Music consumer innovation for music communities

Vampr is a nominee for the Music Week Music Consumer Innovation Award 2021. This article describes why we’re the leading app for innovation for music communities.
 
Vampr is for:

Music consumer innovation is a tough nut to crack in the wider music tech industry. Therefore, being considered for an award must take something special!

Here are some of the ways Vampr is leading in music consumer innovation:

Fast and easy discovery + connection technologies

Vampr is a niche social platform that encourages networking in the music industry. Less dedicated social networks put an emphasis on connecting you with people you already know or following celebrities who are unlikely to acknowledge your presence. Vampr is about discovering, connecting and creating a music community.
 
It is Vampr’s mission to make finding new people as easy as possible. Taking the next step to making new life-long relationships is also easy with Vampr. We do this with swipe technology as it presents the easiest way to:

Swiping is a primitive gesture. Babies as young as 17 days old have been observed making swiping motions at objects they find interesting. In the field of app design, which often seeks to harness primitive impulses, it only makes sense that swiping would emerge as a key means of navigation.
– App Partner Academy
 

Built for music communities – no distractions

Vampr’s most unique advantage is our close to 1 million users, all music industry participants. Importantly, All users on Vampr are looking to connect and collaborate with other musicians.
 
That means everybody using the app is thinking about only 1 thing – music.
 
People use social media for lots of reasons, but many musicians agree that it can waste a lot of time. This could be spent on more important things, like learning new skills or making more music, for instance.
 
Vampr is about connecting with people in the music industry. In short, it will only ever be an aid to your music career, never a distraction or hindrance.
 
Everything on Vampr is designed to support your music career. Although we provide ads from our strategic partners on our free version, we still keep them relevant to our users. If ads aren’t for you, you can get even less distractions with a Vampr Pro subscription!
 

Vamps

 
Vamps are non-permanent posts at the top of your feed. You can share unlimited videos, images and audio notes to your followers.
 
Vamps are a new Vampr technology that serve a useful purpose for creatives.
 
With Vamps, you can:

Hybrid sync representation and music publishing model

Vampr is a one-stop-shop solution for all music industry needs.
 
This means we help artists and songwriters get attention from music supervisors for film and TV. Additionally, Vampr pitches music for adverts, and to get music in games and trailers.
 
We do this with a non-exclusive sync representation service. This converts into a publishing deal when we land you a sync.
 
This is an industry-first sync deal that was created to be artist friendly. It’s also an easy solution for music supervisors to find one-stop independent music.
 
Learn more about Vampr Publishing.
 

Keep 100% music distribution royalties

Vampr also offers music distribution to Vampr Pro users. If you’re a Vampr Pro member, you already have free music distribution. Here, you can manage all your releases within your Vampr account.
 
Many other music distributors charge fees for individual releases or take a percentage of your royalties. But, Vampr doesn’t charge any fees other than the cost of a Vampr Pro subscription. Artists and record labels get unlimited releases to music streaming platforms. Then, keep 100% of their royalties.
 

Conclusion: why Vampr

Ultimately, Vampr stands out in a field of music consumer innovation. This is because it’s a platform that’s created to be fair and supportive for people in the music industry. There’s a place for everyone on Vampr, from fledgling musicians to music professionals to music fans looking to discover the next big thing.
 
Vampr focuses on the power of music communities and building strong networks. Therefore, it provides tools to help people in the music industry take their music career into their own hands.
 
Get the full experience with Vampr Pro, for as low as $2.99 a month!

 

Today we are delighted to share with you that Vampr has been shortlisted by Music Week for an award in Music Consumer Innovation 🎉

The competition will be fierce, going up against Amazon Music, Deezer, PIAS, Spotify and TikTok, however it’s a genuine achievement and honor to simply be named alongside these music giants 🙏

You can check out the full shortlist here: https://www.musicweek.com/labels/read/music-week-awards-2021-finalists-revealed/083506

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on September 14, 2021 in London.

Josh ✌️

Now you can post video, audio or image updates to all your followers – and the world

Vamps are ephemeral posts at the top of your feed. They can be anything you like – a new demo, a reflection on your day, or just a selfie! Get creative.

Send to followers

Upload or record unlimited videos, images or audio notes for your followers to enjoy. See exclusively who is watching and liking your updates.

