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Monthly Archives: July 2018
Monthly Archives: July 2018
Niko Kotoulas had a high-paying dream job as an financial analyst at Morgan Stanley, but he’s leaving it for an even better dream as a musical artist. Totally through social media, Niko’s piano playing has racked up more than 1.2 million streams a month from more than 300k users on Spotify alone, and he’s been […]
Continue readingEver since the first Billboard music chart was created back in 1940, the music industry has relied on the publication as a measure of success. Much of this was for bragging rights between labels, but also as a way to provide retail with sales data (and a large dose of hype) to determine what records […]
Continue readingThe cashless society that was predicted many years ago is pretty much here, as fewer people resort to using cash in daily transactions. Using a credit or debit card sure beats carrying around a pocket full of bills and coins and having to worry about exact change in inopportune situations. Even festivals are now turning […]
Continue readingInstagram is becoming the go-to social platform for music these days and the service keeps on getting hotter. One of its main features is Stories, and its sometimes both misunderstood and underutilized when it comes to promoting your brand and music. Stories can be powerful in this regard, however, when used with a little thought. […]
Continue readingWho says that streaming doesn’t pay? Yes, it only pays a fraction of a cent per stream, but those fractions really add up, especially when streams are in the billions for an artist like Drake. You may recall that Drake smashed all the streaming records on both Spotify and Apple Music recently during the release […]
Continue readingThe Distressor is one of the few modern pieces of outboard gear that has become a classic and now stands in the same “must have” league as compressors like the 1176 and LA-2A. Simply put, it’s a standard piece found in studios everywhere today. Dave Derr is the creator of the Distressor, Fatso, and other […]
Continue readingWhen you think of highest paid artists you think of the most popular at the moment, but that’s not necessarily who made the big money last year. Artists like Drake and Taylor Swift took a back seat to some of the biggest legacy artists when it comes to the highest paid, and it all comes […]
Continue readingI think most listeners will agree that broadcast radio for music has been dismal for a long time, thanks to corporate radio groups and central programming. Local radio is on the decline and the ability for a DJ to select a song outside the provided playlist is long-gone. While radio still has its boomer listers […]
Continue readingEvery artist, whether they’re selling out arenas or still working in clubs, has two types of fans. Most never bother to differentiate between the two and therefore don’t grow their audience as quickly because they tend to cater to the wrong group. In this excerpt from the latest edition of my Music 4.1: A Survival […]
Continue readingThe music business is evolving just like any other forward looking industry, and tech is playing a larger part than ever in how it runs. That means that new types of jobs are being created all the time, and you can expect more in the future. Billboard asked movers and shakers from all areas of […]
Continue readingLabel exec Shan Dan Horan has spent the last 10 years breaking bands during his time at Century Media Records, then as president of Artery Recordings. He’s now the head of Outerloop Records and still has a huge passion not only for finding and breaking new artists and bands, but helping ones he doesn’t sign […]
Continue readingLast week Twitter took the drastic step of removing millions of inactive or fake accounts, resulting in follower counts dropping for nearly everyone on the platform. Until recently, it wasn’t in Twitter’s financial interests to delete those accounts even though it knew of their existence, but pressure from Congress and various State investigations thanks to Russian […]
Continue readingThere are a lot of practices on YouTube that one might categorize as “unseemly,” and one of the biggest is re-uploading a video. That means that a viewer downloads your video then uploads it on their channel and classifies it as their own. YouTube has heard content creators cries for help though, and has launched […]
Continue readingMany artists are tempted to just rely on a Facebook page or Instagram account as their main online point of contact, but that strategy can have a number of unforeseen problems. Here’s an excerpt from my the 2nd edition of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that explains why having a dedicated website can be a great […]
Continue readingIn what many consider a stunning revelation, it’s been reported that Apple Music actually has surpassed Spotify in paid subscribers in the United States. Apparently both gone past the 20 million mark, with Apple Music now slightly out in front. If you’d have polled a group of music insiders about subscriber levels a year ago, […]
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