When the DIY comes around it's dead.

I remember when I started talking about Spotify with my artists around 2009. They were totally uninterested. The industry as well. Just people higher up in the industry was interested.

Then five years later the general industry started to become interested. Now ten years later I see all these DIY services offering things around Spotify. Now the top industry has stopped being interested in Spotify. You know that when the DIY people come around the whole thing is dead. It has run through the whole ecosystem and is now just some basic stuff that is just there.

So what is ongoing. The general industry is just adapting to the showcase opportunity that is ongoing. My guess is that showcasing has its five to seven years left until the DIY comes around.

To avoid being left by the real industry as an event you need to keep away from the DIY people. If showcase becomes more exclusive it might keep their position. 

Right now I'm so fed up with DIY nagging around how they should get into playlists. They still think that if they have many streams their career is made. Right now that is so far from reality that you can get. I have so many proofs with artists with million of Spotify streams that are going nowhere.

And you can't talk reason with the DIY. They think you hide or lying to them when you prove the cases one by one.

I guess the dream is too real and to perfect. You just sit there in your room release a song and then you just become a world star and can do anything. I guess Santa Claus is also real then.

I have just posted a hit on Spotify!

Active or passive listners? How to detect fake numbers.

I have been writing about fake numbers, here and here before. So how do you check fake numbers? Many artists just ask for certain things but if you fake one thing it shows on other things.

Normally I don't hang out bands, but in this case, I have to. Nothing wrong with these bands, probably they don't know it, it might be done by their label, management or something. But to learn how things work I have to do it.

The artist KIDDO, it's a Swedish artist, pretty few have her of her before. I would guess most of my friends would say KIDDO who?
I just looked on her Spotify numbers. KIDDO has 323 463 listeners a month on Spotify Her first single trouble has 500 000 streams, her second single 1,8 million streams and her new one released 7 of September 3,5 million streams.
Good numbers and this is what many artists thinks that we should focus on. It looks really good with three singles and that many streams.

Yes if you are an amateur booker or people not from the industry it looks perfect. But right now the whole industry is learning how to look into this fake numbers, because yes they are fake. Or not fake, they are passive streams. Passive means that it's used as background music, like music in the roof of a store. Active is when you go in and type in the song you want to listen to.

To check the streams you just sweep to another channel to see if these numbers collaborate with Spotify. So we check her facebook page. And here you easily find that she only has 1136 people following. Yes, all these streams are coming from passive listening on playlists on Spotify. The real followers are more like this number on facebook and that is what a normal new beginning artist has. Clearly, someone has pushed something just for Spotify.

Then we have Instagram, she is young so she would have more here, 2398 followers, but only 61 posts, so she is not very active.

Then we go to the real killer, Youtube. It used to be the cheating channel but it's harder to do it now so it has become a check tool to Spotify. Only one video out, but it's the last single that had over 3,5 million streams. Here you got a 54 000 and only 73 comments since September. Usually the mistake is that they only go for one channel, in this case Spotify, then forget the other channels. With real fans, the numbers actually go up on all channels at the same time.

I was on a panel on Viva Sounds this weekend and they were discussing this and the biggest booker said. Yes, they might have many streams but that doesn't indicate that they are a good live. KIDDO don't have any live videos! Booking this artist could be a really big gamble, and many have lost a lot of money by test the numbers out. In reality, KIDDO is just a small artist on her way up. But if you look on just Spotify she would be a top 50 artist.

So how did she get so many playlists (a thing artists always ask for), well, one thing her social media reveals is that she is part of a Spotify program for female producers. That can help, I'm not saying that is the reason. Also, some bigger lables has put in their playlists just to pump numbers. Still, they just put on playlist where we know there are fake accounts just listen to the list over and over. And the Spotify playlist she has is mainly the ones where people use it as background music. The active listeners are revealed in the other social media numbers. So the numbers are probably pumped by her record label and maybe also her connection to Spotify.

Many artists wish that they had a company pumping numbers. But look out for what you ask for. The booking industry will be harder and harder that the numbers make sense, so if your company cheat like this it might cost you other stuff. Just good numbers on one site is not good enough. It has to be on all platforms.

Another example is Noëp from Estonia. He was signed to Sony music in Sweden. He released a couple of singles there. "Move" with 8,1 million streams, "Rooftop" with 5,1 million streams and "New Heights" with 1,7 million streams. The rest of his catalog have a couple of hundred thousand streams each. But these three sticks out. and yes those are the one released of Sony. It's pretty evident that Sony pumped the numbers.

