What To Make Of The Spotify And Facebook Partnership
FFacebook marketing is no longer about the mere maintenance of your band’s Facebook page since Facebook’s release of Facebook Music and their announcement of f8 partnerships with Spotify, MOG, VEVO, Soundcloud, Turntable, and eleven others.
Until now, the reason behind signing up with Facebook has been to serve as a destination for your fans to keep up to date with the minute to minute happenings of your band and as a showcase for the mini battles that you’ve won. But Facebook’s f8 partnerships have opened up a whole new level of Facebook marketing, where offering your music through a Sonic Bids, Band Profile, or a non-partner Facebook App, despite the allure of the customizability, is no longer taking advantage of the social marketing “game” in Facebook.

Spotify on Facebook in ticker
If you’ve taken a look at the new Facebook ticker on the top right of the screen, you’ll notice your friend’s listening habits, courtesy of Spotify. Divert your eyes to the left navigation menu, below the category “APPS” and you’ll notice a permanent fixture titled, “Music.” Forget Pandora and Last.fm. Music has gone social – Facebook social.

Facebook's Music App
In theory, in a social world, users are inclined to listen to the music selected by their common denominator – namely their friends. You can see how Facebook Music has opened up an opportunity for listeners to be persuaded into listening to friend’s music tastes, instead of those of the automated machines that fuel Pandora and Last.fm.
But how this translates for musicians is that Spotify has gone from just another medium to publish your music, to THE medium for publishing your music. Prior to Facebook Music, unless you were spamming your friend’s walls with your music, you have the opportunity to capture the ears and attention of your listener’s friends.
Spotify’s Increasing User Base
Since the launch of Facebook music (and Spotify’s login changes that require a Facebook account to use the music service) according to Inside Facebook, Spotify has gained 1 million new monthly active Facebook users, up from their average of 3 million users per month. The increase in users makes it that much more necessary for your marketing arsenal.
How to get your music onto Spotify
If you’re looking to get your music up on Spotify, you can sign up for Tunecore’s music distribution service. But, as Information is Beautiful’s infographic, “How Much do Artists Earn Online“, shows, unless you’re seeing 4,053,110 plays per month of your Spotify tracks, which would earn you a minimum wage of $1,160 per month, don’t expect to be making a living using Spotify alone. Think of it as an investment into increasing your social presence.
Two Tips:
- If you’re pitching your music to a particular blogger or journalist, sending them a link to your tracks on Spotify will guarantee that their network of friends will have access to your music, granted that the blogger or journalist does in fact listen to your music.
- Create a custom Facebook landing page (using iFrames) that sends visitors to your Spotify tracks. As a result, upon their listening to your tracks, the news of your listener’s music choices – namely your music – will get published onto the listener’s wall and their friend’s tickers and music app.
Francis Bea is a New Yorker turned Chicago co-founder of Musefy.com (in development) and writes Musefy’s blog Musebox.
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