The catch: many LA open mics listed online have closed, ended or turn out to be comedy nights. So we checked every one on this list, and kept only music nights.

Updated October 2026. Every open mic and jam session below had upcoming dates or a current schedule on the venue’s or organizer’s own page when we checked. Days and times change often, so look at their page before you go.

Are you looking for gig opportunities ⬇️

How do open mics in Los Angeles work?

LA open mics are busy, so many of them use a lottery: you put your name in a basket or a hat, and the host draws the running order. Others ask you to sign up online in advance. Slots are short, often one or two songs. Most nights are free to attend, but read the small print: some ask performers to buy a drink or an item, and a few charge per song. Age rules vary too, from all-ages listening rooms to 21+ bars, and every venue has its own gear rules (backing tracks allowed or not, bands or solo only). At jazz jams, bring charts in your key.

Here are the 10 best places to play on the open mic Los Angeles scene, from Monday to Sunday, plus a jazz bonus.

1. Kulak’s Woodshed (North Hollywood)

Where: 5230 1/2 Laurel Canyon Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91607 · When: every Monday, show around 8pm · Sign-up: in person, 7pm to 7:30pm

Created by Paul Kulak in 1999 and run by volunteers, Kulak’s Woodshed is a small listening room where, in the venue’s words, artists range “from beginners to Grammy winners”. The Monday open mic is popular: 35 performers are drawn by lottery from a basket on stage, and each one plays one song. Every performance is filmed and webcast, and you can get a download of your song for a $20 donation. The audio gear is all there, and you can use the house acoustic guitar and grand piano. Solo acts only: no bands, no backing tracks, and no profanity (children watch the webcast). All ages are welcome, and there’s no alcohol on site.

2. Hang On to the Dream Open Mic Mondays (Hollywood)

Where: Hang On to the Dream Theatre, 1625 N. Las Palmas Ave, Hollywood, CA 90028 · When: every Monday, 7pm to 10pm · Sign-up: first come, first served, when you arrive

Right between Hollywood Boulevard and Selma, the Hang On to the Dream Theatre runs a Monday open mic for singers and bands of all ages and levels. Every performer plays at least 2 songs in a row, originals or covers, and when everyone has had a turn, the list starts again from the top. Bring your guitar, violin or banjo, or play to a backing track from your phone. Spoken word and poetry artists are welcome too. Tickets (around $7) are on Eventbrite.

3. Pauhaus Open Mic Music (Melrose)

Where: Pauhaus Gallery, 5239 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038 · When: every Monday, 7pm · Cost: $5 entry, plus $5 per song

Pauhaus is a creative space on Melrose, and its Monday night is for music only, all genres welcome. Sign-up is at the door, with a 15-slot lottery, and you can plug in a backing track. Note that this is a pay-to-play night: $5 to get in and $5 per song you perform. The upside: musicians who come regularly can get a 30-minute set at one of the gallery’s songwriter showcases.

4. The Lighthouse Cafe (Hermosa Beach)

Where: 30 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 · When: Jazz Jam Session every Monday, 8pm, and South Bay Jam every Wednesday, 8pm · Age: 21+

Jam sessions are part of this club’s history. The Lighthouse first showcased jazz on May 29, 1949, when bassist Howard Rumsey started a recurring Sunday jam session, and its house band, the Lighthouse All-Stars, welcomed guests like Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and Miles Davis. Today the club hosts a jazz jam every Monday and a second jam, the South Bay Jam, every Wednesday. Bring your instrument and check the weekly schedule on the club’s site, as private events occasionally replace a night.

5. KavaHana Open Mic (Santa Monica)

Where: 306 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405 · When: every Tuesday, 7:30pm to 10pm · Sign-up: in advance, through the form on KavaHana’s website

The Westside pick, and one for songwriters: this kava bar’s Tuesday open mic is original songs only (no covers, no backing tracks). Each performer gets 1 song, 5 minutes at most. The venue provides a PA and a keyboard, so just bring your guitar or instrument. It’s free to attend, with a one-drink minimum for performers.

6. The Lyric Sessions at Lyric Hyperion (Silver Lake)

Where: Lyric Hyperion Theater & Bar, 2106 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027 · When: every Wednesday, 4:30pm to 6:30pm · Sign-up: in advance at slotted.co/thelyricsessions

An open mic for musicians in a Silver Lake black box theater, hosted by Brynna Campbell. It runs in the late afternoon, which means an attentive audience of your peers, good acoustics and, as the organizers put it, “fewer beers spilt on your equipment”. There’s an in-house keyboard and track playback, so you can leave the big rig at home. It’s free, with a one-item minimum to perform, and you can stay on the patio afterwards to meet your future bandmates.

7. Writers ‘Round: Los Angeles (North Hollywood)

Where: Universal Bar and Grill, 4093 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood, CA 91602 · When: every Wednesday, doors 7pm, music from 8pm · Entry: free

Launched in November 2019 as LA’s first weekly Nashville-style songwriter round, Writers ‘Round puts three songwriters on stage together, taking turns and telling the stories behind their songs. The main rounds are curated, but after each one, artists in the audience can drop their name in “The Hat” for a chance to play a shorter open round, and the night ends with an open jam. There’s never a cover charge: the organizers just ask you to buy food or drinks and tip the performers. The venue is all ages until 10pm, with free parking. Note that the night has moved venues over the years, so older listings may give the wrong address.

8. Uniting Jams at Secret Spot DTLA (Downtown)

Where: Secret Spot DTLA, 1040 South Los Angeles Street, Unit #7, Los Angeles, CA 90015 · When: every Wednesday, sign-up 7pm, jam 7:30pm to 10pm · Entry: $5 ticket or donation

A weekly open jam for players of all skill levels and styles, Downtown. You bring your instrument, jump on stage and improvise with rotating groups of local musicians. Plan to bring your own gear too: the organizers list drumsticks, cables, pedals and amps among the things to bring. It’s $5 at the door (plus $2 if you pay by card or app). Best for instrumentalists rather than singer-songwriters.

9. The World Stage Vocal Jazz Jam (Leimert Park)

Where: World Stage Performance Gallery, 4321 Degnan Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90008 · When: every Sunday, 8pm to 11pm · Entry: $5 suggested donation

Want to sing with a live band? At this Leimert Park performance space, Sunday night is for vocalists only: you sing with a live piano trio, usually two songs each. The repertoire is mainly jazz standards, with the odd R&B or pop song if the trio knows it. Bring a clear lead sheet in your key (3 copies). The organizers suggest the iReal Pro app to find your key. All ages, free parking. Instrumentalists have their own jam at The World Stage on Thursday evenings.

10. The Mint Jazz Sunday Jam (Mid-City)

Where: The Mint, 6010 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035 · When: every Sunday, jam from 9pm · Entry: musicians buy a drink ticket

The Mint has been hosting music on Pico since 1937. On Sundays, a ticketed jazz show starts at 7pm, then drummer Kevin Kanner takes over for his weekly jazz jam: musicians can join anytime after 9pm, as long as they buy a drink ticket. A good place to play with experienced jazz musicians in a historic room.

Bonus: Tuesday Happenings at Sam First (near LAX)

Where: Sam First, 6171 W Century Blvd #180, Los Angeles · When: Tuesdays, band at 7:30pm, jam 9:30pm to 11pm · Entry: ticketed

For confident jazz players. Sam First is a non-profit jazz club a few minutes’ walk from the LAX terminals, and its weekly “Tuesday Happenings” series is curated by pianist Gerald Clayton. A different host leads the house band each week for one set, then the stage opens for a jam session.

5 tips for your first open mic in LA

• Check before you go. LA open mics change nights, move venues or stop without much notice. A quick look at the venue’s page or Instagram saves a long drive.
• Read the rules. Originals only or covers welcome? Backing tracks or not? Bands or solo? Each venue has its own, and they’re usually on its page.
• Lead with your best song. With one song and a lottery, you may only get one shot. Pick the song you know inside out.
• Plan for traffic and parking. Arrive before the sign-up or the draw: if you’re late, you’re out.
• Stay and listen. That’s where you meet other musicians, find collaborators and sometimes get offered a gig. Have a link or QR code to your music ready.

