I knew I'd do this. So often I sit down, think about things, make a decision, tell folks about that decision, think a bit more - and change my mind.
The reason for the screeching u-turn is the result of 2 or 3 things, I guess. I'm sure other folk may have come to similar conclusions, but I thought that perhaps there might be some interest in following my own stumbling thought processes...
What I did
I recently posted about how I'd been doing some housekeeping and ended up with a metric boatload of tracks that could be released. So I planned to release about half a dozen 3 or 4 track eps, potentially using a couple of good tracks and a couple of 'b-side' releases.
Well, my last EP had 2 strong tracks on, and a couple of decent older ones. So I started down my original plan, prepped the Requiem ep, and duly passed it on to Distrokid to be added to the usual streaming services, popped it on Soundcloud and added it to Bandcamp (with some physical merch in the from of an accompanying homegrown CD for the latter). It also made it on to Emanate (more on Emanate in a later post... 😉)
Everything was presented as a 4-track EP wherever possible as that's how I'd decided to release.
Oh, and although I do understand how slim my chances were, I submitted the lead track of the EP to the Spotify editors for consideration of inclusion in one of the editorial playlists.
I did as much promo as I could, in amongst everything else. Which mainly was tweet about the EP. I did a 60 second video teaser that made it onto Instagram & Facebook as well - but the main promo was Twitter.
I also had the weight of the mighty @emalliance behind me, and they gave me some great feedback (which I dutifully used for further promo), and retweeted my tweets etc.
So, all good. I'd not been slack. I could have done more - can't we always - but I chose to do other things. Like remind my wife what I looked like.
What happened
So. High level results on streaming numbers after a couple of weeks release are:
- Spotify - really disappointing. Even for me where I measure in 10s, not 100s or even -gasp- 1000s...
- Soundcloud - actually pretty good (again, comparatively), but @atomcollector certainly helped here.
- Bandcamp - again, streaming better than I normally see. Including a small amount of sales - both digital and physical (but just for the Requiem EP)
- Youtube - 🤷♂ - I'd love to get stats for the music plays in YouTube, but it doesn't look like they tell you. Videos - yup, loadsainfo - but music submitted though distro, nope. (There was one strange thing happened in YT. It decided to include a previous video I'd uploaded for one of the tracks in the EP playlist. I need to spend a bit more quality time with YT and get to know it's quirks)
Interestingly, a couple of folk I follow did some polling on what services folk use to stream their music (including @nickyhavey, whose summary is well worth a read here )
No surprises that Spotify is on top in all the polls I've seen. It then seems to bounce between YouTube/Soundcloud with Bandcamp making an occasional appearance.
So What?
So that go me thinking about how I can improve my numbers in Spotify. I looked again at my release plays. And noticed something interesting. The fist track in the EP had almost 5 times as many plays as the second, third and fourth. also it has been saved 3 times as many times as the second track, and nearly 10 times as tacks three and four.
Remember I said my EP would have 2 'lead' tracks and 2 'b-sides'? Well, it looks like I'd 'hidden' one of my lead tracks. The second track (which is genuinely cool IMNSHO), wasn't really getting a look in.
But on Soundcloud, it was up there.
The only difference I could think of is in presentation - Spotify presents the EP as a whole, whereas Soundcloud presents your individual tracks, and you group them into an ep using a playlist.
So this got me thinking (again) about the truism that releasing single tracks is where it's at nowadays. LPs/EPs are just not the done thing. Spotify's structure is also skewed towards a single track release. Remember I said I'd submitted a track off the EP to the editorial team at Spotify? Well, you can only do that with one track of a release. So I had (at least) two strong tracks, but could only submit one.
Also, only one track would get included in the algorithmic release radar playlist. Another missed opportunity if I have more than one strong track on a release.
It also means that the indie artist has more opportunity to keep their name in the frame - releasing 4 tracks once a week for 4 weeks is probably better than a single release every 4 weeks.
What I will do...
So, the upshot is, I'll probably swing back to single releases more often. That has knock on effects across many other services as I use one distribution service to submit to multiple sites. So be it.
But I'm old school. I like the idea of EP/LP releases. But I'm not going to knacker my potential exposure for that idealistic stance.
However, as I continued to mull things over with a coffee and listening to the sublime Pentamerous Metamorphosis by Global Communication (treat yourself if you've not herd it - you can thank me later 😉 ), I realised I could maybe have my cake an eat it.
Whilst I revery to single tracks on Spotify (et al), I can use Bandcamp to push out EP/LP releases. There's nothing saying that you have to have the same release pattern across all services. While it makes sense to release single tracks on Spotify, it makes just as much sense to put EP/LP style releases on Bandcamp - that way I can promote the advantages of buying via my Bandcamp, as I can add extras like the physical CDs, but I also added a PDF download to the digital release there as well. This feels really tidy - and actually very easy and clear to promote.
