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

22 Day Plan. 

Single Strategy

22 days of actionable strategy for your next single.

Tips to maximise your release. 

• Work from the end backwards, this way you’ll be aware of the final result. 
• Always leave 5-6 weeks to upload to SONO.
• The international release day is Friday, so release on a Friday if you can.
• Be careful of releasing on days that already have a purpose – i.e. Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving etc. This is because people are preoccupied with another event and your music won’t get the attention it deserves. 
• The 6 week lead up. 

Before you start implementing your 22 day plan, let’s map out what you should be doing in the 6 weeks prior to this so to be as prepared as possible. 

5-6 weeks before. 

After the creative process (that you’ve should have documented for behind the scenes, social content etc.) with your music, videos, artworks, stories and more.

• Upload your finished master track, artwork, official video to SONO here: FORMS
• Fill in all the necessary forms. Example: Pre-Save Request, Press Release Form etc.

4 weeks before. 

• Look into your target audience and perform an analysis – who is your ideal listener, who is going to be a fan and why will they care?
• Shoot your official video so that there is enough time for it to be edited for your release. 
• Design 15 second segments of your song for your micro content. Find a few different locations (the car, your studio etc). 

3 weeks before. 

• Have your photoshoot – these official images are important, they social proof your brand and show that you’re taking yourself and your music seriously. 
• Ideally shoot a second video for your release – this could be a performance video, an acoustic video, a behind the scenes video. This should be for the whole song. 
• Start researching and collating bloggers, playlist curators and radio stations. You can find databases in SONO for Artists.

Now onto the 22 Day Release Plan. 

The 22 Day Release Plan. 

We will now list what you should be doing on each day of the 22 day plan. You may see some tasks listed that you have already ticked off in the weeks prior, but if you have not yet tackled these, make sure that they are done on the days listed below at the latest. 

Day 1: Starting out right. 

1. Make banners for your socials to promote your single. (Making at least 2 different banners is recommended. One should have the release date on it and one should say ‘out now’.)
2. Update your hero picture, bio, links and about section with pictures and information relevant to your new single. 
3. Every day try to make a new piece of micro-content for TikTok/Reels/YouTube Shorts
   • today’s piece of micro-content is: 10-15 seconds of your new single with text over the top that says “This is my (our) new song”. 

Day 2: Take Spotify (and all DSPs) seriously.

1. If you haven’t already, make sure you also update your pictures, about section, links, banner etc on your Spotify too. 
2. Fill in the Press Release form a punchy press release (not short!) about your upcoming single that you can send to playlist curators, radio DJ’s etc. 

Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Send This Challenge’: 

Using the same piece of music from day 1, make a video that says “Send this to…” – fill in the blanks! For example: if your single is a breakup song, the caption could be “Send this to someone who needs to get over their ex”. 

Day 3: Pre-save. 

1. Keep an eye on Emails for your Pre-Save Link
2. If you haven’t already, make sure you also update your pictures, about section, links, banner etc on your Spotify too. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Who Are You Challenge’: 
   • This should be a 10-15 second piece of content that tells the viewer everything there is to know about you. Tell your story, perhaps even include multiple snippets of your music rather than just your new single so the audience can gauge if the rest of your catalog is for them 

Day 4: Press day. 

1. Start getting in touch with DJ’s, bloggers, playlist curators etc you find in Promo Section and send them the Press Release you have received after filling in the Press Release form. 
2. Research into the best people to send your press release off to, for example magazines, blogs, podcasts, influencers, etc. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Car Singalong’:
   • The premise of today’s micro-content is simply you, sat in your car, singing along to your new track, while telling a story with text captions. You can play the track through your stereo or overlay it over the top, that’s completely up to you. 

Day 5: Advertisements. 

1. Create a short, 15 second advertisement that you can then create a retargeting ad campaign with. 
2. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Duet This Challenge’: 
   • It’s as simple as the title suggests! A 15 second clip of your new single with the caption ‘duet this’ over the top. Perhaps you could sing half of the chorus, put the lyrics on screen, and get others to sing the rest! 