Playing open mics, or even just going to them, is a great way to discover a city’s live music scene and the people who make it. Heading east? Check out our guide to the best open mics in New York City, and if you’re touring Europe, our picks for London and Berlin.

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L’article Open Mic Los Angeles: The 10 Best Places to Play Live est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

The catch: a lot of the Berlin open mics listed online have closed, moved to another night or stopped. So we checked every one on this list.

Updated October 2026. Every open mic and jam session below had upcoming dates on the venue’s or organizer’s own page when we checked. Days and times change often, so look at their page before you go.

Are you looking for gig opportunities ⬇️

How do open mics in Berlin work?

Most Berlin open stages are walk-in: you sign up on the night, and many venues don’t take reservations at all. Some draw the running order at random, so arriving early gets you a slot, not necessarily the first one. Slots are short, usually 2 or 3 songs (10 to 15 minutes). Entry is often free or “pay what you want”, with a hat or a suggested donation, and at ticketed jam sessions the musicians who play usually get in free. Bring cash: some venues only take cash at the bar or the door. And check the language of the night: some rooms are international and English-speaking, others are part of the German Liedermacher (songwriter) tradition.

Here are the 10 best places to play on the open mic Berlin scene, from Monday to Friday, plus a jazz bonus.

1. arcanoa Open Stage (Kreuzberg)

Where: Am Tempelhofer Berg 8, 10965 (U Platz der Luftbrücke / Mehringdamm) · When: every Monday, 8pm · Sign-up: just turn up, no registration needed

arcanoa calls itself “the discovery bar for musicians”, and it has been around since 1988 (it’s the bar with a stream running through the counter). Its Monday open stage is hosted and made for singer-songwriters, with poets welcome too. New musicians can simply walk in: the bar says there’s no need to register in advance. If you play other styles, arcanoa also runs a Thursday session for folk, Latin, blues and world music, and a jazz and funk open stage on the second Tuesday of the month.

2. Blue Moonday Jazzsession at Café Engels (Neukölln)

Where: Herrfurthstraße 21, 12049 (U Boddinstraße) · When: every Monday, 8pm to 11:30pm · Entry: free

Every Monday in the basement of Café Engels, in Neukölln’s Schillerkiez, musician Charlotte Joerges plays an opening set, then opens the stage to a jazz jam. The crowd is a mix of young musicians and experienced jazz lovers, and you’re welcome whether you bring an instrument or just come to listen. It’s a friendly place for your first jazz session in Berlin, and it costs nothing.

3. Offene Liederbühne at Zimmer 16 (Pankow)

Where: Florastraße 16, 13187 (bus M27 or 250, Görschstraße) · When: on selected Mondays, 7:30pm to 9:30pm (doors 7pm for performers) · Entry: free, pay what you want

Zimmer 16 is a small cabaret stage in Pankow, and its “Offene Liederbühne” has been a singer-songwriter forum since 2004. It’s open to established and up-and-coming musicians who want to try their own songs in front of an attentive audience, with a workshop feel and a host, Lothar Rosengarten. This is a German-speaking room in the Liedermacher tradition, so it suits songs with strong lyrics. Audience seats are booked through YesTicket and can fill up, so check the venue’s program for the next date.

4. Two-Song Tuesday at Donau115 (Neukölln)

Where: Donaustraße 115, 12043 (U Rathaus Neukölln / U Boddinstraße) · When: every Tuesday, music from 8pm · Sign-up: from 7:30pm at the bar

Donau115’s open stage has strict, clear rules. At 7:30pm the bar staff tell you how to sign up (usually an online form), and at 7:45pm a random running order appears on the venue’s website: 15 slots, plus a waiting list. Each act gets two songs or 10 minutes, whichever is shorter, and a stopwatch keeps everyone honest. There’s no soundcheck and 90 seconds to set up. The house has a piano, two vocal mics and a cable that takes your guitar straight into the PA. Out of respect for the neighbors, no amps and no loud percussion. Songwriters, composers, instrumentalists and poets are all welcome, and the venue asks for new material rather than the same song every week. Jazz players: Donau115 also hosts a jazz jam every Thursday from 9pm.

5. ART Stalker Session (Charlottenburg)

Where: Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 67, 10627 (U Wilmersdorfer Straße / S Charlottenburg) · When: every Tuesday, 7:30pm · Entry: €7, free for musicians who play

The West Berlin pick. At this bar and art space, the Tuesday session is built around one idea: bring your favorite song, the one you’ve always wanted to play or sing live, show it to the other musicians, and turn it into a new version together on stage. Blues, rock, pop and funk are the core, and the stage is open to newcomers and pros alike, with an instrument or just your voice. The listing is in German. The audience pays €7, musicians who perform get in free, and the door only takes cash.

6. The Swag Jam at Badehaus (Friedrichshain)

Where: Badehaus, Revaler Straße 99, 10245, on the RAW site (S+U Warschauer Straße) · When: once a month on a Tuesday, doors 8pm, show 8:30pm · Entry: €8 before 9pm, €13 after

For rappers and singers, this is the one. The Swag Jam bills itself as Berlin’s finest live hip-hop jam session: a live band, special guests from the Berlin hip-hop scene, after-show DJs and, at every edition, open mic sets. The crew has 10 years of jams behind it, and according to The Berliner, Erykah Badu once made a surprise appearance. It runs monthly, so check the Badehaus program for the next date.

7. Robins Nest Jamsession at B-Flat (Mitte)

Where: Dircksenstraße 40, 10178 (S Hackescher Markt / U Weinmeisterstraße) · When: every Wednesday, doors 8pm, jam from 9pm

B-Flat is an acoustic music and jazz club a few steps from Hackescher Markt, and its Wednesday jam is a Berlin classic: Canadian bassist Robin Draganić has run it every Wednesday since 1999. It gives jazz musicians a chance to present themselves to an audience, so bring your instrument and be ready to play standards. Better suited to instrumentalists and jazz singers than to singer-songwriters.

8. Arno Zillmer’s Open Mic at WABE (Prenzlauer Berg)

Where: WABE (temporary venue), Schönfließer Straße 7, 10439 (S+U Schönhauser Allee) · When: once a month, 8pm · Entry: ticketed

Musician Arno Zillmer hosts this monthly open stage, “Idols and Talents”, where experienced artists and up-and-coming talents share the bill. Musicians, spoken-word artists and performers take turns, and at the end of the night the audience names its “Act of the Month”. It’s more of a showcase than a walk-in open mic, which makes it a good next step once you’ve tested your songs elsewhere. WABE is currently using a temporary venue, so check the address on the program before you go.

9. Open Mic L. J. Fox at Madame Claude (Kreuzberg)

Where: Lübbener Straße 19, 10997 (U Görlitzer Bahnhof) · When: 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, doors 7pm, start 8:30pm · Sign-up: on the night, 8pm

One of the longest-running open stages in Berlin, in a bar in Kreuzberg’s Wrangelkiez. It’s aimed at the international music scene, first-timers included: all genres are welcome, plus spoken word, and there’s no competition. Sign-up opens at 8pm for an 8:30pm start, and a DJ plays in the bar around the open mic. Free for performers, with a suggested donation of €5 or more for everyone else. Note: older guides list this night on Wednesdays, but it now runs on Thursdays. The venue isn’t wheelchair accessible.

