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A group of deceptive independent musicians recently uncovered a secret way to game one of Spotify’s most popular playlists for new music discovery.
We make a lot of content about scams in the music industry, and for a good reason. Nothing infuriates more than people taking advantage of dreamers for selfish personal gain. People shouldn’t be afraid to trust others with their aspirations, especially on Spotify of all places, but such is the world we live in.

Billboard recently reported on a new scam involving independent artists who leverage the following of other independent musicians for personal gain. These performers upload songs to Spotify with other, larger artists tagged as featured on the music. That tag gets the attention of Spotify’s algorithm, which then takes the material and distributes it to the release radar of people who follow or frequently listen to the more popular artist (who—to be clear—is not actually on the track in question).

When fans realize they’ve been lied to, the artist perpetuating the myth has already earned another stream for their song. Multiply that by hundreds if not thousands of incidents, and deceptive musicians could easily see a sizable boost in their streaming revenue through continual use of this tactic.

There’s a related problem that also needs addressing. Major label artists do not have to worry about similar scams being attempted with their likeness. As Music Biz host James Shotwell details in his latest video, Spotify has a manual review process to ensure the top of the charts cannot be fooled by deceptive business practices. That forces us to ask: Why don’t independent artists get the same treatment?

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details. 

A midyear report by US market monitor Luminate—the same company behind the Billboard charts—has revealed the alarming fact that “new”/”current” music is becoming less popular in the country, and this statement can be backed up by facts and statistics, as first reported by Music Business Worldwide.

In the first half of 2022, Total Album Consumption (all streams and downloads, as well as physical album sales) of “Current” music (which means released in the 18 months before being streamed or purchased) dropped by 1.4% when compared to 2021.

With 131.3 million album sale-equivalent units reported for this year, “Current” music dropped almost 2 million units from the first half of 2021, which means that new music is not only selling less but is also being less popular in terms of streaming platforms. There was a drop of 3.7 between 2020 and 2021, which officially makes this a downward trend.

This tendency is opposed to the Total Album Consumption for “All” music in the US, which grew by 9.3% in comparison with 2021, standing at 475.4 million units sold.

Even more surprising is the news that “Catalog” music, which includes any release older than 18 months, grew by 14% in the year’s first half.

The report also found that “Current” music’s on-demand audio streams dropped by 2.6% this year, with an even more drastic decrease of 10.4% in video streaming platforms versus a 19% increase by “Catalog” music.

In his latest update, Music Biz host James Shotwell examines the possible contributing factors to our declining interest in current music. As he touches on the inherent lucrative nature of legacy acts, he also ponders who—if anyone—will become the next generation of “timeless” musicians.

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Pure Noise Records, and more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

The popularity of TikTok is leading a revolution in music release strategies that is unlike anything we've witnessed in decades.

Music marketing and release strategies are at the heart of every artist's career. How and when you release music matters as much as the content itself—sometimes more—and for the better part of twenty years, virtually every album has followed a similar promotional path:

1. Announce your release

2. Tease your release

3. Ask for preorders/presaves

4. Finally release the song

5. Promote the song

Traditional industry thinking tells us that you must promote music before its release because it's the only way to guarantee strong first-week sales, which often determines how much support a record will receive moving forward. History teaches us that if an artist fails to deliver an impressive launch week, the likelihood their label continues to pump money and attention into their career falls drastically.

As Bob Dylan said, "The times, they are a-changin'" because a new generation of musicians refuses to follow tradition. Between the boom of TikTok and the rise of the "give it to me now or I don't want it" culture, artists are choosing a more direct path to release and promotion.

1. Release the song.

2. Promote it.

That's it.

TikTok is an amazing tool for discovery, connecting users with an endless variety of content creators algorithmically-tailored to their interests. When someone hears a song snippet they enjoy, logic dictates they will head to the creator's profile, hoping to find their music online. If the user then visits the artist's page and FAILS to find the song they heard on TikTok, the chances they save the artist and return later are virtually non-existent. In other words, you have one chance to grab someone's attention, and if you blow it, they [most likely] won't return.

To avoid this problem, artists are now choosing to skip promoting new material until it's available worldwide. The risk of losing potential fans because you went viral before the release date is too high for most to gamble, but that's not the only reason.

The so-called "TikTok Approach" is also a cost-effective promotional solution for cash-strapped independent artists whose marketing budgets often equate to whatever they can spare after paying for living expenses. Rather than waste your money teasing a song or record people cannot yet enjoy, spend your pre-release time creating content you can share immediately following the song's premiere. Any engagement will lead to immediate streams (AKA money).

And it's not just independent artists shifting their thinking around releases. Everywhere you look, the time between a song or album announcement and the release date is shrinking. Even Post Malone, arguably one of the world's biggest musicians, announced his recent 2022 album only six weeks before its initial release. The first single? A surprise release.

Making this one adjustment to your next release strategy will ultimately save time and money. More importantly, it will give anyone interested in your music instant access to it. You want as few barriers between strangers and hearing your music as possible, and in our quickly evolving world, that requires making changes as culture dictates it necessary.

