hypebot

When Is The Best Time To Post On Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC]

You spend hours every week to craft the right tweets and Facebook posts.  You're even pinning photos and graphics. But you're not getting results.  One reason may be the time of day that you post.  Every social media outlets has it's optimal posting times. Nothing replaces your own testing, but this infographic offers a great place to start. 

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

• Does iTunes' Daft Punk Album Premier Demonstrate Its Marketing Strength?
• Infographic: How We Discover And Consume Music
• Music Sponsorships Top $1.28 Billion In 2013
• With Murder For Hire Charges Looming, As I Lay Dying Cancels Tour
• Google Takes On Spotify & Pandora With New Streaming Music Service
• Kyle Bylin Releases Divergent Streams: Reflections and Explorations of the Modern Music Industry

Have Music Blogs Reached A Mainstream Audience?

By Kyle Bylin (@sidewinderfm), founder and editor of sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank.

Music blogs are a huge part of how avid listeners discover music. Many of them check the same sites every day in hopes of finding new songs and artists. But how broad is the appeal of music blogs? Music blogs have certainly grown in readership, but have they surpassed a niche audience? If so, how? What cultural trends, heroic efforts, or music products have most helped music blogs reach a larger audience? In this interview panel on music blogs, four influential thinkers in the music and tech sector weigh in on whether they think music blogs have reached the mainstream market and what that might mean.

Spotify's Most Viral & Streamed Tracks [U.S. & UK]

The 10 most viral tracks on Spotify, based on the number of people who shared it divided by the number who listened, from May 6 - 12 on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Spotify.

United States
1. Lorde, "Royals" (Lava Music/Republic Records)
2. Mariah Carey, "Beautiful" (The Island Def Jam Music Group)
3. Falling in Reverse, "Alone" (Epitaph)
4. Tamar Braxton, "The One" (Epic/Streamline Records)
5. Bingo Players, "Rattle (Sexy Lady)" (Republic Records)

MORE:

Music Blogs Become New A&R, Run Niche Record Labels

By Kyle Bylin (@sidewinderfm), founder and editor of sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank.

So far we have explored the music blog landscape and how it has has changed in recent years, as well as whether music blogs have reached a mainstream audience. In this final interview panel on music blogs, David Greenwald and Nicole Cifani, two influential thinkers and tastemakers in the music industry, weigh in on how the way in which music blogs tell stories has evolved and whether they think music blogs have turned into record labels.

UndergroundMusic.fm Offers Community Outlet For Free Streaming Music With Monetization Options

UndergroundMusic.fm is a new free streaming music platform for "underground" musicians designed to build community and spread music. Streaming is free but there's also a store aspect and an option to tip for each song. It's a nice idea that is ultimately dependent on who gets involved and whether or not an audience is drawn.

A Comedic (And Sadly True) 'Real Life' Look At A Facebook Updates [VIDEO]

Just when you think you've got your Facebook page looking good, your privacy settings tweaked and you're posting startegy down,  Facebook makes another major and unexpected change.  Frustrating, isn't it? Extremely Decent, a sketch comedy group based in Los Angeles agrees and is created this "real life" video of a Facebook update.

The Rise of the Musicpreneur (Part 3/3)

Exploring what it takes to be an entrepreneur in the music industry, Tommy Darker wraps up his three part series on how to successfully be what he calls a  musicpreneur. Focusing intensely on the importance of developing your skills and approaching your endeavors with a trained mentality, if you're venturing out into the industry or already an active part of it, there is much to be gained by reading this series on Music Think Tank.

3 Bottlenecks Holding Direct-To-Fan Marketing Back

By Jason Spitz (@jasonspitz), an e-commerce expert who helps bands, comedians, and other artists build direct-to-fan businesses.

1. Shopping Habits

One big bottleneck to reaching the full potential of direct-to-fan is the audience’s shopping habits. Music consumers have learned that iTunes and Amazon offer a smooth, seamless shopping experience with reliable fulfillment. 

Free Social Media Marketing & Sales Platform For Musicians, Yala Backstage Launches

Yala Music, the leading Arabic based music service, this week announced the launch of Yala Backstage, a free social media marketing platform designed to capture and monetize social media audiences focused around YouTube. Yala Backstage builds on the services offered to major Arabic music stars by Yala on a more individualized basis, and is open to all.

Getting It Done: The Week In D.I.Y. & Indie Music

• The Business Of Phish: Building A Tribe
• 20 Tips For A Kickass Musician's Facebook Page
• Kosha Dillz On 8 Ways Musicians Can Gain Media Coverage Indirectly
• Indie Artist Ian Moore Bundles His Own Song-A-Day Service
• New Music Industry Think Tank Maintains There Are No Music Tech Tools For Poor Musicians

 

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

• Pink In Open Letter To Fans: "Kiss My Entire... Ass"
• RIAA Revamps Gold & Platinum Certifications: 100 On Demand Plays = 1 Sale
• Infographic: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Musicians
• Soundcloud Takes Off, Traffic Jumps 26%
• Rhapsody Adds Liner Notes: A 1st For Digital Music
• Jack Conte's Patreon Unlocks SuperFan Revenue Streams For Web Stars

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How Music Blogging Landscape Has Changed

By Kyle Bylin (@sidewinderfm), founder and editor of sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank.

