By Kevin Cornell
It didn’t take long for Facebook to go from being a place for college kids to share pictures and make friends on campus to begin operating as a major platform for promotion and fan engagement for artists of all stripes. Facebook groups helped fans connect over a shared love of music; fan pages gave artists the opportunity to communicate directly to an audience; events continue to draw crowds to local shows and national tour dates; ads turned artists into marketing managers; and the ability to go live broke down barriers and brought artists into our homes.
This month, Facebook has announced some pretty exciting new features that push the boundaries of social media engagement and help artists and creators generate revenue. Connecting with your audience is important, but so is making money. Not so long ago, TuneCore started helping artists give permission to Facebook and Instagram users to include their songs in the content they create, and we’re excited to see the social media giant taking steps to ensure creators have more ways to earn money.
Fan Subscriptions
If you’re distributing your music using TuneCore, you already know what a subscription is (and how it helps you keep 100% of your revenue!). Facebook has introduced Fan Subscriptions as a way to give your top fans access to exclusive content like Q&As, behind-the-scenes-videos and more – all for a monthly fee.
Much like a Patreon profile, Fan Subscriptions is just another way to reward those fans that value your music most. Remember: super fans like this are your biggest advocates in the real world, too, not just online. These are the people that buy merch and tickets, engage on social platforms, and share your music via word of mouth with their friends and family. Chances are, even as an artist, you’ve acted as a super fan for someone else.
To see if you qualify and get started with Fan Subscriptions, click here.
Stars
If you’ve ever set up a virtual tip jar on your online live performances, you know that viewers and fans are willing to pony up some of their cash to support your art. Facebook understands the value of this connection, and has rolled out Stars as a means of rewarding artists and other creators – and they’ve done so in a manner that allows you to build credibility and revenue.
Facebook users and purchase Stars and dole them out on creators’ videos – each Star is worth one cent. While that might not immediately strike you as a lot of money, these Stars can add up and are an effective way of translating ‘likes’ into real revenue! (Not to mention, it can serve as motivation to get yourself in front of a wider audience on Facebook.)
Creators in these markets can apply for beta access here.
Creator Studio Updates
What good are new features like the ones mentioned above if you can’t track performance? Good news – Facebook has expanded their video insights offering to include Live and Stars performance in the Creator Studio. Additionally, Creator Studio now has a new Video Details Explorer dashboard, giving artists and creator the opportunity to view ‘Traffic Source’ insights and hourly metrics post-launch (up to 48 hours).
Be sure to read up on the Creator Studio and Facebook’s new publishing/scheduling features in their app.
As a reminder, if you’re distributing your music to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Amazon Music and all the other great partners TuneCore offers, make sure your songs are sent to Instagram and Facebook at no additional cost. Now more than ever, it’s crucial that artists consider earning revenue from their music on social platforms as a part of their overall marketing mix.
Now more than ever the traditional notion of a creator is evolving to include artists and other personalities that use video and online events to connect with their audiences. To better support our partners, we’re improving the tools that help creators earn money and manage their presence on Facebook.
Tags: facebook fan subscriptions stars