Start: 150+ viewers End: 300+ viewers.

• I made a giveaway for my followers ( the giveaway was guessing how many photos I had in my camera roll, and having one of their friends add my snapchat)
• I gained 50 followers and in total 60 people entered/ attempted to enter the contest.
• My Snapchat views went from 150+ to 250+ in under a week

(The Month Of January)

• My Snapchat stayed around the 250+ Range, but more people started replying to my snaps more

( The month of February)

• I started getting more and more viewers on my snapchat. People started Screen-shotting my content and posting it on their stories. I gained exposure and ended up getting some more viewers

( The Month Of March)

• I came to realize that a lot of people like the fashion and concert scene I hang around. When I post concert videos I tend to get the most views. The highest nu per of views I got was 400, and that came from people wanting to know what I am up to.
• When I go to concerts, I tend to use my snapchat as a way to add people that I meet. At concerts I usually meet around 20 people if I’m lucky!

(The Month Of April)

• My Snapchat is still going strong with the amount of people who message/ view/ and Screenshot my stories. I am ending this project with around 300+ Views on each snap.

Instagram:

Start: 624 Followers End: 737 Followers

(The Month Of January)

• I started posting more fashion photos that would classify as “ instagram Modeling”, and it seemed like people liked it.
• I ended up getting 112 Likes on my photo with 5 comments.
• A Makeup company Direct Messaged me asking if I wanted to be an affiliate with their company, and I accepted! I am now an affiliate with Azered Cosmetics.

(The Month Of February)

• I post a lot of instagram in general. I get around 100 likes per photo of things besides selifies.
• People seem to like my selfies and fashion photos the most. I noticed that they would comment more, and I would get around 30 likes more than if I posted a picture of nature.
• I’m friends with band members, and they interact with my instagram a lot. That causes the fans to take notice, and the fans start to follow me
• I gained around 600 Profile visits around the end of February when I posted photos with the band Chase Atlantic

(The Month Of March)

• I meet more band members, and post more photos with them. More and more fans start to follow me because of that.
• People view my instagram story pretty often. I get around 200 views after the day is all done
• My instagram posts continue getting the same amount of followers, likes, and comments than February.
• My friend ended up drawing the lead signer of chase Atlantic and I together, and fans freaked out. They ship him and I together, and started posting it around their social media. The lead singer ends up seeing it, and DM’s me saying “ AMAZING ❤’

(The Month Of April)

• Same thing as March, Im getting more and more profile views, and people are subscribing to me.
• I started modeling more for band merchandise, and clothing lines. People from those sites people started viewing my page from that

Twitter:

Start: 1,300 Followes End: 1,636 Followers

( The Month Of January)

• Starting off strong with my twitter. I use my twitter mainly for contacting band members, and complaining about the world haha
• I posted a tweet about my outfit, It made 198 impressions
• I notice that my selfies and fashion posts also get a lot of attention on Twitter. People seem to like my fashion, and that makes me happy.
• I gained 205 Impressions when I posted my singing video of The 1975 which made me pretty happy

• I bought the new eyeshadow palette that they made, and created a look inspired by it. I ended up getting nearly 500 impressions and some followers ( they retweeted it)

( The Month Of February)

• I replied to my friend in Ghost Town about his photos, and after he liked it I gained 330 impressions on the tweet and 3 profile clicks
• I posted a photo of my concert tickets for my friends in Chase Atlantic and Palaye Royale, and I gained nearly 2,000 Impressions, 9 Profile clicks, and 137 media engagements

• Jesse from Chase Atlantic retweeted one of my tweets, and I got nearly 2,000 impressions, and 14 profile clicks. ( I also gained 20 followers)
• I tweeted about the Eagles winning the super bowl, and I got around 20,000 impressions, 100 likes, and 30 retweets!

