6 Best Acoustic Foam Panels for Your Home Studio

If you’re looking for a cheap and effective way to acoustically treat your home studio, foam acoustic panels might be for you. 

Foam acoustic panels are simply pieces of foam that you hang on a wall to reduce unwanted sound and echoes from your room. They come in different shapes, sizes, and colours, so you’ll be sure to find one that works well and looks awesome in your studio

NRC

Before we get started, it’s important to understand what NRC is. NRC stands for noise reduction coefficients. It is measured on a scale from 0 - 1. 0 NRC absorbs no sound and 1 NRC absorbs all sound. 

You won’t have to worry about NRC too much, but it is an important thing to keep in mind while looking for acoustic panels.

1 - Auralex Acoustics Studiofoam

These panels are good for a lot of things. They are small and fit into any room and they allow you to spot treat your home studio. 

Features

• 2” Thickness

• .80 NRC

• Works well with spot treatment

2 -  Auralex Acoustics SonoFlat Acoustic Absorption Foam

These foam panels come in multiple different colours and range in 1” thickness - ¾” thickness.

The panels are meant to dampen sound, and not soundproof an entire room, so keep that in mind. These panels are great for making some extra noise without disturbing people, as well as listening to your music without extra reverb

Features

• Available in different colours

• 0.95 NRC

• Dampens sound

3 - Foamily Ice Blue Acoustic Foam Egg Crate Panel Studio

Foamily panels are great for treating walls in a home studio, office, or even an entertainment theatre. 

The tiles are 1 square foot and 1 inch thick. They do a great job of getting rid of reverb and flutter echoes. 

Features

• Reduces echo

• 1” thick

• Affordable

4 - ATS Wedge Foam Acoustic Panels

These panels are larger and great for covering a whole room.

Features

• 2 square feet

• Effective

• Easy to install

5 - Siless Acoustic Foam Panels

Siless Acoustic foam panels are inexpensive and studio-grade. They come in packs of 12 with 12” x 12” dimensions. 

Features

• 1” thickness

• Visually pleasing

• Lightweight

• Inexpensive

6 - Auralex Acoustic Roominator Acoustic Absorption Kit

If you have a home studio but don’t want the hassle of having to do all the extra work to install studio panels, this kit will be great for you. It’s great if you are setting up a studio for the first time and you don’t have a lot of experience.

Features

• Great for beginners

• 36 square feet in total

• Includes everything you need

Some things to remember

• Acoustic panels do not block low frequencies (look into purchasing a bass trap instead)

• Bass traps are placed in corners, acoustic panels are placed in corners

• Acoustic panels are not meant to soundproof rooms

• The most important part of the room that should have panels is behind your studio monitors

• Don’t put panels opposite each other

Written By: Leah Gerber

If you need help taking your music to the next level, we offer online mixing & mastering services that will elevate your sound and bring your song to life!

We look forward to being a part of your success.

Conclusion

Foam acoustic panels can be very effective when working in a home studio. Well most of them do the same thing, it’s important to consider if you want to treat a whole room or just parts of it, if you still want a room to be decorated nicely after hanging them, and if you are still a beginner with music.

Already own foam acoustic panels? Let us know which ones you have and what you like about them.

How to Be Successful on Spotify as an Unsigned Artist

Streaming has become the main way to listen to music in the past few years and Spotify has become the leader in this industry. 

Spotify is not just for people who listen to music, it’s also a great platform for the artists creating it. 

As an unsigned artist, it can be hard to increase your streams and fanbase on Spotify. Here are 5 tips to becoming a successful artist on Spotify

Tip 1 - Uploading your music to Spotify

Uploading your music onto Spotify is not free. According to Cymatics, it costs 10.00 - 30.00 USD depending on how many songs you upload. 

If you’re signed with a record label, they will take care of getting your music on Spotify, if you’re independent, this needs to be done yourself. 

Music distribution companies like Distrokid will help get your music on any major streaming platform. We definitely recommend Distrokid to independent musicians as they are very reasonably priced and get you on all platforms including TikTok and Instagram music.

Music distribution services can also do the following:

• Digital marketing

• Artist services

• Collect and pay royalties generated from your music

Each music distribution service has different features that they offer, so make sure you do some research before choosing one. 

For an in-depth step by step guide one getting your music on all streaming platforms make sure to check out this blog here.

2 - Set up Spotify for Artists 

When you have music uploaded to Spotify, you can claim your verified artist profile. This will allow you to manage your profile, view audience stats, access music marketing tools, pitch new music to playlists, and a variety of other things.

Perks of being verified on Spotify

• The blue checkmark shows that this is your official artist page

• Access to analytics about your listeners and music

• Add a bio, images, the music you’re listening to, and tour dates

• Send your music to playlist curators and Spotify’s editorial team

• Access to promotional tools

Check out this video to learn more about Spotify for Artists.

A professional Spotify artist profile will make you credible and attract more listeners, fans, curators, and other music business professionals. 

Tip 3 - Create Personalized Spotify Playlists

Charts and playlists are the biggest way to grow streams on Spotify. They create an easy way for your music to be heard by millions of people. 

It’s difficult to get your music on official Spotify playlists as they are controlled by major labels or Spotify’s editorial team. 

You can create your own playlists to share your own and others' music. 

A successful personalized playlist has the following:

• Your own music

• Other artist’s music

• Updated regularly

• Accessible and easy to find (try pinning the playlist on your profile)

• Shared on social media

• Creative playlist cover and a unique name

Like most social apps, engaging with others is crucial for growth. Active users are more likely to get more streams, be featured on popular playlists, and appear higher in searches. 

Tip 4 - Submit your music to playlist curators

Spotify has millions of playlists generated by their editorial teams, algorithms, independent curators, and Spotify listeners. 

