Spotify’s Podcasting Leaders Share Their Top 6 Takeaways From Podcast Movement

To invite SONO Music as a user (part of the artist team) with an admin role to major DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, you’ll need to follow specific procedures for each platform. These platforms have artist management tools that allow artists and their teams to manage their profiles, view analytics, and more. Below is a guide for each of these major platforms:

Spotify for Artists

1.Access Spotify for Artists: If you haven’t already, sign up for Spotify for Artists. If SONO Music already has access, they can log in.
2.Invite Team Members: Go to the ‘Team’ section in the Spotify for Artists dashboard.
3.Add a New Member: Click on ‘Invite Team Member,’ enter the email address (ar@sonomusic.co), select the role as ‘Admin,’ and send the invite.

Apple Music for Artists

1.Sign Up or Log In: Access Apple Music for Artists. If you’re new, you’ll need to request access by claiming your artist profile.
2.Invite Team Members: Once in, go to the ‘Manage’ tab and select ‘People.’
3.Add New People: Click ‘+’ to add a new person, enter the required details including the email address (ar@sonomusic.co), and assign the role as ‘Admin’ or any other appropriate role.
4.Send the Invitation: Review and send the invite.

YouTube Studio

1.Access YouTube Studio: Log in to the YouTube account associated with SONO Music’s artist channel.
2.Open Permissions: Click on ‘Settings,’ then ‘Permissions.’
3.Invite a User: Click ‘INVITE’ and enter the email address (ar@sonomusic.co). Assign the role as ‘Manager’ or ‘Editor,’ which allows for admin-like permissions.
4.Confirm: Click ‘DONE’ to send the invitation.

Other DSPs (Tidal, Amazon Music for Artists, Deezer, Pandora etc.):

For other DSPs, the process might vary, but generally, you will:

1.Access the Artist’s Dashboard: This could be through a specific artist management portal or the main user account settings, depending on the DSP.
2.Look for Team Management Options: This might be labeled differently (e.g., Team, Members, Permissions).
3.Invite New Members: Enter the email address (ar@sonomusic.co) and select the appropriate admin or equivalent role.

General Tips:

• Double-Check Email Addresses: Make sure the email address (ar@sonomusic.co) is correct before sending invites.
• Communicate with Team Members: let SONO Music Group know that they should expect invitations from various platforms.
• Follow Up: If there are any issues or delays in accepting invitations, check in with your team members.

Each platform has its specifics, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the help sections of Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, and YouTube Studio for more detailed instructions or any updates to the process.

Get money for your next project from your super fans, friends and family or who believes that your project is valuable.

How do I get a verified profile on Social Media?

The verified badge  appears next to a Facebook (IG, Tiktok) Page or account’s name in search and on the profile. It means Facebook has confirmed that an account is the authentic presence of the public figure, celebrity, or global brand it represents.

What are the requirements to apply for a verified badge?

We look at a number of factors when evaluating Facebook accounts to determine if they’re in the public interest and meet the verification criteria.

In addition to following Facebook’s terms of service, your account also needs to be:

• Authentic: Your account must represent a real person, registered business or entity.
• Unique: Your account must be the unique presence of the person or business it represents. Only one account per person or business may be verified, with exceptions for language-specific accounts. We don’t verify general interest accounts (example: Puppy Memes).
• Complete: Your account must be public and have a bio, profile photo and at least one post. Your profile can’t contain “add me” links to other social media services.
• Notable: Your account must represent a well-known, often searched person, brand or entity. We review accounts that are featured in multiple news sources, and we don’t consider paid or promotional content as sources for review.

Keep in mind that if you provide false or misleading information during the verification process, we will remove your verified badge and may take additional action to delete your account.

If your account doesn’t meet the criteria for a verified badge, there are other ways to let people know it’s authentic. For example, you can link to it from an official website, Instagram profile or Twitter account.

Request Verification

You can find your Pre-Save Links in your email account, they’ll automatically switch to SmartLink once your release is out.

Tip: if you can’t find it, search for emails with “You Pre-Save link for: SONG-TITLE” subject, having support@stage.sonomusic.co as sender.

The links are created automatically after you send us your music, so please be sure to check your email max 2/3 days after your Upload Music Form submission.  

NOTE: Be sure to promote Pre-Save and SmartLinks as much as you can to gain more traction on your upcoming release.

Pre-Save and listen to your colleagues’ songs as well! This will help you reach Algorithmic and Editorial playlists, as well as helping us creating an audience that already interacted with your music.

Check your link

YouTube Video Release

To release your Videoclip through SONO, with the chance to be pitched into various DSPs Video Playlists, please Fill in the Upload Video Form on Forms Page. The services included are:

• Amazon
• Apple Music/ iTunes
• Facebook (and IG) Video
• Tidal
• VEVO
• YouTube
• Fizy
• Hungama
• Mood Media
• Nightlife Music
• Tencent Music Entertainment
• United Media Agency
• Xite

If you’re releasing by yourself, please read the following guidelines:

The videoclip might be released at least 1 week after the audio release, in order not to spread your fans onto too many different platforms and to focus attention on your songs first.

Below the caption to add to your music video/lyric video when you upload it on YouTube. Add the missing info with yours.

Listen to “TITLE”, out now: SMARTURLS LINK (SONO will provide it)

Directed by: DIRECTOR

Developed/Edited by: XXXX

OTHER CREDITS

Written by:

Producer

Art Director:

Mastered by:

Follow ARTIST:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/ARTIST

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ARTIST

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARTIST

Follow SONO Music Group

Website: https://sonomusic.co

Facebook: https://facebook.com/sonomusicgroup

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sonomusicgroup

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sonomusicgroup

Music video by ARTIST performing TITLE. ©℗ 2020 SONO Music Group

IMPORTANT NOTE!

If you’re willing to promote your video with Google ADS, upload your video 3/4 days before release and set up your promo on Google ADS, in order to prevent the Google bot to block your promotion before it would even started, compromising the first interactions and therefore a possible higher ranking on YouTube trends.

Click&Clear License Agreement

Have you ever thought to be paid for your music to be used as the soundtrack for Performance Sports worldwide?

Well, with SONO you can. Compile the form and we’ll be able to deliver your music to this service.

Apply Now

When it comes to building a memorable brand, it’s all about consistency.

When you’re shopping for your favorite cereal or coffee at the grocery store, you want to be able to spot it from a mile away.

The best brands stick in our brains because their presence is defined by the repetition of the same logo, fonts, colors, and images.

Once we see them enough, they become instantly recognizable, bringing us a clear sense of reliability and security.

Developing a consistent brand starts with creating a brand style guide. These branding rule books help graphic designers, marketers, web developers, community managers, and even product packaging departments all stay on the same page, and present a unified vision of the brand to the public.

We’ve compiled a list of some awesome brand style guides to use as inspiration for your next branding project or website redesign. Check them out below.

Picture the most recognizable brands you can think of. Chances are, you’ve learned to recognize them because of the consistency across the messaging — written or visual — these brands broadcast. The same brand colors are reflected across them. The language sounds familiar. It’s all very organized and, while not rigid, it’s cohesive.

Here are a few types of guidelines you’d find in a brand style guide and which parts of a brand they can influence.

Mission Statement

By reputation, you might think a mission statement is in its own category of importance to a business. And it is. But your business’s mission statement is also compass for your brand style guide. A mission statement ensures every piece of content you create for your brand is working toward the same goal — and, ideally, strives to solve the same problem for your customer.

Your mission statement can guide your:

• Blog content.
• Paid/sponsored content
• Ad copy.
• Visual media.
• Slogan or tagline.

Buyer Persona

By definition, a buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It can include details related to your customer’s age, gender, job title, and professional challenges. For this reason, your buyer persona should also appear in your brand style guide. Your buyer persona is your target audience, and therefore stipulates for whom your brand publishes content.

Your buyer persona can guide your:

• Blog content.
• Ad copy.
• Visual media.

Color Palette

A color palette is a group of colors a company uses to design its brand, and it guides every piece of visual content the brand creates. Your color palette can be as simple or as elaborate as you want, so long as your brand doesn’t deviate from the colors you choose to include.

Color palettes that feature multiple colors often dedicate specific colors to specific types of marketing content. While the first two colors of your color palette might govern your logo, for example, the next two colors might support your website and blog design. Another two or three colors might be the basis for all your printed branding material.

No matter what colors you use for your color palette, make sure you identify their HEX or RGB color codes. These codes consist of numbers and letters to help you recall the exact shade, brightness, contrast, and hue you want associated with your brand, so your colors don’t gradually drift in appearance as you create new content. You can find color codes using most photo-editing or design software that comes standard on your computer. Learn more about finding and committing to color codes in this blog post.

Your color palette can guide your:

• Logo.
• Website design.
• Printed advertisings.
• Event collateral.

Editorial Style Guide

Nowadays, an editorial style guide is the bread and butter of an authoritative brand. This component of your brand style guide can have strong implications for your PR team, as well as the people who write articles, scripts, blog posts, and website copy for your company.

An editorial style guide’s main job is to commit to an editorial stylebook (such as Associated Press or Chicago), how to phrase certain products, topics the brand can and cannot write about, and even other companies the brand can and cannot mention. However, a brand’s editorial style guide can also go into much deeper detail about your buyer persona: what they like to read about, where they read it, their general reading level, etc.

Your editorial style guide can guide your:

• Blog content.
• Video scripts.
• Website copy.
• Landing page copy.
• Public relations talking points.
• A knowledge base supported by your customer service team.
• Paid/sponsored content.

Typography

Typography is another visual element of your brand style guide, but it isn’t just the font you use in your company logo. Typographic guidelines can support your blog design — which font you publish articles in — the links and copy on your website, and even a tagline to go with your company logo.

As you can see, the purpose of the brand style guide is to form and maintain all of the various elements of a company that, when combined, spell out the entire brand as it’s recognized.

Intrigued? Check out 21 of the best ones we could find.

1. Medium

Medium emphasizes both typography and color in its brand style guide. Its guide also include details related to the company’s “Purpose” and “Product Principles.”

See the full brand guide here.

2. Wolf Circus Jewelry

Wolf Circus Jewelry’s product is all about appearance. Naturally, the company’s style guide is too. The brand’s style guide includes the company’s mission statement, product details, typeface, logo variations, a color palette, and a separate set of guidelines just for advertisements.

See the full brand guide here.

3. Ollo

Ollo is so into color and typography, it turned its style guide into a game. Click the link below to see how much you can manipulate the brand. It’s the perfect way to show content creators how creative they can get but also still adhere to Ollo’s specific typeface and color codes.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Bibliothèque Design

4. Skype

Everyone’s favorite video chat platform also has a squeaky-clean style guide for its brand. Skype, now owned by Microsoft, focuses primarily on its product phrasing and logo placement.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Microsoft

5. Barre & Soul

Barre & Soul’s brand style guide includes variations of its logo, logo spacing, secondary logos, supporting imagery, and a five-color color palette.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

6. Spotify

Spotify’s style guide might appear simple and green, but there’s more to the brand than just a lime green circle. Spotify’s color palette includes three color codes, while the rest of the company’s branding guidelines focus heavily on logo variation and album artwork. The style guide even allows you to download an icon version of its logo, making it easier to represent the company without manually recreating it.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Spotify

7. Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver has an extremely thorough brand style guide, covering logo placement across all of its kitchenware products. The company also includes a large color palette with each color sorted by the product it should be shown on.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

8. Herban Kitchen

Herban Kitchen has both a color and texture palette in its style guide. These guidelines help to show not just how the brand’s logo will appear, but how the company’s various storefronts will look from the outside to potential customers.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

9. Urban Outfitters

Photography, color, and even tone of voice appear in Urban Outfitters’ California-inspired brand guidelines. However, the company isn’t shy to include information about its ideal consumer and what the brand believes in, as well.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

10. Love to Ride

Love to Ride, a cycling company, is all about color variety in its visually pleasing style guide. The company’s brand guidelines include nine color codes and tons of detail about its secondary logos and imagery.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

11. Barbican

Barbican, an art and learning center in the United Kingdom, sports a loud yet simple style guide focusing heavily on its logo and supporting typefaces.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

12. I Love New York

Despite its famously simple t-shirts, I Love New York has a brand style guide. The company begins its guidelines with a thorough explanation of its mission, vision, story, target audience, and tone of voice. Only then does the style guide delve into its logo positioning on various merchandise.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

13. Cisco

Cisco’s style guide isn’t just a guide — it’s an interactive brand book. The company takes website visitors page by page through its brand’s vision, mission, strategy, and even its promise before showing users their logo and allowing them to actually type using their proprietary typeface, “CiscoSans.” Where’s Cisco’s color palette, you ask? The business has a separate webpage for just that.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Cisco

14. University of the Arts Helsinki

The style guide of the University of the Arts Helsinki is more of a creative branding album than a traditional marketing guide. It shows you dozens of contexts in which you’d see this school’s provocative logo, including animations.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Behance

15. NJORD

NJORD’s minimalist style guide gives you everything you’d need to know to design using the brand’s logo and color palette for both web and print.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Behance

16. Espacio Cultural

This cultural center in Argentina has a color palette that’s as elaborate as the artistic workshops it hosts. Nonetheless, the brand does a fantastic job of breaking down every last color code and logo placement you can find — from the building itself to the advertisements promoting it.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Behance

17. Alienware

Video gamers know Alienware from its game-friendly computers, but the rest of the world knows it by the brand’s sleek aesthetic. The company organizes its brand style guide into four basic parts: voice, design, photography, and partner. The latter describes (and shows) how the brand interacts with partner brands, such as Star Wars.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

18. Netflix

As far as its public brand assets are concerned, Netflix is focused primarily on the treatment of its logo. The company offers a simple set of rules governing the size, spacing, and placement of its famous capitalized typeface, as well as a single color code for its classic red logo.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Netflix

19. Scrimshaw Coffee

Featuring a five-code color palette, this “laid back,” “friendly,” and “modern” brand has a number of secondary logos it embraces in various situations.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Issuu

20. NASA

NASA’s “Graphics Standards Manual” is as official and complex as you think it is. At 220 pages, the guide describes countless logo placements, color uses, and supporting designs. And yes, NASA’s space shuttles have their own branding rules.