10. Open Stage at tik (Friedrichshain)

Where: tik (Theater im Kino), Rigaer Straße 77, 10247 (U Samariterstraße) · When: first Friday of the month, doors 9pm, open end · Entry: free

If you play in a band, start here. tik’s open stage, running since 2006, comes with a full backline: drums, piano, guitar and bass amps and mics, so you just bring your songs (and your friends). Each act plays 3 songs or 15 minutes at most, singer-songwriters and musicians of all styles are welcome, and there’s no competition. You sign up during the evening, first come, first served, and the venue doesn’t take reservations. Entry is free and the bar is cash only.

Bonus: The Zig Zag Jazzed Up Jam Session (Friedenau)

Where: Zig Zag Jazz Club, Hauptstraße 89, 12159 · When: most Tuesdays, doors 7pm, first set 8pm · Entry: €20 with 2 drinks, €10 with 1 drink after 10pm

For confident jazz players only. Pianist Uri Gincel and his trio open with a short set, then the stage turns into a New York-style session where some of the city’s best jazz musicians play in changing line-ups: Great American Songbook, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock. It doesn’t run every Tuesday, so check the club’s calendar first.

5 tips for your first open mic in Berlin

• Check before you go. Berlin open stages move nights and take breaks. A quick look at the venue’s program or Instagram saves a wasted trip.
• Bring cash. Some venues on this list, like tik and ART Stalker, only take cash at the bar or the door. Keep a few euros for the hat, too.
• Be there when the list opens. Slots are limited, and at some nights the order is drawn at random, so being on time is what counts.
• Keep your set-up simple. Expect a short changeover and, in residential streets, no amps or loud drums. An acoustic instrument with a pickup is the safest bet.
• Stay and listen. That’s where you meet other musicians, find a band and sometimes get offered a gig. Have a link or QR code to your music ready.

Playing open mics, or even just going to them, is a great way to discover a city’s live music scene and the people who make it. Traveling with your songs? Check out our guides to the best open mics in London and the best open mics in New York City.

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L’article Open Mic Berlin: The 10 Best Places to Play Live est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Their paths crossed thanks to Ivan Halen-Semeria, WheelUP’s manager and a curator on Groover, who discovered Joannie’s music on the platform and recognised the potential for something special. After hearing her distinctive voice, WheelUP reached out with a selection of unreleased productions. Joannie responded with vocal ideas that immediately sparked a creative connection.

The result? New collaborative tracks in development for WheelUP’s upcoming album, demonstrating how a digital platform can lead to genuine artistic relationships and music that might never have existed otherwise.

We spoke to both artists about their musical identities, the power of collaboration, their experience with Groover and what comes next.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Joannie Labelle:
I’m Joannie Labelle, a singer, percussionist, songwriter, producer, explorer of rhythm, and nature lover.

Rhythm and melodies have always felt like home to me. I grew up in Canada in a family where music was highly valued. We danced to it, sang it, played it. It was everywhere and important.

Over the years, my journey has taken me across different countries, musical cultures and collaborations that have shaped the way I create. Every experience leaves a little imprint on my music. In a way, it’s a form of journaling for me.

I’m endlessly curious. What happens if a Cuban rhythm meets electronic textures? What if my voice stays soft on a bold track? That’s usually where my fun begins.

WheelUP:
I’m Danny Wheeler, also known as WheelUP. I’m a Zimbabwean-British producer, DJ and artist based in West London. I’ve been involved in underground music for many years, originally releasing drum & bass as Danny Wheeler before creating WheelUP as a home for my love of broken beat, bruk, jazz, soul, house, UK funky, UKG and Afro-influenced rhythms.

My music has been released through Tru Thoughts, Laurent Garnier’s COD3 QR, Liquid V and other independent labels. I’ve also performed at festivals and venues including Worldwide Festival, Glastonbury, We Out Here, Love Supreme, Tate Modern and Jazz Café.

Can you tell us about your musical project?

Joannie Labelle:
My project, my songs, are rooted in rhythm, but they reach for emotions, feelings and dreams. I blend percussion with intimate songwriting and electronic production.

I love instinctive writing. That’s how I start my lyrics and melodies most of the time. Every release is another little piece of my story, trying to reach out to other individuals like me.

WheelUP:
WheelUP represents the “West London Sound” genre and the musical culture that shaped me. The project connects broken beat with jazz, soul, house, hip-hop, funk and sounds from across the African diaspora.

Collaboration is a major part of the project. I enjoy bringing together different vocalists, musicians and producers and seeing what happens when our musical worlds meet. Connecting through music is a big thing for me.

How would you describe your music, and what are the best conditions for discovering it?

Joannie Labelle:
I’d say my music is rhythmic, dreamy, organic, electronic… human. Sometimes polished, sometimes chaotic.

The best way to discover it is probably to sit down comfortably with something pleasing to drink. Then start listening to my album or EP from beginning to end, because I really take the time to feel and imagine a journey for the listener. I try to create a travelling experience through music. But you should have some space around you to make a few dance moves here and there!

WheelUP:
The music is rhythm, soul and feeling. For me, it’s all about positive vibrations through music and sharing that energy. I’m influenced by UK club music, but I have an international mindset: world music meets UK club culture.

A powerful sound system and an open-minded dancefloor are probably the perfect conditions for me.

How did you discover Groover, and what convinced you to use the platform?

Joannie Labelle:
I remember looking for ways to promote my music as an independent artist. I’m so glad I found Groover. What attracted me was how direct the process is. Instead of wondering if my music disappears into the internet forever, I know I’m actually reaching people who are genuinely listening.

I was really pleased to find curators there who truly supported me and my releases.

WheelUP:
My connection to Groover came through my manager, Ivan Halen-Semeria, who is a curator on the platform. Ivan is a wonderful person and, as well as managing me, he’s the co-owner of Worldwide Festival with Gilles Peterson.

Ivan discovered Joannie’s music through Groover, heard something distinctive in her voice and musical personality, and felt that our worlds could work together.

He then introduced us directly. I listened to Joannie’s music, immediately heard the potential and sent her a selection of my unreleased productions.

What opportunities have you had through Groover?

Joannie Labelle:
Groover has helped me connect with many playlist curators and diverse music professionals.

Among other opportunities, I’ve been added to a playlist that skyrocketed my song “On prend le thé.”

More recently, I got in touch with Ivan Halen-Semeria from Worldwide Festival, who manages DJ WheelUP. Ivan has been really generous in connecting us. I was very pleased when WheelUP asked me to record some vocals for him. I really liked the tracks.

Now the songs will be released on Tru Thoughts Recordings, a truly surprising turn of events. That’s really amazing!

WheelUP:
The most important opportunity was an authentic artistic connection rather than simply receiving feedback or promotion.

Joannie responded creatively to 2 unreleased WheelUP productions. She recorded vocal ideas and sent me the individual stems, which allowed me to develop and reshape the tracks from my side.

The chemistry worked straight away. I loved the originality and beauty that her vocals added. I subsequently shared the music with my label, Tru Thoughts, who responded very positively to Joannie’s voice and the overall musical direction. The tracks are now being developed as part of the creative process around my next WheelUP album.

It’s a great example of how a digital platform can lead to a real human connection and new music that would not otherwise have existed.

What upcoming projects and news would you like to share?

Joannie Labelle:
I’m currently working on new songs, and I’m incredibly excited about them. I’m trying to push the limits of percussion, soft vocals and electronics coexisting. I’ve also been working hard on my production, vocals and mixes. They should be out by next winter at the latest.

And, of course, there are the tracks with WheelUP. He’s mixing the songs right now, and I can’t wait to hear them and celebrate the release on Tru Thoughts Recordings.

I’m also releasing a new single, “Mantra (Let it Go)”, on November 27, 2026, across all platforms. It’s an independent release published by Dachshund Music (35 Grad Music & Publishing GmbH).

WheelUP:
I’m currently working on my fourth WheelUP album for Tru Thoughts, with new collaborations and a continued exploration of the relationship between broken beat, jazz, soulful house and African-influenced club music.