Day 6: Instagram. 

1. Compile some short highlights to pin to the top of your Instagram profile that expresses who you are both as a person and as an artist. 
2. Keep your last three posts relevant to you and your music so new users stumbling across your profile know exactly what you’re all about. 
3. Stay consistent. This is more of an ongoing thing rather than just for day 6, but make sure you’re posting as often as you can – preferably daily. 
4. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘You Know The Feeling’: 
   • For example, if your single is a breakup song – post a snippet of the song with the caption ‘You know the feeling when your ex cheats on you’ – make it something relatable! 

Day 7: Awareness ads. 

1. Start running those ads you made a few days ago. It only has to be a video views campaign/brand awareness campaign, which is incredibly cheap but great value for brand recognition. (Check the shop for ADs Campaign Creation/Budget)
2. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Collab Challenge’: 
   • Find someone you like and respect with a similar audience to do a collaboration with you. It can be in person, or just a TikTok duet – just a quick 10/15 second video that will appeal to both audiences. 

Day 8: Radio day. 

1. Run a Google search for whatever your music genre is (however niche it may be!) followed by ‘radio’. You’d be surprised at just how many results there will be. 
2. Get in touch with those radio stations and make them all aware of your upcoming single release using your press release. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Dance Challenge’: 
   • Make up a dance for your new single – it doesn’t even have to be good! Just something catchy that captivates the audience. 

Day 9: Playlists. 

1. Compile together a playlist – this can either contain just purely songs from yourself, or your songs combined with songs from similar artists. 
2. Push the playlist on your social media – perhaps even pin the playlist to your Spotify playlist for others to organically discover. 
3. Start preparing your audience for your release, through personalised DM’s asking them to listen to your new single in full, or to add your song to a personal playlist of theirs. 
4. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘How To Challenge’: 
   • A 10 second video (the visuals can be whatever you like) with your new single, showing people how to do something – it can be anything! 

Day 10: Artwork drop. 

1. Publish your new single’s artwork on your social media accounts. 
2. If you’d like to, also change your banners across the board to correlate with your single’s artwork – make sure it contains the release date. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Artwork Drop’: 
   • Make a bit of content using the same audio sample we’ve been using all week, but also showcase your new artwork at the same time. 

Day 11: On your marks… 

1. Set up the advertisements that you will want to run on your new single’s release day (or check the shop for ADs Campaign Creation/Budget)
2. Today’s piece of micro-content is ‘My Crazy Story’: 
   • Think of this as a ‘draw my life’ video – all it needs to be is a piece of content, again using the same music and whatever visuals you would like, with either a voiceover or text on screen explaining your journey as a musician up until this point. 

Day 12: Such a tease. 

1. Drop a teaser for what’s to come – release a slightly longer portion of the song, perhaps a different verse and chorus, around 20/30 seconds. 
2. Set up a Whatsapp group together with all of your biggest fans and discuss ways they can help you on release day. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Performance Challenge’: 
   • Now’s your time to shine – perform a snippet of your upcoming single! This can either be you singing along, playing the piano, playing the guitar – just record yourself performing your song. 

Day 13: The final countdown. 

1. Collect all of your assets so that everything for tomorrow is in one place. 
2. If you have people on board (friends, family, bandmates etc.), start preparing them all for what their jobs are for release day. 
3. Run a final check through all advertising you’re going to be running from tomorrow, make sure everything is fully ready to go. 
4. Set your alarms – it’s imperative that you’re waking up bright and early tomorrow morning so you’re fresh and ready for the day ahead. 
5. Today’s piece of micro-content is ‘Tomorrow is the Day!’: 
   • Tell the world that tomorrow is the day that your new single comes out. It really doesn’t matter what the contents of the video is – it could be a performance video, the teaser from yesterday, your album artwork with the song snippet in it – it can be anything, you just need to portray as hard as you can that tomorrow is the day that this single releases 

Tomorrow is release day. Let’s do this.   

Day 14: Here we go. 