Broadcast to everyone

In a first of its kind social feature, share your update with all active Vampr users – perfect for promoting your latest work of art*

Live Vamps

Stay tuned in the coming months for live video and audio Vamps where you will be able to broadcast in real-time to everyone online…

*Broadcast to everyone feature is available only with Vampr Pro subscription or through in-app purchase

Want to better understand music license agreements? You’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll explain what licensing agreements are, why they are essential in the business of making money with music, and how to navigate them to make the most of them.
What are music license agreements?
 
Music licensing agreements, pretty much everything in the music industry revolves around them.
 
Whether you’re:
…you’ll be working with music licensing agreements!
 
To use or exploit (sell) music copyrights you need a license.
 
If you aren’t an original creator or copyright owner, you need music license agreements to use music legally.

How to get music copyrights

When music is “written” it creates a copyright for the music. These days, “written” may mean recorded as audio or MIDI in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
 
Copyrights protect a creator from somebody using their work, and claiming it as their own. This is important to consider when writing music, as well as when working with samples or covers.
 
Anytime you use somebody else’s work, in any way, you will need permission from the copyright owner(s). This is the essence of music licensing agreements.
 
In some territories (countries or states), writers must register their copyrights. Other territories legitimize music copyright immediately after writing new melodies or lyrics.
 
You will want to check what your local copyright law requires you to do.
 

Music intellectual property rights 

Once you have a music copyright, your music becomes an “asset”. In fact, a particular type of “asset” called “intellectual property” (IP).
 
Assets are items of property owned by a person or company that have “value”. This means it is tradable for a price.
 
IP is any property owned by a person that is “intellectual” in nature. This covers copyrights, trademarks, patents and more.
 

Different copyrights protect recorded music

There are 2 different copyrights that protect recorded music:

Master rights

Master rights protect the recording of music. Before computers, music was recorded in physical formats such as tape.
The original recording was then copied onto other formats such as:
An original recording was called a “master recording”. This terminology is now embedded into the business of music. So, we still use the term “master” even though in the digital world, music is not replicated in the same way.
 
Traditionally, record labels owned the master records and rights. They licensed songs from publishers and sold records for big profits. Master royalties went to the labels. Another royalty, mechanical royalties, went to publishers and writers. This was a fixed rate for every copy made of a recording.
 
Over time, there have been more artists withholding control of their master copyrights.
 

Publishing rights

Publishing rights protect the composition and lyrics of music. They are split between the “writers” (including composers) and the “publisher”.
 
This is another arrangement that has existed since the start of the music business. Early composers weren’t able to make copies of their sheet music and sell it to orchestras to perform. This became the job of the music publisher.
 
Nowadays, it’s much easier for a composer or songwriter to find an act to perform and record their music. Often, they are also the performer themselves!
 
Different types of rights mean that commercial opportunities blossom. This could be with performing, recording and using music in a variety of ways. Music licensing ensures creators and copyright owners get paid for the use of their work.
For all writers, but especially self-published writers, it’s essential you register yourself and your works with a performance rights organization. These will collect performance royalties whenever music is played:

Sometimes, only registering with one local PRO can limit the royalties you’re receiving. This can be because you’re only collecting half (writer but not publishing) royalties or because your PRO doesn’t collect from some overseas territories.

Using a service like SongTrust can ensure all of your royalties are collected worldwide. Our friends at Music with Flavour have written a great article about registering with SongTrust as a writer. 

Types of music licensing 

Who needs a music license? 

Remember that every use of music after its creation requires some form of license.
 
(Unless it’s released under creative commons license, an entirely different beast!)
And that’s why music license agreements are so important. A lot of the time, you might be licensing your music without even realizing it. Every time you upload music to a service you will be signing a usage license as part of the terms and conditions.
 
There are many reasons why somebody might need to license your music. Examples include:
Different types of licenses are needed depending on the need. Some need permission from both the owner of the publishing and master rights. Some may only need one “clearance”. It’s important to know what kind of rights you need to clear and license before you use music.
 

Exclusive and non-exclusive music license agreements 

Music licenses are usually created on a case-by-case basis, although not always.
 
Music license agreements can be “permanent” or for a “term” (agreed duration of time). They can ensure that no competitors can also use the same music, or even work with the same artists.
 
This decision concerns the exclusivity of a licensing contract.
 
Here are some examples of how exclusivity might play a part in music license agreements:
 

Sync license for music 

A sync license consists of 2 parts – the publishing rights and the master rights. To license a recorded song for sync, the licensee must get permission for both parts.
 
The film or creative producer sometimes decides what music is synched. However, they often outsource music choices to a trusted expert. This is somebody who knows how sound and picture work together – music supervisors.
 