See the full brand guide here.

Source: Standards Manual

21. New York City Transit Authority

Like NASA, the NYCTA has its own Graphics Standards Manual, and it includes some fascinating typography rules for the numbers, arrows, and public transit symbols the average commuter takes for granted every day.

See the full brand guide here.

Page owners can create an online event, set a price, promote the event, collect payment and host the event, all in one place.

The new product launch is available in 20 countries:

• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Hungary
• India
• Italy
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• United States

Check Your Eligibility

To check your Page’s eligibility for monetisation, go to creator studio > monetization > policy issues. Facebook will also not be taking a cut of your livestream earnings for at least the next year.

To set up paid online events, your Page and content will need to be in compliance with:

• Facebook’s Monetisation Standards
• Paid Online Events Terms and Conditions
• Apple’s App Store guidelines for in-app purchases
• Google Play’s Monetisation and Ads Policy

What is Creator Studio?

Creator Studio brings together all the tools you need to effectively post, monetise, track performance, interact with fans, and take actions across multiple Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts in one single place – simplifying the process of building and managing your video business.

Creator Studio also notifies you when you become eligible for new features and monetisation opportunities.

Access to Creator Studio

• Access Creator Studio for Desktop: facebook.com/creatorstudio
• Download the Creator Studio app: fb.me/creatorstudioapp

Streamline Publishing Across Pages

• Publish, schedule & manage content across multiple Facebook pages & IG accounts
• Create & manage video playlists across your Facebook pages and bulk upload videos to a single Facebook page.

Track Video & Monetisation Performance

• Onboard eligible pages to new monetisation products, review monetisation insights, see your monetised videos, manage block lists and view payment-related statements.
• Easily access your monetisation eligibility status and best practices.
• View video performance insights and estimated earnings metrics aggregated for all of your pages.
• Track your total followers, understand your returning viewers, see how long people are watching your videos and get distribution metrics for your content.

Simplify Engagement in One Place

• Inbox makes it easy to manage correspondence in Messenger as well as comments and direct messages in Facebook & Instagram.

Manage Facebook Page Content On The Go

• With the Creator Studio app, you can edit and delete Facebook posts, publish drafts, get actionable insights, respond to messages and comments and see important notifications.

Creating AR Effects

AR Effects on Instagram and Facebook are an increasingly important part of your artists’ marketing campaigns. To make the submission and approval process as smooth as possible for you, we’ve created a ‘Cheat Sheet’ for you to follow as you build these Effects.

Before You Submit Your Effect

1. Does Your Effect Have a Name and an Icon?
2. Does It Meet Spark AR Guidelines & Policies?
3. Did You Choose A Category For Your Effect?
4. Do you have a preview video of your Effect?
5. Does the Effect meet the frame rate guidelines and file size limits?
6. If your Effect is a mask, does it obscure facial expressions? (It shouldn’t!)
7. Did You Do A Final Check of Best Practices to Make Sure Your Effect Is Approved?

The Approval Process For Spark AR Effects 

Effects submitted to both Facebook and Instagram are reviewed to make sure they follow:

1. Spark AR Review Policies
2. Spark AR and Frame Studio Terms
3. Facebook Community Standards (if submitting for FB)
4. Instagram Community Guidelines (if submitting for IG)

If your effect is approved, you will be notified on Facebook and in the Spark AR Hub.

If your effect is rejected, you will be notified and given the reason in the Spark AR Hub. You can edit your effect and submit again.

AR Effect Do’s & Don’ts 

Submission

DON’T: Submit your Effect one day before you need it live, and then email your Facebook/Instagram contact requesting an expedited review.

DO: Want your effect to be ready by a certain date? Be sure to submit it for review at least TEN (10) Days prior to your desired date.

Text 

If your Effect includes text:

DON’T: Place static text in the screen that does not respond to movements or sound

DO: Make sure your text either responds to movements through the use of face tracking OR is integrated and integral to the design of the Effect; e.g. it’s a timestamp on a camcorder simulation.

Logos

Want to put a Logo in your Effect?

DON’T: Make it static so that it does not respond to movements or sound

DO: Make sure the logo either responds to movements through the use of face tracking OR is integrated and integral to the design of the Effect

Availability

Want your Effect to go live on a specific date and time?

DON’T: Skip the “Location & Schedule” section of the upload process in Spark AR Hub

DO: Control the publication date and time of your effect and the length of time it’s available by adding scheduling details during the upload process.

Masks

Does your Effect include a face mask?

DON’T: Recreate a human face as the mask.

DO: Create an animated face or a caricature of a face as your Effect.

Premium Music Video

Introduction

• Facebook uniquely enables people to connect with each other and engage with music videos in the same place that they watch them.
• Fans will be notified when artists they follow release a new music video. People will also be able to discover videos based on what their friends are watching and by browsing our new music video destination on Facebook Watch.
• Music videos provide a new way for fans to interact with their favourite artists on Facebook, see more of their content, and foster a deeper connection both with artists and likeminded fans. People can now watch and engage with music videos without ever leaving the Facebook platform.

PLEASE NOTE: You’ll need to submit your video on Upload Video form in Forms

Actions required of Artist’s Teams

• Identify who on your team has admin access
  • Anyone with an Admin role on an artist’s Page can edit posts/PMVs, create ads, and view insights for that Page. Only the Admin Page role will give you the full functionality needed to manage PMVs.
  • A current Admin on the artist’s Page will need to grant you access and assign you a Page role via your personal Facebook account. Here are the steps they should follow:

1. 1. 1. Navigate to the artist Page and click Page Settings in the bottom-left corner.
      2. Click Page Roles in the left-hand column.
      3. Type a name or email address in the text box and select the correct profile.
      4. Click Editor to select the “Admin” role from the dropdown menu.
      5. Click Add and enter your password to confirm.

Opt in to PMVs on your roster’s Pages

• Facebook will need approval to publish PMVs to an artist’s Page. Once approved, the artist’s full music video catalog will be published to the Music Videos section within the Videos tab on their Page. You must be a Page Admin to grant approval. If you or anyone else on your team has an Admin role on an artist’s Page, you’ll have the ability to edit PMV post text as well as other metadata.
• Catalog videos will not be published to the artist’s Page timeline, but new posts will be automatically generated on their Page timeline for new releases.
• Once an artist’s videos have been delivered to Facebook, anyone with an Admin role on the artist’s Page will be prompted to opt in to publishing PMVs on their Page. Page Admins will receive an email, a banner on the artist’s Page (visible only to you), and a profile notification that will all direct you to the PMV opt-in flow in Page Settings.
• If you and/or your artist(s) take no action, their PMVs will live on a separate official music Page titled “[Artist Name] Official Music,” which will be created by Facebook. However these will not achieve the same level of reach to your audience as they aren’t distributed to your Page’s followers.

How To Opt In

• If you’re an Admin on an artist’s Page, once the artist’s videos have been delivered via the supply chain or via manual upload (when available), you’ll receive the following communication from Facebook prompting you to opt in:

1. An email sent to the email address associated with your Facebook account
2. A pop-up banner on the artist’s Page
3. A profile notification
4. Click on any of the prompts to be directed to the Music Videos section of the artist’s Page Settings. You can also navigate to this section directly.
5. Once you land on the Music Videos section of the artist’s Page Settings, simply click the blue button titled “Add Music Videos to My Page” to opt in.
6. After clicking the “Add Music Videos to My Page” button, make sure you tick the box next to the “Automatically share all new music videos to your Page’s timeline” setting.

If you need graphics for your social media, Spotify, Youtube covers you can purchase them here or make them yourself.

Plan your social media design strategy

The first step in social media design is to create your strategy (or review your existing one). Design should act as an enhancement to your content, facilitating the messages you want to get across, so it’s essential to first create a solid messaging strategy in order to perform well.

1. Evaluate the audiences for your current channels. You may already have already conducted target audience research for your overall brand strategy, but the audience for each social media channel will represent a specific segment or cross-section of your larger audience. In order to create the most effective social media design, understand who is currently following your content and what they are looking for. Make sure this is backed by target market research—conduct interviews, surveys, use the platform’s analytics to find demographic information, notate the feedback or comments your followers leave. Next, create user personas for your existing audiences in addition to new audiences you want to reach. Personas are important because it’s much easier to design content for a person than for facts and figures.
2. Choose the best platforms to reach your audiences. Social media is necessary for businesses, but that doesn’t mean every social media platform is necessary for every business. For example, recipes perform notoriously well on Pinterest, so while it makes sense for a food brand to invest heavily in that platform, it won’t be as important for, say, a home security brand. Research your many options for social media platforms, and decide on a few based on what is popular within your industry and with your audience. Assuming that you should only use the most popular platforms may lead you to miss out on social media apps with niche audiences that might be perfect for your brand.
3. Evaluate the types of content that perform best on those platforms. Narrowing the scope of your audience and social media channels will allow you to focus on the kinds of content to create and eventually how that content should be designed. Some of the types of content you can create will be set by the platform (Instagram favors imagery and video, Twitter favors short messages and clips). Each platform should have a how-it-works page that will explain the media constraints. Other types of content will be based on common user trends: although people have the ability to create videos and written messages on Facebook, many users use the platform to share article links. Spend some time reviewing user activity, paying close attention to your competitors, to get an idea of how to best use each channel.

List, brief and schedule your design assets

Now that you have a better idea of your audience and the channels you’ll be using, you can start mapping out a design pipeline with a series of briefs. This, along with a content calendar, will help keep you organized through the design process. Make sure to document the following:

• Upcoming content plans
• The goal of the content
• Intended audience
• Competitor content examples
• Design medium (photograph, video, illustration, animated gif)
• Caption or text copy
• Design references

Keep a reference of the content sizes and dimensions for each social media platform

A reference of social media content sizes and dimensions is must-have for any designer. This allows you to quickly size your canvases and to adapt designs across different platforms. Social media sizes tend to change now and again, so be sure to update this list regularly.

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Whew — still with us? We know this might seem a little overwhelming, but take it slow and don’t rush yourself. It’s better to follow the process through to completion and end with a remarkable brand than to start over a few months later due to a design error or change of heart.

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If you need a cover artwork you can purchase one here or do it yourself.

How to Make Your Own Album Cover in 3 Steps

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Submit your VEVO video via the Upload Video Form in FORMS (at least 2 weeks prior to release date). 

You need at least 3 songs released with SONO in order to be eligible for a VEVO channel.  

HD video spec:

• Compression Type: H.264
• File Format: .mov or .mp4
• Dimensions: 1920×1080. Note: 16:9 and 4:3 are preferred aspect ratios. Providing alternate aspect ratios risks letterboxing, scaling and stretching of content to fit target aspect rations.
• Frame Rate: Minimum 29.97 fps (preferred) or higher.
• Bit Rate: We recommend that you restrict your video bitrate to a minimum of 24mb/s.  This will help you cut down on file size, lengthy encoding, exporting and file transfer times. Bit Rate should not exceed 50mb/s.
• File must be de-Interlaced (Please, no interlacing)
• Multi-pass encoding is recommended, but not required.
• Please export all encodes using Compressor or Quicktime.  We cannot support editing program artifacts such as “edit lists” or “zero offsets” embedded in the files.
• Do not send anamorphic content. All content display and pixel aspect ratios should be the same.
• Do not include front or end slates (displaying metadata), title or end cards, bars and tones, etc.

Audio

• Format: AAC
• Channels: Stereo (L R)
• Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz
• Bit Rate: 320 kbps CBR

4K video spec:

• Compression Type: H.264
• File Format: .mov or .mp4
• Dimensions: 3840×2160. Note: 16:9 and 4:3 are preferred aspect ratios. Providing alternate aspect ratios risks letterboxing, scaling and stretching of content to fit target aspect rations.
• Frame Rate: Minimum 29.97 fps (preferred) or higher.
• Bit Rate: We recommend that you restrict your video bitrate to a minimum of 24mb/s.  This will help you cut down on file size, lengthy encoding, exporting and file transfer times. Bit Rate should not exceed 50mb/s.
• File must be de-Interlaced (Please, No Interlacing)
• Multi-pass encoding is recommended, but not required.
• Please export all encodes using Compressor or Quicktime.  We cannot support editing program artifacts such as “edit lists” or “zero offsets” embedded in the files.
• Do not send anamorphic content. All content display and pixel aspect ratios should be the same.
• Do not include front or end slates (displaying metadata), title or end cards, bars and tones, etc.

