Measure Your Performance

Success is unique for every artist. By understanding your Artist Analytics, you can pinpoint the areas that deserve your attention and drive your growth.

Listening Now: This metric displays the number of fans actively streaming your music. It counts only online plays and excludes offline listening.

Plays: A play is counted when a user listens to a track for more than 30 seconds on Apple Music. This includes plays from Apple Music radio stations, which can be user-generated or curated by Apple.

Average Daily Listeners: This represents the average number of unique listeners per day within a selected time frame.

Purchases: This is recorded when a customer buys your song or album from the iTunes Store.

Shazams: Every time your song is identified by the Shazam app or partner apps using Shazam technology, it is counted as a Shazam.

Radio Spins: This measures how often your song is played on over 40,000 terrestrial and digital radio stations worldwide, excluding Apple Music Radio.

Milestones: This section highlights key achievements and all-time bests for your music, including top plays, top Shazams, and editorial playlist additions.

Video Views: A view is counted when a user watches your music video on Apple Music for more than 30 seconds.

Apple Music for Artists provides detailed performance analytics for:

• Songs: Total plays of a song across all albums and compilations.
• Albums: Plays of any album, EP, or single release.
• Playlists: Inclusion in Apple Music editorial playlists.
• Videos: Views of any music video available on Apple Music.

Discover Who’s Listening Now

Get real-time insights into how many fans are currently streaming your music. The Listening Now widget shows the number of listeners who have initiated playback at any given moment.

Selecting the widget gives you a detailed view of trends over the past 48 hours. Maximum Listeners indicates the peak number of listeners at any time during this period, while Average Listeners reflects the average number during this timeframe. You can also see your six most-played songs under Top Songs Now.

Note: For privacy reasons, a minimum listener threshold must be met to display Listening Now analytics. Gaps in data may occur if this threshold is not reached.

Track Your Radio Spins

The Radio Spins feature, integrated throughout the Apple Music for Artists platform, allows you to monitor airplay across more than 40,000 radio stations in over 200 countries and regions. Visit the Trends page for detailed insights into which stations play your music the most and which songs from your catalog are most popular. Use the Places page to discover where your music is being broadcast worldwide.

Connect with Listeners Globally

The Places tab in Artist Analytics shows where your listeners are located by city, state, country, or region. Use filters to track the popularity of new releases and identify potential tour locations.

Discover Global Impact and Trends

The Trends tab helps you analyze your music’s performance by comparing listener actions. Apply filters to learn about listener demographics, including gender, age, location, and their favorite songs.

Maximize Shazam Insights

When users Shazam your song, you gain valuable insights into its reach. Learn what happens when someone uses Shazam to identify your track and how this information can benefit you.

Data Availability

Data is displayed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and updates daily. New data may take up to 48 hours to appear in your dashboard.

Different distributors may release your music at various points in your career. We aggregate this data into a single track group, displaying one cover art to represent it.

Note: For financial or royalty queries, please contact your distributor.

Download Your Data

In the Music section, click “See All” to download data from your entire catalog. Ensure you set the date range before downloading your CSV file

Jamvana.com is excited to introduce a suite of powerful new features that provide artists with deep insights into their music’s performance. With real-time data on listener engagement, artists can now track how many fans are currently streaming their tracks, analyze radio spins across 40,000+ stations worldwide, and explore listener demographics by city, state, country, or region. The platform also offers detailed metrics for plays, purchases, Shazams, and video views, helping artists understand what’s driving their success. Additionally, Jamvana.com now includes tools for monitoring trends and milestones, offering a complete picture of your music’s impact. With these features, artists can make informed decisions on where to focus their efforts to maximize their reach and growth.

The post Understand your analytics first appeared on Jamvana.

Keep in mind:

• YouTube is under no obligation to place any proposed pitches submitted using this tool.
• Your songs may be included in playlists other than those you’ve suggested in the pitch.
• Playlists will include the most appropriate version of your song, like non-explicit versions, music videos, and more.
• Get in touch with your Label Relations Manager for more info.

FAQs

What songs are eligible to be pitched?

Partners with access to Loudspeaker can pitch their Premium Music Videos, Previews, and Art Tracks. 

To pitch a song for the Shorts Audio Picker, check that it appears in Search. If you can’t find a song in the Shorts Audio Picker, make sure that:

• The associated Sound Recording asset has ownership applied.
• The publishing rights information has been provided to YouTube.

Which release type should I select for my pitch?

Release types provide context and help place songs in appropriate markets and surfaces across YouTube. You can select up to 2 release types per song. Options include:

• Previews
• New releases: Less than 2 weeks old
• Ongoing priority: 2 weeks to 18 months old
• Catalog: 18 months or older
• Trending/Resurgent
• Anniversary
• Reissued
• Seasonal

When will my pitch go live?

 . We’ve replaced pitch windows with more flexible scheduling. Instead of pitching for a specific week, you can now pitch for a specific day. For example, you can request to start a promotion alongside a release date, or when a song is trending.

In which countries/regions are songs available to be pitched?

You can pitch songs for placement across YouTube surfaces in the following countries/regions, where programming and label relations support is offered.

Is there a limit to the number of songs I can pitch for Shorts?

We recommend that you pitch no more than 3 tracks per week. These submissions should represent your top priorities, with a focus on short-form-video.

What determines the video chosen for a given song?

Our systems determine the appropriate video based on context.

For example, if a user is watching YouTube, we’ll surface the Premium Music Video. If a user is listening to a song in the background of YouTube Music, we’ll use an Art Track.

Similarly, we’ll select explicit/non-explicit versions of a song based on the context in which the video is used.

The post Pitch Your Music To YouTube with Jamvana first appeared on Jamvana.

Understand your analytics

August 15, 2024 No Comments

Success varies for each artist. Understanding how to interpret your Artist Analytics can guide you in identifying the specific areas to prioritize.

Read More »

Pitch Your Music To YouTube with Jamvana

June 3, 2024 No Comments

From playlists to Shorts, we’re dedicated to building surfaces and tools to make it easier to amplify your music and grow your audience. Today, we’re delivering on your long-standing asks by introducing Loudspeaker, YouTube’s next-generation pitching tool designed for scale as we enable new multi-format opportunities across YouTube. Loudspeaker brings all of the current functionality of Pitch Music with some new highly requested features, such as Drafts, Bulk Editing, Flexible scheduling, and more! At Jamvana, we’re pitching daily from our catalog and securing placements on YouTube and YouTube Music. Sing up with Jamvana today and start gaining exposure on the number one streaming service. 

Read More »

The post Don’t Put Your Music At Risk first appeared on Jamvana.

Are you ready to embark on a musical journey that pushes the boundaries of bass-heavy beats and rhythms? Look no further than “ANXY,” the latest release by the incredibly talented Angger Dimas, now available on Vana Records.

 

Dive into the World of “ANXY”:

Angger Dimas has once again proven his prowess in the electronic music scene with “ANXY.” This track is a sonic masterpiece that seamlessly blends infectious basslines, pulsating beats, and expertly crafted melodies. From the first note to the last, “ANXY” immerses listeners in a world of electrifying energy and unparalleled musical innovation.

Vana Records: The Home of Cutting-Edge Sounds:

Vana Records has been a consistent force in delivering cutting-edge electronic music, and “ANXY” is no exception. The label continues to push the boundaries of creativity and sound exploration, providing a platform for artists like Angger Dimas to showcase their unique talents.

How to Experience “ANXY”:

• Buy: https://www.beatport.com/release/anxy/4361472
• Stream: https://open.spotify.com/user/jamvanaplaylist?si=a48648fb513f4e76

Vana Records:

• WEB: https://jamvana.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSwhK62rJiJf7nSy_9cNw9w
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vana_records
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jamvana
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamvana
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jamvana

ANGGER DIMAS:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anggerdimas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnggerDimas/
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ANGGERDIMAS
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tuOpj3ofDA06hxQjvjdGZ?si=y97I1xCKQnOPX0YAkoxjxw

The post ANXY – Angger Dimas’ Latest on Vana Records! first appeared on Jamvana.

Creating a website may seem daunting, but there are many tools and programs that make creating a website as easy as dragging and dropping. Literally.

