After a monumental sold-out first edition in 2021, Secret Project Festival is set to take place during the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) again in 2022. The LA-born festival has added a stellar list of artists to the line-up, including Fatima Yamaha (LIVE), HAAi, Marco Carola, Michael Bibi, Patrick Topping, Skream, and Sven Väth. Ticket registration will open for an exclusive 48-hour period starting today at 12PM CET via amsterdam.secretproject.com.

With a line-up of massive proportions, Secret Project Festival is sure to be one of the stand-out events at this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event. Close to 30 House, Techno and Tech-House heavyweights will perform across four stages throughout the day. From veterans like Marco Carola to the leaders of the new generation like Michael Bibi, Secret Project Festival has something to offer to a wide array of Dance music fans.

Like the previous edition, Secret Project Festival will be held at het Hembrugterrein, an extraordinary venue across the water from Amsterdam’s harbor. Once serving as an industrial area, het Hembrugterrein was repurposed in 2003 as a creative and cultural institution while maintaining its original look, making it the perfect setting for multi-sensory events the Secret Project Festival has become so well-known for.

During Amsterdam Dance Event 2021, Insomniac brought its successful House and Techno concept to European soil for the first time. Boasting a sold-out crowd, the anticipation was extremely high in the run-up to the event, which took place across five different stages, each with a different visual concept and styles of music for everyone to enjoy alongside sculptures, light fixtures, and much more to be entertained by. The festivalgoers partied well into the night, from the gates opening to a rush of those eager to see what the festival had in store for them to the sounds of the underground styles of relentless techno and deep, melodic house and tech-house with artists such as CamelPhat, Ben Böhmer and Loco Dice B2B Marco Carola spearheading the lineup. The industrial vibe of the location went hand in hand with the musical styles, creating a top-notch audio-visual delight for all involved. The Secret Project Festival European debut proved to be more than successful.

Born out of the bustling Los Angeles underground music scene, Secret Project Festival has been making waves in Europe with a string of widely acclaimed events. The first venture into the European market came with Secret Project Festival ADE 2021. Just mere months after, they upped the ante with the addition of Secret Project Portugal taking place in the sunny Mediterranean beach town of Portimão. Secret Project Festival is part of the Insomniac portfolio of events, which partnered up with Amsterdam-based event organizer ALDA. Together they’ve increased their presence globally and it is with collaborations like the Secret Project Festival that the two have cemented themselves as one of key players in the global scene.

General information

SECRET PROJECT FESTIVAL

Location: TAETS, Hembrugterrein

Address: Hemkade 18, Zaandam

Date: 22 October 2022

Time: 12:00 – 23:00

Full line-up A-Z

Ann Clue | Bella | Deborah de Luca | Deniz Bul | Dom Dolla | Dutch Afro | Ewan McVicar | Fatima Yamaha (LIVE) | HAAi | KlangKuenstler | Kode 9 | LF System | Marcel Fengler | Marco Carola | Matrixxman | Michael Bibi | Moktar | Moritz Hofbauer | | Nala Brown | Olympe | Patrick Topping | Prospa | Sherelle | Skream | SNTS | Sven Väth | Thys 

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Spotify is now a network that can make a musician famous overnight, in addition to being the largest streaming platform online.

Spotify’s promotion features aid musicians and music curators in succeeding in this cutthroat business. In essence, all Spotify marketing services are designed to assist artists to increase interaction, improving statistics, and bring attention to their music so that it can be discovered by new listeners.

Spotify playlist curators are the most significant players when discussing Spotify’s promotion.

Spotify Promotion Tips

Verify your musician page

To inform fans and potential followers that the account holder is authentic, use authentication or the blue mark. This will show your ability to develop a true connection with your followers and earn their trust stems from your authenticity as an artist. The authenticity emblem is uncommon and highly sought after, and Spotify makes it simpler for you to obtain one as a musician. Just sign up for Spotify for Musicians, and you’ll be immediately evaluated.

The blue checkmark on your profile will confirm your authenticity when Spotify chooses and recommends your songs to its millions of listeners through playlists and its algorithms. Additionally, it justifies why most Spotify playlist creators should add your songs to their playlists.

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Utilize social media to advertise the music

One method to clearly tell your fans to promote you and listen to your songs on Spotify is to ask them on social networks. Spotify does a fantastic job of giving artists a variety of platforms to broadcast their music, specifically on social networks. Post engaging material and everyday conversations on social media to gain a devoted following. Once you have your statistics, it’ll be much simpler to submit your music without being spammy or overly marketed. One of the best strategies to gain Spotify listens for your music is by developing a sizable following on social media.

If your fans appreciate your music, social networks also give you the chance for it to go viral. Think about what would happen if your followers shared your content 10,000 times in one day as opposed to only one or two times in an entire week. Your self-assurance in your ability will rise because of it.

Work together with different musicians

Promoting your song on Spotify is much easier by collaborating with other musicians. One benefit is that the featured artist will do the same for the songs you are featured on if you create a playlist with their songs on it.

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This has a double effect because it allows you to target a larger audience by doubling your ad campaigns. It makes perfect sense when you both have around the same amount of Spotify followers. When Spotify playlist curators who adore each of your songs broadcast your music on many playlists, it benefits both of you.

