Bypass: Music Industry News for Independent Artists

Wednesday edition • 3 min read

Before You Ditch Bandcamp, Read This

What's Up So Bandcamp just laid off most of its engineers, and everyone's already freaking out, run to Subvert, Sleeve, CD Baby, whatever. But let's just pump the brakes here.

So What Jumping ship might sound like the best idea, but you've gotta think about where you're jumping to. Those other platforms can give you a store, yeah, but they don't have Bandcamp's fans. Bandcamp's the one spot where people show up just to buy music, and they do it for fun. And that isn't changing overnight.

Now What Don't run. At least not yet. The fans on Bandcamp were never really yours, so grab those emails while the lights are still on. Don't forget your sales history and catalog either. Get them and stash them on a hard drive somewhere.

[Full story at Hypebot]

The Guy Who Posted One Song All 365 Days Of The Year

What's Up Dark-pop artist Jared Benjamin did something that most of us don't have the guts for. He believed in his song so much that he posted it every day for a year. That song was "Flatline," and it ended up getting 24 million Spotify streams. Yup, apparently you're releasing way too much music.

So What He didn't just prove that brute force can be a marketing tactic either. 90% of people seeing each post were seeing him for the first time. Yep, go ahead and cross "I'll annoy my followers posting this again" off your excuse list. Your followers aren't your reach. Strangers are. And that's a good thing.

Now What What's your best song? Whatever it is, post it and post it like crazy. Extra points if it already had a little buzz. And check your analytics to make sure you've got fresh faces. If you do, keep posting way past the point it feels normal.

[Full story at Music Ally]

Shorts Just Added Photo Posts

What's Up Image posts are in Shorts, baby. Way behind Instagram and TikTok, but we'll take it. You can now upload up to 10 pics with music and text over them.

So What Easier posting means it's easier to stay consistent. We don't need to tell you how important staying consistent is, right? There are some caveats, though. Some pretty big ones. The feature's only for "eligible creators" (whatever that means), and YouTube's staying tight-lipped. Oh, and a photo doesn't count as a view until it hits the Shorts feed. Plus, if you can't find it under Shorts, it's probably under Posts.

Now What Don't sweat the eligibility stuff. There's one way to know if you're in. Just try it. If your post views start climbing, you know you hit the feed.

[Full story at Music Ally]