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I wanted to address the issue of “play for play” on music platforms as it seems to cause a lot of heated debate among the independent musician community.

I don’t expect all of you to agree with this, hell maybe no one will but please read with an open mind!

Firstly I agree that in an ideal world there would be millions of listeners on a given platform/service and there would be no need for such a thing and I also agree that ethically it is not ideal however being morally “squeaky clean” means nothing if the platform eventually fails.

So…..

If you have ever been involved in a startup you will know how hard it Is to get traction and build a user base. There is a systemic issue, especially with tech startups, to have the mindset of “build it and they will come”. It’s a fallacy! You may have just invented the best music platform ever (and of course you are going to believe that) but no one will care if there’s no one using it.
Unless you have millions of dollars in your marketing budget you are going to struggle. Even with millions of dollars you will need a crack marketing team, a “killer app” and some big names to bring their fans with them. Just look at SoundCloud. How many of the users are pure music fans?

The lifeblood of a music platform is its community and this starts with its musicians. You need to bend over backwards to attract and retain them at all costs. They are the lifeblood and the foundations you will build your business on. The more that join and get a positive experience the more they will spread the word and the more they will use the platform. In the initial stages (first few years) you need to show potential investors steady growth and a thriving community. 

So let’s say you offer a financial incentive to your musicians, who’s going to listen to the music? At first it will only be other musicians. Why would other musicians bother listening to your music? Because they hope you will do the same and you can all earn a little money. But how do you get them to listen to your music? Ask them? If you are an independent musician you will know that “listen to my new track” results in zero listens most of the time.

One option is to say ‘please listen to my track and I’ll listen to yours”. This works well as you both get a listen, earn a little money and are more likely to invite more musicians and the platform has increased activity. Collaborative playlists also have the same effect but are even better as they attract entire communities of musicians who all help to drive adoption even faster.

And finally COMMUNICATE with your musicians regularly and make them feel like you are all part of a family not part of an “us and them” business. 

As I said at the outset you may not agree with me and that’s fine. I am just offering you my point of view as someone who has built a tech company and if I had tried to do everything “by the book” it would have failed and I don’t mind admitting that. David has to bend the rules a bit at the beginning to even get on Goliath’s radar let alone have any chance of defeating them!

[*image by  Robert Pastryk from Pixabay*](https://pixabay.com/users/3005398-3005398/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1722077)