Growing an artist’s musical brand implies a multitude of activities. Preparing a continuous stream of future releases while keeping a close eye on the current catalog, developing a strong visual narrative, tracking your music’s performance across platforms and so on.
The great thing is, as a publishing artist, you’re part of a global community of contributors. Every strong artist out there can act as a potential blueprint to your own agenda, as a pool of interesting ideas and resources that you can take into account. Obviously, there are some realities that might seem unobtainable at times – strong playlist placements, media features, collaborative opportunities.
But still, you can learn from these unobtainable metrics – and build a strong case for your own creative path. This is where ForTunes steps in. We’ve created tools that can help you track your own performance – but naturally, you can also keep an eye on the relevant sphere around you – meaning other publishing artists, that are close to what you do.
Here are 5 reasons, why it makes absolute sense to track other artists:
Blog overlaps
Tracking other artists, especially during release phases, gives you an inside scoop of what is happening blog wise – and what’s out there.
Chances are high, that the assortment of sources you would take into account is fairly limited – you’re probably not a PR professional, you’re a musician, obviously.
Conduct a pretty thorough PR investigation by using the metrics ForTunes provides: Hype Machine and SubmitHub listed blogs. Keep track of several artists that are landing placements in various spots that you find interesting. See how it develops, and figure out which of these blogs might also be relevant to the strategy of your campaign.
Playlist dig
By tracking other artists, you get an extensive overview of large and small playlists that might also feature your music. Even if you’re still in the early phases of development, you can assess the overall field of possibilities, and zero in on playlists that make sense to you.
It can also be a great way of adjusting certain elements of a production, oftentimes there’s just a thin line between what works and what is kept out of playlists.
Dig through the playlists of fellow musicians, ones that you respect and appreciate for their brand development, and get a feeling for the way they use playlists as a means for exposure and audience growth.
Platform focus
Assuming your strongest platform is Spotify? Or Soundcloud? Then track like-minded musicians to see where their hot-spots lie. Within our work at ForTunes, we also keep coming back to the routine of reality-checking notions that we find obvious.
The more you think you know, the more you should be mindful and open to the possibility of blind spots. There is a huge rift between wanting to perform on a certain platform and the reality of compatibility of your own music. Sometimes this can get in the way of good decision making, or solid strategic action.
Useful collaborations
Collaborations like remixes and features can say a lot about the alchemy of a success story. Using the power of synergy, to dive into new audiences is an old trick in the book. Still, it is one that continues to work, especially for growing artists.
Dig through the releases of acts close to your sphere. See who they have collaborated with, who has posted remixes that worked well with a given audience.
These insights can also avoid going extra miles or betting too much on a single card.
Find the right influencers
Use the ForTunes influencer screen to see which influencers – in terms of playlist owners, Hype Machine listed blogs or YouTube channels (including private people) with reach – have uploaded music of other relevant artists.
Finding solid influencers is hugely important when trying to leverage within the digital sphere. Not only will you see on which doors to knock, but you will also see how their audience reacts to certain releases.
These insights will help you build your release network of influencers like channels and private playlists.
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