Sounds Of The Future: Recent Episodes
Tom DuPree III
Music Producer, YouTuber, and all-around critical thinker. Join me as I examine the current states of music, marketing, and technology to uncover the secrets of building a lasting career as a musician.
For almost an entire year, my Spotify listeners and streams declined, but something happened in July of 2022 and things started to trend back up.
And not only did my Spotify listeners and streams start to grow, but I started to see more consistent pushes on Discover Weekly as well.
I have tested a lot of different strategies to grow on Spotify, but this year I really cracked the code.
Here is the best Spotify growth strategy I found in 2022.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
We all know it’s tough to make money on Spotify.
Streaming royalties are notoriously low across the board, and Spotify doesn’t even claim the top spot on that list.
But despite the low payouts, earning money from streaming is still a goal worth pursuing (not the only goal, mind you, but a goal nonetheless), so let’s examine three scenarios to find out what it takes to achieve financial success on Spotify.
Time for some math. 🤓
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
If you want to be a great artist, you have to be a great communicator.
To achieve this, here are three fundamental skills I believe every artist should work to perfect that will transcend genre, age, and audience.
- Learn to write.
Everything starts with writing.
Putting ideas down on the page helps me to clarify my thinking and crystalize ideas worth sharing—tweets, captions, song lyrics—all of it moves the needle.
If you’re not writing every day, I highly recommend you start. Write poetry, keep a journal, write lyrics—write any and everything you can think of.
A strong writing habit is foundational.
- Learn to tell a great story.
Stories are a fundamental expression of humanity. We are drawn to them.
Your music tells a story. Your lyrics tell a story. Your content tells a story. Everything you do is an opportunity to tell a compelling story about yourself, your work, or the world around you.
Whatever the format, a good story will always win.
- Get good a short-form video.
If the internet is a castle, short-form is king.
We live in a world dominated by content. Great writing leads to great storytelling, and TikToks, Reels, and Shorts are where crystal-clear writing and great storytelling converge.
Master the first two, then put them in video format.
Great art is communication that transcends time and place.
If you can cut through the noise with great writing, great storytelling, and strong short-form video skills, the sky is the limit.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
A great idea is worth sharing, and a great piece of content that communicates that idea well can pull someone into your world and create a fan for life.
But sometimes even good ideas fall flat if not seen by the right person, at the right time, in the right place.
That’s why I always use my content more than once—I repurpose it.
There are four primary types of content that people consume online: audio, video, text, and images.
I do my best to post a combination of all four, but not every idea is conveyed equally across all media, which is why it’s important to me to communicate that same message on as many platforms as I can.
And the best way I’ve found to do that is to start with one.
My content generally starts as text. I am constantly taking notes and writing down ideas in the Notes app on my phone, and since I always have my phone on me, this little system works great.
Once I’ve decided I want to share an idea online (and because text is my initial weapon of choice), I will usually go to Twitter to share that thought with my audience there, and based on the response, I will decide whether or not to pursue it further.
If a tweet gets any sort of decent engagement, I know I’ve got a concept worth exploring.
Let the repurposing begin.
A simple tweet is a great foundation for repurposing my content—it’s short, to the point, and easy to adjust for other platforms.
There are two reasons I repurpose my content:
1) I don’t know what medium or what platform is going to see that idea resonate with my audience the most, and
2) It just makes my life a whole lot easier.
By reusing the same idea on multiple platforms, I only have to come up with one thing instead of 10, 15, or 20.
By vetting an idea on platform after platform, I am able to rely on my audience for real-time feedback about what’s helpful and what’s not, thereby improving my content and the value I am able to deliver.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Establishing strong vanity metrics on Spotify is really not that difficult, especially if you don’t care how you do it.
Fake followers, massive bot-driven playlist ads, and even legitimate streams from countries that don’t serve your long-term growth as an artist can make your artist profile look quite impressive to the untrained eye.
But if you’re like me, and you want to share your music with real people who truly enjoy the work you put out into the world, you’re going to want to do your best to avoid those pitfalls.
Here are the three biggest red flags I look for:
- Which countries are listening?
I am always watching where my traffic is coming from on Spotify, especially as a result of my ads.
These days, I am primarily advertising in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but regardless of where my ads are being shown, whether in a select few countries or on a global scale, I am looking at the relationship between those countries on Meta’s ad platform and on Spotify for Artists.
To that end, one of the biggest red flags a look for is whether or not those countries match up to any degree.
For example, if a country is getting a lot of traffic on Meta but minimal action on Spotify, this is a clear indication to me that something is off and I need to make a change.
- Top cities are important too.
Beyond the countries where I’m seeing love on Spotify, I am also paying strict attention to the cities where my music is being consumed as well. The primary red flags I am looking for here are cities I know have big data centers in them.
Wait, what?
That’s right. Many cities worldwide, and specifically within the United States, house massive Amazon (and other) data centers. These data centers are often used to set up bot farms to generate fake playlist plays, fake followers, and fake streams for artists.
- And lastly, bad playlists.
As most of you likely know, I’m not a big fan of playlisting to promote my music on Spotify, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still get added to them from time to time.
When a song begins to get traction on Spotify, achieving a popularity score in the 30s or 40s, it is often the case that it will begin to appear on more popular playlists as a result, regardless of whether or not the song has been pitched to that service.
Whenever I see a song has been added to a playlist with a significant following, I immediately want to do my due diligence on it to make sure it’s legit.
It’s easy to grow on Spotify by faking the numbers, and with a small amount of money and a little bit of know-how, anyone can do it.
But I want my growth to be legitimate, and I want real people enjoying my music, even if it’s only a fraction of what the vanity numbers potentially could be.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Building a career in music is tough, but if it’s where your heart truly lies, if it’s the place where you feel called to share your gifts with the world, there are few things more rewarding than seeing your passion come to life.
As a full-time musician for nearly 15 years, here are 12 things I have learned along the way that will help you no matter where you are in your journey.
- No one can do it for you:
I can’t tell you how many artists I see that want the “secret” or the “hack”. Do you want to know the secret? It’s this: work.
- Small gains are the biggest wins:
Incremental progress is the name of the game, and the biggest unlock is showing up every single day for a long period of time.
- It takes time:
Success in music doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re lucky, it will only take a few years, but for most of us, it will take much more than that.
- When in doubt, release more music:
Music is content, and content is a volume game. More will always be better than perfect.
- There is no “right way”:
Every one of us is on a different path. You can look to other artists and creators for inspiration and guidance, but your results will vary.
- You can’t control the numbers:
Impatience with action, patience with results.
- Ads are not the whole game:
Running paid ads to promote your music is a force multiplier for your output, not a replacement for doing the work altogether.
- Your marketing budget matters:
And on the ad front, this one is probably the toughest pill to swallow: the more money you have to spend, the better your results are going to be.
- Music is only the beginning:
Very few artists make all their money from music alone. If anything, making music serves as a springboard for building an audience and creating additional revenue streams.
- Start by selling your time:
Producing, mixing, ghostwriting, marketing, graphic design, etc.—these are all great ways to supplement your primary source of income by doing something you love within the field of music.
- Build assets long-term:
Selling your time is faster, but selling products is better.
12: And lastly, fame doesn’t equal success:
If you’re here for fame, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Instead of fame, focus on joy, value, and purpose. Find the thing you love to do so much that you’d do it for free and then figure out a way to make it sustain your lifestyle.
That’s success and will make you far richer than fame ever could.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
You’re only one song away from changing your life.
But sometimes that song isn’t your newest release.
Releasing music on a regular basis is an important aspect of building a body of work as an artist, but turning out single after single doesn’t mean you need to abandon the work you already have.
According to Spotify’s recent Fan Study, roughly three-quarters of all streams on the platform are now coming from an artist’s catalog, which Spotify defines as songs over 18 months old.
