Social Media – Fiona Z – The Musician’s Five Star Assistant

Best Of 2022 Tools for Musicians 🔧

Can you believe we are at the end of this year? Personally, it flew by for me. It was a very interesting year with clients getting back to some form of normalcy with touring, yet approaching it very differently. It seems the pandemic shifted how my client’s approached their income streams and business structures for the better. I think musicians are working smarter and creating healthier ways to make a living from performing. Yet, with everyone going more online and strategic, it does make it more competitive. With the right tools though, you can make the best decisions at that moment.

As I did last year, I thought I would recap some of my favorite tools I’ve used or discovered this past year to pass on to you. FYI – I have no affiliate links below. These are tools that I use or genuinely recommend. Here we go!

1. Viberate – If you’re doing tons of online campaigns on social media, this might be worth the splurge to access full data information. This site is a comprehensive way to view your analytics online. You can even compare yourself to other artists to see how you stack up. You can have a free account, and test out the premium features with a 7 day free trial.

2. Canva – You’ve probably heard of Canva by now, and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re not savvy enough for Photoshop. The site constantly improves its functionality and brings tons of inspiration every time I open it up. I use it every week – and the paid version is totally worth it when creating promo materials for social media. Getting to be able to just click and resize graphics is worth it alone!

3. Spotify Marquee – Marquee is a new campaign tool within Spotify’s artist tools, allowing you to send full-screen sponsored recommendations of your new release to relevant Premium and Free listeners. Enjoy 20% this month on your next campaign (even if it’s scheduled to run outside of this month).

4. Shopify – Last year you might remember that I recommended Ecwid as an e-commerce platform, and I still do, but a recent trial has me leaning towards Shopify. It’s just as easy to use AND big bonus, it can connect with your Spotify account to sell merch to your listeners there. If you’ve got any sort of following on Spotify, you don’t want to miss that opportunity.

5. Signnow – If you’re sending out contracts or agreements to band members, venues, etc., you NEED this tool. This allows you to send documents via email for online signature. In this day and age, you cannot do it any other way! Most people do not have printers, and you’ll be chasing for physical signatures when it’s so easy to do it online. Dochub is another platform I recommend for this type of tool, and you can use it for free for up to 5 documents a month.

6. Patreon – Patreon lets musicians create subscription-based channels, set up their prices and rewards and build a monthly income by offering specific perks to their supporters. It’s so easy and such a smart way to connect with your die-hard fans.

7. Tip Jars – Now, there’s not a specific app for this. You can use Paypal.me or AddThis, or something like that. But I found that the clients that do have a tip jar button on their website or emails, usually get a little extra cash in their pocket! So, I don’t think it hurts to have this option open to your fans.

What tools did you use the most in 2022? Anything you want to share with me? Hit reply and let me know. I’d love to know what has been working for you!

See you in 2023,

Manage Your Lyrics on Spotify, Instagram, etc.

It’s been a busy summer on my end – not only personally (Hello, I had another baby!) but also keeping things strong with clients. Momentum is building with my clients as they are establishing their revenue streams with album releases, tours and updating their online stores. I’m also helping some clients clean up their catalogs – making sure registrations are complete with these new releases and set up properly. It can be kind of a headache when there are now 8 recommended ways to register your music. But it’s totally worth it to everyone when it’s completed.

Another new thing that came up for one of my clients is that we noticed not all of her lyrics were showing up on Instagram when she was trying to promote it. We were under the impression that our distributor would send those lyrics as it was delivered to the store. But no, that was not the case. There is a separate (surprise!) platform that you must load your lyrics on to connect them with Spotify, Instagram and more so that when people share your music on stories, they can show the lyrics!

Blog / Business Tips / Social Media / Uncategorized - 09/12/2022

TikTok isn’t going anywhere

Blog / Business Tips / Social Media / Uncategorized - 05/09/2022

Ads on a Cover Song – Should You Do It?

February is here and I don’t know about you but things are in FULL swing for 2022 already. Releases, tours, etc. are all being carried out and there’s definitely an energy going around. It’s exciting – and quite busy! But the good kind for sure.

For one client in particular, she is strategizing to cater to more private event bookings and looking to enhance her content to showcase her skills for those types of events. She brilliantly created a medley video, where she performed dozens of cover songs within minutes. It’s entertaining and does exactly what she needs it to do – showcase her range for performing live.