In this blog post, we’ll cover the important aspects of a musician’s website, what information should be included on your site, and more.

Why You Should Invest in a Professional Website For Your Music Career

Investing in a professional website is essential for any musician looking to take their music career to the next level. A website is an effective way to showcase your music and build a fan base. It also serves as an online hub for you to promote your music, connect with fans, and increase your online visibility.

With the right website builder, you can create a stunning website that stands out from the crowd and helps you reach more people. With features such as custom designs, band websites, and more, you can easily create a website that reflects your musical style and captures the attention of potential fans. Investing in a professional website will help make sure that your music career is taken seriously by industry professionals and potential fans alike.

What You Need Before You Start Building Your Website

Before you start building your website, there are several steps that you need to take to make sure it’s successful. This includes purchasing a domain name, creating a website launch checklist, and preparing the necessary materials for building the site. With these steps in place, you can ensure that your website is ready for launch and will be successful in the long run.

Before you launch your website, you’ll need to pick out a name and domain. Typically, using your artist or band name will be the easiest, and likely won’t be taken. To get started searching for a domain, head over to Google Domains, Namecheap, or Domain.com. Enter the URL in the search and find one that is within your budget and fits your brand.

How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Music/Band Website

Choosing the right platform for your music/band website is essential for your brand. With so many options available, it can be difficult to decide which one is best for you. There are musician-specific website builders like Bandzoogle and general website builders that offer different features and capabilities like Squarespace and WordPress. Each of them have a large library of templates that allow you to get started quickly.

Below are a handful of the best website builders available to musicians. Some have free options and others have paid. Each one offers different features and functionality, so you’ll have to choose the one that best fits your needs.

• Squarespace
• Bandzoogle
• WordPress (.org and .com)
• Wix
• Weebly

Best Practices for Designing an Engaging & User-Friendly Music/Band Website

Designing an engaging and user-friendly music/band website can be a scary task. The goal is to create a website that is both visually appealing and easy to navigate for visitors.

There are several best practices that should be taken into consideration when designing a professional music/band website. These include choosing the right colors and fonts, creating an intuitive navigation system, optimizing images for fast loading times, incorporating audio clips or videos into the design, and ensuring that all content is up-to-date with relevant information about the band or musician. Additionally, it is important to ensure that the site is mobile-friendly so it can be accessed from any device. Following these best practices will help create an engaging and user-friendly music/band website that appeals to visitors.

Pages and Content a Musician or Band’s Website Needs to Have

The website should also include pages like an “About Us” page, which will provide an overview of the band’s history and accomplishments. Additionally, a “Discography” page will help visitors get familiar with the artist’s existing releases. Other pages that may be useful include a “News & Events” page to keep fans up-to-date with new developments in the artist’s career or a “Store” page where they can purchase merchandise or digital downloads. In addition, there be a page where journalists and promoters can access high-resolution images. There should be 5-10 images in total.

Finally, there should be some way for visitors to contact the artist directly such as through an email form or social media links.

Promoting Your Music/Band Website and Reaching More Fans

There are several ways to promote your music/band website online. You can run ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to drive traffic to your website. Additionally, you can create content such as blog posts or podcasts that will draw in visitors interested in learning more about you and your music. You may also consider leveraging SEO tactics like optimizing titles and descriptions as well as creating backlinks from other websites related to music or entertainment. Finally, don’t forget about traditional marketing tactics like throwing up posters in public places for your tour or local show with links to your website. A combination of traditional marketing tactics and an SEO-optimized website will likely suit most musicians well.

By utilizing these strategies, you can increase the visibility of your site and reach more fans!

Conclusion

Building or updating a website is not always an easy or quick task, but there are a number of incredibly easy-to-use website builders that will make your life much easier. The benefits are sure to outweigh not having a site. Combining your SEO-optimized website, traditional marketing techniques, as as well as a robust social media marketing strategy, you should see an increase in traffic within three to six months.

What is your favorite website builder? Is there anything a musician or band should have on their website that we forgot to mention? Let us know!

The post How to Create a Professional Musician or Band Website to Reach More Fans first appeared on Jamvana.

Musicians have consistently had to take on their own careers and manage them all by themselves, but with the the increasing amount of tools available to content creators online, stressing over organization, project management, and online storage backups are becoming a thing of the past.

All of these tools are built to make our lives easier. Some of the tools even allow you to automate entire workflows, saving you hours of time and a lot of money.

So, musicians, let’s dig into the best tools to for your arsenal in 2023.

Note: The information presented in this article, such as pricing and package offerings, is subject to change at any time and may differ than what’s posted in this article. We will do our best to keep the information here updated, but if you’re interested in using one of the products, check their website for their most updated packages and pricing.

Here are the 31 best tools for musicians to grow their careers in 2023 and beyond.

DISCO

Sharing audio files on Dropbox, Google Drive, and SoundCloud is not as ideal anymore. DISCO has quickly become a gold standard for sharing audio files with others, especially music supervisors. They almost always use DISCO to organize their libraries of music. 

DISCO allows users to create playlists, upload stems, provide contact information, lyrics, publishing information, IPI numbers, and more directly in their upload, thus removing the need for multiple documents for each track.

DISCO’s “Lite” plan allows for one user and 500 tracks for $10/mo. “Plus” starts at $15/mo. and increases track limit to 1,000. Their “Pro” plan starts at $25/mo. and includes everything in the Plus plan as well as custom fields, password protection, and distributor ingestion. 

Box

Box is an online cloud storage platform that’s similar to Dropbox and Google Drive. They are one of the best cloud storage services on the market and are headquartered in Redwood City, California. 

Keeping all of your files in one centralized location makes it easier for you and your team to access them whenever, wherever. With Box, users can upload most file types, add comments for collaborating on documents, and backing up your files. 

Box offers an Individual, Personal Pro, Business Starter, and Business Plans. The individual plan is free for a single user, allows for a 250MB file upload limit, and 10GB of storage. Their Personal Pro plan is $14/user/mo. and provides up to 100GB of storage and a 5GB file upload. Their Business Plans range in price from $20/user/mo. to $47/user/mo. and allow for more users and unlimited storage, which may be more ideal if you’re looking to use it as a backup solution.  

Jamvana

Jamvana is a premiere music distribution platform that gives musicians the tools to distribute and monetize their music onto leading service providers like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and more. They are headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

Getting your music onto digital distribution services is one thing, but getting it in front of the right audience is much more difficult. Jamvana’s custom-built content management system has tools built in to curate your audience, get playlisted, and get heard. Jamvana actively pitches music to DSPs and their playlist editors and work diligently to ensure your release goes as smoothly as possible.

In addition, Jamvana has the most transparent and detailed royalty reports of any other music distributor. With their standard subscription, you’ll get online backup solutions for your audio files and documents, music distribution, marketing tools, playlist pitching, and much more.

Jamvana offers a free plan and a subscription plan for $9.99/mo. and you’ll keep 100% of your royalties. Get started here.  

Google Drive for Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms

Similar to Box, Google Drive is a great solution for backing up, storing files, and working collaboratively with others.

The most attractive feature of having a free Google account are their office suite programs, such as Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Forms, among others. They’re continuously adding new features to each program. Docs and Sheets are great programs to utilize when writing lyrics, writing press releases, and keeping a rolodex of industry contacts. 

Their Google One plan provides multiple tiers that include 15GB for free, $1.99/mo. for 100GB, $2.99/mo. for 200GB, and $9.99/mo. for 2TB of storage.

Professional email address

The music industry is all about networking, so you’ll be sending and receiving a lot of emails. It’s important that you look professional online, and a branded email can help with that.

A branded email is an email that utilizes your artist, band, or business name. For example, instead of mybandrocks@gmail.com, you could have jane.smith@mybandrocks.com. 

There are a number of ways to go about creating this, but the easiest is to use Google Workspace. It’s easy to set up and will allow you to keep the aforementioned Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms under the same account. A Google Workspace account can be created for as little as $6/mo.

Explore the other methods of setting up a business email address.  

Digital audio workstation

A digital audio workstation (or DAW) is a computer application that provides musicians and producers to write, record, mix, and master their music.