I also have my remix of Manu Dibango’s “Sun Explosion” coming through Soul Makossa, new music with Kathy Brown through Laurent Garnier’s COD3 QR, and collaborative music in development with Roni Size. I also have a new collaboration in progress with Gilles Peterson.

Alongside the releases, I’m continuing to develop WheelUP as both a DJ project and a live experience across the UK, Europe and North America.

What advice would you give to artists starting a musical project?

Joannie Labelle:
Protect your own voice. People will tell you what they think works, what you should do, how to sing, how to dress. Forget it. Just do what sounds and feels good to you.

That’s where the joy and the pride are: creating music that’s yours, with your own colours and identity. Be brave, and trust your gut.

WheelUP:
Follow your heart. Don’t play for the algorithm. Develop your own musical identity over time, and don’t be afraid to be different.

Build a team of positive people around you to support each other and believe in yourself, regardless of whether you have 0 fans or a million. Do what you do and enjoy it first for yourself.

Be patient. When the right people connect, as happened with Joannie, the music usually tells you very quickly that there’s something worth developing.

Any final words?

Joannie Labelle:
Thank you so much for supporting independent artists and music. I am very grateful that a platform like Groover exists, and I hope that people with a deep love for music will continue to connect there and make the music scene and industry more sensitive and open.

Thank you!

WheelUP:
Thank you to Groover for creating a great platform that has led to this connection, and to Ivan for recognising that Joannie and I could make something special together.

Most importantly, thank you to Joannie for trusting me and the music, and for bringing such a beautiful voice to it.

This feels like the beginning of a positive collaboration.

L’article From Groover to the studio: how Joannie Labelle and WheelUP found a creative connection est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

That started changing in late 2025. Spotify, Deezer and TIDAL have landed in very different places with a big gap between them. So whether you are actively using AI in your music or just trying to understand what is happening to the space you release into, here’s what you need to know.

💚 Spotify: AI is allowed, but watch out, the label is coming

Spotify has never banned AI-generated music, and as of now, it has not changed its royalty policy either. An AI track earns from the same shared pool as everything else. Spotify’s September 2025 policy update was explicit: “all music is treated equally, regardless of the tools used to make it.”

What changed in 2026 is visibility.

They started doing something new in August: if your artist profile looks like it was generated by AI rather than built by a real person, they slap an “AI Persona” badge on it. And with that badge comes something that matters a lot more than the label itself: your music gets pulled from editorial playlists and algorithmic recommendations. Gone. The only way someone finds you at that point is if they specifically go looking. Which let’s be honest, nobody does for an artist they have never heard of.

Here is the part that matters though: this does not apply to you if you are a real person using AI in your process. The badge is not about how the music was made. It is about who (or what) is behind the artist profile. Fake artists bulk-created to sit in lo-fi playlists and collect passive royalties. That is what Spotify is going after.

On the more transparent side, Spotify also launched AI Credits and something called SongDNA, which let artists share more about how their music was made. Right now it is completely optional so nobody is forcing you to disclose anything.

The royalty rates themselves have not changed. But honestly, getting removed from recommendations is kind of the same thing as losing royalties, because if nobody discovers your music, nobody streams it.

❤️ Apple Music: labeling is coming, and it’s going to be mandatory

Apple Music has not banned AI-generated music and has not touched its royalty structure either. But it has been quietly building something that will become very visible by the end of 2026.

In March, Apple launched something called AI Transparency Tags. It’s a voluntary system letting content providers disclose when AI played a significant role in creating a track. Then in August, the platform sent an email to distributors making it clear that voluntary was no longer the plan. By the end of 2026, any track where AI was used to create a “material portion” of the content will carry a “Made With AI” label visible to every listener.

One number puts the scale of this in perspective: Apple Music VP Oliver Schusser said earlier this year that more than a third of all monthly uploads to the platform are now 100% AI-generated. They account for less than 0.5% of actual listening, but they take up a growing chunk of the catalogue. The label is at least partly about helping listeners know what they are getting.

The line Apple draws is between AI-assisted and AI-generated. Using AI for mastering, noise removal, or stem separation does not trigger the label. That distinction matters if you use AI tools in your process but are still the one making the creative calls. Basically, the label kicks in when AI produces a substantial creative element (melody, a chord progression, a lyric etc.)

Royalties are not affected yet. Apple has not announced any change to how streams are counted or paid. What it has done is already redistribute royalties from around two billion manipulated streams it detected in 2025. The money went back into the general artist payout pool rather than to whoever was gaming the system.

For independent artists, there’s a real grey area. The line between AI-assisted and AI-generated is not always obvious, and Apple has not published a clear process for disputing a classification. If you use AI tools in your workflow, it is worth knowing where you fall before the labels start showing up.

💜 Deezer: detection-first, demonetization for fraud

Deezer moved earlier and more aggressively than most. Since 2025, the platform has been tagging fully AI-generated tracks, keeping them out of algorithmic recommendations and editorial playlists, and demonetizing streams tied to fraudulent activity.

The numbers explain why. Deezer estimates it receives around 75,000 AI-generated tracks per day, roughly 44% of all daily uploads. Of the streams those tracks generate, up to 85% were identified as fraudulent in 2025. That is a lot of money leaving the royalty pool and going to people gaming the system rather than artists making music.

Deezer actually went far enough that it built its own AI detection tool and then started licensing it to other platforms. That tells you a lot about how seriously they are taking this.

If you use AI somewhere in your process but you are the one making the creative decisions, the honest answer is: it depends. Fully AI-generated tracks get labeled and disappear from recommendations. But tracks where a human was driving  and AI was just one of the tools  land in much grayer territory. Deezer has not actually published a clear threshold for where one ends and the other begins, which is either a relief or a headache depending on what you make.

🖤 TIDAL: no royalties for fully AI-generated music

TIDAL drew the hardest line of any major platform. On June 29, 2026, it announced it would stop paying royalties on tracks it identifies as 100% AI-generated, with the policy taking effect July 15.

The tracks stay on the platform. They just do not get paid.

In a statement, TIDAL’s EVP Tony Gervino said the policy was driven by two things: listener feedback, many subscribers said they did not want to encounter fully AI-generated music and a flood of impersonation content designed purely to redirect royalty payments away from real artists.

The policy has three pillars. Fully AI-generated tracks get an “AI” badge and lose royalty eligibility. AI music tied to fraud or impersonation gets blocked or removed entirely. And distributors are expected to flag AI-generated content before it even reaches the platform, shifting some of the compliance responsibility upstream.

TIDAL was careful to draw a line between tools and replacement. If a human led the creative process and used AI as part of that for production, engineering, arrangement, the track remains eligible for royalties. The policy targets prompt-and-publish uploads where no human creative decision was made.

The technical problem, which TIDAL acknowledged, is that defining “fully AI-generated” at scale is not a solved problem. This policy is described as a living document.

💰 So, what this means for what you actually get paid

The answer is: it depends on what you make and how.

If you use AI as a tool in a process you lead, generating stems, experimenting with sounds, producing with AI plugins, nothing has changed materially yet. Spotify still pays on the same terms. Deezer’s policies target fraud, not AI-assisted creativity. TIDAL’s royalty cut only applies to tracks that are fully machine generated with no human creative input.

If you distribute fully AI-generated music, tracks built entirely by prompting a tool, with no additional human creative layer, the picture is different. TIDAL will not pay you. Deezer may flag your streams as fraudulent depending on patterns. Spotify will still pay, but if your artist profile looks like an AI persona, your music will not appear in recommendations, which is where most streams come from anyway.

The industry is splitting into two camps. Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube are leaning on labeling and letting listeners decide. Deezer and TIDAL are running detection and acting on it, withholding recommendations, royalties, or both. That split will probably not stay stable as the volume of AI-generated content keeps growing.

One thing is consistent across every platform: unauthorized voice clones of real artists are banned everywhere, without exception.

