 From what I see on my forum and discord, one of the many annoyances musicians face is they can't figure out how to get people who follow them to click and stream their music. I think you've heard this one before and I know that can feel super disheartening. The people who are interested enough to follow you are barely motivated to check out a song you really believe in and yet they aren't clicking through to hear that song that means the world to you. I mean how the hell are you going to get other people who don't follow you to hear your music if these people who are casually interested in you won't even go there. Good news, there's a hidden detail so many people don't see that artists employ every day to get people to click through that is often subliminal but once you see it you'll see it for the rest of your life. So in this video I'm going to explain the psychological tweak that can help you get more streams and show you how to talk to your audience about your music in a way that motivates them to do what you want them to do. Hi I'm Jesse Cannon a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to grow their fan base from zero to ten thousand fans and this is Muse Formation. So let's get down to basics and establish what we're talking about here. People often over intellectualize music or even under intellectualize it but if we're talking about the scientific use of music it's key to understand it from this perspective before we discuss anything else about the subject and now is the time to pay attention. Whenever we put on a song we're trying to feel a way we'd rather feel and if this hasn't clicked to you before feel free to put me on pause and think about this because I know many people I've told this to can turn into a stoner with a big giant. When you reach for an album or a song you love it's just to change your mood to one you'd rather feel. Sure there are other reasons you put on music but all of them are downstream from that you just want to feel a way that the music may make you feel rather than the way you currently feel. Too many people don't see music for what it actually is a mood-altering drug. Granted this is one that is usually legal and endorsed by even the biggest tightasses in our society unlike nearly every other drug. I mean there are exceptions Tom Cruise Scientology they don't even want you taking depression drugs or Adderall. I mean get what the times you freaks it Xenu looks like a modern type of org and y'all gotta catch up. But what do I mean by music as a mood-altering drug? Drugs at least in the way we refer to them in the recreational sense refer to a vehicle to alter our mood or our perception. If you want to feel happier you put on a song that makes you feel that way. If you want to sink into your sadness you put on a song that puts you in that mood. We all have different emotions and songs that trigger different reactions in us hence why the array of music we enjoy is so vast. But just like a drug we need to see music through that metaphor in that eventually we gain a tolerance to the drug it just doesn't hit as hard and we want a new high. And if you have ever drank or done drugs you may have noticed the phenomenon of unless you get a stronger hit or a new blend the highs get lower. This is just the same as when a song starts to no longer feel as resonant to you and you don't get that emotional change and mood you used to get from it. It just doesn't feel as emotionally powerful as it used to and we move on to another song that makes us feel a way we'd rather be feeling. So we move on throughout our lives looking for songs that change our emotions to a way we'd rather feel and looking for ones that bring us that mood change that really really feels amazing to us. This is also why you grow out of some records as you emotionally mature and when you look back on those records you no longer feel the same as you did when you used to listen to that record. This is also the thing so many artists who are successful don't get about fans reaction to their music when they change their sound. The fan was used to a particular mood altering drug sometimes even addicted to it. They had so many good times with it but when the mood of your next record changes and it's not the way a fan wants to feel and they don't get that old change of mood they used to that they were addicted to they feel betrayed that you have taken away their drug and if you've ever tried to take away drugs from an addict I can tell you it's about as ugly as fans tweets when their favorite artist decides to abandon pop and go prog but truly it is one of the great struggles of maturing as an artist and how to do it in an emotional lexicon that is true to you and hoping it aligns with your fans. By the way if this video is giving you value please like subscribe and get notified as this is what we talk about here and you don't want to miss a video so I know you may be wondering what this has to do with marketing your music let's go one of the things so many people miss about why their promotions go wrong is their music isn't enough of a big mood to change the mood the listener has since it's not emotionally powerful it doesn't have the power to really keep people coming back to it again and again for a fix that they want to change their mood if your audience is streaming your music and using it to change their mood then they will also tell their friends that they should do the same inherently when we feel something this powerful to change our mood we want to share it with the people we bond with emotionally this is how music spreads from a few followers to many and when you hear about songs going viral it's when one person feels a lot of emotion from a song and they tell their friend about it since they want to bond with them over this emotional change but if your song doesn't make them feel that feeling and is weak well we don't turn to it for that high and we definitely don't tell friends about it so the key is your music should always reflect as powerful an emotion as you want to project and if this is blowing your mind and you want to learn more about it there's a playlist on the screen right now where i talk about how to make music people find to be emotionally powerful as well i wrote a whole book on it which is linked below but as i was saying this also affects your music marketing since how you present your songs and what you tell people about them should reflect the emotion of the song so this is the secret i promised you would now see in your favorite rs promotions is what i like to call an emotional call to action instead of writing tweets instagram stories and ticktocks and writing stream now stream this listen now or anything else that tells no one about a mood and what could potentially happen if they listened what you want to do is give the emotional call to action not only does listen now not give much motivation it can even have a bad connotation since think of how many times you yourself have made the foolish decision to stream someone's song and you can't wait for the mood they've put you in to be over but describe it as wouldn't you rather be dancing in your bedroom have you had a good cry for when you're thinking about that crap crapped on your heart crank this party rock anthem have you ever read the odyssey well this is that in song form okay well maybe that last one isn't my strongest pitch but you get what i'm saying here pitch people on the emotional change that could be having if they listen to your song and you're giving them a much better bargain to try to take a chance on clicking on but it isn't always words that do the most action with this do you ever notice your favorite artists often use memes fan reactions or their own performances to show how the song feels i sometimes think that showing is better than telling i mean many of the best music videos are actually a demonstration of what you could be feeling if you just put the song on and a psychological trick to accentuate the perceived emotion of a song that implants on listeners so they feel the song even more strongly and have a visual imprint of what they could be feeling tons of directors envision the way a song would make you feel and try to put that emotion into video form and use it to lead their decisions as a director but if you aren't even telling people what the mood change will be or demonstrating it how in the hell is anyone going to listen to it in the first place but if it's in your followers mind then when it's time to turn up before going to the club or turn down in the bedroom for some more mellow vibes they can turn to your tracks since it's been drilled into their head through your promotions that your song is what they're looking for and it's a fresh new dose and if their laziest dose is feeling weak you may be the mood-altering drug they want to consume so when you go to message people about your marketing think about how you talk to them about how your music will alter their mood or perception literally when I work on this with artists I reverse engineer it we identify what we think the fan will probably feel from the song and then we will brainstorm an emotional call to action that reflects the song's actual emotion and what we think it embodies and then message that to the fans there's another side effect to this in addition to it being more motivating to click on I've seen it on a dozen campaigns it also inspires more engagement with posts since it starts a conversation once you say this song is going to make you scream out your car window you'll be shocked how many people engage with your post and say they did just that which helps your post spread through the algorithm because people want to bond with you that follow you now if you've watched this channel before we're always talking about telling stories on social media and if you don't know what I'm talking about there's a playlist on the screen right now or in the description the emotional call to action is one of the ways to tell a story tell the story of the reaction and the emotional change your song brings talk about the emotional changes the song has brought you as the songwriter but mostly encourage your fans to try feeling that way too and I guarantee you will see a change in the conversation around the song and your click-through rate all right if you enjoyed this video we discussed things like this here so please like subscribe and get notified as well if you think I overlook something or have more questions I always answer the comments if you want to go deeper there's a playlist on the screen now on how to promote your music on social media as well as another on how to grow your fan base from 0 to 10 000 fans and even another on how to blow up on Spotify watch your playlist and keep learning how to build your fan base thanks for watching