No digital audio workstation is better than the other, per se, but they each will have different features that may make it easier for you to get ideas out when those moments arise. Just because one producer uses Ableton doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for you. Research which DAW has the features you’re looking for and explore those options extensively.

Here is a list of the most popular DAWs in 2022, according to MusicRadar:

• Cubase
• Studio One
• Bitwig
• Ableton
• FL Studio
• Logic Pro X
• Reaper
• Reason
• Pro Tools
• GarageBand
• Mixcraft
• Cakewalk by BandLab

DocuSign

DocuSign is an e-signature company headquartered in San Francisco, California. With DocuSign, users can upload documents and send them to the parties who need to sign. 

Before working with anybody on music (including your best friend) it’s important to have agreements written and signed by everybody contributing to the work. These agreements typically include who owns how much of the publishing and the master, admin privileges, how royalties are split up, and more.

You can use a program like Google Docs to draft up a basic agreement and then use DocuSign to have the other parties digitally sign it. This acts as a legal-binding document.

DocuSign offers a free 30-day trial to get you started. Their Personal plan is $15/user/mo., Standard is $45/user/mo., and Business Pro is $65/user/mo. You can also choose to pay annually and save $120, $300, or $480, respectively. 

Alternatives to DocuSign: HelloSign, Adobe Sign 

Songtrust

Songtrust is a music publishing administration company. They provide tools that allow artists and songwriters to collect their music publishing royalties. They are headquartered in New York and owned by Downtown Music Holdings.

Songtrust will collect your publishing royalties from around the globe while you maintain 100% ownership of your music. Should you land a sync deal, you’ll retain 100% of the sync fees. They have contracts with more than 215 collection societies around the world.

When your song is played on radio in France, Songtrust will collect those royalties. If it’s aired on a TV show in Switzerland, they’ll collect those royalties.

It’s worth noting that Songtrust is not a publisher. 

Songtrust costs a flat one-time fee of $100 to get set up. They’ll then keep 15% of the royalties they collect.

Unless you want to manually strike deals with collection societies for your publishing royalties across Europe, Africa, or Asia, then Songtrust is well worth the $100 fee and 15% of the royalties.  

Camera

It’s very important to be able to put out high quality photos and videos. You most likely already own a high end camera: your phone. 

Any mobile device made within the last 3-5 years is likely capable of shooting HD photos and videos. They can be used to create social media content and even film music videos.

The music video for Lady Gaga’s “Stupid Love” was shot entirely on an iPhone Pro 11. Watch the official music video below.

Gumroad

Gumroad is an online e-commerce platform that allows content creators, including musicians, to sell digital products. They were founded in 2011 and are headquartered in San Francisco, California. 

In the digital world, people want and will pay for just about anything if they can have instant access to it and it’s helpful. This also gives fans of artists’ work another avenue to support them.

To give you some ideas, you could sell sheet music, the WAV file to your latest single, a project file, top 10 lists, a subscription to a mini series, and much more. Think of your talents and how you could package them up into a digital asset that you could sell. If successful, selling digital goods on Gumroad may provide you with a really strong source of revenue alongside your streaming income.

Gumroad is free to get started, and as you sell more they will take less in fees.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website building and hosting company headquartered in New York. Their online website builder is easy to use, set up, and affordable. Features include e-commerce integrations with platforms like Shopify, appointment scheduling, and free templates.

Websites for musicians help with their visibility in the digital realm. They act as a digital resume where fans and industry professionals can go to find and read everything about you. Some pages that should be on an artist’s website include a biography, high resolution press pictures, social media links, and music.

Squarespace offers four different plans: Personal ($23/mo.), Business ($33/mo.), Basic Commerce ($36/mo.), and Advanced Commerce ($65/mo.). 

Their personal plan is probably sufficient enough for artists just getting started; however, the inclusion of the professional email, as we discussed above, from Google is a nice perk in their Business plan. 

MasterClass

MasterClass is an online learning platform that hosts courses from musicians like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, deadmau5, Alicia Keys, and more. Their courses span a wide gamut of cooking, film making, sports, music, and more so it’s not just for music.

Continuing education is vital to remaining with the times. The music industry evolves at an alarming rate, and new techniques and programs are always being introduced. MasterClass is a solid solution for independent music professionals to remain at the top of their game.

Starting at $15/mo., one user can sign up for MasterClass’s Individual plan. Their Duo plan offers one account for two devices for $20/mo. Finally, they have a Family plan for one account and six devices for $23/mo. The difference between the plans is the Individual one does not offer downloading for offline viewing.

Alternatives to MasterClass: LinkedIn Learning, SkillShare, Coursera

Splice

Splice is a cloud-based music creation and collaboration platform. They offer industry-leading sample libraries, audio plug-ins, and integrations with most digital audio workstations, including Ableton, Logic Pro X, and FL Studio. 

Losing your projects is a nightmare and worst-case scenario for every musician and producer. Artists can save and automatically backup their projects with every digital audio workstation to Splice for free. Their paid subscriptions grant access into the sample libraries, plug-ins, exclusive online events, and more. Even if you’re not interested in using their sample libraries, saving them to the cloud and having unlimited storage is a no-brainer.

Splice offers three plans: Sounds+ for $14.99/mo., Creator for $19.99/mo., and Creator+ for $39.99/mo. 

Linktree

Linktree is a free “link in bio” tool and landing page for content creators. They are headquartered in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

The way that Linktree works is that creators get one link that they can use in social media bios, emails, SMS marketing, and more. This Linktree link will take people who click on it to a landing page “tree” that links to other places, such as a merch store, Spotify profile, place to buy tickets for a tour, a recent podcast interview, and more. You can link to where you’d like. 

Linktree has a few tiers, including a free tier. Their Starter plan is $5/mo., Pro is $9/mo., and Premium is $24/mo. All plans include unlimited links, a QR code, music links, Spotify embeds, and social icons.

Alternatives to Linktree: SmartURL, Koji, Tap Bio, Linkin.bio, Taplink

Hunter.io

Hunter.io is a program used to find and verify email addresses. Their program scrapes the internet for contact information for people at various organizations. Personally, I’ve used this application in the past and have found it to be very useful. 

Trying to contact someone at a record label or publishing company can be difficult unless you already know someone who has previously connected with them. As mentioned above, you’ll most likely be reaching out to these people quite frequently. Unless someone is very public facing, it can be difficult to get in touch with them and Hunter can help find and verify that email address. 

Hunter uses a number of techniques to find and verify emails, such as scouring the internet and skimming, for example, an article a person may have done where their email is published. 

While incredibly helpful and valuable, their pricing can get expensive if you’re on a budget. They do have a free plan that allows for 25 monthly searches and 50 monthly verifications. After that their Starter plan is $49/mo., Growth is $99/mo., Pro is $199/mo., and Business is $399/mo. 

Alternatives to Hunter.io: RocketReach, ZoomInfo, Apollo.io, and UpLead

Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a social audio platform that rose to prominence in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. They used to be invite-only, but it is now open to everyone on iOS and Android. They are headquartered in San Francisco, California and developed by Alpha Exploration Co.

Clubhouse is a great place to connect with other music professionals, perform live in rooms, and join in on conversations to showcase your expertise. A number of high profile experts across varying sectors of music are always joining in on rooms sharing their knowledge. It’s a best practice to find and follow the people you want to learn from so you are notified when they speak in a room. 

Clubhouse is free to join and use. 

Alternatives to Clubhouse: Twitter Spaces, Facebook Live Audio Rooms, Reddit Talk, Spotify Greenroom

GigSalad

GigSalad is a full-service platform for booking gigs. Musicians and creatives alike can join the platform and start getting booked for events in their area. They are headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. 

Musicians looking to get their name out there could use GigSalad to expand their horizons and begin performing at events like weddings, concerts, birthday parties, and much more. If you live in a music hub like Los Angeles or Nashville, for example, you never know who’s going to be at a birthday party you’re hired for. That could be your next big break!

GigSalad offers a few tiers for those looking to get their name out and start getting events booked. They offer a free plan, but they claim it provides the fewest leads and there’s a 5% booking fee. Their Pro plan is $139/3 mos., and Featured is $169/3mos. and they claim it garners an average of 26x more leads than the Free plan. 