TLDR: AI music is not going away, and most platforms are not trying to make it disappear. What they are trying to stop is the fraud layer on top of it, the bulk uploads, the fake streams, the royalty farming  while figuring out what to do about everything else. The rules are changing faster than the technology, which means they will keep changing. Worth keeping an eye on.

L’article AI-generated music: what Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and TIDAL now allow, and what they pay est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

That actually happened to Emily Portman. A fan messaged her to say how much they loved her latest album. The thing is, she had not put out an album. She clicked the link and found a full release called Orca, live on Spotify, crediting her as writer, performer, and copyright holder. Someone had used an AI tool to emulate her style, packaged it up, and uploaded it under her name. It took Spotify three weeks to remove it. Then a second fake album appeared.

Tyler the Creator ran into something similar when he dropped Don’t Tap the Glass. On the same day, AI tracks with suspiciously similar names showed up on the platform, stepping all over the launch. And these are just the cases that made headlines.

In March 2026, Sony Music requested the removal of over 135,000 tracks made with generative AI to impersonate its artists. Sony itself said that number is probably only a fraction of what is actually out there. The IFPI puts it bleaker: up to 10% of content across all streaming platforms might be fraudulent at this point.

A few weeks after that, Spotify announced Artist Profile Protection.

🔒 So, what does Artist Profile Protection actually do?

It is a new optional feature inside Spotify for Artists, currently in limited beta. Turn it on, and it adds a review step before anything goes live on your profile.

The way it works: when music gets delivered to Spotify under your name, you get an email. You can then approve or decline the release. Approve it and everything moves forward normally. Decline it and it does not appear on your profile, does not touch your stats, and does not show up in recommendations.

That last bit is the part that matters. We are not talking about hiding something after the fact. A declined release gets pulled from your entire presence on the platform before anyone sees it. If Emily Portman had this, she would never have had to spend three weeks chasing Spotify to take down a fake album her fans had already started listening to.

The feature is managed through Spotify for Artists settings on desktop and mobile web, by Artist Team Admins and Editors.

🧪 Who has access right now

Most artists do not have it yet. Spotify is running a limited beta and has been upfront that what exists right now is not the finished product. They are refining it based on feedback before rolling it out more broadly, and no date has been given for when that happens.

To check if you are in:

• Open Spotify for Artists on desktop or mobile web
• Go to your settings
• Look for Artist Profile Protection

If it is there, you can switch it on. If it is not, you are not in the beta and there is nothing to apply for or join yet. Spotify decides who gets access and when.

⚠️ AI just turned up the volume on an older issue

Worth saying clearly: AI did not invent this problem. Releases landing on the wrong profile have been a headache for years, well before generative music tools became cheap and accessible.

Metadata errors during upload have always been able to link a track to the wrong artist. Shared or similar names create confusion constantly. Distributors make mistakes. What changed is scale and intent. A journalist at 404 Media showed exactly how easy it is: they generated a track with Udio, opened a standard DistroKid account, uploaded it to a real band’s profile, and it went live. No hacking. No stolen credentials. Just the normal distribution pipeline, which trusts whoever is uploading to tell the truth about which artist the track belongs to.

And the financial logic is simple. Whoever controls the release collects the royalties. Attach a fake track to an artist with a real following, and you redirect their streams into your pocket. The bigger the artist, the more it pays.

Spotify removed over 75 million spammy tracks in the twelve months before this announcement. This is not a niche problem that affects a handful of edge cases.

🛡️ What you can do in the meantime

Artist Profile Protection is not available to most artists yet, but that does not mean you are sitting ducks. A few things that actually help:

Check your profile regularly and know what you are looking for
Get into the habit of logging into Spotify for Artists once a week and scrolling your discography. Look for release dates that do not match anything you remember, track names you do not recognise, artwork that feels off. AI-generated spam tends to drop in volume. A real artist spaces things out, a bot can flood a profile overnight. Jazz pianist Jason Moran only found out about fake tracks under his name because a friend mentioned it. It is worth telling people close to you to flag anything that looks wrong on your page.

If you find something, use the right reporting path
There is no dedicated “report AI impersonation” option on Spotify, which is annoying. What works: if you have Spotify for Artists access, report it as misattributed content, that route tends to get faster results according to Spotify’s own community team. If you do not have direct access, head to Spotify’s Safety and Privacy Center and choose “deceptive content.” For anything involving IP violations or content you think is illegal, there is a separate path on the same page.

Be as specific as possible when you report. Include the URI of the track or album, links to the fake and real profiles, and a clear description. Vague reports tend to disappear. Emily Portman filed copyright complaints and it still took three weeks. The more detail you give, the better your chances.

Loop in your distributor straight away
Your distributor can often move faster than a direct report to Spotify. They have direct channels to request removals and corrections. Contact them as soon as you notice something and ask specifically about their policy for misattribution or impersonation. It varies a lot between distributors and is not always easy to find.

Write everything down
Screenshot the fake release. Note the date, the track name, the stream count if you can see it. If this keeps happening, that documentation matters. Sony’s 135,000 takedowns did not happen without a paper trail.

Do not forget your other platforms
The same fake releases tend to show up across Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube, and others at the same time. Each one has its own reporting process. Bandcamp has banned AI-generated music entirely. Deezer has brought in detection tools. If you are on multiple platforms, it is worth checking all of them, not just Spotify.

Artist Profile Protection is a real step forward. Being able to review what goes live under your name before your listeners see it is a meaningful change, and it is the kind of control artists have needed for a while.

But most people reading this will not have it yet. Until the rollout happens, staying on top of your profile and knowing what to do when something goes wrong is the closest thing to protection available. Your profile is usually the first place a new listener encounters your work. It should actually be yours.

L’article AI impersonation and Spotify’s Artist Profile Protection: what artists need to know est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Nothing. Not a single stream.

Often the playlist is the problem, more than your track.

A Spotify playlist can show a huge counter and receive almost no traffic. That counter adds up years of accumulated subscriptions and says nothing about what is happening this week. And since the follower count is the only public number, it is the one everybody uses to decide.

At Stulyo we have indexed close to three million Spotify playlists, and we record the followers of more than 100,000 of them every day, the ones with a real audience that show up in the rankings. Here is some of what we see.

The follower count tells you almost nothing

Let’s start with the counterpoint.

Among the playlists in our index above 100,000 followers, four out of five never appear in any search result. Not once in a week. Someone typing a keyword into Spotify will never see them.

The link between size and visibility exists, but it is far weaker than people think:

Followers, and the share that appears in search:

100,000 and up: 19.7 %

10,000 to 99,999: 12.0 %

1,000 to 9,999: 9.6 %

200 to 999: 5.1 %

Under 200: 0.7 %

Stulyo measurements, US market, first week of September 2026.

Look closely. Take a playlist with 1,000 followers and multiply its size by a hundred. Its odds of being found do not even double.

The counter measures a past, visibility is happening now.

Good news if you are starting out: the spot is not bought in followers.

Why a huge playlist can be found by nobody

Three explanations come back constantly.

The counter never goes down. A listener who subscribed three years ago and never opens the playlist again is still counted today. Spotify adds up everything that came in and erases nothing. The number on screen is a historical total. A playlist can have had its moment in 2023 and been deserted ever since.

Bought traffic stops with the budget. Some large playlists filled up through paid promotion (Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, and so on). It works, as long as the campaigns run. The day the budget stops, the followers already won stay on display, but new arrivals stop dead. The playlist keeps its window and loses its flow. And nothing on screen lets you tell the two apart.

The name matches no search. A playlist called “Vibes” or “my daily” describes nothing anyone would type into a search bar. It can have 400,000 followers inherited from a viral share, it will never be an entry point for a new listener. The playlists people find carry the words people search for in their name.

In all three cases, the result for you is the same: your track lands in a full room with the door closed.

“But the big curators run ads, so it works”

The objection is fair, and the numbers answer it.

