Using Follow For Download With Feature.fm
I still vividly remember going to the record store as a kid and spending hours there with my friends, looking at all the CDs in the rock section, saving up my money, and at the end of the week, buying whichever one seemed the most intriguing. Mind you this was the early 2000’s, just before YouTube and the iTunes store, and MySpace was just starting to become popular. I might sound like an old fart, but I’m only 25.
Between our technology now and the saturation of artists to choose from, people don’t pay for music like they used to. If a consumer is going to spend their hard-earned dollar, it’s going to be on someone they already follow. This is one of the reasons why some artists, especially indie artists, give away their music for free in order to market themselves. The though process being that it spreads their music, and perhaps they can make the money back via touring, merch, and other opportunities.
Though, artists forget that there are other ways to charge for their music because before the almighty paper dollar, we had bartering systems. That’s where the concept of Follow to Download comes in. Instead of just giving away your music all willy-nilly, you can give it away in exchange for supporting and following you on a certain platform of social media. There are even plenty of websites that will help you do this, but three in particular peaked my interest.
Followgate:
On Followgate you can do a follow to download for free to get SoundCloud followers, or if you upgrade to their Pro service for $3.97 per month, you can also do Spotify Follow for Download and Email for download.
Show.co:
Show.co is also a great, frequented Follow for Download app with multiple choices for smart campaigns varying by price and services as seen below.
ToneDen:
Lastly, but most definitely not least, ToneDen. They let you trade SoundCloud and Spotify follows for downloads for free, and also have several other awesome features like their Fan Links, which is a customizable link to your song on multiple music platforms, and their Contests, which you can create to engage with your fans.
Using Follow For Download With Your Feature.fm Campaign
Like I mentioned in my previous post, you can get creative with your Call To Action button in your Feature.fm campaigns. Go out there, and give some new listeners discovering you on 8Tracks for the first time the opportunity to download that song they liked so much in exchange for their support on one of your socials! You can only do this at Feature.fm!