Audio

• Format: AAC
• Channels: Stereo (L R)
• Sample Rate: 44.100 kHz or 48 kHz
• Bit Rate: 320 kbps CBR

How to write a music press release

MAKE IT EASY FOR THE RECIPIENT

This overshadows just about every other point I’m going to make.

It’s important to understand that music bloggers could receive hundreds (or more) emails and press releases in a single day. So get to the point quickly, make sure all the essential info is easy to read, recognise and reach with one or two clicks.

If they’re interested in your news, some busy music bloggers may simply copy and paste chunks of your press release into a new post without even contacting you, so keep this in mind too when you come to write it.

GRAB THEIR ATTENTION WITH THE SUBJECT LINE

An exciting, interesting, irresistible subject line can be the difference between your email getting opened or ignored.

Generally, Awesome Band Releases New Single is not a compelling subject line. But you can make it interesting by adapting your pitch.

Are you heading out on tour? Supporting a well-known band? Does your track tackle a thought-provoking issue? Do you have an interesting music video? Have you collaborated with any well-known artists or producers? Make your subject line memorable enough to grab the receiver’s attention and compel them to read it.

Make sure your email stands out in a crowded inbox.

DON’T SEND ATTACHMENTS

Downloading attachments from someone you don’t know is risky, so in many cases, your email might simply be deleted if any files are attached.

Rather than attaching it, copy your press release into the body of the email and include links to your tracks on a well-known streaming platform (Soundcloud, YouTube, Spotify).

If your music isn’t officially out yet, don’t attach an MP3 file. Instead, create a private Soundcloud link or unlisted YouTube video so you can share it with a select number of people in advance of your release date.

You can create a private Soundcloud link by selecting ‘private’ on the Basic Info tab of the platform’s track uploader. The orange padlock indicates that the track is private.

Alternatively, it’s easy to set up an unlisted YouTube video. Just select ‘unlisted’ when uploading your vid.

INCLUDE LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE, PRESS SHOTS & SOCIALS

Remember, it’s all about making it easy for the person receiving your press release. Did I mention that?

So, make sure to include direct links to your social media pages, website and a folder of press shots. That way, bloggers don’t need to spend their time searching for you online to tag you in posts or find a decent picture of you for their featured image. It’s worth setting up a Dropbox or Google Drive link with all of your essential assets – pictures, logos and a longer artist bio.

ADD A PERSONAL TOUCH

This isn’t a universal rule, but sometimes adding a brief, personal message to the email above your press release is a nice way to engage and build a potential relationship with the recipient. It doesn’t need to be an essay, just a quick hello, perhaps including their name and the title of their blog to show you’re genuinely aware of who you’re emailing.  

MUSIC PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE

 

Personal touch (Optional)

Hi [Blogger Name], I think this/my band would fit great on [Site Name]. Hope you get chance to check them/us out.

 

Heading, Image & Music

Awesome Band announces Cool Band support slot and debut release.

**Main Press Shot**

Listen here // Watch here // Get tickets

 

Paragraph 1 – The pitch

This is where you should get the main point across, elaborate on your heading and let the reader know the specifics.

 

Paragraph 2 – Important info

Here’s your chance to add a little more colour and show why your music should be featured. Explain your new release, tour or other news in more detail and let the reader know why this is worth their time.

 

Paragraph 3 – Artist bio

Let the reader know a little more about you with a brief bio and overview of your music, history, influences, style etc.

 

Paragraph 4 – Endorsements / quotes

“This is the best band ever” Joe Blogs, Music Mag

“I really love this band, honest” Jane Journo, Another Music Mag

You could also include a direct quote from yourself or the artist here about the music, upcoming tour or any other focus of the press release.

 

Sign off – Contact details / Website, press kit & social links

Please contact awesomeband@gmail.com for interviews, guest list and further info.

Website // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Press Kit

Optimise your artist profile

For campaigns where you are looking to grow your audience via TikTok, the first recommendation is to set-up a profile for the artist and start posting video content to the platform on a regular basis.

Establish Yourself

Create your profile with a recognisable handle and image and link your account to Twitter & YouTube.

Define Your Strategy

Engage with the platform as a user and embed yourself within the community. Find your main creative focus before you start engaging with influencers.

Create A Regular Schedule

Stay at the top of the feed with regular videos.

Use the correct hashtags and take part in as many challenges as you can to grow your following.

Engage With Your Audience

Watch, react and engage with users’ content to build a deeper connection & get your profile in front of more people.

Collaborate with other creators/users using the duet feature.

Start here: https://artists.amazonmusic.com/

Amazon Music for Artists is available on both web and mobile.

Once the app is open, you will be directed to sign-in using an Amazon retail account.

If you do not have an Amazon retail account, you will need to create one in order to continue going through the sign-up and artist claim flow.

To claim an artist:
– Search and select any artist
– Press Claim This Artist
– Fill out the requested application fields. Amazon also provide the option for anyone to connect with their artist’s social media accounts for faster verification
– The more information you are able to provide, the easier it will be to verify your relationship to the artist you are claiming

Adding a team-member:
– Anyone with either Owner or Admin access can add another person to their team by navigating to Settings in the upper right hand of the app from any artist page
– From there, select “Manage Team Members” and click on “Add Team Member”
– You’ll be promoted to enter the invitee’s information including name, email, and assign level of app access (Admin or Viewer)

More information on the app and available stats: https://artists.amazonmusic.com/the-app

Start here: https://artists.amazonmusic.com/

To link your Twitch channel, login to Amazon Music for Artists followed by:
– Click on Profile & Tools within your artist account
– Select Connect your Twitch Channel
– Sign-in using your Twitch credentials to authorize Twitch livestreams in the Amazon Music streaming app
– If you do not have a Twitch account, click About and Get Started with Twitch
– Please note it may take up to 3 hours to connect your channel.

Amazon Music’s service is broken down into several tiers. These are broken down below:

1. Amazon Music Unlimited
– A paid service similar to Apple Music or Spotify Premium. Amazon Music Unlimited offers on-demand access to 70 million songs, ad-free. This premium service includes offline listening with unlimited skips, popular new releases, and an even wider variety of hand-curated playlists and stations. Eligible Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers may upgrade to Amazon Music HD for no extra cost.

2. Amazon Music HD
– Amazon Music HD offers 70 million lossless, uncompressed CD-quality tracks and over 7 million Ultra HD tracks.
– HD tracks have a bit depth of 16-bits and a sample rate of 44.1 kHz. HD tracks support bitrates up to double that of MP3 (48kbps to 320kbps), meaning HD includes music that are “CD Quality”.
– Ultra HD (or UHD) tracks have a bit depth of 24 bits and a sample rate of 44.1 or higher, up to 192 kHz. UHD represents the highest quality sound available, and supports bitrates that can go more than ten times higher than MP3 files.
– This service is currently available in US, UK, DE, JP, CA, ES, FR, AT.

3. Prime Music
– More than 2 million songs (curated by Amazon Music’s editorial team) are available as part of a Prime membership at no additional cost, including thousands of stations and top playlists.

4. Amazon Music Free
– Amazon Music also offers an ad-supported tier of 2 million songs, providing free streaming to anyone using the Amazon Music app on iOS, Android, Fire TV and Amazon Music on the web in the US, UK, and Germany.
– This is effectively the same catalog that comes with Prime, only it includes advertising and doesn’t require a membership.

Images you are able to edit:

Avatar image: Your image in search results and the Spotify mobile app.
Header image: The cover image at the top of your profile in the Spotify desktop app.
Image gallery: Images in the About section of your profile.

For best results Spotify recommends:
– .jpeg or .png Image format
– A minimum of 2660px x 1140px size
– File size below 20MB
– Artist’s face in the middle of the image for circle cropping
– No text, branding or advertising.
– No promoting your social media links or releases.

Avatar Image:
– Go to Profile
– Click the pencil icon in the top-right
– Under Avatar image, click UPDATE

Note: Search images normally take 24 – 72 hours to update.

Header Image:
– Log in to artists.spotify.com
– Go to Profile
– Click the pencil icon in the top-right
– Under Header image, click UPDATE

Image Gallery:
Add, remove, or reorder images in your image gallery. You can add up to 125 images.

Web browser
– Go to Profile
– Click ABOUT
– Click the pencil icon next to Image gallery

App
– Tap the profile icon in the bottom-right
– Scroll down to About
– Tap EDIT next to About

Start here: artists.spotify.com

Spotify for Artists lets you:
– See your audience stats
– Promote your music
– Manage your artist profile

When an artist profile is claimed, a blue verification check mark will appear next to the artist name on Spotify.

Claiming before your first release goes live?
Ask your SONO contact for your artist link or URI. It’ll start spotify.com/artist or spotify:artist.

When you claim your artist profile, paste your artist link or URI in the “What profile are you claiming?” page.

Artist Pick lives at the top of your artist profile.

Use Artist Pick to showcase:
– Any song, album, or playlist
– Your concerts
– Podcast shows or individual episodes

You can personalize your Pick with an image and short message.

Note: You can’t add a podcast as your Artist Pick in the Spotify for Artists mobile app.

Tip: When possible, your Artist Pick shouldn’t be your artist’s latest release, instead try posting an Artist Playlist featuring the latest release at the top of the playlist

Remember:
– An Artist Pick shows for up to 14 days
– After 14 days, your Pick disappears (but you can update it any time)
– If Artist Pick shows a tour, it displays until the day after the last show

Step by step:
– Log in to Spotify for Artists
– Go to Profile
– Select + under Artist Pick

Tip: If you can’t find what you’re looking for, paste a link from the Spotify app.

Artist Playlists are a great way to showcase your artist’s personality and tastes during any given campaign. It’s also a great way to feature a latest release (see Artist Pick section).

You can feature any playlist on an artist profile including an official Spotify playlist your music’s been added to.

Step by step:
– Make the playlist in your personal account using the Spotify app
– Add playlists to your profile

Add playlists to your profile:

Web browser:
– Go to Profile
– Click the pencil icon next to Artist Playlists
– Search for the playlist or paste a Spotify link

App:
– Tap the profile icon in the bottom-right
– Next to Artist Playlists tap EDIT
– Tap + Add Playlist
– Search for the playlist or paste a Spotify link

Note: Spotify currently does not verify (see: blue check mark) user accounts

Note: The playlist will show your personal account and link to it. You can add a display name on your account to match your artist name.

Release Radar is a playlist of new releases that updates every Friday. It’s an excellent source for early streams, especially if the Artist has a significant Follower count.

Listeners get new music from:
– Artists they follow
– Artists they listen to
– Other artists dictated by Spotify’s algorithm

Your followers get songs from your new release in their Release Radar.

Please note:
– Spotify will not include a song in a listener’s Release Radar if they’ve already listened to it (but another song from the release may get included)
– Only songs where you’re a main or featured artist (not remixer) are included
– Song’s by Various Artists are not eligible for Release Radar
– Re-releases of songs already on Spotify are not included
– Each listener only gets one song per artist per week
– Spotify will include a song for up to 4 weeks if a listener hasn’t heard it

When it comes to showing merch on an artist profile, Spotify has partnered with Merchbar to facilitate this.

To show merch on your artist profile, you need to list it on Merchbar.

If your team or merch company already has a partnership with Merchbar, ask them to make your merchandise available.

You can list up to 3 products from Merchbar on a Spotify artist page. If you have more than 3 products on Merchbar, your artist profile shows the top 3 products based on fan interactions, purchases, and product availability.

How to join Merchbar: https://help.merchbar.com/hc/en-us/signin?return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.merchbar.com%2Fhc%2Fen-us%2Fsections%2F360007841693-Merchbar-for-Artists-Merch-Companies#how-to-sign-up

Add an Artist Fundraising Pick to your profile to raise funds from fans on Spotify. Fundraise for yourself, your crew and team, or causes and organizations you support.

Note: Spotify does not take a cut from any money raised.

Adding a Fundraising Pick:
– Log in to artists.spotify.com
– Go to Profile
– Under Artist Fundraising Pick, click + Get support directly from fans
– Fill in the Fundraising Pick submission form and click AGREE AND SUBMIT

Editing or removing a Fundraising Pick:
– Log in to artists.spotify.com
– Go to Profile
– Click the pencil icon next to Artist Fundraising Pick

Artist Fundraising Pick best practices: https://artists.spotify.com/blog/best-practices-for-the-artist-fundraising-pick

Note: A fundraising link must be through an approved partner.

Fundraising link partners: https://artists.spotify.com/help/article/getting-a-fundraising-link?category=artist-profile

To show your concerts on Spotify, they need to be listed on one of Spotify’s ticketing partner sites:
– Ticketmaster
– Songkick
– Resident Advisor
– Eventbrite
– AXS
– StageIt
– NoCap
– Mandolin
– nugs.net
– Eplus (Japan only)

Note: use the Artist Pick function to create visibility gigs and tours!

For Virtual Events: only virtual events listed on Ticketmaster, Songkick, StageIt, NoCap, Mandolin, and nugs.net.

All concert listings need to include:
– At least 1 artist name
– Start time
– Venue name
– Event name

Spotify will also list festivals. Make sure your artist is linked to the festival on the ticketing partner site. Events with fewer than 6 artists show the artist names as the event title instead of the festival name. Multi-day festivals show the first day as the event date (e.g. a festival running Friday to Sunday shows as a Friday event).

Start here: https://artists.apple.com/

Artists can claim their Apple Music for Artist profile page to upload and change the profile photos associated with the artist page for Apple Music and iTunes as well as gained access to a variety of stats across Apple Music and Shazam.

