by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 15, 2020 | Creativity
Looking to get your music featured on Spotify playlists?
Well, you’re not alone…
24,000 songs are added to streaming music services every day. And you’ve got to assume a good portion of the artists releasing music are just as interested as you are in getting their music featured, streamed, and playlisted.
Well, I’ve covered this topic in detail before, and I still stand by everything I said in that guide.
But it’s always worth circling back to the question and covering the latest tactics and mental models.
So, let’s see how we can get your music on Spotify playlists.
✅ Get Your House in Order to Get on More Spotify Playlists
This is something I touch on any time I talk about Spotify.
And while it might seem superficial, I would be inclined to think it’s 200% crucial to your success.
Understand that your brand and presence in general isn’t just about what you say about yourself. It’s also about how you’re being perceived by others.
So, consider carefully…
If an artist came to you wanting to be featured in some capacity, and they had 90 likes on their Facebook page (with no engagement on their posts), two Instagram followers, and 10 monthly listeners on Spotify, what would you do?
I’m not saying artists in this position don’t get featured.
But come on, you’ve got to think about things from the curator’s perspective too, don’t you think?
How to Change Their Perception
What can we do to rectify this?
Well, here’s a short list:
- Claim your Spotify for Artists profile.
- Make your own playlists and have fun with them.
- Encourage your friends, family, and fans to make their own playlists.
- Work your way up the chain. Everyone wants in on official playlists. Start small and build your tower one brick at a time.
- Promote every playlist you’re featured on (mention them on your website, in your emails, and on social media).
- Release music frequently. The more active you are on Spotify, the better. Worry less about followers and worry more about monthly listeners.
- Build your website. I recommend building a self-hosted WordPress site on SiteGround (affiliate link). You can find more tips and resources here.
- Collect, organize, and present testimonials on your website. Have these ready at your fingertips in perpetuity.
- Establish your social networks. Most musicians bite off more than they can chew. It’s worth registering all your accounts, but as much as possible focus on building one at a time.
- Grow your email list. For the foreseeable future, email is still going to be a huge part of your life. Ditto for your fans. Embrace it. Grow your list. It gives you more leverage as an artist in every regard.
- Encourage your fans to connect and interact with you on their favorite platform. Set the tone early and encourage ongoing engagement.
✅ Leverage the Power of Publicity to Get Featured on Spotify Playlists
In July, we ran a publicity campaign for a compilation I was a part of called Spirit Searcher, Vol. 1.
As result, our music got featured on CCM Magazine and all three artists involved were interviewed on The Antidote (syndicated to nearly 60 FM radio stations).
Henceforth, I shall be known as an artist that’s been featured on CCM Magazine and The Antidote (both of which are kind of a big deal in the Christian music space).
Do you see how this works?
Before any of that happened, I was just David Andrew Wiebe. Now I’ve got some street cred!
Do you think that might give me a credibility boost? Would it give me a little bit of momentum I can carry into the future? Do you think it would help with my playlisting efforts?
I would suspect so. And, as author and marketing guru Dan Kennedy says, this is the type of credibility I can leverage for years and decades to come.
By the way, the PR campaign also led to several placements in playlists.
I can’t reveal exactly how much we paid for this campaign, but let’s just say it was worth every cent.
And that’s the thing. Artists assume it will cost them an arm and a leg to get any kind of publicity, when the reality is it’s all about relationship, relationship, relationship (also see next point on connecting rather than pitching).
Find an angle for your release, save up for a PR campaign, and interview multiple publicists until you’ve found the right one. Then, when you feel you’ve found the right one, negotiate on price.
That’s worth summarizing.
David Andrew Wiebe’s Simple PR Success Method:
- Find an angle for your release
- Save up for a PR campaign
- Interview multiple publicists until you’ve found the right one (you’re in charge!)
- Negotiate on price (only suckers pay in full)
If you’ve got a unique product, something that stands out from the crowd, then you’ve got an angle. And that angle (and story) will be of huge help to your publicist. Trust.
✅ Stop Pitching & Start Connecting to Get on More Spotify Playlists
You’ve got to think that, at this point, everyone and their dog is pitching to playlist curators.
Because that’s what all the blogs are telling us to do. And the hysteria over Spotify is near constant.
Well, here’s a new spin on an old trick.
(👉 By the way, if you want to learn how to pitch just like everyone else is doing, you can refer to this article.)
When you’re thinking about getting a job, what’s one of the first things you do?
Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would bet most of my chips on networking. After all, employee referrals are considered the most valued tool in hiring.
So, why in the world are you doing all the pitching yourself? If you’ve got a fan base that’s crazy about you and your music, why wouldn’t you tap into their over-the-top enthusiasm?