• Along with the Eagles winning, I decided to bite off some more followers by posting again. My other post got 6,000 impressions and I also ended up getting 20 more followers

(The Month Of March and April)

• I was still getting likes on my twitter, and developing a fan base.
• Band members still contacted me and their fans started following me as well

• Mitchel Came from Chase Atlantic liked and replied to the drawing my friend Nadia drew of him and I. The fans of the band followed me and went nuts again just like they did on instagram.(
• Mitchel Came from Chase Atlantic liked and replied to my selfie on my profile. I had people retweeting my photos, and following me. They must really think him and I are dating now haha

Facebook:

Starting: 2,700 followers Ending: 2,902 followers

• I posted an outfit photo on my Facebook, and I got 141 likes, 2 shares, and 8 comments.
• I posted a selfie on my Facebook and I got 120 likes and 2 comments
• With Facebook I just get the same Ould same Ould throughout the months. I just post photos of my makeup/ outfits/ selifes and people seem to like it
• I posted on makeup page a few times and I got A LOT of comments and likes from that. People tend to follow me on my appearance and the statuses I post.
• The Facebook page I upload my makeup related content towards is called Cake faced.

(The Months of January, March, and April)

• I started a makeup thread on the Cake Faced page
• I ended up gaining 348 likes and 134 comments on it! People ended up following me as well from that post
• I posted a photo of my hair on the page, and I ended up getting around 400 likes on that post along with nearly 300 comments.
• After posting the hair photo I also posted a makeup look I created. That ended up getting early 500 likes and 50 comments.
• Posting another makeup post, I got around 200 likes and 5 comments.)

YouTube:

Starting: 0 Ending: 312

• With YouTube, I actually wanted to create a YouTube channel. Instead, go posting random playlists everywhere I just decided to develop a marketing plan for it.
• I told people who I was starting a YouTube video over these months, and that them follow my YouTube channel

• I posted small little clips of me doing makeup so I can endorse the reasons why they should follow my YouTube!
• People started following and getting excited!

(The Month Of April)

• I finally sat down and recorded my first YouTube video. It’s currently uploading as I type, and I cannot wait to see where everything ends up.

In Conclusion:

I’m so grateful I had the chance to take this class. I have learned so much throughout this semester, and I could have asked for a better teacher. I feel like I know how to represent myself better on social media with all the tips and tricks Steve Cirino gave my class and I. Seeing my Social Media grow throughout the semester was very pleasing to watch.

Release Strategies

1. Starting a Crowdfunding Campaign 5 months before the release. ( 30–60 days)

• Using pages like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and PledgeMusic.
• Doing a funding page to help get money for the making of the album is a really good idea. It would help you get your distribution ideas flowing with the possible funds that you bring in.

2. Choosing a Music Distributor

• Choosing a good Music Distributor ( CD Baby, Distrokid, Landr, TuneCore, etc.) to broadcast your music is key. If you are looking to get signed to a Major or Independent Music Distributor, you would need to have a good following/ fan base on social media.

3. Copyrighting the Music

• Musical compositions consists of the music, including the lyrics, and is normally accommodated as a work of the performing arts. The author of a musical composition is generally the composer.
• The author of a sound recording is the performer(s) whose performance is fixed or the record producer who processes the sounds and fixes them in the final recording.

(http://www.copyright.gov/)

4. Register your music with a Performance Rights Organization

• ASCAP: The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
• BMI: Broadcast Music, Inc.
• SESAC: Society of European Stage Authors and Composers.

5. Register with Sound Exchange

• The organization collects and distributes digital performances royalties on the behalf of nearly 150,000 recording artists and master rights owners.
• Is your are an artists or copyright holder, resigner online to get your royalty payments

6. Collect your mechanical royalties

• If you are releasing your music through a Record Label that is not your own, you can sign up with the Harry Fox Agency
• If you are self-releasing, you can collect mechanical royalties though sites like CD Baby and Tunecore.

7. Register your music with All Music

• All Music: A comprehensive resource for finding out more about the albums, bands, musicians, songs the fans love.

