On Koji, you’ll find plenty of free Kojis that cater directly to musicians. One of these popular Kojis, Locked Audio, allows any artist to make an audio storefront directly through social media.
Below, we’ll dive into everything you should know about Locked Audio as a musician and share some content ideas so that you can start monetizing your music at any stage in your career.
What Is Locked Audio And How Does It Work?
Locked Audio is one of the many Kojis that creators can add to social media for free. It’s built as an audio storefront, allowing your audience to purchase and listen to locked audio clips at your set price. This Koji allows fans to transact directly on social media without ever having to leave the platform.
On Locked Audio, you can upload MP3 or Wav file(s) and set a price for your collection. You can also upload optional artwork for each piece of audio. Your fans are able to listen to a custom preview of the track before purchasing. Once purchased, the audio can be experienced directly in the Koji or downloaded for use elsewhere. As the musician, you have the option to set tracks as “listen only” depending on your preferred use case.
What Is A Koji?
A Koji is a type of interactive media that can help you sell your products, downloads, services or premium content. To create a Koji, simply select a template and customize before sharing the unique URL on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, or anywhere else!
You’re also able to brand the Locked Audio Koji with your own link text and create multiple versions of this Koji. This capability allows you to promote properly to your niche audience and test different types of locked audio and CTA text to see what your fans respond to most.
For Web3 enthusiasts, locked audio also supports an optional NFT unlock feature. This allows anyone who owns an NFT in a particular collection to unlock the supported audio for free.
Why Should You Use Locked Audio?
Since the dawn of DSPs, the pay gap between blockbuster artists and independent musicians has widened. While Spotify shared that about 52,000 artists last year made over $10,000 through their platform, they reportedly have 11 million creators (Granted, this figure factors in podcasters as well).
In other words, just 0.4% of creators made $10K or more on the popular streaming platform. The payout looks even slimmer when you consider that many musicians feel compelled to live in expensive artist hubs like Los Angeles and New York. While low streaming payouts are just one piece of the puzzle, it’s no surprise that many musicians struggle to make ends meet with their creations.
Thankfully, Koji provides creators with a way to monetize their art and knowledge at any stage in their career. Locked Audio is just one of the many Kojis that appeals to musicians and can help you create another stream of income from content you’re already creating.
What Types of Audio Content Can Be Locked?
Once you’ve built your Koji, it’s time to set up your Locked Audio Koji. This instant audio storefront can be set up within a matter of minutes, but first, you need something to sell!
First, make sure the content you choose isn’t available for streaming in order to insure your offering feels exclusive and unique to your Koji.
You’ll certainly want to cater your content towards your audience’s needs and appetite, but we came up with a couple of ideas so that you can get started immediately:
- Live Recordings: Unless someone is producing a live album, most concert recordings are never made available to the public or make it to streaming platforms. Put your concert recordings for sale after each show and add a new line of revenue you’ve been missing out on.
- Remixes: Monetize your remixes through Locked Audio and invite your fans to ask you to remix other tracks via social media. Keep creating content loops that allow your fans to participate in what you’re creating and purchase your custom creations.
- Sample Packs: Your Koji isn’t just a place for all of your links, it’s a personalized website. You can create separate sample packs to sell directly on your Koji through Locked Audio.
- Project Files: If you create music production tutorials or have a bunch of songs that are finished but not released, convert them into malleable audio files that budding musicians can use to make something of their own.
- Unreleased B-Sides: Every musician knows that a single song can have multiple versions until evolving to its final master. Why not take these versions and offer them up to some of your most dedicated fans?
- Royalty-Free Music: In the current age of content, creators are always looking for unique background music that doesn’t have that “stock” feeling. You can create your own library of exclusive sounds for creators to use in their vlogs, tutorials, and more! .
- Meditation tracks: Mediation music is highly valuable for lifestyle and wellness creators, but high-quality, dynamic tracks can be hard to come by. Make your own soothing mix and put it up in your storefront
- Remix contest: If you create music production content or have a large following of musicians, why not create a gated remix contest? Upload your audio stems to Locked Audio and let the competition begin. Winner gets an official remix or a feature on your social pages.
- Instrumentals: Instrumentals of your songs are great for superfans who want an official karaoke track or can be repurposed altogether for content via Locked Audio.
These ideas are excellent for kickstarting your audio storefront, but you’re free to make Locked Audio your own! There are endless possibilities when it comes to using this Koji:
- Beats and Instrumentals
- Sound FX
- Samples and Loop packs
- Accapella vocals
- DJ tags
- Original demos
- Unreleased tracks
- Multi-tracks or stems
- ‘Behind The Music’ type album or single narration
How To Promote Your Locked Audio Koji
Your Locked Audio storefront is most successful when you put some promotion power behind it. Here are a couple of tips to help market your Koji!
Don’t Be Shy!
Your audience won’t use features if you don’t take the time to talk about them. Launch your Locked Audio Koji publicly, preferably with a couple of different audio types that can appeal to various fan subsets. Always redirect your audience to your Koji to funnel your fans seamlessly.
Share Your Supporters
Share your early adopters of Locked Audio by thanking them via social media. If you hold a remix competition or gated audition, be sure to showcase some honorable mentions, too! This won’t just make your featured fans feel special, it can also draw in new fan interactions.
Build Around Your Brand
Remember that you can edit Koji’s link texts and pictures to fit within your brand. This branding opportunity may seem subtle, but a more authentic call to action is more likely to bring in your highly personalized audience. It will only take a few minutes to customize your profile, but it can make all the difference.
Create Incentives Around Your Locked Audio
Locked Audio gives you the chance to share music early with superfans, along with other sound snippets that can’t be found elsewhere. In order to score some additional locked listeners, it might be worth offering contests or discounts surrounding an album release.
For instance, maybe you drop your single early on Locked Audio once you reach a certain amount of presaves. Maybe you offer discounted sounds to celebrate your tour launch. Integrating Kojis into your other artist milestones can help bring in new listeners.
Whether you’re a producer, instrumentalist, singer, or somewhere in between, you can certainly find a use case for locked audio. This free Koji only takes a few minutes to get up and running, so don’t miss out!