Published April 16th 2016
Like many other artists, I’ve been trying all kinds of websites to promote myself in an attempt to get paid for the music that I love to make. In a series of blogs, I’ll be sharing with you how I’ve experienced some of these platforms. This series will feature ReverbNation, RadioAirplay.com/Jango, Music Clout, Coast 2 Coast, MusicXray and InMusik.
Is there business InMusik?
InMusik
Online A&R platforms usually only think about supply and demand. There’s a demand from an A&R manager for music and there are people who have music lying around. Websites usually tie those two together, so musicians can (via payment) pitch their song to the right A&R opportunity.
The appealing part of InMusik is that they recognize the creative process leading up to a potential pitch as well, and try to be supporting there.
They provide the, all important, Who’s Looking List, which allows musicians to read the briefs from all connected A&R’s looking for music and then, connect musicians.
Collaborative Efforts
Musicians can connect with other musicians to start a collaborative project and work towards a pitch together. It allows people like me, who mainly provide lyrics for songs, to seek partnerships online with people, who can help out with the rest. All based on the description of what an artist is looking for.
And would I not want to work together, I can always still choose to pitch a song all on my own.
Pitching costs money. I actually have no idea how that works with costs when you do a project together on the platform, but I can imagine only the one who pitches will be charged, so I don’t think you can add your split agreements and share the costs nor revenue right away.
Project Interaction
The reason that I don’t know how this works, is because an interactive feature like that, needs people who are constantly active on the platform. I’ve noticed the platform peaks. There are people profiling themselves and their music on the platform, but it usually runs slow on the projects page.
I’ve done one collaborative project on there and it quickly moved away from the platform altogether. Mainly this was due to two reasons, there hadn’t been any interaction on the project there and the steps of the project itself are too public. There are still many artists, who don’t want to share every little bit of trial and error within song creation on a reasonably public platform. It’s the famous words by Erykah Badu you should think of “I’m an artist and sensitive about my shit”.
Wall Of Sound
I’ve been on the platform for almost 2 years. You create a profile for free, on which you can post music for free streaming or sale, YouTube videos, pictures and projects. Your songs get added to the Wall Of Sound, when you upload it, and there, it could start trending when you get a few hundred stream plays. I’ve had two of my songs trend on the platform.
People can like a song or start following you as an artist. You can share updates for free to your followers.
Opportunities
There are some interesting opportunities, ranging from upcoming talents to groups like Little Mix. Opportunities seem to be connected to PitchYourSong.com.
Musical talent there ranges from hobby musicians to serious musicians. I’ve not yet run into a big pop producer. The platform is not that old yet and clearly still has some growing left to do.
I would encourage people to take part of the platform, though I have no experience with the paid version of the website. I operate in the free version with the objective to find producers, which works fine for me, as is.