With this video, she obviously wanted to release it and get as many views as possible before pitching it to event bookers to show that she has an impact with her music. Usually, you would put out the video and then to grow views exponentially, place advertisements on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. However in our conversation about this strategy we both stopped. Cover songs are not exactly approved by these platforms to post and place ads on (unless you have the license set in place). And this was more complicated, this was 15-30 seconds of multiple cover songs! Plus it was not an official release meaning no license was obtained at this point.

We both hit up Google but the answers were too vague or mostly just about cover songs / licensing. We knew we could likely post the video without getting it taken down, but advertising could be a different story. Her page already was shortly suspended for another release earlier this year so she wanted to be very cautious about this.

I reached out to colleagues in the industry:
“You should be fine if you cleared it with the distributor.”
“Not likely to come down but highly unlikely to be allowed to monetize someone else’s copyrights”
“It’s definitely not allowed to be used as an ad. Whether or not you can get away with it is another story.”

I also remembered the “mash up star” GirlTalk who was very popular in the late 2000s, how he sampled thousands of songs without licenses, and was hit hard with cases of infringement. He came out hot after the trails of the recording industry cracking down on illegal downloading. In the end, he came out fine as it was deemed that his samples were short enough to not hurt the original release. In short, if you heard the sample in his music, odds are it only made you like the original track more. If you haven’t heard of him or his story, watch the documentary about him and copyright infringement here.

RiP!: A Remix Manifesto (2008) - Watch on Kanopy or Streaming Online | Reelgood

Back to my client, we discussed what could work for us and still help her reach her goals of getting this video in front of as many eyes as possible.

We decided to post the video on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, but only placed advertising on Youtube. While advertising on Facebook and Instagram would have been nice, it was highly likely those platforms would either not allow it or take down the video. And Youtube developed a monetization system to allow rights holders and content creators to bypass the usual licensing process for cover song videos.

And…we’re still standing today, all profiles and videos live.

It also made more sense to focus on one video to grow views on, and thinking ahead, we’d most likely be sharing a Youtube link to future bookers vs a FB or IG link.

I wanted to share this story because we couldn’t find the answer when we were looking, and my hope is that this can help other artists make a decision when posting their cover or medley videos.

Cheers,

Album Release / Social Media - 02/07/2022

Potentially Boost Your Spotify Stream Numbers With This New Feature

I’m writing today because – and I may be late to the party – but Spotify finally enabled Canvas for all artists via the Artist Dashboard. What’s Canvas? Well, you know those short, neat little videos that play during a Spotify stream on a loop on your screen? That’s a Canvas video. For the longest time, you had to ‘apply’ to have it added to your profile, but it always felt like it went into a black hole (which, considering now that it’s enabled for everyone, might have been the case 🤦‍♀️.

So, I’ve circulated the update to my clients and we are editing selected tracks and enabling this feature for all future releases.

Here’s what you need to know if you are looking to add it to your tracks, too.

Where to enable Canvas:

First, you need to be sure you’ve claimed your artist profile at artists.spotify.com. If you haven’t and you’re on the platform, for shame! Jump on it right away. Not only can you do this new Canvas trick, but you can also control your profile picture, biography, links, and look at listener stats as well as pitch your new music to Spotify playlists.
Once enabled and logged in, click on the Music Tab.
If you want to add Canvas to an upcoming release, click on ‘Upcoming’ on the Music tab.
There, you’ll see your upcoming release, with the playlist pitch and the Canvas options enabled. Click on ‘Manage’ under Canvas: Enhance Your Release
Once prompted, click Add by the track you want to add your video to.
Drag and drop your file in and hit save!

What are the required specs?

Below are the overview file requirements:

9:16 ratio
At least 720px tall
An MP4 or JPEG file
3s to 8s long (MP4 only)

The full details – as well as some great inspiration – can be found on Spotify’s website here: https://canvas.spotify.com/en-us along with a handy video on how to add as well here.

I’m really curious to analyze the stats on tracks with Canvas videos vs ones that don’t for my clients – I’d like to see if it makes a difference. Spotify claims “when listeners see a Canvas, they are more likely to keep streaming (+5% on average vs. control group), share the track (+145%), add to their playlists (+20%), save the track (+1.4%), and visit your profile page (+9%)”. What’s also great is your followers can share the canvas video on socials, like their Instagram story, and it really becomes content for the release. And personally, a lot of these Canvas videos that have caught my eye led me to check out the official music video – which I hope to accomplish for my clients!
So, give it a go – even a simple loop video could make all the difference – and get creative with your tracks on Spotify!

