TOP POSTS: This Week’s Most Read Posts On Hypebot

Some of the most popular articles from the pages of Hypebot this week included an interview with Merck Mercuriadis on disrupting the music business, the reasoning behind Apple sending iTunes to the chopping block, some important rules for personal networking, and more! Industry Bomb Thrower Merck Mercuriadis On Disrupting The…

Guide To Promoting Your Spotify Playlists

Spotify playlists have rapidly risen to become the Holy Grail of music coverage, and as the streaming platform becomes increasingly social, knowing how boost your particular Spotify playlist is becoming increasingly important. __________________________ Guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix Playlists are the new mixtapes, but before you can curate…

10 Best Cities For Full-Time Songwriters Worldwide

Brett Newski travels the world as an independent musician and teaches others how to do the same. Her Brett shares the best cities for full-time songwriters to live and work in, including obvious factors like opportunity and cost of living, as well as, less often considered factors including government support…

Stay Calm! Apple Did NOT Just Kill Music Downloads

For the many, the announcement that Apple is "killing" iTunes also meant that Apple was also killing its music download store. In fact, iTunes on the Mac is just being divided into three separate apps for music, podcasts and TV. And the iconic music download store lives on, at least…

Measuring Music’s Timelessness: A Tricky Business

Whether expressed or not, a latent goal of most musicians is to create music that endures, and hopefully has life beyond its creator. But just how does one measure music’s timelessness? Here Patrick McGuire explore the complexities in defining music’s longevity. _____________________________ Guest post by Patrick McGuire from the TuneCore…

Indie Stores Are Being ‘Strangled’ By Major Label Distribution: ‘Things are a complete mess.’

Independent music stores are demanding action from all three major labels over repeated missing and incorrect shipments handled by their primary fulfillment partner Direct Shot Distributing. "We need help right now on this issue or you will begin to see stores fold simply because their supply chain strangled them," says…

Copyright Office Set To Make Album Registration Easier

The US Copyright Office has been lagging behind the times for awhile now, but is finally beginning to catch up, with some exciting "innovations" such as online copyright registration system, making it much easier for artists to officially register their work. _______________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0…

Why Physical Promotion, Release Formats Are Still Important

Living in the age we are, many musicians may be tempted to invest their time and money solely in digital promotion, but eschewing more archaic forms of promotion like vinyls, shirts, and stickers in favor of targeted social media ads and playlist promotion can sometimes backfire. Here we look at…

Billboard To Add Top Songwriters, Top Producers Charts

Under pressure from alternative data sources and soon to launch charts from Rolling Stone, Billboard is expanding its own chart offering. Top Songwriters and Top Producers charts will be based on weekly activity on the Billboard Hot 100 and other “Hot” genre song charts that blend data from streaming, airplay…

Experts Weigh Future Of Crowdfunding Post-PledgeMusic

Has crowdfunding for musicians become too risky? Is it dead altogether? These kind of questions are being asked by tens of thousands of artists who had counted on PledgeMusic and fan funding to finance their next project. Hypebot asked four music marketing experts with experience in crowdfunding to share what…