🎙️ Why you must be an independent artist

Together With

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

Quote Of The Day:

No more bottle service and beer bongs, it's time for the boys to get work! (Ladies included.)

Charts Weekly

As of 5/26/2022 Bad Bunny absolutely RAN the entire show. Just this week his new album amassed roughly 24 million streams.

Now for the real question that everyone is wondering... How many Mcchickens would 24 million streams really get you?

Spotify typically pays anywhere between 0.004-0.006 of a penny per stream. Let's play it safe and say each stream made 0.005. After deep analysis and countless equations, we finally reached a verdict.

24 million streams = $120,000/Average cost of McChicken = $1.29 (during inflation) = 93,023 McChicken's.

It is not yet known whether Bad Bunny will be ordering this many McChickens, stay tuned for our weekly updates.

In case you missed last week's charting

As you can see, the Kendrick Lamar album was no laughing matter holding 4 out of 10 of the top streamed songs the first week! Ironically enough the 11th placed song was his as well. (Who wants to see the top 11 though, I mean really?)

As shown above, the GOAT himself even showed his support for the album via Twitter, clearly impressed..

Why you MUST be an independent artist in 2022

Let's face it, most labels do not give a damn about you or your artistry. Money simply makes the world go around! Labels typically aren't even concerned with talent, they're concerned with sales and whether your brand as a whole is going to convert for them. Although it's much harder work, remaining independent will lead to you being your own label in the end! Take it from Russ!

Watch the Russ movie/music video that just dropped here.

"I am the label," notice his mention of spending 300k out of his own pocket, understand that this is key! Most artists are stuck in a never-ending loss of creative freedom as labels call the shots when it comes to projects like this. Imagine achieving your dreams and maintaining full control!

Clearly, the f*ck Russ movement had little to no impact on this man's career, he's thriving and remaining true to himself. Funny to see who came on top in the situation. :P

What are your thoughts on labels? Let us know by replying to this email!

Artist of the week: Pardyalone

Pardyalone is a quickly emerging Alternative Hip-Hop artist taking Tik Tok by STORM! His renowned song "Not a Home" is currently exploding due to his consistency and high-quality Tik Tok posts. Not only is Pardyalone making an impact on Tik Tok, but he has recently been covered by some huge outlets such as Elevator, Promoting Sounds, FutureHype, and more!

Know of any upcoming artists? Reply to this email and let us know who you think we should cover next!

• You're not utilizing Tik Tok

• You're not on Tik Tok

• You haven't made a Tik Tok account.

If the previous article isn't enough evidence then have a look at these numbers!

The following screenshot was taken on 5/17/2022. Notice his song "Not a home" amassed 750k+ streams after only coming out 6 days before, not counting all other platforms. Understand that this all came from simple 15-60 second videos of Pardyalone performing his music in different settings! Click below to learn more about Pardyalone!

Not once, Not twice, but for the third time, Jack Harlow visited the LA Leakers and absolutely SLAUGHTERED the freestyle. Jack spits over the classic "drop it like it's hot" by the OG Snoop Dogg!

Coming off of his recent album release, and Billboard number-one single "First Class," It's safe to say that Jack is going to be a major player in the game for many years to come!

Notable Lyrics:

Such a small, but powerful section of the freestyle! Jack has pulled over 750k Tik Tok videos using his sound in a little over a month. It's clear that his line "Drop a new joint and she got a new set of captions" was no laughing matter considering most of these users flaunted the hashtag #JackHarlowFirstClass to go along with their posts.

Together With

Sound Professional In Seconds: Baywood Audio

As you may have already gathered, we have partnered with Baywood Audio, a company leading in the vocal preset game. Baywood Audio has an unwavering mission to help artists achieve a radio-ready sound without learning the difficult task of becoming a full-blown studio pro.

Baywood Audio creates vocal presets that work as a drag and drop system, similar to an Instagram filter, but for your voice. Using Stock & Waves plugins they have created a seamless system that puts the artist in control removing the financial restraints of studio time and overpriced audio engineers.

The greatest part is this company strives themselves on putting the customer before financial gain. Here's a link to their FREE vocal presets and templates which I'm surprised are the quality they are. I myself have used this free template to start every song I've ever made, so I can say with full confidence that this WILL change the way you make music forever. Whether you're a pro or a beginner, you can easily use the recording template as a start, and tweak the settings as you go.

If you'd like to go a bit further with your sound check out the new Sauce Bundle which houses 6 of their top products, providing you with an insane discount for hundreds of different presets to choose from, it's a no brainer.

Last Minute Deal Alert!

As some of the most high-quality/affordable plugins on the market, Waves is yet again taking it up a notch with this insane deal! If you purchase 2 plugins right now you will receive an additional 2 of your choosing. If you don't yet have their Waves Tune Real-Time I'd highly suggest picking that up right now. It's an incredible autotune for the price that allows you to perform using autotune in real-time!

Look artists, it's time to stop recording on that cell phone. As the industry becomes more and more flooded competition is rising, and quality is increasing. Those who don't take their sound seriously are in big big trouble as listeners are slowly beginning to sniff out low quality.

This is where we've come in to help you guys out! Did you know that Sweetwater is running deals on microphones until the end of May? Upon reading this newsletter you will only have a few more days to get in on the savings and let me tell you, there are some huge discounts on some well-known microphone brands including Neumann, AKG, Slate Digital, and more.

For example: This Slate Digital VMS ML-1 is currently $300 off, usually running you 799.99. The great part about SweetWater is that they even have a monthly payment option if you're not able to pay for your equipment up front! Time to ditch the low quality and get some serious vocals!

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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