Nem Todos Os Vídeos Precisam Ser "Vídeos De Música"

Not all videos need to be “music videos"

Why every artist needs NON-music videos on YouTube.

The importance of a non-music video content schedule.

As I’ve said before, if you want to use YouTube to its fullest, a music video isn’t enough; you need a YouTube content strategy.

Most musicians treat YouTube as a kind of archive, a place to park their music videos whenever they get around to creating one. But that’s not how YouTube intends for its platform to be used.

They want you to think of your YouTube channel as just that, a channel, a dependable destination where subscribers come to engage with new content on a regular basis.

It’s all about frequency and consistency

Most of the top YouTubers will tell you that their success had a lot to do with frequent (often weekly) video uploads, sticking to a content schedule, and keeping up a kind of brand consistency even across multiple series on a single channel.

Check out “Why you should be scheduling your YouTube videos (and how to do it)” for more information on this topic.

When you upload videos to YouTube on a regular basis, you:

• create anticipation and engagement with your subscribers
• build inventory on your channel
• boost overall channel views and watch-time

All of these will help you meet the requirements for channel monetization through YouTube’s Partner Program.

But realistically you’re probably not in a position to bang out a fully-produced music video every single week, right?

That’s where non-music videos come in, and your dedicated audience will watch, like, love, and share your NON-music videos almost as much as your music videos, so they provide a cost-effective way to keep the content rolling out!

What is a non-music video?

Music videos are great, and they can be made on a tight budget — but often the less money you spend, the more time is required in planning and execution (and that’s not gonna help you get one finished every single week).

So for these purposes I’m defining a non-music video as any video you upload to YouTube that is not a fully-produced music video. Non-music videos can still contain your music, but they’re not trying to be the next Spike Jonze-directed HomePod commercial.

Examples of non-music videos include:

• Art Tracks
• Lyric videos (which you can create very affordably by following THESE TIPS)
• Videos that use public domain or archival footage
• Auto-generated music videos (more on this below)
• Live performance videos or in-studio sessions
• Vlogs, interviews, behind-the-scenes, and mini-documentaries
• Short promo videos for upcoming releases, tours, etc.

These options give you a lot more flexibility in terms of hitting the goals you set in your release schedule, and as mentioned above, they provide a low-cost way to build your video inventory.

Non-music videos can be promoted just like music videos

There’s no rule that a non-music video can’t have every bit as much reach as a fully-produced music video. You can do targeted advertising to share your Art Tracks, you can seek blog premieres for your lyric videos, you can do an email blast about your most recent interview video, and so forth.

Make your OWN Art Tracks

Although Art Tracks are automatically generated for you as part of your digital distribution through CD Baby, I still recommend you create your own Art Tracks that live within your channel.

When you upload your own Art Tracks you can customize them with End Screens and Cards to drive specific action, AND (to really hammer this point home) they’ll boost your overall views and watch-time when they live on your own channel.

Lyric videos can be as compelling as music videos

Depending on your audience, lyric videos can be even MORE interesting than a budget music video for the same song. I’ve kind of fallen in love with making lyric videos, and experimenting with ways to differentiate them from one another.

For some tips on creating lyric videos, go HERE.

Explore auto-generated video options

There’s a service called Rotor that uses an automated system to create custom music videos for your songs.

You select some stock clips from their library, choose an editing style, and upload your audio track. Rotor does the rest, and you can preview the video before you pay to actually download the file, or upload it straight to YouTube and Facebook.

Get a 20% discount when you make a video with Rotor

If you want to try Rotor, we’ve got a coupon code that will give you 20% discount at checkout: RotorBaby

I tested it out myself and here’s what Rotor made for my song “Lonely People” in about ten minutes:

Non-music videos can still earn you money

If your non-music videos contain your music, you can still earn revenue for them via Content ID!

Check out CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization program to get started.

If you’re in YouTube’s Partner Program directly, even videos on your channel without music can bring in advertising dollars.

20 Estórias Criativas De Música Independente - Parte 1

20 stories of creative musical independence, Pt. 1: John Sifuentes

3 ways to make big moves in a small music town.