Album Release / Business Tips / Social Media - 02/08/2021

5 Cool Tools to Try Today 🛠️

Lately, I've been diving into summits, podcasts and I've also signed up to go to CD Baby's DIY Musician Conference (let me know if you'll be there). I am trying to take the rest of the month for research, education and learning what is new out there, what works and what doesn't. I'm not going to lie, it's overload, but it's also exciting to get a spark back in how I can help my clients. On that note, I thought I'd share some recent tools I've found that I know you could use today. Here are five cool tools I'm using now, and I encourage you to check them out!

1. Connecting Twitter + Instagram. If you use Instagram and Twitter on the regular, you need to grab this. One of the setbacks with these two platforms is that they don't talk to each other. If you post on Instagram and then share on Twitter, Twitter doesn't show the photo, rather a link which looks pretty awful. Ideally, you want to share the image, not a link to the image. This nifty applet fixes that and will post an Instagram photo to your Twitter feed as a native photo. Grab it here. Sign up on their website to get updates on all the neat applets rolling out on a regular basis.

2. EditFrame. The developer of this site personally reached out to me and asked me checked it out. As someone who despises opening up iMovie for simple video edit, this site is a great tool if you make a lot of videos - specifically image/audio videos. It's very basic now but the developer is keen on making it bigger and useful tool for musicians as a video editor, and I'm confident more features will start to roll out. Check it out here and if you do use it, definitely let me know your thoughts on it!

3. Metablocks Widgets for Music. I've been looking for access to a widget like this for months, and I'm so excited to have finally found one that I can use. You've probably seen lots of musicians share links to their new album or single, and it's a landing page to link everywhere it is distributed - iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, Google, and more. For the longest time, the one widget that was out there (that I knew of) was stuck in the invite-only mode. So, I jumped on the opportunity to request access to Metablocks version. I recommend using this for your next release so that you have one link to share where your music is - much better than having to manage several links. Access it here.

4. Website Grader. This site is a completely free online tool that grades your site against key metrics like performance, mobile readiness, SEO, and security. It's a great way to do a quick checkup on how your website is doing, and even tells you what you can do to improve your grade. Grade your site in seconds.

5. Online Signature. I'm still at a loss why anybody still does not use online signing tools to lock down contracts and agreements. Stop the goose-chase and get your contracts online! It is a lot easier to get signatures where you need them if someone can access it online. I personally use SignNow.com, but I found Online Signature and suggest that because if you do less than 5 contracts a month, it stays free. Check it out here.

That's it (for now)! Please - let me know if you use these tools and if you love them as much as I do (or not)! And a few months from now, I'll definitely share any new tools I find that are useful and make your day easier.

Business Tips / Social Media - 05/21/2018

📱 Get App-y! 📱

I’m all giddy typing right now because I know what I’m about to share is going to make your life improve in a snap – and for free! Seriously! I’ve been doing what I’m about to share with you for a few weeks now, and I already feel like life is just…easier.

Finally, the many websites you use as a musician are wising up and getting in the App store. Here are the newest and then some of my favorites that you should download now.

1. Spotify for Artists

Separate from the Spotify music app that you know, you can now access your artist profile directly through your phone. This is great if you want to quickly update your Artist Pick Of The Day based on your mood, or new release, or update your photo, or quickly check your stats. Learn more about Spotify for Artists in my blog post here.

2. Bandinstown Manager

Another brand spankin’ new app for musicians. I think this app is WAY overdue! Now you can mark shows as sold out while on the road, or quickly make any last minute changes to your touring calendar. I’ve used it and have had no issues – they’ve done a great job rolling this one out.

3. BandCamp

This one is beautiful y’all. I logged in and was welcomed with stats, one click away from messaging fans and quickly able to see how my client’s album sales were doing. This app is no joke. In addition to what I just mentioned, you can edit your profile, add new merch, check orders, mark them as shipped and most importantly, message your subscribers. If you’re active on BandCamp, this app will make it easier for you while on the road.

4. MailChimp

Now, this will only apply to you if you are using MailChimp for your newsletter (highly recommended, it’s the most affordable & most reliable one out there – trust me, I’ve tried a lot of them). They’ve had an app for a while now, but because you couldn’t edit the newsletters, I thought it was pretty useless. I never had a situation where I had to urgently pull up a report or check if an email was on the list. But, I have been on the road, and a word needs to be changed in the draft, and the email has to get sent out in 5 minutes. I would either rush and scramble to get to my computer, or I’d have to, unfortunately, let it wait until I could get to a computer (NOT preferred)! So, now that you can edit the emails on your phone and catch those minor mistakes before they go out? I’m all in.