1. Update your banners and links to correspond with the fact that your new song has finally been released. 
2. Remind the press/radio DJ’s etc who have taken an interest in your new release that it has finally been released. 
3. Publish your release day ads. 
4. Get in touch with your fans, personally 1-1, to let them know that your single has been released – not just a generic copy and pasted message! 
5. Post hourly social media updates – share people’s reactions to your song, show behind the scenes statistics – anything to stay in people’s minds. 
6. Host a livestream release party – this is a chance to thank all of the people for listening and supporting your music career. 
7. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Announcement!’: 
   • This is something you probably want to do somewhat early in the day, just to make sure that everybody remembers that today is the day that your brand new single drops worldwide. 

Day 15: Contingency. 

1. Release a behind the scenes/live video – this can just be a video of you performing the song – the idea is just to keep the song in people’s heads. 
2. Update your artist picture on Spotify to correlate with the new release, so people looking at your Spotify profile can tell that there’s a new release. 
3. Host a giveaway – this can be anything from the t-shirt you wore in the music video, tickets to an upcoming gig, a signed guitar, etc. 
4. If you use SubmitHub and/or Playlist Push, submit your new single to these platforms.                           

Day 15 (continued) 

1. Today’s piece of micro-content is a ‘Performance Clip’:
   • Using the same audio clip (or a different part if you would prefer), today you should release a clip of you performing the new single. 

Day 16: Air mileage. 

1. Spend an hour contacting various radio stations, playlist curators etc making them all aware of your new release. 
2. Study and optimise your ads – now we are a couple of days into the release, we should have good data to adapt our ads. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Story of the Song’: 
   • Visuals again are secondary here, but the main premise of this bit of content is to tell everybody the story of the song. How was your song conceptualised? What is the true meaning behind the lyrics? 

Day 17: Competition. 

1. Run another competition, this time in exchange for your fans adding your release to a playlist. 
2. Ask the winner(s) to take a picture with whatever prize you give away and then re-share that to your social media channels. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is an ‘Introduction’: 
   • This is your chance to tell the world who you are – keep is short, 15 seconds should be plenty. 

Day 18: More contacting. 

1. Spend another hour contacting radio stations, bloggers, influencers, podcasters, playlist curators etc. 
2. Find someone interesting to sing your song – contact them, send them the stems/instrumental and ask them to sing a cover. 

Day 18 (continued) 

1. Today’s piece of micro-content is the ‘Duet Share’: 
   • If somebody comes back to you and agrees to make the cover of your song, condense it down and release it as your micro-content for today. 

Day 19: Broadcast yourself. 

1. Host a live performance of your new track as well as any older songs you may have – or even covers – on a social media channel of your choice. 
2. Take another look over your ads and make any further optimisations that you may see fit. 
3. Today’s piece of micro-content is another collab: 
   • Go and find somebody else to make another engaging piece of content around your new release – this could be another cover, a duet, a dance, etc. 

Day 20: Management. 

1. Spend another hour managing your song – a good case study for this is Tai Verdes. Take a look at his TikTok and follow in his footsteps. 
2. Today’s piece of micro-content is..?: 
   • We’ve given you many examples of micro-content to publish over the last 20 days, so now it’s time for you to put your thinking cap on and think of something that would be beneficial to your social media channels. 

Day 21: Official Music Video Release. 

1. Release your Official Music Video (previously submitted through the Video Upload Form)
2. Run a Google Ads campaign for your video

Day 22: That’s all, folks. 

1. You’d be surprised at just how far a simple ‘thank you’ will go – send some personalised thank-you’s, either through personalised messages, a voice message or even a quick video to your fans and everyone who made this entire release drive possible. 
2. Take some time to sit and reflect on things that worked really well this time around and what didn’t work quite as well – if you can sit and digest these things, it will help you conjure together a plan to hopefully allow you to do even better the next time around. 
3. Today’s final piece of micro-content is a big thank you: 
   • Make a short video thanking your audience for all of their help and support for helping you get this far – thank them for streaming your music, adding your music to playlists, spreading the word – just thank them for all of their help over not only your recent single release but your entire music career up until this point. 

Congratulations! 

