The Rising Popularity of Digital Upload Platforms for Music.

With artists and musician unable to perform live since early 2020 many are focusing on producing new material. This has led to an increased popularity in music upload platforms as artists try and promote new material to as wide an audience as possible but with so many platforms available which ones are best for artists? 

Where an artist posts their material will depend on the target audience as each of the platforms available offer different features and audience reach. Probably taking top spot is SoundCloud that attracts over 175 million unique monthly visitors with in excess of 250 million tracks available. They are way ahead of the next most popular platforms Spotify and Apple Music who have roughly 70 million tracks hosted. Although SoundCloud has been around since 2007 it has only entered profitability this year for the first time in its existence.

After the big three upload platforms are players like Auidomack, Bandcamp and Tidal with considerably lower numbers they are still popular amongst artists and consumers. Each platform offers slightly different interfaces for consumers so choice really comes down to personal preference. For artists and musicians posting material they also get differing interfaces some providing comprehensive analytics not just on visitor numbers but consumer profile data.

For artists prepared to enhance their material with video there is of course YouTube, the market leader closely followed by Vimeo that is rising in popularity. Adding a video to the audio track can enhance the overall appeal although many artists do upload audio with just a static image.

Key factors in deciding where to post new material will depend on ease of use, and risk of copyright infringement. Also of key consideration is the availability of insights on each platform and of course the potential for monetising material released, Bandcamp for example puts great emphasis on revenue generated for artists through their platform. The quality of audio reproduction may also be a factor in consideration of platforms and can vary widely with Tidal boasting one of the best by providing perfect lossless audio quality. 

There are always new platforms coming to market so it pays to keep an eye on what's new and check the offering of each. Ultimately for any artist they should of course be uploading material in tandem with activity on their own website and social media channels. Music files available on the artist’s own site provide more control over every aspect of the files uploaded.

Festival Pro supports artists and musicians in this difficult time and look forward to live music events and festivals returning in 2020. For event organisers planning their events for next year a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need to plan every aspect of an event. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, vendors, contractors, volunteers, guestlists and contactless ordering plus a complete ticketing solution. All documents and data is stored in one centrally controlled database with secure access allocated to specific roles.

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