5. Dropbox

Having Dropbox on my phone has been a lifesaver more than once. A venue needs a hi-res photo of the band so they can announce ticket sales that day, the band needs to hear the new track before rehearsal this afternoon, you need to send a link to your poster to print out at Staples…this has ALL happened to me! Dropbox’s app is very organized, clean and easy to find the files I need. So much better than searching through emails and sending attachments. I prefer it over Google Drive – for some reason, load times have been horrendous for me with Drive, but Dropbox – it’s been easy-peasy every single time.

Now, there are MANY more apps out there for musicians that focus on the production/recording end [see here, and here], but I wanted to share with you apps that I’ve used to improve time management, organization, and maintain ease of everyday tasks that I handle for my clients that WORK.

I hope you take the time to check these apps out, and if there are apps that YOU use daily to keep your career in line, let me know! I always want to know what works :).

Business Tips / Social Media - 11/18/2017

Positive changes with Spotify for Musicians

Spotify is slowly rolling out new features for artists that I’m very happy about.

Before, you had no control as to what photo was used, what bio was used, heck, what tour dates were used for your artist (I’ve seen managers complain Spotify confusing their artist’s tour dates with another artist’s name). It was really messy.

Now, it’s really easy to start managing your own profile, and more importantly understanding your audience on Spotify.

Let’s break it down on what you can do, shall we?

1. Verification is easy as 1-2-3. You no longer need 250 followers to get a checkmark by your artist profile [insert sigh of relief]. As long as you can connect your Twitter account with your Spotify artist account and provide your links (think: website, socials, etc.), you’ll be connected to your artist account and instantly verified. This tells people this is your artist profile & allows your music to be considered for Spotify playlists.

2. Share you profile with your team. TWO great things about this. I’ve heard horror stories of management taking over artist profiles, only to have parted ways and now the artist cannot get to their profile. Now, a profile can have many team members so don’t fear not being able to access your profile and make edits. I highly recommend having your own account linked to your own profile, rather than the other way around. It’s always best to be in control of your profile as an artist, and then add your team members from there. What’s the second best thing? You no longer have to share your login info to access your artist profile and risk exposing your musical taste when no one’s watching…

3. Update your bio. Before a couple weeks ago, Spotify didn’t have your bio, or normally would pull an outdated one. Now you can update your bio within minutes for a new single release or special promotion. Plus, if you have a wikipedia page, you can link that too. Pro tip: Spotify bio’s must be kept under 1500 characters and you can link it to songs, playlists or albums on Spotify that you want to feature.

4. Concert Calendar. Now it’s not perfect yet, but improved. Before, you had to have your concert dates on Songkick for it to sync to your Spotify page. Now, any events on Ticketmaster, AXS, Eventbrite, and Songkick will show on your page! My fingers are crossed for a partnership with Bandsintown – can we push that through?

5. More thorough stats. With access to your artist page, you can now view number of listens, who is listening and where they are listening from. Valuable information that before you couldn’t get anywhere else. I typically get my artist’s stats from Next Big Sound, but unfortunately they haven’t worked out a deal with Spotify to show their numbers, so I’m relieved to find Spotify is stepping it up with their reports. PLUS – you can now see how many listens you have, even if it’s less than 1,000.

So if you’re on Spotify, it’s definitely worth your time to log in and check on your artist site and make sure your profile is up to date. With 50 million paid subscribers, you want to look good.

Social Media - 10/07/2017

This blog post is interrupted by…[Social Media updates]

I was ready to share with you all about a task I’ve been tackling for my clients especially this year, but two new updates for all of our social media profiles happened this week that I wanted to make sure you knew about!

What were they? Can you guess? Okay, I’ll tell you!

1) Twitter Verification is now open to everyone. That little blue badge let’s followers know that your account of public interest is authentic.

You’ll need to confirm your email, phone, and make sure all the details are there. In addition, you will have to send them 2-5 links, plus a paragraph on why you should be verified.

Click here to get started on the verification process and join the blue badge club! It’s about time, Twitter!

2) Facebook Pages got a new look. Have you noticed? Here’s a shot of my favorite musician’s page with the new layout:

What to notice? First off, the banner image is no longer (unnecessarily) covered up by the profile picture. Second, the call to action button is shining through in Facebook blue and larger on the page. Overall, things have shifted around on the page, giving us something new to get used to.

What this means for you? You can get more creative with your branding on Facebook with the more visible banner. With the larger call to action button, that gives you more leverage to whatever you need to promote – mailing list, album, video, etc. so make sure it’s set to something you want your followers to be aware of.

I for one am enjoying this update and I think everyone else will too.

Social Media - 08/04/2016