shppics

[catboydan]

i can't believe we live in a universe where dan doesn't have a last.fm

[firjii]

I just saw the Spotify might change their royalties model and that it would hit indie artists hardest. Are you posting your music elsewhere? I follow you on Spotify but now I'm looking into other places for music and want to continue supporting your awesome music!!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I love you and thanks for asking.

Except for a few covers that are limited by licensing restrictions, my stuff is on all major and some minor platforms (I do sometimes lag in putting things on Bandcamp because lazy). I'm not monetized on Soundcloud because that system is somewhat different and IIRC not as welcoming of truly small artists, so any of my tracks that you find there are either on my "just for fun" accounts or are someone's illegal reupload.

Reminder to the new folks: I'm Firjii everywhere but also started another artist pseudonym as Kathy Warnecke (which should also be on all the same platforms by now).

Tidal and Apple usually have the best royalty payout rates and Spotify is among the worst (but no platform has a guaranteed fixed rate). Youtube is all over the place but usually on the low end. Downloads always pay better than streams, but I know some people can't do this or prefer to continually support with streams over time instead of paying once.

I'm also gonna take a minute to FUCKING RANT explain things to the uninitiated since virtually all my listeners on tungles are freemium Spotify users. From what I understand, this change has been finalized and it's not speculation at this point.

The deal is they'll withhold royalties from a song in a given calendar year unless it's streamed at least 1,000 times ANNUALLY (not lifetime).

Although the change will only consider per-track stats (not social media-like numbers such as followers/listeners or a measurement of how established the artist's presence is), in practice, this will specifically demonetize small/niche artists and have little or no impact on medium and big names. It will also affect the payouts small artists get from distributors because many of those have their own minimum payout thresholds.

I need people to understand just how shitty this is.

Say you're a prolific creator or recorded some live shows from a tour and you released 150 tracks in a year. If each track only got streamed on Spotify 999 times that year, they're pretty much saying you'd get paid for.......yup, exactly zero Spotify streams, not the 149,850 you're otherwise owed. I have no idea if this will impact PRO (performance rights organization) payouts, but I refuse to believe it would be legal to also withhold that share of royalties.

In the Spotify world, 1k streams is a tiny achievement (and still translates to a very small payout, so the concern is: what's to stop them from raising that minimum even more in the future?). But especially when the hurdle is per song per year, this can be a tough goal for indie or specialty genre artists to reach or maintain, including me.

I have a long history of disliking Spotify in particular for many reasons, but I upload there because it's the only way some people will listen. I strongly encourage anyone who is able to use other platforms to explore their options.

I know a lot of folks are too broke to pay for music and Spotify is a notable example of a freemium option, but this change is so, so, SO bad for SO many artists.

[music-industry-updates]

Why Metadata is Key to Maximizing Earnings on Streaming Platforms

In today's digital music landscape, metadata plays an essential role in how artists are discovered, credited, and paid on streaming platforms. Whether you're an independent artist or working with a label, ensuring that your music metadata is accurate and optimized can make a significant difference in your earnings. Deliver My Tune, a leading music distribution platform, understands the importance of metadata and offers tools and services to help artists maximize their revenue by managing their metadata efficiently.

What is Metadata and Why Does It Matter?

Metadata refers to the information associated with a piece of music that goes beyond the actual audio. It includes details such as the song title, artist name, album name, genre, release date, credits (songwriters, producers, and other contributors), and more. In essence, it’s the data that describes the content of the song, which streaming platforms use to categorize, recommend, and pay for your music.

Properly tagging your music with metadata is critical because:

Searchability: Metadata ensures that your music can be found on streaming platforms. Without accurate metadata, your songs might not show up when listeners search for specific genres, moods, or even your name.

Royalties: Streaming platforms use metadata to track plays and pay royalties to the correct rights holders. Inaccurate or incomplete metadata can lead to missed payments or delays in receiving royalties.

Crediting: Proper metadata ensures that all contributors, from songwriters to producers, get the credit they deserve. This is particularly important for collaborations, where multiple people might have a stake in the song's earnings.

How Deliver My Tune Helps Artists Manage Metadata

Deliver My Tune has developed a seamless system for helping artists manage and optimize their metadata when distributing their music to streaming platforms. They understand that for independent artists, managing metadata can be overwhelming, and errors are common, especially for those who are new to the process.

Here’s how Deliver My Tune supports artists in managing their metadata for better monetization:

Metadata Entry Simplified: Deliver My Tune makes it easy to enter and organize your metadata during the music upload process. Their platform provides fields for every critical piece of information needed, ensuring you don’t miss anything that could impact your royalties or discoverability.

Automatic Metadata Checks: The platform has built-in checks to alert you if any crucial metadata is missing or inconsistent. This reduces the risk of mistakes that could lead to your music being miscredited or under-credited on streaming platforms.

Optimization Tips: Deliver My Tune offers guidance on optimizing metadata to increase the likelihood of playlist placements and algorithmic recommendations. By ensuring your genre, mood tags, and other descriptive fields are filled in accurately, you improve the chances of your music being pushed to the right audiences.

The Impact of Metadata on Music Discovery

One of the most significant benefits of having optimized metadata is that it increases your chances of being discovered by new listeners. Streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music rely heavily on algorithms to recommend music to users. These algorithms take metadata into account when deciding which songs to push to playlists or recommend based on a listener's history.

If your metadata is incomplete or inaccurate, the algorithm might not know where to place your music. For instance, if your genre is mislabeled or missing, your song might not appear in playlists tailored to your intended audience. Deliver My Tune helps ensure that your metadata aligns with the type of audience you want to reach, increasing your chances of discovery.

Ensuring Proper Royalty Payments with Accurate Metadata

Earnings from streaming platforms depend on accurate tracking of who played your song and how many times it was streamed. Platforms like Spotify calculate royalties based on the number of plays, and they use metadata to track these streams and ensure the correct rights holders get paid.

Inaccurate metadata can lead to confusion about who owns the rights to a song, resulting in delayed or missed payments. For example, if a co-writer is not listed in the metadata, they might not receive their share of the royalties. Deliver My Tune’s system is designed to prevent such errors by prompting you to provide all necessary information during the upload process.

Additionally, metadata is essential for tracking international plays. Streaming platforms operate in multiple countries, and having accurate metadata ensures that your music is correctly credited and paid for, no matter where it's streamed.

Common Metadata Mistakes That Hurt Monetization

Many independent artists make simple metadata mistakes that can hurt their chances of monetizing their music. Some common mistakes include:

Misspelling Artist Names: Even a minor typo can prevent your song from being linked to your artist profile.

Incorrect Genre Tags: Failing to properly tag your genre can lead to your music being recommended to the wrong audience, resulting in fewer streams.

Missing Songwriter Credits: Not listing all contributors can lead to disputes and delays in royalty payments.

Outdated Contact Information: If your contact or publisher information changes, make sure to update your metadata to avoid issues with payments.

Deliver My Tune’s platform helps artists avoid these common mistakes by providing clear guidelines and built-in checks to ensure metadata is correct and up to date.

Conclusion

Metadata might seem like a small detail, but it plays a critical role in the success of your music on streaming platforms. From ensuring proper credit and royalty payments to increasing discoverability, accurate metadata is key to maximizing your earnings. Deliver My Tune makes it easy for artists to manage and optimize their metadata, ensuring they can focus on their music while the platform handles the technical aspects of distribution. By prioritizing metadata, artists can unlock more opportunities and ensure they get paid what they deserve for their creative work.

[galleryvision01]

Upload your music on Spotify – Music Distribution Service

Uploading a song to Spotify has become the first step towards a successful career in the music industry. For over 16 years, this streaming platform has revolutionized the music industry. Through Galleryvision music distribution service, any artist can easily put their work on the app and enjoy the benefits of reaching new audiences and making money.

Spotify has also played a significant role in reducing music piracy by offering legal and easy streaming. In the past, many people used to download tracks illegally, but with the availability of legal streaming, piracy has reduced, preserving the rights and earnings of artists. The service has also made music streaming more democratic by breaking Apple's monopoly and providing free and paid plans.

It is essential to upload your music on Spotify because the platform has over 450 million subscribers from all over the world. By making your tracks available to such a vast audience, you increase your chances of reaching new listeners. Before streaming platforms like Spotify, CDs were the most popular way to listen to music, but they were expensive and not accessible to everyone. With Spotify, the public can explore new artists and musical genres for free or at a lower cost with a paid plan.

Spotify's auto play feature also contributes to helping new musicians reach bigger audiences. The algorithm automatically plays songs based on the user's listening history, which can help your song be recommended to new listeners who may enjoy your music.

The app, Spotify, provides artists with a golden opportunity to upload their music and reach a vast audience of over 450 million subscribers worldwide. This is made even more advantageous with the platform's numerous curate playlists, such as "Today's Top Hits", which can increase the chances of new listeners discovering an artist's tracks. Additionally, Spotify is committed to providing correct credit disclosures and offers tools such as retrospectives, lyrics, and mini-videos. Artists with a musician account can also put up a picture and biography and build playlists for their followers, thus bringing their audience closer to them.

Spotify's analytics feature also shows data on track performance, such as where it is being listened to more. As for royalties, Spotify pays out two kinds: recording and publishing royalties. Recording royalties are paid to rights holders for recordings streamed on the platform, while publishing royalties go to the songwriter(s) owner(s) of a composition. Gallery Vision offers a music distribution service that allows artists to upload their songs for free, which are then distributed to highly accessed demand-side platforms such as Spotify. The company's service is easy to use, and the artist is only charged if their release makes more than USD 5 per year. There are no legal attachments, and the artist can upload unlimited songs. Our Company generates the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) if the artist doesn't have it.

Are you curious about how to upload your song to Spotify? Here's a simple step-by-step guide:

Prepare your song and cover art files.

Create an account on Gallery Vision for Artists.

Fill out the quick 5-step form and select a release date.

Click "submit" and your music will be sent to over 50 digital platforms!

If you want your music to be released immediately, it typically won't take more than a few days. However, if this is your first time uploading music to Spotify, keep in mind that Spotify will create an artist profile for your release. You can claim this artist profile on the Spotify for Artists platform and customize it to your liking. It's also important to create a Spotify for Artists account so you can pitch your releases to editorial playlists and access other exclusive features for artists.

But Gallery Vision doesn't just upload your music to popular platforms like Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok. They also offer tools to help boost engagement, including pre-saves on Spotify. Pre-saves allow listeners to automatically add your track to their library or playlist before its release. This not only generates buzz, but also shows Spotify that your music is highly anticipated and can potentially lead to a wider audience reach.

[octaviasdread]

thanks sm for posting about the free poetry course! is there other affordable literature courses or similar you can rec? thanks bestie :) i love da but i’m dumb lol

I know you’re probs half-joking but I want to make something clear. No one in the dark academia community (or wider) is dumb.

Everyone I’ve interacted with has been curious, creative, and appreciative of others' work. Those are the important traits, not a grade, a completed reading list, or a privileged education.