Music Supervisors are responsible for sourcing, trialing and sometimes deciding music for syncs. They tend to prefer to use “one-stop” music.

One-stop music licensing

One stop means one point of contact with full permission to make an immediate decision on the licensing of both the sync and master rights.
 
For a sync agent to represent your music as a one-stop, they might ask that you sign a sync agency contract. This allows them to pitch and sign deals for your music on your behalf.
 
Non-exclusive sync agreements can be advantageous to artists. This is because they will benefit from multiple people pitching their music.
 
However, this wider net can often be full of holes. Large sync libraries have no real idea of what they have in their libraries to pitch and rely on search filters. This will leave lots of artists without representation through saturation.
 
Vampr Publishing is a hybrid model built by artists for artists. The music we represent automatically creates a publishing agreement at the point of sync interest. This provides the benefits of non-exclusive pitching but ensures our entire catalog has attention. 

Brand exclusivity

Exclusivity in sync shows up a lot in the corporate and advertising worlds. Brands want to license songs that make fans and customers think of that brand when they hear a song. This is “sonic branding”.
 
Brands will sometimes request an exclusive right to a song to ensure no other brands use the same music. This could confuse their sonic branding efforts.
 
Sometimes, brands might go even further and request an exclusive artist ambassadorship.
 
Advertisers may request the song to be only used in their specific advertising campaign. Usually, this is for an agreed length of time (a “term”).
 

Production music

Production music composers will likely encounter a lot of exclusive contracts.
 
Music libraries are effective record labels for the sync world. It is in their interest to negotiate exclusive deals with composers. This protects their reputation and guarantees quality for their clients.
 
One way they do this is by paying composers to create albums in specific styles and genres. They buy these albums from composers outright to become exclusive rightsholders.
Then, they can then easily:
Composers are sometimes wary of non-exclusive deals in production music. It can indicate a large passive library where little-to-no effort is made to sell the music. However, non-exclusive agreements can come with royalties, so they’re still worth considering.
 

Conclusion

Music license agreements can be confusing. But, it can be easier to navigate with a little knowledge. Remember that there are 2 main copyright types – mastering and publishing. Then, you can license that ownership, permissions and payment for different purposes.
 
Add this article to your bookmarks. Come back to this article any time to remind yourself of music licensing specifics! Or, share it on your socials to help others understand music licensing better.
 
Vampr Pro users can show off their licensing knowledge. Find new collaborators and be confident about setting your terms.

 
So you’re sitting with your instrument of choice and ask yourself “how can I make a hit song?” How often do you consider music collaboration as an essential part of the process?
 
Music collaboration is the golden egg of writing hit music. This makes sense when we know that the average number of songwriters involved in a hit song is around 8.
 
Additionally, collaborating with other musicians can build a strong network of people to:
 
Artists are competing to earn their deserved piece of listener attention. Working together helps remind artists that they’re in this together.
 
Trying to network with industry professionals and executives isn’t enough. You’ve got to work with other musicians, artists and creatives.

So, to help inspire you to get out there and meet new people, here are 6 key examples of music collaboration opportunities that occur on Vampr and in the wider music industry…

6 crucial music collaboration examples to inspire you

  1. Singer songwriter looking for producer
  2. Songwriter looking for singer
  3. How to find band members
  4. Looking for an artist manager
  5. Producers and musicians
  6. How to find a mixing engineer

1. Singer songwriter looking for producer

A dream pairing! 💜
 
Singer Songwriters often write songs, lyrics and toplines. Often though, they aren’t musicians as well.
 
Even instrument-playing singer songwriters often struggle with recording, arrangement and textures. This is when they need a producer.
 
Singer songwriters work with a producer to make songs sound “complete”, polished and professional. It gets a song from sounding like a demo to something that fits in relevant playlists and albums.
 
Meanwhile, producers are often making instrumental (backing) tracks. They often don’t write lyrics or toplines, so they’re looking for singer songwriters to complete a song.
 
singer with microphone 

 

 

2. Songwriter looking for singer

 
Some singer songwriters write for themselves. Other songwriters love writing songs but have reasons not to sing them themselves.
 
Singers (even lyric writers) can benefit by considering work from other songwriters. Another writer’s songs can still fit their story, sound and audience. After all, we’re all humans having similar experiences!
 
A songwriter writing songs for artists was a very common setup in the earlier days of the music industry. Some of the most popular songs in history we associate with artists weren’t actually written by them!
 
