Get In On The Crowdfunding Action with RocketHub

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 important category after social causes, business and entrepreneurship, and films and performing arts.

So, how do you get in on this? It couldn’t be more simple: install RocketHub via The Orchard Marketplace. For step-by-step instructions and a video demo on how to create a campaign, check out this blog post. The design has since changed but for the most part everything is still the same.

To add to the appeal crowdfunding has on its own, RocketHub has just announced an exclusive partnership with A&E’s Project Startup. Through this new deal, projects launched via RocketHub will have the opportunity to be featured on air, online and in print through A&E’s channels. In addition, if a project is really unique and attention-grabbing, A&E just may add itself to your list of funders.

“But I’m not a startup, I’m a musician!,” you say.

Don’t worry, we asked that question, too. While the first wave of projects is startup-related, RocketHub is planning several other engagements with A&E, Project Startup just being one of them. With music representing such a significant portion of the crowdfunding sphere, related projects will naturally ascend to higher visibility, and as such raise awareness in line with RocketHub and A&E’s goals: amplifying crowdfunding projects to do more than just raise funds, but also gain significant and strong awareness.

So get your thinking caps on and start an original campaign with RocketHub. The more stellar the idea, the higher the chance your project will not only get you money, but also create that oh-so-precious buzz and engagement you can’t get enough of.

RocketHub is accessible via The Orchard Marketplace. Read more about them on their One Sheet.

Guest Post: Timeline for Promoting a UK Single Release

The name Caroline Bottomley may sound familiar to you on The Daily Rind. As Managing Director of our Marketplace partner Radar Music Videos, Caroline has already guest written for us to share the merits and best practices of her amazing platform, which connects artists and labels with talented music video directors around the world. Today, she gives us a timeline for promoting an independent single release, beginning 14 weeks from release date, and on an imaginary budget of £5,000. 

A lot of promo people we talk to say artists and managers often don’t know what professionals do to promote single releases. So we asked for help from some real professionals. Then we made up an indie band with an established following and a few previous releases. We made up £5,000 to spend. And we wrote this rough guide.

14 WEEKS FROM RELEASE

• Commission single artwork, even if it’s for download only — Designer: £300
• Commission artist photos — Photographer: £500

TIP: “Commission nice/weird/cool COLOUR band photos, the brighter the better.” –David Laurie, SiC Records

• Start social media engagement — Digital Promotions: £500 – £1,000

NOTE: Social media work continues from here up to and after release date.

12 WEEKS FROM RELEASE

• Begin promoting. Release advance copies/links to share to monthly press, for reviews, i.e. Q, Mojo, Clash, Uncut. Start with sending out a simple press release announcing the single and put the single into context, i.e. is it from an album or a stand-alone track; and will there be associated shows? — Engage PR: £500 – £1,500

TIP: “There are very few print outlets for singles, a couple of dozen really. It’s ALL about online for singles.” –David Laurie, SiC Records

NOTE: Press work continues from this point up to and after release date.

TIP: “The press release needs to be straightforward and attention-grabbing. ‘Artist releases great new song/album’ just isn’t enough. What’s your story? What’s special about you/the song/album and why?” –Gillian, Million PR and Naked Press.

• Engage Agent: 10% of gross
• Engage Radio and Video Plugger: £500 – £1,500
  Note from The Orchard: We also have a radio plugging partner app in the Marketplace: iPluggers. 

… Continue Reading

The Marketplace Presents: iPluggers

Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world.

With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for you to pitch your music to more than 30,000 radio stations of all genres and all types, including AM, FM, satellite, internet, and more. You can create an artist profile (or online airplay kit) on which to share and promote your tunes in minutes by following the steps below:

• Install iPluggers through the Marketplace on the artist of your choice, and select a profile name for your iPluggers page (typically the name of your artist or band). Enter a contact email address on which you can be reached and click Submit.

• On the next page, select “add a new release for worldwide plugging.”

• This is where it gets interesting. First, choose what kind of release you’ll be plugging (Single, EP or Album). Then, choose a release cover from the pre-populated drop-down menu or upload a new one. Select the title of the release, confirm the artist name and add any featuring artists if needed. Choose the tracks you’d like to promote and click Next.