Sure, you’re still going to need to put in some legwork. Consider carefully who’s up to the task. You’ll want to find a sharp person, preferably someone who’s well-spoken and knows a little bit about making cold calls and buttering up a prospect (know any car salesmen?).
And even if you don’t know anyone, you could get to know more people, right? You could ask for referrals from your fans, couldn’t you?
Once they understand why being on a Spotify playlist matters to you, and the difference it would make for you, they’ll be far more likely to help you. We assume people know these things, but most of the time they don’t!
A third-party recommendation, if done right, is the most powerful endorsement you can get.
Spotify Playlists, Final Thoughts
Getting on Spotify playlists isn’t exactly easy. But not impossible.
What’s important to recognize is there are variables you can control. You can build your online presence. You can release more music. And you can grow your fan base.
Beyond that, stop thinking of it as an algorithmic, machine-driven game. Instead, connect with people authentically. Find out where they like to hang out. Talk with them. Make friends with them. At the appropriate time, make an ask.
It might seem scary. It might even seem like the wrong way around. But building relationship is bound to get you further faster in your music career than just making good art.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone. Only the cool kids are talking about it.
The Music Entrepreneur Code is my latest best-selling book, and it’s available here as well as on Amazon.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 15, 2020 | Creativity
Looking for music industry resources to help you grow and advance your music career?
It’s often been said you can’t go it alone.
But equally true is you can’t do it all yourself.
What you need is a powerful list of resources to help you on your journey.
In this post, I cover a lot of indispensable music industry resources. So, let’s get to it!
(My site is supported by readers. This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through our links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
Books
The New Music Industry helps you find your footing in the modern music industry and tells you everything you need to know about digital marketing.
The Music Entrepreneur Code teaches you how to get paid for your passion and impact more fans without wasting years of your life and thousands of dollars.
How To Make It in the New Music Business covers everything you could ever want to know about releasing music, promotion, playing live, and more.
Six-Figure Musician makes you present to the level independent musicians can rise to without even being signed. Six-figures isn’t even the ceiling.
All You Need to Know About the Music Business is fun, easy to read, and packed to the rafters with valuable information.
Blogs
Music Entrepreneur HQ covers essential marketing, mindset, and monetization topics every musician must be aware of.
Ditto Music always has plenty of great advice for unsigned artists looking to build a profitable and successful music career.
DIY Musician Blog covers everything you could ever want to know about doing it yourself and making it happen as an independent artist.
Music Distributors
Ditto Music gives you expansive reach and allows you release as much music you want for one, low annual fee.
CD Baby is O.G. music distribution and they are still among the best. For a flat fee (per release), your music will basically remain on mainstream music streaming sites and online stores perpetually. Releasing under many artist or band names is easier with CD Baby than just about anyone else.
DistroKid offers the same advantages as Ditto Music and is even more focused on distribution than many other companies that are constantly expanding their offerings.
Podcasts
The New Music Industry Podcast covers the latest strategies, tactics, and mental models in creating the life you want through music.
Being in a Band with Monica Strut offers excellent lessons in mindset, advertising, making money and more.
The New Music Industry Blueprint Podcast gives you direct access to the former manager of Taylor Swift, Rick Barker. The show features great interviews, cutting-edge social media strategies, and mindset dumps you’ll find paradigm-shifting.
DIY Musician Podcast is a long-running podcast covering news, interviews, and the music business through the lens of the leading music distributor.
Web Hosting
SiteGround is my recommended solution for 80% of users, because of how fast, reliable, and easy it is to use. You can install WordPress on your hosted domains without so much as a click of a mouse.
Website Builders
WordPress is still the best tool to build your central online hub on. But I do recommend the self-hosted solution, as that gives you more control than WordPress.com (also see the Web Hosting section).
Bandzoogle is an incredible alternative to WordPress, though it won’t give you as much control. If you want a simple solution that just works, though, Bandzoogle is killer.
WordPress Themes
Elegant Themes is the best provider of premium, customizable themes including one of my favorites – Divi Theme. Trust me, Divi Theme is incredibly easy to use, especially compared to the alternatives.
Funnel Builders
10XPro is my absolute favorite funnel builder (and it’s so much more than that!). It’s possible you haven’t heard of it yet, as it’s new compared to ClickFunnels. But I think it’s got considerably more to offer.
Music Industry Resources, Final Thoughts
To get to where you want to go in your music career, chances are you’re going to need to grow.
You will need to work on your craft and become a great musician.
You will need to develop your brand, which will guide every decision.
Further, you will need to grow into a skilled digital marketer, build a rock-solid mindset, and even harness your inner entrepreneur.
