Instagram Now More Effective Than Facebook Reaching Fans

It doesn't matter how large a social network is, it's all about how many of your fans you can reach. That's the message from a study by the research company L2 when evaluating Facebook and Instagram.

It turns out that brands, bands and artists are posting much more content on Instagram these days, mostly because the fan reach is so much greater on that platform. On Facebook, the only way to reach all your fans is to promote your posts, and even then it's debatable if you can reach all of them. On Instagram, their fans will see everything they post.

Although Instagram has only 300 million users as compared to Facebook's 1.3 billion, it doesn't matter much if it costs you too much to grow your fan base. That said, Instagram's audience is growing much faster than Facebook ever did even during it's peak periods of growth.

If you choose to post more on Instagram, there are a few things to remember though:

1. Photos on Instagram perform much better than video, which is the same on all social platforms, even though Facebook is pushing video sharing at the moment.

2. Instagram's Hyperlapse fast-motion feature has fallen out of favor after a big start last year. While it's a cool effect, it's definitely a special effect and using it sometimes makes it difficult to incorporate calls to action.

Social media is a constantly moving target. What works today may not work tomorrow, so you have to be prepared to roll with the trends. That doesn't mean you have to abandon your existing marketing strategy altogether, but it sure helps if you're willing to adapt as needed.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Will The $7.3 Million “Blurred Lines” Verdict Kill Songwriting As We Know It?

The jury awarded the estate of Marvin Gaye more than $7 million today in a copyright infringement decision against artist Robin Thicke and songwriters Pharrell Williams and T.I. over their huge 2013 hit “Blurred Lines.” The jury decided that the song was just too similar to Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got To Give It Up” to be a coincidence, even thought that’s probably exactly what it was.

This is just another example of the blurred line (pun intended) between a copy and an influence that permeates not only modern music, but just about any creative endeavor. 

We’re all influenced by the art and/or craft that we love, and that influence seeps into our every creation whether we like it or not. Sometimes in music it’s totally obvious (the famous George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” vs. “He’s So Fine” by The Chiffons lawsuit), and other times its less so (Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” vs. Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”), but with only 12 notes and a limited number of chord progressions that are pleasing to the Western ear, one might think that it’s surprising that there aren’t more lawsuits for copyright infringement than there already are.

Take the blues, for instance. Pick just about any blues album and you’ll find that not only does each song liberally borrow from countless blues songs by countless blues artists before, but even from songs on the same album. 12 bar blues is that for a reason, and although it’s nice when there’s a variation, you won’t find too many artists messing with a formula that’s worked for 75 years. Do we see any copyright infringement suits there? Read more on Forbes.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

What The Apple Watch Can Do For The Music Business

The tech world is abuzz today with the official release of the Apple Watch, but the music business can look upon it as a possible boon as well. The Watch, which can be considered as either a utilitarian or luxury item, appears to do many things well and by the looks of it, music is one of them.

The music business has always produced plenty of music that it’s customers want, but it’s been each new delivery method that has lead to increased sales. If you look back through history, the music industry turns on a dime with new technology, and there’s one thing that each delivery technology offers - convenience.

For example, the original music business in the late 1800s was built around sheet music and piano rolls, but when the Victrola was introduced in 1901 music lovers discovered a new portability along with the ability to hear their favorite artist any time they wanted. That’s when the music industry as we know it today was born.

Those original records were made of shellac, which were very brittle and prone to breakage, but the industry once again experienced a bump in revenue when the vinyl record was introduced. Vinyl was thinner, lighter and didn’t break as easily. Convenience won again. Read more on Forbes.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Why Twitter Users Unfollow

Twitter is a major tool for any artist or band, providing major engagement and promotion capabilities. That said, sometimes it's a lot more difficult to keep your followers than it is to add them.

The social media distribution service Buffer did a study to determine why users unfollow someone and they found out that the biggest reason by far is because of too many tweets within a short period of time, or bursts.

Followers don't mind a lot of tweets, but they hate when you seem to be monopolizing their Twitter feed.
Solution - Make sure that you space your tweets by using a tool like Buffer, Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.

