The Chain: Beatchain Blog

Resources For Independent Artists / Learn, grow, share, keep up to date with all the industry changes Affecting you and build your music career with Beatchain

Build your breakthrough with Beatchain

The Beatchain platform is designed to take care of every digital aspect of your music career.

Joel Sadler

New features and partnerships at Beatchain HQ

What's New At Beatchain?

It's been a busy couple of months here at Beatchain HQ with some exciting new features and partnerships to announce!

Joel Sadler

Better Noise Music and Beatchain partner to expand opportunities for artists

‍Beatchain is pleased to announce a new partnership with leading independent record label and global artist development company Better Noise Music, sparking an initiative that will better help artists and listeners connect using fan engagement data.

Joel Sadler

New Beatchain Plans - April 2021

Hey everyone! With the addition of some shiny new features, we’ve had a big shake up of our Beatchain subscriptions. It now costs much less to get access to the full Beatchain experience and all our promo tools!

Beatchain

Getting your pages ready for social media ads

If you're luring in new social media fans with dazzling content, make sure your page is engaging, resourceful and up to date!

Joel Sadler

Social media content for music artists is important – do it well

Content shouldn’t be an afterthought

Artists: your audience is out there, so put some effort into reaching them

Luke Mendoza

Five trends of 2020 that DIY artists should know

Most artists are too busy making incredible music to keep up with the industry, but knowing what’s going on generally around you can be the difference between surviving or thriving as an artist. Here are some trends to keep an eye on as you build your career in 2021.

Rhiannon Edwards

Should DIY music artists be influencers?

Do artists have to be influencers now?

In the past decade, social media has come to permeate just about every aspect of our lives. Now, in order to achieve even a basic level of professional success, having a firm grip on social media trends and techniques is sort of a must.

Cameron Cook

Music videos and promotion: make the most of your visuals budget

Creating promo visuals – think smart, not hard

As an independent artist, it is important to get your visual game just right. It’s a way for fans to tune in to you and what you’re about, while also being a means to stand out from other people.

Rhiannon Edwards

Eliza Shaddad: find fans using your own voice

Eliza Shaddad is a Cornwall and London based indie singer-songwriter. She’s been using Beatchain’s Fan Builder feature to reach more of her fans.

Rhiannon Edwards

Independent musicians need to build their careers not wait for them to happen

Artists: don’t wait to be discovered

Running a music tech company that provides free distribution to artists (among a plethora of other things), I’ve noticed that there’s a serious misunderstanding around what it takes for an artist to be successful.

Luke Mendoza

Worth Knowing: ticketed livestreaming comes to Bandcamp

Bandcamp have introduced ticketed livestreaming for artists, Taylor Swift makes a public statement about her masters after they are sold again, plus YouTube is the world’s biggest streaming platform... Here’s a catch up of the week’s news.

Rhiannon Edwards

How do playlist curators work?

Getting your song on a playlist is a great way to get seen… but how do playlist curators work and how do they find the music they want to feature?

Marcus Barnes

News: Kanye West, live shows after covid, TikTok and Trump

Worth Knowing: How live gigs in venues could return soon

A new vaccine, a new US president (elect) and a whole load of related (and random) music industry news and views. Here’s what’s worth knowing this week.

Rhiannon Edwards

How do Beatchain's distruibution tools work

Beatchain at Mixmasters.Live

Our CMO Luke joined some amazing speakers including Marshall Jefferson, David Morales and Roger Sanchez in the world’s largest virtual event for upcoming electronic music artists: Mixmasters.live.

Rhiannon Edwards

Worth Knowing: Spotify releases Discovery Mode

It’s been a big week for news in general, and it’s also been an interesting week in the music industry. Read on to catch up on what’s happened in the last seven days.

Rhiannon Edwards

Streaming and independent artists – friends or enemies?

Streaming: enemy or friend of independent artists?

We talk to two artists to find out whether they love or despise streaming services, and what the benefits of being on a streaming platform might be.

Brianna Holt

Fair distribution deals for independent artists

Artists need a fair distribution deal

Sparked by Kanye’s Twitter essays, the debate and discussion around the money artists see from their work shows no sign of quietening.

Luke Mendoza

Will Kanye buy Universal? And some more of the week's music news

Worth Knowing: Kanye says he’ll buy Universal

$33bn is pocket change for one of the “greatest product producers that ever existed”. Plus: a new Soundcloud feature for sharing music goes live, Glastonbury 2021 confirmed and the next money maker for the music industry...