This means the work you released two years ago stands to earn you more streams, listeners, and revenue than the song you just put out.
Think about that for a second–the longer your music is out, the more powerful it becomes.
This sort of changes the game on new releases. Rather than thinking of a new release as an opportunity for a song to go viral, it might be better to think of it as a hook to reel in new listeners so they can discover the rest of your work.
I push new music and my catalog winners at the same time.
With every new song I put out, I build a new campaign and drop it into the marketing system I have that I know works, but this doesn’t mean I abandon what I already have working.
I am still using the same ads for “Hero” and “Lions” that I have been using for the past year and a half.
Because they work.
Those two songs are proven winners, so why would I turn them off?
Each new track is an opportunity to find a new winner, but it has to earn that right. I am constantly testing every new song against the current winners, and it is only when they clearly outpace the previous winners that they get the priority spot in my marketing campaigns.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
When it comes to music marketing, more money generally equals more opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win if you don’t have a load of spare cash lying around.
Even though spending more money to market your music can drastically improve the outcome of your campaigns, there are alternative ways to extend your reach as an artist.
If I only had $100 to spend on a new release, here’s what I would do:
First, I would run a conversion campaign and target a global list of countries, likely prioritizing Brazil, Mexico, and Chile because I know there are tons of engaged music fans in these countries that I can access for a much lower rate than I can in, say, the US or the UK.
Next, I would keep my targeting open, all the way down to age 13 to capitalize on a lower CPM for my ads right out of the gate.
After that, I would create an artist playlist, something like “This Is Tom DuPree III” and place my new track right at the top of it.
Because I’m operating on a limited budget, I want to make sure there is some way to retain the listeners I find each time I spend money, and because I can’t automatically place my new track at the top of my artist profile, a playlist like this is the best option.
From there, I’d run my campaign at a set rate for a window of time, something like $10 per day for 10 days, and then set it to expire once it’s done.
In addition to spending money on a limited ad campaign, if I were operating on a limited release budget, I would plan to make as much content about my song as is humanly possible.
Now, ideally, we should all be doing this anyway, but if you don’t have the capital, then spending time on organic content becomes even more important.
I’d create three short-form videos per day about my track and post them to Reels, TikTok, Shorts, and even Snapchat.
Do this for an entire 28-day window while your track is eligible for Release Radar, and you’ve got 336 opportunities to showcase your work to a new audience. If each video gets 1,000 impressions, that’s 336,000 opportunities to find new fans.
Having a sizable marketing budget can certainly make life easier when it comes to promoting your music, but spending a lot of money on ads isn’t the only way to spread the word about your work.
If you don’t have a lot to spend, get creative, put in the time, save your money for the future, and you’ll watch your results continue to improve as you release song after song.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Every social media platform plays by the same set of rules.
Sure, the algorithms are all a bit different and they each have their own “thing”, but by and large, they are all relatively the same.
The main idea is this: what you put in is what you get out.
And while success on any given platform may vary depending on the style of content that’s prioritized, if you truly want to grow on your social media platform of choice, there are three main ideas you’ll want to remember:
Quality, consistency, and engagement.
Step one: quality.
People don’t care about what you can do. They only care about what you can do for them.
As a creator, it is your job to figure out what kind of value you can deliver to others on the platform(s) of your choice.
When people get value from your content, they are more inclined to stick around for more content in the future because they believe it will bring them value as well, thus creating a positive feedback loop.
And since every social media platform is built around a mathematical algorithm that auto-suggests content, a positive feedback loop is exactly what we want.
Step two: consistency.
Social media is really nothing more than a numbers game.
The more you create and share, the more opportunities you have to succeed.
And interestingly enough, this output of content is also how you up the quality of what you do.
If you keep showing up, you will naturally improve, so will your results, and so will the algorithm’s understanding of what you do.
Step three: engage.
Connecting with your audience is the great social media unlock.
Reply to every comment, answer every DM, and seek to establish relationships with the people who invest their time into you and what you do.
Not only will this naturally boost your growth on the platform, but you will learn even more about what your audience wants more of, thus creating an even greater positive feedback loop.
And as you already know, positive feedback loops are the name of the algorithmic game.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Most artists struggle to grow on Instagram.
Organic content on the platform is free to post, but it is difficult to do it effectively and consistently, which is why many artists struggle to see the gains they want.
While not a replacement for a strong organic content strategy, paid advertising can help you to increase your rate of follower growth while you work to unlock the organic content system that performs best for you.
To boost my audience growth on Instagram, I like to use what I like to refer to as an Instagram Growth Campaign.
This simple ad recycles content I already know works to drive more traffic to my Instagram profile.
This can include:
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Reels
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Feed posts
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And even ads I’ve run for growth on Spotify
Additionally, I’ll be sure to have a link to my music in my Instagram bio, so my new followers can go deeper and listen to my music if they like what they find on my profile.
Paid advertising is not a replacement for a solid organic content strategy on Instagram, but it can certainly serve as a boost, especially while you’re still figuring out what kind of content works best for your audience.
In an ideal world, this ad system will supplement the creation of high-quality content on a regular basis that serves your fanbase, both new and old alike.
And as you continue to create better organic content, you will have more, higher-quality ad creative to choose from that you have the benefit of knowing already resonates with your audience.
If you want to learn more about marketing and how to build your audience, sign up for the Monday Marketer, a newsletter to help you start your week the right way with one actionable marketing tip every Monday morning.
Join the Monday Marketer 👉🏻 https://tomdupreeiii.com.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Building your artist ecosystem is a way of systematizing your output so you can record music, create content, and build and monetize it in a relatively automated fashion.
But it can be overwhelming.
With all of the tools available–websites, email, social media, link-generators–how can you know which one to choose?
Well, I’ve done a lot of testing (as I’m one to do) and have found an easy and relatively inexpensive tech stack that works wonders for me.
For my artist ecosystem, I prioritize four things:
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A website
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A landing page generator
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A single social media platform of choice
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My email list
For my website, I use Carrd. Carrd allowed me to get my website up and running so much faster than every other option I tried.
And, as a musician, you really don’t need much more than a single landing page anyway.
For my landing page generator, I use ToneDen.
Not only does ToneDen seamlessly create music-centric landing pages, but it also gives me the option to use my own custom domain and has multiple other link options like redirects, podcast links, and more.
All for free.
For social media, I prioritize YouTube above all else (shocking, I know).
I like YouTube because it gives me an outlet for every content format I like to use, all under one roof (this is also why I lean into Instagram over TikTok).
Long-form video, community posts (i.e. tweets and IG photos), Shorts (i.e. Reels & TikToks), and even live streams (Twitch)–I can do it all in one place, and I can easily recycle that content for Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more if I want to.
And on top of that, YouTube’s monetization options give a lot of incentive to push hard and build something of substance.
After all, it’s a lot easier to justify the time spent on social media when you’re actually getting paid!
And for email, I use ConvertKit.
ConvertKit has all sorts of cool features, but the most impressive thing is the automations. I can set up all sorts of neat tricks with ConvertKit that allow me to communicate with my audience on autopilot.
My biggest job with email is to build the list.
Building an effective artist ecosystem takes time. And work.
Actually, a lot of work.
But with these digital tools working on my behalf 24/7, I am increasingly more free to spend my time doing what I love, like making music.
Time to build your ecosystem.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Have you ever built an ad campaign for a new release only to have it launch with skyrocketing costs and underwhelming results?
I certainly have.
It’s heartbreaking.
You’ve spent all this time on your song, you’ve saved your money, you’ve done your research, and you’ve set up your ads precisely as they should be, only to be met with disaster on release day.
Few things are more frustrating than watching your hard-earned money trickle away without knowing the cause of it, and while it can seem impossible to troubleshoot a floundering release, the performance of an ad campaign really comes down to three factors:
Targeting, visual creative, and your song.