How to claim an artist page in the iOS app:
– Sign in to the Apple Music for Artists app with your Apple ID
– Download the Apple Music for Artists app, or create an Apple ID if you have not already
– Tap Request Artist Access, and copy and paste your iTunes Store artist page link to search. To find the link to your artist page, input your artist name in the search field
– Select one of your albums to ensure you are claiming the correct page
– Choose your role, then fill out the requested application fields
– For faster verification, sign in to your social media accounts. The more information you provide, the easier it will be to verify your relationship to the artist

How to claim your artist page on the web:
– Sign up for Apple Music for Artists and create an Apple ID if you have not already
– Click Request Artist Access, and copy and paste your iTunes Store artist page link to search. To find the link to your artist page, input your artist name in the search field
– Select one of your albums to ensure you are claiming the correct page
– Choose your role, then, fill out the requested application fields.
– For faster verification, sign in to your social media accounts. The more information you provide, the easier it will be to verify your relationship to the artist

How to check your application:
– When your artist claim is in review, you will see the status ”Pending” in Apple Music for Artists. You will receive updates regarding your application via email.

Next steps:
Manage access to your page
– It’s up to the Artist’s team to review all additional access requests for your label reps, management, and others who might work on projects with you. Artists and artist managers with Administrator access are responsible for reviewing additional access requests.

If you are a label representative looking to join an artist’s Apple Music for Artists profile, work directly with your artist to review your request. Requests will expire after 30 days if artists or artist managers take no action.

Shazam data is incorporating into Apple Music for Artists.

By seeing how listeners discover your music in all parts of the world, you can plan social media activity, promotions, and even live shows to connect with your growing audience.

How to see your Shazam data:
– If you have a song that’s been Shazamed, Apple Music for Artists will incorporate that data throughout your artist profile.
– In the Overview section, you can view key metrics such as Shazam Insights and Top Shazams.
– Trends show detailed demographics about your Shazam listeners. In contrast, Places show which countries or regions Shazam you the most.

Charting on Shazam:
– A Shazam chart will appear in your artist profile when you have a top Shazam track in a country, region, or city. The chart data updates every 24 hours and will display your track’s position and movement on the chart in a given country, region, or city in the last seven days.
– Select a specific song to see every country, region, or city chart that the track appears. To see the Top Charts for your Top Songs, click See All in the Charting on Shazam section of Overview of Your Music.

Trending on Shazam:
– When your music is trending on Shazam, we’ll send you a weekly Trending on Shazam email with your highlights. For more detailed information about this email, review how to control your communications.

When does a Shazam count toward my songs?
– Whenever someone Shazams your songs, you will see it counted as a Shazam in your Apple Music for Artists profile.

Because Shazam listens to a piece of audio from a song to recognize it, there may be times when that piece of audio happens to be identical to one from a different version of the same song. For example, an original version of a song and a remix version of that same song, often include audio pieces that are the same. In these cases, the Shazam will count toward the version of your song that is determined to be the best match, which is why you may see variations in the number of Shazams across different versions of the same tracks.

Apple will process the Shazam data shown in Apple Music for Artists and the Shazam app on different systems and schedules. For this reason, you may see a difference in the Shazams shown on the Apple Music for Artists dashboard when compared to the Shazam app.

If you have access to your Artist’s Apple Music for Artists profile, you can update the profile image following the steps and criteria below.

If you do not have access to Apple Music for Artists, please contact your FUGA rep who can assist you.

Step by step:
– Open Apple Music for Artists and navigate to the Manage tab
– In the section labeled Artist Image, you can upload a new image
– Once the image is uploaded, you can adjust, crop, and select how it will appear on the service
– When finished, select Submit

Note: Your image won’t appear changed because there is a manual approval process for new changes in place. Changes typically take a few days to process. Once you see “Submitted for Review”, you know the process is underway.

For best results Apple Music recommends:
– .jpeg or .png Image format
– A minimum of 2400px x 2400px
– Aspect Ratio of 1:1
– RGB color space
– 72dpi
– File size below 20MB
– Keeping Artist’s face in the middle of the image for circle cropping
– No text, branding or advertising
– Not promoting social media links or releases

Note: Don’t scale up your artwork if it’s smaller than the required size, this will only distort the image quality.

Note: “Artist Banners” are a feature reserved for “featured artists” only at this time.

If you are scheduling an album campaign in the immediate future, please consider a Pre-Add on Apple Music.

Available with just a tap, Apple Music pre-adds allows fans and listeners to add music from an upcoming release to their library or playlists without missing a beat. Pre-adders are notified the moment your album is available, allowing them to stream and share your music immediately.

If you need assistance setting up a Pre-Add, contact SONO support who can work with you to ensure your songs meet the pre-add specifications for Apple Music.

Start here: creators.deezer.com

Deezer Creators lets you:
– See your audience & catalogue stats
– Manage your artist profiles

Create your profile by following the steps using the attached guide.

In order to claim an artist profile on Deezer: https://support.deezer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360018607978-Claiming-an-artist-profile-on-Deezer

New artist / first release profile update?
You can request an initial first change using the Artist Profile Update form under the Forms section.

If you cannot locate your artist profile on the request use the artist ID number displayed in your Deezer URL (example: https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/1234567)

Note: remember to use “support@fuga.com” as your distributor email.

For best results Deezer recommends:
– .jpeg or .png image format
– 1200x1200px minimum
– File size below 9MB
– Artist’s face in the middle of the image for circle cropping
– No text, branding or advertising
– No promoting your social media links or releases

Your Profile Picture is the image that will appear in search results as well as the Deezer mobile app.

To update Profile Image:
– Search for the Artist Profile
– Select “Change Profile Picture”

Status:
Share a “status” directly from your artist page to present a short news update or anecdote. 64 characters maximum, emojis allowed!
Note: Status is displayed on top of Artist profile only on web & desktop app

Bio:
Add your artist bio in more than 30 languages (2000 characters max)

Socials:
Deezer allows you to display your Facebook + Twitter accounts
Update the links using the fields available in the Social section

Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes.

Beatport is a specialized DSP for dance & electronic music ONLY. No other content should be delivered to Beatport.

1. BP EXCLUSIVES

What are the benefits?
→ BP reserve the majority of the most prominent marketing
space on its store for exclusive releases. Including positions
in playlists, such as “Weekend Picks” or “Best of.. “.
→ Exclusive releases are highlighted with a tag and have a
higher price point than non-exclusives.
→ Being the only store to offer a release means it often charts
considerably higher than non-exclusive releases, which may
have sales split across multiple stores. High chart positions
mean prolonged exposure and revenue for your release.
→ Being that Beaport’s main customer base are DJs, sales on
Beatport should be seen as additional promotion alongside
the value of the sale. Chances are, a sale on Beatport means your track making its way into a DJ set or livestream.
→ On average, revenue for exclusive tracks is 5 times higher
than non-exclusives.

How do I set up exclusivity?
→ Exclusivity can be set up via SONO when
delivering your release.
→ Beatport offers the chance for SONO to give us their
releases exclusively, for either 2, 4, 8 weeks. Or lifetime.
→ During that period, the store asks that they are the only
download store with the release. Streaming platforms are ok.

2. PRE-ORDERS

What are the benefits?
→ Pre-orders are a great promotional tool, they can be
shared prior to release and added to smart link URLs.
In addition, be sure to include pre-order links in any
promotional posts in the lead-up to your release. Eg, track
premiers, YouTube, editorial features, etc.
→ They are a great way to give your track or release an extra
boost in the charts, all sales generated within the 28 days
prior to release date will be spread out across the first
week of charting.
→ Top Tip: Pre-orders can also be included in DJ charts (one
of our biggest sales boosters).
→ Top Tip: Including a pre-order link under SoundCloud
snippets is a great way to boost early sales.

How do I set up a Pre-order?
→ Pre-orders can currently be set up to 4 weeks in advance
of the release date.
→ Pre-orders can be arranged by your distributor.
→ A pre-order start date indicates the date at which
customers may begin previewing and pre-purchasing your
tracks; they will be able to download them only after the
release date.
→ Please note, there is currently no way to suppress audio
previews on our pre-orders.

1. ARTIST CHARTS / PLAYLISTS

What are the benefits?

→ Artist charts are a great way to give your new release a boost
on the store, and increase your plays on Beatport LINK: https://link.beatport.com/
→ BP recommends having artists make one for each release
(be sure to include your new release/pre-order in the chart).
→ 10% of monthly track sales come via artist charts.
→ Charts are a great way to extend visibility on the store and
on Beatport LINK, beyond our weekly feature updates. They
can be submitted for featuring on the store via this form: https://btprt.dj/ChartSubmission

How do I make an Artist chart?
→ Artist charts must be made via a customer account
(DJ profile), which can then be linked to your artist profile
by BP’s team.
→ Make sure to also share them out across social platforms.
→ Please note, artist charts must use an artist picture to be
considered for featuring. Charts using release artwork will
not be featured.
→ You can find a guide to making artist / DJ charts here: https://welcome.beatport.com/dj-charts

2. SOCIALS

General Tips
→ Regularly engaging with your fans is key to driving traffic
(e.g, answering comments, re-sharing stories or posts etc.)
→ Do not be afraid to share personal stories and background
information about your releases/label with your followers.
→ Including buy links and/or pre-order links on possible platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram etc.
→ Content can be shared across multiple platforms, not
limited to one.
→ If making a new account, choose a simple name. Good practice: Drumcode could be DrumcodeRecs,
DrumcodeRecords or DrumcodeOfficial.

Facebook
→ Post on artist/label page weekly.
→ Share features.
→ Tag @Beatport as well as any other artists or labels involved.
→ Quotes/fun facts about release to raise engagement.
→ Facebook ads – Get familiar with their most up to date business tools, which can be useful for engagement.
→ Top Tip: Avoid words like “Buy” as Facebook reduces the reach of posts with explicit calls to action.

Twitter
→ Tweet regularly about your releases.
→ Tweet any features you receive.
→ Be sure to tag @Beatport as well as any other artists or labels involved.
→ Retweet other labels/artists content, especially when they mention you.
→ Top Tip: Tweetdeck is a great tool for tracking (and pre-scheduling) your tweets, retweets, mentions etc.

Instagram
→ Use release artwork and make a call to action to encourage followers to listen to your release on Beatport.
→ Always tag @Beatport, as well as any other artists or labels involved.
→ Preview tracks with a 15-second teaser video.
→ Always include the link in your bio and be sure to send followers there with something along the lines of “link in bio’”.
→ Use swipe-up posts for new releases, editorial features, etc (if possible).
→ Top Tip: If using stories, organize them into highlights on your homepage.
→ Top Tip: Include relevant hashtags! Check other labels / artists in your genre and find the hashtags they are using, e.g, #electronicmusic, #housemusicallnightlong, etc. (sites like best-hastags.com can search this for you).

Two social media features recommended by Beatport:

Beatport Studio Jams
Guidelines
Pls submit your studio jam here
Platform

Beatport Drop of the Week
Guidelines
Pls submit your Drop Of The Week video here
Platform

How can I get my releases featured on Beatport?

→ The best way to pitch for features is by keeping SONO up to date with your upcoming releases, we have a dedicated label manager at Beatport with whom we can discuss feature options.

Here are a few tips on what kind of information to include in your pitch:

GOOD:
*3-5 big name DJs supporting your track (please see below in bad for what we do NOT consider good feedback in this regards)
*Links to big name DJs playing your track.
*Magazine and blog premiers.
*Radio coverage.
*A precise marketing plan explaining when and what will be posted where, and any money to be spent is very important.
*If you’re going to post on socials, then social media reach.

BAD:
*DJ feedback that says “downloaded for…..” this for us is not good feedback. For us it means the person listening and downloading the music for said DJs downloaded it, and not that the actual DJ liked the track. For example, Richie Hawtin has a Twitter feed and is showing what tracks that he actually played, this would be good feedback.
*Social media and marketing campaigns listed “as usual”….we need more info than this.
*Sending the full promo campaign sheets, this is too time-consuming for us to read these, we need the good bits from
the promo sheets.

Again, all this will help your feature requests be stronger, but will not guarantee a feature. These are ultimately up to the genre manager.

In order to get your releases live on Audiomack, SONO will be sharing a weekly priority list with Audiomack each Monday for the release coming up within the next 7 days.

• This list will be an essential guide for Audiomack to determine what to ingest.
• After the ingestion, SONO will receive a live link from Audiomack. We will be sharing the link with you after receiving them.

The weekly priority list is managed by SONO Marketing Services team. The list will only contain releases that match the following criteria:

• Your product will be released within the next 7 days
• Your product has been delivered to Audiomack via SONO at least 10 days before the release date
• Your product has been submitted to the Marketing Services team at least 10 days before the release date
• In general, please submit your priority releases to be promoted to multiple DSPs (Please submit at least 4 weeks before the release date, in order to meet all DSP-editorial deadlines)

Artists may claim auto-generated Audiomack profiles, allowing them access to the Creator Dashboard, where artists can:

• Update their profile, including imagery, bio, social links, etc.
• View notifications for playlist adds, milestones, & any content which may be trending on-platform
• Respond to fan comments on your music

If there is a profile you would like to claim, please send an email to support@stage.sonomusic.co with the following:

• The Audiomack URL of the profile you wish to claim
• A valid and unique email address (i.e. a singular email may not be attached to multiple accounts) that the artist would like to use to log into the account

A claim code will then be sent by Audiomack to the email address provided.

