Hey Musicians, FaceBook Hates Your App (which is a direct reflection on how they feel about you btw) and Some Free Advice From Your Old Buddy Jack
Let’s see here; several weeks ago, in one of my numerous rants about how social networks in general and FaceBook in particular are not helpful in promoting independent music I said…
And, it brings up thoughts of how these social networks make it difficult to promote music effectively. I know that your FaceBook news feed is probably chock full of people pushing the same tracks over and over but, it’s not effective…
…The bottom line with big social networks is; they already have the traffic and you feel that’s why you need to be there. They control the revenue and would just as soon not have people leaving the site to buy your product…unless you are part of the corporate empire that drives the ad revenue.
If you are trying to promote your music on FaceBook you have no doubt seen some negative results from the roll out of the new and mandatory Timeline format which, disabled default landing pages on artist apps on March, 30th.
DMN provides some startling traffic numbers for the app providers BandPage, ReverbNation, and FanRx.
BandPage (formerly RootMusic)
DAU (Daily Average User) Totals:Peak: 1,700,000
March 25th: 640,000
April 10th: 210,000
Drop = 87.6%ReverbNation (Band Profile)
DAU (Daily Average User) Totals:Peak: 724,000
March 25th: 389,000
April 10th: 220,000
Drop = 69.6%FanRx (formerly BandRx)
DAU (Daily Average User) Totals:Peak: 580,000
March 25th: 270,000
April 10th: 40,000
Drop = 93.1%
So FaceBook, is not your friend. From those numbers one could surmise that they’d just as soon see you go out of business.
I’m going to break down some stuff for you and give you some free advice fellow musicians.
I use Reverb Nation primarily because the widget embeds easily and I’ve been using it for a while now.
Reverb has a bunch of different “charts” for musicians that reflect a bunch of parameters like “fan interaction” and the like. These charts may make you feel warm and fuzzy, especially if you have coerced a bunch of other musicians to “Like” your FaceBook page but, these charts are basically useless.
The one statistic that does matter is how many plays you get. After all, the real objective here is to have people listening to your music. As a musician, that should be way more important to you than a number of people that “Like” you and don’t listen.
So, what you really need to do is increase the number of people that listen, yes? I’m going to tell you how to do that.
As of this morning here are my own relevant Reverb Nation numbers…
Total Plays: 194,703
Widget Hits: 1,009,066
RN doesn’t register an official play unless the listener listens to 70% of a song. So, the number of “widget hits” is relevant because it reflects the number of people who hear a smaller portion of a song before clicking on down the road.
One thing I would like to make clear about my own numbers here; they aren’t big numbers in the grand scheme of things. Meaning, a couple hundred thousand internet streams is not going to bring you anything resembling prosperity. However, a couple of hundred thousand plays is a big number compared to the vast majority of musicians who are using Reverb Nation and other such promotional tools.
But, a lot of folks are concentrating on getting “Likes” rather than getting listeners.
By the way, in the last 90 days, I have 7,373 plays…2 were via FaceBook.
If you want to get plays here’s what you got to do;
1. Establish a real dedicated website.
2. Embed a widget that you can set to auto-play.
3. Use a blog format and update it regularly.
If you write about something every day, your site will start showing up in search engines. If you write about a consistent subject like say…music, instead of like what I do which is pretty much anything I feel like spouting about at any given time, you will draw a more specific demographic.
Not everyone that clicks on your site will “Like” you or your music but, they will be listening at least for a little while.
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5 Responses to “Hey Musicians, FaceBook Hates Your App (which is a direct reflection on how they feel about you btw) and Some Free Advice From Your Old Buddy Jack”
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Pribek At Zazzle
The post to blame: Most Peculiar Mama (Don't Eat Your Cat)
Thanks, Jack- I’m going to pass this along to Bob and Chris in the K-Bros.
very good Ron, it will be a better world when everyone is listening to the Kingdom Brothers!
“ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10
Tap into the rhythm of the passersby
If they listen do I win, or do I die?
Ambitious drop zones carry your bitchin’ tune
While many fall victim to impending doom
Criminals are made, from all these pages torn
It’s you and me brother against elites born
One sniff of the leaders’ board leaves a foul smell,
do the math, you have a snow balls chance in hell.
As for a path to start I submit the above three
but add a fourth that $750 grand you will need
and as that hunger pain in your gizzard rumbles
It won’t hurt a bit if Art Linkletter is your uncle…
Oh, yes, and I invite you all to the faceBook group “Cult Following and Fan Club of Jack Pribek” and add yourself!!
Then sit back and wonder when the pork burgers will be served. Some day I know.
very nice…didn’t see Art Linkletter coming