WTF Is Network Respect? Plus, How to Improve Your Artist Connections

Urska Jaksa

Sep 17, 2020

Besides releasing good music, mastering the music business, perfecting your live performances and optimizing your online presence (easy peasy or what? 🤷‍♀️), building a strong music network is crucial. 

For one, getting on the radar of an established artist can help you promote your music and boost your career. It exposes you to a large audience who will likely check your work because they trust the source. 

You also get people from whom you can learn, bounce your ideas of, ask for opinions and potentially even collaborate.

If you're an artist, Viberate analytics on your Artist Page can give you a couple of good indications of how you're doing and how you could improve your connections within the music industry. This is how you can start:

✔️ Check your Network Respect.

✔️ Explore your connections with other artists.

✔️ Start building a strong network.

✔️ Always follow basic networking rules.

1. Check your Network Respect

Network Respect is a part of the first section on your Artist Page, called Career Health. Social Media and Music Channel Performance measure your online performance in the last 3 months, compared to the artists in your subgenre ranked close to you. We covered it in detail here.

The strength of your network, however, is measured by the third indicator – Network Respect. It’s determined by the number and popularity of the artists following you on Instagram, Twitter, and SoundCloud. If you’re followed by other artists who rank high, this has a positive impact on your overall Network Respect.

Let’s look at the example of an artist who’s crushing it on social media, has a solid music channel performance, but still lacks in network respect in comparison to her peers. This is not uncommon, as it takes some time (and work) for other artists to notice and follow you.

❓ HOW TO USE IT: Your goal is to get the indicator in the green area, which means you stand out from the artists in your subgenre who rank close to you (If you're already there, congrats, keep doing a good job!).

Two sections that will help you see exactly what’s behind this indicator and how to tackle it are Artist Connections and Connections by Popularity.

2. Explore your connections with other artists

Artist Connections tell you the number of artists who follow you on social media and music channels and their distribution across genres and countries, while Connections by Popularity give you an overview of the artists who follow you on social media and music channels, and whether you follow them back.

❓ HOW TO USE IT:  Use these sections to improve your music network (see the tips below).

3. Start building a strong network

📱 See who follows you in the Connections by Popularity section. Make sure you follow your connections back and work on building a relationship (comment on the following artist's posts when it makes sense, send them a DM, suggest a collab, etc.). 

Check the Network sections of the artists who follow you and check who they are following besides you. You can get some good ideas for new connections.

Work on your social media connections with other artists. Find artists you like, follow them, and drop them a DM. There's a good chance they'll follow you back.

4. Also, remember to follow some basic networking rules

🏠 Set the base. Make sure all your channels are in order so people can easily find you, and work on your social media content. Here's an Instagram guide that might help.

💬 Don't send mass emails or copy paste the same comment over and over again. Personalize your message. Make sure you properly introduce yourself and don't be discouraged by negative feedback.

🤝 In social situations, introduce yourself and send a follow-up. You can get priceless info and tips about the music business. But don't push it – rule of thumb: start talking business only after two or three conversations.

We've analyzed a couple of cases where a strong music network played an important role in an artist taking off. Check them out for some inspiration:

📌The Weird Child of Hip Hop: How Tierra Whack Blew Up

📌How a Big Player’s Blessing Worked for 070 Shake

Read this next: 

What's Career Health, Anyway?

Find Emerging Artists with Charts

Learn About the Artists Through Their Stats