Targeting is the first point of impact for your campaign. If you get this wrong, you can bottleneck your reach and destroy what might have otherwise been a successful campaign.
When in doubt, go wider and let Facebook’s platform figure it out for you.
Next, visual creative.
In short, have a great album cover, something that grabs the attention of the viewer.
And make sure you have a clear call to action. A simple Spotify logo is enough to make the user understand what it is you want them to do.
And lastly (and most importantly) have great music.
This may seem obvious, but it’s the part that most often causes campaigns to fail–the music just isn’t good enough.
There are thousands upon thousands of songs released every day. If you want to grab someone’s attention, you need to give them a reason to listen.
If you’re not seeing the results you want (and you feel good about your targeting and your ad creative) it might be time to move on to a new song.
Sometimes, that can make all the difference.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I used to struggle with creating content on the internet. No matter how hard I tried, I could never quite get on top of it.
On a daily basis it seems, I would inevitably hit that moment of panic where I would think, “oh no, I haven’t posted anything today,” and I would have to scramble to come up with something.
For years, I watched other creators turn out videos, pictures, tweets, and more with regularity, wondering how they did it without missing a beat while I consistently struggled to keep up.
But everything changed when I figured out how to create content systems that allowed me to get ahead of the curve and stay there.
Instead of constantly playing catchup, I began approaching content creation like a part-time job, a side hustle that only required a few hours per week to execute.
I would set aside time for myself to build out my content on a regular basis, focusing on one main idea and then building everything else out of that.
Additionally, I took advantage of scheduling in advance, and, in doing so, freed myself up to come up with even more ideas with my newly found free time.
Now my content system runs largely on autopilot.
I have a standing appointment with myself to create content every Friday morning. I build out what I need to, schedule it to publish over the next several weeks, and am free to spend my time serving my clients and building my business.
Here are 5 tips to help you start creating social media content on autopilot. ✈️
When I started sharing my ideas online, no one paid attention to what I was doing.
If you’ve ever posted a single thing on the internet, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
For me, it took about 18 months of consistently posting to YouTube before people finally started listening to what I had to say.
For what felt like forever, I would post video after video, only to be met with a handful of views on each.
I burned out several times and considered giving up altogether, but one day, seemingly out of nowhere, people began to watch.
And that’s when the magic really happened.
Not only did they watch, but they began to ask questions.
Once I had gained the attention of a few, I began to pay attention to what they wanted and simply did my best to deliver.
Three years ago, I never would have considered a career in marketing, but the people asked, and I listened. Now I run a full-fledged marketing business with solutions for my audience at every level.
From here, it’s just a matter of scale.
But it all started with showing up every day when no one was paying attention.
TL;DR
If you have the grit to keep showing up, you will win.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Making money from a career in music is tough, no matter how you slice it, but it gets much easier when you create a system of diversified, music-based revenue streams.
From selling streaming to sample packs, live streaming to live shows, there are a lot of different ways to earn a living while doing what you love–creating music.
Here are 15 ways to make money from music.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
No matter how good your music is, if no one knows about it, no one will ever listen. You have to tell people about your songs. You have to market your music.
While there are many music marketing methods available, three stand atop the rest: posting organic content, paid advertising, and email.
These are the 3 music marketing methods every artist should be using.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I recently ran a test to boost my song's video views using YouTube's advertising platform. Not only was it easy to set up, but the results were great as well.
By using YouTube's simple advertising interface, I was able to drive 4,000 views to my video in just one week.
So let's walk through the results of this music marketing experiment, and I'll show you how I used YouTube ads to promote my music.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
There are three primary metrics that we want to track on Spotify–streams, listeners, and followers–and growth in each category is not identical to the others.
If we want our streams to increase, we have to prioritize that. Same for followers. Same for listeners.
But how do we go about getting more streams on Spotify? How do we get more followers on Spotify? Or more listeners on Spotify?
Here are 3 proven tactics to help you grow your streams, your listeners, and your followers on Spotify.
And if done correctly, these three strategies will help you grow FAST!
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Your website is the cornerstone of your online presence as an artist. It is the place where your fans know they can come to connect with you, register for updates, or even make a purchase from your online store.
Every artist should have a website. If you don't have one, now is the time to make that happen.
One of my favorite platforms for easily building a slick and effective website is Carrd. Carrd allows you to get up and running with a full website in a matter of minutes.
But sometimes, the stock templates just aren't enough. The good news is that, with just a few lines of CSS code, we can customize our Carrd website to look precisely how we want it to.
This is how to create a floating header (and a floating footer) with Carrd, so you can have an effective, professional website in no time.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Have you ever wondered how to gain Spotify listeners in specific cities around the world? Say, the top cities where your favorite artists are getting listened to?
Me too, so I set out to find out if I could grow my fanbase in the cities around the globe where I really wanted Spotify followers and Spotify streams.
What began as an experiment to find the similarities across the top artists on Spotify ended with a system to grow my fanbase precisely where I wanted to.
This is how I hacked my top 5 cities on Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
In early 2022, I switched from Facebook conversion ads to traffic ads as a tool to grow my fanbase on Spotify. After months of success with traffic ads for Spotify, I decided to begin testing conversion ads once again.
Over the past 30 days or so, I have tested several different ad sets, all inside a new Spotify conversion campaign using Facebook ads.
So let's take a look inside my new Facebook conversion ads for Spotify to see how I've set them up and how they are performing.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Not all streams on Spotify are created equal. The amount an artist makes per stream is largely determined by which country that stream comes from. A combination of Spotify premium subscribers, ad revenue, and overall stream volume all combine to determine an artist's royalty payout.
But which countries pay the best on Spotify? Which countries pay the worst? And which countries should we be targeting?
Let's dive into which countries pay the most per stream on Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Out of all of the artists on Spotify, there are 20 that hold the top spots in terms of Spotify listeners and Spotify followers. And these global artists have fans from all over the world.
But out of all of those listeners and followers, do they have anything in common? Is there a pattern to be found with respect to who is listening to Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and The Weeknd?
Well, it turns out, there is.
I sought to uncover who's listening to the top artists on Spotify, and this is what I found.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Spotify has recently announced that it will be joining the likes of Reddit, Meta, and Twitter by integrating NFTs into its platform. It is currently testing an NFT gallery integration with a couple of artists in the United States to see how it is received.
Despite the fact that the overall crypto market has cooled in recent months, NFTs remain a formidable technology with massive potential.
So will this new Spotify integration go the distance? Or will it be another tested product that doesn't make the cut?
Let's dig into why Spotify is adding an NFT gallery to artist profiles.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Carrd is one of the most powerful no-code website builders out there, and it is perfect for artists. Whether you need a landing page or a link in bio, Carrd has you covered.
But what if there was a way to create your website and you link in bio, all at your own domain? Well, with Carrd, you can do that.
Here's how I built my artist website with Carrd to have my desktop website and my mobile link in bio all in the same place.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Email marketing is the overlooked, unsung hero of music marketing. We spend a lot of time on social media and advertising platforms, but the ultimate goal is the email address.
If you can email your fans and listeners, they are officially in your network, and that's precisely what we want.
I've been testing a Facebook and Instagram ad retargeting strategy to capture listener email addresses for the past couple of weeks, and these are the results.
Here's how I capture emails from my Spotify listeners.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Instagram is a great place to advertise your music on Spotify. But did you know that you can take all of those Instagram comments, likes, shares, and follows and turn them into an audience with Facebook ads?
Creating a custom audience and a lookalike audience from your Instagram engagement is a highly effective method to supercharge your follower growth on Spotify.
This is how to create a lookalike audience from Instagram engagement using Facebook ads.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Facebook traffic ads are a simple, yet highly effective way to grow your fanbase on Spotify. And if you want to put forth the most professional look in your ads, using your own branded domain with a link redirect is a great place to start.
But are link redirects allowed in Facebook advertising? Are Facebook's advertising policies clear on the subject?
