Category: Education

TOP REVENUE STREAMS AVAILABLE TO ARTISTS

TOP REVENUE STREAMS AVAILABLE TO ARTISTS

There are numerous ways by which an artist can earn money with his music and generally with his career as an artist. However, this article focuses on the top 5 ways an artist generates revenue. So let’s begin.

Music Sales and Streams: Streaming is no doubt the most popular way people consume music in this age and as such, artists having distributed their songs on the platforms i.e online streaming platforms, earn a certain amount of money which is dependent on their number of streams per music. The money generated from streams grows as your catalog grows and more people start listening to your music and that is why Artists release songs frequently. Also, Artists can still sell their music online via their website or Paystack.

Live Shows and Performances: This is a no-brainer. Live performances and shows alias gigs are some of the quickest ways for Artists to make good money. Through selling tickets for your concerts and tours or getting paid to perform at events such as weddings, end of the year parties, birthdays parties, and what have you. Artists rake as much as half a million naira per show,  imagine having two to three shows per week. Don’t forget that this is just an added source of revenue to the Artist.

Brand Deals and Endorsements: If there are any means by which an Artist can get the bulk of the money, it is through endorsements and brand deals. As an artist, you have a number of people following you and are easily influenced by your music and lifestyle meanwhile different brands look for consumers and customers which you possess and so they need to tap into that hence they approach you with a contract to help them advertise and showcase their products for a good amount of money. Many artists today have a sustainable income from just their endorsements.

Licensing and Publishing: Licensing your music to filmmakers, gaming companies, comedians for skits, and brands for advertisements are also ways by which an artist generates revenue. In addition to this, the Artists still get publishing royalties when the film, game, skit, or advert is released. Licensing your music could also pass as “killing two birds with one stone” in the sense that when that film or advert is seen, the viewers may proceed to even check the artist and listen to his music more thereby increasing his streams, views, and even fan base.

Merchandise: Merchandise or Merch is also a good source of revenue for an artist if properly done. Merchandise allows you to sell your brand and image on it. It encompasses anything and everything about a brand which could be your name, logo, sign, nickname, etc. Good examples are Wizkid’s Starboy Nike Jersey, Burnaboy’s Twice as Tall merch, and many more.

 

 

Be More Than a Musician…and more: Musician Marketing Strategies Worth Considering

Musician Marketing Strategies Worth Considering

All thanks to the internet, there are now endless ways to promote your music in this day and age. The variety in channels allows you to experiment and run a creativity test on yourself by trying new things, which is key to successfully promoting your music in today’s music industry. Marketing your music is essential if you want to get your name out there and actually start making money from your musical talent. Here are some channels to exploit in marketing your music: 

Focus a large part of your time on Gigging

Gigging is one of the very important activities every musician should be doing, it is not only good for creating awareness for your brand but can also be monetized in different ways to help build a strong relationship with your audience. Some of the best gigs you can do are events that have other acts in your genres are also playing at. Gigging is good for gaining new fans and making money in the music industry.

Be more than a Musician

By being more than a musician, it means doing everything you can to get yourself out there and be in front of a targeted audience because this will give you more exposure for your music as possible, also do things that are not directly related to promoting yourself as a musician but will still get new targeted eyes to your music. 

Reach out to Music Blogs

Promoting your music isn’t just about sharing it with your fans. If you also want to reach out to a new audience and convert them to fans, music blogs are a great way to do that. Bloggers are always looking for fresh, clean content so reaching out to them is a good way to help market yourself and your music.

Collaborate with other Musicians

Collaboration is often overlooked as an aspect of music promotion, it is a great way to get your music in front of a new group of people who follow your fan base exponentially.

Your music marketing strategy is should be something you redefine over time, so don’t get frustrated trying to get these things together as some of them may take time to come, but they will surely help. 

DON’T HIND BEHIND THE MASK

A lot of people already know what you are as a musician, you should also be able to let people know what it feels like relating with you when you are not on stage performing. People should be able to tell the difference between you as a musician and living your normal daily life outside music.

