Between updating their subscription plans and experimenting with more visual profiles (still in early beta), SoundCloud has been on fire lately. ComScore even recently reported that their traffic increased by 26% in one month, making SoundCloud the 8th fastest growing site in the U.S. Though it’s certainly evolved since its launch in Berlin in …
You might know The Orchard as a global music and film distribution company but do you know much about the people behind the name? We have over 175 employees worldwide all hailing from different backgrounds, boasting different lines of expertise, and coming from all walks of life. We thought it’d be fun …
Videos are by far the most engaging form of social content. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but there’s a lot of missed potential by bands that claim to have a YouTube presence. The common misconception is that your music videos go up on YouTube and you’re done. Although MTV …
Between Amanda Palmer and Veronica Mars, crowdfunding has proven its worth beyond the shadow of a doubt. In one year alone, global crowdfunding initiatives grew 81% to generate a reported $2.7 BILLION. Of that, music-related projects represented a very respectable $202.5 million, i.e. 7.5% of all raised funds and 4th most …
Introducing Katie Weissman, Tech Recruiter
I am so excited to join The Orchard and to meet everyone! My name is Katie Weissman and I will be your new Tech Recruiter. I come to you straight from the agency world — you know those recruiters who stalk you wanting to pitch you a great opportunity at a new, super-cool client? That used to be me. Anyway, I am pumped to take on this new challenge from the other side of the desk and will do my best to help The Orchard add fab people to its teams.
Some things you should know about me:
YouTube made big strides this week in its efforts to drive subscribers to channels. With its new Fan Finder, YouTube is empowering creators to expand their audience while helping viewers find new content to enjoy. The tool allows channel owners to create an ad to represent their brand and channel. YouTube will show the video as a TrueView pre-roll ad to viewers who’s viewing behavior indicate they may be interested in that channel. A big win-win for both creators and viewers.
Fan Finder should prove to be a valuable asset for both newly launched channels as well as those looking to reach more fans. By matching channel ads with similar content, YouTube is giving channels an opportunity to reach a larger audience at no cost to them, allowing creators to showcase their brand in a unique way. Remember that these ads are skippable after five seconds, so make sure the video you use will have an impact in that timeframe. Check out YouTube’s best practices for Fan Finder to get some tips. You can also track your efforts by visiting Fan Finder under Channel Settings and clicking the “Analytics” button for your ads. Pay close attention to subscriber growth once your ad goes live — those are your most engaged viewers!
This type of advertising also introduces an interesting dynamic in viewer behavior and engagement. Instead of watching advertising for products and services, viewers will now start to see ads directing them toward more YouTube content. As a viewer, you may be more likely to discover new content and come back for more. For YouTube, this means more viewers using the platform for longer amounts of time. Extending the reach of its channels ultimately means more opportunity to grow viewership network-wide. Fans may start exploring more of the platform as Fan Finder ads guide them from channel to channel.
The most exciting part may just be what types of ads YouTube creators will come up with. Have a cool idea? Try it out on your own channel! Follow these steps to get started:
A few weeks ago, a client asked me what the best practice is when it comes to using hashtags. After looking into how we’ve used hashtags at The Orchard and digging up some good examples I’ve witnessed, here are the key takeaways I’d like to share…
#WhatIsAHashtag
The definition according to Twitter:
The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keyword or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorise messages.
For example, “Headline acts announced for #Glastonbury2014.”
#HowToUseHashtags
No spaces should be used when writing/creating a hashtag. It doesn’t matter if your hashtag contains multiple words, you can still group them together. If you want to differentiate between words, use capitals instead, e.g. #RapGod. Uppercase letters will not alter the search results, so if you search for #RapGod you’ll get the same results as #rapgod.
Don’t overuse hashtags, use a maximum of two or three in your posts. Use too many and your followers may think you are spamming.
Try to keep the hashtag short, for example, you can shorten #TheMarshallMathersLP2 to #MMLP2.
You can define your hashtags by using directories like tagdef.com. In addition to giving your hashtag a definition and listing, tagdef also allows you to search for the meaning of existing tags like #oomf.
Numbers are supported e.g. #Glastonbury2014. However punctuation marks are not.
Hashtags can occur at the beginning, middle or end of your post.
#SupportingPlatforms
Some of the social media platforms that support hashtags include:
Twitter: Twitter is where the concept of the modern hashtag began. Twitter hashtags are mainly used to denote specific topics of conversation, the “Trends” sidebar of your Twitter feed curates a list of hashtags you might be interested in, based on your tweets. Clicking on a hashtag word in any message will show you all other tweets marked by that keyword.