8. Resigner your Content ID

• Applying with Youtube can be a good idea
• INDMusic collects from Soundcloud
• Record labels and Distributors are also starting to collect this revenue from Soundcloud

9. Sign with a Sync Licensing Company

• Independents like Aperture Music, Secret Road, Big Yellow Dog, etc.
• Sync Licensing Companies usually take 50/50 split and sign artists who write their own music.

10. Write a long biography and a short biography about yourself

• Long bio: Aim for one to two pages ( detailed information about you and your music)
• Short bio: Aim for one-two paragraphs (most important information about you and your music)

11. Write a press release

• You can hire a publicist or do it yourself.

12. Develop professional content for your album

• Photoshoot
• Behind the scenes
• Videos
• Photos

13. Start your mailing list

• MailChimp
• Noisetrade

14. Develop your Elevator Pitch

• A 30-second persuasive speech that you use to get the attention of the people who matter. Make it memorable

15. 3 months earlier ( Picking a lead single)

• Develop a parking plan for the lead singe
• Execute the marketing plan for the lead single so your fans can hear/ share it
• Release the single to build excitement for the upcoming album

16. Two months prior

• Release a music video for the lead single ( market and promote the video as well)
• Set up Soundcloud Private Links
• Setup the Preorder via your Metadata info ( with your music distributor and on self managed music retailers such as band camp)

17. Six weeks earlier ( if you are not releasing a pre-order)

• Setup all the Metadata information for the Album with your distributor ( pitch for playlists and DSP Promotions

18. One Month Prior

• Brand your website and social media pages ( make sure all of your content matches each other)
• Release the second single ( develop and execute a marking, publicity, and promotions campaign of the second single and re-introducing the album)
• Launch the pre-order ( have the preorders available to buy
• Create Contests ( it helps spread the excitement through the fan base.)
• Street Team ( hang up some posters and hand out some postcards!)

19. Two weeks earlier

• Send an E-blast with a preorder link/ the preorder will have the option to purchase and stream singles 1 and 2
• Send the content for the fans who supported the crowdfunding campaign! ( digital downloads, merch, etc.)

20. One Week Prior

• Create and release a music video for the second single
• YouTube album playlist creation
• Release social media content leading up to the release

21. Release Day!!

• Check all the links
• Brand the website and social media
• Create the SmartURL
• Send an e-blast ( 10am EST)
• Post on all social media platforms
• Make Bandcamp and Soundcloud Public
• Release the video playlist on Youtube

22. Week of Release

• Run contests
• Update pans on the album sales

23. Every month after

• Release new video content from your album to push to fans and blogs.

Sanniyah Bey

Digital Distribution

Steve Cirino

March, 1 2018

Section 2

Spotify was developed in 2006 by a team at Spotify AB, in Stockholm, Sweden with Daniel Ek as the CEO. You can upgrade to Spotify Premium for $9.99 per month. Spotify’s business plan of taking listeners who would otherwise pirate music and getting to them to generate some money on the service is effective, with Swedish piracy rates reportedly going down after a few years of Spotify, but compared to traditional music sale formats, getting .006 of a penny is not much of an improvement. Spotify admits the average “per stream” payout to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084. Regardless of payment per stream, Spotify said that roughly 70% of the money it earns goes back into royalty payments to rights holders. The other 30% is for operating costs, expansion and profit. This figure includes advertising revenue from the free tier and subscription costs from the paid tier. The company was founded by Daniel Ek, former CTO of Stardoll, and Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of TradeDoubler. Spotify has over 70 million subscribers as of January 2018), over 140 million active users (as of June 2017), $5 billion revenue paid to rights holders (as of September 2016), Over 30 million songs, and over 2 billion playlists. Spotify is a digital music, podcast, and video streaming service that gives you access to millions of songs and other content from artists all over the world. I use Spotify every day whether it’s sitting in my room relaxing, walking down the street with headphones, or playing it outlays for some friends. Spotify is available in most of Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia. There are more than 140 million monthly active users. Just like Spotify, They have a site called Forgotify (Forgotify.com) where you can listen to music that has been lost in the shadows on Spotify. Spotify has some Unique Playlists such as New Music Friday, Rap Caviar, Today’s Top Hits, and many more. New Music Friday has over 2.4 million followers and displays the 55 new songs of the best new music of the week as released on the international Friday release date. Rap Caviar has over 8.7 million followers and displays the fifty best current Hip-Hop songs. They also offer exclusive video content within the playlist. Today’s Top Hits has over 18.8 million followers and displays fifty of the best current pop songs. They also offer video content within the playlist. There’s a lot of features that can be easily missed when it comes to Spotify considering there’s already so many to go over. You can listen to ( and Archive) Spotify’s discover weekly playlist, view your history and add songs you like/ missed, instantly add tracks to Spotify from Shazam for iPhone and Android, Drag and Drop Song links anywhere, Use private listening sessions to hide your activity, Tap to preview albums and playlists in iOS, and many more.