Other reasons that are fall far behind on the annoyance scale are uninteresting topics, mundane details, and politics.
Solution - Don't post unless you have something to say, and make sure that any details are relevant to the conversation. And unless your music or brand has a political edge, stay away from politics completely as you'll likely lose at least half your audience.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Your Facebook Like Count Could Drop Soon

One thing that you can always count on from social networks and search engines is that they'll tweak their algorithm frequently, and when that happens it can wreak havoc on your follower count or ranking.

Facebook just announced that it recalibrated its algorithm and starting this week, expect your Like count to drop.

The network is calling this a "scrubbing" as it attempts to weed out any deactivated accounts as well as "memorialized" accounts that belong to deceased users that are maintained by friends or family after the user's death.

Not only is it possible that your Like count will decrease, but the comments related to these accounts may get scrubbed too.

For many artists, bands and record labels, Likes are a measure of online success and a growing Like count means a growing audience. The problem is that the count can be deceiving if  you can't reach those fans because they're no longer on the service.

Facebook's scrubbing might make your Like and comment count look different, but it's a better measure of the audience that you have that still exists on the network.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

The Most Popular Social Networks For Young Americans

While we continue to hear about Americans ages 12 to 24 fleeing Facebook for other apps like Snapchat, Vine or WhatsApp, the evidence just doesn't square up with the facts.

While it's true that Facebook usage in that age group is lower than before, the social network still has a commanding lead over any of its competitors.

Here's a chart by Statista based on data published by Edison Research and Triton Digital that shows just how much 12 to 24 year olds actually use each of the most popular social platforms now available.

This is vitally important if your audience is in this age group because your promotion has to go where your fans are.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

5 Tips To Get Bloggers To Write About Your Music

It used to be that just one good review in a magazine could sell loads of albums. Even a bad review could be really good for business if it was in a publication like Rolling Stone.

That's all changed since magazine reviews have become pretty irrelevant as the music world has moved online. Now its the music blogs like Pitchfork or Stereogum that can make the difference not so much in sales, but visibility to a new audience.

Sometimes those larger blogs are tough to break through, but the smaller bloggers still provide more of a one on one chance to state your case.

But how do you approach bloggers in the first place? There really is a right and wrong way to do it, so here are 5 tips to get a blogger interested enough in what you're doing to actually post about it.

1. Read the blog for a while to become familiar with the theme and feel. You can turn the blogger off completely by sending something cold without knowing the backstory of the blog.

2. Make some post comments without any overt marketing. Just try to move the conversation along on a few posts. The idea is for the blogger to recognize you as someone who contributes regularly and adds to the conversation. 

3. Only after the blogger becomes familiar with you is it safe to reach out about what you’re doing. If you're a regular reader and contributor, the blogger is much more likely to read a press release or take a listen to your music. 

4. Sometimes asking a question about your project gets a response. While many bloggers are too busy to answer every email, many go out of their way to accommodate a regular reader and contributor. As a result, it's perfectly okay to follow up after you've sent something to the blogger and there's a good chance he'll answer. 

5. Never hard sell, just inform. Hard sell is a turnoff in general. Don't do it. It's okay to state the relevant information, but keep the superlatives like "Best band ever!" out of the equation.

If you want additional tips and tricks about promoting yourself or your music online, check out my Social Media Promotion for Musicians book. You can read excerpts at bobbyowsinski.com.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

U2's iTunes Stunt Actually Worked

After all the hubbub over the iTunes/U2 album giveaway at the end of last summer has died down, it looks like the promotion actually worked after all.

Research company Kantar found that 24% of all iOS music listeners in the US listened to the band's Songs of Innocence album within 5 months of its release.

In fact, Kantor found that even as recently as January, more than twice the number of people listened to U2 than the current hottest artist on the planet, Taylor Swift.

T he study found that nearly every iOS owner who listened to U2 in that time period listened to at least one song from Songs of Innocence.

A lot of skeptics have since blasted the study as being biased towards English speakers or towards U2, but the fact remains that at the end of the day the giveaway did its job to get the album in front of a very large audience, and much of that audience actually listened. That's all an artist can ask from any promotion.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Google Begins The Breakup Of Google+

There were a lot of big hopes for Google+ as a rival to Facebook when it was launched in 2011, but the social network has never quite lived up to the hype surrounding it.