Facebook: Facebook added hashtag support in June 2013. Hashtags on Facebook aren’t used as much as they are on Twitter. Nevertheless like Twitter, using hashtags on Facebook turns topics and phrases into clickable links in your post. When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that hashtag.
Instagram: Hashtags can be used to accompany photos shared on Instagram and help you discover new accounts and gain followers.
Vine: Hashtags on Vine are used to complement your videos to maximise sharability.
Google+: If you click on a hashtag in Google+, the search results will include the original hashtags as well as posts with similar tags and keywords.
Tumblr: Tumblr has a specific “Tag” section where you can add tags. These tags work in the same way as Twitter hashtags, organising post by topics, but the hash symbol is inserted automatically.
Pinterest: Pinterest hashtags can be used to mark and search for content.
Freeloader Friday friends, brace yourselves. And maybe even pace yourselves. Because this week has more amazing free streams than I can handle (well, almost). So, I’ll be brief and let you get to the meat of it fast. Here are my quick words of introduction:
While you’re checking out the album from Reggie and the Full Effect on AltPress, I highly recommend reading this interview with James Dewees, the man behind the band.
Be warned that the artwork paired with Ejecta‘s full album stream is totally NSFW — but you can like, open it up in a new window, hit play, and minimize it super fast so you can still enjoy the awesome tunes.
Artoffact Records is about to unleash not one, not two, but three old school 1983 Rational Youth masterpieces, including two live albums and one ‘rarities’ one, which is streaming in full over at Slicing Up Eyeballs.
Get the first taste of Nancy Sinatra‘s first album in four years, and be prepared for something new and unusual from the woman behind “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” She may be taking on classics, but she’s worked them, baby.
Speaking of classics, Wanda Jackson takes on Jack White‘s “In The Cold, Cold Night” in a tribute album to the ever-awe-inspiring multi-talented musician. The stream is available below, and for kicks, you can check out this live 2011 performance with both Wanda and Jack on Letterman.
Go Indie-Pop with Joanne Gruesome‘s cover of Galaxie 500′s “Tugboat,” then Electro-Disco-Rock with CYMBALS and “Funk, R&B and sex” (Noisey’s words) with a Kenna remix featuring Childish Gambino.
Close with some visually stimulating videos, including a Clockwork Orange tribute from The Black Angels, some Classic Rock-gone-personal from Black Star Riders, action figures having the time of their lives in Hebronix‘s latest, and a badass anime vid from My Midnight Heart that’ll leave you wanting more.
Enjoy, my friends!
Reggie and the Full Effect: Full album stream via AltPress
No Country For Old Musicians out November 19 on Pure Noise Records
Ejecta: Full album stream via Pitchfork Advance
Dominae out November 19 on Driftless Recordings
Rational Youth: Full album stream via Slicing Up Eyeballs
Magic Box out November 19 on Artoffact Records
Nancy Sinatra: “Holly Holy” track premiere via USA Today
Shifting Gears out December 3 on Boots Enterprises
Wanda Jackson: “In The Cold, Cold Night” track premiere via Rolling Stone
Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute to Jack White out November 19 on Cleopatra Records
Joanna Gruesome: “Tugboat (Galaxie 500 Cover)” track premiere on Pitchfork
Weird Sister out now Slumberland Records/Fortuna Pop!
CYMBALS: “Erosion” track premiere via Dummy
The Age of Fracture out January 27, 2014 on Tough Love Records
Kenna: “Relations (Remix feat. Childish Gambino)” track premiere via Noisey
Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide – Chapter 1 out now on Dim Mak Records
The Black Angels: “Black Isn’t Black” music video premiere via Rolling Stone
Indigo Meadow out now on Blue Horizon
Black Star Riders: “Kingdom Of The Lost” music video premiere via Classic Rock Magazine
All Hell Breaks Loose out now on Nuclear Blast
Hebronix: “Bad Days” music video premiere via Stereogum
Heb-Hex out November 26 on ATP Recordings
My Midnight Heart: “Chest of Hearts” music video premiere via SPIN
Chest of Hearts EP out now on MNRCH
Pop-punk band State Champs recently unveiled a creative new video for the song “Simple Existence” off their debut album The Finer Things, which hit stores 10/15 on Pure Noise Records.
The video was deftly put together by Orchard intern Mark Ciampittiello using a mix of images from the band’s Instagram account and fan-submitted images and comments. The band launched the collaborative “contest” earlier this fall and asked fans to share their idea of #thefinerthings across all social media for a chance to have their images included in a video.
We used Tagboard to collect the submissions and included all of the best ones for the finished product. Check it out below!
If you like what you hear, catch State Champs on tour with Chunk! No Captain Chunk! and COUNTERPARTS.