Among the large playlists that do show up in search, nearly four out of ten hold the top 3 on their keyword. They buy traffic and they also hold their position.

The two feed each other. Ads bring people in, people produce signals, signals help the ranking, and the ranking brings people in for free. It is a loop, and the best run it both ways.

Except only one of the two wheels keeps turning when you stop paying. And it is the only one you can turn without a budget.

Signal 1: does it show up in search

This is the most direct signal, and the most overlooked.

A playlist that appears nowhere only reaches the followers it already has. It recruits nobody, and your track will be heard by the people who were already there.

And it does not take much to hold the first page. Among the playlists holding the top ten spots, the median sits around 4,500 followers, and a quarter of them have fewer than 700.

A playlist with 800 followers that ranks first on its keyword is worth more to you than one with 200,000 that nobody finds.

How to check: open Spotify, type the keyword that best describes the playlist you are targeting, filter on Playlists. See whether it is there. Do it again on two or three different wordings. If it shows up on none of them, you know its traffic no longer comes from search.

Signal 2: the slope, not the level

A follower count is a photograph, when what you need is the film.

Across the playlists we track with full history, seven out of ten have not moved in a month. Less than 2 % variation. They are still running, without recruiting anyone.

A playlist gaining followers is a playlist people find, share, and the algorithm pushes. That is the one that will bring your track listeners who do not know you yet. That is the whole point of the exercise.

How to check: note the follower count, come back in two weeks. It is manual and, on a list of ten playlists, it takes a few minutes. If the number has not moved, you have your answer.

Signal 3: freshness

This one needs no tool.

Look at the date of the last tracks added. A playlist updated eight months ago has no active curator behind it. Your track may well be added, without appearing in anyone’s feed, and Spotify will not push the playlist.

Look at its length too. In a playlist of 800 tracks, your track ends up at position 640, out of reach. Playlists that work rotate: they remove as much as they add.

Signal 4: the market

A playlist has one ranking per country.

The same search does not return the same playlists in Paris and in Sao Paulo. If your audience is in Brazil and the playlist only shows up on the US market, the exposure will not be the one you imagine.

It is worth thinking about before you pitch, especially if you are targeting a specific market.

The short-list in practice

Before you send anything, for each playlist on your list:

• It appears in search on at least one relevant keyword
• Its follower count has moved in recent weeks
• It has been updated this month
• It is visible on your market, not only elsewhere
• It holds fewer than 200 tracks, so yours stays reachable

One playlist that ticks all five is worth more than ten giant, sleeping ones. And those are run by curators, humans who read their messages.

That is also what makes the pitch worth sending. You are writing to someone whose playlist is alive and who is looking for tracks.

A word on our data

These numbers come from Stulyo, the tool we built to measure the visibility of Spotify playlists. We index close to three million playlists, we record the followers of more than 100,000 of them every day, and we track what search actually shows, market by market. A curator follows their positions there; an artist can look up the positions of the playlists they are targeting before pitching. There is a free trial with no card at app.stulyo.com if you want to check your own playlists.

What to remember

The follower count is the most visible number and the least informative. Four playlists out of five above 100,000 followers show up in no search at all, while a playlist with 800 followers can hold first place on its keyword.

Before you pitch, ask yourself one question: is this playlist still reaching people who do not know it?

Search, slope and freshness answer that in three minutes. The follower count never does.

Romain Desmoulins, founder of Stulyo.

Enjoy -30% off at Stulyo for 3 months, on any plan, with the code GROOVER30 at checkout,
or just go through this link, which applies the discount automatically.

L’article How to tell whether a Spotify playlist is actually visible, before you pitch it est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

For an independent artist, this is not just a technical detail. It is also a new way to add context around your music, strengthen your image and create a richer experience for your fans.

🎯 SongDNA on Spotify: What is this feature for?

SongDNA is a feature that allows fans, artists and other creators to explore the world behind a track more deeply, directly in the Spotify mobile app.

In practice, SongDNA highlights several elements around a song:

• contributors
• creative collaborations
• connections between songs
• information related to samples, covers or interpolations

SongDNA helps you show that a song is not just an audio file: it tells a story, reveals a creative network and gives more context to your process. This approach is especially useful if you want to structure your presence on Spotify more clearly.

📱 Who can see SongDNA?

SongDNA appears in the Spotify mobile app. To access it on your own tracks through Spotify for Artists preview, several conditions must be met.

• you need to have an admin or editor role in Spotify for Artists
• your profile must have at least 10 monthly listeners
• you need to use the latest version of the Spotify app

If the feature does not appear immediately, simply restarting the app may be enough. And if your goal is to grow your Spotify audience, you can also strengthen your strategy with these tips on how to get on Spotify playlists.

🔍 How to open SongDNA on a track

You can explore SongDNA in two ways in the Spotify mobile app.

From the “Now Playing” view

• listen to a song in the Spotify app
• scroll down in the “Now Playing” view
• tap “Explore” on the SongDNA card

From the song menu

• open the track of your choice
• tap the three dots
• select “Explore SongDNA”

In other words, SongDNA is built directly into the listening experience. It is not hidden in a complicated menu, which makes it potentially more interesting for fans who are curious to discover what happens behind the scenes.

🧠 Why SongDNA can become a real asset for artists

What makes SongDNA interesting is not only the informational side of the feature. Its real value also lies in its potential for storytelling and branding.

Today, your audience does not only listen to a song. They are also interested in what it says, how it was created, who is part of your creative world and what kind of universe you are building. The more visible you make all of this, the more you strengthen what makes you unique.

SongDNA can also become a valuable networking tool. By exploring the people credited on tracks that match your artistic universe, you can discover producers, songwriters, engineers or musicians you may want to work with in the future. If you come across a song you love, SongDNA makes it easier to understand who helped create it and can help you identify new collaborators for upcoming releases.

• you highlight your team and collaborations
• you give more depth to your songs
• you enrich the fan experience
• you strengthen your artistic identity
• you can identify potential collaborators more easily
• you can discover the people behind the songs that inspire you

If you are also working on your visual consistency and image, I recommend reading this article on music branding for artists.

🛠️ How to manage SongDNA in Spotify for Artists

SongDNA can be managed from Spotify for Artists on desktop. The changes you make only affect the SongDNA experience, not the standard credits displayed elsewhere on Spotify.

If you appear as the performing artist on the track, you can notably:

• hide or show certain third-party contributors
• hide or show associations between tracks
• manage certain information related to samples and interpolations

⚠️ Changes are not instant: they can take up to 48 hours to appear in the mobile app.

🚀 How to integrate SongDNA into your release strategy

The real value of SongDNA is that you should not see it as just another Spotify update. You can integrate it into a broader release strategy.

For example, when releasing a single, you can use SongDNA to extend the story around the track:

• highlight the collaborators behind the song
• create social media content around the behind-the-scenes process
• strengthen the consistency between your storytelling, visuals and Spotify profile
• encourage your audience to explore your universe more deeply

To prepare this properly, you can rely on this article on Spotify Countdown Pages as well as this guide on how to promote your music with Groover.

In short, SongDNA will not do all the promotion work for you. But when used well, it can become an extra piece of a more engaging release strategy!

L’article SongDNA on Spotify: Discover the Story Behind Every Song est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

The real challenge isn’t posting more for the sake of it. The real challenge is building content that makes people want to discover you and then stick around. To do that, you need to move beyond pure promotion and learn how to turn your artistic project into living, breathing material.

This article is based on a French Groover+ workshop, Best Practices on TikTok in 2026 for Artists, hosted by Lisa Mallier.

🎬 First reflex: stop only posting for your releases

Many artists only use TikTok around a single, a music video, or an EP drop. That’s better than nothing, but it’s not what delivers the best results. Why? Because the algorithm — and users — need to place you in time. If you only appear to announce something, you quickly start to look like a billboard.