Also here you can easily see how Sony went for streams on the first one. Of course, it was massive but Sony also knows that the streams are passive listeners. They test out if the audience like it. But it seems no they didn't. I guess it actually cost Sony more then they got on these 8 million streams, they try one more with the second one and you can see that the third one they just add it to some smaller one.

After that, they seem to have dropped the artist? All releases after that are on the artist own label. Here you can easily see that they just go up to a couple of hundred thousand which is the capacity for Noëp. This match his Facebook following of 17 000 people. Or does it?
I guess he has cheated here too. Yes, he has 17 000 followers but on average all post he does just get around 60 likes or interactions. yes, another tool is to check the interactions on posts.
On Instagram, he has 15 000 followers with an average of 1500 interactions, better and more likely and actually fits with a hundred thousand streams. A good key point is that the interaction should be 10% of the followers.

Then we go to Youtube and it gives it away, the channel only has 7000 followers. The videos are around 25 000 views each. Then "Move" stands out, the single Sony bought numbers on and that has 1,2 million views, still far from the 8 million on Spotify.

Of course like I wrote nothing bad about the artists and in many cases we see that they're not in it. Still by doing numbers and it can be so easily checked and now is the trend that you can hunt that on live side. The live side is now taking over just because it's more money there and harder to cheat. So be careful what you wish for. Get real fans that is what will keep you alive in all weathers, even on Spotify.

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Putting makeup on a pig!

I really got a writer's block for a couple of days. The topics that have come up has already been written about. And the topics have really not been at the grassroots level either.

So I took over the uploading section on our artist site. Yes, we also have a distribution system where we let DIY artists upload to get distribution. Mainly because most distributions really don't do a good job for the artists. In fact, many of them do a terrible job. At the same time, our staff is really tired of an artist thinking that they are so important when they upload something and can be quite rude against them.

Just for inspiration and also to help out I uploaded from the queue line that had piled up since yesterday. And yes self-roaming artists have no clue what so ever what they are doing sometimes.

I got this guy that in the subject line (we have a line where you can add something around the release) wrote like three times that the song has to be under his artist name on Spotify. Also, he wrote that someone from the staff already told him that if he used the same name the song will go under the same account. So what's the point of making that out?

In the end, it's actually Spotifys system that makes that decision, not us. If it goes wrong (you never know) it's something around Spotify, can be that easy that just that day they changed something and all new songs got a new account, it has happened. In this case, I'm 99% sure it will go under the same account since the name is very special. But if you use a name that several artists have, it can mess up.

So it was very important what it looked on Spotify. The artist is always vain, very vain, and vain not for their own good either. The funny part here is that the Spotify thing is very important. that he had uploaded the song without an ISRC code, with the wrong format on the picture, put the writer's name in the wrong format. That the release date was on a sunday and was uploaded a day before release. That he only choose some sites instead of all just to be chaep. Well, that doesn't seem to count.

In swedish we have an expression that says "It's like putting makeup on a pig", I guess English has around the same if you see my picture down below. In reality, it dosne't matter if you get under the same Spotify profile. And our team is making miracles that you are even getting out there. If people started to listen to the song your rights will be all over the place. I looked on the earlier songs on the profile, and they hadn't been over a 1000 listings so I guess in reality we are uploading stuff that actually would get more attention as a facebook post.

So here is the stupid error that I corrected. Still, when I correct them it won't be totally correct, I just fix it so it works, not that it looks good.

The picture was to small, that is a normal problem. Here though it was in totally wrong format, so I made the picture bigger and with that more pixilated. Also, need to change the size so now all are a bit distorted by that.

ISRC code, I put in my code. I guess it will end up in the pockets of IFPI, hope they can get extra champagne on their Grammy award for it.

The writer's name I just kept, well they won't find that on PRS so that money I don't know where it ends up.

Release date on a Sunday. All releases go on Fridays, that is the official day to release stuff. Sure you can release on a Sunday, but you will miss out all marketing you could have done.

Having just 24 hours for upload is also just making that you can't promote the song in the right way.

So what's the point of nagging that you should be on the same artist profile when you do mistakes like this? In reality, a pig can upload a song to Spotify (and probably do it better). This artist is just vain, cheap and stupid. The problem today is that these artists clog the system with their shit.

Spotify don't break careers, stop thinking of Spotify.

I have this conversation at least once a week. Artists or managers or even bookers looking at Spotify numbers and actually think they mean something! Here is some breaking news:

THEY DON´T MEAN A SHIT.

