Indie Labels and Artists, did you receive your invitation to join WeVerse? No, you didn’t.
The following comes from Rhythmic Rebellion, a company DMN is proud to be partnering with.
What does the future hold for indies when major labels have their own platforms for community and fanbase building and you’re left out?
It was great ten years ago when indies could build a fanbase on Facebook and Instagram, just as easily as a big artist. You could make a post and get a like from almost all of your followers. Now, Mark Zuckerberg has changed the rules. Only a small percentage of your followers see your posts, and you must pay for more followers to see them.
Facebook and Instagram have turned into music career killers. Today, many of you have close to a million followers on socials. You make a post and get 2,000 likes. Is this because people stopped liking you?
No. It’s because for years, your posts have been squashed. And those followers who are randomly shown your posts barely remember you. What a mess! Creators spent years building fanbases only to have them taken away.
This is exactly why Hybe created WeVerse. Hybe wanted their own platform, where they are in control of fan data and the fan experience.
Universal Music Group was so impressed that they partnered with Hybe and are placing their artists on WeVerse. They’re building a database of super fans. Thanks to the app, they can freely communicate with these fans, with no squashed posts, and no email spam filters. This truly is the future of the music industry.
Good news! You’re not left out! Here’s your invitation!
You’re invited to join the Rhythmic Rebellion platform, which is a lot like WeVerse. It’s a place where you can build communities of fans and message them through the app. Each artist account has its own emailing system. There’s a built-in website builder, merch store, and lots of other features.
There’s strength in numbers and indies need to work together!
Why is Hybe happy to share WeVerse with Universal Music Group? Because Universal Music Group will bring millions and millions of fans to the platform, and every artist on the platform can be exposed to those fans.
If indie labels and artists work together, they can have your own platform with millions and millions of fans. The Rhythmic Rebellion platform is the perfect place for you to do this.
So who, what, and where is Rhythmic Rebellion? My name is Greg Allen and I live just south of Macon, GA, USA. I’m a singer-songwriter. I wrote my first song at 12, spent my 20s on the road with my band, had a real job for 20 years, and in 2016 I decided to get back into music by finding ways to assist other artists.
I quickly discovered that many people were complaining about low streaming royalties. Streaming had killed album sales, which not only hurt artists but really hurt the songwriters.
My solution was twofold: (1) Create a platform where the music creators, labels, and management were in control; and (2) Come up with creative solutions for increasing income that supplemented streaming royalties.
Selling a karaoke experience and access to a 10 track/stem player were ideas designed to help increase songwriter and artist incomes.
In January of 2017 I put together a great team of software developers that made my vision a reality.
When I looked at Facebook and Instagram, and the billions of fans they had there, I knew that the only way we could build our own version of this was if we all worked together.
Imagine if every indie artist on the planet joined Rhythmic Rebellion today and built their website. Then tomorrow, each artist went out and invited their fans to go to their website, click their FOLLOW button, and join their community powered by Rhythmic Rebellion. Instantly, we would have 500 million fans that we could all market to and communicate with. We would have our own version of WeVerse.
The Rhythmic Rebellion platform has been live since July 2017. It is well seasoned and tested. There is nothing to stop us from making this happen.
I want Rhythmic Rebellion to be that place where artists, songwriters, labels, and management work together to make the rules for the platform and help decide what software we create next. I want this to be a platform where everyone feels fairly treated and that they have a voice.
With Rhythmic Rebellion, you can:
- Create your albums digitally for sale with instant listening and downloads, and bundle that with a CD or Vinyl.
- Bundle albums with the karaoke experience or/and access to the 10 track/stem player for each song.
- Sell access to exclusive videos inside our Artist Premiere feature.
- Your merch store can include on-demand printing and fulfillment of CDs and vinyl by Printful.
You can also use a gift code and offer free access to these exclusive videos. This is a great way to get fans to join your community.
You continue to use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to find new fans, but constantly give them reasons to go to your website and join your community. Fans join one time and can interact with and buy music and merch from any artist on the platform.
Communication with those fans is the most important thing.
Each artist and label account comes with its own emailing system. But, each time you send an email, we place a copy inside the Fan Account Message Center. The fan instantly gets notified on their phone by the app. They tap the notification and see the message you sent. 100% delivery. No spam filters. They also see this message in the browser if they are logged in there. This message can also be sent without using email.
Each artist and label has ownership of the fan info for fans that are your followers and part of your community. You can export this info weekly if you want. We want you to know you have control over your fanbase.
There is artist, music, and video discovery in the app and at Rhythmic-Rebellion.com. The Rhythmic Rebellion team provides receipts for purchase and support. We retain a small percentage of sales, and it’s free to join.
Artists that use our platform, like Ray Scott, are finding it easy to build their communities, message those communities, and sell more music and merch than ever before.
RayScott.com was built using our website builder, and his merch store and emailing system are powered by Rhythmic Rebellion.
Ray is driving music sales by allowing fans to hear unreleased songs exclusively on his website, while the album is on pre-order. Fans go to his website, hear the song, and not only buy the album, but they also shop and buy lots of his other albums and merch. 11% of Ray’s income comes from tips thanks to the tipping buttons we provide at checkout. 81% of his album sales were CDs and 19% were digital only. You can learn more here.
It’s time that we take control over our business and stop letting others dictate how and when we can communicate with our fans. Hybe and Universal Music Group are taking action now. That’s proof that this approach is the future of music.
Email me at [email protected], tell me you agree and want to be part of this movement. We can have Zoom meetings where everyone is included, where we discuss our progress, solve problems, and plan future software improvements. I will respond to everyone that emails me within 48 hours. If you don’t get a response, check your spam folder or email me again and include your phone number.I’ll text you.
Platforms like this will be the biggest thing to happen to the music industry since the invention of music streaming. We don’t have to be excluded. We have our own platform. What if, at least for a little while, our indie platform had more fans than WeVerse? It might happen if you all start joining right now.
Let’s do this!