music and then releasing it, announcing the release with one social media post and expecting everyone to flock to listen. Major Labl have produced a free webinar to help musicians plan to release music more effectively. Watch it here

Save Rate

Don’t be obsessed with Spotify streams. Your save rate (total track saves divided by total track listeners x 100) is a great proxy for engagement and shows which of your tracks fans love and want to hear again. Use this data to decide which track to release or promote. We typically see much higher save rates for tracks promoted with Meta advertising than using playlist promo. Anything above 10% is good, anything above 20% is exceptional.

Story Telling

Remember there is no story in unknown band releases an unknown song’. Increase your chances of press support and attention by creating an engaging story around your release. Read more 

Stage Plot

A stage plot is a visual representation of what your set-up looks like. It indicates where amps, drums, keys, microphones, DIs, and anything else you’ve got in your arsenal goes. It’s usually just a simple drawing of where things go on stage, most often a digital image file, and is provided to the venue’s stage manager so they know how to prepare for your set.

Splits

Recent research by Major Labl shows only 18% of independent musicians are confident they get paid what’s owed to them. This depressing statistic is caused by manual processes. After all, if you are relying on your drummer to remember your splits and collect and distribute your money, you might be waiting a long time! Major Labl are building a new service with automatic splits, so you always get paid. Sign up to be the first to try it.

Sync License

Music sync or publishing placement is when your music is used in TV adverts, programmes, films, videos and games it can be a valuable revenue stream for independent artists. 

Tech Spec

A venue or promoter is likely to ask for a tech spec so they can set up the stage properly for a band and ensure all of the bands’ technical needs can be met. Also see Stage Plot.

Tour Manager

Tour managers take charge of the details of a tour, making a tour planned by a Booking Agent, actually happen.

Target Audience

At the start of your musical project, your target audience will be your friends and family but as you grow you will hopefully attract a wider audience. Use stats provided by social channels to understand which audiences are engaging the most. When you start paid promotion start with broad targeting to a wide audience and slowly narrow down based on who is consistently engaging the most.

Talk Back

A microphone in the control room of a recording studio that is carried on a separate circuit from the recorded channels, which allows the recording engineer to communicate with the musicians in the live room or sound booths through the monitoring system.

UPC

A Universal Product Code is necessary to identify your product within a digital or physical store. Similar to an ISRC, it is a 12-14 digit alphanumeric code; However, UPCs denote the album level and not the song level of your product.

USP

USP sounds for ‘unique selling point’ and it’s the benefit or feature that makes you stand out from your competitors. The USP must highlight the benefits in a way that is meaningful to its target audience. See Meaningful Difference.

Vinyl

Vinyl recorded a 15th year of growth in 2022 and overtook CD in terms of revenue for the first time in 35 years. According to ERA, 2022 vinyl album sales revenue grew 11% to £150.5m, while CD album sales fell 17.4% to £124m – the first time vinyl outsold CD by value since 1987. That increase is largely due to the format’s increasing prices – £30 is now common for an LP. Discover a clever way to sell vinyl.

Vibrato

A smooth and repeated changing of the pitch up and down from the regular musical pitch, often done by singers or performed by string and wind players.

Viral

When a piece of social media content which has been shared organically (without paid promotion) quickly reaches an audience larger than your normal following or benchmarks by receiving an unusual amount of shares and engagement.

Wah-Wah

A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name “wah-wah”.

Waveform

A visual representation or graphic of a sound wave, audio signal or other types of wave, showing the wave’s oscillations above and below the zero line.

WAV File

A format for storing uncompressed audio files.

XY Miking

A microphone placement technique in which two cardioid microphones are placed with their heads toward each other at a 90-degree angle, and as close together as possible. Stereo miking techniques can be used to create the perception of width, space, and location.

A microphone placement technique in which two cardioid microphones are placed with their heads toward each other at a 90-degree angle, and as close together as possible. Stereo miking techniques can be used to create the perception of width, space, and location.

Xylophone

A percussion instrument set up in the form of a keyboard whose bars are made of wood and played using mallets.