AR Effects on Instagram and Facebook are an increasingly important part of your artists’ marketing campaigns. To make the submission and approval process as smooth as possible for you, we’ve created a ‘Cheat Sheet’ for you to follow as you build these Effects.

Before You Submit Your Effect

1. Does Your Effect Have a Name and an Icon?
2. Does It Meet Spark AR Guidelines & Policies?
3. Did You Choose A Category For Your Effect?
4. Do you have a preview video of your Effect?
5. Does the Effect meet the frame rate guidelines and file size limits?
6. If your Effect is a mask, does it obscure facial expressions? (It shouldn’t!)
7. Did You Do A Final Check of Best Practices to Make Sure Your Effect Is Approved?

The Approval Process For Spark AR Effects 

Effects submitted to both Facebook and Instagram are reviewed to make sure they follow:

1. Spark AR Review Policies
2. Spark AR and Frame Studio Terms
3. Facebook Community Standards (if submitting for FB)
4. Instagram Community Guidelines (if submitting for IG)

If your effect is approved, you will be notified on Facebook and in the Spark AR Hub.

If your effect is rejected, you will be notified and given the reason in the Spark AR Hub. You can edit your effect and submit again.

AR Effect Do’s & Don’ts 

Submission

DON’T: Submit your Effect one day before you need it live, and then email your Facebook/Instagram contact requesting an expedited review.

DO: Want your effect to be ready by a certain date? Be sure to submit it for review at least TEN (10) Days prior to your desired date.

Text 

If your Effect includes text:

DON’T: Place static text in the screen that does not respond to movements or sound

DO: Make sure your text either responds to movements through the use of face tracking OR is integrated and integral to the design of the Effect; e.g. it’s a timestamp on a camcorder simulation.

Logos

Want to put a Logo in your Effect?

DON’T: Make it static so that it does not respond to movements or sound

DO: Make sure the logo either responds to movements through the use of face tracking OR is integrated and integral to the design of the Effect

Availability

Want your Effect to go live on a specific date and time?

DON’T: Skip the “Location & Schedule” section of the upload process in Spark AR Hub

DO: Control the publication date and time of your effect and the length of time it’s available by adding scheduling details during the upload process.

Masks

Does your Effect include a face mask?

DON’T: Recreate a human face as the mask.

DO: Create an animated face or a caricature of a face as your Effect.

You must have your products uploaded on the SONO Shop to set up your Instagram Shopping.

Set it up here:

Create Merchandising

What is IG Shopping?

Instagram shopping is a set of features across Instagram that let people shop your photo and videos no matter where they are in the app.

• A customisable storefront allowing people to shop directly
• Shopping tags allow you to highlight products from your catalog in Stories and in-feed
• Product Detail Pages (PDP) showcase all relevant information on an item from the product catalog, including pricing, rich descriptions & media.
• PDPs pull in media where the product is tagged on IG so people can see the products being used in different ways
• Collections allow you to curate the shopping experience by surfacing products into themes that tell a story in your Profile Shop

What you need before getting started

• Review commerce policies & availability
• review supported markets
• sellers must comply with the Commerce Eligibility Requirements
• eCommerce Requirements
• Owned eComm site
• Set up your Shop
• Facebook page to connect your IG account to (you’ll need to be an admin)
• Facebook Business Manager
• Enables users to manage their business presence
• Facebook Commerce Manager
• You’ll need to upload product you want to sell through Commerce Manager
• Facebook Catalog
• You’ll need to upload products you want to sell
• Business or Creator profile on IG

Check out our set up guide here.

Commerce Policies & Availability

To onboard to IG Shopping:

• You must comply with IG’s policies
• Your catalog must contain at least one eligible product available for direct purchase from your domain
• Your business must be located in a country where Shopping is supported. To see the full list click here.

What could make my business non-compliant with the new commerce eligibility requirements?

• Your domain is already in use by another business
• Your IG account doesn’t represent the store or website associated with the domain provided
• Your products aren’t compliant with commerce policies
• Your IG account is not in an approved market

Types of IG Shopping

• Offsite Checkout
• Globally available to all supported markets
• Checkout on Instagram
• US only
• select businesses in a closed beta program

eCommerce Requirements

• You must have an owned eComm site where you maintain consistency between your products on the site and the products in your IG shop
• IG doesn’t support affiliate programs or linking to third party websites.

Set Up Your Shop For Offsite Checkout

• Create or update to a business or creator account
• To request IG shopping go to settings > business > sign up for shopping
• You’ll then be promoted to begin the onboarding flow
• Make sure you already have a FB page, business manager & product catalog ready to connect them all to your IG account

Check out our offsite checkout guide here.

Drop Display

IG has a new Drop display that will showcase collections of exclusive product launches, which users can browse and shop in-app. Shoppers can save items to their wishlists and sign up for launch reminders and stock notifications about specific products. IG will curate a select number of collections to appear in Drops each week by choosing from those that are already using the new tool. Labels and artists can also go live to promote a Drop and can include an on-screen countdown sticker and confetti animation when the product launches.

Drop is currently available for users in the US with both android and iOS devices.

What is music in IG Stories?

• Now your fans can add your music to their photos & videos to create a soundtrack to their story

How does it work?

• Take a photo or video in the stories camera or upload from gallery then tap on the sticker icon at the top right corner and select the music icon
• search for a specific song or browse by mood, genre or what’s popular
• Use the scrubber tool to choose the part of the song that best captures the moment you’re sharing
• When your fans watch your story, they’ll hear your clip playing over the photo or video and see a sticker with the song title & artist name

Link Sticker

• You can now add a link to your story using a link sticker instead of the previous Swipe Up option.
• How it works:
  • take or upload a photo or video to add to your story
  • navigate to the sticker section
  • tape the link sticker and add your link
  • place the link sticker on your story and tap it to see other creative options
  • after you select an option, share your story
• You can also now receive reactions and replies to your link shares from your audience.

Add Yours Sticker

• Add Yours creates public threads in Stories.
• The sticker prompts users to upload to the public Story and find new people to follow; tapping on the sticker brings up an interface showing everyone who has contributed to the thread, and you can view their Stories.

Chat Sticker

• Enables you to create Group chats in Direct, and to answer fans’ questions or simply make your fans’ day by chatting with them.
• You can start or end a chat with fans at any time, and also maintain control of your inbox.
• How it works:
  • Add a chat sticker to your story by selecting it from the sticker tray after taking a photo or video.
  • Name your chat. Move, resize and rotate the chat sticker and share to your story.
  • You can find people who have requested to join your chat in your story’s viewers list. Accept requests and start chatting. More requests to join will be available in Direct and in your story’s viewers list.
  • Once you start your chat, everyone who you’ve approved to join the chat will be added to a thread in Direct. From there, start chatting!

Quiz Sticker

• Enables you to ask your fans multiple-choice questions
• Easy way to engage with fans, express your creativity, and see how well your followers know you.
• It’s also a great way to engage with your fans so they can get to know you better.
• How it works:
  • Add a quiz sticker to your story from the sticker section after taking a photo or video
  • Type your prompt and add up to four possible answers and select the correct answer
  • Share it to your story
  • You can find your fans’ answers in your story viewers list

Countdown Sticker

• This sticker allows you to set a countdown for a special announcement or event so your fans can follow along and be notified when the time comes.
• How it works:
  • Open the stories camera and tap on the sticker section
  • Select the countdown sticker and customize the name e.g. what you’re counting down to and the date/time of the event.
  • You can also change the colour of the sticker
  • Once added to your story, ask fans to click on the sticker to save the day/time of the countdown

Donation Sticker

• Enables eligible nonprofits and their supporters to raise money for charities directly.
• To access to Donation feature:
  • Before you can start fundraising on Instagram, you must be registered for Facebook’s Charitable Donation Tools .
  • Linking your Facebook and Instagram accounts allows you to use fundraising tools on Instagram.
  • Make sure to convert your Instagram account to a business account.
• How it works:
  • Open the camera in Instagram and take or upload a photo that best represents your cause.
  • Tap the sticker icon.
  • Select the donation sticker in the box.
  • Find a non-profit and select it. If you don’t see your organization on the list, it means you’re not yet eligible to use this feature.
  • Tap ”Send to”. Next, next to Your story, tap Share.

Q&A Sticker

• Artists can now interact with their fans
• How does it work?
  • Post content capture, go to the stickers button and select ‘questions’
  • you will be prompted to create a question or ask for song recommendations
  • If you ask for music recommendations, followers will see the music library once they go to respond
  • By clicking on the eyeball icon, you’ll be able to see all follower responses to your story
  • Choose which response and part of the song you’d like to include while sharing
  • Share and make your followers day!
• Example: asking what tracks your fans want to see during a live stream or gig

Poll Sticker

• Enables you to engage with your followers by asking questions and receiving answers from them.
• How does it work?
  • Open the stories camera and tap on the sticker section
  • Select the “poll” sticker icon.
  • Fill in the question for your poll and edit your answer options.
  • Tap “Your Story” or “Send To” to share your poll on your stories.
• To view the results of your poll, simply view your own story and tap the “Seen by” button in the lower-left corner.
• There’s also a “Share Results” button so you can easily share the results of your poll onto your Instagram stories.

What is IG Live Rooms?

Previously, you could only go live with one additional guest on your Instagram and now you have the ability to go live with up to three additional guests. Artists & creators can now see data on accounts they reach, saves and shares plus the number of peak concurrent viewers for lives i.e. the highest number of people watching at one instance.

Live Insights

• In Account Insights, navigate to ‘Content You Shared,’ then tap an individual live to view insights
• Accounts Reached, Views, Peak Concurrent Viewers, Comments, and Shares are available for your individual lives
• Live Insights will also be included in all Account Insights pages: Accounts Reached, Content Interactions, Top Content, Media Library
• Note: Available for all Live videos on or after May 24

How does it work:

• First, open the Instagram Camera (swipe left from anywhere) then go live
• Tap the new “Rooms” icon (the one that looks like a camcorder), now to the side of your stream
• You’ll see people who have requested to go live with you at the top of your screen and can also search for a guest to add
• Tap your guest(s) handle(s) to invite them to your Live Room
• You can add all 3 guests at once or in a staggered way (for example, you could start with two guests, and add the third later); you can also swap guests at any time.

Some additional features to remember:

• Donations: You can still raise money for causes you care about while live.
• Shopping and badges: If you’re eligible for these tools, they’ll be available to use during your live.
• Notifications: Your followers and the followers of those that join the Live Room will be notified that you are Live, which creates a great opportunity for new eyes on your content.

Improvements to your Live experience: 

• Comments: Live Comments will default to “On” and appear in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. You can always turn off comments by clicking the “…” and selecting “Turn Off Commenting.”
• New Title Display: If you title your live, that title will now be displayed at the top of your broadcast. If a viewer taps the title, they’ll be able to see your username and your guests’ usernames.
• Overall “look and feel” changes: You’ll notice that Live has a new look and feel in general –the Camera tool icons have moved, incl: adding a guest, flipping camera, filters, etc. from the bottom of the Live viewer to the sidebar.

Helpful Tips:

• Attached HERE is a step by step guide for this feature.
• Please review Instagram’s Community Guidelines before your live.
• Remember, you can control who can join and comment on your live in Privacy Settings (via Comments & Blocked Accounts). You can always disable comments after your live starts by tapping ‘…’ in the comments field. Comment warnings have been introduced to help keep your live experience safe and positive.

For campaigns where you are looking to grow your audience via TikTok, the first recommendation is to set-up a profile for the artist and start posting video content to the platform on a regular basis.

Establish Yourself

Create your profile with a recognisable handle and image and link your account to Twitter & YouTube.

Define Your Strategy

Engage with the platform as a user and embed yourself within the community. Find your main creative focus before you start engaging with influencers.

Create A Regular Schedule

Stay at the top of the feed with regular videos.

Use the correct hashtags and take part in as many challenges as you can to grow your following.

Engage With Your Audience

Watch, react and engage with users’ content to build a deeper connection & get your profile in front of more people.

Collaborate with other creators/users using the duet feature

What is a PRO account?

Pro accounts are accessible to all users and can be enabled directly on each profile via the TikTok App. Enabling this provides access to analytics for all of your posts via the settings page.

Similar to Instagram Creator accounts, the TikTok analytics dashboard can show you insights into your overall audience and performance of your content.

In order to convert your TikTok profile to a Pro account, follow these steps.

1. Open App, go to “Me”

2. Click the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner (this brings you to settings).

3. Click “Manage My Account”

4. Navigate to the bottom of the screen and select “Switch to Pro Account.”

5. Follow all the prompts to complete the process…

Useful Information

• The analytics will start recording the data after you’ve switched to a PRO account and won’t display any historic data
• You’ll need to wait up to 7 days for your account to generate enough data to start displaying insights
• Tip: publish as much TikTok content as possible during this period so you can get deeper insights

3 main categories of analytics

• Profile overview
  • shows how well your profile is performing overall
  • includes total video views, profile views & follower count
  • Tip: use the profile overview data to interpret a funnel of users, starting with people who begin to consume your content through to those who become engaged followers. This allows you to estimate your conversion rate from your total videos views to users who visit your profile and the conversion rate of those who actually followed your profile. This will help you prepare an effective content strategy.
• Content insights
  • total views of each video from the past 7 days
  • reveals which of your videos have been trending on the For You page and total number of views those videos have accrued throughout the process
  • Tap on the post thumbnail to open it’s unique dashboard for analytics per post for total likes/comments/shares, play time, video views, average watch time, traffic source types and audience territories.
  • Tip: compare the territory engagement for individual posts to your overall audience territories in the followers tab. If different forms of content resonate with new audiences from different locations, double down on creating similar content in those territories.
• Follower insights
  • A top-line view of your audience demographics
  • gender split and % breakdown of your audience by location

Even if you aren’t able to create a viral hit on the platform, having a presence and engaging with users on TikTok with help raise the awareness of your artist with a crucial young audience. Capitalise on the advantages of early adoption with a large and highly engaged audience and relatively little competition.

