Want to turn your art into an asset? Trying to figure out how to make money with music online? Keep reading.
We hear from so many artists about how hard it is to make money off their music in the streaming era. Where before, selling 1,000 copies of a record would mean a decent pay day, now artists need to reach at least a million streams on Spotify to even make rent. If you feel like you’re constantly having to feed the beast of social media to maintain attention, hit the road to make money, or just struggling with the problem so many artists have: “I just want to make music but I have to make money first.” We want to help you.
Nebula works with artists at all levels of development as we aim to create a new music economy where your art has value that you can monetize properly, and that your fans can support and benefit from also. You’re more powerful than you think, and your music is worth even more than you realize.
How Nebula Works
We turn music into an investment asset. Basically, this means that we change the relationship we have towards music. Instead of looking at music as something that decreases in value over time (like a car that just gets you from A to B), we look at music as something that increases in value over time (like a well-maintained classic car with historical significance).
Music copyrights are the main tools to protect musical works and collect the money it generates through royalties. Sounds unoriginal, right? But if fans don’t also profit from the copyright financially, they have no incentive to protect it either – and your musical work will not reach its full potential.
Example: Giving your fans 20% of $100, is better than earning 100% of $60. Alongside your fans you earn $80, alone only $60.
Partner With Your Fans
Your super fans are passively listening from the sidelines when in reality, they have the power to skyrocket your growth. No one is fired up to see you succeed as much as your super fans. But when their engagement with you is limited to Spotify, tours and merch, so is their influence.
What’s In It For Your Fans?
- An exclusive sense of closeness to their favorite artist
- Regular royalty payouts from the success of the music that they love
- An asset that lasts in the long run they can pass for generations
- Token gated rewards
What’s In It For You As An Artist?
- Additional debt-free upfront cash
- Earn revenue before the music starts streaming
- Secure your superfans’ attention by building a community of limited token holder fans who earn money with you
- Leverage your superfans’ enthusiasm to grow organically
Let’s now have a closer look at what we look for in a Nebula artist.
Checklist Before Submitting Your Music
We don’t expect artists to hit every one of these points, but you can treat the below as a checklist of sorts before you apply to join us on our journey into the new music world. Ask yourself whether each section is something you have, or something you might be able to work on before you apply for your first Nebula drop.
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Quality
We want to help you make your art as valuable as possible, and at the end of the day that value comes from the quality of the art itself. Obviously art is always subjective, but there are levels to the game and we are on the lookout for artists operating at the highest level.
Audio quality is essential. You don’t need to have recorded at a high-end studio, but we are looking for fully polished, mixed, and mastered records. Please don’t send us demos in their early stages of development, as we are not a label looking for untapped talent, but rather a platform looking to help future stars get the financial backing they deserve.
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Music Registration
To ensure your music is properly registered in the USA, you will need to obtain an ISRC (International Standard Recording Code). This code is essential for the collection of mechanical rights and helps in tracking and managing your recordings. You can apply for an ISRC through the US ISRC Agency by obtaining a Registrant Code, which allows you to assign ISRCs to your recordings. There is a one-time fee for this application, and once you have your Registrant Code, you can use it for all your current and future recordings.
Additionally, your music needs to be distributed in the USA. If you don’t already have a distributor, we recommend distributing your music with EMPIRE.
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Offering
As an artist, you have the flexibility to decide how much of your mechanical music royalty payouts you want to share with your super fans. Simply set the percentage of each song you’re willing to sell to your super fan investors in the submission form, and determine the price for each investment. Our experienced team will advise you (before or after submission) on the best pricing strategy to ensure your success.
Nebula does not request nor offer your master rights. What is being shared is only a participation in future mechanical royalty payouts.
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Marketing
The quality of your art should trickle down from the music into the marketing. Once your music has been accepted, we’ll ask you to provide creative assets to help with the promotion of your drop. Our team will be there to help you build these out and select what sort of marketing plan will be best to mobilize your fans. That said, we need you to do the work on your side too.
These assets could be anything. A music video; a visualizer; insight into your creative process; a selection of short attention grabbing snippets of the song – anything goes. We want you to use your unique voice and perspective to get fans excited to work with you and to join you on your journey. Once we’ve got the materials, we’ll help to get that voice across.
At the end of the day, the greater the story around your music and the higher the quality of the materials you use to tell that story, the greater success you are likely to have with your Nebula drop and with the song release itself. This is a bar you should set for yourself, and we’ll do all we can to help you market your release as successfully as possible.
And that brings us to the marketing plan itself. Once again, we want to work with you to turn your music into the asset it is and get as much value out of it as possible, but we can’t do the work alone. Our A&R team is on the lookout for artists with a well thought-out and defined marketing plan for their next release, so that we can jump on board and help take it to the next level. Why should investors be looking to invest in you? We’d love to know what makes your release and your story so exciting, so we can help to communicate that to the community.
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Fan Engagement
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, imagine your music had the same support system. You no longer rely on a label head or manager who believes in you to change your life. Through Web3, we are looking to access a village of supporters waiting for a song that they connect with and can get behind.
With that in mind, when you submit music to our A&R team, they’ll be looking for signs that you are building the sort of fan-base, and have the community engagement needed to take your career to the next level.
What we’re looking for:
- The first thing we look at is streaming numbers. 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify is our requirement. Why is this important? Our goal is that everyone wins, and that the fans who invest in you have a realistic chance of recouping their investment within the first 9-12 months.
- Editorial or multiple algorithmic playlisting in the past 12 months is always a good sign.
- A song (or songs) playlisted on the radio in the past 12 months is an added bonus.
- When it comes to social media, of course every follower counts, but we do not have a specific number that we look for here.
Finally, the future of music is digital and that’s exactly the space we work in, but the fans we are trying to turn into superfans and investors are real people. If you’re a touring artist with a proven track record of bringing crowds to venues (even if only in one city), let us know, and we’ll help you turn those crowds into the co-owners whose investments might pay for your next record.
Summary
- Quality: Fully polished, mixed, and mastered records. Either single track, EP or LP. No demos.
- Music Registration: ISRC code registered in the USA only
- Offering: Set price and co-ownership percentage
- Marketing: provide creative assets and share your existing well thought-out release marketing plan with us
- Fan Engagement: 50k monthly listeners on Spotify, radio playlisting is a bonus, a touring artist the desired ideal
If you have questions, reach out to our team through this contact form. We look forward to your music submission.