🎙️TikTok Scamming Musicians?

PressPlay brings you the latest news covering the audio industry and music news all in one quick 5 minute read!

Quote Of The Day:

WAIT A MINUTE

Did you know that you're capable of dragging and dropping a simple file onto your vocals and sounding like a radio-ready professional for free? Don't believe me? Well, you don't really have to, just click the link below, or don't, you should see the last guy that clicked the button...

Moving on...

Hit Song Friday

The top 5 songs released today!

• Church Girl - Beyonce - Not big on Beyonce but the beat is hard!

• Despecha - Rosalia - Can't understand Spanish but this is pretty hype.

• Turn On The Lights Again - Fred Again - Future but a house club mix - HARD

• Never Sleep - Nav - Future & Lil Baby feature? Fire af per usual.

• New To You - Calvin Harris - OMG - This would have been #1 on billboard if the intro wasn't so long.

Is TikTok Bad For The Music Industry?

Let's just say Peloton paid out more to musicians last year than TikTok. Let me say that again... PELOTON PAID OUT MORE TO MUSICIANS LAST YEAR THAN TIKTOK! TikTok is literally an entirely music-based platform basically paying nothing to the musicians that keep the platform afloat, suspicious right?

So let me put payouts from other platforms into perspective:

• Spotify pays out 70% of their income to artists and labels.

• Apple Music pays out 52% of their income to artists and labels.

TikTok reportedly made 4 billion dollars in 2021 but only paid out 4.5% of their income to artists (179m.)

Here's the problem: This is about the fact that TikTok started out as a music app called musical.ly, literally! If TikTok didn't have the music that it does, it would literally be the most irrelevant app on the planet. Artists can decide whether they allow their music on the app (which you'd know if you use a music distributor.)

I'm usually all for TikTok when it comes to music marketing, but I can't take their side on this one. The amount TikTok is paying out is beyond ridiculous & simply selfish for a platform that depends on us.

How does this get fixed?

Well, it's simple really, distributors such as Distrokid and Tunecore would need to squeeze TikTok for higher payouts. To your surprise, these platforms actually have much more leverage than labels as they distribute over 50% of the music in the world as a whole.

The last platform to underpay so harshly was MTV and you see where they've gotten!

Want some in-depth information on the topic? Watch this video.

Do you think TikTok owes us a larger payout? Reply to this email and let us know your thoughts on this.

How To Become An Artist | Tips From Finneas

You'd think that it's pretty simple to become a musician, and it really is! Get yourself a DAW, and microphone and watch hundreds of Youtube videos. This is true, but Finneas has a few tips that might help you jumpstart the process!

• Be someone else - Sometimes you don't have to directly write about your own life because you simply might not be going through anything inspiring. Feel free to put yourself in someone else's shoes, get concepts from a TV show, anything that brings your inner artist outside of your closed ego.

• Surround yourself with like-minded individuals - The more you're around other artists, the more you're going to discuss music as a whole. It's healthy to bounce ideas back and forth and widen your scope of writing styles, production, engineering, etc.

• Consume - Listen to music, no brainer right? It's okay to steal some ideas for your own sound. Remember that every musical note that the human ear has already been created, it's okay to rearrange it! Reverse engineering music you listen to will also allow you to build a better understanding of the psychological factors music brings. Why do you enjoy it?

How did you become a musician? Reply to this email and tell us your story, we're curious!

The 9 Commandments For Musician's Success In 2022

Here's a list of 9 things you must be doing religiously as an artist in 2022 and beyond! Let's face it, as artists we're psychopaths. We are extremely narcissistic and have no ability to meet deadlines or make up our minds. Sometimes we need a little direction, you know?

1. ) Honor your shows/gigs - You just need to show up if you said you'd show up! Time and time again big artists are canceling shows, not showing up, etc. The problem is that when an artist does this they are missing out on future income. You will begin to build a name for yourself in the music scene and it needs to be a good one otherwise other venues will not give you a chance.

2. No man for himself - Don't act like collaboration isn't possible because you're just a better artist, you're probably not. Stop ignoring all of these people asking you to collaborate! You never know the potential of another artist's brain. It's especially valuable to collaborate with people of the same size or larger platform!

3. Be open-minded - A big issue especially in production and engineering is the inability to learn. Many people feel that once they've dialed their craft that there aren't other methods that they might like better. Be open to changing you nut job.

4. Stop wasting your time - There's way too much competition in this game for time-wasting, get to work idiot! So many artists are posting music each and every day, you need to set yourself apart, how will you do it?

5. Remain modest - Remember, when you show up, you're representing a business as a musician. Whether signed, or independent, you're representing the said company that signed you, or just yourself. You as a musician are a business, act like it!

6. Gear up - This ties into the representation a bit. As you grow and make money from your music, upgrade your gear. Your sound quality is going to heavily impact the way you represent yourself as an artist. Make sure you are consistently looking for quality upgrades until you fully dial your sound in.

7. Chase - As an artist, nobody is looking for you, there are too many of us. CHASE opportunities even when they make you uncomfortable. The only way to grow in this game is by stepping out of your comfort zone. Start posting on a platform you've never tried, book a random show. I don't know, do something that helps you grow today!

8. Don't beg - Tying into chasing, please chase in a respectful manner. You don't want to be that annoying guy that sends their SoundCloud link to their entire Instagram following once their song drops, it's nauseating. Give people a reason to want the link, and build a community that gives a shit.

9. Have Manners - Must I go into detail here?

Have something to add to this? Reply to this email and let us know!

The Most Affordable Professional Microphone

Whether you're recording live instruments or vocals, the Bluebird SL is absolutely insane for it's price. This is one of those microphones that would be difficult to differentiate from a mic costing $1000 and up.

I have recorded almost all of my music on this microphone, so I can say that as a vocalist, you can't complain about this one.

The vocal quality is amazing, and the microphone has a clean retro look to fit your studio aesthetic perfectly. I have been asked hundreds of times what microphone I have solely due to its aesthetic appeal.

Artist of the week: Nic D

Whether he makes a song about a Visa credit card, a lemon, or cotton candy, he makes a hit regardless. No seriously, all of his song inspiration comes from starting with an object or food and then he unfolds it into an entire song concept.

I've never tried this concept, but truthfully, every track he makes is an absolute hit, so I think it's time to fit something new into my songwriting regimen.

Via TikTok, Nic D has amassed a whopping 1.5 million followers just off of aesthetically pleasing videos with an uplifting fun song behind it.

Nic is definitely an artist that I will be adding to my rotation regularly.

Who should be the featured artist next week? Submit your song here!

Look, we do not talk about Cordae nearly enough. I hate to irritate you by saying so, but this kid is only in his early 20s and has the skill level of a Jay-Z or J. Cole. Cordae straight told Power 106 "put a beat on, no talking, I'm about to kill this!"

Notable Lyrics:

I know those lines sound simple but listen to the way he delivers them, SHEESH

PressPlay Quick Links

• Steal these marketing strategies from the agencies!

• Andrew Tate exposes how much he makes

• Last week at PressPlay

• The next big artist, you don't want to miss this...

• Live like a millionaire before you are.

• Forcing a shy rapper out of his shell

Share PressPlay with your friends, acquire free PressPlay merch, and then acquire more friends as a result of your awesomeness. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. Super easy, free stuff, let's get it! :)

Reply with a link with one of your best songs for a chance to be featured as artist of the week!

Signing off for now!

- PressPlay