‘Every artist, no matter how big they are, should have access to the same tools that any big company has.’

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by Anna Munhin Mar 22, 2023 News
‘Every artist, no matter how big they are, should have access to the same tools that any big company has.’

Growing a business around an artist is dependent on marketing.

The $5.8 billion cited by the IFPI as the amount of money spent by labels annually on A&R and marketing combined is clear.

The emergence of impressive technology, like Ingrooves Music Group's patented artificial intelligence-driven music marketing tech, is a result of extensive research and development going into the field.

The rise of short-form video platforms like TikTok has impacted the way digital marketing strategies around releases are rolled out, with smart tools like pre-save links proving to be valuable assets.

Artists, managers and labels can use digital marketing services from a number of tech companies to promote their products.

Features.fm is an Israel-based music marketing platform that offers pre-save and smart links, campaign and artist landing pages, real time-analytics, a self-serve ad platform and more.

Some independent artists are experts when it comes to creating the music and performing, but still have challenges when it comes to marketing and promotion, especially when they are doing it on their own.

The company was launched by Aharoni and his co- founders 10 years ago.

"We set out on a mission to help any artist of any size find their fans to build a sustainable career in music"

The company has a number of streaming partners. The ability for artists to track the number of streams from both YouTube Music and Feature.fm that came from a feature.fm smart link is one of the new integrations that feature.

Features.fm, which claims to have created over 1 million links for over 300,000 artists, was built by a group of experts and veterans. There is a background in the Israeli army for Aharoni.

He used to listen to music while he was coding. We had limited access to streaming services in Israel.

He says his own service called ListnPlay quickly reached 100,000 users after it was developed.

He looked at his artist friends and found out what their biggest career obstacles were.

He said that they all said the same thing, that they know how to create the music and perform, but their biggest challenge is actually promoting the music, getting their music heard and managing the marketing and business side

The brothers decided to build marketing tools for artists. He says that the original idea for Feature.fm was to allow artists to promote full-length songs in lieu of traditional audio ads on streaming platforms.

The tool has been integrated with many streaming partners. The sponsored song service on Deezer has an engagement rate of between 3% and 5%.

He gained a better understanding of deeper challenges that artists and music marketers were facing after building the sponsored song tool.

There is no shortage of marketing software companies tailored for general purpose marketing, but there wasn't a suite of tools designed specifically for the music industry.

We wanted to empower artists with the tools that they needed to build sustainable careers through providing a marketing solution.

The case studies show how the Pre-Saves feature has been used to convert audience interest in teased tracks into streams and followers on streaming platforms.

When an unfinished demo of his song Miserable Man went viral via TikTok, one of the artists used feature.fm's pre-saves tool.

He amassed 100,000 pre-saves before the song was even released, and it has been streamed 87 million times on the internet.

The company's Pre-Saves feature was used as part of a marketing plan for an unfinished song.

The track, Don't Text Me When You're Drunk, amassed over 250,000 pre-saves after it was teased, and according to Feature.

The success of the track has led to a deal with Columbia Records being signed by Zai1k.

The third case study cited by Aharoni is that of artist Emmy Meli, who racked up 125 million plays in four months after posting a TikTok video teasing a live version of her track, I Am Woman. The pre-saves feature was used by Meli.

Looking to the future, and commenting on his predictions for how marketing methods and tools will need to evolve to keep up with the music industry, Aharoni said that technology will be required to support the scale of artists.

The technology needs to stand up to support the explosion of artists at all stages of their career. Artificial intelligence will be needed to help predict, create and execute marketing strategies for the artists.

Here, as Feature.fm rolls out what it calls a complete visual and technical rebrand, which it says has been prompted by an explosion of artists and their needs, the company's co- founder and CEO tells us about its history.

Tell us about the technology that underpins your services?

The best-in-class technology is the result of many years of development by a team of experts.

Our creators are experts in building technology stacks that can serve billions of users and are veterans of the cybersecurity space.

We want to help artists grow their careers through the use of data. Most large-scale distribution companies have chosen Feature.fm to power their tech stack, which we believe is a testament to the quality of our technology and our ability to super- serve our customers.

The company has recently rebranded. Why have you decided to rebrand now and what has the rebrand consisted of?

As a company of creators, we identify with the music creator community and that's why we've changed our name.

Musicians have to do more than just create music, tour and sell merchandise now that the definition of what it means to be an artist is more complicated.

Artists come to us because they trust us to help them become better music marketers, which is why we will be giving them the resources to do that at the same level as labels.

“Artists come to us because they trust us to help them become better music marketers.”

Building a career in music is a lot like building a business. The instruments we have available to us allow us to create a technology and product that we need to market and promote ourselves. We are doing this for the creative industry.