If you’re going through a writer’s block, somebody else’s song might give you new inspiration.
 
The song you use by another songwriter might inspire an album you write yourself.

If you think singing somebody else’s song isn’t for you – give it a go! What singer doesn’t love karaoke? 😏

3. How to find band members

The biggest music collaboration win is several musicians creating music again and again. – This is what a band is!
 
A song played together by more than one musician in real time is a wonderful thing.
 
If you’re looking for band members, there are a few things to consider….
 
These are people you are likely to spend a lot of time with. Both on stage and touring (it could be very intimate), so be sure your personalities AND habits click.
 

Consider potential professional problems that could come up in the future. Band members should sort agreements (such as royalty splits and commercial decisions) up-front.

Bands looking for singers should get searching their local area on the Vampr app now!

band playing live show

4. Looking for an artist manager

Finding an artist manager is making a decision to have somebody take care of a lot of your networking needs.

What does a manager do for an artist?
The job of a manager is to grow and nurture their network to find opportunities for their artists.

Managers can network with:

Managers keep bringing artists work that fits their artistic direction and commercial strategy.

Music managers looking for talent can also slide into artists DMs on Vampr.

5. Producers and musicians

Producers don’t only work with singer songwriters and topliners. They often also need professional musicians to replace tracks in their production. Often, they use placeholders (such as MIDI tracks or amateur/sloppy playing) to get an idea down. They then use musicians to record a proper version.

Musicians and bands looking for a producer will collaborate with somebody they trust to record and arrange their work.

Musicians also make instrumental song demos that need full productions. Finally, musicians often need remixes or edits for another use (such as for sync).

6. How to find a mixing engineer

Of course, producers often have a blend of creative and technical skills. But they may not always have the time, equipment, patience or sometimes skill, to mix their own tracks.

Artists and producers living in apartments often can’t listen to music loud or for prolonged periods outside of headphones.
If an artist is creating music on tour, they won’t be able to mix their music to a high quality on the road.
Although AI and education are making it easier to master your own music, it’s still not always the answer.
Mastering is an art reserved for people who understand sonic science, voltage, frequencies and magic. This is especially true when making an album.

Finally, musicians and artists do often produce their own music. But, there are many reasons to consider mixing and mastering professionals:

Conclusion

There you have it! 6 examples of crucial music collaborations always needed in the music industry.

Music collaboration is what can take your song from demo to finished product. Or, finished product to hit record! Always consider what might be missing from a song and who could help you take it to the next level.

Vampr Pro gives you unlimited connection opportunities to find collaborators locally or worldwide. Try Vampr Pro now! ✌

Horizontal music networking is a term used to explain networking “across”. This is opposed to networking “up”, such as to people already in higher positions in the industry, or with more commercial success.

Networking horizontally means networking with people who are accessible and at the same or near levels of success to you.

This may be your friends in the music industry, independent record labels and music publishers. It could also be other artists (at your level) and music bloggers who focus on new independent music.

To dive deeper on horizontal music networking, let’s explore some more context of music networking and what vertical networking is.

Networking in the music industry

Networking is an increasingly important skill in the music industry.

Think about who you need to network with and also how you network well. Being polite, not overwhelming people and bringing value are important online and offline. 

Successful networking brings compounding opportunities. The more people you know and manage a relationship with, the more chance for an opportunity to come from the connections.

So, both quantity and quality are important, but focus on the latter will produce the fastest results. 

Adding more networking into your music business strategy will be enough of a starting point for some. For those who are already networking who want to go a bit deeper, horizontal networking gives an even more focused approach to success.

networking in the music industry

Vertical music networking

Not always rightly, the idea of success is heavily intertwined with our status and “position”. Vertical networking is a tendency (and sometimes strategy) to only try to network with people who are in a higher perceived position. Many people network “up” to try and be surrounded by people more successful in hopes they will get a ladder up. 

The most obvious example of vertical networking in the music industry is trying to network only with high-status musicians, producers, gatekeepers and A&Rs.

The problem with vertical networking is constantly hitting obstacles that stop you getting to your opportunity or goal. 

It also gives somebody else the power to control your success, commonly known as gatekeepers.

This ideology has been cemented in typical corporate careers. In the old-school career, you would enter a company in an entry-level position and would have to go through multiple levels of management before accessing the chiefs of the company.