On the flip side, if you regularly share content that reflects your universe, your references, your methods, your struggles, your behind-the-scenes, your instincts, and your humor, then promotion becomes natural. It slots into a larger narrative. And it’s that narrative that makes people want to listen to your music.

This logic applies even for artists who are short on time. You don’t need to produce complex videos, what matters most is thinking in simple, repeatable series that build a habit with your audience.

🧠 The 7 most relevant content types for an artist

1. Behind-the-scenes of creation

This is probably one of the most powerful formats for a music project. You can talk about how a song was born, where a lyric came from, why you changed a topline, how you found a sound, a texture, a title, an image, or a performance intention.

This type of content works because it transforms a finished piece of work into an open story. It gives access to your process. And that process is just as interesting to fans as it is to the casually curious.

You can pair this with this Groover article on blowing up on TikTok and this guide on music promotion via TikTok.

2. Project storytelling

You can also talk about your project in a broader sense. Who are you? What’s your approach? What are you trying to express through your tracks? What connects your music, your visuals, your writing, your obsessions?

This format is especially valuable when you’re launching a new artistic direction or a new chapter. It lets you draw a line between your identity and your songs. And it often converts better than purely promotional content, because it creates attachment before the listening even begins.

3. Narrative carousels

The TikTok carousel is still underused by many artists, yet it can be remarkably effective. It lets you repurpose visuals, studio photos, concert images, screenshots of notes, polaroids, lyrics, posters, or tour moments.

The key isn’t just showing beautiful images. The key is adding a narrative. One idea per slide. One stage per slide. One anecdote per slide. A mini photo vlog. A mini creation journal. A before-and-after. A release story.

💡 A carousel that tells a story is almost always more valuable than one that simply looks “beautiful.” On TikTok, narrative beats visual perfection.

4. Simple face-to-camera formats

Many artists think they need to be ultra-smooth, ultra-funny, or ultra-comfortable on camera to make it work. That’s not true. What really matters is being clear, sincere, and present. A simple format can perform very well if the message is right.

• “Let me tell you why this track matters so much to me”
• “The moment I knew this chorus had to stay”
• “What I couldn’t say any other way than through this song”
• “The hidden reference behind this music video”

These are quick to produce, require little editing, and can generate far more followers than some heavily crafted posts.

5. Covers, but with an angle

Covers are still useful, especially when they’re consistent with your universe. But today, a standalone cover without a narrative angle or connection to your project carries less strategic weight than it used to. The real question to ask yourself is: what does this cover say about me?

For example, you might explain why you chose that song, what it changed for you, how it connects to your own music, or what it taught you as a performer.

6. Content tied to your other passions

This is one of the standout points from the webinar. Today, many users follow an artist not just for their music, but for their overall personality. If literature, film, fashion, sports, journaling, vintage synths, or writing are part of who you are, they can also feed your strategy.

This isn’t scattering your focus. It’s enriching the perception of your universe. As long as the connection remains coherent, this kind of content reinforces what makes you singular.

7. Replies to comments

This format is far too often overlooked. Yet replying to a comment with a video is both simple, smart, and high-performing. You turn an interaction into new content, you show that you’re listening to your community, and you keep the conversation going.

Someone asks when the track is dropping? Reply in a video. Someone wants to know how you wrote a certain passage? Reply in a video. Someone reacts strongly to a lyric? Reply in a video. It’s content already validated by the genuine interest of a real person.

✍️ How to make each piece of content stronger without spending 3 hours on it

The biggest blocker for artists is usually time. The solution isn’t necessarily to do more — it’s to simplify the method. A TikTok piece of content doesn’t need to be heavy to produce in order to be relevant.

• Start with a strong hook
• Add on-screen text to provide context
• Write a caption that extends the interest
• Choose a handful of useful hashtags, not an auto-generated list
• Repurpose your existing content by adapting it to TikTok’s language

A simple example: you have an Instagram studio carousel. On Instagram, it lives through its aesthetic. On TikTok, you can take the same images and add text like “The day this song finally found its chorus” or “3 moments I almost gave up on this track.” You’ve just turned a showcase piece into a narrative one.

To strengthen consistency between TikTok and other platforms, you can also read this Groover article on Instagram features.

📅 A simple method for staying consistent over time

The hardest part isn’t coming up with one idea. The hardest part is keeping it up. For that, you need a realistic method. The webinar emphasizes some very useful habits: batching, drafts, scheduling, consistency over perfection.

Concretely, you can film several pieces of content in a single session:

• 2 face-to-camera videos
• 1 narrative carousel
• 1 studio or rehearsal clip
• 1 reply to a comment

Then save everything as drafts, schedule if needed, and maintain a sustainable rhythm. One well-thought-out post per week, kept up consistently over time, is worth more than a burst of content followed by two months of silence.

🚀 What to remember before you start

You don’t need to become a content machine. You don’t need to chase every trend either. What you do need is to understand one essential thing: TikTok works really well when an artist stops trying to only promote — and starts telling stories too.

Telling the story of a track, an obsession, a day, a doubt, a scene, an intention. In short: telling the story of what your project is trying to make people feel. From there, content ideas become far more plentiful. And above all, they become far more coherent.

If you’re still stuck, ask yourself this one simple question before every post: “Does this content help someone better understand my music, my approach, or my personality?” If the answer is yes, you’re probably on the right track.

Want access to workshop replays and artist development resources throughout the year? Join Groover+ or read this article to find out more!

L’article What to Post on TikTok as an Artist in 2026: 7 Formats That Actually Convert est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

The 2025 Music Economics Report by Duetti offers a different perspective. Based on data from millions of independent tracks, the report explores what makes some music catalogs retain their value over time while others fade away.

And the findings are surprisingly reassuring: the artists building the most durable careers are not always the ones generating the biggest spikes of attention. More often, they’re the ones creating steady growth, cultivating the right audience, and making smart long-term decisions.

Article based on the 2025 Music Economics Report published by Duetti, using proprietary data from independent artists and music creators.

🎯 What makes a music catalog “durable”?

Before looking at the insights, it’s worth understanding what Duetti actually measures. The report focuses on what it calls durable catalogs: music catalogs that experience less than 10% annual decline in streaming activity.

In other words, these are not necessarily the songs that generate the biggest launch week. They’re the songs that continue generating streams, revenue and audience engagement years after release.

The report analyzes independent artists earning between $100 and $350,000 annually from streaming revenue, making the findings particularly relevant for developing and established independent artists rather than global superstars.

The goal isn’t just to get streams. It’s to create music that people keep coming back to. That’s an important distinction because many artists spend most of their energy chasing growth while spending very little time thinking about sustainability.

📉 Virality is real, but it’s far rarer than most artists think

One of the most striking findings in Duetti’s report comes from its analysis of more than 6 million established independent tracks.

For this study, a song was considered viral if it increased its streams fivefold within a single month. The result? Only 1.14% of indie tracks achieved that level of virality.

More importantly, only 0.17% maintained that viral momentum for more than three months, and only 0.11% sustained it for more than six months.

Going viral can happen. Building a career around the expectation that it will happen is a much riskier strategy. That doesn’t mean artists should ignore trends, short-form content, or opportunities to reach new audiences. It simply means that virality should be viewed as a bonus, not a business model.

🐢 Slow growth often beats fast growth

According to Duetti’s analysis, gradual growth over six months is 60% more likely to result in a durable catalog than rapid growth concentrated over three months.

That might sound counterintuitive in an industry obsessed with instant results, but it makes sense when you think about how fan relationships actually develop.

Steady growth gives you time to:

• understand which songs resonate most deeply
• refine your storytelling and content strategy
• turn casual listeners into loyal fans
• build momentum from release to release
• develop stronger audience retention

That’s one reason why many artists are adopting long-term release strategies rather than putting all their hopes into a single release. Techniques such as the Waterfall Strategy can help maintain momentum while gradually growing a dedicated audience.

The most important question isn’t “Is my audience growing?” It’s “Will they still be here six months from now?”

