To say this year has been full of ups and downs is an understatement. But amongst all the madness, we’ve all banded together to make it through. Throughout it all, we’ve done our best to put out as much positive, helpful content as we could. We hope our blog remained a stable resource in your arsenal this year. For those looking to reminisce, here are our top blog posts of 2020…
Top 10 Blog Posts of 2020
1. 3 Types of Music Metadata
Metadata is the foundation of the modern digital music industry. It’s one of the most important things for independent musicians to master. In this post, we’re here to break down the 3 different types of metadata you’ll encounter throughout your career.
When it comes to metadata, there are 3 main types you need to be aware of:
- Descriptive Metadata
- Ownership/Performing Rights Metadata
- Recommendation Metadata
This post covers everything you need to know…
2. How to Trademark Your Artist Name
Making sure your brand/artist name is trademarked is an important step in establishing yourself as an artist or label in the public eye. The last thing you want is to find a name you absolutely love, play tons of shows, build a huge following and realize 2 years later that someone in the UK has the same name and is legally forcing you to give it up.
Not only would you have to start over when it comes to building your following all over again, but you’d lose money having to redo albums, merch and everything with that name on it. Even more, whoever wins the trademark war can force the other to shut down websites, social media profiles and anything else you used that name for.
All this sucks, but it’s easily avoidable. This posts tells you how to do it…
3. How to Optimize your Songwriting for Sync
Songwriters rarely consider how their song might be used to help tell someone else’s story. They’re often preoccupied with telling their own story, emulating songs they admire or maybe just trying to make something their fans will think is cool. And that’s totally fine, but it’s not going to get you far with sync.
To help you out, this post offers some tips to help you write more universally appealing, sync-friendly songs.
4. How To Get Heard By A Music Supervisor
Music supervisors are the gatekeepers of the music that gets into films and TV shows. Every day, they recieve a mass of pitches from optimistic musicians hoping to get their track featured on the big screen. To get noticed among a sea of hopefuls, you’ll need to sharpen your skills.
Get all the tips and tricks for getting noticed by music supervisors right here…
5. What You Need To Know About TV & Radio Royalties
You earn performance royalties every time your music is performed or played publicly. TV and radio royalties fall under that category. As long as your songs are registered with a performing rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, then you are eligible to collect performance royalties.
There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing your song on the radio or on TV. As fulfilling as it is to see your hard work pay off, what’s even better is the well deserved money you’re racking up every time it plays. How does that money find its way to you? We break it all down in this one.
6. 9 Things Musicians Should Do During Coronavirus Downtime
COVID has brought some incredibly uncertain times to all of us. Nobody is quite sure how long the containment efforts of COVID-19 will last. If you can, it’s important for you to continue working on your craft to make sure you’re ready to go once things start up again. Don’t fall behind, there are things you can do to stay on top of your game while maintaining social distancing.
This post gives you a couple options from how to update your website to registering for a PRO. This was one you definitely don’t want to miss.
7. 7 Ways Label Managers Can Get Ahead During Quarantine
With the entire world on lockdown and concerned with next steps, we wanted to pass along some insights to help you maximize your efforts going forward. During this time, it’s a good idea to take a second look at what you have and evaluate what you can do to better organize, boost and increase your catalog.
All the time, we tell our clients that their masters catalog is an important investment for their future. And thus, putting energy towards improving and adding to it will help them immensely down the line.
Are you a label manager? Check out these tips for getting ahead while social distancing…
8. Promoting Your Music on SoundCloud vs. YouTube
There are pros and cons to every platform, but it’s your job to manage your branding across platforms and figure out which audience to capitalize on. When it comes to marketing yourself on any platform, take the time to create a thorough marketing plan.
- Think about who your target is meant to be
- Set goals
- What’s your overall brand?
Once you’ve got a plan in place, it’ll be easier to decipher which platform will help you reach those goals efficiently and effectively. In this post, we’ll cover what to expect from SoundCloud and YouTube so you can figure out what you’re getting into before you take the wheel…
9. How to Get Your Music on TikTok
After seeing how influential the platform had become, we knew we had to ensure our artists the ability to use TikTok to their advantage. So, we made it happen! In 2019, we announced our partnership with TikTok which allows our clients to deliver their tracks onto TikTok for its millions of creators to use in their videos.
(800 million users worldwide, to be exact.)
This offers an amazing opportunity for our clients to spread their music through one of the most popular apps in the world, with us to guide them along. To learn how, check out this post…
10. Why Independent Artists Should Beware of Streaming Fraud
Buying fake streams is a serious problem in today’s modern industry. In a world that’s obsessed with stats, it’s understandable why. But the issue runs deeper than just buying streams. Even if you decide to work with a service that claims to be legitimate, they might be using the same illegal methods you’re trying to avoid.
Faking success, whether intentional or accidental, is way more harmful to your career than helpful. It’s up to you to be conscious of scammers and misinformation, but we’re here to provide a helping hand.
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Our goal always has been, and will always be, to help empower indie music in every way we can. The Symphonic blog is our way of spreading as many resources as we can to anyone who needs it. Just like that, 2020 has come to an end. So here’s to a new year, a better year… May it be filled with good health, good wealth, and new opportunities for greatness. ✨