Even though Spotify is my Preferred platform to stream music, there are other such as Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, and Tidal. Tim Cook founded Apple Music in 2015. Similar to Spotify, you can select the music you wish to listen to on demand. Also like Spotify, the monthly costs say at $9.99 per month. Apple Music offers a Family Plan for $14.99 which is a feature that Spotify lacks. Apple Music offers a free three-month trial for new users, unlike Spotify that only gives out 30 days. As for playing artist, there are rumors for it being the same amount (70%) as Spotify. Deezer is an internet-based music streaming service that also offers on-demand music streaming. Hans-Holger Albrecht founded Deezer in 2009. Deezer also costs $9.99 a month. Deezer costs $4.99 per month for unlimited access using a desktop or laptop device, Similar to Apple Music and Spotify, Deezer cost $9.99 per month for unlimited access on multiple devices including iPhone, Android, and other smart devices. Although there isn’t that much information about how much they pay out to artists, people are lead to believe it’s less than Spotify. Deezer currently has 10 telco partnerships across 32 countries. This will continue to increase as part of Deezer’s commitment to break down barriers and bring streaming and music to as many people around the world as possible. Play Store is Google’s official pre-installed app store on Android-certified devices. It provides access to content on the Google Play Store, including apps, books, magazines, music, movies, and television programs. Sundar Pichai founded Google Play in 2011. It’s mainly used on Android Devices. Users with standard accounts can listen up to 50,000 songs from their personal library with additional costs. The costs for Google Play is $9.99 similar to the other streaming services. They also offer a family plan of $14.99, unlike Spotify. Peter Tonstad founded Tidal in 2014. Tidal is a subscription-based music streaming service that combines lossless audio and high-definition music videos with exclusive content and special features, unlike Spotify. The service doles out .007 cents per — while it doesn’t sound like much of a difference to its competitors, a signed artist would only need to be streamed 180,000 times on the service to make the monthly minimum wage. Even though there as some differences they aren’t major. Spotify had most of the features of these other streaming services, but they have so much more.

Going around the campus and around my friend circle, I Got a chance to interview some people about their most used streaming services. The people I got a chance to talk to ranged from the ages 18–28. 7/10 people picked Spotify over the other streaming services. One chose Apple Music due to having the convince of a family plan from their parents, and the other chose Soundcloud. I was curious about why they chose Spotify so often, and the responses reflected the same for each person. They stated that most of the artists nowadays always promote their music on Spotify with direct links, so they fell obligated to download it and use it. Even though they were influenced, they also stated that once they go the hang go it they ended up loving it immensely. “ Have been using Spotify for a year now, and ever since I downloaded the app I wasn’t able to part with it. The features that I was able to use had me hooked from day one. Being able to easily create and follow playlists came in handy for parties I love to throw. I feel like it’s easy to navigate through, and it’s simple to use the songs that you want to listen to. I hated the Ads after 3 songs or so, which caused me to upgrade. It was 10 dollars, but it was worth every single penny.” — Ashley Curdy ( Ursinus College, Sophomore). “. I’m not shocked that people gravitated towards Spotify because it’s just very practical for a college student on the go. Spotify got the concert of visually appealing and parallel user interface which makes the streaming service eye appealing. After thinking about the visual aspect of Spotify, I asked around my campus for their thoughts. Some said that they like the green on black accents because it stands out. Some said they haven’t really paid attention to how it looks because they mainly look at the song/ album covers instead. Alex, my friend who DJ’s for a living, said “ I like the look of Spotify because it fits my style. I create playlists all the time from music i listen to daily, to music I find while surfing the depths of Spotify. I couldn’t imagine switching over to a different streaming service.”. The one person who chose Soundcloud was my friend Nadia who is attending the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania for Art and Design. She stated “ I use SoundCloud the most because a lot of the musicians I like aren’t on a label and they can post it one. The artist has a lot of freedom because they are doing things by themselves. Hearing the progression the artist make in their sound is also easier to hear on SoundCloud because a lot of them do everything by themselves.”.