When you deliver a product that is being used by creative people, it's important that you show that we ourselves are creative people. As a company with deep roots in the creative industry, it's important for us to articulate our identity as a group of creators who serve and empower other creators.

We have reinforced our commitment to the success of independent artists with our new logo.

What are the biggest challenges that independent artists face when it comes to marketing their music and how can Feature.Fm solve those challenges?

Artists always tell us what we need to know. Today, artists are more sophisticated than they have ever been when it comes to digital marketing strategies, and many are very skilled with content creation and messaging.

Artists always tell us that they are experts when it comes to creating the music and performing, but still have challenges when it comes to marketing and promotion, especially when they are doing it on their own. This leads to a second point.

Companies and businesses will have dedicated marketing teams to promote an artist's release. There will be a lack of resources within some of the more boutique companies.

Many companies have the ability to build their own marketing tools. We want every artist to have access to the same tools that any large company has.

“We want every artist, no matter how big they are in size, to have access to all of the same tools that any big company has.”

All of these points are delivered by feature.fm.

  1. We focus on making it easy to set up your marketing strategy and provide the necessary resources whether with education, in the product, or automatically behind the scenes that help artists be successful marketers.
  2. Resources – By making it easy and focusing on automation and technology, we seek to provide successful marketing strategies with less required recourse.
  3. Making all of the tools available to all artists. At first, big labels built their own marketing tools in-house. Now we make them available to all artists.
What are the most common marketing mistakes that independent artists make and how can they be avoided?

Smart links and short links are not being used. Many artists who share links to their music online go directly to only one streaming service and aren't tracked or collected data When they have an opportunity to use Link in Bios, we also see artists who aren't using it.

These products allow artists to achieve better fan engagement and collect important fan contact info.

“The best way to maintain your fan engagement is to be able to directly reach your fans.”

It's not doing everything you can to get fan contact info. It is our belief that the most important thing an artist can do is be in touch with their fans. Someone else will try to reach out to your fans if you don't own this list.

Because today, you might want fans to listen to your latest album, but tomorrow you might want them to watch your video premiere, buy tickets to your show, join your fan club, etc.

“When trying to pull in new audiences, there needs to be more to the story that makes someone want to discover more about you.”

Some simple mistakes that can be fixed easily can be seen when using feature.fm. Not using functions that can help them grow is a problem. Ensuring that when a fan pre-saves a song, they also follow you on the streaming service.

It is easy to implement this within your campaigns. Retargeting is always included in all of your links and landingpages. Even if you don't know how to use the data, you can collect it as a first step.

Common mistakes have to do with how you share your content. A lot can be learned from writing messages and copy for online posts for an artist. A lot of posts say, "Check out my new single"

There needs to be more to the story that makes someone want to discover more about you in order for this to work. The song is about something. The story is not clear. What made you write it? What is the purpose of this thing? All of these questions can spark a person's interest.

Where do you feel Feature.fm is positioned in the wider music business currently and how do you want the company to be positioned in years to come?

The value of the tools we are building are close to everything that surrounds the artist business and we are committed to the artist.

The lines between what it means to be an artist, a business and a creator are not always clear today. We will support the artist in promoting their business no matter what they need to do. Through a modern lens, we see opportunities.

“Ultimately, musicians today do so much more than they used to and the lines are blurred between what it means to be an artist, a business and a creator.”

The company that connects artists' different areas of management into anholistic dashboard would be strengthened by Feature.

An easy-to-use interface will allow artists to have better management of their data, fan base and career.

We will help artists better understand how to use data to grow their businesses by addressing some of the biggest feedback we get from our artist community.

What are your three key tips for artists to convert their music into a viable business by using effective marketing tools/techniques?

Valuable content is what you want to make. This can get lost. Fans and audiences need to know about the product. Make great music, make sure you can perform, make great content on social media, and don't try to be someone else. When you have a great product, it makes marketing and business simpler.

Get in touch with your fans by collecting their contact information.

The data should be used to make decisions. There is a lot of data available to you. When you are looking at your data, have a plan of what you will do based on the answers you give.

You might approach each platform differently if you asked, "Which performed better, myInstagram post or my TikTok post?"

What are your predictions for the growth of the independent/DIY artist sector in years to come?

We will experience wonderful growth in the years to come, and there will be more investments in the space than ever before.

I think that most of the growth will happen in the longtail, with more distribution companies being formed and more independent labels.

If there was one thing you would change about the music business, what would it be and why?

Allowing more companies to participate and helping artists grow based on their data is one of the benefits of open access to data. Today, platforms keep data very close to their chest, which is understandable, but I believe that if platforms allowed more companies to access the data, we would see more innovation and tools that will help more artists grow their careers.

It's almost impossible to get all of the data in one place to see a single business view.

There is a music business worldwide.