I'm passionate about making academic resources more widely accessible so any academia related links I see are reblogged under the tag ‘accessible resource.’ I remember posting about the Louvre online art collection a while ago if that's something you'd be interested in <3

Other recs:

1. Future Learn: A website that allows you to sign up for short, part time online courses offered FREE by Universities. There are so many to choose from. I also love the ability to interact with others on the course while you study.

I've just made a profile for a poetry course and I've added lots of other courses to my Wishlist. Feel free to drop me an ask or message if you're joining lit/history courses and you want to find me!!

2. Open Learn: A catalogue of FREE short, part-time/study at your own pace courses in a range of subjects (mostly introductory level) provided by the Open University

3. BBC In Our Time Culture Podcast: FREE on BBC Sounds, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Hour long conversations between University professors on different subjects (authors, novels, poems, literary movements, etc). My University accept the podcast as a reliable academic source to cite in essays so you know it's high quality academia

4. The History Chicks Podcast: I listen FREE on Apple Podcasts but it's also available on amazon music and wondery. Each episode or two-part episode focuses on a famous woman from history (writers, queens, scientists, actors/singers, and even the women of the Wild West, etc). The hosts are engaging, funny, and excellent at giving their research reading lists

5. Academia.edu: Millions of Academic papers uploaded for open access. You can find papers usually hidden behind pay walls or University membership for FREE. You can also follow the profiles of academics to keep up with their research

6. YaleCourses Youtube Channel: Recorded Yale University lectures uploaded for FREE access. Playlists are sorted by classes. A quick look showed me:

- Modern Poetry with Langdon Hammers (25 vids)

- Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner with Wai Chee Dimock (25 vids)

- Cervantes' Don Quixote with Roberto González Echevarría (24 vids)

- Introduction to the Theory of Literature with Paul H.Fry (26 vids)

- Milton with John Rogers (24 vids)

- The American Novel Since 1945 with Amy Hungerford (26 vids)

[meghancardella7-blog]

What Is M4A, How To Convert Apple Music To The Audio Format On PC

forty three yr outdated Business Broker Nestor from Maple, has pastimes as an example house brewing, WAV To MP3 Converter Converts WAV To MP3 And Vice Versa In and residential brewing. Now click on on the Convert All button to start converting FLAC to MP3, AIFF or any format you need on your Mac system, the converting course of will be finished inside a couple of seconds and you can swap to the Transformed tab to locate the convertedflac files in your Mac. If you have already got a music file in a lossy audio format and wish to make it even smaller, you should utilize the FonePaw audio compressor to reduce the bitrate and sample price of the audio file. Step 5. Once clicked, a window will pop up. Click Download Web page after which choose Obtain for Home windows. Then, click on Save File and await it to download. In addition, Macsome iTunes Converter preserves ID tags info of the transformed audio files for you, enabling you to edit their ID tags at will after the conversion. Slower converting pace than desktop FLAC converters particularly when converting a big or a number of files. It might extract audio tracks within the video and convert to the format you need. And convert audio between most popular audio formats: wma to mp4, flac to aac, www.audio-transcoder.com ape to flac, wv to mp3, wav to flac, mp2 to mp3, mp3 to aac, ape to mp3, tta to mp3, ac3 to mp3, flac to mp3, midi to mp3,midi to ape, midi to flac and so on. Audio cutter utility allows you to trim your music recordsdata to take away silence, or unwanted sections. Convert all standard media information to MP3, WAV, WMA, m4a to wav converter software AAC, M4A, AC3, OGG, AMR, etc. You'll discover enjoyment in higher class of transformed sound thanks to built-in volume adjuster and audio effects Quantity adjuster amplifies the amount of too quiet sound or its elements like speech and voices. Audio results include fade-in, fade-out, trimming of silence at first and finish of tracks. 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Convert Spotify Music to plain MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC. 9. Find a place to retailer the converted file, name the file by getting into the information in the File identify textual content field. Step 3. On a dialog field, choose WAV as output format. After that, you can edit the Metadata info earlier than conversion. When all is done, click on OKAY" to save the modifications. Free Audio Converter additionally comprises many effects and filters that can be used to enhance and tweak your audio information, like ReplayGain, normalization, quantity change, speed change, and many others. Within the ensuing window choose the file you want to extract the sound from. The utmost size of a file you'll be able to open is 2048 Mb. With this free on-line WMA converter you possibly can convert your audio information to the Microsoft WMA format. You may upload audio to convert to WMA or upload a video to extract the audio observe and convert to WMA. Within the Output format area, set MP3 or WAV, depending on your wants - you'll be able to flip WAV into MP3 simply as simply as MP3 into WAV. You will find the MP3 presets under Audio > MP3. Right here, you possibly can choose the preset along with your preferred bitrate, however remember that the higher the bitrate, the better the standard and file measurement can be. If the venture accommodates or has ever contained tracks at some point in its history (in order that Edit > Undo and Edit > Redo are not empty), Open imports each file you choose into its own new undertaking window. For example, deciding on three recordsdata would create three new project home windows, each containing one of many files and each a separate project with its own history. This is useful if you want to apply totally different actions to completely different (and even the identical) recordsdata and easily compare the outcomes of each.

When the WAV to MP3 conversion completes, it is possible for you to to obtain the convertedmp3 files to your system. Convert your audios and sounds to other formats with the assistance of our vary of file converters and formats: PDF Converter, Image and Photo Converter and Video Converter. For additional configuration, press Settings button close to the Profile menu to call up the Profile Settings panel the place you are allowed to adjust export audio parameters to customize your individual set of quality, together with encoder, sample fee, channels and bitrate.

[orbemnews]

What We Learned From Apple’s New Privacy Labels We all know that apps collect our data. Yet one of the few ways to find out what an app does with our information involves reading a privacy policy. Let’s be real: Nobody does that. So late last year, Apple introduced a new requirement for all software developers that publish apps through its App Store. Apps must now include so-called privacy labels, which list the types of data being collected in an easily scannable format. The labels resemble a nutrition marker on food packaging. These labels, which began appearing in the App Store in December, are the latest attempt by tech designers to make data security easier for all of us to understand. You might be familiar with earlier iterations, like the padlock symbol in a web browser. A locked padlock tells us that a website is trusted, while an unlocked one suggests that a website can be malicious. The question is whether Apple’s new labels will influence the choices people make. “After they read it or look at it, does it change how they use the app or stop them from downloading the app?” asked Stephanie Nguyen, a research scientist who has studied user experience design and data privacy. To put the labels to the test, I pored over dozens of apps. Then I focused on the privacy labels for the messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal, the streaming music apps Spotify and Apple Music and, for fun, MyQ, the app I use to open my garage door remotely. I learned plenty. The privacy labels showed that apps that appear identical in function can vastly differ in how they handle our information. I also found that lots of data gathering is happening when you least expect it, including inside products you pay for. But while the labels were often illuminating, they sometimes created more confusion. How to Read Apple’s Privacy Labels To find the new labels, iPhone and iPad users with the latest operating system (iOS and iPadOS 14.3) can open the App Store and search for an app. Inside the app’s description, look for “App Privacy.” That’s where a box appears with the label. Apple has divided the privacy label into three categories so we can get a full picture of the kinds of information that an app collects. They are: Data used to track you. This information is used to follow your activities across apps and websites. For example, your email address can help identify that you were also the person using another app where you entered the same email address. Data linked to you: This information is tied to your identity, such as your purchase history or contact information. Using this data, a music app can see that your account bought a certain song. Data not linked to you: This information is not directly tied to you or your account. A mapping app might collect data from motion sensors to provide turn-by-turn directions for everyone, for instance. It doesn’t save that information in your account. Now let’s see what these labels revealed about specific apps. WhatsApp vs. Signal On the surface, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, appears to be nearly identical to Signal. Both offer encrypted messaging, which scramble your messages so only the recipient can decipher them. Both also rely on your phone number to create an account and receive messages. But their privacy labels immediately reveal how different they are under the hood. Below is the privacy label for WhatsApp. The next one is the one for Signal: The labels immediately made it clear that WhatsApp taps far more of our data than Signal does. When I asked the companies about this, Signal said it made an effort to take less information. For group chats, the WhatsApp privacy label showed that the app has access to user content, which includes group chat names and group profile photos. Signal, which does not do this, said it had designed a complex group chat system that encrypts the contents of a conversation, including the people participating in the chat and their avatars. For people’s contacts, the WhatsApp privacy label showed that the app can get access to our contacts list; Signal does not. With WhatsApp, you have the option to upload your address book to the company’s servers so it can help you find your friends and family who are also using the app. But on Signal, the contacts list is stored on your phone, and the company cannot tap it. “In some instances it’s more difficult to not collect data,” Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal, said. “We have gone to greater lengths to design and build technology that doesn’t have access.” Business & Economy Updated  Jan. 27, 2021, 11:46 a.m. ET A WhatsApp spokeswoman referred to the company’s website explaining its privacy label. The website said WhatsApp could gain access to user content to prevent abuse and to bar people who might have violated laws. When You Least Expect It I then took a close look at the privacy label for a seemingly innocuous app: MyQ from Chamberlain, a company that sells garage door openers. The MyQ app works with a $40 hub that connects with a Wi-Fi router so you can open and close your garage door remotely. Here’s what the label says about the data the app collected. Warning: It’s long. Why would a product I paid for to open my garage door track my name, email address, device identifier and usage data? The answer: for advertising. Elizabeth Lindemulder, who oversees connected devices for the Chamberlain Group, said the company collected data to target people with ads across the web. Chamberlain also has partnerships with other companies, such as Amazon, and data is shared with partners when people opt to use their services. In this case, the label successfully caused me to stop and think: Yuck. Maybe I’ll switch back to my old garage remote, which has no internet connection. Spotify vs. Apple Music Finally, I compared the privacy labels for two streaming music apps: Spotify and Apple Music. This experiment unfortunately took me down a rabbit hole of confusion. Just look at the labels. First is the one for Spotify. Next is the one for Apple Music. These look different from the other labels featured in this article because they are just previews — Spotify’s label was so long that we could not display the entirety of it. And when I dug into the labels, both contained such confusing or misleading terminology that I could not immediately connect the dots on what our data was used for. One piece of jargon in Spotify’s label was that it collected people’s “coarse location” for advertising. What does that mean? Spotify said this applied to people with free accounts who received ads. The app pulls device information to get approximate locations so it can play ads relevant to where those users are. But most people are unlikely to comprehend this from reading the label. Apple Music’s privacy label suggested that it linked data to you for advertising purposes — even though the app doesn’t show or play ads. Only on Apple’s website did I find out that Apple Music looks at what you listen to so it can provide information about upcoming releases and new artists who are relevant to your interests. The privacy labels are especially confusing when it comes to Apple’s own apps. That’s because while some Apple apps appeared in the App Store with privacy labels, others did not. Apple said only some of its apps — like FaceTime, Mail and Apple Maps — could be deleted and downloaded again in the App Store, so those can be found there with privacy labels. But its Phone and Messages apps cannot be deleted from devices and so do not have privacy labels in the App Store. Instead, the privacy labels for those apps are in hard-to-find support documents. The result is that the data practices of Apple’s apps are less upfront. If Apple wants to lead the privacy conversation, it can set a better example by making language clearer — and its labeling program less self-serving. When I asked why all apps shouldn’t be held to the same standards, Apple did not address the issue further. Ms. Nguyen, the researcher, said a lot had to happen for the privacy labels to succeed. Other than behavioral change, she said, companies have to be honest about describing their data collection. Most important, people have to be able to understand the information. “I can’t imagine my mother would ever stop to look at a label and say, ‘Let me look at the data linked to me and the data not linked to me,’” she said. “What does that even mean?” Source link Orbem News #Apples #Labels #Learned #Privacy

[tombentlecmpsongwriterproject]

Spotify Case Study – ‘Should Spotify Be the Main Focus for Independent Artists in 2020?’

