Cost Comparison of 3 Leading Online Ticketing Services

Friend, what's good? I hope your week is inspired and productive.

I received an email from a subscriber who was wondering which online ticket vendor to use for her upcoming live stream. Yes, the world is coming around to the fact that they should fu#kin pay to enjoy online concerts! We must remind people that music has value.

Sell tickets to your livestream shows (and your socially distanced live shows) by using online ticket vendors and formatting the confirmation email to contain a secret url to YouTube live.

Which platform to use? There are lots to choose from, but here are three of the most popular, and a breakdown of what they cost:

TicketLeap is $1 + 2% per ticket sale.

BrownPaperTickets is $0.99 + 5% per ticket sale.

EventBrite is 3.5% + $1.59 per ticket sale.

TIP: consider passing the cost of the fee on to the buyers. The people attending your event are used to paying ticket service charges and they're most likely the type of people who will support you enough that they're happy to pay an extra dollar or so.

Have fun and be sure to let me know if you have an upcoming event! I'll share it.

// James

PS - I aim to keep this current, so if you notice any updates to these platforms’ pricing, leave me a comment!

3 Types of Playlisting Campaigns (and What They Cost)

I had a friend hit me up, crushed that her new single was still “<1000” on Spotify after a week. She poured her soul into it, shared it on her socials, researched and hit up playlisters… and nothing.

She was tired of doing all the work herself and decided to run a playlist campaign, but she didn’t know where to start. “How much do they cost? Are there different types?”

All good questions. Here’s my basic rundown of 3 different tiers of playlist campaigns and what you might expect to spend on them. (Yeah, I cleaned it up to read a little better ;)

Hey bud,

I think it’s smart that you’re leveraging your own money to hire someone to help you. With some investment, you can buy back your time and be an artist.

To answer your question, campaigns come in multiple budget tiers…

Econo: good music can typically get multiple playlist adds for $20-$80 from places like SubmitHub. Most playlists that accept you through a platform like this will have low follower counts. You might not see tons of spins from this option, but you’ll certainly be building the perception of momentum to your fan base every time you give a shout out the playlist curators on your socials and thank them for adding you.

Mid Budget: good music can typically get multiple playlist adds for around $350-$400 per single with places like PlaylistPush. You can also increase your budget for beefier campaigns. Playlists that accept you through a platform like this come in a spectrum sizes. I’ve received adds from lists with 1k followers, and lists with 80k followers, and everywhere in between. The number of spins you receive will depend on the size of the lists that add you.

High Roller: hire big dog streaming strategists like Venture to create customized plans for your growth. They’ll typically want to run campaigns for multiple months (usually about three months) at $800-$1.5k per month. The reason being is that they are creating a longer term strategy to get you picked up Spotify’s editorial playlists (jackpot.) That strategy includes landing multiple high follower count playlist adds, resulting in tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of spins. Tracks with resulting buzz will have a better chance of being selected for editorial playlists.

Before you run out and invest your hard earned cash, I just want to share a thought about streaming strategy: a single campaign can get you a temporary boost in spins, but sustained streaming growth and editorial playlist love usually happens to those who consistently release music frequently (new singles every four to eight weeks) and run playlist campaigns for each of them. I encourage you to adopt a long term mindset for your streaming strategy rather that throwing a Hail Mary once every six months.

I’ll share more thoughts on streaming strategy, and other ways to build your stats in subsequent blog posts. In the mean time, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to hit me up: james@forestparkdiy.com or leave me a comment or question in the comments below.

Take care, create lots, be heard.

// James

The Essential Online Platforms for Your Project

In the last month or so, I've had multiple consulting sessions where clients expressed that they felt overwhelmed about building their online presence. There are so many options. Where to start? What platforms should they be on? Cue FOMO freakout.

Here's my quick and dirty run down of the bare essential platforms that your project should be found on:

Your Own Website: Essential because it gives both your faithful tribe and curious newcomers a place to come to for official news, updates, announcements, merch. This is your online headquarters. Use services like Squarespace or Wix to create awesome sites.

PayPal: You can't sell merch, pay for mixing, or create a digital tip jar without a payment exchange platform. They all do basically the same thing. Choose any of them. Just get one.

SongKick: This is how you can get your concert and livestream event info listed on your Spotify page! Also, easily place widgets on your website and share to socials.

Mailing List: This is where your ultimate fans reside. These are the people who can be called to action to spin your new track, attend your livestream, or buy your merch. Use a platform like MailChimp for free mailing list services.

Streaming: get your music on ALL the streaming platforms easily by distributing your music through platforms like TuneCore or DistroKid.

Socials: You don’t need to be on all the social media platform. You should decide based on your target audience. If your audience is younger than mid 20s, Instagram and TikTok are where it’s at. If your audience is 30+, then Instagram and Facebook are great places to spend your time. And YouTube encompasses pretty much every demographic.

You can create an audience in any demographic on any platform, but those are the broad strokes when it comes to who’s hanging out on which platforms. Here are a few more thoughts:

• Facebook: best for 30+ demographic, creating ads, post versatility.

• Instagram: good for younger demographics, great for "swipe up" story ads.

• YouTube: second largest search engine behind Google. Be on there.
  

There are so many options out there, but I’ve found that being on these basic platforms allows you to cast a wide net so you can rest easy knowing you’ve got everything covered.

Leave me a comment, let me know you’re here. I’m happy to answer any questions.