Let's dig into Facebook's advertising policies and tools to answer the question: can I use a link redirect in my Facebook ads for Spotify?
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I have been waiting for a next-gen music platform that combines music streaming, distribution, and music NFTs all in one place. And now, I've finally found it.
Emanate is a true "all-in-one" music platform of the future. It allows you to sell music NFTs, collect royalties from traditional streaming platforms, and earn cryptocurrency royalties from your music directly on-platform.
This is an overview of Emanate - music streaming, distribution, & NFTs, all in one place.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Why do we even need to worry about marketing our music? What are we trying to gain? Is it streams on Spotify? Followers? Listeners? Video views?
My thought is that most of us haven't considered the end goal of marketing our music. Instead, we're constantly stuck at square one, trying to build a following on Spotify. But why?
Well, this is why I think we should be marketing our music.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Facebook traffic ads are a simple, yet highly effective tool to grow your fanbase on Spotify–easy to implement and useful for gaining Spotify followers as well as Spotify streams.
I've managed to increase my Spotify follower count by over 400 over the past two months by using nothing more than traffic ads on Facebook.
This is a complete walkthrough of how to set up Facebook traffic ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Music NFTs continue to be a revolutionary way for artists to monetize their work and for fans to support the musicians they love the most. And one of my favorite new platforms on the scene is Mint Songs.
Mint Songs is a music NFT platform built on Polygon. This means it's fast and cheap, a perfect combination for the independent artist community.
So let's dive into my favorite music NFT platform on Polygon: Mint Songs.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Being an independent artist is a ton of work. And when any one of us starts, there's no roadmap to follow. We have to figure it out as we go.
For me, there are a few things I wish I had known (and embraced) about being an independent artist earlier.
These are the 10 things I wish I knew before I became an artist.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I recently began testing Snapchat ads to grow my Spotify followers, listeners, and streams. Having come from using Facebook ads for Spotify over the past couple of years, I was excited to get started with Snapchat's advertising platform.
Setting up ads with Snapchat is a breeze and felt very familiar when it came to using it to market my music on Spotify.
This is an in-depth look at getting started with Snapchat ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Being a "content creator" is often an insulting term for musicians and recording artists, but it's a necessary part of the game. But how do we go about creating engaging content around our music without making everything about our current release?
Whether you're an artist making content for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or something else, there are a few different ways to craft your content strategy so that you serve and entertain your audience on a regular basis.
This is my content creation strategy for Artists and Musicians.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I have used Facebook conversion ads to send traffic to Spotify for the past year and a half. I've grown my Spotify followers, Spotify streams, and Spotify listeners like clockwork.
But recently, Facebook's pixel and conversion tracking have had some serious issues. There have been lots of conversion reporting problems from Facebook, making data untrustworthy at best and unusable at worst.
As a result, I have switched all of my Spotify advertising over to traffic ads. This is why I stopped using Facebook conversion ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I recently released my second waterfall release of the year: "Dark: When We Were Young". For this release, I ran a Facebook conversion campaign as I always have.
But the results were not as expected.
Let's break down the release data on Spotify for Artists and inside of Facebook Business Manager to figure out what went down. This is a look inside my Spotify release campaign for "Dark: When We Were Young".
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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For the past two months, I have been targeting my Facebook ads to grow my Spotify followers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.
After spending the past year gaining almost 10,000 followers on Spotify on over half a million streams, I decided to get more thoughtful with who I'm targeting and why.
But the question is: does it actually work? Can you grow your following in the United States with Facebook ads? Well, in this video, we find out.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Everybody knows I love music NFTs. And most of you know how much I love Fanfare. It's one of the easiest ways out there to mint your music NFTs.
And it just got easier. Fanfare recently reimagined their entire platform from the ground up, and it's now easier to mint NFTs of your music than ever before. Not only that, but you can now add exclusive benefits to your music NFTs as well.
Let's walk through minting music NFTs with Fanfare.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I'm testing a waterfall release strategy for all of 2022, and it all begins with my first release of the year: "Dark: To The Wolves".
I dropped this first release of 2022 on Friday, January 21st, and, as always, I used Facebook ads to promote it.
So let's break down the results of this release and pick through every detail of how I set it up, how much I spent, and what I plan to do next time.
This is my Spotify Release strategy for "Dark: To The Wolves".
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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One of the most common Facebook ad concerns I hear is that artists are getting a lot of traffic in countries outside of the United States. Most musicians seem to want to grow in the US but just don't know how.
For the past year, I have been experiencing amazing growth in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, and Brazil, and for most artists first starting out with Facebook ads for Spotify, the results are likely the same.
So how do we prioritize growth in the countries we want?
Well, this is a walkthrough of precisely how I've gone about it. Let's take a look at my long-term strategy on how to improve your targeting with Facebook ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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The music NFT ecosystem is growing like crazy. So is the entire ecosystem of Solana NFTs. And there is now a brand new platform for trading NFTs on Solana, but there's a twist.
VAULT is a completely new model for NFTs. It allows artists, musicians, and more to create exclusive NFTs for their audience, all hidden inside a vault. And the key itself is a tradable NFT.
This is a complete guide to VAULT–what it is, how it works, and how to get started. This is how to create exclusive music NFTs for your fans with VAULT.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Ever wondered how to get started with licensing your music for film and television? Me too. That's why I was so excited to sit down and chat with Eric Copeland from Make Music Income. Eric is a wealth of knowledge on sync licensing for film, television, and videos games, as well as adding your songs to stock music libraries. He was gracious enough to share every detail with me so I can share it with you. If you've ever been curious about getting into music licensing, this is the video for you. Let's talk sync licensing and stock music libraries with Make Music Income. Watch the original video on my YouTube channel. Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Using Facebook ads, I've grown to almost 10,000 followers on Spotify and have earned a consistent cohort of monthly listeners in the process. But now that I've seen this kind of growth in my Spotify followers and in my Spotify streams, it's time to start prioritizing my audience in more specific locations instead of just globally.
It's time to start growing my Spotify audience inside the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
For 2022, I've created an entirely new Spotify Growth campaign to find new Spotify followers in the United States and other English-speaking countries. This is how I'm targeting the US with Facebook Conversion ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, NFTs, crypto, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, music NFTs, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Music NFTs are continuing to grow in popularity. Non-fungible tokens have the potential to completely reimagine how art is valued and how artists are compensated.
Barrie at NFT Music Info has been digging into this topic on his YouTube channel for a while, and as you know, I'm no stranger to music NFTs myself.
We recently sat down to discuss the current state of music NFTs, our favorite platforms, as well as some predictions for what the future could hold in this space.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I generally tend to favor Instagram story ads when I'm marketing my music on Instagram to send traffic to Spotify. But sometimes, I do like to test other placements as well.
Rather than creating a new ad for every placement, I prefer to give each placement its own, original ad, all within one single "ad" at the ad level inside of Facebook's ad manager.
This is a step-by-step guide to customizing every Instagram ad placement inside of Facebook ads.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Ethereum's high gas fees have made the blockchain all but unusable for minting, selling, and trading non-fungible tokens on the mainnet. Eth 2 promises to fix this, but when?
If you're looking to create your own music NFTs without the high cost, there are other options out there that will allow you to mint and sell your own tokens at a fraction of the cost of Ethereum.
Here are three blockchain alternatives to beat Ethereum's high gas fees.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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There is a right way and a wrong way to test new elements of a Facebook ad campaign. The right way is to duplicate what you have and make adjustments to the new version. The wrong way is to pop the hood and start fiddling with what's currently working.
If you try to make tweaks to what's working, there's a high chance you're going to throw it out of whack and have to start from scratch.
This is a great example of why you need to stop messing with your Facebook ads.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The rise of streaming as the dominant means of consuming music has brought with it a whole new way of thinking about releasing new music. Where we once looked to the full-length album as the definitive release cycle, we've recently leaned far more heavily on singles.