Intro

From my own experiences of releasing music independently and being someone whose social media is constantly flooded with other independent artists promoting their music, I’ve noticed somewhat of a trend in the way music is shared. Spotify. Artists are constantly sending their audiences to their Spotify accounts with direct links and post captions of “out now on Spotify”. Of course, there are also links to Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. etc… but Spotify still feels like the be-all-and-end-all of the current streaming platforms. My main question is why is this the case? But I also wonder whether independent artists are right to prioritise promoting their music on Spotify to the detriment of other platforms.

For the purpose of this case study I am focusing solely on streaming platforms and mostly ignoring the parallel media streams of radio, blogs, magazines, etc. as it’s a fair assumption that most artists will be pushing their music into these channels regardless of which streaming platforms they prefer.

My case study analysis will break down the advantages and disadvantages of Spotify as a streaming platform for independent artists, followed by a concluding notion as to whether artists are right to be prioritising Spotify promotion.

Monthly Users

According to the most recent statistics published by Spotify, it is claimed that the platform has 286million monthly users (https://musically.com/2020/02/19/spotify-apple-how-many-users-big-music-streaming-services/). Compare that figure with the estimated 80million monthly Apple Music users and 55million monthly users for Amazon Music, and it’s clear that Spotify has the biggest market share by far in terms of consumer outreach. As an artist it’s important to be putting your music into the content feeds people are occupying in the biggest numbers, therefore making Spotify’s huge audience an appealing prospect for artists.

Contextualise these statistics in the trend of focusing social media promotion on Spotify and it makes perfect sense. Assuming that all of an artist’s followers use either Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music, (services such as Deezer and Tidal have tiny user numbers in comparison and therefore feel slightly pointless in debating), then by focusing the marketing on Spotify you’re appealing to roughly 70% of your total audience. However, an interesting promotional tactic that is becoming increasingly popular is the use of features like SmartURL (https://manage.smarturl.it) which allow links from various sites to be shared simultaneously, thus removing the need for Spotify bias.

Other interesting comparisons to make as far as monthly users go are the 175million reported by SoundCloud and the estimated 1billion by YouTube. The downside to SoundCloud is the app makes discovering new artists extremely difficult and so providing direct links to an audience is the only way of assuring your music will be heard – there have been some cases of artists rising to prominence by establishing a dedicated SoundCloud audience, most notably Post Malone, however for the vast majority of artists SoundCloud seems to offer a very niche, genre-specific audience that arguably lacks the level of perceived authenticity that Spotify has in terms of hosting the music of “real artists”. YouTube on the other hand can offer a very popular alternative to the typical streaming platforms such as Spotify, however it’s not a service dedicated solely to music and so artists are having to compete for views against not only other musicians but also vloggers, gamers, makeup artists, chefs, dancers, etc. and are therefore competing within a much more saturated market. YouTube is the obvious first choice when releasing visual content, however for audio content it seems far more lucrative to push into Spotify-type platforms.

Economic Factors

One of the downfalls of most streaming platforms is the necessity for a third-party distributor to put music onto the platforms on the artists’ behalf. There was a brief Spotify-beta programme that allowed independent artists to upload music directly to Spotify however this was deemed a failure and was quickly abandoned (https://artists.spotify.com/blog/we%27re-closing-the-upload-beta-program).

For an independent artist to have their music distributed to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. they would need to opt with one of many distribution services. With every service offering slightly different costing strategies it can be difficult to draw direct comparisons, however they can range from under £10 for releasing one single up to around £50 for a yearly subscription to release unlimited amounts of music. The major downside with some distribution companies are that they require continual subscription fees to be paid otherwise an artist’s music will be removed from streaming platforms. (https://aristake.com/cd-baby-tunecore-ditto-mondotunes-zimbalam-or).

It is evidently an expensive practice for independent artists to be paying these distribution fees if they don’t have a big enough audience to guarantee profit from these transactions. If you remove the “my music will seem more legit if it’s on Spotify” notion from the argument, then financially it makes very little sense as an artist would need around 2,500 streams on a single to make back a £10 distribution charge. Consider the cost of marketing required to hit those figures and it appears relatively insurmountable. Expensive distribution is made worse by the extremely low royalty rates paid by Spotify at £0.004/stream and Apple Music at £0.008/stream (https://www.dittomusic.com/blog/how-much-do-music-streaming-services-pay-musicians) – the reason for needing such high audience figures to make any money back.

An important question to consider is: what are the alternatives? YouTube and SoundCloud are free to upload content to however an artist is likely to make literally no money unless they start hitting the 100,000s of streams.

Bandcamp offers the best solution in terms of guaranteeing artists profit from any music or merchandise they sell through the platform, however it doesn’t provide anywhere near the commercial exposure to vast audiences when compared to Spotify, and feels more like a digital version of the hipster vinyl collecting trend as opposed to a viable alternative.

In-App Features

Where Spotify truly starts standing out as the most beneficial platform for independent artists is the vast framework for music discovery. It’s a platform literally designed to push new music into the ears of users who are most likely to enjoy it. With mind-blowingly complicated algorithms based on the unique listening history of every user, Spotify curates individual discovery playlists for every user featuring songs that are similar to the music they listen to most. There is the caveat that the more streams an artist is able to generate organically then the more discovery playlists they will be featured on, thus favouring the artists that have already been “discovered” to a greater extent – although this is a feature that goes largely unexplored by Apple Music and Amazon Music, and is pretty much non-existent on SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

Spotify also enables artists to fill their artist homepage with links to their merchandise and upcoming live shows as a way of tempting audiences to invest in artists directly, and so there are some features artists can exploit to counter-act the low royalty payments they’ll receive.

Conclusion

There are clear advantages and disadvantages for an independent artist prioritising Spotify as their primary content platform that make it difficult to a determine a clear-cut yes or no answer to the question of whether it should be an artist’s focus. It must be acknowledged that it will be largely down to the wants and/or needs of an individual artist as to whether Spotify is able to provide them with sufficient opportunity to push their music.

With advantages such as a huge user-base and a platform designed to push the process of music discovery it’s clear that Spotify is able to break new artists in a crowded commercial market. The disadvantages being focused on the cost just to distribute music to the platform and then the lack of income will be a sore point for artists (although this will be the same issue facing artists on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, etc.) that may see them favour the Bandcamp model – however this will come at a cost of sacrificing 100s of millions of users who could potentially be discovering that artist’s music on Spotify.

The question that should perhaps be asked is not whether artists should be using Spotify, but rather how artists should be using Spotify. It’s clearly a popular platform for commercial music consumption and so from the perspective of giving your audience immediate access to your music, streaming platforms come second-to-none. Even if financially it isn’t the ideal business model, Spotify’s discovery services could provide sufficient growth in audiences to see revenues increase through merchandise sales and live event attendances.

As a final conclusion, if an independent artist is aiming to push their music out to commercial audiences on a mass scale then Spotify feels like the only platform capable of providing the user numbers that would merit a reasonable opportunity for enhanced discovery. Obviously, it’s down to the artist to promote their music on social media to a sufficient enough level to attract audiences to their Spotify pages in the first place but that would be the same whether they used Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud or Bandcamp.

[momentsinsong]

Moments In Song No. 019 - Victor

“Moments In Song” asks people one simple question, “What are you listening to?” We believe that you can learn a lot about an individual and their experiences based off of the music they love. For every installment we ask someone to make a playlist of 10 songs they’re listening to, whether it be something new they stumbled upon, or a song they’ve always loved, and explain the story behind their choices. The person’s playlist is then uploaded, giving them the chance to share it with others. Each post aims to profile someone from a different walk of life, whether they be an artist, a student, the mailman, a school teacher, an athlete, a nurse, your next-door neighbor, anyone with a love for music; showing that no matter where we come from, what we do, or what we look like, music has the ability to bring us together.

With an ethereal set of songs that accompany his pensive thoughts, pharmacy student and rapper Victor gives us a track by track breakdown of his playlist. We talk his musical influences, Clams Casino productions, and what he thinks is the greatest song of all time.

Listen to Victor’s playlist on Apple Music and Spotify.

Words by Julian | Photos by Tayo

What was thought process behind putting your playlist together?

I just made a playlist of almost all the songs I listen to when I’m in pensive thought or songs that have a cool ethereal mood to them. I’ve always been in tune to that kind of music. That’s why I have two songs from Clams Casino on there. For me, Clams Casino is probably one of the best producers of the past decade. Very influential. His influence spans what most people can even fathom. If I look at his work with Lil B in 2009, 2010, and then look at the type of beats all these rappers are rapping on now, or their style, and how they rap, Clams Casino and Lil B were very influential.

Without Lil B and Clams Casino partnering, Clams Casino doesn’t have the platform that he has today. Then someone like A$AP Rocky probably doesn’t hear him, and so his first two projects don’t have that Clams Casino sound. You look at so many artists that started to blow up in 2010, 2011, A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, Lil B, they were really coming out with that “drop your top, relax and cruise to music,” and I think Clams Casino is a big part of all of that.

Other songs that I put on my playlist from underground artists like Reva Devito, Thatshymn, Abhi//Dijon, these are artist I listen to when I chill, or when I study. That’s what I’m trying to go for with the playlist. Just a type of sound that you don’t have to necessarily have move to it, you can just sit back, relax, and get into your own zone.

I put my song on there at the end because I thought it helped tie everything on the playlist together.

I was listening to your playlist earlier and I noticed there weren’t any real dance or turn up kind of songs on there.  I felt like they all fell into either a boom-bap category, with like eu-IV and Reva Devito, produced by Tek.Lun, the old school Kendrick, and on the other half, that Clams Casino, Abhi//Dijon, Sango, kind of relaxed and melodic category. Did you know from the start that this is the kind of theme you wanted your playlist to encompass?

Yeah absolutely. Even though some of these songs are kind of old, like “Ignorance Is Bliss,” “Realest Alive,” and “Moments In Love,” which is from the 80’s, I listen to them either every day or at least once a week. Especially times when I’m in school, studying, or in the mood to delve into my thoughts.

“Ignorance Is Bliss” is one of Kendrick’s best songs to me. Overly Dedicated does not get the recognition it deserves as a cumulative work. I personally do believe that Overly Dedicated is on the same tier as Section.80 in terms of Kendrick’s bravado and lyricism, because he’s really rapping something serious on that song. I still go back to those to projects a lot. I feel like a lot of the themes on there are universal. There’s no filler on them. You know exactly what you’re getting.