2018 marks CD Baby’s 20th anniversary, and I wanted to take some time this year to highlight twenty stories of creative DIY music-making. Not necessarily artists who’ve become famous, or conquered their genre, or made boat-loads of cash (we’ve featured plenty of those artists before), but people who are trying new things, tapping into new audiences, and finding new sources of music income.

I think readers of this blog can often gain as much by reading about an artist that figured out how to sell a few extra CDs as they can from an artist who’s “made it.” Scale-able wisdom, I like to call it: concepts that are worth remembering no matter where you — or the artist sharing the lesson — are at career-wise.

So first up in this series, we’ll look at three different ways John “Gage” Sifuentes turned his independence into an advantage.

Double your audience with an acoustic set

Being a DIY Musician in a small town means you have to do things differently. Before John Sifuentes got signed to a record label, he worked all the angles. The only problem was that in a small town there were no angles to work. He’d played all the bars, and his metal band could only play in those venues every so often. So John took the challenge and turned it upside down. He knew the other local “venues” — restaurants — wouldn’t go for his metal sound. But he convinced a local restaurant to let them do an acoustic metal show.

They played acoustic until nightfall then broke out the electric instruments. The bass player had a wireless amp so he set up in the median of the highway and played from there. People that wouldn’t have normally listened to metal ended up staying past dark. And vice versa. The fans of the heavier stuff enjoyed the earlier set. A new audience was found and a lot of albums were sold that night.

He realized that by having an acoustic and electric show he more than doubled his opportunities to play live and connect with potential fans. It’s a lesson he’s never forgotten. The second lesson learned that night was about the role of serendipity and reaching audience members that never would have found you otherwise.

Attract fans by playing in unexpected places

We spend so much time looking to replicate what other bands have done, trying to show we are part of a genre or scene. On the one hand, that can be useful so you get a “if-you-like-that-band-you-will-like-this-band” effect.

But what if you want fans that have never even heard of your style of music? Put yourself in places where people can stumble onto you. That could be the street, online, or in a parking lot. You can wait for someone to put you on stage, or you can call your immediate surroundings your stage. For John, that restaurant gig became an unlikely stage where he brought together two different audiences.

Eventually John succeeded in the way a lot of indie artists dream about: he got a label deal. Guess what happened next? The label went bankrupt and John struggled to get paid.

As an indie artist, he went back to what worked for him. He released two versions of his next album: an acoustic one and a harder version. He now had two repertoires for live performance, and had two albums to sell at shows depending on the taste of his fans.

John operates with more freedom than he’d have if still signed to a label. As band members moved on — with kids and jobs — John turned inward and brushed up on his studio chops. He doesn’t make excuses or wait for other people to follow his pursuit. He picks up more instruments, and learns how to mix and master his own albums.

Serialize your content!

John’s day-job sent him to Israel for a couple of months where he was exposed to the area’s vast cultural strife. He returned feeling like the world is crazy, full of bigotry and racism. He thought, “I need to throw a pebble in the opposite direction. Do something.”

He decided to releases a song every month inspired by a different culture or religion. He does research and then incorporates what he’s learned into the song. Instead of a cultural facsimile, he creates something entirely new.

The project is called Unto the Wolves, and John hopes it can create empathy and educate people about how there’s much to be gained in our differences. He now has an episodic theme to explore month after month, a story that fans can follow along with, and he’s generating $300/month from micro-patrons who want to hear his next song, listen to the commentary, and watch the videos. Once John reaches twelve songs he plans to compile the tracks for a full album release.

SoundCloud Lança Campanha 'First on SoundCloud' Para Artistas Emergentes

SoundCloud Launches 'First on SoundCloud' Emerging Artist Campaign With Kehlani, Lorine Chia & More

The new initiative will champion 10 creators who began their careers with the music streaming service. 

SoundCloud announced on Wednesday (March 21) its first-ever multi-platinum advertising campaign with what it's calling "First On SoundCloud," which aims to celebrate the stories of creators who got their start on the streaming site. It will showcase rising acts on the platform through music, video and photography, while encouraging all creators to participate by uploading tracks to SoundCloud using the hashtag #SCFIRST. 

