Monetizing your art as a musician can be challenging. Luckily, Koji provides many apps for musicians to help connect with fans and build streams of revenue whether you have 50 fans or 500,000. One of the most popular mini apps is Locked Photo or Video, and not without good reason.
Below, we’ll detail why musicians should consider using this mini-app and showcase a couple of ways to get started.
Why Should I Use Locked Premium Content As A Musician?
It’s no secret that musicians do a lot more than making music. This comes naturally to some artists more than others, but it’s important to remember that creating content outside of the music enhances the overall experience for your listeners.
Music is all the more powerful with context, and content gives you the opportunity to provide another piece in that bigger picture. Plus, with Koji, you’re able to monetize that content at any stage in your career: have just 100 fans? All you need are 5-10 passionate ones willing to regularly spend on your offerings and you’re off to a great start. Have 100,000? Just 1% of those fans paying to unlock your content each week can mean thousands of dollars in new revenue.
One of the best parts about using Locked Photo and Video is that it doesn’t create extra work for you as an artist. You can simply provide early access to photoshoots, album art, music videos, bts footage, and any other assets that you would be creating anyway as a musician.
It can also serve as a separate channel to show your most dedicated listeners more of your personality, or showcase the process of creating your next album. This free service only takes a couple of seconds to set up and can definitely become a powerhouse tool for any musician who embraces it.
How Does the Locked Photo and Video Mini-App Work?
Locked Photo or Video allows you to offer exclusive content to engaged fans for a price you set. You can also set your price as “email” to offer your fans an exclusive creation for free while building up an email list of your most dedicated supporters.
Simply set the title, description, and price, and start monetizing your content. Koji enables one-touch purchasing, so your fans will be able to access content with a single click once they’ve made an initial purchase. Pieces of content are hidden and blurred in previews so that supporters can get a sneak peek of your creation without receiving full access.
All Koji mini-apps keep users inside the host platform so that they can efficiently access your premium content and get back to their social media experience.
Locked Content Ideas
Now that you’ve set up your Koji profile and added the Locked Photo or Video app, it’s time to make magic! Here are a couple of locked content ideas to get you going, but feel free to experiment with what makes the most sense for your audience.
- Pics or it didn’t happen. Offer fans the option to have a first look at photoshoot shots or even full-resolution images that they can convert to phone backgrounds.
- Pre-sell exclusive merchandise. What if you were able to offer a limited run of merchandise or legacy merch to a special set of fans? You could try locking a photo that is redeemable for these specialized merch items at one of your shows.
- Offer a golden ticket. Locked photos can provide fans with early access to tickets, or tickets with special privileges, like an extra piece of merch or meet-and-greet access. Or maybe the photo is simply a QR code granting access into a physical event.
- Non-music-related content. Whether you’re passionate about makeup, woodworking, or somewhere in between, use your locked photo and video app as a safe space for the parts of your life that most of your audience doesn’t get to see.
- Create an exclusive tour photo album. You can craft an exclusive tour photo album for your audience behind a locked photo wall. Share the parts fans don’t usually get to see like hanging out in the green room or your pre-show ritual!
- Create a book club or movie club. People are always searching for book, TV show, and movie recommendations. Why not turn it into an interactive experience for your fans? You could lock a photo entailing how to join a secret fan book club you host on Discord or directly on Koji!
- Send your fans to a secret location. Whether you’re putting on a private concert or want to hold a close-knit meet-up with your top fans, locked content is a great way to get the word out.
- Create a UGC opportunity. Have fans unlock a photo or video in order to create edits or other creative entries into a promotional contest. You can even crowdsource album or tour art.
Tips For Making The Most Out of Locked Photo and Video
Once you’ve built your locked content storefront, it’s time to put some power into promotion. Here are some foundational tips to help your maximize your reach:
Shout it Out
It’s simple – your fans won’t know about your profile’s new features if you don’t take time to tell them. Treat each of your Locked Photo or Video app launches as you would a music single release. Let your followers know via posts and stories that your media store is now open. You might even offer discounts to your first couple of supporters, or send them public thank you notes on social media. Small gestures like these can make a big impact on your audience.
Make Exclusive and Evergreen Content
It’s great to offer up exclusive content surrounding a special event like a tour or an album release. But also take care to make evergreen content that can help sustain both you and your fans in off-cycle periods. Not everything needs to be directly related to music! Your fans are happy to learn more about you as a person, so find ways to showcase different facets of who you are.
Plan A Release Schedule And Stay Consistent
Get your supporters familiar with a weekly or bi-weekly unlock schedule and watch your revenue grow. Announce that you’ll be posting a new locked photo every Friday, for example, and watch as the excitement in your fanbase builds up each week and your revenue grows. Consistency is key, so try not to miss any of your announced release dates. Pricing consistency is also important. Once you’ve decided on an unlock price, try to keep the same price each week so your fans get comfortable and familiar with making repeat purchases.
Collect Emails Wisely
The “collect email” feature of Locked Photo or Video is largely underrated. Email lists can be a great way to create an accurate map of your superfans, create an exclusive newsletter, or even figure out where it makes sense to tour. Make sure to take advantage of this feature and hold onto the data – it’s incredibly empowering for artists!
Brand Your Mini-App And Link Text
You know your audience better than anyone else, so cater your content accordingly! There a plenty of ways to creatively make use of this mini app, so don’t be afraid to test out your ideas. You can also create multiple versions of the same mini app allowing you to accurately capture interest for various content ideas. Be sure to change the link text in your Koji bio to a call to action that resonates with your unique listener base.
Keep, Or Delete – It’s Up To You
Play around with accessibility to add an additional element of fun for your supporters. Create a List Of Links mini-app and keep all of your old Locked Photo And Video offerings available. You can display them in reverse chronological order so they can be purchased forever and fans can go down the ‘unlock’ rabbit hole. Or you can hide it from your profile or even delete the mini-app altogether (make sure to secure your collected emails first!) and announce the deletion date to rustle up new sales on catalog content.
Locked Photo and Video isn’t a one-size-fits-all app, which makes it perfect for musicians as unique as you are. When it comes to monetizing your media there are no limits with this flexible mini app!
You can set up your Koji profile for free and create your own Locked Photo or Video storefront. Your fans are waiting!
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