Digital Marketing Opportunities

There’s a few options available for placement on the major DSPs- we’ll pitch your releases to the relevant services, but if there’s somewhere you’d like us to focus on in particular let us know. We’ll run through the main services and the opportunities available below.

Despite the downturn in download sales over the past few years iTunes is still an important outlet and a big supporter of new releases. We pitch priority releases to iTunes on a weekly basis, and they require 3 weeks notice. They like to support releases with a lot of activity around them, so the more information you can share with us regarding press, PR, DJ support and suchlike the better. They also consider things like social media stats and like to see artists pushing the release on social media and through Connect.

If releases are supported on iTunes they tend to be supported by Apple Music either in the browser or in one of their many playlists. Like Spotify, Apple’s playlists are curated by a mixture of humans and algorithms.

You can set an ‘Instant-Grat’ track on iTunes where one (or more) tracks from the album can go live during the pre-release cycle. This is a great way of driving pre-orders which is something Apple like to see when choosing who gets the support slots each week.

Spotify offers a number of options- a New Releases slot which lists a number of the biggest new releases out that week (normally albums) and a multitude of Playlists. We pitch to Spotify each week and suggest albums for new release featuring and tracks for playlist inclusion. Their biggest playlists tend to feature only the most popular artists (akin to getting A-list play on Radio 1) but there’s a number of other playlists too. If you want us to focus on a particular playlist then let us know, but bear in mind only certain playlists are human curated, the majority are curated by algorithm, based on users listening habits. That said, Spotify can, and do select independent releases for their playlists and aren’t as focused on things like social media numbers as other sites. If they like a track, they’ll find a place for it somewhere.

A good way of getting featured in the algorithm-based playlists is to be active on Spotify and get your tracks being listened to by users and shared. An active profile is a good help, and we can help get this verified for you. Making your own playlists and driving fans towards them is a good way of ensuring your music gets listened to. A plus side of Spotify is that you can add popular songs from other artists to your playlists to help draw in listeners. It’s worth having one or two regularly updated playlists to keep visitors listening. There’s other things we can do on a release-by-release basis, so drop me an email if you have anything in particular you wish to discuss.

If you want to apply for a verified artist or label profile, email owen@kudosrecords.co.uk

Spotify are not bothered about having exclusive content, they only ask that they receive it on the same date as all other services.

Google Play has a few genre pages, but doesn’t provide genre charts. Most of their feature spots are automatically generated based on the users listening & purchase history, although we do pitch new releases to them for the available feature spots. They tend to feature only the biggest releases and are nowhere near as diverse as Apple & Spotify in their programming.

Here is a link to Google Play’s “Best Practice” document, which includes marketing ideas, and how to claim Artist Pages etc.

Deezer is still a streaming player, especially in France and we pitch to them for playlist inclusion regularly. They also feature releases on their landing page.

Tidal have a new releases section we pitch for and they also have a wide range of playlists, although they don’t report on any inclusions. If there’s any particular playlist on Tidal you’d like us to pitch for then please let us know.

Tidal like exclusive content but it’s not something we generally recommend.

Juno have a large number of genre-based weekly newsletters in which they profile the key releases out that week. They often review releases when they’re featuring them too, and run occasional label features in the newsletters, which are a good way of promoting back catalogue, although they pick the titles they feature here.

You can also publish charts on Juno. To do either of these: register as a user and set up a DJ profile – you’ll then be able to create DJ charts and upload your own mixes. In some instances these mixes/playlists can be sold with a portion of the money going to you – more information is available within the site. Juno: http://www.junodownload.com/all/top_dj_charts

7Digital tend to focus their new release spots on the more mainstream releases, although they do support other releases. They are very editorially-led though, and are happy to run features artists and labels which can result in some nice promotion. They also act as a B2B curation service for a number of other download pages. Let us know if you wish to have us pitch your label or artists to 7Digital for a feature.

Featuring on Amazon Mp3 is either suggested by algorithm, or chosen as part of a price-led campaign. Amazon are about to launch a standalone streaming service as an add-on for Prime customers in the US, although we don’t have much info on the opportunities available yet. Watch this space for more when we get it.

We only pitch relevant (ie. Dance/Electronic) releases to Beatport. They offer banners and new release packshots for featuring. They like to see things like social media numbers and also links driving fans back to Beatport. You can provide DJ charts which they also support.

Beatport Mixes: http://mixes.beatport.com/mix/play-may/68111

Beatport DJ Chart: http://www.beatport.com/charts/satisfied-remix-ep-chart/184115

They like to receive releases exclusively but it’s not something we generally recommend.

Similar to Beatport, Traxsource is more house focused, although they do support other electronic genres. They have a lot of feature spots available on their website, and kindly provide a report when a release is featured. They ask for artist charts in return, although this isn’t a necessity. Again, Traxsource like to get exclusive releases.

You can submit DJ charts here:

http://support.traxsource.com/article/how-do-i-make-a-chart-playlist

WhatPeoplePlay is the download site of German distributor Word & Sound. It’s not huge in the UK but has a reasonable customer base in Europe. They give 7 or 8 key releases Banners each week and have a number of genre slots available for other releases. They mainly focus on the dance & electronic genres.

The Bleep download store is heavily curated, and they don’t take all releases from us. We suggest to them if there’s something they should be looking at, but the final decision lays with them. When they do support a release this will be through their weekly newsletter and website homepage. They also feature a Bleep playlist with key tracks that week.

Similar to Bleep, Boomkat don’t take a wide range of music, tending to focus more on electronic and experimental music. They feature releases in their weekly newsletter and homepage, and will write reviews of releases they enjoy. If a release has a physical product attached to it they will sometimes mail out a dedicated newsletter for that release.

Again, mostly electronic music, Hardwax will feature key releases on their website and in their weekly newsletter. They normally write a short, one-line review too.

The download site of Japanese reggae distributor Dub Store, they tend to focus on Reggae Music but will also feature other genres occasionally in the ‘other music’ section of their newsletter. This tends to be dubstep or funk/soul generally.

Another Japanese site, Wasabeat focus on electronic music. They mail out regularly and also put together download ‘compilations’ which are a collection of tracks around a theme.