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Planning a tour can be stressful. It involves a ton of planning and strategy to make it work. With the help of Spotify and Soundcloud analytics, booking a tour is becoming easier than ever. These analytics give you insights into where you should be booking your shows, what songs your fans want to hear and more. In this post, we’ll cover how you can use these analytics to figure out exactly where you should be touring.

Before you hit the road, here’s how Soundcloud and Spotify Analytics can help you out.

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When you think of creating a brand new music video, you probably feel a flash of panic, and see dollar signs floating by. A high end, professional quality can cost a lot of money — thousands of dollars at least. And while I believe that quality and experience is worth paying for, if you’re a brand new band just getting your footing, you might want to hold off, and invest that money elsewhere.

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This article originally appeared on Symphonic Distribution.

To be the best at anything, you need to put in the time and the effort to really understand the ins and outs of whatever it may be. How you use your social media is no exception. Social media marketing is a competitive landscape that everyone in this industry uses on a day to day basis, and it’s important that you thoroughly understand the basics before you can really consider yourself an expert.

Luckily, there are tons of courses out there to help you learn how to optimize your strategy and use your social media to its’ fullest potential.

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Young people receive mixed signals all the time when it comes to the question of whether or not they should attend college before entering the music industry. There are countless examples of people who have jumped into the business headfirst without not only a degree but also any real-world experience, and they’ve been able to make it work.

Whether they be musicians who get their start as teenagers and figure out how the money works or others who simply seem to have an innate gift when it comes to managing, promoting, booking, or publicizing, there are perhaps a higher percentage of successful employees in the music industry who didn't study it in college.

So, is it worth it to go to school to study the music business, or is it worth taking the risk and hoping hard work and quick learning will be enough? That choice is ultimately up to you, but if you’re looking for the right fit, here are five of the best schools where you can study the music business.

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Instagram is a beautiful, connection driven tool — and it’s driving all of us mad. Yes, we love it for the opportunity to follow the journeys of those we love and admire or the opportunity to share our own stories and connect in a totally new way.

But then there’s the other side of it. The part where you’re staring at your phone slaving over a caption for an hour, writing and re-writing until it finally feels perfect. Or where you’re about to dive into a really tasty pizza but you have to whip out your phone first because you just know this would make great IG content (guilty). And of course, who could forget the feeling of working super hard on all of those things only to get 20 likes and a spam-bot comment?

It can feel discouraging and like IG is just too much work. But that’s taking all the joy out of it! So while, yes, IG is just as much a business tool as one of pleasure, I want to focus on a few tools and tips you can use to get back to enjoying it while making it awesome — and making your life a lot easier.