Over decades, you would work your way up through your career by being promoted into higher positions, giving you an increasing access to “higher tier” contacts. This is a reality that clearly influenced the famous Nosedive Black Mirror episode.

As commercial opportunities in the music industry are finite and music is abundant, gatekeepers need to prioritise and protect incoming workloads. As such, there will probably always be gatekeepers who aren’t interested in what you have to say until you make a sufficient noise.

So, networking “up” in the music industry is a real battle.

There are many other people fighting the same battles as you might be; with so many variations of talent, skill, interest and passion. Therefore, the music industry might be the easiest industry to network in horizontally!

7 ways to use horizontal music networking

With horizontal networking, everybody gives each other a leg-up and everybody succeeds faster. In other words, it’s a support network as well as a route to find and generate opportunity.

You can compound your success by bouncing off of smaller opportunities towards bigger goals. More quality connections means more smaller opportunities = more bounciness! ⛹️‍♂️

1. Use networking to obtain new important information

The first benefit of horizontal networking is information.

When you’re working in the music industry it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the different skills and knowledge there is to learn. Acquiring all of this knowledge and knowing how to use it can take a lifetime.

Luckily, different people naturally develop different skills at different times. As such, having friends who are doing things that you are not can help you focus and stay in your lane. Knowing you can pull on them for help when the time comes expands your ability to succeed faster.

Additionally, many different people around you might have already had an attempt at something you’re trying to achieve. They will be able to give you information on what they did well or could have done better that you can consider for your own approach.

2. Utilise people with immediate skills you don’t have

Struggling to finish a song because you need a skill you don’t have?

Skill development, learning a new instrument and studying music business all have huge learning curves and take time. So, you might be able to cut a lot of that time by collaborating.

Maybe your electronic drums sound too fake for the song? Maybe your MIDI composition just isn’t quite amazing because it’s missing a real guitarist? Are you a singer/songwriter who needs a producer? Do you need mixing or mastering? Then, collaborating is your answer. (Get on Vampr and get swiping for free!)

Working to complete a project is probably the most obvious reason for networking in the music industry. Unfortunately, musicians often create obstacles for themselves by thinking that high-budget professionals are their only option. Often, a substantially talented collaboration could be right under your nose, waiting for their opportunity to blow just the same as you!

3. Cross-promotion and fan-sharing

This one is definitely overlooked! Having a strong network of other artists who are building and growing at a similar rate gives an awesome opportunity to exchange posts on social media about one another.

This gets really creative when thinking about inviting other artists onto your live streams, on socials for chats, for interviews and even jams!

All of this will also lead to future tour support and gigging opportunities.

4. Empathy and a support system

Working with people at a similar level to you means that they may be feeling or experienced similar pains to ones you are. Consequently, they will likely be able to give you advice and support to guide you how to regain clarity over your next steps.

Expanding this idea, many professionals create ‘mastermind groups’, a concept coined by Napoleon Hill in his book “Think and Grow Rich”. (Essential reading for anybody looking for a “success blueprint”). This might be something you want to do with your fellow music comrades. 

5. Inspiration and motivation

Trying to get to the top of the mountain in one go is going to cause a lot of burnout, frustration and feelings like you won’t succeed. Instead, planning your journey to do a stretch at a time can make the journey enjoyable.

Working with people who are levelling up at a similar pace to you will allow you to keep inspired. As a result, you’ll be able to stay focused on your micro-goals and stop and smell the roses along your way. 

Comparatively, consider trying to network with people who come across as inaccessible and ignorant…

Networking is a much nicer experience when you’re doing so with people who are passionate and welcoming.

6. Recommendations and tip-offs

Regularly connect with your network and keep them up to date with what you’re working on and aiming for. By doing this, you are inviting them to share opportunities with you that fit what you’re striving towards.

This is most effective when you are the one proactively sharing opportunities. What you give out always comes back. 🥰

7. Future-thinking

Everybody who is working hard, learning how to solve more problems and achieve more of their personal goals is going to level-up.

That means, in 5 years – a lot of your network is going to be in higher places. 

It’s important not to look at your network as any lower in value than people in higher places already. In general, see the potential of your peers, not their limitations. Work together through your strengths and weaknesses to succeed from your own efforts!

The more people creating opportunities, the less power those at the “top” will hold. 

What’s your music networking strategy?

Vampr is the easiest to use, not to mention largest, social-professional network of music industry contacts in the world. If you’re not already using Vampr, download it for free today and start swiping and connecting with people in any country to kickstart the growth of your network and team. ✌