I saw a band post something on their Facebook page last week which went a little like this:

‘Due to the fact that Spotify and other streaming services rip us off, our music will no longer be available there. You’ll only being able to listen to or buy our music from our website or Bandcamp’

Well, Spotify might not pay a whole bunch but it does pay something per song stream. Bandcamp doesn’t pay you ANYTHING for a song stream, so letting people stream just on there will make you even less money!

A quick check on that artist’s Spotify page shows less than 1,000 streams for even their most popular songs so their lack of Spotify income is actually down to having a small fanbase who aren’t incentivised to stream their music rather than Spotify’s avarice.

Seeing as that artist’s music has always been available on Bandcamp, will the withdrawal of music from streaming see an upturn in sales of their music? Probably not I’m guessing.

Here’s how things stand in the current music climate: Streaming is a form of music consumption, whereas music purchase is a way of a fan ‘rewarding’ an artist.  If your music isn’t available on streaming, people will still go to a streaming site and they will just listen to something else instead.  Musicians therefore need to work on a strategy that introduces their music to new people and then work on ways of establishing a relationship with an eye towards a future reward. Here’s the formula:

1. Place your music everywhere.  There more locations, the better.
2. Have a strategy to be continually introducing that music to new people.
3. Develop a relationship with that new audience through social media channels, your mailing list etc.
4. Then monetise that relationship with music releases, gigs and merch opportunities.

   ---

   
   Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

   Twitter: @60secondmm

   Facebook: www.facebook.com/60secondmusicmarketing