Alternatives to GigSalad: The Bash, StarNow, Backstage, Jammcard

Bandcamp

Acquired by Epic Games in 2022, Bandcamp is an online music streaming service that gives musicians an alternative to selling their music. Fans can purchase high quality music directly from their favorite artists. They are headquartered in Oakland, California.

Bandcamp is a great tool for musicians because of its ease of use and ability for fans to easily connect and support the music they love. Similar to distributing music through a distributor like Jamvana, they give musicians the flexibility they need to release music when and how they want. They can also set a minimum price for how much they’d like to receive for their album.

Bandcamp is free to use, but they will take a commission on every sale. They’ll charge 15% for digital items and when you reach $5,000 in sales, that rate drops to 10%. Bandcamp also charges a 10% fee for physical items as well as shipping and tax and their payment processor fees between 4-6%.

Bandcamp is not a distributor. In order to get your music on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc, you’ll need to use a music distribution service like Jamvana.

MusicTheory.net

MusicTheory.net is a free resource for everything related to music theory. You can practice scales, do ear training, and even take short lessons to freshen up on those pesky Neapolitan chords.

Staying fresh on music theory and learning new techniques will only better you as a musician, and MusicTheory.net is an impeccable resource for that. Their exercises are great if you find yourself with 15-minutes of downtime, like at the airport or the in-laws’ Thanksgiving get together.

Backblaze

Backblaze is an online cloud storage and data backup company that is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

Backblaze operates slightly differently than Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box does. It’s great for those with hard drives filled with samples, project files, and audio files. Download the free Backblaze application, plug in your hard drive, and it’ll begin uploading all of the files to Backblaze’s servers. You’ll get unlimited storage, files, and file size.

Backblaze will save up to 30 days worth of backups and then begin overwriting them with the most current ones after that. If your hard drive crashes, you can download the files for free from the web or have it shipped to you on a flash drive for $99 or an external drive for $189. You’ll receive a full refund upon the return of the flash drive or hard drive.

Their personal plan is only $7/mo. This plan should be sufficient for most musicians backing up one or a few hard drives.

Zapier

Zapier is an online tool with thousands of integrations between web applications, allowing users to automate almost everything. They are based in Sunnyvale, California.

There are endless use cases for musicians and Zapier. One example would be everytime someone purchases a song on Bandcamp, add their contact information to a Google Sheet. Then when that Google Sheet is updated, Zapier can be triggered to send a notification in your team Slack. The chain of automations and possibilities are unlimited. 

They do have a free tier, but it’s limited in features. Their other plans are:

• Starter: $29.99/mo.
• Professional: $73.50/mo.
• Team: $598.50/mo.
• Company: $1,198.50/mo.

The free plan should be enough to get your feet wet, and the Starter plan would be a great next step, especially if you’re going to need more automation.

Chartmetric

Chartmetric is an online service that provides musicians with comprehensive streaming and social media data so they can succeed in their careers.

The program operates by connecting streaming services and social media platforms and compiling the data into an easy-to-use and digestible dashboard. With this data, artists are able to obtain a 360-degree view of their career. They’ll be able to see how their music is performing on Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, and many other places.

This information will inspire additional marketing and growth opportunities and allow artists to make “money moves.”

Chartmetric is used by record label A&Rs, music supervisors, artists, digital marketers, and brand partnerships.

Chartmetric’s “Artist Plan” costs $10/mo. ($100/yr.) and gives subscribers full access up to three subscribed artists, 28 days of historical database, basic data access on millions of artists, and more. Their “Premium” plan, however, is the most robust. It costs $140/mo. ($1,399/yr.) and features the full historical database, audience demographic insights, A&R dashboard, and more.

Check out the hour-long video below to see how Chartmetric works and how you can use it to track your music on digital service providers.

Sound Credit

Sound Credit is a one-stop shop for your entire music and its metadata. They’ve essentially converted those detailed and confusing spreadsheets into an easy-to-use software. They also provide you with an ISNI, which is a vital piece of your metadata.

Sound Credit relaunched their pricing tiers with “Starter,” “Pro,” and “Business” packages, which start at $10/mo., $39/mo., and $99/mo., respectively. Each tier will give subscribers additional features, such as more storage, additional exports for metadata for mastering, lyric sheets, and more. With their “Pro” tier, subscribers will have access to the “Vault,” Sound Credit’s online storage solution.

Subscribers of Sound Credit can also use their program to share their profile using their Creator ID and collaborate with other musicians. This ensures all participants receive proper credit (and royalties).

Sound Credit provides an excellent suite of tools to keep all of your audio files and metadata in one easy to access location.

Mp3tag

Mp3tag is a desktop application for Windows and Mac that is used to edit the metadata of audio files. The application allows content creators to edit MP3, MP4, M4V, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, AIF, DSF, MPC, WV, and WAV files.

In addition, Mp3tag supports online database lookups from Discogs and MusicBrainz. Integration with these online music databases allows Mp3tag to properly tag and download cover art for users with large libraries of music.

Music metadata is one of the most important things that creatives forget about when releasing their music to the world. Without the proper, or incorrect, metadata, digital streaming platforms don’t know who to pay royalties to.

Canva

Think of Canva like an online version of Adobe’s Photoshop. It’s powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable. Canva is used by creatives in every sector of business, including music. The platform is used to create business sales reports, presentations, resumes, handbooks, social media graphics, and much more.

This handy little online tool can be used to create cover art, tour posters, social media graphics, and pitch decks for musicians.

Canva’s pricing is affordable and easy to understand. They offer a free version, which features their drag-and-drop editor, 250,000+ free templates, 1+ million free photos and graphics, and 5GB of cloud storage. Their “Canva Pro” plan is $12.99/month for one person. With this plan, subscribers can enjoy unlimited features, folders, and premium content; 610,000+ premium and free templates with new designs being added daily; and 100+ million premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Photoshop, then Canva is an excellent (and affordable) solution for creatives at all levels.

Spotify for Artists

Spotify for Artists is a musician’s goldmine for analytics on Spotify. This backend tool allows artists and their teams to develop their fanbases and discover who their fans are and where they’re located, among many other things.

Within your Spotify for Artists dashboard you’ll be able to see exactly where your music is being played, what playlists its featured in, and pitch to Spotify’s editorial playlists.

You’ll also be able to customize your Spotify profile directly within the Spotify for Artists app. It’s free to join, and we recommend all artists and musicians join it so they can see exactly how their music is performing on Spotify.

SubmitHub

SubmitHub is a tool that’s used by musicians to pitch their music to Spotify playlist owners, social media influencers, record labels, blogs, and more. It was founded in late-2015 by Jason Grishkoff.

For the most part, SubmitHub is free to use; however, some online publications, influencers, and playlist owners require a small fee to pitch to them. This covers the time it takes to thoroughly review and listen to your music. If you’re looking to pitch your music, SubmitHub is one of the most efficient and effective ways to do it.

SubmitHub currently works with Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Ultra Music, Ninja Tune, and more.

Calendly

Calendly is the easiest and one of the best scheduling applications available. It’s easy to setup and frees up time for creatives so they don’t have to focus so heavily on the administrative tasks of booking meetings.

Calendly’s ability to automate the booking process removes the busywork for creatives. You can set your availability in the backend, connect it with your calendar, and setup specific meeting types. When you add a new event to your calendar, Calendly will update in realtime to ensure an event doesn’t get booked over that time.

If you’re a musician and are constantly doing studio sessions, or even consulting of any kind, then Calendly is a must-have in your arsenal.

Calendly does offer a free plan, but it’s limited in features and has the “Powered by Calendly” branding on everything. If you want to remove Calendly’s branding, you’ll need to upgrade to their Essentials ($10/seat/mo.), Professional ($15/seat/mo.), or their Teams plan ($20/seat/mo).

MusicPro Insurance

MusicPro Insurance is an insurance company that is tailored towards music professionals. The insurance company is co-owned by ASCAP and SterlingRisk. They launched in 2000 and have become a primary choice for insurance when it comes to protecting musicians’ musical instruments and equipment.