YouTube

Launched in 2005, YouTube is the biggest video-sharing platform and the second-biggest social media platform in the world, with over 2.68 billion users. Despite the scale, it remains hard for independent artists to monetise their channels. To qualify for monetisation an artist needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (within 12 months). 

Zither

A musical instrument composed of strings mounted upon a resonating frame, strings can be plucked with fingers or struck using small mallets.

Words Mark Knight

The post The A-Z Music Glossary For Independent Musicians appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Spotify Marquee For Independent Artists https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/spotify-marquee-music-promotion/ Wed, 19 Apr 2023 06:28:32 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=182462 Spotify Marquee is a step in the right direction, but it fails to provide a solution for new independent musicians. In this article, we explore why music promotion remains so unbelievably painful, convoluted and expensive. Spotify Marquee Spotify launched in the UK in 2009, yet staggeringly, it has taken the tech giant, which now boasts […]

The post Spotify Marquee For Independent Artists appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Spotify Marquee is a step in the right direction, but it fails to provide a solution for new independent musicians. In this article, we explore why music promotion remains so unbelievably painful, convoluted and expensive.

Spotify Marquee

Spotify launched in the UK in 2009, yet staggeringly, it has taken the tech giant, which now boasts 195,000,000 paying customers, 14 years to allow the musicians to actually communicate with their listeners. Oh, and you have to pay!

Spotify Marquee is positioned as Spotify’s own in-platform advertising and recommendation service. It enables musicians to activate their fanbase by recommending new releases to their current and previous listeners.

Once a campaign is activated, fans and listeners of that artist will see a visual prompt displaying the release artwork, encouraging them to listen. Targeting and set-up are fairly primitive. For example, Spotify Marquee campaigns can target audiences in 36 markets, but you can only target one market per campaign. To target multiple markets, you’ll need to schedule separate campaigns on Spotify for Artists, and there is no choice of creative. It’s a static ad, with no video and no opportunities for catchy titles. You simply pay your money and it gets to work.

Spotify Marquee - Right Chord Music Blog

The Spotify cost per acquisition challenge

Any start-up business faces the challenge of acquiring customers for the lowest possible cost. Most will use a combination of Google Search Advertising to scoop up demand from those in the market searching for a solution; this might also be paired with advertising across Meta platforms to raise awareness of their proposition and offer. This combination of pull (Google) and push (Meta) advertising is an established formula. It quickly becomes a cost-per-click exercise. How cheaply can a business acquire website visitors and ultimately sign-ups or customers?

In a particularly competitive category like insurance, brands might be paying £10-£15 plus to acquire a Google click, but when you realise that cost will be recouped with just one monthly insurance premium, the large upfront acquisition cost is quickly forgotten and if that customer stays with the policy for several years and starts to buy additional products, the acquisition cost starts to look cheap.

Equally, if you are BMW selling a car for £30,000 you can afford to spend a fair amount on advertising before you are at risk of not being profitable. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of music promotion.

It’s hard to think of any other category where a business would immediately lose money to acquire a customer, with no obvious plan to recoup the advance.

Remember one stream on Spotify pays an artist approximately £0.003 to £0.005, yet to acquire one stream using Spotify Marquee (Spotify’s in-platform advertising platform) costs an average of 39p. So at the £0.003 rate, a musician would need their fans to play their tracks 130 times before the cost per acquisition is covered! That’s a big ask when you have absolutely no way of actually contacting that listener directly or providing them with any direct incentive to listen again and again.

As of April 2023, the National Living Wage (minimal wage) for UK workers aged 23+ is £10.42 per hour or £1,806.13 per month. When you consider half a million Spotify streams still only pays back £1,720.00 per month you realise the challenge facing new, unsigned and independent artists.

Spotify Marquee Usage Requirements

The challenge for unsigned and independent artists becomes even greater when you understand that not every new artist is eligible to use Spotify Marquee. To use the advertising platform, musicians need to have a minimum of 5,000 streams in the last 28 days and have more than 1,000 followers, which immediately rules out a large proportion of new and emerging artists.