 

How To Earn Money From Youtube

How To Earn Money From Youtube

One of the major factors in the business of selling music today is the ability to generate income from your product or content via several channels. Our focus here is on ‘How you can monetize your Content on YouTube’.

Recent stats show that the number of people generating a 5-figure revenue from YouTube has gone up about 5% while those earning 6-figures have increased to over 40%. This gives YouTube bragging rights as a worthy business platform, where content creators can effectively generate and monetize their content. Here are a few ways to monetize your content on YouTube:

Independent Monetization

This is an independent channel of monetizing some aspect of your content through the ‘Partner Program’, without the inputs of a middleman. The revenue generated from your content will however be split between you and YouTube according to the stipulated rev. share. The criteria for Independent Monetization include; 

  • Your channel must reach 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers
  • Google AdSense: You must have signed up to Google AdSense. This allows YouTube to pay your royalties
  • YouTube Monetization Settings: You must adjust your YouTube monetization settings to enable the ads you want running on your content and the type of content it should run on
  • Follow and Obey all YouTube Partners’ Policies patiently, while waiting to be approved 

Content ID Policies

This is a digital “fingerprinting” system that YouTube content creators can use to identify and manage their COPYRIGHTED content across the YouTube platform. This ensures that your COPYRIGHTED content isn’t illegally used and monetized. If identified, the Content ID ensures that you get a royalty from such uploads. The simplest way to identify and manage your content is by working with YouTube Certified Content Aggregators (such as FREEME MUSIC of course). 

YouTube Premium

This is a paid YouTube Streaming Subscription Service that provides advert-free video streaming to its customers. It offers access to music, series, and movies, all without adverts. Once again, working with a distributor allows you quickly and easily get your content on YouTube Premium as well as collect the appropriate royalties when it is available.

Music Distribution 101

One of the fundamentals for music artists to get discovered and thrive digitally is through Music Distribution. It is the entry point into the digital earning space for artists. It affords artists opportunities that can be instrumental to achieving success with their music. In this article, we will be discussing all there is to know about Music Distribution.

Music distribution is the act of making music content available for public consumption. Our emphasis here is on digital. Music distribution affords listeners buy/listen/download music online. Although some platforms allow direct uploads from artists, the most lucrative way yet is to upload/distribute through a content aggregator/distributor. 

A distributor/aggregator is an industry term for companies that help artists put their music on digital stores like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, etc. The ultimate goal for digital distribution is to earn money from your music. There are a ton of distribution companies around the world and Freeme Music is at the forefront of Music Distribution and Label Services in Africa.  

Most Music Streaming platforms don’t interact with artists directly, hence the need for a distributor. 

There are certain benefits artists can enjoy from their distributor, apart from just the distribution of their songs. The distributor can help with editorial pitching to get marketing support from the DSPs. Some distributors also partner with specific artists on specific projects. Some even offer marketing support and cash advances. All of these largely depend on the deal on the table.

For artists to earn money from distribution, the song(s) have to be streamed or bought. The more the streams, the more the money. With playlisting services, artists have higher levels of exposure. Playlisting is a digital curation of music based on mood and quality. It aids content discovery. The competition is high and playlisting is incredibly important to have a better chance of thriving.

To get playlisted, artists have to pitch for considerations. A safe period is 14 days before the song’s release. Playlist pitch can only be submitted by music distributors, except for services like Spotify and Audiomack that allows artists to pitch directly through platform apps.

It’s also important to know that most platforms provide data for every artiste. These data show fan interaction with their music (location, age groups, genders, and time, etc). The analytics are made available to either the distributor or through the platforms’ artiste app. These insights should inform the artist’s decision when making and marketing a new release. Analytics also help artists to track, measure their growth and the impact their music is making.

You can also learn more on Music Distribution on our Freeme Academy Series here: Content Distribution, Pitching, and Analytics – Freeme Academy