“Moments In Love” is a long song, it’s like 10 minutes long, and that version has always been my favorite. People don’t know how influential The Art Of Noise are, just to music in general. When people listen to Yeezus or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, or some of the stuff from Michael Jackson’s HIStory album, The Art Of Noise did that stuff back in the 80’s.

I’m not super familiar with them, are they a pop group? Electronic?

They were an experimental band in the 80’s from the U.K. So many things that people are doing today, they did 30 years ago, which is mind blowing. The way “Moments In Love” is structured, you have a lot of different part, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of different breaks. And all of these breaks evoke a different emotion, and plays into the emotions that someone might feel in a relationship. When I was making this playlist, I knew it had to be number one. In my opinion it’s the best song of all time.

Wow, that’s quite the claim.

Honestly. Out of everything that I’ve ever listened to I can’t find anything, at least in my personal opinion, that really…

Evokes that same kind of emotion,

Yeah emotion, the techniques they use for the time era they were in. If you listen to other stuff from the 80’s compared to this, this is just crazy.  It’s still even really different compared to music out today. Along with that, its influence that people may or may not know about is amazing.

And then after that I went to “Realest Alive.” Lil B’s version isn’t on any streaming sites, but it’s a great song.

What era of Lil B is that?

That’s 2010 Lil B. So that’s when Lil B was just really starting to get out there. This was back when Lil B would release 5 songs a day. Literally he would release 5 different songs a day, and he would have 4 troll songs, and one song that was great. And he would do that on purpose because when he tries he’s an extremely good rapper. The thing is that he’s a deconstructionist. If you listen to Lil B from 2008/2009 he’s rapping on perfectly on the beat, but towards the end of 2009 he released “Like a Martian” and started doing all his based freestyle, stream of consciousness stuff. So during that time, this would be the 1 out of the 5 songs he’d be serious on. By 2011 he was legitimately a well known phenomenon.

Yeah I feel like around that time he was doing a lot of work with Soulja Boy, and influenced that way he made music after that. And even guys now like Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi, there’s definitely some Lil B DNA in them.

For sure. So from “Realest Alive” it goes to “Ignorance is Bliss,” which has Kendrick rapping about a whole range of different topics.  I feel like that streamlines very well into “Numb” by Clams Casino. Now from “Numb” I wanted to lighten up the mood a little bit so I went into songs that are love related. Once you get to “IVyou Pt. 2,” “Rose Gold,” “Therapy” those songs show more of a positive side of what one can feel in a relationship.

You go to “How Do You Love Me” by Xavier Omar and Sango. That song is actually about Xavier Omar asking God, “How could you even love me, even though I am the way I am, even though I am this imperfect being?” I think it segways nicely from “Therapy” because Thatshymn talks about how weed, drinking, and sex can be a form of therapy, but for Xavier Omar he’s talking about how God can be a therapy. For me. I feel like that’s a great contrast, and shows two different forms of love.

And I just finished things with “Stu Pickles.” It’s a good mellow track, talking about relaxing with friends and everyone working together to achieve their goals. For the lyrics I say, “I’m way to blessed to not stress right now,” it’s just me talking about God blessing me to be in the situation I’m in.

I think in our society we take a lot of things for granted. I saw a crazy statistic one time when I was younger. It said if you have a house with electricity, a roof over your head, a bed, and all these other commodities, you’re already richer than 75% of the people in the world.  If you think about that it’s crazy. Everyday really is a blessing, and you try your best to fill it out, and find your way to where you need to go.

What songs and artists made you want to start rapping and making your own music?

If I’m thinking about my favorite rappers growing up, Tupac is number one by a mile. Tupac was extremely influential to me. All Eyez On Me, I know that entire double album back and forth because my dad had the OG double CD that was released in 1996. So after Tupac, it’s Nas, all of his stuff. The first album I ever bought with my own money was his Untitled album. That and the Wu-Tang Clan’s 8 Diagrams. Wu-Tang Clan was also very influential to me. Enter the 36 Chambers  I know that album so well. ODB was so ahead of his time. You listen to “Brooklyn Zoo” and the way he’s rapping is so crazy, but somehow he’s perfectly in pocket, he’s perfectly on the beat. In order to rap like that is extremely hard. ODB to me is just an extraordinary rapper.

Any final thoughts on your playlist?

It’s a microcosm of me throughout the years. It represents the type of music I listen to when I’m in a pensive mood. It’s “sit down and think” music.

Connect with Victor:

https://twitter.com/viceroy_o

https://www.instagram.com/victorolalekan_/

https://soundcloud.com/victorolalekan

Connect with Moments In Song:

https://www.instagram.com/momentsinsong/

https://twitter.com/moments_in_song

https://tinyurl.com/MISAppleMusic

https://tinyurl.com/MISSpotify

[terryyl363-blog]

10 Ways to Make Your Mediabox HD Easier

Search Android Software

Ol' Trustworthy: Google Chrome

It's a remarkable toolkit, with the application concentrating more on effective utilities than gimmicky filters, however everything has a very clean, minimal appearance. You can additionally apply stickers, a timestamp, a place, a mosaic effect, or 'graffiti' (which basically simply allows you go wild on your photos with a digital paintbrush).

It gamifies your cardio exercise and also couple with success, leaderboards, as well as challenges, bringing a competitive spirit to your routine. Discover countless dishes from your preferred food network chefs and also personalities, consisting of dishes included on their TELEVISION shows as well as specials. How-to videos and also wish list features will certainly outfit you with whatever you need to make a terrific dish. PlayStation Network can be accessed on your Android by means of the main PlayStation application. You'll have the ability to sign in to your PSN account, engage with good friends, make acquisitions, as well as also timetable downloads for your PlayStation 4.

Exclusive Internet Gain access to additionally has unrestricted bandwidth for customers at a practical rate-- $9.99 each month, or $74.99/ year. You can make use of Alexa or Google Aide to schedule jobs hands-free. As a preventive health action for our support experts due to COVID-19, we're running with a limited group.

Amazon's Kindle application is just superb at offering customers accessibility to a collection of books, magazines, and also much more in their pockets. The company offers participants access to over 1,000 different titles for complimentary if you're subscribed to Amazon Prime.

With the click of a switch Application is developed.

If you use a Mac or iPad on top of your Android phone, you may be much better offered with Apple Songs over Google Play Songs or Spotify. Apple Songs supplies accessibility to Apple's enormous collection of music, in addition to Apple's Beats 1 radio terminal, which plays both existing hits and up-and-coming songs. The star DJs as well as special cd streams are a plus, yet you'll need to subscribe prior to you can pay attention. Alright, Get More Info you most likely have YouTube currently-- yet that does not make it any less an essential. YouTube's mobile application is user-friendly and also sleek, bringing the entirety of the video-sharing site to the palm of your hand.

The problem with many mobile messengers is convincing your friends to register. Yet the odds are that most people you recognize are currently on Facebook.

The Play Shop opens the door for various apps to take, edit, and also conserve these photos which, in some relates to, act as a digital memory bank. Some desire a simplified file manager, but for those who want something a bit a lot more complicated, X-Plore Data Supervisor is perfect. This application has an "traditional" Windows feel and look while providing you all the functions you might desire. You can also set the application up to gain access to and handle the documents on your Android phone from your computer's web internet browser.

Adware-riddled applications hit 550,000 Android devices: Erase these now.

The totally free version just obtains you a restricted selection of tracks as well as locks off history listening, however it's still adequate to sleep to. Taking a moment of calm can be vital for your mental health and wellness, as well as Tranquility is one of the leading meditation and sleep-promotion apps in the Play Shop. It has guided reflections, taking a breath workouts to decrease stress and anxiety, rest stories, as well as much more.

Not only does the app offer a huge collection of material, but it also enables customers to upload up to 50,000 of their very own tunes for on the internet storage space. So if you have actually obtained a collection of MP3s from before the days when streaming was the typical means to consume music, submit them to Google Play Songs and also stream them from any of your mobile phones. HBO creates some of the best web content available now, as well as these two apps permit you to access it all. HBO Currently (HBO's stand-alone solution) costs $15/month, while HBO Go is a streaming application available to HBO cable television clients only.

Your Phone Friend

But if you desire extra control than Instagram manages, attempt Google-owned Snapseed. This application straddles the line in between full-fledged picture editor as well as filter app, done in a appealing as well as streamlined bundle. Most importantly is the quantity of control it gives you over how filters and effects are related to your pictures. It even allows you make non-destructible edits to raw electronic camera files and make modifications to exposure and detail degrees. Avoid paying for costly books and also use Khan Academy instead.

Support.

This application supplies an user-friendly experience to access your origin documents while giving access to microSD cards or USB tools. Plus, there are a lot of modification options to develop a motif that fits your needs.

[bigyack-com]