Alternative Forms of Promotion

If you are a new artist and don’t yet meet the criteria for a Spotify Marquee campaign, what are your other options?

Previously on this blog, we have been hugely critical of paid playlisting services. See Why PlaylistSupply Are Part of The Problem, Not Part of The Solution, preferring to support playlisters and curators who like us do it for the love. See Independent Artists. Get On Blackmarket Spotify Playlists For Free.

While we don’t have a problem with playlists as a form of music discovery, we do recognise there is a difference between driving listeners and fans. Our own research shows the listeners recruited via playlists are much less likely to save music to their own collection (the start of fandom), instead, they just listen through a playlist. So while playlist placement is one way to meet Spotify Marquee’s minimum 5,000 streams in the last 28-day threshold, it’s unlikely to help drive the 1,000 required followers.

Meta Advertising

The other paid alternative is Meta (Facebook and Instagram) advertising. There was a time when Facebook advertising was actually pretty cheap and effective, but when the Apple IOS privacy changes arrived, the effectiveness dropped, and the conversion costs spiralled. In the last few months, there have been signs that Meta is fighting back and costs are returning to pre-Apple levels.

But running Meta Ads isn’t easy, and if the setup, targeting or creative is wrong, you can easily and quickly waste money. It’s also complicated; you will need to create a landing page (we recommend Toneden) and then connect your Toneden page to your website sub-domain, connect a Pixel and set up Meta Conversion Ads.

A conversion is counted every time someone clicks one of your ads, lands on your Toneden page, and chooses to click on one of your streaming links. But here is the kicker, just because someone has clicked to listen to your new single on Spotify doesn’t mean they automatically become a listener.

To be counted as a listener requires that person to actually listen for 30 seconds. You’ll quickly see lots of people drop off before the Spotify app has loaded on their phone or churn away before the track has played. Because Meta has no control over Spotify, there is no 100% accurate way to attribute a play on Spotify to Meta advertising. So you are left to manually check to see if those 100 clicks to your Toneden page from France actually show up as 100 listeners on Spotify. Spoiler alert, they normally don’t!

So it’s an imperfect solution, and while you can get lucky and drive conversions for lower than the cost to achieve a play using Spotify Marquee, it can also go the other way. We have seen examples where artists have been paying several pounds for just one play, which is utterly unsustainable.

Until Spotify provides a solution that allows every artist (big or small) to engage and communicate with their listeners, there is still some way left to go.

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

 

 

The post Spotify Marquee For Independent Artists appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Independent Artist? Here Are 6 Ways To Effectively Promote Music In 2025 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/independent-artist-promote-music-2025/ Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:45:44 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=176415 In 2025 the biggest mistake an independent artist can make is to wrongly assume their music is either engaging or interesting. We’ve spent the last few weeks looking at the best-performing music artists on Instagram and TikTok from the likes of willcullenofficial, alexanderstewart, jvke and Connor Price. and we’ve identified six best practice principles to make […]

The post Independent Artist? Here Are 6 Ways To Effectively Promote Music In 2025 appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> In 2025 the biggest mistake an independent artist can make is to wrongly assume their music is either engaging or interesting.

We’ve spent the last few weeks looking at the best-performing music artists on Instagram and TikTok from the likes of willcullenofficial, alexanderstewart, jvke and Connor Price. and we’ve identified six best practice principles to make your content more engaging.

The music industry vs the entertainment industry

There was a time when people really seemed to care about music. People watched Top of The Pops every week, bought the NME, bought records and attended music festivals without comedy tents.

Those days are over, now music exists as part of a wider entertainment experience. It’s the background noise at our dinner parties, video games and Netflix shows. It’s covered by our newspapers, magazines and websites but only in passing. It’s just an option at festivals, along with comedy, dance, spoken word and crafts. And when it comes to our social media it’s rarely the focus of our viewing. We are much more likely to be focused on that ‘Wednesday’-inspired dance.

