UPDATED Review: September 2017
I wanted to provide a quick update to expand on my original Akademia (Music Awards) review.
It’s important to note that I discontinued the service after my one-year contract was up. And I’m going to share the reasons why below.
I’ll also give you the pros and cons based on my experience.
**There’s also a 2019 update below in the resource I’m using now to edcuate myself on how to promote my music.
Akademia Pros
- Radio play across several stations (supposedly)
- Global recognition (again, supposedly)
Akademia Cons
- No way to measure results or financial gain
- $600 for a year (what am I paying for??)
- Had to cancel through PayPal as no one answered my cancellation requests (sent 3 notifications prior to my year being up and they proceeded to bill me afterward; asked for a refund for that extra month – all I heard were crickets, so I had to manually cancel)
- There were focused only on one song, not my entire album
Why You Need Measurable Results for Your Music/Streaming
In short, the biggest thing for me was there’s no way to measure results. In other words, what exactly am I getting for that $600 a year ($49 and change came out of my account each month)?
All I received was a template-style email every month or so that stated I was getting radio-play at certain stations, and that I was on whatever chart. I listened to some of these stations, randomly, but never heard my songs (perhaps I simply missed it).
In my opinion, if I’m paying for a service, I need to see measurable results in regard to financial gain. Us independent artists and musicians have it tough enough as it is.
If radio-play isn’t resulting in sales or downloads, then it’s useless. And again, I had no way of measuring if radio-play was resulting in sales.
In fact, the sales I made from iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and such were from my own Facebook advertising and their social media outlets.
My Akademia Conclusion
I’m not a big fan of bashing people or businesses unless it’s a clear deliberate scam. I don’t think that’s the case here. I don’t think Akademia is a scam, per se. I believe Akademia is really trying to give musicians a different edge.
But in my opinion, they have a lot of work to do to enhance their business model.
I’ll say it again, you have to provide measurable results. So would I recommend Akademia? It’s not something I would ever use again based on my experience.
What I’m Doing in 2019
These days (I’m updating this section in 2019), I’m using only one source for educating myself in this new music industry. And that’s Savvy Musician Academy.
This was created by Leah, a Celtic metal artist. She’s been making a full-time income from her music (without touring) for many years, and much success she’s extended this knowledge to other independent artists like me.
In fact, I ended up joining her Elite program in 2018 and still receiving a ton of support even now. I don’t see myself breaking away from this group!
If I do, I’ll come back and update the post!
You can read more about Savvy Musician Academy on its Facebook page.
If you happen to contact them, make sure you mention my name. 🙂
Keep it Metal,
Jason
*My original post is below when I first signed up…
Original Akademia Review (2016)
A while back someone told me I should submit my latest album to this organization called Akademia.
I’d never heard of them, and it was only $20 for the submission, so I figured ‘why not?’ That’s a small price for even the slightest possibility for album promotion.
June 2016 Best Heavy Metal Album
Just a few weeks ago it was announced that my album Heavy Metal Workout won the Best Heavy Metal Album for June 2016! Yes, I’m a bit late blogging about this (although I did post this news on my Facebook when it came out). Needless to say, I was pretty stoked.
I’ve never won much of anything (other than a few prime moments with the slot machines at the Hard Rock Casino here in Tampa!). Of course, I do expect great things to happen with my music, and it’s only over the past few years that I’ve gotten serious and fully committed to writing and releasing metal music.
On that note, winning something from your own creation, no matter how great or small, is definitely a boost.
Here’s a cool blurb from their website stating Heavy Metal Workout won Best Heavy Metal Album:
**There was a link on their site to this article but it appears they took it down once I discontinued the service.
Unfortunately, I never saw any financial gain or results from Akademia or this award.
About Akademia
Not knowing anything about the Akademia Music Awards, I started doing a little research. It seems they’re heavily involved with (and own many) radio stations. I’m assuming these are mainly online stations. And of course, they’re forte is promoting music through media and press.
Akademia is located in Los Angeles, CA and we may even have an opportunity to go there for an artist expose through winning this award. However, I believe this is another stream of revenue Akademia sucks you into.
Independent Artists and Musicians
Being an independent solo artist can certainly be challenging. Especially in such a small genre, such as heavy metal (and I even narrow it down to the sub-genres of instrumental metal and melodic metal).
But I’ll take this challenge head-on because I love doing what I do, and I’m always going to write metal music.
With that comes self-promotion. Much of this is free, so to speak, such as posting on social media. I tend to use Facebook more than anything else (I’ve recently started posting short videos).
And many of you are subscribed to my YouTube channel. But as a solo artist, you also have to actively seek out opportunities and sometimes even be willing to invest a little.
When we turn to paid services, we expect more or at least some sort of results. If you go back up and read my updated review (top of this post) you’ll see that Akademia did not provide the data I was looking for.
Bottom line – if you’re paying for a service, you should be able to measure your revenue driven by that service in order to justify the cost.
Keep it Metal,
Jason
