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Any experience putting your music on Spotify, iTunes, etc.?

AaronVonRock

AaronVonRock

Feb 22, 2013
3,512
4,893
Bangkok
#1
Our band is looking at putting our songs on streaming platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, and the like. Any of your bands have any experience with these platforms? I'd be interested in hearing any success stories or absolute failures. We put an EP on Bandcamp last year which had the same impact as farting in a hurricane. Curious to see if streaming gets a better result.

Note: We are not relying on our band to make a living or have any significant contribution to our incomes. We do it for fun and to play shows.
 
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#2
We have our new lp streaming in all major platforms... would be as farting in a hurricane if we didn't promote it everywhere as we do.

We are having some impact in specialized media (mostly Spanish) but because we are moving it, not because they found us by chance navigating through spotify....

For example:
Invalid Link Removed

Or:
FUZZ FORWARD ‘Out Of Nowhere’ Debut Nears; Track Streams + Live Dates

We also have our music in a couple of specialized YouTube Channel like this one:


What I'm trying to say is that, in my experience, streaming channels are not a source of listeners or fans by themselves.
 
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#3
I will say that i will "explore" new artists on Spotify via a couple methods. One is the "related artists" section. If you can somehow be a "related artist" to a bigger name group, then it would help with exposure. The other are the Spotify playlists that they publish and continually update. I would think getting onto one of those playlists somehow would also get you some bigger exposure.

Caveat is that i have no clue how to make any of that happen, lol.
 
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#4
Yes, I put my and my bands' music on Spotify, etc. via CD Baby. It's a pretty simple process, but you have to pay for a barcode. Once everything is uploaded and sorted, it can take a few weeks for it to show up on Spotify, iTunes, etc. (you can choose what services to use or exclude, "paid only", "download + streaming", "Streaming only", etc.)

You make a fraction of a cent per play, so it's all about getting those numbers up, and if you're lucky, you'll get a check for $10 every few months. Not exactly big bucks, but you need to have your music out there on the platforms that people use to listen to music. Doesn't hurt to make simple videos for all your songs and posting them on YouTube as well.
 
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#5
AaronVonRock said:
Our band is looking at putting our songs on streaming platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, and the like. Any of your bands have any experience with these platforms? I'd be interested in hearing any success stories or absolute failures. We put an EP on Bandcamp last year which had the same impact as farting in a hurricane. Curious to see if streaming gets a better result.

Note: We are not relying on our band to make a living or have any significant contribution to our incomes. We do it for fun and to play shows.
Click to expand...

I put a lot of videos on YouTube, and some jerks have subscribed so that I get 3 dislikes before I've even had 3 views, but other than that, it works fine.
 
#7
AaronVonRock said:
Our band is looking at putting our songs on streaming platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, and the like. Any of your bands have any experience with these platforms? I'd be interested in hearing any success stories or absolute failures. We put an EP on Bandcamp last year which had the same impact as farting in a hurricane. Curious to see if streaming gets a better result.

Note: We are not relying on our band to make a living or have any significant contribution to our incomes. We do it for fun and to play shows.
Click to expand...
For our last two albums we did a bundle deal where you pay an small fee and they put you music everywhere. iTunes, Spotify, amazon, Xbox music all kinds of stuff. All of them combined don’t generate as much in sales as selling CDs at shows and out of our Facebook store but we still take an all of the above type approach. We care more about our music getting out there and people coming to shows than if someone’s getting our albums for free. In fact we actually have all 4 of our albums available on YouTube
 
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#8
Nephilymbass said:
For our last two albums we did a bundle deal where you pay an small fee and they put you music everywhere. iTunes, Spotify, amazon, Xbox music all kinds of stuff. All of them combined don’t generate as much in sales as selling CDs at shores and out of of Facebook store but we still take an all of the above type approach. We care more about our music getting out there and people coming to shows than if someone’s getting our albums for free. In fact we actually have all 4 of our albums available on YouTube
Click to expand...

Two questions:

About how much was the bundle deal?

Who are "they"? As in "They put your music everywhere?"

Sorry if my questions come across as simple but I really don't know much about this stuff. We are just trying to get our music out there more, too. We don't expect to make any money off of it.
 
#9
getbent said:
Yes, I put my and my bands' music on Spotify, etc. via CD Baby. It's a pretty simple process, but you have to pay for a barcode. Once everything is uploaded and sorted, it can take a few weeks for it to show up on Spotify, iTunes, etc. (you can choose what services to use or exclude, "paid only", "download + streaming", "Streaming only", etc.)

You make a fraction of a cent per play, so it's all about getting those numbers up, and if you're lucky, you'll get a check for $10 every few months. Not exactly big bucks, but you need to have your music out there on the platforms that people use to listen to music. Doesn't hurt to make simple videos for all your songs and posting them on YouTube as well.
Click to expand...

We have three decent looking videos on Youtube and are making a fourth now.

If you don't mind me asking, how much was your barcode with CD Baby?
 
#10
AaronVonRock said:
Two questions:

About how much was the bundle deal?

Who are "they"? As in "They put your music everywhere?"

Sorry if my questions come across as simple but I really don't know much about this stuff. We are just trying to get our music out there more, too. We don't expect to make any money off of it.
Click to expand...
I didnt personally do it and don’t remember the company for sure. Might have been cd baby. I want to say it was like $70. Found this pic with all the sites our last album is on.
3BCD0079-4B50-496C-82E8-72F70AC1D37C.jpeg
 
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#12
Oh, this is pretty funny. I made a six-song EP back in 2011 as part of my only attempt at being a bandleader. It's on Spotify. I'm not a Spotify customer, so I can't even go listen to it unless I sign up. Well, that's not gonna happen...the band is long gone anyway. Even better: Link Removed I think we sent them 20 copies...it's still in stock! (Reminds me of an old Nashville joke: "How did your last record do?" "Well, sales started slow...and then kinda tapered off.")

Screen Shot 2018-05-22 at 4.22.06 PM.png
 
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#14
I've put music on spotify (and a bunch of other services). Distrokid is by far the best option if you release singles, or if you release infrequently.

Maybe there are other services the other distributors offer that make them worth the money, but Distrokid is cheapest by a lot for the basics (IE getting your music on spotify).
 
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#15
We hired a company in order to manage our promotion and our distribution /digital sales / streaming income...the took care about all the stuff for us...

We know that people buy less and less cd's and nowadays they use streamign platforms and digital downloads.. we knew from the beginning that uploading our music was a tool in order to make easy for the potential fans to acces to our music...

We don't know if there's much money made through that way.. but is cool to tell coworkers nds friends that they can listen our music in spotify, itunes and so on.. Maybe they start to come to our shows where we make some extra cash selling shirts and cd's

For me it's a must to have your own music up there...
 

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