Want Your Personal Data? Hand Over More

The new year ushered in a landmark California privacy law that gives residents more control over how their digital data is used. The Golden State isn’t the only beneficiary, though, because many companies are extending the protections — the most important being the right to see and delete the personal data a company has — to all their customers in the United States.In the fall, I took the right of access for a test drive, asking companies in the business of profiling and scoring consumers for their files on me. One of the companies, Sift, which assesses a user’s trustworthiness, sent me a 400-page file that contained years’ worth of my Airbnb messages, Yelp orders and Coinbase activity. Soon after my article was published, Sift was deluged with over 16,000 requests, forcing it to hire a vendor to deal with the crush.That vendor, Berbix, helped verify the identity of people requesting data by asking them to upload photos of their government ID and to take a selfie. It then asked them to take a second selfie while following instructions. “Make sure you are looking happy or joyful and try again” was one such command.Many people who read the article about my experience were alarmed by the information that Berbix asked for — and the need to smile for their secret file.“This is a nightmare future where I can’t request my data from a creepy shadow credit bureau without putting on a smile for them, and it’s completely insane,” Jack Phelps, a software engineer in New York City, said in an email.“It just seems wrong that we have to give up even more personal information,” wrote another reader, Barbara Clancy, a retired professor of neuroscience in Arkansas.That’s the unpleasant reality: To get your personal data, you may have to give up more personal data. It seems awful at first. Alistair Barr of Bloomberg called it “the new privacy circle of hell.”But there’s a good reason for this. Companies don’t want to give your data away to the wrong person, which has happened in the past. In 2018, Amazon sent 1,700 audio files of a customer talking to his Alexa to a stranger.The right to have access to personal data is enshrined in the new California Consumer Privacy Act. The law is modeled in part on privacy regulations in Europe, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R. Soon after Europe's law went into effect, in May 2018, a hacker gained access to the Spotify account of Jean Yang, a tech executive, and successfully filed a data request to download her home address, credit card information and a history of the music she had listened to.Since then, two groups of researchers have demonstrated that it’s possible to fool the systems created to comply with G.D.P.R. to get someone else’s personal information.One of the researchers, James Pavur, 24, a doctoral student at Oxford University, filed data requests on behalf of his research partner and wife, Casey Knerr, at 150 companies using information that was easily found for her online, such as her mailing address, email address and phone number. To make the requests, he created an email address that was a variation on Ms. Knerr’s name. A quarter of the companies sent him her file.“I got her Social Security number, high school grades, a good chunk of information about her credit card,” Mr. Pavur said. “A threat intelligence company sent me all her user names and passwords that had been leaked.”Mariano Di Martino and Pieter Robyns, computer science researchers at Hasselt University in Belgium, had the same success rate when they approached 55 financial, entertainment and news companies. They requested each other’s data, using more advanced techniques than those of Mr. Pavur, such as photoshopping each other’s government ID. In one case, Mr. Di Martino received the data file of a complete stranger whose name was similar to that of Mr. Robyns.Both sets of researchers thought the new law giving the right to data was worthwhile. But they said companies needed to improve their security practices to avoid compromising customers’ privacy further.“Companies are rushing to solutions that lead to insecure practices,” Mr. Robyns said.Companies employ different techniques for verifying identity. Many simply ask for a photo of a driver’s license. Retail Equation, a company that decides whether a consumer can make returns at retailers like Best Buy and Victoria’s Secret, asks only for a name and driver’s license number.The wide array of companies now required to hand over data, from Baskin Robbins to The New York Times, have varying levels of security expertise and experience in providing data to consumers.Companies such as Apple, Amazon and Twitter can ask users to verify their identity by logging into their platforms. All three give a heads-up via email after data is requested, which can help warn people if a hacker got access to their account. An Apple spokesman said that after a request is made, the company uses additional methods to verify the person’s identity, though the company said it couldn’t disclose those methods for security reasons.If consumers can’t verify their identity by logging into an existing account, Mr. Di Martino and Mr. Robyns recommend that companies email them, call them or ask them for information that only they should know, such as the invoice number on a recent bill.“Regulators need to think more about the unintended consequences of empowering individuals to access and delete their data,” said Steve Kirkham, who worked on Airbnb’s trust and safety team for five years, before founding Berbix in 2018. “We want to prevent fraudulent requests and let the good ones go through.”It is on regulators’ minds. The California law requires businesses to “verify the identity of the consumer making the request to a reasonable degree of certainty” and to have a more stringent verification process for “sensitive or valuable personal information.”Mr. Kirkham said Berbix requested the first selfie to test whether a person’s face matched their ID; the second selfie, with a smile or some other facial expression, ensures that someone isn’t simply holding a photo up to the camera. Mr. Kirkham said Berbix ultimately deleted the data collected within seven days to a year, depending on the retention period requested by the company that hires the firm. (Sift deletes its data after two weeks.)“It’s a new threat vector companies should consider,” said Blake Brannon, vice president of product at OneTrust, another company that helps businesses comply with the new data privacy laws. OneTrust offers the 4,500 organizations using its service the option to create several levels of identity verification, such as sending a token to someone’s phone or verifying ownership of an email address.“If I’m requesting something simple or lightweight, the verification is minimal, versus a deletion request,” Mr. Brannon said. “That will require more levels of verification.”Mr. Kirkham of Berbix said the verification process discouraged some people from making the data request at all.“A lot of people don’t want to give more information,” Mr. Kirkham said. “Their assumption is that you will do something nefarious with it.”He added: “But that’s the irony here. We require additional information from people to protect them. We want to make sure you are who you say you are.” Read the full article

[hetmusic]

Welcome to the Singles Era | HumanHuman

The single: it’s a staple format of the music industry and in recent years it has dominated our field of vision. For some, it’s the answer to all ailments. For others, the hit single becomes a haunting spectre to be unceremoniously played at every gig. However, for most, that special single is a game changer - a truly great hit can break an artist, define an era and win over a fan for a lifetime. We’ve noticed that the single is the modern music industry’s current obsession, and we’re asking where has this trend come from and what impact does this have on other areas of the business?

The first part of this discussion will focus on our historical love affair with the single. We’ll be tracing these roots back to the height of our obsession in the mid 20th century, then onto to the rise of the album in the late 60s and early 70s, and then to the subsequent switch in the age of the Internet. By looking back in this way, we might be able to make more sense of why our culture is so utterly fixated on the hit hingle. As Bob Stanley suggests “We have to know where music has come from in order to understand where it’s at and where it could be heading” (Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story Of Modern Pop).

Bouncing straight off that prophetic quote and into Stanley’ great explanation of pop history, and specifically to a landmark moment he pinpoints - the launch of the first 45 rpm vinyl discs in November 1952 via EMI Records. The first year of the singles era was a sign of things to come as “by the end of 1953 EMI had issued close to three hundred 45 rpm titles.” Most notably, Billboard, one of the longest-running documenters of popular music, kept tabs on this revolution throughout the 1950s by publishing several singles charts, including Best Sellers in Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes. This variety was an indicator that singles were everywhere and by 1958 the Billboard Hot 100 chart was here to stay.

The singles trend then continued well into the following decade, and as one Rate Your Music compiler states:

“The point when album sales overtook 45 rpm single sales didn't occur until 1966 or 1967, roughly at the same the time the Beatles were working on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's.”

“Voodoo Child” by the legendary Jimi Hendrix spans a heart-stopping fifteen minutes

Prior to that, what all of these influential tracks had in common was their format - the 45 rpm disc - and so artists felt obliged to keep their songs to an industry prescribed three minute mark. Lengthier titles were consequently pushed into the eaves of the LP. A few examples hand-picked by The Telegraph for their list ‘50 Greatest Album Tracks: the hits that never were’ could be Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” (1968) at 4:12, Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs” (1967) at 5:12, or “Voodoo Child” (1968) by the legendary Jimi Hendrix which spans a heart-stopping fifteen minutes. That’s not to say these tracks weren’t popular, but rather they weren’t able to make an impact by chart standards. However, listeners were already voicing their frustration with the traditional audio options and the industry’s oppressive standardisation. Some argue that the turning point came with Bob Dylan’s memorable “Like A Rolling Stone”, first released in 1965 via Columbia Records. It was an unexpected hit that the label “didn’t have high hopes for [...] since it was six minutes long” (Rolling Stone) and CBS even tried to make the record more “radio-friendly” by spreading it over both sides of a seven-inch vinyl, which did not go down well with Dylan or his fans who demanded the song be played in its entirety on radio and be accommodated for on one side of vinyl (Greil Marcus, Like A Rolling Stone).

From the late 60s onwards consumers began moving further and further away from the single. In 1969, Billboard published a report on this cultural shift which showed that even in the face of changing sales, the label owners were reluctant to let go of the make-more-hits technique that had served them so well over the past few decades.There was clear uncertainty from vintage executives like Decca’s Colin Borland, EMI’s Ken East and Penny Farthing’s Larry Page who points out a sore point for the business: “Singles are far too costly at the moment: but if the whole prices structure for records were changed, then I believe there would be a swing back to singles.” Of course, Page and the other singles advocates had no idea what it would take to trigger such a “swing”. With the wonderful resource of hindsight we can now see that on the other side of the rising album wave waited a digital revolution that would simultaneously shatter the music industry and save the single.

Some suggest that the resurgence of the hit single obsession began with the emergence of the first digital music store iTunes, and some lay blame with the explosion of streaming services, but really it began much earlier with the rise and mass adoption of music piracy. Napster, LimeWire, Pirate Bay… whatever your poison was, it’s safe to say that everyone (especially those pesky millennials) did it. An interesting aspect of this underground movement was that even the groups responsible for leaking hundreds of thousands of tunes still considered the album to be the most valuable. The rest of us, on the other hand, that is the general consumer, seemed to prefer our pirated material in the single form, and there’s a few reasons for this. Firstly, in the early days of the MP3 it could take hours or even days to download a digital LP so spending only a few minutes on your absolute favourite track of the moment does seem much more attractive. Secondly, the advantage of exclusively downloading “hits” meant you could forget about the album filler. And thirdly, the chart toppers were relatively easy to find - a quick search and hey presto! music for your library, without the need to go searching for obscure b-sides or underwhelming bonus tracks. Thankfully, music piracy with it’s symptomatic sub-standard audio files and virus-filled downloads are now a thing of the past, but where technology has progressed, our consumer habits haven’t. The Guardian’s Eamonn Forde spells it out for us:

““In 2003 – before digital made an impact on legitimate sales – a total of 30.8m singles were sold in the UK [...] Fast forward to 2012 and the story is very different. A total of 188.5m singles were sold in the UK last year (of which 99.6% were digital)””

In direct correlation to this album sales came to 100 million in 2012, which was a depressing downturn of a third over the same period. The fact is the decline of the album as a consumer’s go-to choice of format has been a slow and continuing one, and in direct correlation the single has risen to take its place back on the sales throne.

We’ll leave off our adventure through music history with a nod to our relationship with the radio. Think about when you tune into your favourite station: what do you expect to hear? For most, the answer is a string of chart-toppers or only the best songs from their preferred genre(s), and that’s because hit singles are the staple diet of radio. We have been conditioned to expect, hope for and need a selection of Top 40 hits. Our behaviour towards music consumption is something we already linked to radio in our article ‘Is streaming the final destination?’, and so we could argue that our reliance on one of the music industry’s few stabilities - radio - has shaped the way we prioritise singles over albums. What’s more this trend only seems to be on the up.

Over the past year, the big stars of radio have made moves towards streaming. First in February 2015, Zane Lowe left BBC Radio 1 to run Beats1 for Apple Music, a move rumored to help Apple’s streaming service compete directly with Spotify. Then last December, George Ergatoudis left his position as Head of BBC Music to lead Spotify’s in-house music curation and content strategy. This is no coincidence as a year and a half ago, he tweeted:

“With very few exceptions, albums are edging closer to extinction. Playlists are the future.”— George Ergatoudis on Twitter

And since radio’s format has always been, in essence, the playlist, it’s no surprise to see these music influencers transition into the streaming industry with ease.

Skipping over the temporary trend of cassette mixtapes, the modern version of playlists really grew in popularity with credit to YouTube. In 2011, Forbes already reported music videos to be ranked amongst the highest of YouTube views and currently the Top 20 most viewed videos on the site are all music videos. The preference for singles on YouTube can also be mirrored with the growth of Majestic Casual, La Belle Musique and other music channels. These channels upload singles and often gain significantly more views than the original artist upload. Just take a look at Kygo’s “I See Fire” remix, which has 57+ millions plays on La Belle Musique’s channel compared to 42.4 million on his own SoundCloud. These channels have soon progressed to become serious contenders in the music industry, with Majestic Casual sitting in as a Resident DJ for Beats1 and La Belle Musique hosting their own one day music festival in Malta. It’s a career projection most musicians aspire to have in their lifetime, let alone within four years.

This trend brings a second wave in the music-tech industry that points towards “playlist startups.” Some have already been acquired, like Soundwave (by Spotify in January 2016) and Songza (by Google Play in July 2014). Other notable curators are 22tracks, a site with the sole purpose of promoting singles; ToneDen.io, which helps artists build their audience by allowing listeners to download singles in exchange for social follows; 8tracks, a playlist-centric site which has 8 million active users per month; and Playlists.net just released a new app called “Playlist a Day” which requires Spotify. The list expands even further when you include influencers on platforms like SoundCloud. For example, HumanHuman user Discobelle has a whopping 1.02 million followers on SoundCloud and Hillydilly has 11K followers, the latter of which recently joined the streaming game by releasing their own app, which has seen 5-10K installs on Google Play alone.

