Spotify Launches “Spotify Codes”
Remember the QR Code Craze? Sure you do! It took place a couple of years back when we began seeing these funny little squares with unique black and white patterns in them all over promotional materials, from the subway to magazines. People could use their mobile device to scan the QR code and it’d offer them some sort of exclusive content. Marketers saw this as a fun new way to connect with consumers, but ultimately the process involved proved to be just over the line of effort that most consumers were willing to put into connecting with a campaign.
Flash forward to present day, and we see Spotify has announced a new in-app feature called “Spotify Codes”, allowing music fans to scan said codes to share music with friends. It’s being rolled out globally and is about more than just sharing your favorite playlist with a like-minded pal. Music Ally points to the strong potential for artists to market their music using Spotify Codes: “Flyers, posters, billboards… perhaps even TV advertising – something that would take Spotify Codes into the territory traditionally occupied by Shazam.”
A strong and thoughtful point, indeed. Indie artists of all genres can direct potential fans directly to their latest releases using traditional DIY promotional tactics simply by including their unique Spotify Codes within their visual assets. It’ll be very interesting to see how artists get creative with sharing these codes, and of course, how fans react and engage. Get started using them today with instructions via Spotify here.
Amazon Prime Offers Live Streaming Concerts
Is there anything Amazon Prime can’t deliver us? Well, up until this month, you could technically put “concert experiences” in that category (which seems reasonable enough), but alas, the online retail giant continues to out-do itself. In May, Amazon announced that it has begun offering tickets to concerts to its members. Not just any concerts, but a series of live events, with tickets being offered exclusively via the platform to Prime customers, featuring internationally recognized artists playing in small, intimate settings.
While concerts are being booked for Prime members in the UK right now, it has hopes to add U.S. concerts by the end of 2017. Additionally, Prime members out of the market for these experiences can catch recorded and streaming versions of these concerts so fans can get in on the fun from home. (Kind of a different version of those home concerts we’ve written about in the past.)
Amazon’s attempt to attract older, mainstream music fans who consume music – and live music for that matter – differently than the typical 20- or 30-something music obsessives is a great thing for independent artists who are hoping to reach similar crowds. Additionally, this move shows Amazon taking a step to connect artists with fans further, “combining customer data, billing relationships, content and services, infrastructure and consumer hardware.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the near future – not just what new ways Amazon offers experiences exclusively to Prime members, but also how they bring independent musicians and bands into the fold.
Facebook Rights Manager Helps Artists Collect Ad Revenue
Good news for music creators looking to benefit monetarily from Facebook videos: the social media giant has updated its “Rights Manager” feature, allowing artists to generate revenue from pirated videos that had mid-roll ads placed within them. If an artist’s song is being used in a video across Facebook (with or without permission), they can now get a cut of that sweet, sweet ad money previously reserved for the video creator.
Facebook pays 55% of ad revenue to rights holders (much like YouTube), and until now, its Rights Manager could only successfully notify a rights holder when their music was being used in a video somewhere on the platform – giving them the option to take the video down or leave it up as a means of promotion. Similar to YouTube’s Content ID (which you can take advantage of using TuneCore’s YouTube Sound Recording revenue collection service), artists can “claim ad earnings” and even choose where the 15 to 20-second ad is inserted in the video.
Any new revenue stream for artists is viewed as a win for TuneCore and the greater independent music community. It will be exciting to see how this adds up for those who get their songs featured in videos across Facebook, and it’s definitely a step in the right direction in honoring copyrights. Artists can sign up for Rights Manager via Facebook here.
Tags: ad revenue amazon prime discovery facebook featured featuring indie music industry news rights manager spotify codes streaming tunecore