Congratulations on complete the 22 Day Single Plan!
However, this isn’t the end for you and your music, it’s just the start. 

Best practices to adhere to when broadcasting on RPAN (Reddit Public Access Network):

Engage with users

•  The product is designed to encourage back and forth between users and the broadcaster.
• Listening and responding to comments will drive stronger engagement.

Promote the broadcast to relevant audiences

• Include your username (u/USERNAME) in the title.
• Announce your plan to broadcast (include a date, time and link – if you’re currently live) to any communities you participate in.
• As always, please be sure to abide by community rules.
• Share a link to the broadcast on your key social channels.
• Send permalinks to the SONO team for potential amplification.

Tailor your broadcast to your Reddit audience

• Broadcasting simultaneously across multiple platforms often does not translate, so make sure content feels specific to the Reddit audience.
• Keep it simple; don’t overthink the production.
• No more than two people are needed:
• Artist
• Producer monitoring comments/conversation

Maintain a mindset of experimentation and have fun!

• We cannot predict what will be popular.
• Streams can be driven by the topic, the talent, and sometimes just the community.
• A surprisingly potent, community-driven content example: r/takecareofmyplant.

Consider the unique value that you can bring as a media organization

• Access to a special or unique talent.
• On-the-ground journalism.

What is Reddit Talk?

• Live audio conversations in your favourite communities.
• Invite up to 30 people to the stage to speak
• 100K+ listeners can tune in and react with emojis

Starting A Talk

• Talks live within communities and only a community’s moderator will be able to start a talk

Joining A Talk

• Once a talk is live, any Redditor can join the room to listen in and react with emojis.
• Listeners can also raise their hand for the host to invite them to speak
• Listeners can also change heir talk avatar

Moderating A Talk

• Hosts can invite, mute and remove speakers during a talk. They can also remove unwanted users from the talk entirely and prevent them from rejoining.
• Only moderators can start talks but they can invite trusted speakers to co-host a talk
• Tap on the ‘raised hands’ lists or on a listeners profile > tap invite to speak > if the listener accepts, they’ll be brought to the stage to speak
• tap on a speakers profile > tap ‘….’ button > tap mute, remove as a speaker or remove from the room
• tap on speaker’s profile > tap invite to host
• Tap the + button on iOS/Android > in the subreddit post screen, tap the audio button > add a talk title and tap Go Live
• Ending Talks
• Tap leave or end room for everyone
• In the future, Reddit will show hosts a summary stats screen when the talk ends
• Hosts can also customize talk room colours when they create the room

Discovering Talks

Redditors can discover talks from:

• Home feed
• Popular feed
• Communities
• Push notifications
• Shared URL to the Talk Room

How to Participate as a Launch Partner

Before A Talk

• We’ll help you match with a top community and coordinate with moderators on a date/time for the Talk
• Moderators will create a text post promoting the upcoming Talk and you can share this post on social media

During a Talk

• Moderators will start the Talk and share a link to invite speakers
• We will promote the Talk on Home and subreddit feeds and via notifications

After a Talk

• We will share stats from the Talk (e.g., unique and concurrent listeners)

FAQ

Q: How do I set up a Talk?

A: Reach out to the SONO marketing team with your Talk idea.

Q: Can I do a Talk in any subreddit?

A: Reddit Talk is available in a limited number of top subreddits during initial launch. Participating subreddits include those in finance, support, entertainment, health, and other categories.

Q: When is the best time to do a Talk?

A: Reddit is currently planning Talks for Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Q: Can I start my own Talk?

A: Only moderators can start talks. We will coordinate with mods in advance of your Talk to ensure a smooth flow.

Q: Do I need to moderate my own Talk?

A: No. Talks will take place in moderated spaces.

Q: Can I schedule Talks in advance?

A: Reddit are still working on a scheduling feature. In the meantime, we will work with mods to create a text post promoting the Talk that you can share on social media.

On Platform

Labels and artists should create profiles on Reddit to develop their brands and engage with Reddit users and communities.

