It is difficult for emerging artists to find a marketing approach that suits their ambitions, needs, and means from the many marketing options available to them. In the past, radio play could only be secured by big-name musicians on major labels who had large networks of influence. Despite all of the social media and online streaming platforms that we have today, having your songs played on the radio continues to be an essential component of any music career. The big question is, how do you get radio play? What makes radio exposure so important? The rise of social networks and new distribution channels (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and other streaming platforms) has brought both opportunities and challenges to music promotion. Everyone can leverage these platforms because they are free. Nowadays, it is possible to distribute your music on most streaming platforms at a relatively low price. On the other hand, reaching potential listeners is more complicated because it's hard to com

Having fake followers on Spotify playlists reduces your chances of being placed on the algorithm-driven playlists, provides you with low royalties, and reduces your chances of receiving streams. In today's modern music industry, one of the indicators of success for an artist is how many streams they have. (This is also the primary reason why we ignore sales data when compiling our Top 100 charts.) You, as an artist, have better bargaining power and more monetary compensation the more streams and followers you have. You may gain more exposure through large Spotify playlists, but here's the catch... It is possible to find a lot of large independent playlists comprised entirely of fake accounts! Just the fact that they use fake accounts should be enough to steer clear of them. In making these playlists, curators exploit artists who seek exposure from Spotify playlists to leverage their popularity in the music industry. As a result of these exploits, not only are the artists' n

Spotify's competitive edge is the amount of data it holds on listeners and the way it uses that data to increase engagement. ... Using the same underlying data and technology can provide unique insights to record labels and artists about who's listening to what and help them reach more listeners. The Spotify algorithm sets itself apart from other digital music streaming services. The algorithm is an AI system known as BaRT (an abbreviation of Ba ndits for R ecommendations as T reatments). Basically, BaRT’s job is to keep listeners listening. It does this by playing and suggesting songs it knows the user is familiar with, while dropping in some fresh tracks it thinks they might like, but most importantly, haven’t heard before. This makes sure the listener is engaged, but things never get boring. BaRT decides what to suggest to listeners by combining two concepts – Explore and Exploit. This combination is the key to the platform’s recommendation system. Exploit uses the listene

Is Your Songwriting Inspiration-Dependent? by Kapa Freeman Talent may be keeping you from your songwriting goals, but not in the way you think. There's an idea in the songwriting community that's really harmful. It's the idea that you have to have "talent" to write songs that people love. I know, because I used to think that too. It was crippling. When you run into negative feedback on your songs, you feel like you should quit because you "Just don't have the gift.". We get this idea because hit songwriters make it look so easy, but watch any documentary on a hit songwriter's life and you'll see how many bad songs came before their good ones... and how many drafts went into the classic ones. Talent can actually be a songwriter's handicap if it's not combined with skill. The talent-only songwriter essentially relies on inspiration to give them songs that people connect with, but inspiration can be a crutch... a pretty unreliable crutch

Writing Lyrics You Can Feel by Kapa Freeman Do you want to write song lyrics that people can feel? Here's a trick from one of my favorite CCM songwriters. Thank Matthew West for this one. One of his more recent songs, "Truth Be Told" really pulls the heart strings. He gets this effect by using a technique that I call "Imagery pairs.".  Before I get into how to make one, let me show you why they make lyrics so easy to feel. People are hardwired to connect more with visual lyrics. Why? It's simply human nature. If you want someone to feel something, you can't just tell them about it. They have to experience it for themselves. And if you want them to experience it for themselves, they have to SEE it for themselves. It's one thing to tell someone that their words hurt you. It's another thing to tell them: "You stabbed me in the heart with a sentence!" So, the more visual, the more emotional impact, but there is a drawback. Sometimes lyrics

Choruses That Grab Attention by Kapa Freeman Do you want to start your choruses with a bang? Grab their attention at the start? Just like Lauren Daigle.   Lauren Daigle made Billboard history with her song "You Say." It was at the top of the Hot Christian Charts for a record 100 weeks. Part of what makes the song work so well is how the chorus starts. She starts by repeating the same note and rhythm. That's it. No, seriously...that's the whole technique. "You say I am loved..." "You," "Say" and "I" are all the exact same note and the exact same length. This technique is used in lots of other #1 Songs, in different styles of music, and different time periods. Sometimes it's a repetition of the note, but the rhythm changes. Sometimes it's a repetition of the rhythm, but the melody changes. But one thing is certain... Back to back repetition at the beginning of a chorus is a great way to make a song people love. Songs like

John Mayer's Secret to Writing Catchy Song Lyrics by Kapa Freeman  Why are John Mayer's song lyrics so easy to remember? It comes down to human psychology. I am notoriously bad at remembering song lyrics, except for John Mayer's Songs. Other artists may write a song I remember here or there, but John Mayer does it consistently. Why? I discovered the reason when I was working full-time as a teacher. Teachers can always tell when they're losing students. When those eyes start to glaze over, when that one eyebrow raises in confusion and someone yells out... "I don't get it!"  I got those a lot when I first started teaching. Talking to other teachers, I soon discovered why. I was giving too much information at once. I would vomit these elaborate explanations, thinking that more information would help clear things up... But they just got confused. Talking to my teachers reminded me of lessons I'd learned while getting my teaching degree:  "People remem