"First on SoundCloud" launches with spotlights on 10 new acts spanning genres and geography, including Kehlani, Galimatias, Taylor Bennett, Lorine Chia, Melo Makes Music, Party Pupils, Jay Prince, Cathedrals, starRo and Witt Lowry. Over the next three months, SoundCloud will promote these artists across SoundCloud apps, playlists and newsletters, as well as social and out of home advertising. 

Other users who upload their music with the #SCFIRST tag will have a chance to receive similar support from the platform. They will also receive fast-track consideration for monetization via its SoundCloud Premier monetization program. 

"SoundCloud is the only truly open audio platform, built for creators first," said SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor in a statement. "Creators are the center of our ecosystem and this campaign underscores our commitment to empowering them with the best tools, data and resources to share their work, inspire their audiences and build their careers on SoundCloud first."

Erika Leone, SoundCloud's director of brand and integrated marketing, added, "We're inspired and humbled to have such an incredible lineup of artists tell their stories of starting on SoundCloud and to connect them with even more fans through the campaign. These stories represent the millions of creative journeys that begin on SoundCloud first."

Spotify Lança Ferramenta Para 'Crowdsourcing' Para Músicas E Albums

Spotify Launches Tool for Crowdsourcing Song and Album Data

Music streaming has a vexing data problem, but Spotify believes it has a way to help fill in some of those info gaps across its 30 million songs. On Monday, the company released a new desktop tool called Line-In that gives music lovers the opportunity to make suggestions for artists and individual songs and albums.

By clicking on the three dots next to a song, album or artist, users will see a "Suggest an Edit" option that takes them to a traditional web form. There, fans can make suggestions in categories such as genre, aliases, explicitness, languages, tags and artist roles, which includes composers. You an even suggest external URLs, like reviews to a track or album.

It's unclear how the soon-to-be-public company plans on incorporating the suggested data, but it did say that "by experimenting with this tool, we hope to better understand how Spotify listeners interpret music, so that we can improve experiences for both listeners and artists."

In a dedicated FAQ page for Line-In, Spotify explained that the tool is seen as a way to crowdsource knowledge from the community. "If you see something amiss or just plain ol missing, now you can help us correct it or add it," the company said. "By suggesting edits ... you'll help artists connect with more fans, and help other people discover new music by fueling our personalization engines."

Currently, the tool does not allow users to suggest changes to album or track names -- that's the responsibility of content providers -- but it does let you speak up if a "main artist" doesn't seem right. "Please be patient while we build a nice interface to gather this kind of feedback and get it to the right people."

YouTube E A Sempre Confusão Da Arte Das Trilhas

YouTube and the ever-confusing world of Art Track

What is an Art Track on YouTube?

One of the most common areas of confusion among artists distributing their work on YouTube is Art Tracks. Who can view them? Who owns them? Where do they live? Can I see mine? Wait, do I need any Art Tracks?

Let’s start with a simple definition of “Art Track.”

According to YouTube, an Art Track is an automatically generated YouTube version of a sound recording.

An Art Track consists of:

• the sound recording
• the album art
• and metadata about the recording, such as its title and artist name

“Automatically generated?”

Why do THEY get to generate a second version of MY music?

It’s a funny way to phrase things, but it doesn’t exactly represent the real process for creating an Art Track. Art Tracks, while not directly related to Content ID Administration, can be viewed by those who have access to the Content Management System (CMS). This could be a direct artist, channel, label, or rights administration company (like CD Baby). But, even though they may appear within the CMS like any other sound recording, Art Tracks are actually a part of a completely separate YouTube distribution service called YouTube Music and are not administered or managed via the CMS. Instead, all metadata changes, conflicts, or topic channel assignments are managed directly by YouTube.

Why Do Art Tracks exist in the first place?

The purpose of Art Tracks is to provide a “single official, label-sanctioned YouTube version of every sound recording.”

Once qualified recordings are identified based on their ISRCs, release identifiers (UPC, EAN, GRid), and labels, YouTube will create Art Tracks for each unique combination of these fields. This is YouTube’s attempt to provide as complete a music catalog and experience as they can. Art Tracks appear in the same places and operate in the same ways as produced music videos, (Like topic channels, album playlists, and search results).

If you think about it, Art Tracks are really just simple, auto-generated music videos…which makes sense if you consider that YouTube is trying to provide you with a music streaming experience on a video-only platform.

YouTube as a music streaming service?