In conclusion, I do highly believe that Spotify is going to make it to them if they aren’t already. Not just college students, but many of people around the world use Spotify for many different reasons. Streaming services like Spotify almost completely wiped out the CDs. Spotify data alchemist Glenn McDonald started with synonymized data about the music played by US university students who have taken advantage of the Spotify’s Student Discount. He compared how popular that music is among students against how popular it is with all other US listeners, to decide the music that “pops out” as being the most distinctive to US students’ listening habits. It’s only a matter of time before CD’s become rare to in a store. Sixty million people can make that claim, courtesy of Spotify: Three-quarters of them use the service for free and put up with annoying advertisements between the music, while the other quarter pays $10 per month for an unfettered, all-you-can-hear experience. When you look at Spotify’s competitors there are many similar aspects, but very few of them are serious (Apple Music being an exception) or able to attract major funding. I tend to use Spotify because it was the first streaming service I got my hands on. I tried out Pandora, but I didn’t think it was for me. I never wondered into Apple Music, because I already was committed to using Spotify.

Work Cited: http://hyperurl.co/tdczks

Facebook:

• I will post more relatable content, and interactive posts/videos. People seem to connect with things like this from my past experiences
• People seem to love my fashion, so I can use that to my advantage. I should start posting more outfit of the day photos!

Instagram:

• I already did Instagram promotion, But I haven’t tried paying influencers to share my content.
• Tagging the makeup brands that I use, and clothes that I buy in the post can help me get recognized.

Twitter:

• I use Twitter mainly for interacting with bands. To help increase my Instagram followers I can tweet out to the band and see who will see it.
• Just like Facebook, I can post relatable content/ memes/ gifs so people can retweet them.

Snapchat:

• My Snapchat is pretty popular as it is with over 400 views per snap, But I can post selfies of me and just what I’m up to
• I held a giveaway on Snapchat before, and people seemed to like that idea. I could possibly do that more.

YouTube:

• I can pay influencers to add my music to the background of their videos/ intros and ask them to credit me in the description.
• Posting on YouTube would help as well considering I haven’t yet haha

Independent music is music produced independently from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries. Some Independent Music Distributors are The Orchard, Caroline, ADA, INgrooves, Empire, and AWAL. The Orchard is the leading independent distributor and label services company. With Brad Navin as the CEO, The Orchard is composed of digital natives specialized in marketing, advertising, sync living, video monetization, performance rights services and more. Some of their Notable Labels include” Mello Music Group, Thirty Tigers, Red Bull Records, Mom and Pop, French Kiss, and RED Music. Similar to The Orchard, Caroline’s mission is to build and reach the largest possible audience for developing and establishing artists and label partners respectively. With Steve Barhett as the CEO, Caroline is now owned by Capitol Music Group (UMG). Caroline is an artist development focused, full label service and distribution company, marketing, synch/branding/licensing/ and digital marketing services. Some of Carolines Notable Labels are ATO Records, Fader Label, Fool’’s Gold, G-Unit, and Future Classic. Then there is ADA which is apart of Warner Music Group. With Eliah Seton as the President, ADA gives independent labels and artists access to a global distribution system and dedicated team that provides all aspects of marketing and promotion services. They honor the diverse history and embrace the future with unwavering passion and ambition. ADA also offers an unmatched set of worldwide services including: Customized label services by release and territory, Worldwide sales, distribution, and retail marketing including global account management for key digital retailers, Radio promotion, publicity, and marketing services managed by our US, London and wider-European staff, Product management including creation and execution of marketing and promotion plans, and Dedicated sync licensing, Consolidated worldwide accounting via one monthly statement.