Variety in music curation appears to be most significant difference between the radio and streaming industries. Streaming requires a more expansive knowledge of music that caters beyond the Top 40s. Google Play is known for giving the “Susan Boyle” test, where curation applicants must create a playlist that a Susan Boyle fan will love. Offering a streaming service isn’t just about dishing out hits - it goes back to catering to individuals and retaining their attention.

What’s more, some of these playlisters are evolving into celebrities, much like household names Zane Lowe and Annie Mac. One newcomer to the limelight is Connor Franta, co-founder of Heardwell, a six-month old music label in Los Angeles. Recently recruited to join the The Recording Academy, this YouTuber has over 5.2 million subscribers, his reach is higher than most musicians in the business. It’s becoming more apparent that tastemakers in streaming and radio already influence the music industry more than the musicians themselves.

So, what does this unwavering focus on singles mean for the future of albums and their artists?

As George Ergatoudis said “...at a mass market level [the album] is already small and going to stay very small”. Groundbreaking numbers are more likely to only follow names of global powerhouses like Adele and Taylor Swift. It’s also worth noting that even way back before streaming took hold, iTunes counted how many times a song got played, not how many times an album gets played through. There’s no doubt that as digital sales continue to grow, the desire to play an album as a whole piece of work will decline.

A common counter argument to the lost album experience is the rise of vinyl sales. Since 2009, vinyl purchases have risen by 260% and the few start-ups who are in the business of distributing records have developed a solid following. There’s Vinyl Me, Please, a company that believes an album must be enjoyed as a complete work of art; vnyl, a subscription-based startup in the USA that sends you a new record each month; and Turntable Kitchen, which pairs food recipes and vinyls in a monthly subscription service. And unlike digital, there’s no way to track how many times these vinyls get played or if vinyls are just used for display. In the radio world, album supporters are even rarer. One San Franciscan radio show called “Deep Listening” from BFF.fm goes against the traditional “singles format” by playing music from same artist, band, album or theme for sixty minutes. However, it’s unlikely that the music industry will see a huge growth for this type of programme. Ultimately, the art of listening to an album in full is a niche market.

With the rise of playlists and compilation albums, it’s no doubt that singles will define an artist's career well before their debut album does. Technically, YouTube’s Rebecca Black foreshadowed this pattern of “one hit wonders” within streaming, but there are plenty more examples within the music industry. Thanks to tweets from celebrities like Hayley Williams from Paramore and Jessie Ware, obscure artist Ryn Weaver skyrocketed away from anonymity with her song “Octahate.” Alessia Cara’s “Here” peaked at #1 for American Billboard charts, and she was also longlisted for BBC’s Sound of 2016. Then there’s Rory Fresco, an unknown artist who has over 1 million plays on his song “LOWKEY” mostly because SoundCloud’s algorithm put his track after Kanye West’s new song “Real Friends.”

Another example is Gallant whose song “Weight in Gold” has been remixed enough times to be considered an album in itself and his SoundCloud remix playlist has well over 2 million plays. This single propelled Gallant in stardom and he has since gone on to tour with critically acclaimed Sufjan Stevens, and therefore opening up his music to a wildly different crowd than listeners of the “Weight in Gold” remixes. What this shows is by streaming singles new artists can achieve greater exposure and a more targeted audience. The downside is that it also means stretching artists thinly across multiple channels. Music acts may have to get their songs on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play to reach the audience they could get from one play on radio. In America alone, radio reach was 245 million in 2015. As for streaming, the numbers are on a global scale: SoundCloud has 250 million, Spotify has 75 million and Pandora has 81.5 million. As streaming services and music apps grow, along with better data plans for mobile, listeners will find ways to listen to singles as they please. This points towards a rise in playlists, a decline in listening to albums as a whole and even a higher value in music curation for radio and streaming.

If we look back at what we’ve learned through this journey so far, there are a few factors that come into play for the rise of the single: cost, format and culture. What has made the hit single so successful today is something of a perfect storm. With the rise in streaming services and free downloads the price of music has been drastically reduced, and for many it’s now seen as a commodity, whereas the full album is treated more as a luxury. This cost-cutting trend is also tied directly into the way we access music. As previously suggested, listening to music as part of the physical experience is now contained to a niche market with the majority of us belonging to a digital community of passive listeners. Where there was once a format war, there is now a streaming war with everyone from Spotify to Apple Music to SoundCloud to Bandcamp to Tidal to Deezer and many more all vying for our attention. The digitalization of the single isn’t solely a business issue, because it also facilitated a sharing culture, where making a connection with an artist’s latest release was no longer a solitary experience stopping at your front door, but a world-wide communal one. While all of this may make it more difficult for an artist set a place on the charts, it also widens the landscape for newer musicians to be heard. On the surface, the current business of making hits may seem like an over-congested, competitive atmosphere, but there are plenty of theorists who imply that competition is a sign of health, bringing about diversity, quality and growth. In other words: welcome to the single’s era and make yourselves comfortable because we may be here for a while.

Illustrations by Slip On The Rock

https://humanhuman.com/articles/welcome-to-the-singles-era

[elbertc1102383-blog]

The Best Ways To Go Through Music And Rhythm In 10 Mins For Beginners.

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One common mistake that could cost your band thousands

Now is the best time in history to be a music fan. The era we live in is the first where music is available everywhere, all the time, for only a few bucks a month. You can use YouTube and enjoy millions of songs for free and artists STILL get paid. It’s incredible.

Despite the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, digital piracy has continued to be a thorn in the side of the entertainment industry. The amount of media pirated in 2016 was double the amount stolen in 2008, and it is expected to double again by 2020.

The majority of albums that leak ahead of their release date find their way online due to careless promotional tactics on the part of the artist or their team. Dozens, possibly even hundreds of copies of a record are shared with members of the press, radio, and industry at large before an album is released to the public. Somewhere along the line the album reaches someone who decides to share it with a third party, and that is all it takes for countless sales and streams to be lost forever.

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Within a matter of minutes you can be sharing your music with fully customizable emails and promotional pages without having to worry whether or not someone will choose to leak your material online. You can try Haulix for free for the next 30 days by visiting their official website and choosing the subscription that best fits your needs.

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How to Start a Podcast in 2020: No Fluff (Just the Essentials)

Learning how to start a podcast doesn’t have to be overwhelming. We’ll show you how, step by step.

The time has come.

You know that idea bouncing around in the back of your mind? That dream, fearlessly waging war against your internal fears?

It’s time to let it out.

It’s time to start your podcast.

The only problem?

You don’t know how to start a podcast. And the thought of wading through a 20,000-word “Ultimate Guide” leaves you with a roaring headache and the overwhelming desire to ditch your podcasting dreams.

Well, no more excuses. This article will teach you everything you need to know about starting a podcast, and it’ll do it without filler, fluff, and long-winded details that don’t really matter.

So let’s dive in, shall we?

Table of Contents

Step 1: Choose a Topic for Your Podcast

Step 2: Name Your Podcast

Step 3: Create Artwork for Your Podcast

Step 4: Add Music

Step 5: Get a Microphone (& Other Equipment)

Step 6: Pick Your Podcast Hosting

Chapter 7: Record Your First Episode

Step 8: Upload Your Podcast Episode

Step 9: Submit Your Feed to Apple, Spotify, and Google

Step 10: Promote Your Podcast

1. Choose a Topic for Your Podcast

First things first…

Why do you want to start a podcast?

If your answer is “to get rich and famous,” try again. Podcasting can help you generate business leads, elevate your reputation, and yes, even contribute to your bottom line, but it is a commitment. The rewards come only if you persist.

That means you need to start with a topic you are passionate about. One that you’re so obsessed with, your friends sometimes have to kindly ask you to shut up about it.

If you’re reading this article, you probably already have an idea about that topic. So let’s consider the other half of the equation: your listeners.

The key to choosing a topic for your podcast is to search for that magical zone where your obsessions overlap with your audience’s interests.

So before committing to a topic, look for similar podcasts to see how many followers and reviews they have.

If there are already many popular podcasts in your niche, that’s a good sign: The more people producing and consuming podcasts on a topic, the more viable the topic.

Next, try to come up with a list of 50-100 potential episodes on this topic. If it’s easy for you to brainstorm this list, then that’s another good sign.

But be careful.

You don’t want a topic so broad it won’t appeal to your specific audience. As comedian Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

Your core demographic is not “everybody.” Think about your ideal listener and choose a topic that is narrow enough for you to stand out, yet broad enough for you to speak on it for 100+ episodes.

2. Name Your Podcast

Now that you’ve chosen your podcast topic, it’s time to name it!

You want a name that is specific and clear, yet unique enough to catch the attention of your audience.

For example, the Smart Blogger podcast, Break Through the Noise with Jon Morrow, has the flexibility to cover a wider range of topics as it grows. It’s not locked into an overly narrow theme.

As you are brainstorming the perfect name for your podcast, here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Be clear

Ideally, listeners should know what your podcast is about just by its name. This is not 100% necessary, since most podcast platforms include a short description, but sometimes people don’t read descriptions, so better safe than sorry.

Examples:

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Japanese Podcast for Beginners (Nihongo con Teppei)

Try to include your target keyword in the title

Apple podcasts is a search engine, and one of the best ways to help it recommend your podcast to the right listeners is to include your target keyword in the title. Just be careful not to keyword stuff! Make it natural.

Examples:

American History Tellers

B2B Writing Success Podcast

Be consistent

If you already have a brand, or a recognizable name, consider using that in your podcast.

Examples:

The James Altucher Show is named after influencer James Altucher

Rich Dad Radio Show with Robert Kiyosaki is named after Kiyosaki and his best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Combine strategies

Another option is to combine a clear title with your personal, brand, or business name.

Don’t be too long or wordy. You want to make it easy for people to find your podcast. If you still can’t decide on a name, look at other podcast names for inspiration. Check out podcasts inside and outside your niche.

Examples:

The Portfolio Life with Jeff Goins

Anthony Metivier’s Magentic Memory Method Podcast

But don’t get stuck on this step. Pick a name and move on!

3.Create Artwork for Your Podcast

Your podcast cover art is the first thing people see about your podcast, even before they read your description. So create an image that grabs them.

Your image should communicate the subject of your podcast and hint at your personality. It reinforces your brand, so if you already have a certain look to your site, try to keep it consistent.

Creating an eye-catching cover image

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Use minimal text. The fewer words and characters, the better. Whatever text you use should be readable even at low resolutions, such as 150 x 150 pixels.

Your cover image should be a minimum of 1400 x 1400 pixels, max 3000 x 3000 pixels for larger screens like the iPad.

Shoot for 72 DPI (dots per inch) JPG or PNG format, under 500kb size in RGB color space.

How to create your own cover image

If you want to create your own artwork for your podcast, you can use a free service such as Canva. Simply type in “CD covers” (which are 1400 x 1400 pixels) while browsing templates, or create your own design from scratch.