Even though it boasts 540 million  active users, the adoption rate has leveled off, especially during the last year.

Now it looks like Google is taking the first step in splitting some of the most well-liked features of Google+ off, as the company announced that the Photos feature will become a standalone app and the rest of G+ will go on as Streams, although the Google+ name will remain (at least for now).

Since it's only just been announced, there's no additional information about what might happen to you existing photos on G+.

There's no word on what might happen with Google Hangouts yet, but it's expected that the feature will also find a new home as well.

Hangouts may be the most popular part of G+, especially for artists and bands, but the problem is that since not all of your fanbase is on the network, it limits your reach.

If Google were to split Hangouts off into a separate app, it would be a far more useful tool to artists, bands and musicians, as well as businesses that now rely on Skype.

Here's hoping that Google figures this one out sooner rather than later and has Hangouts follow Photos off on its own.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

England's Music Retail Outlets Actually Growing In Number

While music retailers in the US are getting more and more scarce, just the opposite is happening in merry old England. In fact, the number of retail outlets are up 20% from last year!

It's hard to believe that the UK now has 10,391 retailers selling music physical products, as compared to only 4,206 in the US, according to IBISWorld market research. And this from a country that has about a fifth of the population.

Even though there's more places to buy CDs and vinyl, that doesn't mean it translates into increased sales. In fact, physical product sales in the UK were down 5% last year. Just as a comparison, US physical sales were down 14%.

What that seems to indicate is something that many in the industry (including myself) have been saying. If music is more available, then there's more opportunity for an impulse or gift buy.

That doesn't mean it would stem the tide of digital music services, but it could slow it down a bit, just like in the UK.

Nonetheless, if you're in the US or the UK, cherish your local music retailer and do your best to keep him in business. You may regret it someday when he's not around.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Using Spotify Playlists To Boost Your Fan Base

An easy thing that artists and bands can do to increase fan engagement and even increase your fan base is to create and share Spotify playlists.

This has been known to gain a lot of attention with both fans and non-fans alike. It's also something that big brands do all the time.

One example is Red Bull, who sponsor a discovery playlist, and another is Coca-Cola, who create branded playlists built around a "happiness" theme.

One of the reasons this works is because Spotify patrons don't like ads, but they do like brands, and the playlists help them identify with it. Of course the caveat is that you have to treat the creation of the playlist with some thought and an interesting approach to be taken seriously.

A good example is a friend who created a a playlist based around the soundtracks of Will Smith movies. He was astonished to find more than 50,000 shares within the first 24 hours.

Using Spotify playlists is just another way to increase audience engagement and increase your fan base. If you listen to Spotify a lot, put your listening to good use and create and share a playlist.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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Lady Gaga Secures Her Transition From Pop Star To Chanteuse

One of the things about being a pop star is that success is so hard to sustain. Your life is built around the hit song and as soon as they stop coming or your audience grows up, you’re destined for the dustbin of music history. Lady Gaga is one of the very few pop stars that has managed to transcend the bonds of pop music in favor of a bigger picture that will keep her in the public’s ears and eyes long past when the hits dry up.

Gaga’s recent collaboration with the iconic Tony Bennett proved that she had the vocal chops to go legit (not an easy thing to do keeping up with a legend), and her Sound of Music rendition at the Oscars sealed the deal. Don’t expect to see her as the same pop star again, but watch as she becomes the current generation’s Barbra Streisand or Julie Andrews.

This transition comes just in a nick of time, as Gaga’s last pop album, Artpop, was considered a flop by many, yielding no true blockbuster hits on par with her previous successes (although “Applause” was close, charting top 10 in 20 countries). If you’re losing your mojo, then it’s time to change the game if you’re smart, and that’s what Gaga did with the Tony Bennett coupling Cheek To Cheek.

That album and subsequent appearances with Bennett proved Gaga to be more than up to the task of singing the standards. Even her harshest critics had to admit that she could pull it off with aplomb and that there was some trained singing behind even “Poker Face” and “Just Dance.” Read more on Forbes.

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You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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