Insurance is crucial if you’re a musician who’s on the road a lot, or has amassed a large collection of hardware over the years, then insuring your livelihood is crucial.

Pricing for insurance varies on location, amount of gear you have, and how much it’s valued at. To get an accurate quote, check out their free coverage quote tool.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is a creator marketing platform for musicians, authors, podcasters, and business owners. Their software allows musicians to build an audience quicker than any other email marketing platform out there. ConvertKit also makes it easy to create campaigns to send to fans and subscribers of your list.

Creatives shouldn’t spend hours designing and crafting email campaigns to send to fans and followers. It should remain simple and just work. That’s where ConvertKit thrives because it’s built for today’s content creators.

ConvertKit’s plans vary depending on how many subscribers your email list contains, like many other email marketing platforms out there. Plans range from $15/mo. for up to 300 subscribers on their “Creator” plan and go up to $2,599/mo. for up to 400,000 subscribers on their “Creator Pro” plan. If you need more, you’ll need to schedule a demo with the ConvertKit team.

Alternatives to ConvertKit: Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact

Asana

Asana is a robust project and team management platform. It’s used by companies in all sectors of business to organize, track, and manage their work. They are headquartered in San Francisco, California and launched commercially in 2012.

Managing huge, time-sensitive projects via email or notes just is not a solution anymore. Having one cohesive and organized dashboard for every project and where it’s at in the pipeline is crucial for efficiency and productivity.

For musicians specifically, Asana’s functionality would allow you to layout (and template for future uses) a single/EP/album release rollout. You can invite your band, team, and/or label to your dashboard so everyone can begin working on their assigned tasks. You’ll never forget to register a copyright, submit music to distribution, or miscommunicate with your graphic designer on tour graphics or album art again.

Asana offers a free tier, which is perfect for individuals and small teams who are just getting started with project management. If you find yourself needing additional features that Asana offers, you’ll need to upgrade to their “Premium” or “Business” plans, which cost $10.99/user/mo. and $24.99/user/mo., respectively.

Conclusion

There are new tools that can increase productivity popping up every single day and it can become difficult to sift through the herd of which ones are usable, how they function, and if they’re worth the price they’re charging. From automating your life with Zapier to selling your music on Bandcamp, all of these tools can fill in a blank in your career. 

The products and services listed in this post are some of the most beneficial for artists and musicians.

Are there any products or services we missed? Share them in the comments because we’re always looking for the best products to improve productivity.

The post 31 Best Software Tools and Services for Musicians in 2023 first appeared on Jamvana.

2023 is right around the corner! 2022 went so quick, and so much was accomplished this year but that doesn’t mean the momentum should slow down in 2023. Why not keep that momentum going far into 2023?

There’s a lot that goes into running a freelancer business, so that’s why we’ve compiled this list for all of our freelancing musicians and creatives out there.

In this article we’ll discuss 15 tasks and habits musicians should start or finish before 2023.

Let’s get started.

1. Organize your expenses and income for tax season

As a freelance musician, you should be keeping detailed inventory on every expense and stream of income you have for taxes. The first step is to gather all the necessary information–like receipts and invoices–that you need before you start filling out any forms or creating new documents. You will want to find out how much money you made from playing shows, selling CDs, and other sources of income as well as what expenses you had during the year.

We know invoices are a pain in the butt, but if you’ve completed work this year but haven’t been paid for it, follow up. Try and get that invoice paid so you can include in 2022’s taxes so you can get started on a clean slate in 2023.

There are a lot of tax preparation companies out there, as well as online options like TurboTax. If you have any tax-specific questions, contact a local CPA.

The IRS offers a variety of tools for tax preparation, too. You can visit the IRS website to take advantage of these tools. If you have any questions about your taxes, you can also call the IRS at 800-829-1040.

2. Finalize any contracts or paperwork

Do you have any contracts or paperwork that you need to sign? Are any of them contracts for work? If so, you may want to review them and get them signed before the new year.

Dealing with contracts and paperwork now will allow you more time in the new year to get started on work and hit the ground runnin’.

If anything needs to be reviewed by your attorney, be sure to send it to them for review.

If you know you’ve received paperwork throughout the year that needs your attention, get to it now. Take the time to go through your email and find them so you’re not wasting time in the new year doing this. Sign up and get started with us here.

3. Cue up songs for distribution

How many songs did you finish but not release this year? Are there any you would like to release in the coming year? Get them cued up for distribution. The songs aren’t and won’t do any good just sitting on your external hard drive. Get them out into the world because you may be surprised at how people react to them.

What songs are you planning to release next year? Are they cued up for distribution? Can they be? If so, get them cued up and enter them into your metadata spreadsheet. That way you’ll have your ISRCs, UPCs, ISWCs, etc, all ready to go. And then you’ll be able to focus on the marketing of each track, EP, or album instead of worrying about distribution.

Jamvana is a music services company that offers music distribution. We are a Spotify-preferred distributor and have direct deals with more than 100 other digital service providers around the world. We also offer a number of other state-of-the-art tools to get your music career off the ground.

4. Get clear on what success looks like for you

Success is not always about making the most money. For some, it is about being able to perform for an audience. For others, success means the ability to make a living off of their music. The key to defining success is figuring out what you want and how you can get there.

For example, if you want to start a band and make money off of it, you should consider how much money that band can potentially make. You can also define success in terms of what the members of your band would like to do.

You may also want to focus on another pillar of your music business, such as touring, sync licensing, or creating more social media content. Each of these will require a number of hours in planning, development, and resources.

Define what success looks like for you and create goals that help you achieve success.

5. Make a list of all the goals for 2023

It is important to set goals for yourself. This will help you achieve your goals and also help you stay motivated.

It is also important to make a list of professional goals, not just personal ones. In order to have a successful career, one must be able to set and achieve professional goals that are in line with their career aspirations.

The best way to keep track of the progress on your goal is by making a list, either in a paper journal or electronically. One should write down what they hope to accomplish by the end of the year and then break it down into monthly increments with specific tasks that need to be completed each month in order for them to reach their goal.

6. Write down every project you have on your plate

Managing multiple projects can be difficult for musicians. However, it is important to take the time to plan and organize your projects so that you can avoid any pitfalls during the new year. This is where project management comes in handy.

Project management software is often used by musicians to help them manage their work and assignments. It helps them stay on track and meet deadlines efficiently. It also helps them prioritize their tasks better and allocate time more efficiently.

Some of the best project management tools are Slack, Asana, and Trello. There are many more, so you should do your research to find the best tools and workflow for you and your team.

7. Upgrade your equipment

With the changing times, it is important to maintain and/or upgrade your equipment. It is necessary to keep up with the latest technology and trends as well as make sure you’re providing the highest quality sound possible for your music as well as your clients.

The new musical instruments, software, and hardware available on the market are better than ever before so the brand of hardware that you purchase is personal preference.

The following are some of the benefits of upgrading your equipment:

• Musicians can now create music with high quality sound
• Musicians can now produce music with sounds that have never been heard before
• With upgraded gear, musicians can experiment more and be more creative in their process

With Christmas just around the corner, new audio gear is always a good gift for a fellow musician.

8. Start or continue to learn music production

Musicians should always work to remain educated and current on all happenings in the music business. Reading publications like Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Variety are good starts for keeping up with the latest music business news.

If you’re looking to learn new music production skills, there are a plethora of creators out there that publish easy-to-follow, affordable courses to learn new skills such as mixing, mastering, songwriting, and production.

You can also check out platforms like MasterClass, LinkedIn Learning, and Skillshare for music-related courses.

Constantly refining your skills is vital if you want to remain fresh and resilient in such a cut-throat business.

9. Learn a new instrument

Learning an instrument can be a rewarding experience. It is also a great way to learn more about the world and how it works. Learning a new instrument will help inspire new musical ideas, too.

The most rewarding instruments to learn are the ones that require more effort and time but offer a greater payoff in the end.

Some of the most rewarding and in-demand instruments are:

• Guitar
• Bass Guitar
• Piano
• Drums
• Violin
• Ukulele

10. Practice time management skills and find a balance between work and leisure time

A lot of musicians are stressed out because they don’t manage their time well. They always feel like they don’t have enough hours in the day to get things done, and that causes unnecessary stress.