Remember the phrase, "Don't bore us, get to the chorus"? The same applies to release strategies. Stop fooling around and deliver. Your fans will be thrilled to see new music, and anyone new won't have to wait around to see if you're as good as your teasers claim. Everybody wins.

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

Every artist has a story to tell, but alarmingly few seem to realize how many artists are telling similar stories. Every life is unique, but there are only so many relatable experiences that can be mass-marketed through song. That's why there are so many love songs and an equally large amount of heartbreak anthems. The same goes for songs about realizing life is short, mourning the dead, aspiring to better oneself, and of course, the timeless desire to flee one's hometown and chase big-city dreams.

Your story is unique, but you have to know how to sell your story for tastemakers to understand that.

Each day, in offices and remote workspaces around the globe, playlist curators and industry gatekeepers sift through countless songs from artists hoping they'll give them one of the very limited spaces available on editorial playlists. Certain tastemakers who specialize in things like mood-themed playlists may hear upwards of one hundred or more tracks with a similar theme or story in a single day.

If you want to be the ONE song that stands out from the competition, there are two factors you have to nail:


The song needs to be GOOD. Obviously.
You need to sell the heck out of that song.

Part one is up to you. As for part two:

The only thing separating your story of wanting to leave home and every other dreamer is in the way you sell it to someone else.

Start by breaking your song down to the simplest description possible.

"My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape."

Great! We have a relatable perspective that millions, even billions, can easily recognize.

The only problem is—everyone has a song about wanting to leave your hometown.

If you want to attract playlist curators, tastemakers, or anyone at all, you need to be more specific.

Let's start with the "why" of it all. WHY do you want to leave your hometown?

"My song is about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape because I have big dreams."

That's better. You've narrowed the target audience slightly, but you've also gotten closer to your true market.

Let's add another detail, perhaps explore WHAT made us want to leave our hometown. Was it our family, the community, or something more existential? Maybe it's all three!

"My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits."

The significance of your song and your perspective on life increases exponentially with each detail we add to our story. Those same details attract the gatekeepers of entertainment and inspire countless passive listeners to seek out more of your music.

With a little effort, our song about growing up in a small town and waiting to escape can be sold as an epic tale of wanderlust and misadventure inspired by unfortunate yet relatable circumstances.

"My song is about growing up in a conservative small town and how nobody, not even my family members, can relate to your ambitions of a life outside the village limits. It's about taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you and exploring them. Sometimes we will fail, but that's okay because failure is part of the journey. What's more important, to me, is that we try in the first place."

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry's leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

**This episode is meant to be consumed in video form. If you are listening outside of Spotify, we highly recommend visiting our YouTube channel for the full experience. http://youtube.com/musicbiz**

TikTok has been celebrated as a revolutionary platform for music discovery and fan engagement. The video-sharing app has already helped over a hundred artists land on the Billboard charts, and it has made several more household names. In less than five years, TikTok has become one of the—if not the most—influential platform for artists looking to raise awareness for their talent worldwide.

But there's a catch. There's ALWAYS a catch.

When TikTok ushered in a new way for musicians to market themselves, the company unintentionally broke music marketing. It didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't intentional, but TikTok has created a space where the lines between fact and fiction blur in ways never previously thought possible. Users now question the legitimacy of everything, the good and the bad, which makes getting any message across increasingly difficult.

In his latest video, Music Biz host James Shotwell examines how we reached this point and what actions artists should take in response. Through numerous examples, James explains how misdirection and deception have fueled an age of discovery where every success story has another, often far less surprising, truth behind it.

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry's leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

If you’ve ever received a DM from an individual promising something that felt too good to be true, this episode on scam artists is for you.

When I was beginning my career, my grandfather offered me advice that I carry to this day. “Wherever there are dreamers,” he told me, “there will be people looking to make a quick buck by exploiting that dream.” He knew scam artists were everywhere, but I’m not sure even my grandfather understood how prevalent such tricksters would be in 2022.

Every artist with an online presence has encountered a scammer. Maybe they posed as a fan to get friendly before trying to sell them special services, or perhaps they’re pretending to be a major record label exec. Either way, scammers are everywhere, and they target the hungriest artists because they know desperate people rarely think things through.

Ever since our first article on scam artists, musicians worldwide have contacted us regarding direct messages, emails, phone calls, and even business cards they’ve received from people they felt were trying to scam them. More often than not, those concerns were later validated when we uncovered the truth behind the false goods these individuals were promising.

We are still receiving messages from concerned artists. One musician, Jamal, even sent us screenshots and an in-depth description of their interactions with a scammer. We asked for permission to share their experiences with you, and thankfully, they agreed.

Music Biz host James Shotwell shares a step-by-step guide to understanding how scammers operate on social media in the video below. He shares Jamal’s experiences, including screenshots of his conversations, and even places a call to Warner Music Group.