Independent Music Stage - New Fan Focused Twitter

[john]

Independent Music Stage

 

We are launching the Independent Music Stage - a platform to showcase the best independent music alongside complimentary mainstream artists. It will be managed by the staff of SSUK (Songstuff U.K.).
 

The idea is simple. Build a place that fans will go to hear great music, giving Songstuff Community members a friendly, accessible place to showcase their music.

 

We plan to feature:

 

• Songstuff Artists
• Non-Songstuff Indie Artists - the best we can find
• Mainstream artists - Popular artists have large numbers of followers

 

We want to treat indie artists just like mainstream artists, with features, interviews, playlists, production videos, webcam performances, livestreams, photos etc spread over websites, blogs, social media, newsletters, podcasts, video channels… it’s a massive undertaking, but one we believe to be an essential component to a successful indie scene. Not simply that Songstuff features indie music, but that there is a network of sites that treat indies like mainstream artists.

 

SSUK

 

SSUK will be a music blog/music magazine site. It will offer blog posts, articles, interviews, playlists, reviews, and is to be closely associated with the Independent Music Stage. It is a fan facing site. Songstuff will help to provide songs to SSUK, while SSUK will provide playlists, livestreams interviews and more to Songstuff.
 

Suggestions for witty uses of SSUK are very welcome!

 

Independent Music Stage

 

The Independent Music Stage (IMS) proudly showcases independent music through playlists on some music distribution platforms:

 

• Follow – Independent Music Stage on Soundcloud
• Follow – Independent Music Stage on Spotify
• Follow – Independent Music Stage on YouTube

 

Our playlists are then promoted on our blog, social media portals, our newsletter, across our sister site’s blogs, their social media portals:

 

• Independent Music Stage on Twitter
• Independent Music Stage on Facebook
• Independent Music Stage on Instagram
• Independent Music Stage on Pinterest

 

Mainstream Artists

 

Why would we feature mainstream artists? Apart from the fact that they make good quality popular music, they have fans. Their fans are potentially your listeners, your fans. If you make music that is like a mix of Lou Reed and John Mayer, then prominently placing your music on the same playlists as popular songs by Lou Reed, John Mayer, and a few other complimentary mainstream and indie artists, potentially exposes their fans to your music. Fans who already like the kind of music you make.

 

Why You Should You Actively Support The IMS

 

Of course, you can do this yourself, but with multiple artists promoting our lists to their fans we should be able to grow at a much faster rate than any individual artist would.

 

Additionally, we plan to grow our playlists and portals with an audience of fans, not artists. It’s an important distinction. Fans listen to music, they download music. They behave like fans! What about your fellow artist? Well they might never listen to your music. A large percentage liked or followed you, in the hope that you will follow them. I scratched your back, so please scratch mine. It might grow large lists quite quickly, but they are pretty dead lists, because they are not fans. Algorithm wise, platforms then down rank your posts. After all, your audience doesn’t even interact with them, and previous interaction predicts future interactions. That means Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc. think your content is boring and un-engaging. On such content platforms that is the death of your account.

 

I get it. Just as bands start by playing to friends, family and work colleagues, they need to quickly transition to reaching listeners who don’t know them in order to build an active, engaged fan base who are there for their music, not a sense of obligation. On social media the same is true. You might get your list started with friends, family and fellow artists, but you absolutely must transition to reaching strangers who listen to the kind of music that you make.

 

Quality Of Playlists

 

To grow playlists we need to attract followers and keep followers engaged. We need to deliver a minimum of great music to listeners, or listeners will evaporate away. This means we need to maintain a high standard of recording and production, good songs, lots of talent. As mentioned we want to mix mainstream with the best of indie and the best of Songstuff.
 

By pushing Songstuff Artists to produce brilliant recordings of their songs we create the best opportunity possible for those artists. If we simply accepted all songs with no checks on quality we could very easily kill the popularity of individual playlists or the IMS as a whole.

 

This means that songs that are submitted cannot be automatically accepted and added to IMS playlists. However, if requested, Songstuff staff will help Songstuff Community members whose songs are rejected to improve the standard of their submission with the hope that future submissions will be of an acceptable standard. This includes highlighting issues with recording and production, performance.

 

In the case of being featured or interviewed, if requested, our staff will provide suggestions for improving the artist’s EPK, and the overall packaging and presentation of the artist and their music.

 

Songstuff

 

Songstuff has more than 20,000 musicians, songwriters, artists, producers and other music professionals as members. In the near future it will provide courses, articles and tools to help aid with every part of a song’s journey, from the idea, through lyric writing, music arrangement, recording and production, mastering, release, marketing and promotion.
 

Songstuff will present SSUK playlists, features, livestreams and interviews to Songstuff visitors and community members via the Songstuff blog, across the Songstuff site, the Songstuff newsletter and our social portals.

 

Cheers

 

John