So, never underestimate the value of powerful music industry resources. Always keep them at your fingertips, especially for those rainy days.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone. Only the cool kids are talking about it.
The Music Entrepreneur Code is my latest best-selling book, and it’s available here as well as on Amazon.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 12, 2020 | Creativity
Interested in getting your music videos on Vevo?
This question recently came my way (thanks for sending it over – please send more!).
And though I’ve answered it before, the nature of the question is slightly different, so I thought I would tackle it anew.
What is Vevo & Why Would You Want to Join?
Vevo is a popular video hosting service and it was established by the big three (Universal, Sony, and Warner). They host both signed and emerging independent content, so that’s good news for anyone with a music video they want to share and promote.
Vevo’s content is hosted on Vevo’s native platform, as well as on YouTube.
Further, they supposedly have the highest payout of any video hosting site out there, although based on my research one view is about the same as one stream on Spotify.
The Best Way to Get Your Music Video on Vevo
If you want to get your music videos on Vevo, you’ve got to utilize an official partner. Although there are no guarantees your content will be accepted (sadly), this is the only want to go about it.
I’ll tell you who I prefer, as well as why I prefer them.
I believe the best partner to go through is Ditto Music.
I say that because I hold Ditto Music in high regard. Their products – like Record Label in a Box – have repeatedly impressed me, and I even promote them regularly. I also have a personal relationship with some of the people at Ditto.
I’m sure all the other partners, like Vydia, Free Vevo, Symphonic Distribution, View Maniac, and others are fine. But I don’t know much about them, and in some cases, haven’t even heard of them.
Granted, Vevo does list several of these as official partners on their website.
But if we’re talking about the best way to get your music video on Vevo – it’s Ditto.
Can You Guarantee My Video Content Will be Accepted by Vevo?
No. So, please don’t come back and tell me I didn’t warn you.
Just because I think Ditto Music is the best way, doesn’t mean your content will 100% be accepted by Vevo.
My suggestion would be to exercise tenacity. If your first video fails, make another one. If that one doesn’t work, try again.
This is how I managed to get my websites listed in the Yahoo directory back in the day, and when I did that, I was rewarded with a ton of traffic!
My point is this:
Make progressively better music. Make progressively better music videos. Keep growing your fan base. Keep going, and if you fail, try again.
If I can do it, so can you. I believe in you!
How do I Prepare My Content to Meet Vevo Standards?
This is something you’ll be prompted to do upon signing up with an official partner. So, don’t ignore this!
Vevo requires that your video(s) be:
- Full HD
- Video Compression Type: H.264
- File Format: .mov or .mp4
- Dimensions: 1920×1080 (preferred) or 1280×720
- Frame Rate: Native (No less than 23.98)
- Quality: High (QT)
- Bit Rate: Unrestricted (Minimum 7500 kb/s, if necessary)
- De-interlaced file (no interlacing)
- Multi-pass encoding preferred, single-pass encoding not
- Audio formatted to AAVC in stereo with a sample rate of 44.100 kHz and bit rate of 320 kbps CBR
Avoid the use of webcam, flip cam, or iPhone footage, regardless of whether it’s HD.
If any of this confuses you, or you aren’t sure about it, ask your video editor for help. They should be able to assist you. And if you don’t have one, maybe hire a freelancer on Upwork. It’s easy.
Vevo, Final Thoughts
I wish there’s more I could do to guarantee your content is accepted by Vevo, but there simply isn’t.
So, I wish you all the best. If you keep trying, and you keep getting better, and you keep growing your fan base, eventually, you will be accepted. It’s inevitable.
You need to have some perseverance with the music thing. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Let me know if there’s anything I missed here, and I’m happy to tack it on to the post.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone. Only the cool kids are talking about it.
The Music Entrepreneur Code is my latest best-selling book, and it’s available here as well as on Amazon.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 9, 2020 | Entrepreneurship
Part 1: Surprise, Uplift
Part 2: Art
Part 3: Sports
Part 4: Writing
Part 5: Music
Part 6: Living Consciously
I was working five jobs and living with the worst roommate imaginable.
I was quickly falling behind on mortgage payments, and my back was up against the wall. There were no options.
I didn’t begin 2011 thinking I’d be getting myself into this kind of trouble.
When I wasn’t working, I was generally driving between my various workplaces or sleeping. There wasn’t a whole lot of time for anything extracurricular or fun. I went to the singer-songwriter open mic nights on Tuesdays and had the occasional rehearsal or gig. Aside from that, I was busy working.
My home was the only thing on my mind. I tried desperately to find a way to afford it.