Please note that the Playlists in the Sounds section of the TikTok App are currently not pitchable. However you should actively reach out to your SONO Marketing & Promotions contact if you have tracks that are already gaining traction on the platform, and have specific goals you would like to achieve via TikTok.

What is Community Management?

Community Management is the process of building your fan base through genuine and real communication on your social media platforms directly with your fans. It’s your artist interacting with their audience to create a network in which they can connect, share and grow. It’s vital that you connect with your fans and show them you care. Don’t just use social media to promote your music and tour schedule. If one of your goals is to increase engagement then community management should be a key driver of your content activities.

Work on your social interactions daily

• As well as actively posting and sharing content, you should also try to respond to as many people as possible who like, comment and react to your profile.
• This is not a wasted effort. Making actual one-to-one connections with your followers, visitors, and even casual passersby is important, because they could be your future super fans.
• Your personal responses go a long way, not only to the fans who mention your music but also to others who see your responses.
• When it comes to bots or spam-like comments, feel free to delete these.
• Interact with fans by asking questions and getting involved in discussions happening in the comments. Take the time to write a good response and show your fans that you’re listening to them.
• Don’t be afraid to ask followers to share or retweet your posts and return the favour. Share or retweet photos, music, shout outs, quotes etc. Encourage them to post photos from your shows or remixes of your songs and tag you. You could even make a regular theme like “Fan Feature Friday.”

Use a personal tone & show your personality

• Developing a personal connection with your fans will help solidify the artist-fan relationship. How you communicate to your fans makes a huge difference.
• It’s also essential that you show fans your real personality. When you start to show your true self, you’ll begin to see a big difference in the way your fans interact with you.
• Write like you speak so that your content has a genuine personal tone. And don’t forget to give your posts a once-over for basic grammar and readability.
• Personalize your message and don’t front a persona that doesn’t reflect who you really are.
• Embrace your passion and don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Many artists fear rejection over-sharing polarizing content but allowing little quirks in your personality show is great.
• Don’t be afraid to open up on social media. Let others into your world and share the good times as well as the struggles. Show your fans who you are, what your about, and where you’re going. Remember, your brand represents you, so don’t hesitate to hide that.

Involve yourself in the industry community

• Show respect for other artists, musicians, DJ’s and other music industry peers.
• Comment on other peoples’ Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Instagram stories, SoundCloud tracks, etc. This shows you’re engaged in the music community and that you’re not only about self-promotion.
• It’s also an excellent way to network and gain new followers.

Why should you run a social media competition?

1. Grow Your Following
2. When running a competition, ask someone to like or follow you as a way to enter themselves into the competition.
3. This can massively help to grow your following by increasing the percentage of people who might come across your content.
4. Generate Awareness
5. When fans like, comment or share your content the algorithm recognises this and gives your content more visibility on the platform.
6. Pairing yourself with another artist, platform or brand will also introduce you to each other’s follower base.
7. Increase Your Email List
8. A popular method of entering into a competition is to provide your email address.
9. As long as you’re mentioning what the fan is signing up for, you can add these addresses to your email list.
10. Jumpstart Your Engagement
11. Competitions are a great way to increase buzz around your profile and get your followers engaging with your content.
12. Almost any route to running a competition will increase your exposure

How to run a social media competition

Set up your goal

• Decide whether you’re trying to increase your following, generate more leads or simply increase your artist or release awareness.
• Each of these can lead to different types of competitions so you need to know which goal you’re trying to achieve before setting anything up.

Determine your competition type

• If you want to increase your fanbase, ask that people follow your page in order to enter. This is especially popular on Instagram.
• If you want to generate more leads and increase your email list, you should request people to sign up via email. This can be done via a landing page and linked from any platform or you can create a specific Facebook tab for your competition.
• If you’re interested in increasing your artist/release awareness, you can partner with other artists, platforms or brands and both share the giveaway on your profiles. You can ask entrants to tag friends as another form of entry to help spread the word.
• You can also organise a social media photo/video contest as a way of gathering UGC for future campaign use.

Budget & Prize

• Once you’ve organised your budget, you can break it up between ads across different platforms to promote the competition.
• Remember your prize needs to be something relevant and specific to your audience so you’re not attracting entrants that will never convert to fans.

Know Your Audience

• You need to know who your audience is and where they spend their time on social media then you can decide which platform(s) you should be focussing on.
• Knowing your audience can also help you decide what type of prize would make the most sense.

Test Different Platforms

• Whenever you’re trying out a new strategy, always test it out
• You should be testing different platforms to see which one generates the biggest response to your giveaway.
• There are multiple options but there’s always a number one when it comes to your strategy performance.
• You can also skip this step if you already know there’s a social media platform that outperforms all your other platforms.

Understand Competition Rules

• Each platform has specific rules to adhere to so make sure you read, understand and follow the rules for each platform you’ve chosen.
• As a general rule of thumb, you should always clearly state what the competition is and be sure to say that there’s no affiliation with the platform.
• Facebook Guidelines
• Twitter Guidelines
• Instagram Guidelines

Run Your Competition

• Announce it on your chosen platform(s)
• Run ads to increase your reach
• Cross-promote on other platforms, your email newsletter and your website
• Announce the prize, set the length of your competition and of course, announce your winner.

Measure Your Results

• How well did your competition perform?
• Measure your results based on what your objectives were from the start

What is Business Manager?

Manage Pages, ad accounts, Instagram accounts & the people who work on them

Business Manager is a hub for businesses to integrate their Facebook marketing information in one place and effectively share access to assets across their team, with external partner agencies, and vendors.

Actions that require you to use Business Manager

• Custom audience sharing. e.g. Target video viewers
• Providing IG advertising access. e.g. allow and advertiser to boost an IG post.
• Product Catalog & Shopping setup. e.g. sell merch.
• Publisher block lists. e.g. choose where ads show up.
• Running ads on social issues. e.g. authorize an account to run social issue ads.
• Domain verification. e.g. set up a shop.

What are the benefits of Business Manager?

• Control. Control and manage access and permissions for all your assets in one place as your team, agency partners, or vendors change over time
• Privacy. Connect with people on Business Manager without sharing your Facebook profile—no one at work will see your info unless it’s set to public
• Security. Identify risks and see recommended actions you can take to improve security
• Time Savings. Manage multiple assets with batch actions. Track performance across multiple Pages and ad accounts

Business Manager can be directly accessed at business.facebook.com/settings

(Classic) Is my Page owned by a Business Manager?

The ‘Page Owner’ in your Page Roles tab is the owning Business Manager. Agencies are third-party Business Managers with access to your Page.

[NPE] Is my Page owned by a Business Manager?

If you’re not sure whether or not your Page is owned in a Business Manager, there two places you can look: 1. Via the Page’s Settings: A) Go to your Page’s Settings → Page Access → Business Account Access or – B) Go to your Page’s Settings, → ‘New Page Experience’, → ‘Page Management History’. Look for an indication that a Page Manager adjusted permissions and ownership.

[NPE & Classic] What if another Business Manager owns my Page?

If you know or have worked with people in the owning Business Manager.

Solution 1: The same, one, person is a BM Admin in the current and future BM, and a Page Admin of the Page you want to transfer:

1. Ensure you have an Admin role on the Page (not just the Business Manager)

2. Go to the settings for the Business Manager you want the Page to live in and navigate to the Pages tab

3. Click the blue ‘Add’ button and click ‘Add a Page’

4. Enter your Facebook Page name or URL information, click Add & everything should transition over.

Solution 2: You are not a BM Admin in the currently owning BM, but you are Admin in another BM that you want to own the Page 1. (If your FB & IG are linked) Temporarily disconnect your FB & IG a. Tip: you can connect your IG to another page so that you don’t have to transition it to a personal profile type and lose insights

2. You will need to ask a BM Admin in the owning Business to remove the Page from that BM

3. Once they’ve removed the Page, you will go into your BM that you want to own the Page and navigate to the ‘Pages’ tab

4. Click the blue ‘Add’ button & click ‘Add a Page’

5. Enter your Facebook Page name or URL information, click Add

6. Once the Page has been added, relink your FB & IG (ensure you’ve also added your IG in the Business Manager )

If you’re unfamiliar with the owning Business Manager nor anyone who might be associated

• You’ll need to work with our support team and/or your contact at Facebook to go through a dispute process
• File a request with our support team.

Note: this will require

1) a valid photo ID of the requestor

2) A signed statement with the request &

– description of requestor relationship to the Page and/or Business – explanation of the request / direct request statement – the past three invoices/billing statements on the ad account(s) that the business owns and the last 4 digits of the credit card(s) on the account(s)

– declaration under penalty of perjury that the information you’ve provided is true and accurate (statement must include this language)

[NPE + Classic] As a third party, how do I request access to a Page that is on the New Page Experience?

To request access to a Page from your own Business Manager: Via business.facebook.com/settings

1. Go to the Partners tab

2. Click ‘Add’

3. ‘Ask a partner to share their assets’

4. Add your contact information and follow prompts to submit the request

NEW PAGE EXPERIENCE + BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGEMENT

How do I add people to my Page?

1. Via Page
2. Via Business Manager

To add a person to your Page via your Page’s Settings:

1. Go to your Page Settings

2. Click or scroll to New Pages Experience

3. Click into ‘Page Access’

4. Click ‘Add New’ or the ‘…’ to change someone’s permissions

• Facebook Access: You can grant someone Facebook Access or Facebook Access, Full Admin permissions via Page Settings
• Task Acces: You can give trusted people limited (task -based) permissions to your page to help manage it. These people can’t access the Page on Facebook. However,, they can use other tools from Facebook (e.g. Creator Studio) to manage the features you give them access to

To add a person as a Full Admin to a Page via Business Manager

If you need to add a new person to the Page with Facebook Access, Full Admin capabilities,, you will need to do that via the Page’s Settings directly; this is not currently supported via Business Manager

a. Reminder: When a Page transitions to the new Pages experience, people with the ability to post on the Page may need to go through Page Publishing Authorization

To give a person Facebook Access or Task Access Permissions to your Page via Business Manager –

1. Go to the People tab

2. Add the person and give them access to the Business Manager as an Admin or Employee

3. In the next modal, select the Page within the new New Pages Experience you want to give permissions to

4. Toggle on the permissions for that person

5. Click ‘Assign’

Let’s talk Roles

Business Manager roles are different from Page roles

Being a Business Manager Admin does not mean you are also a Page Admin

How do I adjust a person’s permissions to a Page via Business Manager?

To change a person’s role/permissions on a Page:

1. Go to business.facebook.com/settings and click into the owning Business Manager

2. Navigate to the Pages tab (or People tab)

3. Select the Page (or person) you want to update permissions for

4. Click the ‘v’ next to the Page or name which will present a dropdown of relevant people + roles & permissions

5. Toggle to make changes

6. Press Save

NOTE: You must be a Business Manager Admin order to complete these actions

How do I give a third party (e.g. advertiser) access to my Page?

How do I give an advertiser or third party access to my Page?

Two ways to give an advertiser access to your Page:

• Via Business Manager. add an advertiser as a ‘partner’ to your Business Manager (business/facebook.com/settings) and grant them advertising access to your Page and/or Instagram This is best practice when working with brands or agencies who typically have their own Business Managers Business Manager is the only ‘official’ way to give an advertiser access to Instagram without giving them a login
• Individually on the Page. add another user to the Page and give limited / advertising access This works best if you’re not working with a large brand or agency and individuals on your own team

If your Page is owned in a Business Manager:

1. Go to business.facebook.com/settings and click into the owning Business Manager

2. Navigate to the Partner tab

3. Click the blue ‘Add’ button and ‘Give a partner access to your assets’

4. Input the third-party’s Business Manager ID (this is something they’d give you)

5. Select the Page you want to give access to and toggle on the role/permissions you want this third-party to have to the Page (e.g. ‘Ads’ for advertisers)

6. Finish through the prompts

If your (NPE) Page is not owned in a Business Manager:

1. You will need to create a Business Manager; follow the steps here

2. Once you’ve created one, you’ll need to add the Page within it; follow the steps here a. Continue to add people, your Instagram account, etc.

3. Follow the instructions for giving a third party access via the next slide

Where do I accept a third party’s request to my Page?

In order to accept a third party’s request to your (NPE) Page (e.g. to advertise), you must own the Page in a Business Manager.

• Admins will receive an email notification to approve or reject the request.
• Admins on the Page will also see the request via their Business Manager’s notifications tab

If you do not own the Page in a Business Manager then you will not see any third party requests

CLASSIC PAGES + BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGEMENT

How do I add people to my Page via Business Manager?