If you want to take it one step further, you can create a vector-based illustration in a program such as Adobe Illustrator. These images remain clear at any size.

Hiring someone to create your cover art

If you prefer outsourcing your artwork, you can hire somebody through Upwork, Fiverr, or 99designs.

Editor’s Note: Author and illustrator Jaime Buckley is another great option. He’s created artwork for me before, and his work is top-notch (and affordable).

Give them the details of your podcast, as well as the podcast image dimension specifications, and any brand colors or images you want to include.

Note: if you are planning to invest time and money in hiring a professional to design your artwork for you, make sure you know what you want and give clear directions.

4. Add Music

Music is another powerful element to include in your podcast.

Most podcasters use a few seconds of intro music, which becomes a familiar “theme song” that listeners associate with the show.

But be careful.

The one and only ironclad music rule is: Never ever use someone else’s copyrighted music.

Instead, look for royalty-free music or buy a one-time commercial license from platforms such as:

Shutterstock: Offers an unlimited music subscription for a monthly fee. You can also license individual tracks for a one-time price.

Audiojungle: Hundreds of thousands of tracks, sound effects, and jingles for any of your musical needs. You can buy a subscription or purchase individual items as needed.

Epidemic Sound: Subscribe (monthly or annually) to get access to tens of thousands of tracks and sound effects, with new tracks added weekly.

Melodyloops: Buy packets of royalty-free melodies for a set price.

If you’re on a budget, you can ask a musical friend to make you something, or check out these platforms:

Imcompetech: A collection of thousands of Creative Commons tracks (free to use if you properly attribute the artists and the track title) and paid licenses (if you don’t).

SilvermanSound: Royalty free music with attribution. You can also get a non-attribution license for a fee.

Free Music Archive: A collection of music from artists around the world. Free to download under the Creative Commons license.

Purple Planet Music: Offers royalty free music as well as paid high quality commercial license tracks.

DigCCMixtr: A music discovery site offering free and paid, commercial tracks.

Zapsplat: Tens of thousands of free and paid sound effects (and counting!) to use throughout your podcasts.

The downside of getting free music is that you won’t have music that is unique to your podcast.

Your listeners might hear snatches of the exact same track on other podcasts, YouTube channels, etc. So if you want exclusive music, buy it or hire someone to create it for you.

And take the time to find a track that you really like, because as your “signature sound,” you don’t want to change your music once you’ve begun.

5. Get a Microphone (And Other Podcasting Equipment)

Assuming you already have a computer, you’re going to need 2-3 more things to get your podcast up and running:

A microphone

Audio editing software

Other (optional) recording equipment

Your Microphone

To be a killer podcaster, you need a proper weapon. Ahem. I mean, microphone.

Audio is everything when it comes to podcasting, so if you want to splurge on something, get yourself a good microphone.

And whatever you do, do NOT use your built-in computer microphone. The audio quality is atrocious and there’s not much you can do on the editing end to fix that.

When choosing a microphone, you have a choice between two basic options:

USB vs XLR mics

USB mics are plug-and-play microphones that tend to be cheaper and easier to use, but less customizable than XLRs.

XLR mics require an extra cable and audio interface to work. They tend to be more expensive and higher quality than USB microphones.

An XLR mic + audio interface is the way to go if you have a co-host and need to record more than one person in one room, because plugging in multiple mics into USB ports can mess up your sound quality, and recording more than one person on one mic can make it difficult to edit your audio.

For a microphone that gives you the option of both USB and XLR, check out the Audio-Technica ATR2100x (affiliate link), Blue Yeti (affiliate link), or Samson Q2U (affiliate link) on Amazon.

Your Audio Recording-Editing Software

Audacity is a fantastic audio recording/editing software for beginners.

Audacity works on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, and can record, playback, edit, and export your audio into a variety of different audio formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc). Plus, unlike Pamela and some of its freemium competitors, Audacity is open-source and free.

If you are a Mac user, Garageband is another free audio software you already have, and if you want to dive deeper into home recording, you can also invest in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

If you need any pro features that Audacity and Garageband don’t offer, Adobe Audition is $20.99 per month, and it’s available for both Windows and Mac.

Other (Optional) Recording Equipment

A pop filter

If it didn’t come with your microphone, you may want to buy a pop filter, a noise protection screen that helps to reduce or eliminate sibilance (hissing noises) and plosives (popping noises).

A pair of headphones

Headphones protect your microphone from picking up extra sounds from your computer speakers. They also help you hear what you sound like as you speak, so you can adjust your presentation style.

You don’t have to get fancy, a pair of earbuds will do just fine.

Boom arm

Depending on the microphone you buy, a boom arm (affiliate link) could be a worthwhile purchase. Decent ones are available on Amazon for under $20.

Interview Software

If you plan to talk to people long-distance, you’ll want to invest in interview software, such as:

Squadcast: This platform offers videoconferencing and records on separate tracks for each speaker.

Zoom: This easy-to-use tool for remote interviews offers above-average audio quality, but doesn’t save audio to separate tracks.

Callnote: This software records GotoMeeting, WebEx, Facetime, Skype, Google Hangouts, and more.

6. Pick Your Podcast Hosting

Although you may listen to your podcast via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc., as a podcaster, you don’t actually upload your episodes directly to those directories.

To share your podcast with your adoring fans, you’ll need a podcast host: a place to store and distribute your podcast’s audio recordings.

Hosts charge a monthly service fee to host your audio files and generate the RSS feed you need to submit your podcast to podcasting directories (so listeners can find you).

How to Pick a Podcast Host

Podcast hosts are (almost) as varied as cell phone providers. When choosing a host, consider these factors:

Longevity & dependability: Will your host stand the test of time?

Flexibility & adaptability: What is your host’s storage capabilities?

Website integrations: Does your host integrate with your website or create a site for you?

Analytics: How in-depth is your host’s analytics?

Monetization support: Will your host help or hinder your monetization efforts?

Here are a few podcast hosting services to look into:

Libsyn

Libsyn has been around since 2004, and offers plans with unlimited bandwidth and monetization options, WordPress integration (with their Libsyn Publisher Hub plugin) and detailed analytics.

Podbean

Podbean started in 2006, and offers 24/7 support, distribution to all the major apps and podcast directories, and your own podcast site. Their Unlimited Plus Plan, gives you access to a patron program, advertising capabilities, and video support.

Buzzsprout

Buzzsprout offers an easy-to-use analytics dashboard, making it easy to upload, schedule, fill in meta-details, and submit your podcast to multiple podcast directories.

Blubrry

Blubrry podcast hosting plans start at $12 per month. At that introductory price you get 100MB storage each month and unlimited bandwidth. If you need more, $80 per month will give you 1,000MB of storage space.

Free hosting

Some hosts offer free podcasting plans, but these plans come with limits:

Buzzsprout allows you to upload 2 hours of content which they host for 90 days.

Podbean allows you to upload 5 hours of content per month at max 100GB of bandwidth and only basic statistics.

Speaker’s free plan includes advertisements, you’ll need to pay to remove them.

Anchor is a 100% free platform focused on “democratizing audio.” But they were the center of a terms and conditions controversy in 2018.

Soundcloud allows you to upload up to 3 hours of audio only.

So be careful with free plans, and know that if you want your podcast to grow and be competitive, it’s worth investing in a good host.

7. Record Your First Episode

Okay. You’ve prepared your topic, host, and podcast equipment, and you’re ready to roll!

So in this section, we’re going to go step-by-step through the podcast recording process:

Write Your Script

Podcasting is like giving a speech. It’s best if you plan what you’re going to say before you say it, by writing it out.

You don’t have to write everything word for word, but the more planning you do, the less problems you’ll have later.

You can write out a word-for-word speech, if you like, but remember that when you turn that microphone on, you want to speak as if talking to a friend.

Prepare Your Environment

Before you record your first episode, make sure that you’ve set up the best recording environment.

Remove all distractions (kids, pets, and annoying voice search devices) and choose a room that’s not located near a busy street and doesn’t have many hard reflective surfaces. Use curtains and carpets to absorb noise pollution.

Create Your Intro and Outro

If you plan to create a recurring intro and outro, have that ready to add to your episodes. In your intro, make sure you mention your podcast name, topic, and host name. And your outro is a great place to include your call to action.

Record Your Episode

With your script written and environment set up, you’re ready to start recording!

First, plug in your equipment and open your recording software. Make sure your computer recognizes your mic as the source of audio input, then hit record.

Remember, you don’t have to record a perfect voiceover in one take. Take your time, and feel free to re-record if you make mistakes.

Edit Your Audio (Post-Production)

Editing involves cutting out errors, reducing background noise, balancing sound levels, adding your intro and outro, and making the episode easier for people to hear.

If you used Audacity to record your audio, you can edit your audio file in the programs directly. (To learn how, check out Audacity’s tutorials.)

As always, you can also hire someone to help you with editing, if you prefer.

Save Your Recording

When you’re finished recording your audio, save it as an MP3 file. In Audacity, that means clicking on “File” → “Export” → “Export as MP3”:

Name your audio file using a template, something like “podcast name-episode number-episode name-date.”

If you’re using Audacity, the default standard quality MP3 should be fine. If you’re using a different service, shoot for a bitrate of around 128 kbps and 44.1Mhz (CD quality).

8. Upload Your Podcast Episode

Once you’ve finished exporting your episode as an MP3 file, it’s time to upload your file to your host. Each host has their own way of doing things, so follow their instructions:

How to upload to Libsyn

How to upload to Podbean

How to upload to Buzzsprout

When you do, you’ll be prompted to include ID3 metadata that stores information related to an MP3 file.

You can also include this information when exporting your file from Audacity:

Audacity includes a space for you to add the artist name (in your case, podcast host name), track title (episode title), album title (podcast name), track number (episode number), year, genre, and other comments.

For each podcast episode, you’ll want to prepare an episode title so listeners know what your episode is about. You also want to include show notes, which can include a description of the content (including relevant keywords to make your episode easier to find), timestamps, links to your site, etc.

If this is your first time uploading to your host, you will be asked to include your podcast title, artwork, and description.

Then, once you’ve filled out all the necessary information, your host will pass it on to your podcast directories so that your podcast can be found by future fans.

And speaking of those directories…

9. Submit Your RSS Feed to Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Spotify, and Google/Android

Once you have your podcast created and hosted, submitting it to a directory is easy.

Some podcast hosts have easy one-click-button methods for uploading. If you chose one of those hosts, use their process.

For everyone else, here’s how you submit your podcast feed to the “Big 3” directories:

Uploading Your Podcast to Apple Podcasts

Step 1. Sign in to iTunes Connect using your Apple ID (if you don’t have one, you can create one for free).

Step 2. Click on the Podcasts Connect button.

Step 3. Enter your podcast RSS feed URL (which you get from your podcast host) and click “validate.” Click Submit to continue.

Step 4. Apple will review your podcast and you’ll be notified via email when it is approved.

Uploading Your Podcast to Spotify

Step 1. Go to Spotify for Podcasters and log in to your account (or create one if you don’t have one yet).

Step 2. Once you are logged in, go to the “Add your podcast” page and click “Get started.”

Step 3. Enter your RSS feed and click Next.