It’s important to learn how to manage your time wisely so that you can be more productive at work and have more free time for yourself.

Here are a few tips to help with time management:

• Eat breakfast: Seriously. Don’t skip the most important meal of the day. There’s nothing worse than trying to create and your stomach hurts because you haven’t eaten.
• Time block: This is a bit of a life hack if you ask me. Open up your calendar and put in 25-minute blocks of time that you’re going to work. Research has shown that not many people do this, but it can significantly boost productivity. In the few hours that you block off for, say, music, set a timer. 25-minutes of hard, no-distraction work, then take a 5-minute break. Rinse and repeat. Do this for 2-3 hours, then take a longer break.
• No heavy personal planning: I’ve noticed that when I start trying to plan out what I’m doing for the weekend or getting excited about a future trip, for example, I get yanked out of my creative workflow and find it difficult to get back on track. Save the personal planning for non-work hours—and time block it so it gets done when it’s supposed to and doesn’t bleed into your work.
• Write down goals for the day: Daily goals can be really helpful for when you have a long to-do list of small things to get done. Sit down, knock ‘em all out, and do it again the next day. There is nothing more satisfying than putting a big line or check mark next to something you’ve accomplished!

11. Learn to use social media platforms to promote yourself as a musician

In this day and age, social media is a vital marketing tool for any musician. It can be used to promote your music and shows. It’s also a great way to build your fan base and community.

There are many strategies that you can use as a musician on social media platforms to help promote yourself. You should start by identifying where your audience is most likely to be found on social media, then create an account on those platforms and start engaging with them.

For example, if you have a large following on Instagram but not so much on TikTok, focus more of your time there. You should also think about what kind of content you want to share – do you want it to be personal or professional? What kind of tone do you want it to have?

The best rule you can follow is to be your true, authentic self online.

12. Take care of your mental health by practicing effective self-care strategies

Self-care is a crucial part of being a musician. Musicians are often faced with a lot of stress and anxiety, which can lead to mental health problems.

The music industry has, to some degree, realized the importance of self-care. More and more musicians are being more open about their mental and physical health, reducing the stigma of taking time to care for yourself.

Remember, it’s okay to not be okay.

Some self-care tips for musicians that will help them take care of their mental health and wellness:

• Eat healthy food and drink lots of water
• Exercise regularly
• Sleep well
• Spend time with friends and family
• Get enough sunshine
• Take breaks and as much time off as you need… seriously.

13. Find and follow a routine for self-development

Self-development is an important part of creativity and musicians should take the time to develop themselves in order to be able to create new music.

Developing a routine for self-development can help the musician find more time for creative work.

Some routines are:

• Take care of your mind and body with healthy food, sleep, and exercise
• Spend time with people who inspire you
• Find a creative project that excites you (e.g.: writing a song)
• Find a hobby that’s not music-related so you don’t get exhausted from constantly thinking about music

14. Find what’s holding you back from being more productive or creative

It is important for musicians to take time for self-reflection and find out what’s holding them back from being more productive or creative. It could be anything from a negative mindset to lack of inspiration, or something deeper.

Self-reflection is one of the most important things that a musician can do in order to improve their skills. The first step is to identify what’s holding you back and then take steps towards overcoming it.

For example, if the violinist wants to become a top level violin player, they might need to take lessons from a private teacher. They may have tried learning violin on their own but struggled to do so because of the lack of structure and inability to ask questions. Getting frustrated and struggling to learn something that’s supposed to be fun may be what’s adding stress to your creative process. Taking violin lessons from a private instructor may help alleviate this.

15. Build a network of people who will support you on this journey

It is important to surround yourself with people who will support you on this journey. This can be your family and friends, but also other musicians who have had success and understand what you’re going through better than anybody else. It is also important to go to industry networking events where you can meet people in the industry and find out what they are doing. This will help keep your inspiration and motivation up.

Conclusion

The end of the year is always a stressful time for musicians and creatives, especially for those that freelance their work. Chasing invoices and following up on money is difficult, but when that snowballs into something bigger at a time that is not as convenient it becomes overwhelming. So, cue up those songs for distribution, follow up on any unpaid invoices, and start building good new habits and routines.

Did we forget anything? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 15 Mundane But Important Tasks and Habits Musicians Should Begin or Finish For 2023 first appeared on Jamvana.

The music industry doesn’t make royalties an easy topic. They’re all over the place, and every country has different organizations and rules. Thankfully, you don’t need to know how every country’s royalty collection societies and copyright laws function in order to collect royalties where your music is publicly played, performed, or aired.

However, you should at least understand how royalty payments are divided amongst songwriters, publishers, and artists. We’re going to cover these things in-depth throughout this blog post.

The Basics of the Music Industry Payment Structures and Music Royalties

Music royalties are the money generated by a song or album’s usage. This usage can be a public performance, stream on Spotify, Apple Music, or other digital service provider, or a sync license (which we’ll cover in detail a little later on). Royalties are paid to the copyright holders. There can be one or many. For example, an up-and-coming band may be signed to a contract with a record label that pays them 10% of all revenue created from the sales of their music on physical CDs and streaming services. The individual musicians may then also receive royalties based on their contribution to the song as well as any profits made from publishing royalties.

An independent artist or band, on the other hand, would receive all of those royalties without having the label getting a cut.

Music royalties have evolved a lot over the years, and there are more streams of revenue than ever before in the history of music. And companies like Jamvana, SoundExchange, and Songtrust are helping songwriters, artists, and musicians collect the money and royalties they deserve.

If you’re a songwriter, artist, or musician yourself, these companies provide services such as collection and distribution of mechanical royalties for songs and compositions, collection and distribution of performance royalties for artists and musicians, payment processing services to help manage royalty payments in the digital age, and an administration throughout the process of collecting mechanical royalties with an easy-to-use reporting system so that the publisher, performer and performing rights society can easily see how mechanical royalties are collected and paid.

The Various Types of Royalties Paid to Artists, Songwriters, and Music Publishers

Royalty types vary in terms of the source, what is being paid, and how it is calculated. The following are some common examples of the royalties paid to artists, songwriters, and music publishers:

• Mechanical royalties: These royalties are collected by a mechanical rights administrator on behalf of the songwriter or composer. In the United States, it’s the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) or Songtrust.
• Performance royalties: These royalties are paid to songwriters for “public performances” of their songs. The royalties are collected by performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
• Digital performance royalties: Also referred to as “neighboring rights,” these are royalties paid to the sound recording copyright owner such as the artist and/or label for a public performance of the sound recording. These royalties are generated when a sound recording is played via a non-interactive stream (Pandora, SiriusXM). This does not apply to terrestrial radio in the US, unfortunately. This is, however, hopefully on the verge of changing with the introduction of the American Music Fairness Act.
• Sync licensing fees (technically not a royalty): These are upfront fees that are paid to the sound recording and composition copyright holders in exchange for a license to use their music.

We covered the various types of music royalties and how they’re collected in a previous blog post.

How are royalty payments tracked?

Well, this is somewhat of a loaded question because, as you probably know by now, there are multiple streams of royalties. Different companies and collection societies collect different types of royalties, which doesn’t make things easier (and I wish there was one system that collects all of the royalties). That would seemingly make it easier for songwriters, publishers, artists, and labels to collect their royalties.

However, to be brief, royalty payments are usually tracked based on the song’s metadata, which includes the works’ copyright, collaborators, songwriters, publisher, mixing and mastering engineers, studio information, and more. Primarily, though, when referring to “royalties” it’s typically common knowledge that it’s referring to the ones the distributor or label and publisher collect.

The record label and publisher will then pay the artists and songwriters, respectively, that it represents. One way of looking at how royalties are split is that each party who has been involved in the creation of a musical work, such as a recording artist, producer, arranger, or songwriter (collectively referred to as “Music Creators”) may be entitled to a percentage of the royalties, depending on their contribution to the project. A producer may receive credit on the album, but that doesn’t mean they’re entitled to royalties (unless it was previously negotiated).

However, if the producer assisted in writing the lyrics and melodies, then they would also be credited as a songwriter; therefore, entitling them to mechanical and publishing royalties.

