How do you promote your compositions in this fast-paced field of work? Digital marketing should elevate your compositions even more, but it can be challenging to navigate. Paul Crary is the Director of Digital Marketing at Position Music and guides you through topics like getting more streams, influencer marketing, apps like TikTok, and more. During his panel at the BMIM Conference during the BMIM x ADE Conference last October, Paul Crary updated composers about the developments he sees in his field.
YouTube’s Creator Music – a true gamechanger
YouTube and TikTok are the platforms where Crary found the most success in music discovery, pitching music, getting music out there, and seeing the streams rise from there. He thinks their new feature Creator Music, announced right before his presentation at BMIM, will have an enormous impact on his job and is something to look out for. ‘YouTube’s Creator Music is a new way for creators to licence their music directly in the YouTube app, so that they can monetise it after. That’s a massive game-changer. Position Music is actively working with them on the Beta-version to get our music in the app. It’s going to change the landscape of how YouTubers use music.’
Fans want to be involved
Especially during the pandemic, fans wanted to be part of the making process. Paul Crary thinks involving them in your work is a big ‘do’. ‘When you build a fanbase, and you are lucky enough to tap into them, you should. Even if you have a thousand followers, that’s like an army for you. So, if you create and post a video to social media, tag everybody you meet on set, everyone who worked on it, and the people who helped you. Ask them to do stuff for you, like sharing and reposting. Be lazy’, he laughs.
Use all of TikTok’s tools
‘TikTok is algorithm-based. So, just post away! You can spam the same video if you want. It’s a matter of timing and chancing the captions each time. Just tweak a post and see what works. If a post gets to the ‘For you’ page, you can hide the other posts and let the viral one stay on top. TikTok cares about you using all their tools, so use the stickers, text-to-speech, and use filters. They have trackers that know when you use their stuff, so I use all of the filters I can find. That usually gives a little boost. Even boosting posts is super easy; just get an authorization code and set up the add manager so you can start targeting.’
There are influencers in every niche in the world: use them
Composers duo Duomo got discovered when Netflix synced them with their cover of Taylor Swift’s song ‘Wildest Dreams’ in their famous show Bridgerton. They cover pop music and they are signed at Position Music. Crary: ‘What’s cool about them is that they know many great musicians worldwide. They did a Billie Eilish Cover of ‘Everything I Wanted’, which was very big during the pandemic. The players sent us the parts, and we put them together as a composition. Later, we got TikTok influencer ThatViolaKid to play the viola of Duomo’s composition. He helped many people in his niche on TikTok discover Duomo’s music and Bridgerton. So, no matter how big, small, or weird your music is, there are people out there who can help your music get discovered. Don’t be shy to reach out to them.’
Written by Meike Jentjens
Pictures by Roxanne Wilm