Partnership Opportunities

• AMAs (Ask Me Anything)
• Live Video (RPAN/Reddit Live)
• Engagement Prompts
• Unique Activations
• Polls and Predictions

AMAs

AMAs are Reddit’s well-known Q&A post format. Artists & labels are expected to spend one hour answering questions from the Reddit audience.

AMA Ideas

• Producers/Directors
• Actors
• Show creators
• animators
• behind-the-scenes

Live Video

RPAN/Reddit Live is their video live-streaming product. This works best for live Q&As or other unique activation ideas in targeted show or fan communities

Reddit Live Ideas

• Audience easter egg hunt
• Talkback with directors etc
• Experimental formats (live readings)
• Out-Of-Context (hang outs with artists)

Shazam

• Your artists’ fans are on Snap already and they’re shazaming their music.
• Send traffic to the streaming platforms directly from Snap.
• Unlock artists profiles, filters, and lenses.

Shopify

• The ‘Shop’ button on a verified artist profile opens the artist store featuring the entire catalogue of products published from the Shopify backend.
• The attachment tool lets artists include a link in the stories they post on Snap
• Community Lenses built-in Lens Studio can include a link to the artists’ store
• Send your community lens deep-link to the FUGA Marketing Team to get the Shop button added.
• Fans can also access artist stores via search on Snap.

Stickers

• Incorporate your presence into the millions of sticker and filter creations per day – they’re some of Snap’s most popular products.
• Design custom stickers for your artist to bolster their engagement on the platform.
• Custom designed location filters can be geo-targeted for immersive audience experiences – great for special events and venues on tour.
• Submit custom GIFs via GIPHY to automatically show up in Snap’s sticker search

Gifting

• This is a tipping feature for fans to send tokens to their favourites artists and creators, who will earn money for every Gift they’re sent.

Snap Originals

• Snap Me is a Q&A series where users submit questions directly through Snap and artists respond through Snaps in their own voice.
• We can compile, edit and publish the Snaps as an episode on Discover screens

Snap Shows

• Snap Originals are new premium original shows with interactive experiences you can step into and share.

Story Studio

• A standalone app for editing short-form video content
• In the app, you can see trending sounds, topics and Lenses
• You can also trim and crop content and add captions & stickers.

Story Replies is a new feature that lets you engage with your cans and have meaningful conversations around the stories you post. It will also give you the controls you need to manage and filter replies based on what you want to see.

Viewing Story Replies

• Tap on your public story
• in the public profiles section, tap on the thumbnail for your public story or any of the individual snaps in the expanded list
• Swipe up to view insights & replies
• while you’re watching your own public story, swipe up to see the viewers and screenshots one each snap.
• you will notice a new section with story replies from your subscribers, ordered by recency
• each row contains the oldest unread reply from that Snapchatter
• Tap to reply back
• you can tap on the row to see the full message and reply back
• if there’s a message you don’t like, tap the x on the right to report or block that snapchatter
• you can always mute particular words or phrases you never want to see, from your public settings
• Swipe or tap thumbnail to see other snaps
• you can quickly look through all the snaps in your public story by swiping left and right or tapping on a specific thumbnail.
• under each snap, you’ll see the insights and story replies
• Swipe down to view the full snap
• if you want to see the snap-in fullscreen view, you can either tap on the currently selected thumbnail or swipe down

Muting Words or Phrases

• go to profile settings > tap on the gear icon at the top right corner of your public profile management page
• You will see a list of all the words and phrases you have currently muted. Tap ‘add muted words’ to include more or ‘x’ to remove existing ones

Quoting is a fan engagement tool that makes it easier to share subscriber’s reply to your public story. Ask subscribers to send you questions and answer away! You can even mix things up and ask them questions. Fans will be notified when you quote them which can really make their day.

FAQs

Can I still get story replies if only Friends can contact me?

Yes, story replies are on by default. Replies from your subscribers will only appear on your story management screen. You can always choose to hide story replies by toggling the setting ‘show story replies’ off in profile management.

Can I still get story replies in my primary chat feed?

If your contact me setting is everyone, story replies will continue to appear in your primary chat feed in addition to the new story

Which Snapchatters can send me story replies?

