It is a tough world out there for independent artists. With the massive rise in home studios and bedroom producers, it seems that almost everybody is creating and releasing music these days. For new or independent artists, there is no rule book or guide for what to do (or what not to do). This creates a lack of guidance, leading to lack of promotion, failure to reach the masses, and barely any opportunities for their incredible music. This is where Music Gateway comes in to iron out the creases in the process, and provide somewhere to do everything in one place, from music creation to pre and post-release promotion.
With the motto of‘Empowering Creatives’, CEO Jon Skinner’s main drive is to provide opportunities for independent artists and level the playing field in favour of those without representation. Music Gateway provides an all-in-one platform which offers various services and tools and to help creatives collaborate and market themselves as well as their music in the best way possible. It is also a place to manage your music, find opportunities and ultimately earn revenue.
The journey begins with the ability to post projects to find, for example, a producer for your track. Once you have a track that is polished and ready for release, you can make use of Music Gateway’s Sync opportunities and/or representation. Through working closely with supervisors and filmmakers, they provide opportunities for you to get your music into TV shows and films on Netflix, BBC, Amazon Prime and more. If you’re looking for a little more direct promotion, that’s also available through Music Gateway’s Artist Services. They help artists with music promotion and artist development by working together towards the artist’s goals. They guide and help them to organically grow their career, amplify their streaming presence and solidify the brand as an artist.
With quite a few services on offer, let’s break it down to avoid confusion. Here are the various areas of Music Gateway, what they involve, and some links for you to read more yourself:
Seeing it as one of the most important aspects of the music industry, Music Gateway supports and encourages collaboration. This is particularly helpful during the current Coronavirus pandemic as their platform hosts an online marketplace where you can find music jobs and collaborate with producers and other artists or musicians on a global scale. Artists can share files and work on projects with others to stay productive during the current lockdown, as well as find people to team up with for future projects.
A great source of income for artists, MusicGateway offers both exclusive and non-exclusive sync licensing opportunities. Working with multiple supervisors globally, previous successes include syncs in shows such as The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and Made In Chelsea. Artists can upload their tracks to their online Sync portal for sync representation or submit tracks manually for various sync and A&R opportunities. To check out some of their most recent placements and hear more about how it works, head to the Music Gateway success page.
The MusicPromotion part of the process is all about helping artists reach their goals by amplifying their music and making sure that it reaches those who will love it. The Music Gateway team works on elements of artists’ branding such as logos, press kits and websites. They also deliver campaigns to curators, influencers, digital platforms and radio stations around the world.The roster is open to artists and bands at varying levels from a variety of genres. Roster alumni include UK urban rap legend Sway Dasafo, Melody Thornton from the Pussycat Dolls and The Sugababes’ Mutya Buena.
Music Gateway also has a dedicated music blog packed with helpful industry articles to guide independent artists on everything from recording to promoting their music.
Alongside this, their blog publishes:
The blog is an all-round helpful resource for everything industry-related, so we would definitely recommend checking it out.You don’t need an account to access the blog!
Aside from submitting their music to Sync andA&R projects, as well as collaborating with others, there are a couple of other tools that allow users to submit music for opportunities. There is a demo submission tool which allows artists to send demos directly to record labels, music publishers, artist managers, live agents and more. Members can also submit to Music Gateway’s live performance TV show ‘RISING’, their Spotify playlists,RISING Radio, the Music Gateway YouTube channel and more. Finally, there are music industry job opportunities posted every day on their jobs board. So, it is safe to say there are quite a few opportunities available!
Last but not least, included in each account is a decent amount of storage, for which the tools have been built especially for creatives. Alongside this is a playlist tool that allows you to send your music to clients and tastemakers in a professional way.
All of these features sound great - but how much does it cost? It’s time to talk about the elephant in the room… pricing.
Let’s open by talking about the free trial offer. This lasts for 14 days, and allows you to try out most of the features for yourself. It’s recommended to try this out to get a feel for the platform to give you the opportunity to make sure it is right for you before spending your hard-earned cash.
So, now let’s get into the pricing structure.
Essentially, there are 3 tiers. Ranging from low to high tier, there are:
(Artist services are separate, with pricing based on individual needs and goals.)
The main difference between these tiers is access to certain features. The GameChanger tier, for example, offers unlimited song feedback, priority submissions, 20% discount on artist services and more. So, understandably this is the more expensive tier that equals more access. At the other end of the scale, an Adventurer account doesn’t offer any feedback or discounts and has limited access to certain opportunities. However, it does come with a pretty low price point that still gets you all the tools and access to the global collaboration marketplace if that’s all you’re looking for.
Another difference between the tiers is the amount of storage you receive.Adventurer accounts come with 500MB of storage, Influencer has 15GB, and GameChanger offers a whopping 100GB.
So, is Music Gateway any good? Is it worth it? I would say… absolutely!
There aren’t many platforms that offer the sheer range of products and services that Music Gateway does. Being able to have all of your tracks and potential projects in one place whilst simultaneously receiving promotion is ideal, and rare in the industry.Price-wise, you are definitely getting your money’s worth for the range of tools (even at the Game Changer level), plus their services and benefits are constantly being improved on and added to. Music Gateway reviews seem positive and their testimonials and case studies on their website show the incredible growth of some of their Music Promotions roster.
If you have the money to spend, I would recommend going for the Game Changer account to really make the most of all of the tools that Music Gateway has to offer. However, if you don’t want to jump in with both feet or have a little less cash, perhaps the Influencer tier is better for you. The adventurer tier will get you some access for very little money, but you end up missing out on being able to apply for most opportunities which makes this tier only really useful if you just want to use the tools and collaborate.
However, as mentioned above, there is a 14-day free trial. So, why not try that out first, as there really is nothing to lose!
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