December
Welcome to 2019!
2018 was another record smashing year for Kudos. We are now into eleven years of uninterrupted annual growth. We would like to say a big Thank-You to all the labels who have supported us over the last year and we look forward to working closely with you in 2019.
Kudos is hiring.
We need some help processing and dispatching all those additional Bandcamp, Discogs and Kudos mailorder orders, along with some general warehouse help with picking, packing and dispatching trade orders. If you know anyone suitable? Please pass on this link – http://bit.ly/2VkU9aB.
We are looking for a Social Media and Marketing Coordinator. Again, please pass on the link to anyone you think might fit the bill – http://bit.ly/2sbZcN7.
November
We have updated our Knowledgebase with a couple of new articles – Spotify Playlist Submission Tool and Transferring Releases from Another Distributor. Feel free to send over any suggestions that you would like us to cover.
This will be the final digest mailout for 2018, returning when we return to the office festively plump in January, so we wish you a great Christmas & a happy New Year.
Also – our mailorder site got a new lick of paint ready for the new year, come and check it out.
October
If you plan on releasing within the next couple of months, please be aware of the delivery deadlines over the holiday period below. Releases delivered after these deadlines may not be available on the desired dates.
On a related note, we have updated our Knowledgebase with a short article on the issue of lead times.
July
We will shortly be running a mid-price and deletions campaign for physical titles – those eligible will have received an email within the past couple of days with a link to the list of nominated titles and the actions available to chose from. If you have not done so already, please submit the form with your preferred options as soon as possible.
Additions this month to the Kudos Knowledgebase include an update to the Spotify Presave feature and an introduction to physical marketing opportunities.
June
We have a couple of recent additions to the Kudos Knowledgebase including information music videos, Bandcamp shipping and return policies and promotional packshot audio/video clips. As ever, drop us a line for any requests for articles to include in future.
P.S. come follow us and our office dog on Instagram!
May
Hello, and welcome to our latest email update. We have plenty to tell you about including news of a soon to be distributed Spotify windfall, a new “knowledgebase“, plus our recently added promo tools: a Spotify pre-save app and video clip generator. Oh, and an inevitable note on GDPR.
Spotify Windfall
As you may be aware, Spotify recently floated on the NY stock exchange. Merlin received an equity stake in Spotify at launch and have now disposed of these shares on the open market. Proceeds from this sale have now been distributed to members in proportion to each member’s Spotify turnover.
You can read more about this here.
We expect to receive track-level accounting from Merlin soon which will enable us to allocate these proceeds to labels through our usual digital accounting process. Stay tuned!
Kudos Knowledgebase
We are in the process of combining our various handbooks and FAQs into a single, searchable resource to make it easier for for our distributed labels to find practical information about working with us. The Kudos Knowledgebase can be found at https://help.kudosdistribution.co.uk/
The new site provides information about the services we offer, along with some general tips and best practices. It is a “work in progress” and we hope to refine and expand it in the future so we will encourage you to re-visit regularly to check out the latest additions and updates and we welcome your suggestions for articles you’d like to see. Some current articles that we expect to be of particular interest include;
Kudos Guide to Playlisting
Physical Marketing Opportunities
Spotify Pre-Save
We have recently added a Spotify “pre-save” option to our landing page which gives labels and artists an effective way to engage Spotify users during their pre-release promo campaigns. This helps maximise streaming numbers during the first few days of release which increases your chances of getting into discovery playlists. Follow this link to see a live example. Full information about pre-save tool is available in the knowledgebase – click here.
Packshot Clip Generator
We have also added a tool to the portal which can build a 60 second 1:1 downloadable MP4 “packshot” preview video for any track in your catalogue. These are great for posting on social media profiles to accompany links to your releases. You can see one in action here. For more information and instructions see this article on the new knowledgebase.
GDPR
We have recently updated our privacy policy in relation to the General Data Protection Regulations which come into force this week. Our new privacy notice, which details how personal information is handled by Kudos across our services, is available on our website here.
April
We will shortly be commencing deliveries of UGC-enabled digital releases to Facebook. These deliveries are for a new version of the Facebook Rights Manager which is still in development but will eventually handle music content recognition in a similar way to YouTube Content ID. We understand that Facebook are also looking for ways to legitimise music content on Facebook and generate revenue for rights owners but that is still some way off. In the meantime it would be useful for us to know about any Facebook pages and Instagram accounts your label operates where your label’s music might be uploaded so we can make sure these are whitelisted.
Please use this form to tell us about your Facebook pages and Instagram accounts.
MUSO anti-piracy for AIM members
Are you an AIM member? If so, you should have heard that they have recently announced a partnership with MUSO – making their specialist anti-piracy service available for free to AIM member labels. In order to allow eligible Kudos labels to take full advantage of this we are talking to MUSO about providing a delivery feed to automatically register the tracks you release through Kudos to your MUSO dashboard.
Please let us know if you are an AIM member by providing your membership number through this form.
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