All snapchatters that have subscribed to you will be able to swipe up while viewing your story and send you a reply. To keep the community safe, Snapchat automatically filters out spammy and abusive messages. They also hide non-text based messages from your story management.

How do I filter out words and phrases I don’t want to see?

Story replies include tools to filter out messages containing words/phrases you don’t want to see including emojis.

How are story replies ordered?

They’re ordered by recency with the newest replies on top.

Can I hide story replies?

Yes, if you don’t want to see your story replies, go to your profile settings and toggle off show story replies. You can also tap the ‘x’ on the right-hand side of each reply to block or report snapchatters that send you a message you don’t want to see.

Are story replies private?

Yes, only you can see them. Other roles that have insights access will continue to only see snap metrics and viewer lists.

How can I get more stories replies?

Your subscribers might not know that they can reply to your story yet. Try posting more interactive Snaps, asking your fans questions and prompting them to swipe up to reply.

When should I quote someone?

In addition to reposting your subscribers’ replies, quoting allows you to react with a snap. Quote fans to show your appreciations for them and let your subscribers know that you read their replies.

What happens when I quote someone?

When you successfully quote a reply, the sender is notified and receives a message letting them know that you have shared their reply to your public story. The sender is not tagged and viewers can only see their Bitmoji and first name.

Be original.

If you want your posts to stand out, take the time to do something new. Make sure that everything you put up adds value—then do something creative with it.

Keep it short and simple.

Snapchat isn’t the platform for in-depth discussions so your stories should ideally be only a minute or two long.

Offer a variety of content.

Don’t get stuck doing the same thing all the time. Snapchat is a great place to offer promo codes or other information but you can also do product/release reveals, behind-the-scenes look at what your artist/label is doing or sharing an exclusive preview of an upcoming event.

Pay attention to the Snapchat style.

Snapchat is a fun platform that’s dominated by users in the under-35 range. If you want to catch their attention, you’ll need to do something fun and exciting. Take advantage of Snapchat’s great filters, make sure you understand the language and do something interesting that will grab your followers’ attention. Keep in mind that Snapchat isn’t intended for over-edited content. Snapchat is designed for raw footage that lets your users learn more about you.

Break out your storytelling skills.

Snapchat might limit you to a few brief seconds in a video but that doesn’t mean you can’t stretch your story out over multiple posts. Tell a story that will grab your users’ attention enough to have them coming back to see all of your posts. Explore something that’s likely to genuinely interest your fan base and they’ll come back and check out your story at a later time.

Community Lenses & Lens Studio

• Lens Studio is free software to easily create your own lenses.
• Pre-built templates allow for a plug, play and submit
• Include up to 30 seconds of your track in the lenses to boost song exposure
• New 3D body mesh tools and cloth simulations mean you can make realistic and immersive product try-on lenses.
• Connected Lenses also allow users to interact via a Lens in real-time, wherever they are in the world.
• You submit the lens – FUGA can help to get it featured to maximise its reach.
• Getting featured in Snap’s Explore tab can significantly boost the exposure of your song and lens.
• Editorial placements are also available via the Community Lens Explorer

Download Lens Studio and start creating

Music in Lens Studio – Best Practices

Attach An Artist Preview For Your Lens

• When creating a preview: make sure the entirety of the preview video includes the defining elements of the Lens and include your artist in the preview rather than the stock lens model. (Note: this is a new requirement to associate the lens to the artist account)
• Sometimes, your preview video will be displayed as a static image. Because of this, make sure the first frame of your video is compelling and shows off the defining elements of the Lens.
• If a video of the artist using the lens is not possible, use a static image of the artist

Submit Lens from Artist Account

• Make sure to submit from a verified artist account, these will be whitelisted in order to avoid having the Lens taken down for copyright issues. The lens must be submitted from the artist account in order to be featured.

Song Name = Lens Name

• The name of your Lens will live above the Artist Account on users’ Snap Explore screens. Make the song name match the title of your lens for the best user experience. This will be especially important for artists that have multiple lenses associated with their profile.