We all know this to be true, so now it’s time to act on these known observations and make the change. If are a musician and your Instagram Feed is filled with badly cropped clips from your music videos or live clips of you strumming an acoustic guitar it’s time to step up your game, because this isn’t working.

Layer up for future engagement success

The artists that will win in 2025 will be the ones that recognise music alone is not engaging, especially if it is an unknown song from a little-known artist. The trick is to add additional layers on or around your music to increase its universal appeal and interest.

Here are six ways to add layers to your content to improve engagement

1. Capture the emotional response to your live music

Replace your solo live performances with clips of you performing to someone. This could be a parent, girlfriend, music teacher or a stranger. The key is to capture their emotional response to your music. This provides viewers with an immediate emotional hook, and short cut to how they should also respond to your music.

@alexanderstewart it’s called blames on me 💔😭 #originalmusic #originalsong #sing #singing #sad ♬ blame’s on me – Alexander Stewart
2. Make it entertaining

In the entertainment industry, anything that isn’t entertaining will be skipped, remember this is a generation that has grown up swiping left and right. Your audiences vote with their thumbs, and unless your content is thumb-stopping you will be forgotten. Connor Price gets it right every time.

2. Build your brand with visual consistency

Look to add some kind of visual consistency to every clip. Think of this as your brand style or sign-off. This provides viewers with a simple way to remember you. Viewers want familiarity and format. If I know what to expect and I know I enjoyed the last video, I’m more likely to watch the next one without fear.  Here are some examples: Maybe you always perform in the same place, or maybe your content always starts in the same way, or maybe you always wear the same distinctive hat. When I think back to my favourite comedy sketches on The Fast Show the joy was always knowing the format, the formula and the catchphrase.

@willcullenofficial Had to do it 😤 #liluzi #music #talent ♬ Like I Still Got You – Will Cullen

3. Stop, collaborate and listen!

Collaboration is nothing new in music, remember when Elton John teamed up with Eminem or Run DMC teamed up with Aerosmith? When two artists with two differing fan bases collide it greatly expands your potential reach. In the entertainment age, the collaboration doesn’t even have to be limited to another musician, persuading an influencer to feature in and help share your content can really make the difference.

4. Engage the eyes before the ears

TikTok is one of the few automatic ‘sound-on’ social media platforms, and even so, many people will still find themselves watching early in the morning, late and night or on the train without sound. Across all social media 80% of social video content is viewed with the sound off. This means before you engage the ears, you have to engage the eyes. Adding subtitles to the start of your clips allows viewers to quickly understand the relevance of the content to them and decide whether they want to watch it. You have to earn the right to sound!

5. Make content fit for format!

It’s no surprise that the best-performing content was made for the format. So don’t expect a square video created for Instagram Feed to be blowing up in Reels, Stories or on TikTok. With Canva allowing everyone to resize and format social content in a heartbeat, there will be no excuses for badly cropped content in 2024. Fill the space!

6. Cover trending tunes

There is always time for an unexpected cover version. Like collaboration, cover versions are not a new tactic for musicians to launch themselves into the world. After all, it’s much easier to get people to watch a video containing a familiar song that they love, than an unknown track. The difference this time around is TikTok will tell you which familiar songs are blowing up, allowing you to jump on the bandwagon and add your take. Once people have engaged with your cover, it’s time to introduce your original music into the mix.

And remember music videos come second
In 2025 unless you have established a large, engaged fanbase don’t waste your hard-earned money on producing a full-length music video that sits on YouTube with under 500 views. Instead, take that budget and create dozens of short-form video clips containing the layers described above. Short-form video is the best way to attract an audience, so build an audience and only then make a full-length music video for them to watch.