And while releasing singles is the better move in the age of Spotify, there is still a way to capitalize on that method while still releasing a complete body of work at the same time.
It's time to talk about the Waterfall Release strategy.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Tracking your performance on Spotify is crucial to understanding how you are growing as an independent artist. If you are marketing your music on a consistent basis, whether using Facebook ads or even playlisting (not recommended), you need to know how your numbers stack up.
There are a lot of tools out there to find and view your data, but out of all the options available, there are a few free resources that I use the most.
These are the data sources I use to track my Spotify artist and song performance data.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I recently tested new ad creative ad set targeting inside my Instagram Growth campaign, and the results were... poor. But I still learned a lot.
In this episode, we pick through all of the new elements I tested with Facebook ads to grow my followers on Instagram. We look at the results, what went wrong, and how we might go about fixing it in the future.
This is how to make Instagram ads that don't work.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Gaining followers on Spotify can be a tricky endeavor, especially if you're pitching your music to independent Spotify playlists instead of utilizing Facebook ads.
Using Facebook conversion ads, I was able to grow my Spotify followers from less than 100 to over 5,000 within the span of one year.
This is is how I gained 5,000 followers on Spotify in one year using Facebook ads.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This is a weekly live stream Q&A session where we discuss music, marketing, branding, business, entrepreneurship, and anything else you guys wanna jam on.
Every week we cover topics like Facebook ads for Spotify, growing your Instagram following, mastering Spotify for Artists, Spotify algorithmic playlists, cryptocurrency, the creator economy, and much, much more.
Did you miss this one? Join us next time, Fridays at 12 PM Central Time U.S.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
There are two broad categories of playlists on Spotify: Spotify's own editorial and algorithmic playlists, and user-generated independent playlists, with the latter becoming its own burgeoning industry in the realm of independent music.
Though many artists think submitting music to independent playlists is a great method of gaining traction, it couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the best way to get added to user-generated playlists isn't to submit to them, it's to leverage Spotify's algorithmic growth. After that, the playlist adds will come pouring in.
So stop wasting your time (and your money) chasing streams from third-party playlists and start focusing on earning new fans and building your business as an independent artist. The rest will follow.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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I've heard it said that B+ content with A+ consistency is a winning strategy. And for me, that has certainly been the case on Instagram. Consistently posting to Instagram has helped me grow my followers and increase engagement in a huge way.
Now, when it comes to creating consistent, quality content, you have to think (and plan) ahead. My favorite way to do that is with Facebook's Creator Studio and Business Suite app.
This is how I create my content for Instagram and schedule it in advance, so I can consistently execute a winning content strategy.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Setting up a Facebook ad account can be a daunting process, especially when you're just getting started. But whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, there are a few things you can do to make sure you're set up for success.
These are the five basic setup guidelines I've come to use when creating a Facebook ad account to send traffic to Spotify. These steps will help you stay organized, grow your business, and simplify your music marketing efforts.
Use these five tips to set up your Facebook ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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At the beginning of 2021, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) exploded in popularity. And though the hype may have lessened over the past several months, rest assured, the potential isn't going anywhere.
If you're an independent artist looking to expand your business and your brand, you need to be paying attention to NFTs and crypto at large. The creator economy is just getting started, and NFTs are an amazing way to invest in your future as an artist.
But not all NFT platforms are created equally. Let's walk through my three current favorite NFT platforms, their benefits, and their downsides.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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If you're an artist looking to grow your fans, your following, or your streams on Spotify, understanding your data is critical. And while Spotify for Artists has a lot of amazing information, it doesn't quite capture the full picture of growth as an artist.
Over the past year, I've put together and refined a spreadsheet of my own to capture Spotify for Artists data, advertising data, and more, all in one place. This spreadsheet has been an integral part of my growth as an artist on Spotify, and it has been a deciding factor in my success with algorithmic playlists on the platform, like Discover Weekly and Release Radar.
Let's break down exactly how I track all of this information, and why it's so important to your growth as an independent artist.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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In 2021, collaboration is the name of the game when it comes to releasing new music, and when you're releasing new music with a team, you want to make sure everyone gets paid accordingly.
Enter: Splits from DistroKid. Splits makes it super-easy to divvy up ownership of your music when releasing to Spotify, Apple Music, or anywhere else. You can make sure every member of your team gets their cut, and you can even ensure those who put in money upfront are the first to get reimbursed on the backend.
DistoKid's "Splits" is the latest edition of my Monthly Favorites. It's a great tool to help expand your business as an artist.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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My song, "Lions", recently crossed the 100,000 stream mark on Spotify, and I'm shook. This time last year, that number would have been inconceivable to me, let alone attainable.
I used a combination of Instagram and YouTube organic marketing, along with Facebook ads to market my song and grow my fanbase.
These are the music marketing strategies I used to leverage Spotify's algorithm and land my song on Release Rader, Discover Weekly, and a slew of other Spotify playlists.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Spotify recently released the results from their first-ever Fan Study, where they broke down tons of user data into 15 insights to help us grow as artists on the platform.
Pulling all their data from Spotify for Artists over the past several years, they were able to put together a collection of important takeaways from streams, to listener behavior, to merch. It's all there.
I read through the entire Spotify Fan Study to pull out what I think are the top 5 key takeaways that we can use to improve our music marketing and grow our businesses and our revenue as artists in the creator economy.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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For the longest time, I struggled to grow on Instagram. I couldn't find good engagement on the platform and never seemed to get any love from the Instagram algorithm. I would post consistently for a while and then ultimately burn out.
I finally managed to change that.
Using a few simple mental hacks, I have managed to consistently hit publish on Instagram content on a dedicated content schedule for the past six months. I have also doubled my following over the past year.
These are the three simples steps I use to stay consistent on Instagram and reliably grow my following over time. Hope it helps!
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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In a world dominated by social media, does an artist need a website? And if so, what is the best website-building tool for artists?
In my opinion, it's Carrd. Carrd is a simple, easy-to-use website builder that is perfect for artists and musicians. It has all of the features you need and none you don't.
I recently redesigned my website with Carrd, and I have been loving it. If you want to build a website for your music business, I definitely recommend you try Carrd.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your ads just don't perform well. And even when you think you've got things all figured out, Facebook can throw you a curveball and keep your ad costs high and your Spotify streams low.
So what do you do when your Facebook ads don't perform? Well, all isn't lost. And there's a very big difference between a failed ad campaign and a less-than-successful ad campaign.
This is how I managed to stick with it and get my song, "Holding On", on Release Radar despite poor ad results.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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Audius is the first fully decentralized music streaming platform. They are putting the power back in the hands of both artists and fans alike.
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are at the forefront of reconfiguring the creator economy as we know it, and Audius has positioned itself as the early leader in the music streaming space.
Will Audius replace SoundClouud? Can they beat Spotify? Only time will tell.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
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For the past week, I have been testing two new ad sets inside of my Spotify Growth Campaign with Facebook ads. With both new ad sets, I opted to incorporate lookalike audience expansion as well as detailed targeting expansion.
While I've had mixed results with these audience targeting features in the past, this time around, they were a hit. I even managed to pull off an accidental Discover Weekly push!
This is an inside look at how I structured these new ad sets and how the results fared compared to the existing ad set that I've been using to grow my audience on Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Dropping a new track brings a lot of steps with it, not least of which is scheduling your Facebook ads to start on release day.
But how do you create the campaign when the link to your new song isn't available on Spotify?
Well, rest assured, there's a way.
Let's walk through my method for building your ToneDen link and scheduling your Facebook ad campaign in advance of your Spotify release so you can take full advantage of release day.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
If your Facebook ad account has gotten banned even though you're pretty sure you've done nothing wrong, don't worry, you're not alone. This is happening to a lot of people right now.