The vast majority of music discovery in developed nations is done via YouTube. When a new album drops, or a friend suggests an artist or album someone might like, most folks turn to YouTube.

Almost all modern produced music can be found on YouTube in one form or another. And if an artist has any sort of digital distribution strategy they will likely opt-in for YouTube content ID. This means that YouTube is sitting on the largest collection of digital music in the world. And, at some point, someone in some office somewhere had that lightbulb moment: Why not offer a way for the average YouTube user to stream the music that’s already been delivered to YouTube?

Users were already creating their own DIY Art Tracks and YouTube wanted to provide official representations of every sound recording they could, so they offered current music administrators the option of having Art Tracks created for their music.

What’s the upside of YouTube Art Tracks?

Art Tracks provide:

• better audio quality
• mobile audio-only playback
• music that could be searchable by topic, related artist, and playlist

Furthermore, these topic channels and playlists would be created and managed by YouTube and not individual users. All of this, of course, was by design and in support of the imminent launch of YouTube’s subscription service: YouTube Red.

As a subscriber, you have the ability to listen to every Art Track on YouTube in an audio-only mode that includes all of the goodness of other streaming services, including high-quality audio and genome playlist creation.

Now, anyone on YouTube can search for and listen to any Art Track that exists on the platform. But a cool feature of YouTube Red subscription is that in audio-only mode, it will always favor the high-quality audio of an Art Track over other versions of the song that inevitably exist on YouTube.

So, let’s say you’re listening to a Michael Jackson playlist and Thriller comes on. Instead of having to listen to the drawn out audio of the (amazing) music video that’s probably the most distributed version of that song on YouTube, you’ll be served up the album version in the highest audio quality available.

User-Generated vs Official Art Track videos

So, Art Tracks are official music videos of songs that are available to all who use YouTube and behave like assets on a music streaming platform. Now let’s pump the brakes here for a minute and look at what an Art Track is to the average observer: it’s a YouTube video that has the artist and song name in the title of the video and displays a static image of the cover art while the song plays.

Not exactly a novel idea. In fact, artists have been throwing together their own version of Art Tracks for years. It’s easy, just upload your album (or your favorite artist’s album) and a pic of the album cover and BAM! You have a user-generated Art Track.

So how does one tell a user-generated Art Track and an official YouTube Art Track apart?

Below are a few examples for your viewing pleasure.

Example #1 – User Generated “Art Track”:

Example #2 – Official Art Track created by YouTube:

What’s different?

For one, the descriptions are a dead giveaway:

• in Example #1, the description has pertinent info that the artist has provided, such as their Bandcamp, iTunes, and Spotify links… as well as links to other videos.
• Example #2 is much more simple and to the point. It contains the track title and artist name, the administrator who provided the track to YouTube (CD Baby, of course) and a copyright tag.

An astute eye will also see that the videos in the “Up Next” queue differ between these two examples in a very specific way:

• Example #2 has a video queued up that’s from the artist’s Topic Channel.
• Example #1 has a video queued up from the artist’s YouTube channel.

This is an important distinction in the behavior of these two assets: Art Tracks beget Art Tracks and UGC videos beget other UGC videos.

Now that you can tell the difference between YouTube-created and user-generated videos, let’s get into how they make money.

How do Art Tracks generate income?

Through Content ID, your music is being actively searched for throughout YouTube. Every video that’s uploaded by every user is scanned and we claim it for you if it contains one of your songs. Once claimed, you begin to get a portion of the revenue that video earns through ad & subscription supported views. So, one song can be identified and claimed in hundreds of videos and earn a portion of the revenue from each and every one of those videos.

With Art Tracks it’s much more simple. Art Tracks also earn their revenue via ad & subscription supported views, but that revenue is only ever going to come from views of that specific Art Track. Art Tracks operate like a song on Spotify, only instead of earning per “stream” you earn per “view” (for subscription supported views) and you earn a share of ad revenue generated by ad-supported views.

YouTube Music vs Content ID

As I state above, Art Tracks and UGC videos earn revenue in the same manner (Ad supported and/or Subscription-Supported views) but since Art Track assets and UGC assets are a part of two different YouTube services, the revenue is distributed and reported separately.

