How Pre-Saves Can Help You Build Momentum For Your Music Before You Even Release It

Getting a solid stream count on day one when your music drops is huge indicator for success when it comes and a pre-save, much like an amazon or iTunes pre-sale, can do a lot for helping your numbers. Here we look at how to use them to your advantage. ____________________________…

Solving the Music Startup Catch-22

[UPDATED] The difficulty, time and cost of licensing music has stymied an untold number of startups and scared off countless more investors. Crunch Digital has created a solution. Their Digital Music Sandbox will offer music startups a direct conduit to limited term music licensing without advances or minimum guarantees; and…

Digital Music Distributor Symphonic Scores $4 Million Investment From Ballast Point Ventures

Tampa based Symphonic Distribution has secured a $4 million investment from Ballast Point Ventures (BPV). Symphonic will use the investment to add to its sales force, bolster its marketing and enhance its product capabilities. __________________________________ After 10 years as a bootstrapped company, Symphonic Distribution found a venture capital firm that…

Why So Many Musicians Get Digital So Very Wrong

Here Amber Horsburgh delves into the issues behind common industry misconceptions surrounding digital strategy, and the danger of simply treating digital as a communication channel, as well as the importance of understanding and taking full advantage the marketing opportunity digital provides. ________________________ Guest post by Amber Horsburgh, VP of Strategy…

Spotify Offers Deep Holiday Discounts For New and Returning Subscribers

Spotify is continuing its holiday tradition of offering deep discounts to lure new and lapsed users looking for ways to enjoy the new music gear they scored like the incredible little Mighty that let’s you listen to Spotify without your smartphone. Spotify’s deep holiday discounts include: Mighty Spotify player Three…

Could A Lip Syncing Site Really Be Worth $800 Million?

While many artists with the ability to create their own music may not know or care about the lip-syncing site Musical.ly, it turns out there are millions of people who enjoy using the site to create videos of themselves lip syncing to hit songs, enough people to make the site…

What Promises To Transform Music Listening In The Age Of Alexa? Lyrics.

We’ve come a long way since the wild west of lyrics, which are now easily searchable and provide artists with an additional source of income. Moving forward, lyrics will provide essential contextual metadata in the age of voice command. __________________________ Guest post by Darryl Ballantyne of Lyric Find Lyrics provide…

UNBUNDLED: Reformatting Music’s Barriers

The unbundling of music has been a hot topic within the industry ever since Steve Jobs insisted that iTunes be able to sell every individual album track for 99 cents. Here, Adam Marx continues his deep and important analysis of the practice with a look at how unbundling has unwrapped…

3 Things You’re Doing Wrong On Spotify

Even as streaming rises to become the dominant form of music consumption, many artists still struggle with the unfamiliar platform, to the point where they may be sabotaging their chances for success. Here we look at three bad habits to watch out for when putting your music on Spotify. _________________…

Meta-Metadata: Turning Three Text Fields Into Millions of Dollars

As the number of data records music companies continues to grow, the value of efficiency has continued to increase, particularly given that each record contains only a few points of data. To a keen observer, there are deep, financially beneficial possibilities in this track-related information. _______________________________ Guest post by Jesse…