📅 Release strategy matters more than many artists realize

The report also highlights something many artists overlook: consistency matters.

Independent artists who released at least three tracks per year generated, on average, 18% more revenue per track during the first year after release than artists who released less frequently.

Duetti also found that artists releasing at least one album per year saw an average 16% increase in first-year revenue per track compared to artists who only released singles.

The lesson isn’t that everyone should suddenly start releasing dozens of songs. It’s that maintaining a consistent release rhythm helps keep audiences engaged and creates more opportunities for discovery.

Building an effective release calendar is often just as important as creating the music itself. If you’re planning an upcoming release, this guide on how to release a new single and maximize visibility can help you prepare.

🌍 A focused audience can be more valuable than a global one

One of the most surprising findings in the report concerns audience concentration.

According to Duetti, artists whose listening activity is strongly concentrated in a single country are 50% more likely to develop durable catalogs than artists whose audiences are spread thinly across many territories.

That doesn’t mean international growth is bad. It simply suggests that building strong traction somewhere can be more effective than trying to be everywhere at once.

• identify where your strongest listeners are located
• target media outlets and playlists in those regions
• invest in communities already responding to your music
• strengthen existing momentum before expanding further

Many successful independent artists first establish a strong local or regional audience before scaling internationally.

The same principle applies to fan development. Instead of trying to reach everyone, focus on nurturing the listeners who already care. That’s exactly the philosophy behind building a strong fanbase around your music.

📺 YouTube remains a powerful indicator of long-term success

Among all streaming and social platforms analyzed by Duetti, YouTube stood out as the strongest predictor of catalog durability.

Artists who experienced two consecutive months of YouTube growth before growth on other platforms were more than 16% more likely to build durable catalogs.

This reinforces something many independent artists already suspect: YouTube creates a different kind of relationship with fans.

While short-form content can generate awareness, YouTube offers space for deeper engagement through:

• music videos
• live sessions
• visualizers
• behind-the-scenes content
• long-form storytelling

If you’re underinvesting in YouTube, you may be missing one of the most powerful tools for long-term audience building. You can learn more in this guide on growing your music audience on YouTube.

👥 Not all audiences create the same level of stability

The report also notes that artists with a higher concentration of older listeners tend to have more durable catalogs over time.

This doesn’t mean younger audiences are less valuable. Younger listeners often drive discovery, social sharing and cultural momentum. However, older audiences can sometimes contribute more repeat listening, stronger retention and greater long-term stability.

Sustainable careers aren’t built on attention alone. They’re built on relationships and that’s why successful artists focus not only on acquiring listeners but also on converting them into true fans. If you’re looking to strengthen that connection, check out these strategies for turning followers into fans.

🚀 Final takeaway: don’t build your career on luck

The 2025 Music Economics Report doesn’t argue against virality. It simply shows that virality alone rarely creates lasting value.

According to Duetti’s data, durable catalogs are more often associated with steady growth, consistent releases, focused audiences, YouTube momentum, and meaningful fan relationships.

• Don’t make virality your primary goal.
• Invest in consistent growth.
• Build deeper fan relationships.
• Pay attention to where your audience is strongest.
• Use YouTube as more than a video archive.
• Think in years, not weeks.

If there’s one lesson to take away, it’s this: stop asking how to replicate someone else’s viral moment. Start asking whether what you’re building will still matter a year from now.

L’article Virality or Long-Term Growth: What’s the Key to Success? est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.

Until fans connect with your sound emotionally, they’ll often connect with it visually first. For independent artists, that can feel like a lot of pressure. But strong visual branding doesn’t require an enormous budget or a full creative agency behind you. 

In this article, we’ll explore why the visual side of your music career matters just as much as the sonic one, and how the right tools can make building it feel far less overwhelming than you think.

Why visual branding actually matters

The visual world you’ve built (or haven’t yet) around your music speaks before your sound does. The moment someone sees your cover art in a playlist, a clip in their feed, or a photo on your profile, they’re already forming an impression.

Visual branding is the aesthetic identity surrounding your music, bringing together colours, fonts, imagery, typography, editing styles, photography, motion graphics, and design choices that shape how audiences internalize your presence as an artist. 

Getting your music heard is step one. Ensuring that the full visual experience matches the quality of your sound is what keeps them around. Platforms like Rotor Videos make it possible for independent artists to build:

• Music & lyric videos
• Spotify Canvas
• Apple Music Album Motion
• Visualizers and streaming assets, social clips & more

Album covers: Your first impression

Album artwork is often a listener’s first visual touchpoint, which means it has some serious work to do. An effective piece of artwork should hint at the world you’re building, while giving potential listeners a reason to press play.

Independent artists sometimes rush through cover design as one final release task on their checklist, but strong cover art plays a large role in discovery. It becomes:

• The image attached to playlists and shares
• The thumbnail fans recognize
• The centrepiece of your promotional rollout
• The foundation for your visual campaign

Releasing new music is vital, but these days, it takes more than a great song to grab the spotlight. Your cover art is part of your promotional arsenal, so treat it with the same intention you’d give the music itself.

Apple Music Album Motion & Spotify Canvas

Streaming platforms now offer artists opportunities to create motion-based visuals that deepen engagement during the listening experience.

• Spotify Canvas allows artists to upload short looping visuals that play while a song streams. These animations can make tracks feel more immersive while helping listeners form stronger visual associations with your music.
• Apple Music Album Motion takes a subtler approach, animating album artwork with cinematic movement that enhances the atmosphere of a release. 

Both tools are most effective when they feel connected to the larger visual identity of a project. Your photography, artwork, typography, colours, and motion design should all feel like part of the same world. Give people something to recognize, and they’ll start to remember you.

Short-Form content keeps your world alive

Visual branding isn’t limited to official releases. In many ways, your day-to-day content matters just as much. Short-form content has become one of the primary ways artists maintain visibility between new drops. Studio clips, behind-the-scenes footage, teasers, live snippets, and personality-driven posts all help audiences stay connected to your world.

The key is to share more than announcements and still images, and to understand what each platform actually rewards:

• TikTok: Favours short, punchy video; often prioritizes immediacy and personality
• Instagram: Responds to polished visuals and aesthetics
• YouTube Shorts: Thrives on replayability and retention
• Threads & X: Rewards hot takes, reactions, and real-time commentary around your releases

Music videos: Creativity over budget

Music videos remain one of the strongest tools artists have for expressing personality and expanding the emotional world of a song. But, the rulebook has been rewritten. Some of the more effective music videos today are:

• Concept-driven
• Performance-based
• Lo-fi & intimate
• Experimental
• Humourous
• Visually atmospheric
• Social-first & fast-paced

The good news? You don’t need a major label budget to do it. You just need a vision, and the right tools to bring it to life.

Lyric videos: Underrated & underused

Lyric videos get dismissed as the low-effort option.  They shouldn’t be. A strong lyric video helps your fans connect more deeply with the writing itself while extending the lifespan of a release. It transforms a simple upload into a more engaging visual experience.

Lyric videos can also be incredibly versatile:

• Animated typography
• Minimalist text treatments
• Cinematic visuals
• Social-friendly edits
• Fast-paced motion graphics
• Performance-based visuals

Most importantly, lyric videos create another opportunity for fans to engage with your music visually, and repetition is a huge part of building recognition.

Building your visual universe

The through line across all of this is intentionality. Artist branding should evolve over time, but within each release cycle or era, audiences should feel a clear sense of identity tying everything together. Your album art, your social clips, your Canvas, your music videos: they should all feel like they belong to the same world.

That cohesion is what turns casual listeners into invested fans, and invested fans into the kind of community that follows you from one era to the next, long after the scroll ends.

– Written by Rotor Videos by LyricFind –

Your visuals are ready? Send them to the pros of your choice on Groover ⬇️

L’article The indie artist’s guide to visual branding est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.