• CD Baby members can see revenue from Content ID (i.e. user generated videos) in their account under: Licensing and Royalties > YouTube Content ID.
• And for Art Tracks, revenue will be posted under: Digital Partner Sales > YouTube Music.

Here’s the part that confuses most artists: You can opt-out of having your music administered through YouTube Content ID (though I really don’t know why you ever would) and still have your music on YouTube as Art Tracks.

How could this possibly be!?!

Since the distribution of music as Art Tracks on YouTube is a separate revenue flow, it is therefore a separate distribution service. And any distribution company worth its salt, such as CD Baby, will allow you to customize your service options to fit your particular needs. So, if you are a CD Baby artist, this service will be listed as YouTube Music under the Digital Distribution Partners list in your member’s account and you can uncheck the box next to it if you feel Art Tracks aren’t for you.

So, let’s review what we’ve covered:

• Art tracks are official sound recording assets for YouTube Music with high-quality audio and a static image of the album art.
• YouTube Music is a digital distribution service, while Content ID is a digital rights administration service.
• Art Tracks are a representation of your work, while Content ID enforces your copyright.
• You can participate in one, both, or neither; your choice!

It’s not the easiest thing to wrap your head around, but there it is. If you have any questions about Art Tracks and whether you currently have any available on YouTube, start by searching on YouTube! Next, contact your digital distributor.

Pagamentos Do CD Baby Aos Artistas Indie's Aumenta 33% em 2017 - Veja O Infográfico

Indie artist payments from CD Baby increase 33% in 2017, and other numbers you’ll want to see [INFOGRAPHIC]

CD Baby artist revenue, then and now

20 years ago, CD Baby revolutionized the independent music industry, giving artists without a label their first chance to reach a worldwide audience on their own terms while maintaining all the ownership of their music.

Two decades later and we’ve broken down many more barriers for independent musicians, including:

• global distribution
• publishing rights administration
• YouTube and Facebook monetization
• sync licensing
• online music marketing
• and more

Thank you to all the musicians who’ve entrusted us with one of the most important things in their lives: their own music.

CD Baby’s 20th Anniversary Infographic

These images show the 20-year history of what we’ve been able to do with and for the artists that use CD Baby, how the methods of music monetization have changed over two decades, and much more.

[Note: Full infographic at the bottom.]

CD Baby’s catalog and payouts

First, a quick look at the size of both our distribution and publishing catalogs (now representing the largest collection of songwriters in the world!), plus the revenue we’ve paid to artists for sales, streams, sync fees, YouTube ad revenue, publishing royalties, and more:

Geography and genre

We have one of the largest and most diverse catalogs of music in the world. CD Baby clients come from 215 territories/countries around the globe, and make music in more than 850 different genres:

Changes in digital distribution revenue from 2011 to 2017

This graph shows how music consumption habits have shifted dramatically in the past 5 years, as streaming adoption increased and the popularity of downloads decreased:

Streaming revenue as a percentage of total artist payout

How big a part does streaming play in the overall revenue picture of a modern musician, and in CD Baby’s total revenue payouts? This graph shows that streaming is generating big money for artists. In 2017 our total revenue payout was more than double what it was in 2009, and the percentage that streaming comprised of that total payout went from 1.7% to 58%.

A timeline of CD Baby milestones

Here’s a full infographic containing everything above, plus some highlights from our 20-year history!

Spotify Apresenta Galerias De Imagens E Links De Redes Sociais

Spotify introduces image galleries and social links

Spotify for Artists launches two new profile customization features.

If you have a Spotify for Artists account, you know that you can customize your header photo, edit your artist bio, post concert dates, pin your favorite music or playlist to the top of your profile, and more.

Well now you have two more ways to strut your stuff on Spotify.

1. A photo gallery

Within your Spotify for Artists account you can upload up to 125 pictures and edit them to appear in whatever order you prefer. You can also update your profile avatar from within the Spotify for Artists app. To keep things fresh on your profile, post your latest:

• press shots
• behind-the-scenes pics in the studio, on tour, or shooting a video
• live photos
• shots of you hanging out with fans or fellow musicians

2. Social links to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Wikipedia

The ABOUT tab on your profile will now display off-platform links, so listeners that want to check out more from you can follow you in other places besides Spotify.