• Once your tracks have been imported, you can choose up to three genres you’d like to target. You also have the option to carve out territories you don’t want to plug your music to. Optionally fill out release information to give radio stations some more background on why they should plug your release and click Next.

• The last step before submission is completing your track information. While The Orchard provides a handful of iPluggers’s required metadata, there will still be missing fields. To fill them out, click on Edit Track Details and go through the fields to confirm pre-populated metadata and fill out what’s missing, such as Composers/Writers, Publisher and Song Genres. Click Submit.

Now iPluggers will review your release before approving it to plug. This can take up to 5 business days, and you’ll get a notification as soon as they’ve given it the green light. Once your release has gone through iPluggers’s system, you’ll get to set a plugging date, after which all radio stations subscribed to the genre you chose to plug will receive your release. To increase the likelihood of your release getting picked up, we also recommend that you complete your Artist Profile. Many fields will already be completed thanks to the app’s integration with our API, but you’ll need to tweak it to make it just right for iPluggers.

Track your releases by clicking on the Results menu and download reports for your plugged tracks by clicking on the corresponding link. You’ll be able to track the artist, song, radio station and country as well as when said radio station downloaded your track. While iPluggers can’t track if a specific radio station has actually played the song, the likelihood is high once the song has been downloaded (because stations can preview the song on your artist profile, it’s unlikely they would download it unless they intended to play it). Furthermore, all plays will be tracked via the usual SoundExchange/CMJ/MediaBase channels.

As Next Big Sound shared recently, and against popular belief, radio spins continue to positively impact track sales. Now that you have it all laid out in simple steps, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of that extra push to bump up your sales!

See below for a more in-depth demo on how to get your music heard around the globe:

iPluggers is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them, including special pricing for The Orchard’s clients, on their One-Sheet.

The Marketplace Presents: Conduit Mobile

Meet our latest partner: Conduit Mobile. The mobile app creator is getting all kinds of press these days, and it’s not without good reason. Their sexy app offers every function you could dream of with the ease of use you’ve always wanted.

What’s more, they’re compatible with all major mobile devices, including iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android and Windows. No coding, no fuss — here’s a snapshot of some of the features Conduit offers:

• Promote your music: Offer fans your hottest playlists and latest songs.
• Share your LiveAlbum: Let fans take, share and view pics of your shows right from the app via a shared album on Facebook.
• Make it yours: Customize your app’s look, feel and functionality to match your brand and unique style.
• Publish your events: Keep fans up to date on your tour dates, signings, launch parties and shows.
• Reach out to fans: Send location-specific push notifications to let fans know of upcoming shows, parties and promos in their area.

When you sign into Conduit, you arrive at the Edit menu, which is composed of three tabs: Content, Style and Info. Let’s look at these in a bit more detail:

• Content: As with all our Marketplace apps, Conduit Mobile automatically imports your content from The Orchard Workstation, including your Info, Releases, Events, Videos, Social Links and any other good things they can find from your Artist Builder and Release Builder profiles. Keep in mind that once you’ve set up your app, anything you update within your Workstation, Facebook, YouTube and so on will automatically update in your Conduit mobile app as well. You can always edit the content you want to include, i.e. tracks, photos, etc, and you can easily add and customize additional pages such as Map, Contact, LiveAlbum Photo Stream (a recommended tool similar to Instagram that allows users to take and post photos directly within your app), eCommerce and so on.

• Style: This is where you can manage the look and feel of the app, from app title to custom icons as well as header and background images (transparent images are preferable and specs are listed based on the platform for which you are creating the app) and colors. Tweak your navigation layout, and click Update Changes.

• Info: This tab includes the app info that appears in each platform marketplace, including app name, official icon and description, as well as a checkbox to allow ads within your app and earn extra revenue.

Once you’ve tinkered and perfected your app, you’re ready to submit it to stores. You can do this by clicking on the To Market menu at the top of the page and selecting one by one which stores you want to send your app to. You’ll need a developer account for each store to submit as well as the native files (instructions here). If you have a Platinum or Diamond subscription with Conduit, they’ll take care of the submission for you — you just need to fill out a form with your developer credentials and submission preferences.

