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Mixtape Cover King
In Music Marketing

Slick Way to Make Money From Your Youtube Music Video

So what are the new YouTube cards, it’s a new YouTube feature that has been widely overlooked when it comes to the in video promotional options, in short terms YouTube cards the next logical step that annotations took in their evolution, and as annotations they are represented inside the video to give more info on the subject video itself. But unlike annotations which are always the same, YouTube cards offer a variety of options when setting up. So correspondingly there are various types of YouTube cards that can be created in your video. Each suited for individual needs of the video owner.

  • Fund raising cards – which are pretty self-explanatory, any musician can use this to increase income, which can be used to produce more high-grade videos
  • Sell cards – commonly used when advertising products, it offers a direct link to the location where the product can be purchased, this includes movies, music and various other products
  • Website link card – provides a direct link to your website, as a musician this can be used to increase your mailing list or to generate an increased online presence on your website
  • Drive video cards – offers the ability to play an entire playlist with one simple click, the reasons how a musician can use this for marketing are obvious.

 

Why use YouTube cards over annotations?

There are several reasons to do so. First of all YouTube cards look better than old plain annotations, and second of all they are customizable. So in regarding with the previously stated, it’s not an uncommon fact that customizing your YouTube cards effectively increases your fan base, make them look represent able, and make them represent your music. Couple of more thing that are worth mentioning. When it comes to YouTube cards in general and how they operate.

  • YouTube analytics – the influence and overall success of YouTube cards can be tracked over the integrated analytics page, this can be useful for anybody that is unsure if their fan base is growing
  • YouTube cards are mobile friendly – weather you are viewing the video in your mobile device or your desktop PC, the cards will always show, this is pretty important due to the widespread of mobile devices in today’s modern world, and let’s not forget the fact that people usually listen to YouTube on these mobile devices to begin with
  • They simply look better – people won’t click what they don’t like, and when it comes to looks, YouTube cards are the best looking thing out there; they are highly customizable and can increase your profits and conversion rates by a healthy margin.

 

Using YouTube cards to monetize your music

This newly developed feature allows musicians to monetize their music  in a number of ways whether It’s a music video are just a song you uploaded that playing over your Mixtape Cover Design. Let’s start off with the fundraising option. The music industry is over saturated at the moment, and there are a lot of quality musicians who simply can’t make a name for themselves, do to this fact. To succeed in the music business you need money, and this is the perfect way to do it. If you feel confident that your music is high-quality and you feel that you should receive donations for your effort, this is the perfect option for you. High quality content will ultimately lead to a high number of fans. And if they like what they hear, a donation of a small amount will be in order, so needless to say that this effect is accumulative and in the long run it can be quite profitable.

 

Another option that I feel that should be discussed is the so called “Sell cards”. As we stated before they offer a possibility to link your music video to an online store which sells your music. This is a perfect way for artists that don’t have their own website to try and sell their music. Think of iTunes and other similar programs which offer the option to sell music when it comes to this.

 

The third option for monetization using cards is the option to link the card to your website. Doing this can monetize your music in more ways than one, considering that the website is owned by you, you can set up an online store in your website, you could set up banners that provide further marketing for your music. So as far as the website goes, the possibilities are endless.

How to add YouTube cards to your video?

The procedure is pretty simple, you only need to log in to your YouTube account, check your video manager for a list of current videos, click edit on the video and click on the “cards” button. From this point onward things can get a bit complicated, due to the high customizability of the cards themselves. So feel free to experiment in order to find out what works best for you, and remember to use YouTube analytics while experimenting to keep track of all the good and bad changes.

 

In conclusion

As we stated before, the music business is over saturated at the moment, and there are more ways to monetize your music than ever before. YouTube cards are just the best from the batch; we highly recommend this feature to anybody that is trying to make a name for them in this industry. Try it out, experiment, find out what works best for you, and never forget to give your fans what they want in return!