Give a person access to a Page via Business Manager –

If the person is not in your Business Manager

1. Go to the People tab

2. Add the person and give them access to the Business Manager as an Admin or Employee

3. Select the assets you want to give the person access to and press ‘Invite’

If the person is already in your Business Manager

1. Go to the Pages tab

2. Click on the Page you want to add the person to

3. Click ‘Add People’

4. Click on the name of the person you want to add

5. Toggle on the permissions for that person

6. Click ‘Assign’

How do I give a third party (e.g. advertiser) access to my Page?

Two ways to give an advertiser access to your Page:

• Via Business Manager. add an advertiser as a ‘partner’ to your Business Manager (business/facebook.com/settings) and grant them advertising access to your Page and/or Instagram This is best practice when working with brands or agencies who typically have their own Business Managers Business Manager is the only ‘official’ way to give an advertiser access to Instagram without giving them a login
• Individually by user on the Page. add another user(s), individually, to the Page and give limited / advertising access This works best if you’re not working with a large brand or agency and individuals on your own team

If your Page is owned in a Business Manager:

1. Go to business.facebook.com/settings and click into the owning Business Manager

2. Navigate to the Partners tab

3. Select ‘Give a partner access to…’

4. Input the third -party’s Business Manager ID (this is something they’d give you)

5. Select the assets (Pages, Instagram accounts, etc.) to share access with that third party

6. Click ‘Save Changes’

NOTE: You must be a Business Manager Admin order to complete these actions

Where do I accept a third party’s request to my Page?

A third party Business Manager can request access to your Page without your Page needing to be in a Business Manager. To accept or reject the request

Within your Page Settings go to Page Roles

2. Find the ‘Pending Requests’

3. Review the level of access the third party has requested; Approve or reject.

Premieres create buzz around the launch of your next video.

• YouTube Premieres lets you and your viewers watch and experience a new video together in real-time.
• Create buzz for your Premiere by sharing the watch page so viewers can set reminders, chat, and leave comments.
• An easy way to turn the launch of your video into a social event.
• Videos that use Premieres usually reach a larger audience than those launched without the tool.

Create A Premiere

Viewers can watch the Premiere on any platform like a computer, iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile web.

1. On your computer, go to studio.YouTube.com.
2. At the top, click Create   Upload videos.
3. Select your video to upload and enter video details.
4. Note: 360/vr180 or an output greater than 1080p isn’t supported for Premieres
5. To immediately premiere the video, click Save or publish  Public  Set as instant Premiere. The video will premiere when the video finishes processing.
6. To schedule the premiere for later, click Schedule  Enter a date and time  Set as Premiere.
7. Click Done or Schedule.

Tip: You can also create a Premiere when uploading a video from the YouTube app. From the “Set visibility” page, choose Set as Premiere.

Before Your Premiere Starts

• A public watch page is created for your video to eventually premiere on.
• You can share the watch page URL since the watch page is public before the Premiere begins.
• Premieres show up across YouTube just like regular uploads. You’ll find them on search, the homepage, and video recommendations.
• Anyone can come to the watch page and set a reminder, leave a comment, or chat (also give Super Chats if turned on). If you’ve uploaded a trailer, it’ll play.

During Your Premiere

• A countdown theme will start 2 minutes before your Premiere. When the countdown is over, viewers watch the video together in real-time.
• Viewers can rewind the video, but cannot forward past what’s been shown live.
• You and your viewers can continue to interact in the comments and live chat.

After Your Premiere Ends

• After your video premieres, it stays on your channel as a regular upload. The countdown theme won’t be included in your video.
• Chat replay is available for viewers who want to experience the Premiere chat after it has ended. You can turn off chat at any time.
• From YouTube Studio, you can also use YouTube Analytics to see how your Premiere performed. The view count from the Premiere will transfer to the video afterwards.

Customize Your Premiere

• Get your live audience excited about your upcoming video by showing a trailer of it on the Premiere page. Your trailer will play for viewers on the watch page before the Premiere starts.
• Requirements
  • Video type: Use any YouTube supported video type.
  • Video length: 15 seconds – 3 minutes.
  • Aspect ratio and resolution: We recommend the same aspect ratio and resolution as the Premiering video.
  • Audio and video rights: Make sure that the trailer does not infringe on other content.

1. Upload your trailer to your YouTube channel like you would with a regular upload.
2. From YouTube Studio, upload the video you want to premiere.
3. From the “Visibility” step, schedule as a Premiere.
4. Click Set up Premiere.
5. Under “Add a trailer,” click Add and select your trailer.

Premiere Tips

• Customize your Premiere by monetizing your Premiere via ads, or showing a trailer on the watch page before your Premiere starts.
• Guide your viewers to your live stream. Guide your audience to a live stream by pinning a chat message with the link.
• Build excitement by sending your audience from a live stream to a Premiere.
• Share your Premiere watch page URL on social media.
• Set your Premiere as your channel trailer. Learn how by changing your channel layout.
• Encourage your viewers to set a reminder by leaving a comment or chat message on your watch page. When someone sets a reminder, they’ll get a notification about 30 minutes before the Premiere and another when it starts.

Live Redirect

You can host a live stream before your Premiere and then once you end the live stream, your viewers will automatically move to your Premiere. Your viewers will see that your live stream has ended and then auto-play will move them to your Premiere page.

1. Create a live stream.
2. Click Edit.
3. From the ‘Live Redirect’ page, choose a Premiere. Your audience will be sent there, after your live stream ends.

• Keeps fans engaged right before a premiere
• Transition from a live stream directly to a Premiere on the Premiere watch page
• Live Redirect boosts initial views of and fan engagement with the video
• Gives fans a personal moment with the artist
• Tips
  • Set up your Premiere before setting up your live stream.
  • Remember to tell your audience that when the live stream ends, wait for approximately two seconds for their screens to reload to the Premiere.
  • Pin a live chat message on your Premiere watch page that directs viewers to your live stream.

Super Chat & Super Stickers With Premieres

Super Chat & Super Stickers work with YouTube Premieres. If you’ve enabled Super Chats & Super Stickers on your channel, they’re automatically turned on when you premiere a video. Follow these instructions to premiere a video with Super Chat or Super Stickers:

1. On a computer, sign in to YouTube with your Super Chat- or Super Sticker-enabled channel.
2. At the top of the page, click Upload, or visit youtube.com/upload.
3. Click Scheduled in the dropdown menu.

• • Note that selecting Public will cue the premiere to start immediately after the video is done uploading.
  • Unlisted videos can’t be premiered.

1. Click the video you’d like to upload from your computer.
2. On the next page, turn on Premiere.
3. Select the date and time of your premiere.
4. When the video is done processing, click Premiere in the top-right corner.

Facebook launched their new Track vs Track comparison feature in their Music Insights Tool, where users can now compare the performance of tracks from the same or different artists.

Track Comparison View: 

– Users can create a new Track comparison by opening a specific track and clicking on the “Compare” button.

– Users will be able to compare up to 5 of your label’s tracks at the same time.

– Each track has a set of predefined date ranges available for selection:

First 7 days of Release (default)

First 14 days of Release

First 28 days of Release

Last 7 days

Last 14 days

Last 28 days

– In addition, Users will be able to select custom sources and territories along with the above date ranges.

– Note that you may receive a notice like “Some tracks may show information from their first X days on Facebook if previous release information is unavailable” if we don’t have historical data for the track.

Before

• Enable live streaming for your channel
  • If this is your first live stream, you will need to wait for 24hrs for streaming access
  • Click the camera button on your mobile or desktop device and follow the steps to get your account activated for live streaming
• Make sure your channel is verified and you haven’t had any live streaming restrictions in the last 90 days
  • If you still need your account to be verified: youtube.com/verify
• Always promote the event ahead of time.
  • Create the public live stream event several days to a week in advance.
• Before sharing the link, make sure the video settings reflect the actual device/source you’ll use.
• Use video titles, thumbnails, hashtags to promote the event.
• Feature it prominently on your channel.
• Create a playlist like “Upcoming Live Streams”
• Share the URL for the live stream on social and in Community
• Ask fans to click on ‘set reminder’
• If applicable, encourage affiliate artists to promote it on social.
• Enable Super Chat
• Take the duration of your live stream into account.
  • 1-2hr streams have performed best
  • Any stream <12hrs can become a public video

During

• Film in landscape mode
  • Fans prefer to watch videos on demand in this format, including on TV
• Pin an important message or call to action for fans to the top of the chat
• Use social media to invite fans to the live stream with a direct URL link
• Use the live chat to chat directly with fans
  • Answer questions and get them excited about the event
• Monitor live chat to detect any problems and flag them with our marketing team.

After

• Your live stream will be available right away
  • Allow users to watch whenever they want
• Update the tags, descriptions and relevant information
• Promote the video on social media and in Community
• Share any chart and playlist placements
• Include cards or end screens to promote your other videos
• Include the live streams on a channel playlist called ‘Live Stream Archives’
• Share fan content in the Community tab
• Read your analytics to improve future streams.
  • Focus on the view rate, drop-offs, number of comments and number of simultaneous views

Live Monetization

• Promote official merch on a video or Premiere watch page
• Create a merch shelf or pin merch to the top of your live stream chat
• The merch feature also works on channel pages, end screens and cards.
• Enable monetization on your live stream in YouTube studio under monetize
  • click monetize with ads
  • during your live stream click on play ad
• If your channel is eligible and enabled for monetization, YouTube can serve ads on your content
  • Pre-rolls are shown before a live stream and can be viewed via mobile and desktop
  • Mid-rolls are shown during a live stream and rely on technical implementation via YouTube
  • Display and overlay ads are shown next to or over the content and they can be viewed on desktop.

Production

• Three types of YouTube live stream:
  • Mobile
  • Webcam
  • Professional

Mobile

• Easiest option to live stream quickly as doesn’t require additional equipment
• You need to have at least 1k subscribers to live stream from a mobile device

Webcam

• An easy way to stream from your laptop or desktop
• A good way to live stream from home since no additional equipment needed
• You have the option to use an external camera or audio equipment
• Compatible with Chrome & Firefox

Professional

• The best option for larger productions
• Usually used for live music streams
• In this format you’ll need to use an encoder that connects to YouTube. Options include:
  • Open Broadcaster Software
  • Stage Ten
  • Streamlabs OBS
  • XSplit Broadcaster
  • XSplit Gamecaster
  • Wirecast

Insights & Recommendations

• YouTube live streams positively impact audio and video streams
• Views and watch time per view are highest on the weekends
• Live streams between 1-2hrs perform best
• Live streaming is a new behaviour so be sure to promote your live events beforehand.
  • Promoting your streams is critical to driving traffic to them
• Keeping live streams as VOD (video on demand) significantly increases views
• Live Redirect premieres generate more views, chat messages and likes than comparable premieres.
• Top-performing live stream categories include music releases, fans events/performances and supporting causes.

What are afterparties?

• YouTube Premium afterparties are Premium-exclusive live streams with artists. They’re an opportunity for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium members to engage in real-time with artists who host a video feed and live chat.
• Premium afterparties are available in all markets where YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium are launched, except for South Korea.

• Live chat messages and comments on YouTube Premium afterparties are visible to all YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium members who access the live stream. This means live chat messages and comments on these live streams may be accessible to all current and future YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium members who can view the archived live streams.

• You can still view your own live chat messages and have the option of deleting them by visiting your live chat history, even if you’re no longer a YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium member.
• You can also view your own comments and can delete them by visiting your comment history, even if you no longer have YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium.

Engage consistently

• Get fans to interact with your videos
• Drive traffic by promoting your releases & playlists
• Add trailers and teasers before a release
• Interact with fans in comments and Community

Encourage Co-Watching

• Boost the likelihood of your videos being recommended together
• Create multiple videos for the same song
• Use cards, end screens & playlists
• Create a series

How YouTube Recommends Videos

YouTube’s content recommendation system is one of the main drivers of views and engagement on the platform.

YouTube says its goal is to show people more of what they like, based on both their own behaviours and that of similar users. Recommendations work in two places: the homepage and the ‘Up Next’ panel. They are based on four main factors:

• clicks
• watch time
• sharing
• likes and dislikes
• survey responses.

It also downranks what it perceives as low-quality content.

What to take from this information:

• Most recommendations on social platforms have traditionally worked in similar ways. That is, if a post performs highly, it will be recommended to others.
• Now, platforms are paying attention to the topics and content as much as the numbers – though these still play an important role.
• YouTube is a search engine, and the topics and content you list in your title must speak to the video contents accurately.
• Engaging thumbnails, retention-building tactics like right books and midway points are also key ways to boost these key recommendation factors like clicks and watch time.

Optimise your YouTube Video with:

• Descriptive titles
• 31-40 video tags
• Detailed description
• End cards
• High-res thumbnails
• Sharing on socials

You’ve spent all this time making the music writing, shooting, editing your video. Make sure you set it up properly at the final step to maximise its potential for discoverability.