(And as a bonus, there's nothing stopping me doing a separate 'roll-up' release on Spotify to group single releases together using the same ISRC numbers to use the existing tracks further down the line. I think.)
This is getting long, so I'll stop here - I'm going to expand on this a bit I think - and I still need to think in a similar way for Soundcloud/YouTube (video)/Emanate - are there strengths there I can play to if I don't worry about doing and/or releasing the exact same thing across all platforms....?
To be continued. At some point. Probably...
Interesting to read about your experiences which pretty much reflect my own. And yes, I'm old school too, which is why most of my releases are albums (6 to date)!
I actually gave up on trying to get the plays after doing all the things you did and more (paid for a photo shoot, sent physical CDs out to reviewers, added T-Shirts to Bandcamp, etc. It's just too much work for very little return imo. For me anyway.
I was hoping by being in a band and playing local gigs it might kick things off a little but no such luck.
So now I just release the music for the ACR community and any other plays are a bonus. It's less stressful that way! :P
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Ah - now this is touching on another topic that I mull over a fair bit - people's motivation for creating and as such what outcomes they expect.
Pretty much all services feel skewed to the young, dare I say trendy, audience. At 53, I can't post that my latest track is "fire". I may say it's a jolly good tune and other people like it. But I'm not going to tell people "not to sleep" and download it. That's not to say I don't get excited about my stuff, or don't get a buzz when I get some good feedback - of course I do. But I'm on the wrong side of middle age and I'm English. Reserved cynicism is the order of the day... grin 😁😉😝
That last comment aside, I think there's a lot of folk round like me. We've lived through our youthful exuberance where we would have thrown about the current vernacular and pretended to be the stars we wanted to be. Now we just want to grow a sympathetic audience and to have a bit of fun.
To be fair I think AtomCollector serves folks like me well. As does EMA as well. And they are all the better for it.
Hm. Maybe I need to think about this a bit more and maybe write up a more detailed post...I think there's something there...
Well that makes total sense as I am also English and 53! No kidding!
Haha! Brother!
Thanks for the mention of the poll results and it's true that Spotify is definitely a place to have your music just because so many listen to it with a combination of the rest, whichever you prefer.
For me, I have stopped looking at Soundcloud and as the EAR releases get on your YouTube channel by default, I've shared YouTube links for full track listening on Hive if I'm doing a Hive only post (not from my website) and also Spotify links (it just looks so much better and professional if you show you're on Spotify in my experience, especially to non-savvy folks who don't produce music).
In terms of actual releasing, I get that EPs and albums are great for story telling but when it comes to consistent exposure, I release singles from the EP every 2 weeks, which gives a chance for you to submit to editorials, then release the full EP in one 2 weeks after the final single release.
One thing is for sure is that you shouldn't just rely on one avenue or stream for your music sharing but balance 3 I'd say. For me, Hive is my forte due to being here for 2 and a bit years, followed by using twitter. Then music streaming, I basically use Spotify because of it's ease of use and algorithms to search music I'd like is pretty much...well... spotless.
Not too sure about Emanate, haven't dived too much in to that yet but I am at least all set up. If they have embed players that can be used on WordPress and Hive, then we're definitely heading in the right direction!
Yeah - you definitely need to be focussing across a number of outlets. But I think the big takeaway for me was you don't need to do the same thing in every place.
I'd got into the mindset that I had to have the same release 'shape' across everything - so if I released an EP, for example, that EP had to be the same on Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, Bandcamp etc.
But it doesn't (which I accept may have been obvious to others!). And, the more I think about it, I'm starting to wonder if it is actually better if there are differences between the services...
I think there's a lot to be said for having different approaches for different platforms and give people a reason to follow you on one over the other. Only if you can actually maintain all of this of course!
For me, I'm starting to do "Hive exclusives" in that I'd only post a link to a secret play link on Soundcloud (not sure if Emanate has this functionality yet) on a Hive post so more eyes can potentially come over and hopefully see what the fuss is about (hoping there's a mobile app coming soon). Then sharing the link to Hive on Twitter - actually a few from twitter followed the post so I think there's some power in that.
Obviously I'm not saying I have ANY influence whatsoever with a small following (which I'm grateful for) but always trying things out but feeling good about Hive, especially know you can put things up for sale on your website available for purchase with HIVE!
Emanate doesn't even have playlists yet so you have some time to wait for an embedded player and the like! It has great potential though but I think I may have said that before about other services! :P
Haha, not just you who's said that! We've all fallen victim to the guise of false promises but we know Hive (formerly Steem) has stayed around and outlived a lot of them... such potential 😂
Indeed!
Yeah - as @Atomcollector said, plenty of time to see how Emanate pans out.
I do like the idea of peppering exclusives around services & platforms as well.
But like you said - it's all dependent on being able to produce enough quality stuff and then maintain it all...
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