Speaking of subscriptions, all clients have access to a free trial, which includes 500 visits to mobile site and 25 mobile app installs. Once you’ve hit those numbers, you can choose between a Gold subscription at $22/month (unlimited site visits and up to 5,000 app installs), a Platinum subscription at $62/month (unlimited site visits and unlimited app installs) or a Diamond subscription at a one-time cost of $499. Go to the Home menu to update your plan.

There’s lots more you can do with your Conduit mobile app by navigating through the Home, Promote, Analytics and Notifications tabs on the top menu bar, including getting a mobile site URL, redirecting mobile users to that page, creating an HTML Promo page, tracking active users and their activity by platform and location, and sending targeted push notifications to your fans.

Check out the demo video below for a more visual look at how to use Conduit in the Marketplace, and make use of Conduit’s slew of specific how-to demos for the best ways to use every part of their app.

Conduit Mobile is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them on their One-Sheet.

Note: There are some fees associated with submitting your app to each store (one time vs. yearly) and each store has varying approval times (between 1 hour for Android and minimum 10 days to 2 weeks for Apple). 

Songpier Embraces All Your Screens

It’s been in The Orchard Marketplace since launch; it’s consistently one of our most popular apps; it was one of the first HTML5 mobile apps out there… I’m talking about Songpier, the mobile app builder that’s now a whole lot more.

You might have noticed that Songpier — or Songpier Studio as it’s now called in the Marketplace — has completely revamped both its look and its offering. Manage your mobile app, desktop website and social sites all in one convenient location, and more than ever share it with your fans, no matter where they’re looking.

So what’s new, exactly?

• One song was never enough: You can now select as many songs or releases you like to include in your Songpier.
• Be social: Sync all your content to Songpier Studio from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and RSS feeds and send new content back.
• Collect fans and emails: Customize playback restrictions by song to encourage fans to Like you on Facebook, giving you access to all their deets. Choose from Always Free, Require Faving After 3 Plays or Require Faving.
• Think of everything… and everyone: Enhanced sharing options make it easy for all users to access your site from anywhere and still get all the information they need.
• Don’t lose sight of anything: Keep up with what-you-got-from-where and what-is-published-where thanks to icons throughout the Studio that indicate where each item was imported from and where it’s published.

Here’s how to make the most of all these new features in the Marketplace:

• Once you’ve launched Songpier from the Marketplace, the app will connect with your content through the API. Select the tracks you’d like to include; toggle the switches to additional content on or off for Events, News, Photos and Videos; and click Sync Now. Note that you can always add or remove content when you launch the app, or by clicking Pull next to The Orchard in the Social Connect menu on your Dashboard.

• Don’t just sync with The Orchard, sync with all your socials! Go to Social Connect on your Dashboard and link up with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You can also hook into your RSS feed so all your updates get included on your Songpier page too.

• Manage your page’s look by tweaking your Artist Profile and Appearance. Pick your app background, icon and skin, and preview the whole lot on all devices by clicking on the various options on the top right.

• Fine tune your app using the menus under the Content section. Organize your Songs (pick a featured tune, customize each song’s look, add lyrics and select playback restrictions), News items (import them from your socials), Events, Pictures (add titles to your albums and pictures or share stories in the descriptions), Videos and Discography (include purchase links). You can even link to your Merch store so fans can buy your stuff straight from the app.

• Now that you’ve perfected your app through Songpier Studio, share it with the world using the numerous Share options at your disposal. Send the page link, download and share your QR code, lead mobile users visiting your official website to your Songpier-mobilized page using the Mobile-izer tool, and embed customized playlist or song widgets anywhere you’d like.

On top of all these exciting updates, the new interface is easy on the eyes and easy on the brain. So play around with it and find out for yourself why Songpier is reliably one of our top apps!

To get a visual step-by-step of how to use the new Songpier Studio, check out the demo video below, and get an idea of what Songpier looks like in action on Der König Tanzt’s mobile-optimized site.

Songpier is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them on their One-Sheet.