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

The post Independent Artist? Here Are 6 Ways To Effectively Promote Music In 2025 appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> Why Is Indie Artist Connor Price Winning Against Major Label Stars? https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/connor-price-winning/ Thu, 15 Dec 2022 09:15:02 +0000 https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/?p=175395 At the start of this year, we declared ‘push’ marketing was dead, now as we approach the end of the year self-released, Canadian hip-hop artist Connor Price is here to show us all exactly what effective ‘pull’ music marketing should look like. But hang on… what is ‘push’ marketing? Push marketing is when a brand […]

The post Why Is Indie Artist Connor Price Winning Against Major Label Stars? appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]> At the start of this year, we declared ‘push’ marketing was dead, now as we approach the end of the year self-released, Canadian hip-hop artist Connor Price is here to show us all exactly what effective ‘pull’ music marketing should look like.

But hang on… what is ‘push’ marketing?

Push marketing is when a brand or a band pushes content at their audience. Push marketing is most associated with broadcast channels like TV or outdoor advertising. EG. ‘We have something to tell you and you will listen’. Conversely ‘pull’ marketing is the opposite it’s helpful, entertaining, and inspiring it pulls audiences in and gives them a reason to engage. Pull marketing is less selfish and more selfless.

The problem is 90% of the content on social media has become about passive push, and consequently, 99% of it becomes bland wallpaper that is ignored or skipped. People go to social media to be entertained not to be shouted at.

The mistake independent musicians make

One of the biggest mistakes independent musicians make on social media is to assume that sharing a clip from their music video, or an image of their latest artwork is sufficient ‘pull’ marketing. Sadly it’s not, because nobody knows their name or their music, so to assume people care is a mistake.

Major Label artists relying on lazy push marketing will soon be over-taken

Established artists with established fan bases can get away with push marketing because they have fans who are interested to know they have a new release. But let’s be clear, just because they can get away with it doesn’t mean they should. Lazy marketing is always lazy marketing, and even these major label stars are now being challenged by a new breed of artists who recognise that to be heard they first need to engage and entertain with great pull content. Step forward Connor Price.

Introducing Connor Price

Connor Price follows the fashionable format of releasing singles, lots of singles. The theory is to keep stoking those Spotify algorithms and regular releases increase your chances of Spotify playlist support. For most unsigned artists, this idea falls flat. With no plan for promotion, all that happens is you end up wasting your releases, with lots of tracks that nobody hears. Remember approximately 4 million of the tracks on Spotify have never been heard!

But when you are Connor Price, this approach makes a lot of sense, because there is genuine momentum behind his music. A quick scan of his Spotify reveals that he has released a staggering 22 singles in 2022.

Connor Price in numbers

At the time of writing this article, Connor Price has 6.7m monthly Spotify listeners and 392,000 Spotify followers. Connor Price is made for TikTok and TikTok is made for him. He has amassed 4m followers and counting. Five years ago he would have been a YouTuber now it plays second fiddle to TikTok with a cool 1.5m subscribers. Meta platforms lag behind with 1.3m on Instagram and 320,000 on Facebook. But when you consider he is an independent artist, these numbers are staggering. So what is he doing?

Content Creation

Connor Price makes great content, the type of content you can’t stop watching. Connor recognises that on TikTok the music industry has been replaced by the entertainment industry. Few people care and watch content exclusively about music anymore so he skillfully fuses his music into entertaining content. Now you discover his music by osmosis, it never feels forced on you like a traditional music video clip. The top three pinned videos on his TikTok have attracted over 124,000,000 views!

Connor Price TikTok

Connor has landed on a format and it’s repeatable. Create a story around the components of his music. Suddenly a flute sound becomes the inspiration for a clip about a carrot flute! All the clips are fast-paced, funny and importantly they make his music feel both massive and hugely exciting. I challenge you to watch more than 3 of his clips and not find yourself listening on Spotify. Even if you don’t like hip-hop there is something to love and admire here.

@connorprice__🇨🇦🤝🇿🇲♬ Violet – Connor Price & Killa

The only disappointing thing is the lack of money flowing back to Connor for his art on TikTok. Did you know that exercise bike company Peloton paid more royalties to musicians in 2022 than TikTok?!

Discover more about Connor Price

Discover more on RCM

Words Mark Knight

The post Why Is Indie Artist Connor Price Winning Against Major Label Stars? appeared first on Right Chord Music Blog.

]]>