Another example would be if there are two songwriters, each of those songwriters could negotiate a 50/50 split for mechanical royalties and publishing. Their publishers—they may be the same or different—will collect and pay out those royalties for them.

Since everything is negotiable, the royalty splits and agreements need to be in writing. These contracts should be written by an attorney so everything is done correctly and fairly. The goal is to avoid disagreements and lawsuits in the future.

How to Track Down Your Music Royalties

Music royalties are royalties that artists receive for the use of their songs by other artists. They can be collected by an artist’s record company or music publisher, or through these companies’ agreements with songwriters and publishers. Royalties from digital downloads are different from selling physical copies of CDs, which is why some artists refer to digital downloads as “streaming.” In order to find out how much a particular song is worth in terms of royalties, an artist should know who created it and who owns the rights to it. The songwriter and/or owner of copyright is the primary individual who would be responsible for payment of royalties.

If you want to collect all of the royalties you’re owed, be sure that you’re signed up to the following services:

• Music distributor (like Jamvana)
• SoundExchange
• Songtrust (or any other admin publisher)
• ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SOCAN (or any other performing rights organization)

Those are a few of the most important organizations and companies to get started, but there are more. Sign up to our email list via the sign up box below and we’ll send you the full list.

Conclusion

As you’ve probably learned, music royalties can be divided in any way, shape, or form, as long as they’re negotiated and in writing. In a way, that makes things easy because you have the freedom to negotiate pricing.

Music royalties are an incredibly complex topic and get confusing more often than not, but we’re doing our best to water them down so you can best understand them and easily get paid the ones you’re owed.

Do you have any questions? Leave a comment and we’ll answer them.

The post How Music Royalties Are Divided Between Songwriters, Publishers and Artists first appeared on Jamvana.

Many of today’s pop stars were catapulted into the limelight out of Orlando, including groups like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, both of whom were developed and managed by infamous manager, Lou Pearlman.

Fast forward to today: Orlando is home to one of the largest dance and most coveted music festivals in the world, EDC Orlando. “The City Beautiful” also houses some of the best clubs and music scene. It’s not quite a Los Angeles, New York City, or Nashville, but it’s very quickly making its way up there with venues like The Social, The Plaza Live!, House of Blues, and The Abbey.

Before we dive into the list, we need to clarify a couple of things. A few names on this list are music producers, so we want to be clear on what a music producer does and what a “beat maker” does. They’re different.

Beat maker vs. music producer

Music producers are one of the main brains behind the music business. They’re responsible for overseeing an entire production—singles, EPs, and albums—from start to finish. If necessary, they find session musicians, assist in sonic vision, and get the song from a piano/guitar and vocals to a full-fledged piece of art.

The term “music producer” is commonly misused for a “beat maker” in the music business. A music producer is someone who oversees an entire musical project, like the ones mentioned above, and perform a wide array of tasks associated with getting that project completed.

Beat makers, on the other hand, are professionals that make beats. That’s it. A music producer may hire a beat maker to create the beat, chords, and melodies for a track (and they should receive songwriting credit for that!), but they typically don’t go beyond that.

15 musicians and music professionals from Orlando, Florida that impacted music

1. Kane Beatz

Kane Beatz is a music producer and songwriter from Orlando, Florida. During his high school years, he produced music and sold beats online. He was contacted shortly after by Mike Caren, the executive vice president of A&R for Atlantic Records. Caren signed Kane Beatz to a publishing deal with the Atlantic Records.

He has since created his own label called The Building where he’s signed Kief Brown and Jeremy “JMIKE” Coleman.

He has produced songs like “BedRock” by Young Money and Lloyd, “Bottoms Up” by Trey Songz and Nicki Minaj, “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco, and “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj, among many others.

2. DJ Nasty and LVM

DJ Nasty and LVM are a production duo from Orlando, Florida, and comprised of brothers Johnny David Mollings and Leonardo V. Mollings. They were born in Cuba, but their dad was in the Navy, so they relocated to Orlando. They made a name for themselves after meeting DJ Khaled and starting Hitmen Productions.

DJ Nasty and LVM are known for their productions of DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller and “All I Do Is Win,” and “S on My Chest,” which he produced with Kane Beatz, another Orlando native.

3. XXYYXX

XXYYXX, whose real name is Marcel Everett, is an electronic music producer from Orlando, Florida. He’s been producing for more than a decade and created the track “What We Want” for the Grand Theft Auto V video game. Furthermore, he was credited on Tory Lanez’s single “Flex,” which Lanez released as part of his album I Told You.

XXYYXX has also remixed tracks for artists like Tinashe and Usher.

4. Dave Fortman

Dave Fortman is the guitarist for Ugly Kid Joe, a rock band that originated out of Isla Vista, California. His career spans many decades, and Fortman has been pivotal in the evolution of alternative and hard rock music. He has worked with some of the most transformative bands and names in dance music, including Slipknot, Otep, and Evanescence.

Fortman worked on Evanescence’s Fallen album, which went on to receive four Grammy nominations. “Bring Me to Life” was also nominated for Song of the Year and Fallen was nominated for Record of the Year in 2003. Fallen was certified platinum in 33 countries.

5. Ayo the Producer

Ayo the Producer, whose real name is Austin Owens, is a record producer, songwriter, and audio engineer from Orlando, Florida. He has worked with artists like Rick Ross, Cardi B, Wiz Khalifa, Bryson Tiller, and many others, according to HipHopDX. He is one-half of Ayo and Keyz.

Ayo the Producer won a Grammy in 2019 for Best Rap Album for his work on Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy. In 2020, Ayo and Keyz produced Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s viral hit “WAP.”

6. Lou Pearlman

Lou Pearlman was a record producer and manager. While not from Orlando, Florida, Pearlman had a lot of influence on the Orlando music scene. He is best known for funding and managing global sensations. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC after the Backstreet Boys’ huge success.

Pearlman was a criminal and operated one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in United States history. Over the years, he had amassed more than $300 million in debts. He died in prison on August 19, 2016, at the age of 62.

7. NSYNC

Founded by Lou Pearlman in Orlando, Florida, NSYNC became a global sensation with the release of their album No Strings Attached, which had songs like “Bye Bye Bye,” “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and “This I Promise You.” The group consisted of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass.

No Strings Attached was the best-selling album of 2000, and the second best-selling album of the decade, right behind The Beatles’ 1.

8. Backstreet Boys

Formed, funded, and managed by infamous manager Lou Pearlman, the Backstreet Boys rose to global stardom after the release of their debut album, Backstreet Boys in 1996. They followed up with their sophomore album in 1997 called Backstreet’s Back. The group consists of members AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, and Brian Littrell.

Pearlman, the group’s manager, posted an advertisement in the Orlando Sentinel saying that he was looking to form a group with a “New Kids on the Block” look and “Boyz II Men sound.” Pearlman named the group after Orlando’s Backstreet Market.

9. Matchbox Twenty

Matchbox Twenty is a rock group that formed in Orlando, Florida in 1995. The band’s members include Rob Thomas, Brian Yale, Paul Doucette, and Kyle Cook. The group rose to fame after the release of their debut album in 1996, Yourself or Someone Like You.

As of June 2022, the band’s Twitter account shared a video confirming that a new album was on the way.

10. O-Town

O-Town is a boy band/group originating from Orlando, Florida as part of the reality TV show Make the Band. At the time of their founding, the group consisted of members Erik-Micheael Estrada, Trevor Penick, Jacob Underwood, Ashley Parker Angel, and Ikaika Kahoano. However, Dan Miller replaced Kahoano after Miller dropped out of the group.

The group was founded and originally managed by infamous manager Lou Pearlman during the show’s filming. Mike Cronin and Mike Morin took over the management responsibilities after Pearlman.

11. Matt Heafy

Most notably known for his role as guitarist for the heavy metal band Trivium, Matt Heafy is a guitarist and vocalist from Orlando, Florida. Heafy was voted sixth on the Ultimate Guitar list’s “Top 25 Greatest Frontmen” in 2017.