Here are some ways you can get your music on Spotify Playlists

• Verify your Artist Profile

• Share unreleased music to the Spotify editorial team. You can learn more about this here

• Pitch to independent curators

• Directly contact playlist curators to feature your music

• Create and regularly update personalized playlists

• Follow and support other artists, they might return the favour

• Share your music on social media, music blogs, music-related websites, and pitch unreleased songs as well

• Encourage fans to follow you on Spotify

• Focus on releasing quality music

• Be active on Spotify

It will take time to build a successful Spotify profile and be featured on Spotify playlists, but staying active will pay off. 

Tip 5 - Use Spotify promotion tools and resources

A list of resources Spotify offers

• Ad Studio

• Spotify Codes

• Embedded Spotify follow buttons

• Shareable Spotify Links

• Social Media Promotion

Click here to learn more about these resources. 

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion

It can take time and effort to be successful on Spotify. The important thing is that you don’t give up, even if it is taking a while for you to get streams and a fan base. 

Stay active, promote other’s music, and don’t be afraid to reach out to playlist curators, or other influencers to get your music heard.

Are you an artist who has had success on Spotify? Let us know in the comments below what tips helped you achieve your success. 

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If you need further help creating your own music, we offer audio production services that will help you elevate your sound and bring your song to life!

We look forward to being a part of your success.

8 Ways a Podcast Can Benefit Your Business

Podcasting became a thing in the early 2000s, and since then has grown in popularity. It is now an engaging and convenient way to consume information.

 Whether you are interested in behind-the-scenes facts about your favourite TV Show, cracking open a cold case with amateur detectives, or learning a thing or two about business, if there’s a topic you’re interested in, there’s most likely a podcast to go with it. 

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you should definitely start a podcast. Your business most likely has something unique that it could teach people, while also subtly, or not-so-subtly, promoting your business. 

You might be thinking that podcasting seems like a lot of work for not a lot of reward but that’s not true.

Below I’m going to be breaking down some of the benefits that podcasting has for your business, so keep reading!

Access Valuable Clients

An article from Improve Podcast explains that the average podcast listener is affluent, highly educated, and has a steady income. This means that if you choose to start a podcast, the people listening will be a part of a valuable market for your business. 

This demographic of people are typically busier and would prefer to listen to something rather than read it. After all, you can listen to a podcast while on a walk, stuck in traffic, and doing mind-numbing tasks at your job. It’s a bit harder to read something while doing these activities. 

Build a Community

Podcasting is a great way to build a community of listeners. Throughout a podcast episode, you can lead listeners to check out your podcast’s social media and website.

This will make it easier to directly market your business towards listeners. Through a website and social media, you can start discussions surrounding your podcast, get listeners to sign up for email newsletters, and ask questions to be discussed on the podcast. 

Grow Your Audience

Podcasts are easily accessible to a listener. As long as they have their phone, laptop, or tablet with them, they’ll have access to podcasts.

Because of the easy access listeners have to podcasts, they may seek answers to questions on your podcast. Make your content on-demand to answer the listener’s questions.

Ways you can create on-demand content:

• Answer viewers questions that they asked via your website or social media

• Give shoutouts to the people who asked the question so they know their question is the one being answered

• Demographic research: Know your listeners and their interests so you can answer questions before they ask

Reach Listeners with minimal costs

Apple and Spotify Podcasts are the main way that listeners consume podcasts and both companies invest in podcasts to promote top shows. 

Take the time to see what the top podcasts are doing differently and then do that too. You’ll be able to reach more by using the same formulas that the best podcasts use.

It’s also relatively inexpensive to start a podcast. All you need is a couple of microphones (check out this article to find a microphone that works for you), a quiet room that absorbs sound, and knowledge of your topic. 

Efficiency

Podcasts are a lot less time-consuming to promote. As soon as listeners hit the subscribe button, they will automatically be updated when there is a new episode to listen to. 

This allows you to spend more time promoting your business and less time sending emails that will go unread updating listeners about your podcast. 

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing, like podcasting, is a relatively new idea. It allows for consumers to be reached through multiple different channels of marketing. Podcasting could be one of them. 

Here are some other examples of other ways to reach potential clients

• Email marketing

• Video content

• Social media

• Traditional advertising

• Written content like blog posts

Adding podcasts to your marketing strategy can be an effective way to reach more people and grow your business.

Your podcast will allow you to have full control over what is discussed so you can easily promote your business within it. 

Enhance SEO

If your business is attached to a podcast, it will be much easier to find on Google. This is because Google indexes each episode of your podcast. This is so people can search for specific topics and find podcast episodes that relate to them. 

A good podcast will increase your chances of ranking higher on Google, which will lead to more traffic to your website. 

It is very simple to use SEO for podcasts. 

• Pick a keyword and use it in the title and description of the podcast

• Use the keyword throughout the podcast episode

• Add the correct ID3 tag

Get Personal with your LISTENERS

Maybe the best benefit of podcasts is that they allow you to get more personal with the listener than a blog post or an email. A good podcast makes the listener feel like they are part of the conversation.

Here are some things you can do throughout your podcast to make it more personal

• Ask the listener questions

• Speak casually

• Understand how your target market thinks

• Tell stories that are relevant to the topic

• Don’t use a script

If your podcast is more personal, listeners will be more likely to visit your website or leave comments on social media because they can relate to you and your podcast.

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion

Podcasting can seem like a challenging thing to do at first, but with time it will create many benefits for you, your business, and your customers.

If you need help making your podcast sound amazing, we offer podcast editing, mixing, and mastering services that can elevate your brand and clearly share your message.

Learn more about all of our podcast production services and hear a sample of our work here. We look forward to adding massive value to your podcast development process.

Ready to get started? Find out the 17 Ways to Make Your Podcast Successful!