Spotify is good to make some buck out of your recordings. But it's not a tool to break an artist or get fans. Their playlists are utterly useless to break an artist on. Spotify is a good tool when your fan base is growing and it is one of several outlets where fans can listen to your music.

It's not a place where you try to get fans.

So a friend of mine had this conversation today. And I feel it takes up all the things that the artist thinks that Spotify would do for you. And these are normal questions that I get all the time, so I was thinking to once again write the truth around it ( and probably get more enemies in the industry :)...especially old farts that just learned how to pitch to playlists ).

So her is the conversation:
Friend
Hello! All good?
If I use a good distribution service, how much is the chance that the song I upload will end up in any Spotify playlists?
Know it's about well recorded and how good it is, but thought if there was any guarantee at other places? I run a collaboration with a guy now this year and we upload through his company in Austria but feel that all we don't get our songs on Spotify. So we are looking for other distribution services to have a better chance of ending in various Spotify lists.

Me:
There are never guarantees. But many services are guaranteed to not get in on lists like Spinnup, Cdbaby, Distrokid etc since you can't even get the right links. Spotify picks away amateurs and self-rendered artists and sites that these use. 

Note:
On first of October Spotify will change this so you can do it from your artist account, still, that won't work since it's so many releases they need computers to go through all that. We guess this service will just be like a black hole and that they pick up on in old statistics. But hey we will see.

So it does not depend on distribution, but how it is done and how it is shaped. Then Spotify changes from the first of October, making it basically impossible for bands to get in and just bigger companies with a VIP line. So Spotify will make this even harder if you don¨t have a bigger releaeplan.

Ah okay, because we really want to get into "new music friday" or such. We have a PR in Austria but their job is just getting the songs in Austrian radio we needed more than that. At this point, Spotify playlists are so big thing, without it we are underestimated, we try to aim far beyond what we get now.

I can say directly to get into New Music Friday does not help a shit. You must enter more lists. Lists that keeps on going for weeks. Even if you get that it won't take your artist anywhere.  It's some kind of myth that artists have come up with that if you have a lot of streams you have a career. I can point out hundreds of artist that have millions of streams and don't go anywhere careerwise. It's nice to be on the playlists but in reality, won't take you further. It's more like a good review in a blog. It's nice but very seldom break your career. What you need is a more varied pr and Spotify will come to you much later. So, instead, go for a tour and live gigs to pick up fans. These fans will alter help your Spotify numbers and then the algorithms will add you on. So what kind of marketing do you do?

But your artists get on the lists? And tehy gig gigs and cool placements? We want that things and Spotify playlists seem to work well for your artists? That is why we look around in other ways to distribute that had benefited us more today because what we need is to get the artist name out.  I do simple marketing then I need a team behind in some way that could help us to get into different playlists. So right now it's not about making money. More getting out more our names in the face of fans. We have had some bad luck when we used submithub in the three songs we have released but feel strong for the three next to be released and therefore we want to get them out in the best way.

Yes, our artists are on playlists but that has to do with that we do all the other cool stuff. And that stuff comes from the management that brings in opportunities. Nothing comes from Spotify. But Spotify likes that it's a lot of things going on around the artists and for that put them in the playlist. The fact that they are on lists is that they have a good company and have a good release schedule. The distribution channel is totally unimportant, but it's none of them release themselves.

So getting your artist on New Music Friday won't change anything. Basically, you get 10 000 streams which are a pee in the ocean. You need around one million streams the first week to get something out of Spotify. But it won't give much of name and most booking and industry people that are important thinks that's fairly unimportant with the Spotify numbers. The numbers mainly show how much PR was done. And a song that are ten years old can suddenly just get a hell of a lot of streaming numbers if placed on a certain list. The numbers don't tell anything of the status of the artist or how good song it is. Just how many people that have discovered it right now.

What you need is better PR. If submithub does not work, it is either wrong with the music or the story. So the question is how many gigs, showcase festivals have you booked in for these three singles?

Okay, I understand your opinion and both appreciate you taking your time but even so you know what you're talking about after all these years in the industry so trust what you say and who say hugely thank you for taking your time!

There I know is a shortcoming of gigs and showcases, they do some gigs at every release then there's a lack of point for us when we don't have anything to focus gigs round  So what can you if submithub does not hook on any songs?

Then the artists are not working and then it's impossible. Many think a good song will fix everything, but even with a good song, everything else must be there. There must be good social media. There must be around two gigs in a month, there must be several things in the future all the time. . If you miss out of any of it, it will be slow and you will not get out to people to find you.
So what you need are future highlights for this artist.