You can gain access to their core audience by cooperating with another artist. Your music is presented to new listeners who are more likely to enjoy it due to the favourable connection you have with the collaboration artist. Ensembles offer ground-breaking chances to simultaneously promote your music and inspire one another with your ingenuity and thoughts.

Be proactive on Spotify and consistently post music

The hardest aspect about being an artist in a field that is always changing is that no matter how well-known you become if you quit creating and sharing music, you’ll quickly become ignored. You must maintain a daily timetable for how you will publish your new songs, but you also don’t want to go overboard by posting subpar stuff. Many artists in the music industry seem to ebb and flow with the tide when they produce new tunes.

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By counting the number of songs that are added to lists, Spotify’s algorithms may determine how active you are as well as how interesting and wonderful your songs are. What will keep listeners engaged with you over the long run is regularity. Additionally, it conveys to devoted listeners your dedication to and enthusiasm for your music.

Take advantage of Spotify promotion services

One of the challenges in approaching playlist curators is finding their details and knowing which curators to pitch your music to. One platform is helping artists find Spotify playlist curators. These platforms are worth your time and investment, as they cut down the valuable time needed to pitch your music and get exposed.

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Music is good, no doubt, but music videos are way better for promoting your content. A piece of mind-blowing music wouldn’t be as well-received as a music video, given that we live in an age where videos are flourishing like never before. People don’t want to hear music without videos; this is what the stats are telling us.

For example, in the US, 68% of people went to video portals to search for music videos and even to listen to simple music. Given the craze for videos, I feel it would be in the best interest of the DIY artist to create music videos rather than simple music albums.

In this article, I will walk you through four easy steps to making music videos for DIY artists. But before I go there, let me first describe what I mean by music videos.

What is a music video?

A music video, for me, is a type of video which is generally accompanied by a music song or a music album. It is used to promote one’s artistic capabilities. A music video is also called a ‘promotional video.’

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In our contemporary times, music videos are integrated with other video types, especially when there is a larger idea behind all the work. I like to combine animation video types, documentary types, live actions, etc., with the central theme of my music video.

Generally speaking, there are three types of music videos: performance, concept, and narrative. Some people like to add one more type called “lyrical videos”, but I believe the first three are the prominent ones.

Tips to make a quality music video

Now, when it comes to making a good music video, these four steps are all that you should follow. Being creative, making relevant content, doing quality editing, and enjoying the process.

Step 1
The first and foremost step, I would say, is to be super creative with the content. If the content lacks creativity, it will fail to draw any attention, and all the handwork and efforts put into the video would be a total waste of time. You can use the best screenwriting software if you want to be creative enough to understand. Having an intriguing concept and theme for my music video can save me some money as well as serve as a cover-up for the lack of special effects or equipment.

Being creative demands a good grasp of the craft. That’s why developing a better understanding of music will eventually help us be creative.

I suggest that to improve overall creativity, one should indulge in musically creative activities even when one is not working on any projects. These activities have personally helped me improve my fundamental music skills like ear training, rhythm, reading, etc. In turn, these fundamentals have helped me build a foundation for advanced skills like arranging and composing.

Step 2
In my opinion, being relevant is as important as being creative. Creativity brings depth to your craft while being relevant allows the audience to relate to it on a more personal level. Why would someone want to listen to my music videos if they could not relate to them? That’s why being mindful of what type of content is prevalent amongst the current generations is very important.

There should be a one-to-one correspondence between the artist and the audience. For me, transparency is very important. I should know the hearts of my viewers and what they want to hear. I should provide exactly that.

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To find out what’s flourishing out there, I simply go to the trending pages, and that enables me to get an idea of what type of content people want. YouTube is the largest music streaming platform in the world, so discovering what’s in demand these days on such platforms can help us in producing relevant content.

As millennials, our attention span has drastically shortened over the years, so it is sensible that you follow the paradigm shift and make shorter music videos similar to the ones floating all over social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. To post your music videos on any social media platform without any hassle, you can use a social media scheduler to work hassle-free.

Step 3
The most important step covers the entire editing spectrum. There is nothing more important than editing when producing a great music video. Content and relatable topics pull audiences’ way, but great editing can do the same job ten times better. Even if the content is inferior, the editing can compensate for it if the editor is skillful.

While editing, the first thing is to choose a power pack editing software or an online video maker. You can pick any software you want but if you are a noob and just starting out then a video maker with premade templates is going to help you out. Once these fundamentals are checked, you can go to the details like animations, visual effects, sound effects, adjusting tone and curves, and styling the music video using creative LUTs.

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Step 4
The last step is to enjoy the entire process. Personally speaking, if I don’t enjoy the whole process of writing the song, putting efforts to add visuals alongside it, buying equipment to shoot videos, etc., then there is no point in working on it because the viewers get connected to the vibes, and they can sense whether I was enjoying the process or not. DIY music production is fun, and it would be very odd if my video didn’t reflect that.

Conclusion

So, this was how to make music videos, along with four essential steps for DIY artists. As you saw, being creative, being relevant, being good at editing, and last but not least, enjoying the whole process constitutes a good music video.