Jamie Krutz (Photo by Chuck Phillips; from Jamie’s website)
Via Zoom, COMBO held a round table meeting to discuss digital streaming platforms and what they pay. Board Member Jamie Krutz opened the meeting with info and a summary on the UK’s MP department investigating platforms like Spotify and how much they pay and whether or not that is acceptable. We ran an article on it in the 11/12/20 issue which you can access via our website under “MPs to Investigate Whether Artists are Paid Fairly for Streaming Music” or here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54551342
Then Michael St. James of St. James Media, a company that provides many services to musicians as well as being a music supervisor, and local favorite singer/songwriter/musician Andy Ard told about their experiences with the various media platforms. Then they answered questions from the other attendees. The general consensus was that your songs would probably get lost in the 1,000s of songs uploaded each day but that, like the lottery, if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win.
Favorite analogy from Michael: “Remember when we used to go to our local record stores and we’d check out the ‘New Music’ display at the front of the store? Well, think of that, how many records were in the rest of the store and now imagine that with 5 more warehouses beyond that, all filled with new music! That is basically what you get when you go into Spotify, Apply Music, Reverb-Nation, iTunes, or other on-line services.”
Generally agreed was that uploading videos to YouTube, Tik-Tok, and Instagram using your original music might be a better format to follow. However, we also all agreed that the videos needed to be well done. That is not to say that you need a videographer, lights, a stage and a great sound system but rather a video that was clear, concise, and showed you, your performance, and your song in a ‘good light’. After all, Justin Bieber was “discovered” by videos his mom took of him in his bedroom singing and playing his songs. These were passed to relatives who passed them onto friends who passed them onto their kids, and so on. Other singer/songwriter/musicians have been discovered this way, too. So consider those formats as well when looking to promote your songs.
[Note: Chris Daniels was not able to attend but has promised to speak at another meeting in the coming year!]