Music blogs are an interesting sector, one that continues to evolve with the artists that they cover. I have several friends and colleagues who know a lot about where music blogs came from and where they might be going. So I asked them this question: How has the music blogging and curation landscape changed in recent years? Talk about some of these changes and then bring us into present day. What does that landscape look like right now?

Watch This Ridiculously Simple Way That Vandaveer Uses Twitter's Vine To Promote Live Shows

DC based musician Mark Charles Heidinger and his project Vandaveer are known for an reflective alt-folk sound and memorable performances both here and abroad. For an upcoming show at the small but mighty Kirk Avenue Music Hall in Roanoke, VA (admittedly one of my favorite place to see live music), the band produced a ridiculously simple yet very effective 6 second video for Twitter's Vine.

9 Things YouTube Recommends Musicians Do That You're Probably Missing

A few weeks ago YouTube released a creators guide for musicians who use YouTube. There are a lot of points worth noting amongst those 40 pages. If you'd like to know more about to get the most out of your YouTube music experience but don't have time to do all the reading, check out the 9 highlights Jesse Cannon outlines on Music Think Tank.

20 Tips For A Kickass Musician's Facebook Page

Nic Robertson is the managing director & co-founder of Jaden Social, a creative Digital marketing agency based in Sydney, Australia. You can connect with Nic here - @nicjrobertson.

Good old Facebook. It seems like everyone knows how to use it these days; from those mischievous 10 year olds brazenly lying about their age in order to sign up, to the new breed of highly intelligent super-pets who’ve managed to set up their very own profiles, complete with a neatly cropped selfie, and then ever-so-casually added all of their owners’ friends.

Will Twitter #Music Grow From Artists Tweeting About Their Placement?

By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

The nicely-designed Twitter #Music app for iOS made a big splash when it was released a couple of weeks ago, quickly becoming the most popular music app in iTunes.

BitTorrent Bundle Launches With Robust In-Torrent Direct-to-Fan Features

BitTorrent Bundles debuted in Alpha yesterday with a promo package from Ultra Music's Kaskade who's building up to the release of his "Freaks of Nature Tour" DVD. The BitTorrent Bundle takes their earlier promo packages, a bundle of digital content, and adds features such as email collection and in-torrent transactions to create a true Direct-to-Fan torrent. If made available to a wider range of content creators, BitTorrent Bundles could one day become a standard D2F promotional tool.

BitTorrent Bundles come with this About message:

Collective Artists Launches Web Promo Cooperative For Musicians

Recently TalkApolis and Hal Willis, the former CEO of Country Music Television, announced the formation of Collective Artists, an opportunity for musicians to cross-promote on the web to increase awareness and social media reach. The announcement may overstate its points but, in a video presentation, the demonstrated ability of TalkApolis shows to build audience via cross-promotions suggested the potential power at scale.

Using Social Media & Music Tech To Establish Your Musical Legacy

By Scott Perry of New Music Tipsheet.

It's time for a lot of bands of a certain age to stop tour planning and start estate planning.

Start thinking about how to craft and preserve your legacy, and how you can rope in Elvis-size dollars in your later days without having to license your image on a series of plates sold to Beanie Baby hoarders.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Musicians [INFOGRAPHIC]

Released yesterday during Music Biz 2013, a new infographic from digitalmusic.org and NARM offers musicians, labels, and other music companies a crash course in search engine optimization (SEO). It walks readers through the basics of how search engines such as Google and Bing work, then provides a series of simple tips and website dos and don’ts. SEO FOR MUSICIANS:

Pink In Open Letter To Fans: "Kiss My Entire... Ass"

If fan engagement is the cornerstone of building a fan base, then berating them may be the best way to alienate them. Two weeks after cancelling a Birminghan, UK show due to illness, Pink wrote an open letter to her fans telling any that were upset to "Kindly kiss my entire almost back to healthy ass." 

"I am getting a lot of hate mail...," the singer posted on her site.

What about rescheduling?

The Most Important Quality Of Twitter #Music

Tyler Hayes (@thealbumproject) is a freelance writer who blogs at Liisten.com.

The narrative around Twitter's new #music app became a little too narrow recently with talks of how the app is performing in the App Store, rather than stepping back and looking at a bigger picture. The focus of any music discovery app should be just that, how many people are discovering new music. From the biggest stars getting involved and discussing the charts to indie artists seeing more and more followers, it would appear that Twitter's blatant music push is paying off for at least some.

How Stuff Spreads - Gangnam Style vs. Harlem Shake

Every wonder why Gangnam Style and The Harlem Shake took our computer screens by storm? A new study conducted and analyzed by Face gives us insight into what it is that makes these videos viral phenomenons. An analytical observation of social media trends, Face gives us backstage passes to understanding what goes on behind the scenes of these overnight YouTube sensations. Kelland Drumgoole lists and exposits the eight common characteristics on Music Think Tank.

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

• Fake Twitter Followers? 50 Cent And Diddy Included On Researchers' List
• Troy Carter: Technology Will Disrupt Terrestrial Radio & Increase Concert Income 100%
• Legendary Colorado Promoter Barry Fey Dies
• Nettwerk Music Raises $10.25 Million For Artist Development
• YouTube Releases Staggering New User Stats
• Is Twitter #Music A Flop? Earl Dibbles Jr. Is Kicking Its Ass