Whether you're trying to get Spotify followers, promote a new release, or trigger the Spotify algorithms for Release Radar and Discover Weekly, you need your Facebook ad account to be up and running.
If Facebook has flagged you for policy violations and shut down your ad account, there may be some steps we can take to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Targeting your Spotify audience using Facebook ads can be a tall order. I've tested all sorts of tactics and strategies to grow my followers on Spotify and increase my stream count.
For the past couple of months, I've been testing the concept of Spotify Trigger Cities alongside my existing ad set that's been targeting all available Spotify territories. I also added in a second ad set that pulled the best countries from my Spotify for Artists data to create what I'm calling a Spotify Trigger Countries ad set.
I ran this experiment on Facebook for the past two months, and these are my results.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Making the switch from trying to get on Spotify playlists through platforms like SubmitHub and Playlist Push to using Facebook ads for direct marketing to your Spotify audience can be a bit overwhelming at first, especially when it comes to targeting and getting your Facebook ads to work well.
Rest assured the beginning is the hardest part. As you continue forward, you can use custom audiences and lookalike audiences to improve the effectiveness of your conversion ads and drive more traffic to your Spotify profile for less.
More Spotify streams, more Spotify followers, and more Spotify playlist placements.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The realm of non-fungible tokens is still a relatively new venture for most of us, and there are still lots of questions about the space.
The most frequent question I've gotten is about how to sell your music as an NFT. If you've ever wondered how to do it, this is the video for you.
Let's walk through how to sell your music as a non-fungible token (and much more).
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Facebook ads are the only paid advertising I use to promote my music on Spotify. And when it comes to Facebook ads, I specifically use two types of campaigns: a growth campaign and a release campaign.
This is the breakdown of each campaign type, how they differ, and what they accomplish.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The life of the modern musician is a complex web of platforms and content, and it can be tough to keep track of it all, especially when you're trying to run a business.
It's critical to know where you're headed and how you're going to get there.
Enter: The Artist Flywheel.
The Artist Flywheel is a concept I use to organize my business, increase my leverage, and grow my income as an artist and content creator.
It has helped me tremendously. I think it will help you too.
This is The Artist Flywheel - How to Build Your Business.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Spotify playlisting is a widely popular method of marketing your music, and even though I focus exclusively on Facebook ads to promote my music at this point, I still get asked about playlisting a lot.
And the truth is, I don't hate it. I just think most people are going about it the wrong way.
Here's how we can take advantage of Spotify playlists the right way.
This is how Spotify playlists actually work.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The concept of trigger cities for Spotify is something I'm just recently learning about, but the concept is fascinating.
These are cities all across the globe that offer a lower cost to advertise coupled with a higher rate of engagement. In short, these cities are filled with people who are hungry for new music.
This is a breakdown of Spotify trigger cities, what they are, and how they work.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Last week, Square announced their acquisition of TIDAL, the streaming platform owned by Jay-Z. This news comes on the back of Square's CEO, Jack Dorsey, partnering with Jay-Z on the creation of a 500 Bitcoin trust.
I think it's safe to say something is up.
Square just bought TIDAL (and a ton of Bitcoin), and it's time to figure out what all this means.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This year's Spotify Stream On event brought a lot of great announcements with it. From Canvas to Hi-Fi audio, we have a lot to look forward to this year.
But some things caught my attention more than others. This is a rundown of some of the more notable features we can expect to see from Spotify in 2021, and, specifically, the three I am most excited about (and I think you should be too).
Spotify Stream On: what to expect in 2021.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
There is more than one way to promote your music on Spotify. Some opt for submitting to playlists. Others prefer paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
But is one better than the other? And if so, why?
Let's break it down: Facebook ads vs Spotify playlists. Who wins, and why?
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Bitcoin, and blockchain technology in general, is one of the most transformative things to come along in the last decade. It has impacted the financial industry on a global scale, to the tune of trillions of dollars.
But what happens when blockchain technology inevitably expands into other areas?
More specifically, what about the music business?
These are three ways I think blockchain technology could fundamentally alter the way we create, distribute, and ultimately, earn money from, music.
This is how Bitcoin could break the music business.
Learn more about the concepts from this episode: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, Non-Fungible Tokens.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I released my song "Lions" on January 15th, 2021. In the three and a half weeks since its release, it has amassed just shy of 40,000 streams.
Wow.
This has been, by far, my most successful release to date. So, naturally, I'm going to share with you exactly how I did it.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I know there are a lot of you out there who are concerned about the upcoming changes to Facebook ads as a result of Apple's iOS 14.
First, let me say this: everything is going to be fine.
In fact, bringing your ad manager up to compliance is not as scary as you might think.
This is your guide to keep your ads working with Facebook ads and iOS 14–a step by step walkthrough.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Finding your audience can be tough, especially when you're first starting out. And it can be even more difficult to keep up with the constant demand for content across all the various platforms that now exist.
But there is a way to grow your fanbase that produces results and won't lead to burnout.
Find your fans on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. These are five tips that work!
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Marketing your music is a tough game. It requires lots of research and testing. But even then, it doesn't always pay off.
In 2020, I spent $2500 testing all sorts of methods to reach an audience with my music. Some worked. Some didn't.
This is how I spent $2500 on Spotify music marketing in 2020, and here's what happened.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The music industry has experienced a fundamental shift within the past five years. We now consume, share, and create music completely differently than we ever have before.
As independent artists, it is important that we continually adapt to the landscape of our market.
Music used to be held to a different form of creation and release than most of the other platforms we know and love.
But that's changed.
It's time to start thinking of music as content.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
A common sentiment I hear across creative communities is that you need to "stay in your lane".
Nope. Disagree.
Now, more than ever is the time to NOT stay in your lane, to get out of your comfort zone and take chances on what you love.
It is only by testing, trying, failing, and learning, by hitting publish on a bunch of different content, that we are able to truly identify the intersection of what we're good at and what we love.
So this year, in 2021, take chances, get out of your comfort zone, and don't stay in your lane.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Ever feel like using Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify is a huge waste of money? Can't seem to get your conversion costs down? Spending more than you want?
I've felt this way too. Odds are, you're doing the same thing I was.
Making edits to your ads during the learning phase.
This one issue can tank your results and waste your money.
Stop wasting money on Facebook ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
All too often, a brand new Facebook ad campaign will kick off with lackluster results. High cost per conversion, low to no conversions at all, or, the worst, lots of conversions but no streams on Spotify.
Rest assured, we've all been there.
This is your guide to fixing some common problems when your Facebook ads aren't' performing well.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
There are several different strategies to employ when running Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. You can start strong and taper off, start small and scale up, or simply set your budget and forget it.
But they all have one thing in common: if you're going to make budget adjustments, you need to do it the right way.
Get it wrong and you could cause your campaign to re-enter the learning phase and lose some valuable data in the process.
This is a walkthrough of adjusting your Spotify campaign budget with Facebook ads - the right way.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
It can often seem like there is no clear path to making money from Spotify streams. But there is away.
It just takes time.
I like to refer to it as the "snowball effect", and it is a method of consistently growing your followers, and therefore, leverage, on Spotify so that you can decrease your ad spend and increase your revenue over time.
This is the trick to making money with Facebook Ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Every time you release a new song, it makes sense to start a brand new ad campaign to promote it. And when you start a new campaign for your new song, it makes sense to turn the previous campaigns off, right?
Wrong.
You should always keep your highest-performing Facebook ad campaign up and running.
This is a strategy I use to overlap existing campaigns with new ones to ensure I never lose my best one.
Keep your good Facebook ad campaigns going.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
TikTok is one of the most transformative things to happen to the music industry in the last several years. Many artists have launched mega careers on the back of a single song's success on TikTok.
So, naturally, many independent musicians are now flocking to the platform to be heard and find their audience.
But how do you get your song into the hands of the right TikTok creators?