A True Independent Music Distributor gives the access to undefended music artist to help distribute their music to a digital service such as ( Soundcloud, Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes, etc. Being signed to an Independent music distributor gives you a more solid background which helps getting denied less. Some Independent Music Distributors include CD Baby, DistroKid, DITTO, Sounddrop, and Tunecore. CD Baby was founded in 1998 with Derek Sivers as the CEO. They were the first non-label company to offer distributor to iTunes for an independent music artist. Some Pros for signing with CD Baby include: No yearly fees, Access to physical distribution, CD and Vinyl Fulfillment and commerce store, They can collect songwriter royalties via CD Baby Pro Publishing, Collect SoundExchange royalties, and Synch Living opportunities for the select artist. CD Baby represents over 650,000 recording artists, 100,000 songwriters, half a million albums, and more than 7 million tracks across 800+ genres. Although CD Baby has a lot of pros, the cons still stand there. They charge a 9% commission fee, They charge $5 for a single UPC or $20 for an album UPC, and you can’t distribute your album without a UPC, You can’t split out payments for band members and other attributes, and you have a minimal additional support for making playlists promotions, and product placement. Unlike CD Baby, DistroKid allows Payment splitting so you can pay to everyone digitally quickly and easily. Since DistroKid launched in 2013, it has became the list of the top 20 distributors worldwide for total units sold/streamed. With Phillip Kaplan as the CEO, They also was the first to offer unlimited distribution for one annual fee. You get to keep 100% of the revenue with no commission, unlike CD Baby. Theres unlimited songs for one yearly price, daily trending reports from the DSP’s,Cloud storage if you need to meet your music due to losing some audio files, and text messaging marketing. Tunecore also lets you keep 100% of the royalties similar to DistroKid, Tunecore was founded in 2005 and has been the most notable independent music distributor company worldwide ever since. With Scott Ackerman as the CEO, Tunecore represents about 10 percent of the 20 million songs on iTunes, and they account for almost 4% of all digital sales. They also have daily trending reports like DistroKid, They track doe songwriting royalties unlike Distrokid, and they offer advances for future revenue projections. With every good, there is also a bad, and their bad is they charge high yearly fees for EACH release. Also, they charge $2.00 per new outlet for an extra $10.00 per release to automatically add all new outlets.

Aside from true independent and independent music distributors theres also Self Oriented/ Managed retailers. With Jed Carlson as the CEO, ReverbNation is an American online platform that provides tools and opportunities for musicians to manage their careers. For $19.95 a month, they offer a mailing list service ( up to 10,000 subscribers), free song downloads, the ability to submit to opportunities such as TV Placements, Label submission, and festival slots, and distribution of 2 releases per year. Comparing ReverbNation to Soundrop, Soundrop is actually the cheaper of the two. Sounddrop is only $9.99 to get a mechanical license to distribute a cover song.

If I had to choose only one option to release my first début album, I would have to go with a True Independent Retailer. I like how DistroKid allows you to keep 100% of the revenue with no commission. I feel like some companies leave out the aspects about money because they want to keep as much as they possibly could. Although some True Independent Retailers charge a commission fee, There’s plenty of other True Independent Retailers that doesn’t. From my perspective, I believe True Independent Retailers allow you to connect with your fans more on a personal intimate level. Looking at all the other options, it seems like they want you to be disconnected with your followers, and just bring in as much money as humanly possible. If I was to release an album, I would want to communicate as much as possible with who is bringing me success.