Hot Drop Music App Enables People To Find New Indie Artists

 I know that this article isn't about podcasting, but it's about sound. What's ear worthy for you, whether it be the spoken words or music. 

One of my -- and many others' -- criticism of streaming music is that the streaming music platforms are a lose-lose-lose proposition. First, musical artists make pennies from their songs being streamed. In fact, the top one percent of artists account for 99 percent of total listening time (by streams). That's good for Bruce, Beyonce, and Drake. Bad for everybody else. 

Second, indie acts trying to punch through the digital noise and gets their songs played is like betting two dollars on a 100 to 1 long shot at the racetrack. Finally, even streaming music companies scrape by with paper-thin profit margins. Only record companies seem to pocket more than spare change.

For music fans, discovering new music via streaming is like playing Where In The World is Carmen San Diego with tunes. HotDrop gives users the opportunity to discover new music by listening to 30-second song highlights. Listeners can easily swipe through undiscovered music similar to how they would scroll through their favorite social media feeds. HotDrop's formula towards music discovery has garnered attention amongst thousands of gen Z music lovers and university students nationwide. Now HotDrop is taking music discovery to the next level by launching HotDrop Studio for indie artists.

HotDrop Studio for indie artists encourages early-stage music distribution and provides analytic capabilities by putting artists’ music right in front of superfans hungry to discover new songs and emerging artists. When artists upload their music to HotDrop they retain complete ownership of their content and can work on songs and replace or delete them at any time.

 

HotDrop Studio for indie artists streamlines early-stage music distribution and analytic capabilities, reaching an engaged audience of superfans ready to discover what’s next in music. Artists upload their music to HotDrop at any stage, while retaining complete ownership of songs, and can work on songs and replace or delete them at any time. Artists who join HotDrop early can be the first to take advantage of additional features coming soon to the app, including version control and specialized links to eliminate potential music leaks. HotDrop will also offer a home for unreleased music; indies will find unlimited storage in the cloud to create their own vault of music.

The indie music sector has grown significantly, yet templated mainstream songs, likely created by the same artists backed by billions of dollars and management teams are the songs crowding out playlists. 

Indie artists are left with no platforms that truly vouch for their interests and help them create and maintain relationships with their fans. Truly democratizing music curation of new music, HotDrop’s listeners are curators and aren’t stuck hearing the same songs, unsure of where to turn to find new music across genres. Curators don’t just turn on a playlist of “new music” and listen passively as background noise. They want to get to know an artist, they want their feedback and influence to be heard, enabling them to have a say in what is considered popular. 

With each 30-second snippet of a song, a listener can choose to like, dislike, favorite, or share a particular song. Fans can find and enjoy full versions of the songs they discover, found under the “Liked Songs” section of a listener’s profile. Some of these songs may not yet be available on other platforms. They can swipe right to read an artist’s bio and connect on socials. In the coming weeks, “Activity” and “Trending” feeds will be added, so listeners can see what their friends are listening to, and watch as popularity builds around an indie artist.

Indie artists have much more flexibility and creativity around classifying their music with HotDrop. They can upload their stems, share cover art, and select their favorite part of songs for listeners to hear in their feed. Artists also classify their own music, choosing up to 3 genres and unlimited subgenres from a provided list, which correlates directly with genre stacks listeners can choose from.

Founders Max Goldberg and Steven Segel conceived HotDrop in a dorm room at Indiana University, home to the best music school in the U.S., the Jacobs School of Music, and a large underground music presence. 

“From the start, we were creating an app for ourselves, because we thought listening to shorter snippets of songs was a cool concept and would allow us to reliably listen to more music, faster, in a sitting. Quickly, it became a really engaging way for our friends and other students to discover music,” says HotDrop Founder and CEO Max Goldberg. “It became the go-to app for people who really love discovering new music, because everyone's sick and tired of listening to the same mainstream music heard all the time on Spotify and Apple Music.”

HotDrop has announced plans to deliver a full suite of tools, designed specifically by artists for artists to further the indie artist’s journey. Once reserved only for label-backed artists, indie artists can access all the tools they need, at a price well under what they’d pay for other platforms. At launch, they are offering a deal for artists interested in uploading their music for discovery by new superfans, and opening public beta for listeners by invite only.

Interested artists can sign up for early access to HotDrop Studio here, and listeners can sign up for the HotDrop Mobile release in beta here.