In reality what my friend is looking for is Santa Claus. Some special person or organization that mysteriously should get this artist a break. It never happens. The break comes when you are around and people bump into you and start looking. They see you work hard and are going places and have good things coming. Then they jump on.

That can never happen on Spotify. Spotify comes later when you have done all these things. So stop looking on Spotify. It doesn't mean anything for the career. It effects of all the other things you do.

Also, many of my more successful artists don't have that many Spotify numbers. They are successful because of all the other stuff.

This is how you raise your Spotify numbers!

This is how you raise your Spotify numbers! STOP LOOKING AT THEM.
The whole week has been with people sad not getting numbers, some happy having very big numbers, questions how to raise the listenings on Spotify etc.

So I will give my advice that I have given all week and sound like a parrot. Get real fans and it will all be fine. It's not Spotify as service that breaks artists. It's just an outlet where people can listen to music. And with the new rumors that Youtube and Google play launching next week who knows in two years, Spotify can have the same importance that Itunes has now. Yes, five years ago we had the same situation with Itunes. People asked how they could sell more, how to get people to buy etc. Today it's all over. and you know what, Spotify will go the same way. The company has never been in profit, Warner sold 85% of their shares directly. The stock market seems very bumpy for them. I can see more and more festivals taken off the usual Spotify talks. Everything looks that it will deflate. But like always the artists is the last to know. Sometimes I still think that some artist is using My Space still.

And this will happens over and over again that different outlets will go under and disappears. We won't get back eras like the vinyl, cd, and cassette that hold on for years. The digital cycle is much shorter. If you don't, believe me, I just say Periscope. The only way to still be active is to have fans that follow the outlet. Yes if Spotify crash Ariana Grande's fans will pick up the new field to listen to her music. She can easily migrate to different platforms because she has real fans.

So don't look to push people into a certain platform. Try to grab people in several ways and most important that they like your music and nurture that. Get people a reason to head to any platform and listen to your creations, that is what matters.

PERSONAL:
Wow, I just saw who I'm in the same panel as on GMA in Taiwan next week. I'm in the panel with Lihui Shen the CEO of Modern Sky. The biggest festival in China. I have met him before he is very good. Keum-San Hwang the manager of the content division on Mnet witch is Koreas leading cable music channel. And all moderated by Elaine Wang from Cros Music.
All done in mandarin with translators.

It's in these moments I realize how far I've gone. I'm getting on the other side of the globe speaking at a conference with very talented people. Yes, it took a while and many different crossroads. I would never have wanted it undone.

ARTISTS:
Just got in The Mommyheads new album. Sneak premiere on Brooklyn Vegan 20 of June. This will be great.

Here is how you get all Spotify:s playlists

I would guess this is the most popular question I get. How do I get into Spotifys playlists? It seems so hard!

It's really not that hard. On average 80% of my releases get placed the first week by Spotify staff. They are really supportive of new music. So if you present it in the right way and with something interesting facts you have a pretty good chance. No I won't go into how that is done, and it doesn't matter, not in the long run.

In reality Spotify is build to lit up when fans are passionate and listening to a song. Getting on their own human created playlists like new music friday is more to get the song tested and that can be dangerous. The people that are on these lists maybe is not the audience that would support this track. In reality these tests only will give you around 10 000 streams and you take quite a risk to get bad rating.

Yes to understand Spotify you have to get that they measure everything. They take notes how people are reacting and if it's positive they present the song to more people. This however is done by algorithms so there is no one to call up and ask for the favour.

The best way is to get real people to listen to the song and like it and listen some more.

It's actually the same with radio back in the days. Their problem was that they can't measure the audience reaction. Yes of course if 100 people start to call the station asking for one song because it's so good they would know. Radio is more built on what the person build the playlist thinks.

Also back in the days people asked to be on rotation on all radiostations at once. Then thy would have a massive hit. That is very rare. If not possible. The stations have different audience called formats. So if one station would play a song, that would indicate to another station not to play that song. A crossover hit on all stations is kind of utopian.

Same when you think of Spotify. Their lists are generated on the listeners choice of the moment. A listener would choose on list for the jogging and another for the romantic dinner. You song won't fit on both. In Spotifys case it's very fine line between the lists so the chances are slimmer to get on everyone.

Of course both radio and Spotify will test out things that has worked before. A new U2 song will be tested on more places since they have a large audience that likes them. So more fame will affect.

Still what they really seek is things that people like. If a radio station would get hundreds of people asking to hear one song, yes they will put it on. Same on Spotify if they see that people reacts good on a song they put it on lists.