Step 4. Add relevant info to the “Add podcast info” page, review, and submit.

Note: It can take a few hours up to 5 days for your podcast to appear on Spotify, so be patient. Also, Spotify requires audio to be in MP3 audio with bitrates between 96-320 kbps and episodes no more than 200MB (about 83 minutes at 320kbps or 200 minutes at 128kbps).

Uploading Your Podcast to Google/Android

Step 1. Go to the Google Play Music website and click Publish.

Step 2. Sign in using your email, and submit your podcast URL.

Step 3. Once you are approved, your podcast will be listed on Google Podcasts.

Other Podcast Directories

While Apple, Google, and Spotify are most popular podcasting directories, you can also upload your podcast to other platforms, including Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, etc. The more places you are, the easier listeners can find you.

10. Promote Your Podcast

To compete with 800,000 (and counting!) podcasts worldwide, you’re going to have to do more than cross your fingers for luck to get people to listen.

But good news…

Promoting your podcast is totally doable. Here are some ideas to do just that:

Launch your podcast with a splash!

Before you launch your podcast, generate buzz.

Send an announcement to your friends, family, and followers on your mailing list. Include the announcement in your email signature.

Tell people in real life and on social media about the impending launch of your awesome new podcast.

Create a pre-launch team, like authors do with book launches, to create a snowball effect and enhance anticipation for your podcast.

On Debut Day, launch several episodes at once, ideally 3-5, so that listeners can immediately binge-listen to several episodes without waiting.

Ask everyone you know to subscribe and leave a review, and reward them by reading top reviews or thanking people by name on new episodes of the podcast.

Create audiograms for each episode

An audiogram is a snippet of your podcast episode that you can share on social media to pique the interest of potential listeners.

You can use the Wavve or Headliner app to easily create a visually appealing audiogram to share on your Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media channels. Both have free plans as well as premium options.

Utilize your website

If you don’t already have a self-hosted website, you should consider creating one because you can leverage that site to share your podcast, blogging content, create and sell products and courses, etc.

(Just be sure your podcast website is SEO friendly so Google will give it some love.)

If you already have a website, make sure you promote your podcast on that site. For example, you can repurpose your podcast episodes into blog posts by transcribing and editing your audio.

Feature your podcast on your homepage and About page, link to specific podcast episodes within your blog posts, and embed a podcast player on your site for visitors.

Be a guest (and invite guests onto your show)

To supercharge your promotion, try to be a guest on other, more established podcasts in your niche, and invite podcast hosts/influencers to be a guest on your show. This will introduce your podcast to an audience that is already interested in your topic.

Podcast listeners often find new podcast recommendations while listening to their favorite shows, so the more you network, the better.

Never stop promoting!

The best way to promote your podcast is by word of mouth.

So bring up your podcast whenever it makes sense. Talk about it with your friends, share it in social media groups, and write about it to your email list.

Most of all, produce a remarkable podcast that people will want to share with their friends. If you consistently create valuable content on a regular basis, your audience will come to you.

Bonus: Podcast Q&A

What equipment do I need for a podcast?

It doesn’t take much to start a podcast:

At minimum, you will need a computer, microphone, and pair of headphones.

For software, you can download Audacity to record and edit your audio, and use Zoom, Skype, etc., to do long-distance interviews.

How much does it cost to start a podcast?

Technically, you can start a podcast for free, if you already have the hardware you need.

But if you want to reap the long term benefits of podcasting, you’ll want to pay for a good podcast host (recurring fee) and decent microphone (one-time fee).

Ultimately, you get what you put into it: If you just want to test out the waters, you can get started for free and see how it goes. If you’re committed for the long haul, do your research and invest in quality.

How long should podcasts be?

When deciding on your podcast length, consider your content, audience, and podcast format.

Don’t stuff your podcast with fluff just because you’re trying to hit an arbitrary time mark, and don’t lop off interesting material because the podcast is getting “too long.”

But do try to keep your episode lengths uniform.

If you want to make a 30-minute podcast, don’t throw in a 3-hour or 3-minute-long episode. Keep each episode at similar lengths so readers know what to expect.

How often should you publish a podcast?

Podcast episode releases range from daily (NPR’s Here & Now) to once in a blue moon (Hardcore History with Dan Carlin).

A general rule of thumb is to go with a schedule you can stick to. And be consistent. If you post erratically, you risk losing listeners.

What if I hate the sound of my voice?

Check out Sonia Thompson’s 7 Ironclad Reasons to Podcast (Even If You Hate the Sound of Your Own Voice).

Is there any reason I should NOT start a podcast?

Maybe. You’ll have the most success with podcasting if you’re focusing solely on it. So if you’re still trying to master freelance writing, blogging, or even a YouTube channel, you’re better of mastering it first.

Jon dives into this topic in great detail here: Why You Shouldn’t Start a Podcast or YouTube Channel (Seriously).

Can you make money from podcasts?

The short answer is yes. However, the money doesn’t always come straight from your podcast, but from the awareness and traffic your podcast can create.

That said, with a large audience, you can earn money through sponsorships and affiliate marketing, or by advertising your own products and services to your audience.

Some podcasters also generate income through donations or premium paid audio content.

Go Forth and Podcast!

Most people who think about starting a podcast never get started.

Don’t be one of them.

Just get started, and take it one step at a time.

This article can teach you how to get off the ground, but the passion to spread your message? You already have that.

So what are you waiting for?

We can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

The post How to Start a Podcast in 2020: No Fluff (Just the Essentials) appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from SEO and SM Tips https://smartblogger.com/start-a-podcast/

[biofunmy]

Smile for Your Data File!

The new year ushered in a landmark California privacy law that gives residents more control over how their digital data is used. The Golden State isn’t the only beneficiary, though, because many companies are extending the protections — the most important being the right to see and delete the personal data a company has — to all their customers in the United States.

In the fall, I took the right of access for a test drive, asking companies in the business of profiling and scoring consumers for their files on me. One of the companies, Sift, which assesses a user’s trustworthiness, sent me a 400-page file that contained years’ worth of my Airbnb messages, Yelp orders and Coinbase activity. Soon after my article was published, Sift was deluged with over 16,000 requests, forcing it to hire a vendor to deal with the crush.

That vendor, Berbix, helped verify the identity of people requesting data by asking them to upload photos of their government ID and to take a selfie. It then asked them to take a second selfie while following instructions. “Make sure you are looking happy or joyful and try again” was one such command.

Many people who read the article about my experience were alarmed by the information that Berbix asked for — and the need to smile for their secret file.

“This is a nightmare future where I can’t request my data from a creepy shadow credit bureau without putting on a smile for them, and it’s completely insane,” Jack Phelps, a software engineer in New York City, said in an email.

“It just seems wrong that we have to give up even more personal information,” wrote another reader, Barbara Clancy, a retired professor of neuroscience in Arkansas.

That’s the unpleasant reality: To get your personal data, you may have to give up more personal data. It seems awful at first. Alistair Barr of Bloomberg called it “the new privacy circle of hell.”

But there’s a good reason for this. Companies don’t want to give your data away to the wrong person, which has happened in the past. In 2018, Amazon sent 1,700 audio files of a customer talking to his Alexa to a stranger.

The right to have access to personal data is enshrined in the new California Consumer Privacy Act. The law is modeled in part on privacy regulations in Europe, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R. Soon after Europe’s law went into effect, in May 2018, a hacker gained access to the Spotify account of Jean Yang, a tech executive, and successfully filed a data request to download her home address, credit card information and a history of the music she had listened to.

Since then, two groups of researchers have demonstrated that it’s possible to fool the systems created to comply with G.D.P.R. to get someone else’s personal information.

One of the researchers, James Pavur, 24, a doctoral student at Oxford University, filed data requests on behalf of his research partner and wife, Casey Knerr, at 150 companies using information that was easily found for her online, such as her mailing address, email address and phone number. To make the requests, he created an email address that was a variation on Ms. Knerr’s name. A quarter of the companies sent him her file.

“I got her Social Security number, high school grades, a good chunk of information about her credit card,” Mr. Pavur said. “A threat intelligence company sent me all her user names and passwords that had been leaked.”

Mariano Di Martino and Pieter Robyns, computer science researchers at Hasselt University in Belgium, had the same success rate when they approached 55 financial, entertainment and news companies. They requested each other’s data, using more advanced techniques than those of Mr. Pavur, such as photoshopping each other’s government ID. In one case, Mr. Di Martino received the data file of a complete stranger whose name was similar to that of Mr. Robyns.

Both sets of researchers thought the new law giving the right to data was worthwhile. But they said companies needed to improve their security practices to avoid compromising customers’ privacy further.

“Companies are rushing to solutions that lead to insecure practices,” Mr. Robyns said.

Companies employ different techniques for verifying identity. Many simply ask for a photo of a driver’s license. Retail Equation, a company that decides whether a consumer can make returns at retailers like Best Buy and Victoria’s Secret, asks only for a name and driver’s license number.

The wide array of companies now required to hand over data, from Baskin Robbins to The New York Times, have varying levels of security expertise and experience in providing data to consumers.

Companies such as Apple, Amazon and Twitter can ask users to verify their identity by logging into their platforms. All three give a heads-up via email after data is requested, which can help warn people if a hacker got access to their account. An Apple spokesman said that after a request is made, the company uses additional methods to verify the person’s identity, though the company said it couldn’t disclose those methods for security reasons.

If consumers can’t verify their identity by logging into an existing account, Mr. Di Martino and Mr. Robyns recommend that companies email them, call them or ask them for information that only they should know, such as the invoice number on a recent bill.

“Regulators need to think more about the unintended consequences of empowering individuals to access and delete their data,” said Steve Kirkham, who worked on Airbnb’s trust and safety team for five years, before founding Berbix in 2018. “We want to prevent fraudulent requests and let the good ones go through.”

It is on regulators’ minds. The California law requires businesses to “verify the identity of the consumer making the request to a reasonable degree of certainty” and to have a more stringent verification process for “sensitive or valuable personal information.”

Mr. Kirkham said Berbix requested the first selfie to test whether a person’s face matched their ID; the second selfie, with a smile or some other facial expression, ensures that someone isn’t simply holding a photo up to the camera. Mr. Kirkham said Berbix ultimately deleted the data collected within seven days to a year, depending on the retention period requested by the company that hires the firm. (Sift deletes its data after two weeks.)

“It’s a new threat vector companies should consider,” said Blake Brannon, vice president of product at OneTrust, another company that helps businesses comply with the new data privacy laws. OneTrust offers the 4,500 organizations using its service the option to create several levels of identity verification, such as sending a token to someone’s phone or verifying ownership of an email address.

“If I’m requesting something simple or lightweight, the verification is minimal, versus a deletion request,” Mr. Brannon said. “That will require more levels of verification.”

Mr. Kirkham of Berbix said the verification process discouraged some people from making the data request at all.

“A lot of people don’t want to give more information,” Mr. Kirkham said. “Their assumption is that you will do something nefarious with it.”

He added: “But that’s the irony here. We require additional information from people to protect them. We want to make sure you are who you say you are.”

Sahred From Source link Technology

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