An Indie Musician's Diary Vol 2

Promo with Gateways (ex.: Hypeddit.com)

Amazing the things you learn through following people  on Instagram. It really is like going to a party and chatting with ppl only to find some great ideas, tips and tricks of the trade. 

Hypeddit.com was such a tip of the trade that I saw other small bands using. Here I am sitting in my living room home studio mixing day in and day out wondering how I am going to promote the Change My Mind album when it comes out. It's complicated and there are many options which I have mentioned earlier: CDBaby Pro distribution, Instagram countdown, networking and writing directly to ppl in power, etc. Hypeddit and Hypeddit PRO are additional tools in the bag, and you have to pay for the PRO version, but I believe they will make life easier for the indie that wants to be heard in the noise. 

Hypeddit is an online toolbox for sharing and promoting music.

The Hypeddit free version is a gateway that links your social media posts (where you dropped a pic of your latest music) to your streaming services. "Hypeddit download gates allow you to grow fans and followers on SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and MixCloud."

Here's a video that explains what a download gate is: 

The Hypeddit PRO version, in addition, allows you to collect fans' emails

This is why I like it. It costs 9$ a month. Here's what it does for that: it "...amplifies the promotion you do for your music by putting your music behind a download gate. The download gate allows fans to download your music in exchange for their email address, a comment, a follow, a post on social media and more. It works on SoundCloud, YouTube, Facebook, MixCloud, Spotify, Instagram, and Twitter.

You provide a "gateway" to download your music once they give you their email.

We all know that getting emails is crucial. In a world where everyone is listening to streaming services for free, this is a way to get some payback. 

Hypeddit.com has a great blog with tips too. Here are some tips from a recent blog called three proven steps to double the size of your fanbase

STEP 1: "How to make your song go viral : Share free downloads of your music with a repost-to-download function on your gate and you have a surefire way of making your music more viral. The automatic reposts you're getting from your current fans will put your music in front of their followers. This translates into more plays, more downloads, and more new, real fans."

Step 2: Engage your current fans to promote your new music

"Set up a simple email newsletter and make it a habit to send all of your current fans each of your new releases – ideally as a download gate link....If you combine this habit with the use of a download gate from step one, you're getting a double boost. More of your current fans listening to your music means more of them will repost it and get it in front of even more of their followers."

"In order to make this happen you need a list with your fan email addresses. A great way to build this may be included in your download gate. has an 'email address capture' feature that lets you get a verified email address from each fan who downloads your music. But its really more about the technique itself. Whichever tool you use, make sure it can capture verified email addresses so you're not collecting fake addresses that won't help you.

To send your newsletter, just check out or . Most have generous free plans that support newsletters to thousands of subscribers."

I have Mail Chimp...

"

Step 3: Post more music to speed up this cycle

Step one and two create a virtuous cycle: Engage your current fans for each of your new releases to maximize their support. Make your music more viral with automatic fan reposts for each download to reach more listeners. Capture email addresses for all new fans and followers your growing. Now engage an even bigger fan base on your next release.

This setup gives you very good control over the speed of our fan base growth. Restart the cycle with each new release. That means the more music you release, the faster you should see your fan base grow.

But this is important: Do not sacrifice quantity over quality in your music. If you are trying to release so much music that your quality suffers, then your fans will notice and disengage. Try to release as often as possible – but only as often as you can release quality tracks that match or surpass your fans' expectations.

This is the beginning of faster growth for your fan base."

All text within "  " from the link listed at the bottom. 

PRICING (https://hypeddit.com/pricing)

If you want to create a download gate for one single campaign, an LP, EP or single drop and you don't want to do anything else but get fans' emails the free option is for you. 

If you want to promote your music to the gatekeepers in the industry and/or  have unlimited campaigns run simultaneously (if you drop singles, you may want your campaigns to overlap), then you will want the paid version. 

If you buy a whole year subscription at one time it's cheaper than the monthly but you can't cancel in the middle of that year and get your money back. A yearly subscription costs just 9$ a month or 108$ a year. That is a cheap way to get emails and superfans. 

+

you can cancel your subscription at any time

+ through Hypeddit you can pitch your songs to promoters (sometimes for free but mostly for a fee) This is where Hypeddit makes their money I believe. 

There's so much more to say about Hypeddit. I just signed up and I have to try it out in order to review it. 

THE HUSK

Another download gate is The Husk (https://thehusk.ca/grow/)

How the Husk works: https://thehusk.ca/grow/howitworks.asp

One thing is for sure. New download gates are going to pop up with increasing monetisation opportunities and the pricing will be going down as the competition increases.  

Please leave a comment if you have any experience with Hypeddit.com ot The Husk promotion gateways. Thank You. 

LINKS: 

https://hypeddit.com/news/3-proven-steps-to-double-the-size-of-your-fan-base/