![](\"http:\/\/www.musicthinktank.com\/storage\/contributors-please-use-this-directory\/music_download.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1294627099868\")
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Sean Parker of Napster fame recently <\/span>stated in an interview<\/span><\/span><\/a>, \u201cyou look at the data, somewhere between 4 trillion and 10 trillion songs are illegally downloaded every year.\u00a0 And we\u2019re looking at maybe 4 billion or so legal downloadeds per year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Music will always surface on file sharing platforms and consumers will continue to download music for free, but recordings are even more important for artists than ever before.\u00a0 There is a new purpose for recorded content; artists will no longer generate revenue directly from recordings, instead this will be the entrance point for consumers into a the brand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 Great music will generate revenue through merch or ticket purchases, or lead to sponsorships as major brands seek out artists to enhance the value of their own product.\u00a0 The solution to file sharing is for artists to better manage their recorded music by creating a dedicated landing page on their own website, housing a free album download.<\/p>\n There are many different factors that go into how sites rank on search engines like Google or Bing.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the key ranking factors that build online authority, (online ranking based on amount of links to your site and the quality of those links), to outline the importance of a landing page with free album download:<\/span><\/p>\n File Sharing Networks are Commanding Links for Free Downloads<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n People are searching for free music online, and right now only the file sharing networks are benefiting.\u00a0 <\/span>Piratebay.org<\/span><\/span><\/a> has 6.2M inbound links, <\/span>Isohunt.com<\/span><\/span><\/a> has 6.4M, <\/span>Utorrent.com<\/span><\/span><\/a> has 2M, <\/span>Mininova.org<\/span><\/span><\/a> has 3.8M (tally another link after these).\u00a0 Files from these networks are laced with artist and album names; these are keywords that consumers are using to find music online.\u00a0 Because of this, file sharing sites often rank in the search results for music downloads before an artist\u2019s page.\u00a0 It just takes one taste to convert music fans to file sharing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n When an artist creates a dedicated landing page with a free album download, great albums will earn artists inbound links. With more links artists will outrank file sharing sites in the search engines, and ultimately, deter traffic from those networks.\u00a0 This is artist managed file sharing; it will directly benefit individual artists.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at an example:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Girl Talk<\/span>, aka Gregg Gillis, released a new record called \u201cAll Day,\u201d out 11.15 on Illegal Art.\u00a0 GT embrased these concepts.\u00a0 The record was free and hosted on a landing page, resulting in 4 key developments:<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Girl Talk earned 14,903 inbound links.\u00a0 These links would have otherwise gone to file sharing platforms.\u00a0 <\/span>The GT landing page<\/span><\/span><\/a> received links from high authority sources like Mashable.com and MTV.com, therefore achieving higher rankings in the search results.<\/span><\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Huge increases in traffic during the month of release.\u00a0 Analyzing traffic figures with <\/span>Compete.com<\/span><\/span><\/a>, the 6 month traffic average between May and October was 3,025 unique visitors.\u00a0 Traffic jumped to over 211,111 unique visitors for the month of November. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> When typing the keywords \u201cGirl Talk download\u201d into Google search, the GT landing page appears in the search results ahead of file sharing networks.\u00a0 Thus, using a file sharing network becomes pointless.\u00a0 This is exactly how artists should manage file sharing.<\/span><\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> <\/span>Girl Talk social media conversations<\/span><\/span><\/a> skyrocketed the week of release.\u00a0 There was an estimated 18.5M GT mentions the week of 11.15.2010 – 11.22.2010 between Facebook and Twitter, up from 15 tweets the previous week.\u00a0 These mentions developed the brand and encouraged inbound links.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that a free album download will be linked to and will attract new visitors.\u00a0 An optimized landing page will convert these visitors to customers.\u00a0 Make the page a better experience than file sharing sites.\u00a0 Keep in mind that not everyone on a site wants the same thing; visitors are in different stages of the buying cylce.\u00a0 Some are familiar with the music and brand, others are not.\u00a0 Think of the buying cycle as a funnel.\u00a0 Recorded content is at the top of the funnel, and is the entrance into the buying cycle and an artist\u2019s brand.\u00a0 Once in the funnel, consumers should be guided through to the bottom of the funnel, or a sale.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n First time visitors will want to check out the record.\u00a0 Offer email newsletter sign-up on site, and social media links (<\/span>ShareThis<\/span><\/span><\/a> has great plugins and customizable buttons).\u00a0 This will allow consumers to stay in contact with the brand and return to the landing when they are ready to buy.\u00a0 For those returning visitors who have fallen in love with the music, there is unlimited opportunity to sell merch, tickets, and exclusive packages for super fans.\u00a0 All of this should be featured on the landing page.\u00a0 Great music will sell other products.<\/span><\/p>\n Lastly, optimize the landing page by targeting specific keywords for search rankings.\u00a0 Do keyword research with the <\/span>Google Keyword Tool<\/span><\/span><\/a> (make sure it\u2019s on \u201cexact\u201d match).\u00a0 Think like a potential consumer who is looking for new music when adding keywords to a site.\u00a0 Try ranking for the keyterm \u201cyour artist name Torrent.\u201d\u00a0 The keyword \u201cTorrent\u201d recieves an average 151M global searches per month; this is how folks are thinking and searching for music online. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Does selling a record for $9.99 that will show up on file sharing networks anyways outweigh offering it for free on an artist\u2019s site, generating inbound links and higher search results, selling merch and tickets, and developing a strong, lasting online presence?\u00a0 File sharing has already changed the music landscape – now it\u2019s the artists chance to change the landscape of file sharing.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Jim Grobecker<\/strong> <\/strong>spent nearly 6 years developing artists in the music industry, first at <\/span>Fontana Distribution<\/span><\/span><\/a>, then for <\/span>Universal Music Group<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Currently he runs an <\/span>Inbound Marketing and Digital Music Strategy<\/span><\/span><\/a> shop based out of Boston, MA.<\/p>\n Source: Hyperbot \/ Music Tank<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sean Parker of Napster fame recently stated in an interview, \u201cyou look at the data,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-biz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Search Rankings for Landing Pages Defined<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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How to Capitalize with Artist Managed File Sharing<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Optimize the Free Download Landing Page<\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n