1. Leverage Your Best-Selling Music.
\nAnalyze your best selling albums and singles. \u00a0Find out which songs and releases most resonate with music consumers. Think about taking your best-selling songs from multiple albums and create a \u2018Greatest Hits\u2019 album for your fans.<\/p>\n
2. Measure Promotional Results.
\nDid you run a major promotional campaign for the release of your latest album or single? Use your sales and trend reports to measure the campaign\u2019s success. Did the marketing dollars translate into sales? And how did the results from that particular campaign compare with the sales activity following your last campaign?<\/p>\n
3. Be Smart with Your Budget.
\nUse the data to get smart when it comes to managing your wallet. \u00a0Look at where you\u2019re making money, and make sure that lines up with where you\u2019re spending it.\u00a0 Long-time TuneCore Artist Gavin Mikhail uses the daily trend reports to make \u201cmore timely and accurate business decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Use Your Data as Proof.
\nMaybe radio play is what you\u2019re after.\u00a0 Or perhaps you want to book a hard-to-get venue. Well, now you\u2019ve got the detailed data of your sales success to back up your pitch, so you can approach radio programmers, DJs and bookers with confidence.<\/p>\n
5. Plan Your Tour.
\nLet your sales information guide the planning of your next tour.\u00a0 If your iTunes trend data shows you have a solid following in the New Haven \u2013 Milford, CT area, make sure your next U.S. tour includes a show at a club nearby, or try to book a gig for the college crowd at Yale.\u00a0 Going international?\u00a0 See which countries are really eating up your music and plan tour stops accordingly.<\/p>\n
6. Craft the Perfect Set List.
\nUse your daily trend reports to help plan your set lists for the stops on your tour.\u00a0 Determine which songs are selling best in the locations you\u2019re headed to, and use that insight to build a set list your fans are sure to love.\u00a0 Since you\u2019re getting daily trend data, you can check to see which songs are trending in the location you\u2019re playing that night, and change up your set list before your show.<\/p>\n
7. Go Where Your Fans Are
\nLet your reports give you insight into whether or not you\u2019re in the right stores. For example, if you\u2019re seeing a big spike in streams in France, make sure your music is available in all of the streaming services that have France as a territory.\u00a0 Give your fans as many opportunities as possible to buy your music.<\/p>\n
8. Be Active in Stores. 9. Pay the Songwriter. 10. Collect Your Publishing Royalties. We hope these tips for using reporting lets you gauge and enhance the health of your business.\u00a0 Let them eliminate some of the guesswork in determining what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t, and where to go next.\u00a0 One last important tip from TuneCore Artist duo 11 Acorn Lane: \u201cTake advantage of the sales reports interface! Have some fun with it! Not that we think numbers are much fun, but when the numbers represent people downloading and streaming our music, we can\u2019t stop looking at them.\u201d<\/p>\n Did we miss some key tips? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n
\nOnce you know which services your fans are using to interact with your music, make sure you\u2019re as visible as you can be. Seeing lots of Spotify activity in your daily trend reports and monthly statements? \u00a0Make sure you set up your\u00a0Verified Artist Account<\/a>\u00a0and build your community of fans.<\/p>\n
\nIf you distribute cover songs, make sure you use your monthly sales reports to correctly\u00a0pay the songwriter<\/a>.\u00a0 Remember, each time someone downloads one of your tracks on a digital download service in the U.S. or Latin America, a mechanical royalty is owed to the songwriter.\u00a0 And you, the owner of the sound recording, are required to pay it\u2014$0.091 per digital download.<\/p>\n
\nOn the flip side of the coin\u2026\u00a0 If YOU wrote the songs you\u2019re distributing, and your sales reports show that your compositions were downloaded or streamed outside of the U.S. and Latin America, you\u2019ve got songwriter royalties to collect.\u00a0 In order to get the money you\u2019re owed, you\u2019ll need to have\u00a0a publishing administrator on your side<\/a>\u00a0to collect your worldwide songwriter royalties.<\/p>\n