There's an uncomfortable truth in the music business for indie artists. Many of the things we're told to do to advance our careers -- "get your music out there" or "use social media all the time and constantly self-promote" -- aren't helping the vast majority of indies.
95% of indie artists (over 10 million artist around the world) get so few streams on platforms like Spotify that they get paid $0. Their reach is effectively nil. The various social media platforms are so overrun by algorithms and bots that industry experts say only 1% - 2% of our posts organically reach our friends and fans. Yikes. The odds are truly stacked against us.
MusicAlly.com: The saturation of available music is growing but 95% of this music isn’t being listened to (link)
The Observer: Patreon CEO Jack Conte closed out SXSW 2024 with a keynote presentation about how social media companies are working against creators in favor of profitability (link)
A better path forward for indie artists
The vt was designed to organically find and elevate indie talent. The core service was built to satisfy a niche indie music discovery need that every college student and baby boomer has told us they have.
To help make the service available to all artists (and not just our features), we designed a cover contest. Instead of vapid posts about what you're eating for lunch and other things unrelated to your music, we ask musical artists to engage with us in a way that is directly related to music making. Specifically, we ask artists around the world to listen to whoever we're featuring currently, find a song that resonates, and come up with a fun cover version (or derivative work) of your own. This is the opposite of the current social and streaming practices. Instead of "me me me", it creates a virtuous cycle of listening to others and engaging with their music in a music-centric way.
The artists who have tried this out have reported back that our cover contest system is unique ear training, leveling up the skills of all artists who participate in it. It's also fun and creates a sense of joy & connection to the featured artist. We decide our next features based on the current covers, and use it as a filter for our community. We discovered this past fall that our cover contest also helps college radio DJs. Every label and music publisher who has checked it out has told us that this is an incredible A&R tool that organically helps every label and publisher on the planet.
To help study the effects of well-being and creativity that early adopters of our cover contest have told us about, we've partered with the Institute for Noetic Sciences on an innovative science research study.
Here's what artists and music industry insiders say about the vt's cover contest:
"Indeed it was an excellent learning lesson and I'm on a steep learning curve right now.
When you told me about the cover, I had barely gathered the skills to do it, including picking out the melody by ear - I had been practicing doing that for a few months! I look forward to learning and improving and participating. Nothing like getting the first one out of the box! Look forward to hearing more music!"
- Katherine Koyanagi, Koyanagi Law, a boutique indie music law firm
"I was skeptical at first. Making covers seemed like lots of work, and I'm very busy.
Now I totally get it. I don't waste time with social media and streaming for all the usual reasons. Making covers is much more fun and I can see why it's a better use of my time.
Any serious artist would wake up every morning and listen to the vt first thing. They would be working on covers for every new feature. It just feels right."
- Rich Schwegerl (Lou Rawls, Taj Mahal, Ensembles, Island Voyage), jazz prodigy, lounge lizard & early vt feature
"I've been covering the vt's artist features for years starting when the vt was just a blog. It has been a fun and joyful experience singing songs from talented indies. There are talented artists who are making music the world needs to hear, but they are mostly getting lost in the noise.
During our last jazz feature I recorded a cover with my son. He picked out the melody line on the piano and I backed him up on acoustic guitar playing jazz chords. It was super-fun, not only a great jazz lesson for my son and I but also a great music bonding experience for us."
- Nick Blake (Excited States of America, Bluegrass Block Party, Good Little Monkey), indie artist and early vt feature
"I really enjoyed making the cover, mainly because it's a great song and it was nice doing my bit to support such a great record."
- Kevin Kraft, vt member and IONS research participant
Want to get in touch? Email us -- catalog [AT] thevt [DOT] co