Increase Plays on Apple Music! 

There are many tips and tricks for increasing your music’s streaming count on Spotify. The playlisting ecosystem has grown so much, mainly because of the value streaming counts have for any independent artist trying to become popular on Spotify. But how do you ensure that you also try to replicate such streaming count numbers on Apple Music?

In this article, we will be answering these questions:

1. How do I get the most listened to on Apple Music?
   
   
2. How much is 1000 streams on Apple Music?
   
   
3. How to grow on Apple Music?
   
   
4. Is Apple Music better than Spotify?
   
   
5. Is Apple Music profitable?
   
   

How do I get the most listened to on Apple Music?

The most important step in trying to become a popular artist on Apple Music is ensuring that your profile, your links, and every other data that you put up on the app is updated every now and then and appears very professional. 

Optimize your Apple Music profile

Your artist profile literally makes all the difference! Ensure that it includes high-quality photographs, an interesting bio, and links to your social media sites. Make sure to keep your profile updated with new releases, playlists, and exclusive announcements!

Your artist bio should highlight both your artistic milestones and unique accomplishments. Make sure that you tell a story, not just list the awards or number of shows you have done. Humanize the artistic persona! The lengthier the bio, the less likely people are to read it all the way through, so make sure that it is a short and intriguing story. 

Leverage Pre-Adds

Pre-adds on Apple Music are the equivalent of pre-orders in the conventional music industry. Invite your fans to pre-add your impending release, which not only increases anticipation but also ensures that your music is automatically added to their collection upon release, resulting in an immediate increase in streams. It helps ensure that you get a kickstart at gaining Apple Music streams for your music. 

Pssst…come here: Spotify has a similar tool called Pre-Saves and the tool works pretty much the same. In your pre-release strategy, ensure that you utilize both these tools on Apple Music and Spotify. 

Taylor Swift (among many other popular artists) has leveraged Pre-Adds extremely well. When she announced her album Lover, it was available for pre-adds on Apple Music weeks before its official release. This allowed her followers, Swifities, to pre-add the album to their libraries, ensuring they had quick access to it as soon as it was released. The pre-add tactic contributed to Lover’s enormous streaming debut, with over 55 million streams on Apple Music alone on its first day. This early momentum helped the record quickly climb the charts and solidify its triumph.

Engage with Editorial Playlists

Of course, the playlisting ecosystem on Apple Music isn’t as great as Spotify’s but it is definitely worth giving a shot. This means pitching your songs to their editorial playlists, only if you have enough connections with the editorial team of Apple Music Playlists. With Spotify, there’s a transparency that allows artists to directly interact with different playlisters and the editorial team. But with Apple Music, that’s not the case. Work with a music distributor who has a network within the editorial team. Many users have shared that they look into your artist profile as well, so ensure that your profile makes a good impression. 

Building a large listener base on Apple Music helps to attract a curator’s attention because organic traffic is something playlisters cannot overlook. Don’t underestimate the value of collaborating with other artists, as joint efforts can lead to playlist features, which are a great way to increase any artist’s stream count.

Top artists like Billie Eilish also seem to value the importance of playlists across different streaming platforms. Her track, Ocean Eyes, was added to Apple Music Editorial playlists, such as Today’s Chill and New Music Daily. These playlists have a large following, so when a new track from any artist is placed in any of these playlists, they are bound to see an increase in streams. 

Social Media Marketing 

You should basically redirect your viewers landing on your social media profile to your Apple Music profile. Definitely add links to the songs available on Apple Music. But what you could also do is build and share your story candidly on your social media. Build a brand identity that is consistent across all your streaming platforms. And most importantly, tell your followers on any social media platform you are active in, that exciting updates, news, show dates and so on will be released only on Apple Music first. 

Pssst…come here: When it comes to social media promotion, a lot of it now has to do with UGC - User Generated Content. You start a certain trend and let the users of the app follow and make content using your music. Try to track and incorporate TikTok’s trending hashtags while posting our content.

How much is 1000 streams on Apple Music?

Around $6 to 10$. Streaming profits vary, but according to the most recent data, Apple Music pays approximately $0.01 per stream. This means that for 1,000 streams, you can expect to earn around $10. However, this figure can vary depending on the listener’s country, the demographics, the precise terms of your distribution agreement, and whether the streams are from free trials or paid subscriptions.

How to grow on Apple Music?