***
My best friend called me up and asked me if I wanted in on his graphic design business.
He would design. I would code. His friend would help with illustration.
Since I had experience building websites for many years already, I thought this arrangement could work. So, I was in and I was excited.
My friend told me people often asked him to design things for them. So, I figured we would be busy with client work right off the bat.
The three of us declared partnership and set up a business bank account. We promptly got to work on our website, personal portfolios, and business cards.
Shortly thereafter, our illustrator friend decided business wasn’t for him. But my best friend and I kept on, and we even moved into a house to set up an office, home studio, and rehearsal space for our band.
I soon found out my friend didn’t have as many leads as he thought he did. Our business, on average, served about four clients per year. The business always showed a modest profit at the end of the year, but it wasn’t a runaway success.
So, at best, we had a side hustle on our hands. It wasn’t enough to support either of us.
I had a gig as a guitar teacher. My best friend dragged his feet when it came to finding work and didn’t do much except play video games for a few months. Eventually, he started teaching the drums, and found some work as an A/V tech.
We continued to expand our home studio and our musical footprint with it. Like our graphic design business, the home studio was never a runaway success. But we had a lot of fun with it and ended up rehearsing, performing, and recording with a mix of artists and bands. We even got into podcasting in “the early days”.
If there’s anything we did well, anything that still stands out to me, it’s that we engaged in what many would consider content marketing today. I recall we used to put a lot of time and energy into publishing monthly, until my partner decided that we weren’t a publisher and that we were wasting our time by putting so much time and effort into publishing.
If only we knew what was to come…
***
I got an email letting me know about an upcoming conference call.
I wasn’t sure what would be discussed on the call, but I did know it was long overdue, because the annual shareholder meeting didn’t happen and wasn’t even brought up.
I got onto the call, expecting an update regarding what was happening with the company. Instead, I was told nobody had any interest in pumping any more money into the business.
It was unfortunate. Tragic even. But I was long passed the point of hoping against all hope. I was busy working on other projects and had fully embraced writing in a variety of capacities, whether it was articles, books, content marketing, ghostwriting, or otherwise.
It was difficult to accept. In the early stages of the business, I believed 100% in the model and the potential it had to benefit all involved. At some point, I lost interest. It had been in development for many years, and I felt we had missed a window of opportunity.
That sentiment was reflected in the conference call as well.
But that didn’t matter anymore, because we would be closing our doors.
$60,000 down the drain.
***
One day, I got a phone call from the bank and they informed me that I could refinance my home. I hadn’t ever heard of such a thing. But I went ahead with it. It solved my immediate financial problems and even put some fun money back in my pocket.
I was confident that things were moving in the right direction.
Early in the year, I was stretched to my limits. At one point, I even broke down.
But finally, I was emerging from the tunnel. I quit the jobs I hated and went on vacation. First, I spent a week away from Calgary. Then, I went on a mini tour with my band.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do moving forward. I just knew that I was in business now, and I figured I had done my time and had paid the price for all the success I was about to enjoy.
I ended up selling my house only a year later.
***
A business isn’t what I was looking for. But I was desperate. And I was open to answers that weren’t on my radar.
The answers came rapidly, and typically in the form of inspiring books and training audios.
And that’s when I came to embrace business. Because I could see possibilities I had never seen before. Possibilities to become financially independent, support causes I cared about, and impact people all over the world.
I joined two network marketing companies. And although I never created financial independence in those, I did fulfill on a couple of goals – I learned the ins and outs of business, and I got out of my comfort zone. At one point, I was prospecting and having conversations with five strangers per day. Much of the time, this was an exercise in problem solving, going into environments I had never gone into before.
I also started to see the connection between music and business. I sincerely believed that, if I had had business training going into music, that I would have been able to bypass a lot of struggle. This led to the creation of multiple businesses, including Music Entrepreneur HQ.
Most of all, I got into business because I got into personal development.
If you want to grow as you never have before, get into business.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone. Only the cool kids are talking about it.
The Music Entrepreneur Code is my latest best-selling book, and it’s available here as well as on Amazon.
by David Andrew Wiebe | Sep 8, 2020 | Personal Development
Part 1: Surprise, Uplift
Part 2: Art
Part 3: Sports
Part 4: Writing
Part 5: Music
I was rushed to the hospital.
I chewed on two tablets of aspirin, believing that I must be having a heart attack. My anxiety shot through the roof.
I told my roommates what was going on, and we all piled in a car and started heading to emergency.
On the way there, my heart started beating out of its chest. “This must be it,” I thought. Eventually, the beating stopped, and I started calming down.