Well, Playlist Push has recently launched a brand new way to contact TikTok creators through their platform, giving artists access to thousands of fans and, potentially, millions of views.
I recently ran a TikTok campaign through Playlist Push and these are the results.
This is running a successful TikTok Campaign with Playlist Push.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Try Playlist Push for yourself. Get 7.5% off your first campaign with the code: XTXL33Z
When you start a new Facebook ad campaign, you want it to perform well right out of the gate. The problem is, that usually doesn't happen.
Every campaign always seems to have this period of complete volatility right at the beginning.
Well, Facebook has a name for that. It's called the Learning Phase. And it's an important part of getting your ads to optimize properly.
This is understanding the Learning Phase with Facebook Ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
When you're running Facebook Ads for Spotify, you want to split test options at every level of your campaign. And part of that means testing different audience targeting options to bring you ad costs down.
But, just with testing ad creative, there's a right way and a wrong way.
This is my experience with doing everything wrong to arrive at a better way of testing ad set targeting with Facebook Ads for Spotify.
Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
This episode is pulled from a YouTube video I published in April of 2020. Here is the description from that video:
In 2018, I had an epiphany: I was a hypocrite. I was giving loads of advice to others, but I wasn't doing any of it myself.
I decided to step away and re-evaluate.
Fast forward to 2020 and I have released a bunch of music, I just dropped my first music video, and I am constantly testing and trying new things, all while creating content around what I am doing.
I am no longer a hypocrite. I am a practitioner.
This is a video about why that journey unfolded the way it did and what that means for the future.
This is the "why" behind what I do - how I became an artist at 34 years old.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
When running Facebook ads for Spotify, split testing is a crucial step in the optimization process, but it is possible to overdo it.
I know from experience.
Take it from me, more options aren't always better. While you should always be a/b testing your ad creative, going overboard can destroy your campaign results and cost you a lot of money in the process.
Don't over-complicate your Facebook ads for Spotify.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
When you drop a new song, you want your ads to perform well and drive lots of traffic to your Spotify profile within the first week. But how do you know which ad will resonate the best with your audience?
The short answer is: you don't.
The best way to overcome this is to split-test several different creative options at once, and let Facebook's algorithm do the heavy lifting for you.
In this episode, I show you how to split test Facebook ads for Spotify.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The word "brand" can be mysterious at times. What does it mean? How does it apply to music or being an artist? And what if I get it wrong? How do I fix it?
In this episode, I walk you through what being a "brand" actually means and how to make adjustments along the way until you get it right.
This is branding yourself as an artist (and when to change it).
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
When it comes to using Facebook Ads to drive traffic to Spotify, I've made my fair share of mistakes. Well, maybe more than my fair share.
But in my book, failures are teachable moments. So I want to share some of my biggest ones with the hope that it will help you avoid the same missteps.
These are the top 10 biggest mistakes I've made with Facebook Ads for Spotify.
Like this episode of the podcast? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Whatever the reasons, sometimes an artist's name just needs to be changed on streaming platforms. Unfortunately, most digital distributors will tell you it's just not possible.
The common solution that is presented is to just delete your old profile and re-upload your music to a new one.
I'm here to tell you that you don't have to do that.
It turns out changing your artist name on Spotify (and every other store) is not only possible, it's actually not quite as complicated as you might think.
You want to change your artist name on Spotify? Here's how I did it.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
So you've driven some traffic to your Spotify profile with Facebook Ads. Now what? What do you do with those new listeners who are excited about your music? Well, you tell them about the next song you have coming out. And the next one. And the next one.
But odds are your fans aren't just on Facebook and Instagram. They're on YouTube too. And Twitter.
So how do you get to them?
I use a website called PixelMe. In short, PixelMe allows you to embed pixels from multiple sources into one clean link that you can use for your ad campaigns. This allows you to retarget your audience no matter where they are.
In this episode, I'm going to walk you through how to retarget your Spotify listeners across multiple platforms using PixelMe.
Try PixelMe free for 7 days: https://pixelme.grsm.io/tomdupreeiii6148.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GrYsB0AJGfA.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
Staying home has never been more important than in 2020. But that doesn't mean you need to sit around twiddling your thumbs.
As social distancing and quarantine continue to impact our lives, the creative process is becoming increasingly remote out of sheer necessity.
As someone who has been at the remote music game for over five years, I can tell you a thing or two about what works to build your career from the comfort of your own home.
These are my three must-haves to become a successful remote musician.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I have long been trying to crack the code on how to legitimately grow my audience on Spotify without going through gatekeepers or playlisters and without padding my streaming numbers (even accidentally).
It seems like most of the options out there present great opportunities to boost your numbers but don't really provide much true growth potential as an artist.
Well, I think I've finally figured it out.
I recently began experimenting with Facebook Ads to drive traffic to my Spotify profile, and, through much trial and error, I believe I've finally cracked the code on how to gain real fans, real followers, and real engagement.
In this episode, I unpack all of the data, all of the results of my recent two-week experiment, and I show you exactly how to repeat what I've done using Facebook Ad Manager.
This is how I doubled my Spotify followers in two weeks.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
The right Spotify release strategy can mean the difference between gaining fans every day and wracking your brain about what you're doing wrong.
Trust me, I know.
The key to growing your fanbase, especially as a new artist, is consistency. You have to consistently release good music on a regular basis.
Sounds simple, right? In many ways, it really is.
Flooding the market with all of your music at once, in the form of an EP or full-length album, can be counterproductive to building a lasting fanbase and, ultimately, growing your business.
In this episode of Sounds of the Future, I share the reasons why you should be releasing singles on Spotify and not EPs or albums.
Like this episode? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!
I recently came across fellow YouTuber and absolute-gem-of-a-human-being Andrew Southworth's channel when a video of his was recommended to me in the comments of one of my own. Long story short, I latched onto his content immediately and started making my way down the rabbit hole, learning as much as I could from him.
Less than a week after discovering his channel, he cold-emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in making a couple of collab videos–one for his channel and one for mine.
Needless to say, I was pumped!
In this episode of Sounds of the Future, Andrew helps me make sense of just how to win when using Facebook Ads for music promotion. He provides valuable insight into how to make the platform work best for you and what opportunities provide the highest ROI, currently. He also, at my behest, shares some of his marketing experiments that turned out to be complete disasters.
There is a ton to learn here. I hope you'll get as much out of it as I did.
Check out Andrew's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/andrewsouthworth.
Watch my interview on Andrew's channel: https://youtu.be/ONelEM0-xLA.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
So you wanna get your song added to playlists on Spotify, huh? And you're thinking about using Playlist Push to do that? Trust me, I hear ya. Here are 3 things you need to know before using Playlist Push.
Want to try Playlist Push for yourself? Get 7.5% off your first campaign with the code: XTXL33Z
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
This is the definitive guide to SubmitHub, the only video you need to watch if you want to succeed at getting your song picked up by blogs, influencers, and Spotify playlisters through their platform.
I recently connected with the site's creator, Jason Grishkoff, via Skype, and he walked me through the entire submission process, providing one-of-a-kind insight into what curators look for, which options to choose when pitching your song, how to do your research the right way, and so much more.
If you want to maximize your chances for success on SubmitHub, this is the video for you.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
There are seemingly endless ways to make money online as a musician these days. A big come up for me has been SoundBetter. Whether you're a music producer, mixing engineer or a session musician, SoundBetter is the place to be for landing gigs and winning remote clients. As a premium provider for the past several years, I have earned over 200 five-star reviews and have worked with clients from every continent.
In this episode of Sounds of the Future, I'll tell you how you can set yourself up for the same kind of success by giving you 5 steps to make money online with SoundBetter.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
I spent just over $1,000 on Spotify playlist promotion in 2019. In this episode, I break down where that money went, which services I used, how many streams I got, and how much money I earned as a result. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my video The Results of Using Playlist Push for some context. And you can also watch the video version of this episode on my YouTube channel.
