UnlockTHIS: Content-Gating Made Simple

A new content-gating tool known as UnlockTHIS is giving the old model of subscribing/liking in order to unlock exclusive content a new twist, and fostering more sharing and collaboration between artists.

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Guest Post by Chris Robley on The DIY Musician

Growing your social media community with content gatingWhen a fan takes some social action on your behalf (liking your band’s Facebook page, subscribing to your YouTube channel, etc.), it can be seen as a form of currency.At least that’s the theory behind UnlockTHIS, a new tool that allows you to offer your fans free content (in a variety of file types: mp3, wav, aif, avi, mov, pdf, zip) if they follow you on YouTube, Soundcloud, Facebook, or Twitter, or if they provide you with their email address.It’s content gating, but with a slight twist.What makes UnlockTHIS unique is summed up well in Make It In Music‘s article “Facebook Like Gate”:
They’ve also thought about the effect that extensive collaborations in music (especially dance music) can have on building social followings.So, UnlockTHIS allows you to put more than one like gate into the process to get at a download.For example, you could offer a club track that has been remixed by a producer who is better known than you for free download. Using the tool you can require potential fans to take two actions – to ‘like’ both your Facebook Page and the remixer’s or perhaps subscribe to the remixer on YouTube but follow you on SoundCloud – to get to the download.That opens up an attractive proposition that you can make to people you work with.If they’ll remix your track you can offer to help them build their social following on the profile that needs the most boost!