Mixtape Cover King
In Music Marketing

How to Get Your Music on BET, MTV AND MORE

The art of making a name for yourself

In the modern world we all live in, music is a business like any other, it has its ups and downs as well as risks that come with it. As such, music can be treated like any other business model, and a constant fact about any business model is the idea that there are more ways than one to promote yourself or your product which in this case is the music you are making. We all watch TV, play video games and watch various YouTube shows and Netflix. So as a musician did you ever ask yourself, who makes the music for all these types of entertainment? It’s silly to think that programmers that make video games produce music, and yet, there is some quality music in the game industry which is made by famous artists like DMX. So what is at hand here? Every aspect of the previously mentioned relies in the hands of Music Supervisors. They generally oversee every aspect of TV show, movies and video games that is music related.

What is a music supervisor?

As we have stated before, Music Supervisors are people in charge of overseeing the music aspect of our daily lives. For example, their job is to negotiate with the director of a certain TV show, this can be very tricky, TV show directors can be quite abstract people to begin with, and sometimes they don’t know what they want. So a music supervisor need to understand the mentality of the director and hand in order to find out what he or she is looking for in terms of music for their TV show. After the Music Supervisor has a general idea what to look for, they will generally look at the resources they have at their disposal. By this we mean that he or she will look at the available bands and music makers that are looking for a job, and which one is suited the best for the job at hand. O needless to say that if you want to promote your music in video games TV shows, music supervisors need to have you on their map. After you have done this, the best thing for any musician to do is not to let the quality of your music drop, a good product is the best marketing that you can afford, and it goes a long way.

What comes after you got a job?

This part of business can often be quite tricky, a lot of money can be involved and the number of involved parties can only make things worse. Some of the involved parties can be song writers, music producer, the artist, Mixtape Makers and record label you record under and many others. So the contract you set up before you start the job at hand can often be quite tricky to set up in terms of trying to satisfy the needs of all involved parties as well as the music supervisor and the director that you are now working for. When doing this we advise that you keep a clear mind and keep all options available, not every deal goes the way you want to.

Contacting a music supervisor

Before you put any effort in to contacting a music supervisor we advise you be aware of the following. Nobody likes spam E-mails, so the same can be said for any music supervisors, this is a good way to kill of your career before you even started it. So don’t go around sending mass E-mails to people that you don’t even know are interested. One thing that we do recommend is the following. Take a look at the music you make in general. What emotions surface when you listen to your music, this is very important when trying to get involved with Music Supervisors, and let’s face it, you never heard “Metallica” play in a soap opera, so needless to say you need to find the right people for the type of music you play. While doing this does sound tricky, it is really quite simple to do in terms of finding the people to contact. Let’sassume you watch TV a lot, which you probably do. The odds are that you heard music that is similar to yours in many TV shows or movies in terms of the overall tone and the emotional response in general. Now comes the fun part. Wait for the credits of the TV show or movie in question and look for the name of the music supervisor, it will be there. After you have achieved this and now have a clear name of a Music Supervisor the only thing to do is some internet research, the odds are that the name of the music supervisor is already registered with a major company and his or hers E-mail address can easily obtained. So by now you have a targeted music supervisor that will almost certainly be interested in the music that you have you have to offer.

Sending the E-mail that will change everything

For starters when was the last time you read a long E-mail with a lot of attachments? The odds are you never did that, the same can be done for music supervisors, nobody wants to read column after column of text in order to find out a couple of key information’s. So it’s safe to assume that Music Supervisors, busy as they are, won’t read a 1000 word essay that you sent them. Keep your E-mail short and say everything in a shortest manner possible. And make your subject line include simple keywords that you know that will work and make any music supervisor open it. For example, “A great song that has 50 cent all over it”. Another thing that is important is the fact that under no circumstance should you attach and MP3 of your song. A general god idea is to simply provide a link of your song to YouTube. Clicking one link to listen to a good song goes a long way than having to download it.