12. DJ Magic Mike

DJ Magic Mike is a DJ and producer from Orlando, Florida. He made history with his productions in the Miami Bass genre and is the first platinum selling artist from Orlando, according to the Orlando Sentinel. His sound is commonly blended with hip-hop. During his hip-hop days he teamed up with MC Madness as his primary collaborator. DJ Magic Mike went on to collaborate with Sir Mix-a-Lot and Techmaster P.E.B.

DJ Magic Mike has made a big name for himself in the Florida breaks scene, too. He has held a longtime Sunday night residency at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. He continues to tour across the US and around the world.

13. ROB ANALYZE

CEO and founder of Jamvana, Robert Leigh, who performs under the moniker ROB ANALYZE, has been a catalyst to the Orlando music scene. He founded Jamvana in 2008 and has built a strong reputation in Orlando’s music business for all things music distribution, playlist pitching, and music services.

During the summer of 2022, Leigh locked in a big deal with the Orlando Solar Bears hockey team. With this partnership, Jamvana exclusively curates the music for the Solar Bears’ home games at the Amway Center in downtown Orlando. Leigh DJs each of these events as well by tapping into Jamvana’s nearly 1 million sound recordings to keep the energy high for the Solar Bears’ home games.

With his tenacity and work ethic, Leigh will easily climb to the top to become Orlando’s number one talent booker.

14. AK1200

AK1200, whose real name is Dave Minner, is a jungle and drum n’ bass songwriter and producer from Orlando, Florida.

He is recognized for his promotion of jungle and drum n bass genres in the United States, sparking an increase in the popularity amongst the genres. He’s done this through his high energy live performances and remixes, as well as performing multiple shows across the country for free to promote the genres.

AK1200 partnered with Dieselboy and DJ Dara to create the annual Planet of the Drums tour.

15. Kimball Collins

Kimball Collins is a trance DJ and producer from Orlando, Florida. He got his start in 1987, and he is recognized for jumpstarting the dance scene in Orlando after his shows at the Beacham Theatre did really well.

In 1993, Collins formed his own PositiVibes Records and has been a pioneer in the ever-evolving dance music scene since.

Conclusion

With Orlando’s budding music scene, this list is sure to grow in the coming years. Festivals like EDC Orlando at Tinker Field and Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival at Sunshine Grove bring music lovers from around the world to the Central Florida area.

If we missed anybody, leave a comment, and let us know so we can add them to the list.

The post 15 Musicians and Music Professionals From Orlando, Florida Who Changed The Landscape of Music first appeared on Jamvana.

Music royalties are a complicated topic in the music industry, and things are constantly evolving. Apple Music, for example, pays a different amount of royalties than Spotify, TIDAL, and other digital service providers. Once those royalties are collected by your distributor, they need to be allocated to the appropriate copyright holders. But how much? When? Do I only need a music distributor to collect all of my royalties?

These are the questions we’re going to be answering in this blog post.

What are music royalties and who gets them?

Music royalties are the fees that an artist earns for their work when it is played on the radio, streamed on a streaming service, or downloaded on Beatport, among other things. They are paid by streaming services, radio stations, TV networks, and other companies or artists who play an artist’s music in a public setting. The keyword here is public. Performing a song or playing a song on Spotify for a private birthday party at your house is not a public performance; therefore, you do not need to acquire the proper licenses to play it. Performing that song at a club or coffee shop is a public performance and requires the proper license and permission from the copyright holders.

Royalties paid out by streaming services to music distributors is set on a per-song basis and it is usually paid out to the master copyright owner(s), which is typically the artist or label. Songwriter(s) and publisher(s) are also paid, but they are not paid by the distributor. However, some music distributors have the ability to collect and pay out mechanical royalties.

Songwriters can also earn a percentage of revenue from concerts where their songs are performed live or from merchandise sales if they have signed an exclusive publishing agreement with a particular company. These are called “360 deals.”

If you’re an artist and performing your music publicly at a local venue, you can earn royalties. That’s considered a public performance, and you should submit a setlist to your PRO ahead of time.

5 Different Types of Music Royalties and How They are Collected

Musicians are entitled to different types of royalties for their work. These royalties are collected by different entities, and the amount that is paid to the musician varies from one type of royalty to another.

Let’s take a look at the different types of royalties and how they’re collected.

Mechanical Royalties: This type of royalty is collected by a mechanical rights administrator on behalf of the songwriter or composer. In the United States, it’s the Mechanical Licensing Collective. Songtrust also collects these royalties, so if you’re registered with them you do not need to sign up to the MLC. The mechanical royalty is typically paid every time a song is streamed or sold. The amount that is paid can vary depending on a number of factors such as streaming vs. digital sales, international rates, etc.

Performance Royalties: This type of royalty is collected by performing rights organizations, such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, who collect money for public performances like radio broadcasts, TV broadcasts, live performances in theaters and nightclubs, etc. This money will go directly to the songwriters and not the publishers. However, according to Royalty Exchange, this landscape is changing, and publishers are wanting a bigger piece of the pie. The amount that you get paid for a song on Spotify, for example, depends on which country you’re in, but it’s typically between $0.00055 and $0.017 per stream, according to iGroove.

Streaming Royalties: A “streaming royalty” is a royalty that is paid to the sound recording copyright owner(s) and is negotiated between music distributors and streaming services. Every distributor negotiates a different rate, and this information is typically not publicly available. The streaming services commonly pay out 50% of their revenue to the artists on their platform, according to Soundcharts. This revenue is then split up amongst all of the artists. “The split is determined by ‘share of content’ or the number of streams a given artist has on the platform divided by all streams on the platform,” per Soundcharts.

Neighboring Rights/Digital Performance Royalties: This one’s a little confusing, but neighboring rights are similar to the public performance royalties that are paid to songwriters, except these royalties are paid out to the sound recording owners for public performances. In the United States, terrestrial radio does not pay out these royalties. Other countries do. Non-interactive streams (Pandora, SiriusXM) do earn royalties. Neighboring rights can also be considered “digital performance royalties,” but they do have a few slight differences. The organization that collects the digital performance royalties is SoundExchange.

Still confused? Sign up to our email list, and we’ll send you our music distribution checklist. It will walk you through every organization you need to sign up with and register your music.

How Digital Platforms Have Changed the Way We Collect Royalties

The music industry has changed drastically over the last few decades, and it’s only going to continue changing at a rapid pace. Digital service providers turned the music industry on its head and forced a paramount revolution in the music business.

Artists and labels didn’t have to focus on selling physical products anymore. They could distribute music to Spotify and have an infinite amount of people listen to the music without ever running out. Every time that music is streamed or downloaded (back in the days of iTunes) the artists, labels, songwriters, and publishers would get paid.

The industry at large has made significant strides towards this digital world, but legislatively it’s years behind. However, we are beginning to see progress.

Digital Services That Pay the Most for Artists’ Royalties

With the music industry constantly being in an ever-evolving state, streaming services are constantly updating and revising the amount that they pay out to the artists and songwriters on their platforms.

According to Producer Hive, the five highest paying streaming services are TIDAL, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music.

TIDAL: $0.01284 per stream

Apple Music: $0.008 per stream

Amazon Music: $0.00402 per stream

Spotify: $0.00318 per stream

YouTube Music: $0.002 per stream

Note: This is only for the streaming royalties and not for mechanicals, publishing, or performance royalties.

How do I get paid for my songs?

There are multiple ways that musicians can collect all royalties for their songs. One way is to register with a PRO (Performing Rights Organization) like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Another way is to register with SoundExchange, which we discussed above. They’ll collect the digital performance royalties for the sound recordings.

Registration with a PRO allows you to collect royalties for broadcast performances of your song, such as on TV or radio.

You’ll also want to register with a music distributor, like Jamvana, in order to release your music to the streaming services and collect your royalties.

Registration with these organizations provides you the best opportunity to start collecting your royalties, but there are more.

Sign up to our email list to receive a free PDF guide with all of the organizations you should register with to collect all of your royalties.

Conclusion

Music royalties are a complicated topic in the music business, but they’re vital for all music professionals to understand. Signing up and registering with the appropriate organizations now will alleviate any stress and confusion later down the road when you get that smash hit—or career changing sync placement.

The post How Music Royalties are Collected and What You Need to Know About Them: The Complete Guide first appeared on Jamvana.