Rhiannon Edwards

Worth Knowing: New Livestream Platforms

Two independent livestreaming services launch, Twitch videos get removed after rights nightmare, Beatchain at Mixmasters.live – it’s all going on this week.

Rhiannon Edwards

Beatchain at 'Jaguar presents UTOPIA talks'

This weekend, our CMO Luke spoke at the debut UTOPIA Talks - a series of conversations designed to empower the next generation, presented by the incredible Jaguar, host of BBC Introducing Dance on BBC Radio 1. The event was held in the Virtuoso classroom that was designed by Future DJs.

Rhiannon Edwards

We're working with other platforms to help artists push forward

We’re really happy to be part of a community of straight-to-artist platforms that are helping to give artists the tools they need to boost their careers.

Luke Mendoza

Worth Knowing: Beatchain masterclass at Utopia Talks

We’re going to Utopia Talks this weekend! See you there? More details below, plus UK government investigates streaming, the #saveourstages live benefit concert, Triller expansion, Stevie Nicks joins TikTok and a band wins a prestigious peace prize formerly given to Nelson Mandela... what a week for music news.

Rhiannon Edwards

The real marketing hustle for musicians

TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook – increasingly on all these platforms artists hoping to get heard need to be clever with their online marketing. But what does that actually mean?

Rhiannon Edwards

Worth Knowing: independent US venues ask (again) for help from government

The independent venue association for the USA, NIVA, warns of mass collapse of the industry, Spotify launches new charts, Instagram turns 10 and is the pandemic changing our taste in music? The weekly roundup is here.

Rhiannon Edwards

The virtual show is here to stay

Virtual performances have unexpectedly become the norm during a pandemic that restricts people from being in close proximity, and social media is helping artists to keep connecting with fans

Brianna Holt

Labels, promoters and managers need to understand data better

The music industry generally is way behind almost every other industry in understanding the value of data. Using data in the right way, labels, managers and promoters can shape the career of an artist with less guesswork.

Luke Mendoza

Worth Knowing: creators to see more money from Spotify?

Daniel Ek says creators will see more money from Spotify streams while a petition against the current state of streaming revenue gains pace in the UK. Plus, are fan shares the next step in Stanning? And how even the Beatles struggled with songwriting, sometimes

Rhiannon Edwards

How is the internet shaping music genres?

Much like every other aspect of our modern lives, the internet has irrevocably changed the way music evolves, with new mini-genres popping up constantly, completely influenced by the way we share information in the 21st century.

Cameron Cook

Beatchain helps artists get good deals

If an artist uses Beatchain, and makes use of all the other straight to artist platforms that we collaborate with, they’ll be in the best possible position to negotiate a really good deal

Luke Mendoza

Check Your Temperature: Warm and Cold Audiences in Music Marketing

In marketing, we use the terms warm and cold to categorize our audience, depending on how familiar they are with us. The warmth of the audience predicts what they're likely to do when we prompt them to buy, share, watch or listen to our product.

Joel Sadler

SXSW virtual event planned because of Covid-19

Worth Knowing: SXSW to go (partly) virtual in 2021

The Kanye masters event rumbles on through another week, Lily Allen announces she’ll go independent for her next album and one of the USA’s biggest music publishers associations warns songwriters to keep an eye on royalties from live-streamed events. The week’s news recapped...

Rhiannon Edwards

Kanye West and the Masters ownership debate

What's the deal with masters?

Kanye has reignited a long debate in the industry about how much profit artists actually see from their work

Rhiannon Edwards

Worth Knowing: Kanye publishes all his UMG contracts

What a week for Music Industry 2.0. Kanye won't quit until the world's artists know they should own their masters...Nicky Minaj wins a legal battle against Tracy Chapman over sampling...Spotify announces the listing of virtual events...Here's a quick run down of the news that's caught our eye this week.

Rhiannon Edwards

Cardi b and Megan thee stallion WAP shows us how to fan build

What can we learn about fans from WAP?

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion show how important it is to know and nurture fans

Rhiannon Edwards

Fake fans are the past, real fans are the future

Music industry 2.0 knows that today’s fans have more choice, so engaging them properly is crucial to whether an artist succeeds or has trouble

Luke Mendoza

Getting signed to a label: What can go wrong?