Here are the services I used: Playlist Push (Get 7.5% off your first campaign with the code: XTXL33Z Are you a playlist curator? Use this link), SubmitHub, SpotiFLY, Soundplate, Indiemono, Klangspot, DistroKid (Get started with DistroKid using my VIP link and get 7% off your subscription for the first year), & Amuse.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
There are a ton of ways to get our music into the ears of new listeners, but how will we know what works and what doesn't if we don't try a few things? This week, I tested out a few options for music promotion on Fiverr, and though I came back with mixed results, I did learn a few important things that I think are worth sharing. Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
Recording interfaces have come a long way, specifically, the way we interact with our music and our controls throughout the recording process. But the increasing effectiveness of both touch screen and voice technology are changing the way we engage with our digital environment. If anything is primed to be disrupted by this trend, I fear it is our good friends the mouse and the keyboard. Where simple transport controls once ruled, I believe they are on their way to ruling once more, but this time, they'll be digital.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
There are so many ways to earn revenue as a musician these days, it's silly to put all your eggs in one basket. Being an original artist doesn't prevent you from producing records for other people or from starting a YouTube channel. From sample packs to podcasts, the options for earning a living doing what you love are endless. Diversify your skills, diversify your efforts, and put all of the tools available to you to work.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner, and with it comes an internet-wide concert from Taylor Swift that is free to all Prime members. There is speculation that this single concert could break the viewership record of this year's SuperBowl. Sounds like a headline from the future, right? Well, it's real. This is happening now. Concerts are luxury not everyone can afford, but that doesn't mean everyone can't get access to their favorite bands and artists in a live setting. Streaming and VR are changing the way we interact with the music we love, and while live shows aren't going away, they are becoming much more accessible.
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
What is art if not exploration? Sticking only to what we know is not a recipe for creativity. For a long time, the business of music has encouraged artists to keep within the confines of "what they do", but I firmly believe the opposite to be true., especially in the free and digital climate of today. Some of the greatest artists and creators in history never would have given us the timeless works for which they are known had they played it safe. I recommend none of us play it safe either. Enjoying Sounds of the Future?
Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
Music ins't just about quality anymore. It's about quantity too. Unless you're a blue-chip, platinum-selling artist, annual release schedules and full-length records are a thing of the past. For all of us in the middle class of music, release frequency matters. It's not enough to be creating music. You have to be doing it consistently. And often.
Enjoying Sounds of the Future? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
Like beauty, failure is in the eye of the beholder. We can either choose to let our failures define us, or we can choose to see them for the educational opportunities they are. In this episode, I tell my own stories of failure, both perceived and actual, on my journey as a songwriter, producer, and ultimately, as an artist. My hope is that my failures might help you to minimize yours.
Enjoying Sounds of the Future? Hit me up on Twitter (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought of this episode!
Artists and bands have traditionally been figures with a certain mystery to them. While making their music accessible to the world, they themselves have been somehow separate from the rest of society. And in keeping with that motif, the release cycles of albums and the scarcity of behind=the-scenes footage has supported that mysterious detachment. But the format is changing, accessibility is changing, and what constitutes an artist's persona and release schedule is changing as well.
Connect with me on Twitter (@TomDuPreeIII) and let me know what you think of this episode!
So many companies, products, and services for music creation are embracing the technology of modeling analog sound in the digital space. It is, without a doubt, the democratization of accessibility to high-end gear for all musicians. And while we have come a long way with regard to modeling in the realm of input, much less seems to have been accomplished in the realm of playback. In this week's episode of Sounds Of The Future, I hypothesize as to why that might be, and I take things a step further into the realm of where I think this trend is going.
As mentioned in the episode: Waves NX, Isone by Toneboosters, Reference 3 by Sonarworks.
Connect with me on Twitter (@TomDuPreeIII) and let me know what you think of this episode!
The world is growing increasingly smaller with the advent of technology, making cross-border collaboration a reality now more than ever,. And though there are many digital audio workstations available that can be used to create music, I believe cloud-based systems are the next big step in recording.
As mentioned in the episode: BandLab, Soundtrap, and Melosity.
Connect with me on Twitter (@TomDuPreeIII) and let me know what you think of this episode!
It is now more important than ever to consistently deliver music and content to your audience as a musician. But, as many know, this can lead to burnout if left unchecked. The opposite to that is taking your time to such a degree that you become irrelevant or forgotten. I believe there is a balance between moving quickly to release new material and being intelligent and thoughtful about the moves you make. Speed does not need to come at the expense of a well-executed plan.
From the episode: Check out my daily vlog on YouTube.
Connect with me on Twitter (@TomDuPreeIII) and let me know what you think of this episode!
The music industry has a long and checkered past built around a select few holding most of the cards. And more often than not, those who have held the cards have not been those who have created the music to begin with. But times are changing. If the recent news of Spotify suing songwriters has shown us anything, it's that the 800 pound gorilla in the room isn't quite as strong when it bites the hand that feeds it. With technology comes transparency, and with transparency comes democracy. It's no mystery that there is now, more than ever, an opportunity to create a career in music without being held back by the powers that be, but I believe we are just getting started and that the next decade will likely redefine what it means to be a career musician.
From the episode: Spotify suing songwriters and the practice of payola.
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From Snapchat filters to mobile gaming, Augmented Reality, or AR for short, has already had a profound impact on how we engage with each other. But I think we have only seen the surface of what this technology will do in the coming years. We currently like to insert fabricated things into real life, but what about inserting real life into real life via AR? A music video on your coffe table, a concert in your living room, or a studio session without having to leave your home? I believe these are some of the possibilities of the future as musicians haness the power of this technology.
As mentioned in the episode: Adam Savage tests Magic Leap augmented reality goggles on YouTube.
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After taking the last month off from TDIII Talk, I’m back with a bit of an explanation. In short, the existing format of talk, text, and video, all published twice per week, became a chore beyond my bandwidth. I’m now back with a renewed focus and a much more specific sense of purpose for the podcast. All in a manageable audio-only format.
As mentioned in the episode: The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly. This book changed how I think about the future. I cannot recommend it enough.
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Nobody plays the streaming game to win better than the lo-fi community. The most successful producers release more music than many other artists combined. But that's not all they do well. Song length is an important part of the equation too.
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So you want to get people to listen to your music, right? Here are three ways to help you do just that.
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Everyone knows Spotify is in the business of music. With over 80 million paid subscribers, they are the juggernaut of audio streaming. But Spotify's interests go much deeper than that if you ask me.
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Wireless headphone technology is amazing for listening to music but terrible for creating it. Will this change anytime soon?
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Spotify put creative control even further into the hands of independent artists with the release of Spotify For Artists. Apple has followed suit with Apple Music for Artists. But what about the rest of the field? Is this the next step in the evolution of independent music on all streaming platforms?
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The future of music creation is mobile, so why hasn't Apple added its best pro-level audio app to the iPad and the iPhone?
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The best way to learn anything is simply to take the first step and do it. There is no replacement for taking action.
You need to consistently release music of varying levels of completion to win in today's digital music marketplace.
Now matter your age, there is never a better time than now to get to work doing what you love.
Creativity is all about taking chances. Don't be afraid to venture into unfamiliar territory as an artist. You might just stumble upon something great.
Transparency equals honesty. Honestly equals trust. And trust is how you build an audience.
Too often, negative opinions are rooted in fear. Don't let the fear win. Hit publish and disregard the noise.
Changing your workflow won't happen overnight, but it will never happen if you don't make it a priority.
It's time to change our definition of success in the music business. Times have changed. Technology has changed. We must change.
Check out the long tail: http://bfy.tw/LTQO
The rules of building a career in music have completely changed. Don't feel obligated to fit the mold or play within the confines of the existing system.