When I finally made it to emergency, hospital care wasn’t eager to take me in for examination or anything. Which I thought odd. And they just kept asking me if I had taken any drugs.
***
Having released my first solo album, Shipwrecked… My Sentiments, I began looking for opportunities to promote my music. Even before releasing, I had some vague notions of submitting it to independent filmmakers and the like.
I would soon discover that while opportunities weren’t exactly rare, they also weren’t available in abundance. Having played in Lightly Toasted Touché for a year and a half, I was at least acquainted with a local venue or two, and I had a few connections. I would also scan the local classifieds in an entertainment magazine every week.
But one day, my roommate told me about CD Baby. I think I had heard about them at that point but had no idea what they did.
My roommate explained that they were a distribution service. They could get my music up for sale and streaming on all the popular online stores and streaming platforms, be it iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, or otherwise.
I got excited and promptly signed up with CD Baby, certain that this was the next step I needed to take on my musical journey.
At the time, former founder Derek Sivers was still working at CD Baby, and when I signed up with them, I received his emails, which detailed his best advice for musicians. I was blown away by what I was reading.
In that moment, I was introduced to something new. Something I had never encountered before.
It wasn’t just how-to advice or tactics and tips. I had already found plenty of that in video game and fishing guidebooks. It was something more. Kind of like a challenge. It made me present to opportunities I never knew existed.
What I discovered, for the first time in my life, was personal development.
***
I went to Video Games Live with some friends and came away inspired.
The music was great. I loved hearing many of my favorite video game themes being played by an orchestra, choir, and band.
But more than that, I felt led to interview Tommy Tallarico.
The moment he hit the stage, he struck me as familiar. Then I remembered that I had seen him on TV (Electric Playground).
Intuitively, I knew that there was more to him than met the eye. He wasn’t just a TV host or the creator of Video Games Live.
And I was right. I soon found out he was the most prolific video game music composer in North America. He had composed music for the likes of Prince of Persia, Batman: Revenge of The Joker, Earthworm Jim, and many others.
When I reached out to him, he was gracious enough to be interviewed for my small website. That was the second in a series of early interviews I got to do with many of my heroes.
***
One source of inspiration led to another.
Somewhere amid engaging in Derek Sivers’ advice and interviewing Tommy Tallarico, I discovered personal development god Steve Pavlina’s articles online. I think I may have originally found his site through Sivers, but I can’t confirm or deny that.
Having gone through everything that I had gone through, I honestly believed that life amounted to little more than what happened to you. You had no control over anything – especially over things you would consider important.
That’s the way I lived in my early 20s, and I didn’t even know it.
But here was Pavlina telling me that you could make conscious decisions in life. I spent a lot of time in his material, but my number one takeaway, to this day, is this idea of living consciously.
I began to understand that there were things I could control and things I couldn’t. But regarding anything I could control, I could become present to the decision being made. And by becoming present to it, I could choose the path I most wanted to go down.
When I learned that Pavlina got up at ungodly hours to engage in his passion of writing all day, I decided that I wanted to start doing the same.
So, at the dawn of 2008, I started getting up every day at 6 AM to read, write, and work on my music.
I had no idea that I was quickly burning myself out in the process.
***
I didn’t have a heart attack. I had an anxiety attack.
As others will testify, one can certainly mimic the other. But neither are pleasant, and both can have lasting consequences.
My wrestle with anxiety was just beginning, and over the course of the next five or six months, I had to spend time in recovery.
I could have given up on personal development. Blamed it for all my problems. Perhaps, by living consciously, I would only invite more harm upon myself.
But I didn’t.
And recovery was the opposite of sitting still and doing nothing. I got into a routine of learning about anxiety, watching inspiring TV, walking, meditating, and participating in weekly rehearsals and gigs with my band. This was just as much personal development as anything else.
Amid this, I met someone wonderful at a guitar workshop. I sometimes call her my “first girlfriend”, but really, she was just the first young woman I fell head over heels for.
She asked for a hug, and when I stood up to embrace her, I felt something I had never felt before. I had balked at the idea of marrying in college, but holding her in my arms changed my mind.
This relationship brought some healing into my life. Unfortunately, she stopped talking to me only three months later, and I’ve never heard from her since.
At the time, I’d been struggling to write material for my next album, but heartbreak brought all the inspiration I needed.
And I think it was somewhere amid writing a seemingly endless stream of songs that I found healing. Anxiety wouldn’t completely go away, but it would never hit me as hard as it had that one day as I was being rushed to the hospital.
Shh… Don’t tell anyone. Only the cool kids are talking about it.
The Music Entrepreneur Code is my latest best-selling book, and it’s available here as well as on Amazon.