What happens after you get signed to a record label and how could things go wrong? An insider from the music industry gives their view

Fan Builder is here!

Fan Builder is the easiest way for artists to place ads on social media. Digital ads have a really steep learning curve, and so we've designed a system to take away many of the complicated parts of placing, targeting and understanding ads on Facebook and Instagram. We've been having some awesome results with a small group of early-access users, and are now inviting more artists to start using the feature.

Joel Sadler

Royalties: everything you need to know to get started

Get to grips with royalties now to earn from your work. Yes, finances can be boring and writing and yes, touring probably look a lot more fun but familiarizing yourself with the numbers is essential.

Sampling — How does it work legally?

Of all the nooks and crannies of the music industry artists must wrap their heads around, sampling is often perceived as one of the murkiest.

How Important is Personal Brand for Artists?

We hear the term personal brand so much these days, it’s become meaningless. What is a personal brand? Is it really so important, or is it all internet hype, and the music is what really counts? Our Insider gives their take on the matter.

Content tips: Growing music fans with Facebook ads

If you've been sharing your music online for a little while, but are struggling to get your page likes/followers from in the hundreds to in the thousands, you might want to consider running social media ads.

Joel Sadler

How to cope with mental health stress as a musician

Talking about mental health is hard, but the music industry has started to open up in recent years. New voices and organisations continue to amplify and push the conversation forward, with stars like Beyoncé, James Blake and Adele sharing their own experiences and helping to make mental health a normal part of everyday conversation.

How (and where) to Livestream Your Music

The current quarantines and lockdowns across the world have hit live music hard, with cancellations, postponements and rescheduled events affecting everyone from open-mic singers to headliners at major music festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury. Despite these changes (or maybe because of them) the appetite for live music is still huge ...

Do I need a manager?

A manager can change the course of an artist’s career but it’s all about getting one at the right time ! You’ve got some songs, you’ve built a following and you’re ready to go up a level or two. You’re close enough to feel it. So what’s stopping you from ...

How To Get Paid From Streaming

There is money to be made from streaming, even for independent artists. Here’s the info you need to know. Love it or hate it, in 2020 music streaming makes the music industry go round. From Spotify and Bandcamp to Mixcloud and SoundCloud, streaming audio has never felt more ubiquitous — ...

Business as usual at Beatchain

Around the world, cancelled shows, workplace closures and full scale lockdowns are going to be leaving artists with a lot of unexpected time on their hands, and many of you are going to want to fill that time with making, sharing and marketing your music. We've had a few messages ...

Joel Sadler

How to interact with the music industry, and maximize your chances of success

How do you make sure your first contact with the music industry is the best it can possibly be? As an independent artist, you might have lots of questions about how things work in the music world. With this in mind, we asked for some insider knowledge from someone who ...

Playing your first gig: A guide

From dealing with promoters to making sure you entertain the crowd, here’s a practical guide to playing your first gig Playing live should really be the fun part of making music. For some reason though, it's one of the things a lot of people struggle with. Unlike with recording, there's ...

Do I need a label?

Whether you need a label depends on what you want to achieve, and how much you’re prepared to do yourself As an independent artist, you might have lots of questions about how things work in the music world. With this in mind, we asked for some insider knowledge from someone ...

You don't need a film crew to make a music video!

Not every artist will have the time, equipment or software to film and edit a professional-looking video, and so we've teamed up with the guys at Rotor to bring AI music videos to Beatchain!

Joel Sadler

How to get your tracks on TikTok... And what to do when you get them there!

Find out what content is most likely to go viral and follow our steps to get your music heard!

Joel Sadler

Growing your Career in Music Industry 2.0

So you want to make a career out of music?

Joel Sadler

Where Do I Start?

So you're all logged in, you've checked out the insights page, and you're ready to gain some more fans. But there's a problem... you have no idea what to post! In this video, Beatchain's Creative Director Steve Jones discusses using Beatchain's tools to create a steady stream of content to ...

Joel Sadler

Making Great Content on a Budget

Looking to create some great video content without hiring 4 cameramen, a sound engineer and a giant rideable wrecking ball? Check out Beatchain Creative Director Steve Jones' top tips for creating effective content on a budget.

Joel Sadler

Music Tips: 10 Types of Content to Engage and Grow Your Fanbase

Social media is changing the relationships between fans and artists. Your modern audience now craves more intimate, varied and regular content than ever before.