Everyone has a fairly decent understanding of what “streaming music” means. However, all the details and actual streaming platforms involved is a lot to take in overnight. This will be a basic list of what streaming platforms you should know about, which ones provide a promotional cut and the potential royalties that will be guaranteed.
You may be asking: “What does streaming promotion have to do with the booking agent?” Usually the booking agent deals with venues, live shows and sending out press kits. Yes, that’s true but, as a booking agent within the modern world of technology, music streaming services play an important role in promoting concerts.
Streaming services can play an important part in promoting live concerts!
Streaming platforms iTunes, SoundCloud, Youtube, and Spotify are the most notable and especially with Spotify/SoundCloud who intend to help musicians who are just starting out. For instance, a band with only a handful of songs can upload their music for free, if they utilize RouteNote.com. When it comes to payment, it depends on where the song is being streamed, meaning payment will vary from country to country.
Now iTunes may seem like the type of music streaming platform that’s held by the big artists. This is mainly a yes unless you intend to pay for sign-up and maintenance fees for using iTunes. However, once you’ve completed the setup, when it comes to uploading music on iTunes it will take as much as three minutes to execute.
Booking agents should take note (if they haven’t already) about the pure action-oriented quality attached to streaming. Most artists use each platform and for SoundCloud (the majority of artists are discovered here, same with Youtube) to promote their work. This is before paying for ads comes in, or boosting ads for others to see. A booking agent will want to take a refresher course when it comes to promoting online streaming services. The reason is that terms of privacy and services tend to be updated every few months.
Be sure to read through each platforms terms of service, for instance, iTunes has a select charge for maintenance, while Spotify has ways to allow singer-songwriters to upload their tracks for free.
Music streaming promotion is the ultimate tool to use. Everyone has an iPhone that either has a Youtube/SoundCloud, Spotify or iTunes app. One in two people is technically constantly streaming some kind of music in the world.