Get Featured on Explorer

• Send us the deep link and lens ID associated with your Lens and we can pitch to have it featured in Explorer. This will help get your lens in front of users and supplement your existing marketing campaigns.

Clean Audio

• Explicit content will not get through Snap’s review process therefore the audio clip in your lens should not have any explicit lyrics in it.
• Please use a clean/edited version or a clip of the song without explicit content.

Browse Snap’s network of talented lens creators

Snap Sounds

• Add songs to snaps from the camera screen
• Snap sounds allow users to easily embed licensed music into their messages.

Step 1

• Tap on the music icon on the top right
• Use Snap Sounds in Pre or Post Capture Snaps
• Preview audio on the playlist then tap the song to continue

Step 2

• Drag the audio to select the clip of the song you want to include
• Preview by pressing the play button
• Bonus Tip: Combine Snap Sounds with other creative tools like AR Lenses and stickers

Step 3

• Send Snap to friends or post to your story
• Your friends will be able to swipe up on your message to listen to the full song on their DSP of choice

Spotlight

• A way for the Snapchat community to find the most entertaining snaps in one place.
• It’s a product that provides a personalised, content-first, vertical playback experience that lives on the 5th tab of the app.
• An additional website is available where desktop users can watch the videos on Spotlight.
• Globally available

What are Highlights?

Highlights let you showcase collections of your favourite public snaps, photos and videos right on your public profile – permanently.

They’re a key part of your re-designed, fullscreen public profile.

How to create a Highlight

• Go to your Highlights tab
  • Tap on your avatar in the top-left corner of the camera screen. Tap on your profile under the profile management section. Go to your new highlights tab and create new a highlight
• Select snaps, photos & videos
  • Tap the + button to add new content to your highlight. You can choose Public Snaps you’ve previously posted or photos and videos right from your camera roll. When you’re done, press import.
  • A Highlight can include up to 100 snaps or 5 mins of total content, whichever comes first.
• Review and edit your highlight
  • Tap a snap, photo or video to preview the entire highlight and see how it will look to a fan. You can tap the edit button in the top-right corner to re-arrange or remove content from a Highlight
• Select your title and cover photo
  • Enter a title for your Highlight. To choose a cover image, scroll through the photo picker to select a cover image from the content included in this highlight. A good title and cover photo will give your fans a hint at what’s in store. When you’re done, tap finish to publish your Highlight to your public profile.

FAQs

When will Snapchatters be able to see my new public profile and Highlights?

Your new public profile will become visible to Snapchatters after you publish your first Highlight. Several months fro now, your public profile will be able to be visible to Snapchatters even if you haven’t published a Highlight.

How long do Highlights last?

Your Highlight can stay on your public profile as long as you want. You can remove them at any time from your profile management page.

How many Highlights can I have on my Public Profile?

At the moment, you can have as many Highlights on your profile as you want.

How many Snaps can you include in a Highlight?

A Highlight can include up to 100 Snaps or 5 minutes of total content – whichever comes first.

• Note: videos you upload from your camera roll will be divided into 10-second snaps

Can you edit a Highlight after it’s published?

Yes, you can edit Highlights at any time. Simply tap on the tile in your profile management screen and select the Highlight you want to edit.

What types of Snaps can I include in my Highlight?

You can post any type of content you’d like, as long as you adhere to Snap’s community guidelines and terms of service.

How come I’m not able to add a certain Snap to my Highlight?

If you’re adding snaps directly from Snapchat, you’ll only be able to add Snaps that you’ve posted to your public story. You can find these on the stories page of your insights. If you’d like to add a snap that’s not in that tab, you can always save that snap to your camera roll and upload it to a Highlight from there.

Can I feature Lenses that I created on my Public Profile?

Yes! Your re-designed public profile will now offer a one-stop-shop for any lenses you’d like to showcase. Snapchatters can find these in the lenses tab on your profile. When someone subscribes to you, they’ll be able to see your public story in Discover and your lenses in Lens Explorer.

What else can I do to enhance my Public Profile?

