I’m glad to have Tracy “Trace” Ready providing a guest post on muz4now™. Trace and I have been supporting each other as freelancers in the social media world for some time and finally got around to extending our connection (beyond occasional comments) to the blogosphere. I’m proud and honored to share Trace’s post on Jango. Read to the bottom and you’ll learn more about him and his many creative endeavors.
I’ve been a Pandora radio listener for more than a decade. I loved it and told others about the streaming music service often. They pioneered the idea of streaming songs based on listener choices for songs and artists to play. Today, there are many choices for streaming music online. Pandora and Spotify are arguably the biggest names in the market for capturing listeners but I have largely abandoned these in favor of Jango.
Why Jango?
Jango, a service of Radio Airplay gives a clear path for indie artists to get their music heard, in a stream that is attractive to the casual listener. Just like Pandora, Jango plays songs based on listener choices, from popular artists across all popular music genres. The difference is Jango mixes great songs by unsigned indie artists along with the top draw acts in the stream. Yes, it costs a small amount to get your music heard. It’s not free to the artist, nor should it be. Would you drive for an hour to visit one or two traditional radio stations in hopes they would play your song, even once? If you are serious about marketing music, the answer is YES. In that respect, having your songs play multiple times to a worldwide audience for a few dollars a month is a no-brainer.
As an indie musician who worked very hard for twelve years to release a professional music product, Jango has proved to be a cost effective way to cut through the clutter online and get our music heard.
Since beginning our campaigns on Jango January 1 of this year, we have gathered 280 fans there from countries all over the world. Of those, 175 have also shared their email addresses for us to contact directly. Over this period, with a very small investment, more than 6500 listeners have heard our music on Jango.
A Plus for Indie Music Fans
When you hear a song by an indie artist, Jango provides a way to become a fan, and share contact information with the artist. The artist, in turn can contact the listener directly with links to purchase the music, show announcements, band news, a thank you to listeners, anything that suits the marketing needs of the act.
Yes, our music is on iTunes and Spotify, because of the interface with CDBaby, where our music is for sale. But there is no way for the casual listener to discover our music with these services. Unless someone has heard of you, they are not going to search for your band name. Jango filters our music into new ears, whose tastes make them most likely to actually enjoy our songs and be supportive of our indie efforts.
Another Plus: Facebook and Twitter interface
They’ve made it easy for people to share links online from your indie artist “station” on Jango. Additionally, when someone is connected also on Facebook, any station that they play on Jango shows up in the Facebook timeline, potentially exposing everyone in their stream to cool new indie tracks.
Reality Check!
As much as I would like to sell for top dollar every CD copy I have sitting here of our indie release, it’s not happening, and won’t for most indie artists. People are streaming music now, and have an expectation that music will play for free. So, the best hope for indie artists is to get enough people liking what you do, to rack up thousands of plays online, and sell CD’s and downloads to the most hard core fans of your music.
Expecting to just sell CD’s at your local shows and make something happen is a dead end proposition.
Please give Jango a try, and ask your friends who listen to music online to do the same. It’s a win for artists and fans alike.
Thanks for asking me to contribute Stan, it’s an honor to be associated with your excellent blog. And it’s my first time to have a guest post, anywhere, ever! Very kind of you, sir. All the Best, Trace
Amazing, Trace! With your writing, I’m surprised and deeply honored that this is your first guest post. And it’s a super one. I’ve already (same day as it posted!) seen a few indie musicians commenting how helpful it is to them.
I’ve been a Pandora radio listener for more than a decade. I loved it and told others about the streaming music service often. They pioneered the idea of streaming songs based on listener choices for songs and artists to play. Today, there are many choices for streaming music online. Pandora and Spotify are arguably the biggest names in the market for capturing listeners but I have largely abandoned these in favor of Jango.
Thanks for asking me to contribute Stan, it’s an honor to be associated with your excellent blog. And it’s my first time to have a guest post, anywhere, ever! Very kind of you, sir.
All the Best, Trace
Amazing, Trace! With your writing, I’m surprised and deeply honored that this is your first guest post. And it’s a super one. I’ve already (same day as it posted!) seen a few indie musicians commenting how helpful it is to them.
Let’s keep the reciprocation rolling.
Playful blessings,
Stan