// James

Learn this one success tool from your buttoned-down buds.

The life of an independent musician is tough. We're not the people who decided to follow a structured path from college to internship to job to success. Our path looks more like a goddamn Ninja Warrior course with lethal traps and tricks, one misstep sending you hurtling to the depths of despair. I know it sounds dramatic, but I take my career seriously. 

Although we've chosen not to follow the basic path like the majority of the planet, there is one thing we can learn from them: the importance of defining what your success ACTUALLY looks like.

Your buttoned-down buddies knew what job and salary they wanted. Because of that clarity, they knew where to go to school, what to major in, what classes to complete, and how long each step was going to take. The path was set for them. And it worked because it's worked countless times before for people who put in the effort. 

At the risk of sounding like a self-help guru, I invite you to do the same thing with your music career. 

Do you even know what you want? I mean, specifically? 

I sure didn't. I knew I wanted to get "big", quit my job to pursue a life of songwriting and touring. But I didn't take the time to define what "big" meant. I played basements and shitty venues across the country for years thinking that if I just kept pushing, I'd arrive... somewhere. 

I arrived at burnout and disappointment. That is until I was taught to set specific goals and how to break down the steps to their achievement. 

So please, don't burn out and deprive the world of the message you were born share. Take a moment to think about what success in music ACTUALLY looks like to you...

Ten years from now
Three years from now
One year from now

Does success mean you have management, label support, and booking? How many followers/streams/albums sold do you want to have under your belt? What venues are you playing? What artists are you touring with? 

Actually take the time to think this out. In order to reach your goal at ten, where do you need to be by three? And to reach your goal at three, where do you need to be in one year? From there, break down the next year into quarters and systematically follow the trail to your ten year older self, stoned by the pool at your summer spot, feeling damn good about where you're at and how hard you worked to get there. 

Leave a comment below to let me know how you define success for your specific path at each of those intervals. 

// James

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Reminder: You CAN Schedule IG Posts!

Hey fellow creators, James here. I hope you’re doing well. 

I won’t keep you long this week, but I wanted to reiterate something that I mentioned in a previous piece:

You CAN schedule Instagram posts.

Mind blown? Mine was. I’ve been deep in this DIY promo game for years now and I never knew you could schedule IG posts.

Here’s how:

1. Go to your Facebook Creator Studio (if you don’t know what that is, just do a search on how to start a Creator Studio account.)

2. Click on the Instagram icon in the top navigation bar. 

3. Click “Create Post” in the top left of your Instagram Creator Studio dashboard. 

4. Choose IG Feed or IGTV from the resulting dropdown menu and create your post content.

5. Click the box under “Post to Facebook” to automatically post what you just uploaded to Facebook at the same time.

6. Click the arrow next to the work “Publish” and choose “Schedule". You are now scheduling when you want this content to post on Facebook.

7. Next, click the down arrow next to “Publish” in the bottom right and select “Schedule” when you want the content to post on Instagram.

And you’re done! It’s that easy!

Use this feature to batch schedule all your Facebook and Instagram content in one sitting so you can spend your time actually being an artist. 

Feel free to email me if you have any question. Happy creating!  

// James

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Simple tip to help land Spotify playlists

Fellow creators, one of the best feelings is opening your email and seeing that Spotify has added your new release to one of their massive editorial playlists. 

I had this honor recently with my band TEOA when our song “Wait No More” was added to the Fresh Folk playlist. But this land wasn’t just luck. We knew what Spotify was looking for. I wanted to share what I’ve learned with you.

How do DIY artists land big Spotify playlists? 

By analyzing your project’s metrics, Spotify may award you preferential treatment by adding your song to algorithmic or editorial playlists. One of those metrics is Pre-Saves. The more you have, the more you’ve proven to Spotify that you’re willing to drive people to their platform. 

In addition to your social media buzz, how often you release music (more is better), and how many monthly listeners you have, your Pre-Save stats can slingshot your unreleased track to the top of pile when Spotify is considering which new releases to place on a playlist. 

For those of you who don’t know what Pre-Saving is, here’s the deal:

Pre-Saving a song on Spotify is the modern day equivalent of pre-ordering a record. Before your song hits the market, people are able to click a link to Pre-Save your upcoming release to be saved to their Spotify library as soon as the track/album drops. 

How do you create a Pre-Save link?

If you use DistroKid to distribute your music, you’re in luck. They offer a free Pre-Save link generator. Here’s an article about how to take advantage of this cool feature. 

If you don’t use DistroKid or an aggregator that offers complimentary Pre-Save link generation, you can use a platform like feature.fm. They offer both free and paid versions, so there’s no excuse not to get in on the action. 

I’ve created this tutorial on how to create a Pre-Save link for free on feature.fm. Check out the video below. 

You’ve created a Pre-Save link, now what?

Once you’ve created your link, share that baby everywhere: mailing list, socials, carrier pigeons. You might want to run a merch giveaway contest or some other raffle-type give away to reward people for following through. 

To be sure, Spotify is looking at the whole picture when it comes to choosing their next playlist add. Even though Pre-Saves are just one part of the equation, it’s something you can control. Make the decision to get tons of Pre-Saves so Spotify can’t ignore you! 

Happy creating. Leave a comment below with any thoughts or questions. 

// James 

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If you'd like to work with me directly so we can grow your project with the focus, productivity, and exact action steps, schedule a free 15 minute consultation so we can see if it’s a good fit.