Mixtape Cover King
In Artist Development Blog

Indie Artist Stopped Getting Pimped By Promoters

Indie Artist Stopped Getting Pimped By Promoters

Music in general is a business like any other, you exchange your services for money and that someone that you exchange your services to tries to make money off your service that is the general rule. But needless to say that the rules change when it comes to music, the music industry is oversaturated with various Graphic Artists that differ in quality, and when you have an over-saturated industry like the music industry there is a lot of room when it comes to foul play. It is a fact that a lot of people want to become Professional Musicians, and why would they? You get a lot of money for doing things you generally like. So the general interest in becoming a musician is fairly high, which is absolutely understandable because of the previously mentioned factors. Dishonest people take advantage of this, promising that they will promote your band at various events, for only a portion of the profit. The people I’m talking about are of course the so called promoters, but their name is a false representation of their interests in general.

What’s really going on?

If you have a good band that has a chance of making it in the big world of Musicians, odds are you already tried to promote your music in many ways. Some bands upload their songs to YouTube or Myspace, in any case your music is out there. These are the common places that the so called promoters look for bands that are trying to make a name for themselves. And like any good promoter they will offer you their services. Now it’s important to say that there are a lot of legit promoters out there, but keep in mind what you are signing up for when you are in the process of discussing the agreement. The general idea behind false promoters is that they will offer you a percent of the ticket sales, but only if you as a band sell twenty or so tickets. Good deal isn’t it? Well it isn’t. The twenty tickets you as a band purchase will roughly cost you 15 $ per ticket. So after and if you manage to sell them you will get about 3 $ per ticket sold. So where is the logic in that? It’s totally non profitable, well not for your band in any case.

Should you do it?

No way, no how, that should be your immediate answer. Its isn’t an unknown fact that promoters all around the world take advantage of naïve bands that don’t really know what they are doing when it comes to finances. And the sad part in all of this is the fact that the so called promoters actually get away with it all. After they do so, they simply move on to the next band they find. An interesting story of mine is that my friend actually had a band that has been promised a time-frame at a local revenue. The only thing they needed to do was sell thirty tickets. Which is what they did. It’s important to state that the show was a total success with over one hundred tickets sold. And after a good night of fun, the bottom line was they invested about 300 $ and their return money that they actually earned was 250 $. And the total amount of the money that the sold tickets accumulated was above 1500 $. Needless to say that is exactly what the promoter did. And he got away with the money. The next thing that we will be discussing is how things are done the right way and what you should be looking for.

How is it done professionally?

There are normally two methods of conducting this type of business professionally. Let’s say you are a rapper and you want a small performance in your local revenue. The organizers of the revenue set the prices and if they accept you as a performer they should negotiate your price and the ticket price. The promoters are only there to keep you and the organizer in contact and according to this they should be paid a small fee. When the money that you will be paid come to question the two most popular business models come in to question. A ticket sale percentage or a split price. The first is needless to say the most common, and best one if you feel that you will put up a good show. You get a small fee that is negotiated with the organizer and is directly correlated to the numbers of tickets sold. The split price is something that people do when they are not selling tickets, and it is most commonly referred as a fixed price contract where all the terms of payment are discussed before the show actually takes place so you know exactly how much money you will be making in the end.

How to do it in the right way?

You need to keep a sharp mind and eye, look for people that know what they are talking about, if you even as sense that foul play is at hand adjust your actions correspondently. For example, don’t be ashamed to ask some money in advance or ask the promoter or the organizer to cover your travel expenses before you start making the journey to the destination where you will put up a performance. Another thing that you should be aware is the fact that people quite often deceive and lie when it comes to payment, what we are trying to say is that people or promoters will quite often tell you that you will receive your money tomorrow or the day after, if you encounter this type of conduct ask for your money immediately because most of the time these people are stalling and don’t plan to give you money at all, so keep this in mind, it will help you a lot on your way to success in the music industry in general.

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