©[NurPhoto] /Getty Images

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.

©[SrdjanPav] /Getty Images

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.

©[SrdjanPav] /Getty Images

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.

©[SrdjanPav] /Getty Images

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.

©[Phynart Studio] /Getty Images

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.’

©[Phynart Studio] /Getty Images

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.

©[SOPA Images] /Getty Images

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.

©[Phynart Studio] /Getty Images

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.

©[SrdjanPav] /Getty Images

Video gaming is one of the industries that has experienced the most exponential growth over the last decade. Due to the heightened trend of video games, especially amongst the younger generation, it is widely believed that the gaming demographic will usurp Hollywood as the number one form of entertainment in the nearest future.

The growth of the gaming industry, in some way, has been advantageous to the online music streaming market which has also seen tremendous growth in recent years. Just last year alone, music streams via video gaming consoles grew by more than 55%. This number is projected to increase consistently in the coming years, barring any unforeseen economic downturn.

©[Wera Rodsawang] /Getty Images

Music influencers are the most popular influencers for American teens followed by gaming influencers, according to a recent study by Deloitte.

What’s the correlation between music and gaming and how are both industries helping each other?

The Video Gaming and Music Streaming Synergy

Gaming and music work hand in hand, and many gamers will tell you the gaming experience is sweetest when music is introduced. It’s no surprise why video and online casino games incorporate musical elements in them. It has been found that music helps to enhance the mood of players and how they respond to each gaming task placed before them.

©[Agustinc] /Getty Images

It is also well known that music helps to quicken people’s desire to gamble on casino games and the same can be said about video games. Nowadays, some of the most reputable gaming companies release soundtracks to accompany a game’s launch, much like Original Motion Picture Soundtracks for Hollywood movie scores. We now have Pop stars composing and recording official soundtracks for gaming companies which goes to show the healthy synergy between both industries.

Growth Rate

The gaming industry is growing faster in terms of market size and revenue compared to music streaming. Both markets experienced growth during the pandemic year, however, revenue from games more than quadrupled the global music streaming revenue. As a result, music companies are increasingly looking at the ever-expanding gaming demographic as the next gold mine to harness.

Currently, there are over 2.2 billion mobile gamers in the world with the United States being the gaming industry’s epicenter (more than 57% of the world’s gaming developers reside in the States). In March 2022 alone, the US gaming industry recorded $515 million in hardware revenue. The video game market is valued at a whopping $95.45 billion, as of November 2021.

©[Phiromya Intawongpan] /Getty Images

The music streaming market has also been expanding year after year since its inception, and a collaboration with the gaming industry will push the streaming market even more. Streaming is currently the primary source of revenue for most record labels, and it has grown at an average rate of 43.9% since 2014. As of this writing, about 84% of the US music industry revenue comes solely from music streaming.

The global music streaming market was valued at $18.9 billion in 2020 (+26% from 2019). The US held about 53% of the global music streaming market size in that same span (-11% from 2019).

What Genres of Music Do Gamers Listen To?

More gamers listen to other music when playing games than the soundtracks featured in a game. According to a survey, Hip-Hop is the most popular genre of music amongst Generation Z gamers, and this shouldn’t come as a shock. The genre has remained the most dominant across streaming platforms for a few years now. In 2020, Hip-Hop accounted for more than ⅓ of all US streams.

Drake was Spotify’s most streamed artist this year with 1.4 billion streams, as of March. YoungBoy NBA came in second with 1.3 billion while Kanye West, Eminem, Kodak Black, and Rod Wave all hit the top ten.

Most gamers prefer the type of music that gets them fired up to play, and Trap music, Hip-Hop’s most popular subgenre, fits this description perfectly. Trap music artists like Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Young Thug, and Gunna, are some of the most streamed Hip-Hop artists among gamers.

©[JakeOlimb] /Getty Images

Obviously, gamers also love the soundtracks featured on their favorite games, especially the bouncy, chilly, pop sounds. Some of the most popular video game soundtracks on streaming platforms include England (The Industrial Era) by Geoff Knorr, Halo by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, Bear McCreary’s God of War, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Main Theme by Brian Tyler, Doom by Mick Gordon, and Jessica Curry’s All the Earth. The Video Game Soundtracks playlist on Spotify has over 500,000 likes, as of this writing.

Another genre of music that appears fanciful to many gamers is the ever-bubbling electronic music. Unlike Hip Hop, which relies mainly on lyrics and pumped-up beats, electronic music’s main core is the instrumentals. This makes it an ideal genre for gamers as it helps them stay focused on their gameplay.

Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix, Kygo, Zedd, Clean Bandit, Sigala, David Guetta, and the late Avicii are some of the most popular electronic artists gamers love to listen to while playing.