A Music Release Strategy For Filling Your Yearly Calendar

Your music release strategy and your social media strategy must go hand in hand, and artists should establish a schedule whereby their fans are engaged and entertained enough by the artist’s online presence throughout the year that they are left eagerly anticipating new content, whether it’s music or merch. ___________________________________…

You Have To Be There: 10 Essential Music Business Conferences For 2019

While early season festivals like SXSW tend to get the most airtime, the second half of the year is chock full with a variety of incredible conferences for those steeped in major music industry happenings. Here Angela Mastrogiacomo looks at ten that are essential to attend. ________________________ Guest post by…

Preventative Health Tips For Touring Artists

While taking your music on the road is the dream of many artists, life on tour – in addition to being an eye-opening adventure – can also be incredibly stressful, and put a significant strain on both your mental and physical health. ______________________________ In this latest piece from MusicThinkTank, contributor…

How To Reach Music Critics, Influencers [VIDEO]

While the barriers to sharing music have fallen away, getting heard by critics and influencers has become harder than ever. In this video, we look at four tricks for artists looking to engage with industry tastemakers. ________________________________ Guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix Sharing music has never been easier,…

Portia Sabin Named President Music Business Association

The Music Business Association (Music Biz) has named respected industry veteran Dr. Portia Sabin as President. The trade group advocates on behalf of the music industry. The organization’s current longtime president James Donio will be stepping down from the post, but will continue in an advisory role, Music Biz said…

Thumbnails Provide Free Visibility On YouTube

Video thumbnails are in many ways the billboards of YouTube, allowing artists to capture potential viewers’ attention by offering them a snapshot of video content. Here we look at why creating custom thumbnails is so important, and how to ensure you’re creating images that are optimized for maximum visibility. ____________________________…

Spotify Wants To Enable Fans To Tip Artists

Many sites empower users to make micropayments to creators. China’s Tencent Music already has a massive tip-like program returning revenue to artists. Based on a recent earnings call, Spotify wants to get into this business, as well. Exactly how they’ll do it, however, remains a question, writes music attorney and…

How An Old Game Boosted A 2019 Streaming Hit

This piece explores the marketing genius of the Flappy Bird-esque old-school online game Billy Meets World, launched in conjunction with Lauv’s latest release and engineered to help casually grow the artist’s Spotify followers. ______________________________ Guest post from AWAL We recommend playing Billy Meets World for at least 30 seconds before…

5 Techniques For Maintaining The Fans You Made On Your Last Tour

Assuming your latest tour wasn’t a complete disaster (or maybe even if it was), chances are you acquired a few new friends along the road. So how do you turn these fresh fans into repeat customers? Here we look at five ways of keeping new listeners engaged. ___________________________ Guest post…

New To Instagram: Creator Accounts, Chat Stickers & More

As per the norm, Instagram has unveiled a host of new features as we reach the halfway point of 2019. Here we explore what some of these new changes are, and how they can enhance your music marketing efforts on the platform. _______________________________ Guest post by Ryan Whitman of The…