In addition to creating Highlights, you can ensure your public profile is as robust as it can be by adding a profile photo, bio, email, category, location and website. Get started by selecting edit profile on your profile management screen.

Verified Artist Profiles

Verify your artist profile to gain access to advances insights, roles and integrations.

• A gold star indicates an official story account, which means these stories will surface on Snap’s Discover section.
• Official accounts have access to enhanced analytics and insights to help you better understand your audiences and engagements to help you create great content.

Verified Artist Profile Setup

Add your public information and manage roles

• Make it easier for your fans to find you and allow trusted users to help manage your public profile.

1. Open your user profile
2. Tap on your avatar on the left corner of the camera screen
3. Manage your public profile
4. Go to the new profile management section on your user profile and tap anywhere on the card to advance to the next screen
5. Edit your public profile
6. Tap edit in your profile management screen to add a profile photo, bio and other public information
7. Manage Roles (including collaborators)
8. Assign as many users you trust to roles so they can help manage your public profile. Be careful to add the right username.
9. tap the profile settings gear at the top right
10. manage roles > assign new roles > enter username > select the corresponding role

Account Roles

Profile Admin

• Admins can manager a public profile, add/remove any Snaps from your public story, assign roles and view insights
• Admins can’t remove your access to your own public profile

Profile Collaborator

• Collaborators can view your account insights and add or remove any snaps fro your public story

Story Contributor

• Story contributors can view all of your past snaps as well as add/remove and view insights on their own Snaps

Insights Viewer

• Insight Viewers can only view the insights on your profile

Verified Artist Profile Insights

View Insights & Browse Activity

• To understand how Snapchatters engage with you, go to the Insights tab.
• You can choose between viewing metrics per Story or 7-day & 28-day aggregations across all your stories.

Recent stories & 28-day summary

• In ‘Recent, each story tile shows the reach (unique viewers) and number of Snaps in that story.
• Tap a story tile to see the views, reach, screenshots, swipe-ups and interactions per Snap
• Take a look at the 28-day summary to see your latest trends
• Note: Advanced stats are available only for new Snaps posted from this day forward and you can delete them at any time.

Story Insights

• Tap ‘See More’ to drill down further. In Insights you can tap on any stat to see a graph with your engagement over 7 or 28 days. In stories, all your past Snaps are grouped based on a 24-hour time window.
• You can filter by metric (reach, story view percentage, average time view) to compare your past stories

Audience

• You can see how many subscribers you have
• You can find the gender breakdown as well as top location and top interest of your story audience in the last 28-days

Activity

• Use this tab to track the posting activity of any roles you’ve assigned to your public profile

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” button in my community. How do I enable it?

Reach out to support@stage.sonomusic.co and we can link your community and artist overview if the following requirements are met:

1. The community name matches the name of the band, artist or stage name.
2. The owner (creator) of the community is the artist themselves or their official representative.

We cannot link artist overviews to communities that belong to third parties. It is important that the community is run by the official representative of the artist.

Two Step Verification

Every community manager must enable 2-step verification.

Having additional verification steps enabled helps ensure the security of managers’ accounts and community content. You can read about how to enable it here: vk.com/page-777107_53677752.

Linking Communities & Artist Overviews

Communities and artist overviews can only be linked by VK Administration so reach out to support@stage.sonomusic.co and we’ll organise this for you.

Requirements

1. You should regularly update your community so users can keep up with all the latest news about their favourite artist.
2. You need to make sure to keep links, logos and other mentions of other social networks, messengers, and streaming services to an absolute minimum.

The community could be unlinked from the artist overview if the above requirements are not met.

What do I do if there are other artists’ albums in my overview or some releases missing?

Please contact support@stage.sonomusic.co and be sure to list the full names of all of the releases that are missing or should not be in your artist overview.

Can I manage my artist overview myself?

Adding and arranging releases in the artist overview happens automatically. You cannot directly manage your overview, but you can control what is added through SONO.

Where can I get the “Listen on VK” or “Listen on BOOM” badges?

You can find the logos on these pages:

VK Music: vk.com/@vkmusic-brand

BOOM: boom.ru/brand

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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