We have said this before and we shall say it again - Apple Music for Artists provides a bunch of different tools and services that help artists grow their visibility and discoverability. You have to ensure that you are maximizing the use. 

Solid Album Art 

You should not only make captivating album art but you should also ensure that you optimize it according to the size and proportions criteria. Your music’s cover art sets the tone for the project before the listener has ever pressed play, so make it fascinating and representative of your style. A striking graphic that shines out even in miniature form and captures the essence of your music’s message can effectively pull people in. Using high-resolution photographs ensures that this key element of your artist package remains sharp and professional on any platform. Have your artwork properly managed in terms of color schemes and font type.

Consistent Releases

Regularly releasing new music engages your audience and encourages return listens. Whether it is singles, albums, or EPs, consistency helps you retain and increase your audience.

Let’s take an independent musician, for example. Russ, an independent rapper, singer, and producer, has developed his career by continuously releasing new music. For nearly two years, Russ published a new single every week, providing a consistent stream of content to his following. By doing so, he kept his listeners interested and gave them a reason to return regularly for fresh songs. Russ kept fans up to date on new releases and frequently gave insights into his creative process by engaging with them on social media. 

Russ’ music was continually available, thus listeners who enjoyed one single were more likely to explore his other releases, resulting in repeated listens to his entire library. As his catalog grew, so did his reputation. Russ’ steady release schedule finally resulted in viral success with songs such as What They Want and Losin Control. His tactic paid off when these songs gained traction, resulting in millions of streams and eventually winning him a record deal with Columbia Records—on terms that enabled him to retain control over his music.

Pssst…come here: All your releases should be HD recording quality. Ensure that it is mixed and mastered very well! Establishing consistency in HD sound quality could be a little difficult but we recommend prioritising A1 production quality throughout your discography.

Apple Music Promote Tab

Spotify helps artists promote their music through a campaign kit. It gives artists a chance to advertise their music using marquee ads, canvas, clips, and so on, through the Spotify For Artists tab. Does Apple Music offer something similar? Yes. 

While Apple Music itself is an ad-free music streaming app, it provides artists with different tools to advertise their music such as the Promote tab. All you have to do is choose the song you’d like to promote, select a design template, customize the background color, and check out all the layouts to choose which asset size you want to make. It may look very similar to a Marquee ad on Spotify but it isn’t, it won’t pop up to listeners who are streaming your music. Once you are done customizing the whole look, you basically click on ‘Share’ which will connect to different social media apps, like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. You’d have posted that design with a link to your Apple Music on all your socials. 

Metadata 

Metadata is basically all the information you’d add as song description, title, and so on. For example, Lo-fi hip-hop artists and curators have successfully used descriptive labels to target listeners seeking a specific feel. Many lo-fi hip-hop recordings are titled with phrases that reflect the mood or setting they are intended to produce, such as ‘Chill Study Beats,’ ‘Late Night Vibes.’ or ‘Rainy Day Lo-Fi.’ These names are not only descriptive, but they also include terms that listeners are likely to search for when looking for music to match a given mood or activity. 

Descriptive titles also assist in setting expectations for the listener, letting them know what to expect before they even press play. This can boost engagement since listeners are more likely to stick with a tune that reflects the mood or activity they were looking for. So ensure you optimize your metadata on Apple Music. 

Is Apple Music better than Spotify?

This depends on what you’d like to prioritise, as an artist. Apple Music is said to have around 100 million extremely high-quality music and listeners go back to Apple Music for the sound quality so if you want to target such users and consistently release well-produced tracks then Apple Music may seem more appealing to you. On the other hand, Spotify is popular because of its user-friendly interfaces - anyone can make any number of playlists and the fact that independent playlist curators are growing is completely owed to such an interface. If you want to target this playlisting system then Spotify would be a better choice. It depends on what goals you have set for yourself, as an artist.

Is Apple Music profitable?

Many artists assert that Apple Music isn’t as profitable as it appears to be. The fact is, all artists in the industry, independent or signed, have no choice but to diversify their income. So it would not be a wise decision to simply depend on streaming revenue from Apple Music alone. While the per-stream compensation on Apple Music is higher than on other platforms, it is critical to view streaming as part of a larger revenue strategy.

We at GreaseRelease, have a bunch of curators on our network who are looking for new & exciting music to push on their massive playlists. If you make music and want to reach a wider audience, check out our submission platform and get a chance to reach millions of listeners! Submit your tracks now!

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