Create A Descriptive Title

• Include the artist name and track title
• Describe the asset in parentheses
• Official Audio, Official Video
• Lyric Video
• Stick to consistency when naming your videos across your channel so everything is easy to find

Include 31-40 Video Tags

• SEO Marketing broadly accepts that between 31-40 tags are advised for optimal discoverability
• Tags tell YouTube what your video is about so they can recommend it to users watching similar content
• Use a mixture of branded and unbranded keywords
• Unbranded keywords should have a balance of medium/high search volume and low volume e.g. you want keywords that lots of people are searching for but not a lot of people are making videos like yours.
• this can include similar, well-known artists, genres, media, brands, labels etc

Write A Detailed Description

• The description box is one of the only areas you can control the messaging of your track on YouTube.
• It’s a key touchpoint for fans alongside a space where you can push your promotional message
• A good description includes:
• Credits
• Links to other platforms fans can find you e.g. socials, streaming, website, tickets etc
• Quote from the artists about the song to encourage a deeper connection with the viewer
• CTA to your current promotion e.g. ‘Stream the new track/album here’ or ‘Buy Tickets Here’
• 3-5 hashtags for discoverability

End Cards

• End cards are a YouTube feature that appears in the last 15-20 seconds of the video where users can promote other videos or playlists.
• You can promote up to 4 elements
• Use end cards to encourage people to stay on your channel by watching another video, looking at a playlist or subscribing to your channel
• Most artists don’t do this as you’ll need to add a few seconds onto your video but it’s a powerful way to extend watch time on the channel.
• Great assets to include in your end card is:
• Links to recognizable music videos e.g. your most popular songs to continue to snowball their views
• Links to new videos to promote
• Alternative ways to enjoy your music e.g. follow up with a live mix or an acoustic version etc
• CTA to subscribe

What Are PDGs?

In late 2020, YouTube made paid digital goods (PDG), available for eligible channels. These features are an additional way for your channels to monetise their content. It is recommended that all eligible channels enable and utilise these features where relevant.

PDG features currently available: 

• Super Chat – a tool that allows live stream viewers to purchase a highlighted message in the chat stream.
• Super Stickers – a tool that will allow fans to purchase animated stickers to share during live streams and Premieres.

Super Chat

• Super Chat is like paying for a front-row seat in the digital age: it lets any fan watching a live stream stand out from the crowd and get a creator’s attention by purchasing chat messages that are highlighted in bright colours and stay pinned to the top of the chat window for up to five hours. Super Chat gives viewers a chance to add a little visual flair to their chats and gives creators a new way to keep connected to their fans while earning a little money on the side
• Super Chats & Super Stickers show as coloured chat messages in your chat feed. When a viewer makes a purchase, their profile picture can stay on top of the chat feed. For how long it stays depends on their purchase amount. The more a viewer spends, the longer Super Chats or Super Stickers can stay at the top of the chat feed.
• Channel Requirements
• Your channel is monetized
• You’re over 18
• You’re in one of the available locations (Algeria, American Samoa, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay)
• Super Chat isn’t available on age-restricted, unlisted or private videos and on videos where live chat is turned off.

How to enable Super Chat or Super Stickers on a channel:

1. Sign in to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, click Monetization.
3. In the menu at the top of the main dash, click Supers -> Get started and follow the on-screen instructions.
4. Once you’ve completed all the instructions, you’ll find 2 options:

• “Super Chat status is on” next to a blue toggle.
• “Super Stickers status is on” next to a blue toggle.

Turn off Super Chat or Super Stickers

1. Sign in to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, click Monetization.
3. In the menu at the top of the main dash, click Supers.
4. Choose one or both of the following options:

• Switch the toggle next to “Super Chat status is on.”
• Click the switch next to “Super Stickers status is on.”
• In the pop-up, click the checkbox next to “I understand the implications of this action”  Turn off.

Please note: If a third party administers your rights, please check with them first before enabling.

How to see your Super Chat & Super Sticker Purchases

1. Sign in to studio.youtube.com.
2. In the left menu, click monetization.
3. In the Menu at the top of the main dash, click Supers.
4. Your latest purchases will be in the Your Super Chat and Super Sticker activity.

• For all available purchase info, click See all.

Super Chat & Super Stickers With Premieres

Super Chat & Super Stickers work with YouTube Premieres. If you’ve enabled Super Chats & Super Stickers on your channel, they’re automatically turned on when you premiere a video. Follow these instructions to premiere a video with Super Chat or Super Stickers:

1. On a computer, sign in to YouTube with your Super Chat- or Super Sticker-enabled channel.
2. At the top of the page, click Upload, or visit youtube.com/upload.
3. Click Scheduled in the dropdown menu.

• Note that selecting Public will cue the premiere to start immediately after the video is done uploading.
• Unlisted videos can’t be premiered.

1. Click the video you’d like to upload from your computer.
2. On the next page, turn on Premiere.
3. Select the date and time of your premiere.
4. When the video is done processing, click Premiere in the top-right corner.

The merch shelf allows eligible creators to showcase their official branded merchandise on YouTube. The shelf appears on the video page of eligible channels, but may not show on all video pages.

YouTube offers a lot of ways for you to promote and sell official merch to fans. A Merch shelf will showcase your items below your videos; a Channel store tab displays items on your channel page; you can use Live chat pins to highlight merch in a live chat; and Merch end screens direct viewers to your products.

These all help fans browse without disturbing their video watching: Description links previews mean that fans can check out merch directly on YouTube, while your video continues to play.

Organise your merch shelf

The merch shelf will display up to 12 products to your viewers. Here’s what can change the order of merch your viewers see:

• By default, your retailer selects the specific items and the order of display based on, among other things, product recency, sales performance, and availability.
• If you want to change the retailer’s default order on your merch shelf, you can select up to 12 specific items to display on the shelf and order them yourself for your entire channel or video.

To arrange your shelf for your entire channel

• Sign in to YouTube Studio.
• In the left menu, click Monetization.
• Click the Merchandise tab. You’ll only see this option if your channel is eligible.
• Click Organize on the “Status” card.
• Drag, drop, and order up to 12 items. Viewers may see fewer items depending on the device they’re using.
• On desktop: The first 4-5 items will appear, and viewers will have to interact with the shelf to see more items.
• On mobile: Only the first item is displayed on mobile devices. Viewers can see the other items by interacting with the shelf.
• Click Save.
• If you’ve previously ordered items for specific videos, you’ll see 2 options:
• Save to videos that don’t have a customized display: The new arrangement will be saved to videos where you haven’t customized the order of your merch.
• Save to all videos: Will overwrite any video-level arrangements and set the newly organized shelf as the standard arrangement for the entire channel.

To go back to automatic arrangement

• Sign in to YouTube Studio.
• In the left menu, click Monetization.
• Click the Merchandise tab. You’ll only see this option if your channel is eligible.
• Click Organize on the “status card.”
• Drag and drop all items back to the inventory list or clear the selection.
• Click Save.

Showcase merch beyond the Shelf

Store tab in the channel homepage

All channels live with the merch shelf and with at least 1 item eligible to be displayed on the shelf will automatically get a Store tab in their channel homepage. This tab will showcase all of your items currently displayed on the merch shelf. You can link out to the ‘Store’ tab from comments, description and Community posts by simply copy and pasting its URL.

Pin an item on your live steam

If you stream and you’re eligible for the merch shelf, you can promote one item at the top of your live feed.

Pin your merch during a live stream

1. Start a live stream using the Live control room.
2. Click the Merchandise tab below the live stream preview.
3. Select one merch item you’d like to promote  click or drag it to the “Pinned merchandise” panel  click Pin Merchandise.
4. Your merch item will now be seen at the top of your live stream.

Unpin your merch from a live stream

1. Go to the Live control room.
2. Click the Merchandise tab below the live stream preview.
3. Click Unpin.

Description Links

If your channel is using the merch shelf, you can add a link to your official merch store in video descriptions and when users click on the link, they get a preview of your official merch items directly on YouTube. This way, viewers can browse your official merchandise without interrupting their watching experience and, once they are ready to buy, they can click again to go to your official store and complete their purchase.

Feature Merch on end screens

If you’re eligible for the merch shelf, you can add merch to your end screens. Follow these instructions:

• Sign in to YouTube Studio.
• In the left menu, select Content.
• Find the video where you want to add merch to an end screen  click Editor.
• To add merch:
• If the video already includes an end screen, click on an empty slot  click Merchandise.
• If the video doesn’t have an end screen, click Add an end screen  choose your template.
• Place your merch end screen at your preferred time and place on screen.

Tips

• Keep things nice and clear so fans can easily engage: space out merch drops and donations campaigns so they happen at different times. (If you have donations running on your videos, the Merch shelf will not appear.)
• Fans react well to artists suggesting they check out the merch on offer: give fans a verbal call-to-action to go to your merch shelf! This works really well in livestream situations, too.
• Your channel needs to fulfil some simple but important requirements to be eligible – for instance, musicians must have an Official Artist Channel.

FAQs

How do I get my merch items displayed on the shelf?

Once you create or modify your merch items with your official merchandise retailer and submit them to YouTube, the items will be reviewed for compliance with their policies. This review typically takes a few business days.

How do I know if my merch items are under review?

To find out the status of the product review for your merch items:

• Sign in to YouTube Studio.
• In the left menu, click Monetization.
• Click the Merchandise tab. You’ll only see this option if your channel is eligible.
• Click Organize on the “status card.”
• In the “Organize items” panel:
• Items which are under review will be marked as “Under Review”.
• Items in the panel without this label have been reviewed and are available for display on the shelf.

I can’t find some of my merch items in YouTube Studio

If you have questions about specific merch items not appearing in the “Organize items” panel, please reach out to your merch retailer.

The merch shelf doesn’t appear on my video, why?

The merch shelf won’t appear if:

• Your video’s audience is set as made for kids
• Your video already shows Ticketing or Donations
• Your video has a copyright claim against it
• Your viewer is not in a country or region where the merch shelf is available
• Your viewer is watching your video on a mobile browser, smart TV or game console
• You have no approved, in-stock merch items

Vkontakte is often referred to as the Russian version of Facebook.

Your VK page will allow you to promote your articles and reach an audience in Russia.

Create a Community Page on VK

• Directly open Create VK Community Page.
• Provide the page name, Page type and accept the terms. When done hit Create Page.
• You need to provide further information to create a page. This detail includes Name, community link, category, website, description, Founding date and Export to Twitter settings.
• You should ensure that the Community link can be changed at any time (it should be available). Once the details are provided, hit Save.
• You can now move to upload a photo, share with friends, Add events, update with news and manage the page completely. After creating your VK business or blog or website page, you will find that the processor is quite similar to Facebook. The only difference is that the page on VK is linked to a personal account.

What is verification and why is it necessary?

Verification confirms that a profile or community belongs to a real person or organization. However, a checkmark doesn’t mean that the actions of this person or organization are automatically approved by the VK Administration. The verification mark helps you distinguish official communities and profiles with up-to-date information from among fan communities and thematic groups.

What are the advantages of verification?

• A higher position in search results
• More trust from users
• Additional protection from clones and hackers

Who can be verified?

• Artists, bloggers, athletes and others with a dedicated follower base, who are popular not only on a large scale but locally as well.
• Communities that belong to businesses, cultural facilities, educational institutions and other organizations.

How do I get verified?

In your profile’s settings (vk.com/settings) or the community’s Manage section, there’s a special button to apply for verification. This is only possible on the desktop version of the website. When filling out the application form, it’s important that you tell about yourself and your accomplishments in detail, but keep in mind that performances, interviews, media publications, etc., should be under a year old.

Profiles and communities whose requests for verification have been approved receive a checkmark for one year. After this time, verification is lost. To get it back, you must request another review, during which we make sure that all documents are up-to-date, the quality of the profiles and communities is in order, the VK Terms of Service are not being violated and the verification criteria are being met.

Community Creation Best Practices

• After creating a VK profile with your real name & photo, fill a community with at least 3 recent posts.
• Upload audios, videos and photos to the community
• Record and upload your welcome video for your fans on VK
• Make announcements on your social accounts
• Add your community link with the VK logo to your official website and add your other social accounts to the ‘links’ section
• Avoid reposts and links to external sites
• Update the community regularly

Content Development

• Uploading videos to VK allows you to increase its reach
• Live streaming via VK Live allows you to communicate with fans in real-time

An artist overview is a page that contains all of an artist’s songs and albums. Here, users can find links to the artist’s official VK community (if they have one) or their profile.

Example artist overview: https://vk.com/artist/edsheeran

What is an Artist Overview

Artist overviews are created automatically by the VK team. Artists cannot create their own overviews.

If you’d like to have an artist overview created, please reach out to support@stage.sonomusic.co with the following information:

• Label & Artist Name
• Full names of your releases
• Unique UPCs of the releases

How do I add photos to my overview?

Contact support@stage.sonomusic.co and attach images that fit the following requirements.

• Desktop version: 1510×344
• Mobile app: 1440×730
• Format: jpg, png

The artist’s name and the Play button are automatically placed over the photo. Make sure these elements fit the image well.

The photos for both the web and mobile versions should be the same. If your photos don’t meet the requirements you will be asked to change them.

The following cannot be used as artist overview covers:

1. Album/single covers
2. Drawn images. Exceptions: Virtual artists who have no photo (e.g. Gorillaz)
3. Scanned images
4. Small photos that have been upscaled
5. Poor quality, fuzzy or blurred images
6. Photos with logos (including the artist’s logos), text or ads
7. Photos with borders or any other types of decorative elements, collages; images that have been heavily edited or modified
8. Photos portraying nudity or obscene gestures
9. Photos portraying narcotics, alcohol, tobacco products or any allusions to them or effects related to their usage
10. Photos with weapons or portraying aggression
11. Photos containing profanity

I have an artist overview, but no “Go to Artist