What you have to do is getting people to like your song. Get them to put it in their own playlists and listen to it much and talk about it. The promotion should be aimed and done that way. No, its not easy, but clearly the best way.

Of course it would be wonderful if Spotify put your song into 100 playlists so people can hear it. The problem is that it would come in so much music that people would stop listening since the majority of the music wouldn't attract them. Spotify is there for the audience in the first line.

Vlog about how Spotify is pissing on their artists.

A Vlog about how Spotify are pissing on the artists according to a journalist.
Also about send in music.

The link to send music
http://musichelp.se/send-music-vlog/

In the head of an A&R blog
http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/peter.astedt

Twitter: @peterastedt

Instagram: @peterastedt

Musichelp
http://www.musichelp.se

-----------------------------------------------

The article (just in swedish)
http://www.expressen.se/noje/kronikorer/anders-nunstedt/anders-nunstedt-spotifys-forolampning-pissar-pa-artisterna/

Rockit Gaming
http://www.rockitgamingproductions.com/
#gameon

Facebook a new music channel?

The whole summer has been rumors what is going on Facebook? We have seen employment ads where they have hired music lawyers.
Of course, it has to do with that you can put up videos in the Facebook feed, and as it is right now the creators won't get paid. Still, we already see that Universal has stopped their songs to be on Facebook if you upload any Universals stuff you get a warning.

It's kind of easy to see that Facebook must pay for other peoples content. They probably in the same as Youtube working up a fingerprinting system and that you will have ads in front of the video.

The interesting is what happens when people start marketing things like a radio station inside Facebook. This also would include Instagram that is growing fast (Facebook is slowly become not so cool).

And how will it affect Spotify? I mean you would be able to create channels like that inside Facebook, they would just need to add a function so they play after each other.

This can shake things up.

Mind the gap!

Today has just been crazy. You can really see the gaps in the industry. I was sitting with a deal on over 100 000 dollars and got bugged by some new amateur "manager" who was calculating the dimes on a Spotify bill for his artist trying to get more money out from the distribution. The funny part is that saw that it's probably fake numbers that the artist used a bot to get. I'm not sure that Spotify will pay out from bot numbers. I know a thing or two that they actually do around things like that. The problem is that people like this can't get it at the same time I really don't have time for the monkey business.

Then I got an older record boss calling me about a PR plan straight out from the 90:s. What concerned him the most was that he couldn't get his artist biographies up on Spotify. I mean just take a look at only the bigger artists has their bios up, it won't people listen more to the songs. Even worse then his artist called me on the same matter.

This is the same story repeat itself. It was the same thing when Itunes was in its heyday. I tried to explain that Itunes sales were bogus and no one cared about those numbers and in a few years streaming would take over. All these small people just laughed and kept on nagging.

We are back again, these small people think that Spotify matters, no it stopped matter 6 months ago even a year. Why can I tell, just precisely that amateurs mind the shit and think that these numbers matters. Also, that bigger companies are looking for other stuff also tells a pretty good story.

Unforntuanly it will be for me to explain these idiots whats going on for the next three years. That what it took to get rid of the idiots that just cared about Itunes.

In the end, the gap between the professionals and all the crap is getting bigger and bigger. More and more artists are consumed into this world that actually nothing is working. Too many of these people have no clue what so ever what to take an artist to the big audience and the ones that will be fooled are the artists. It's like if you have two apples, they look the same on the outside. Just that one is heavily poisoned with pesticides and is rotten from within. The other one is fresh and good. You really can't tell so when the salesman tries to get rid of the bad one he lowers the price with 10 cents and the artist goes for the bad without knowing.

The artist can't pick right. The only way you will have that knowledge is to know the whole growing process. Only the people with real insight can do that.

Later, of course, they see it. I just got an email from an artist doing that mistake and now to a bite in the apple with a maggot inside. Now coming back trying to get back to where we started. But I with the good apple has taken that further away, now it's in a store where this artist even can get access to it. A costly experience.

Just another day seeing where we are heading.

11 Things Millennial Musicians Just Don’t Get, streams and fans.

I got this article in my feed and it's brilliant. As an artist (not just millennial) you have to read it to start to understand that some of the features are no longer there.

Here is the whole article
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/07/27/millennial-musicians/

I will discuss the 11 things what to do about them and how you should think. So we start with number one.

1) Spotify Plays Don’t Equal Fans

I can’t tell you how many artists I see on Spotify with hundreds of thousands or millions of streams, but can’t get even 100 out to their local (or any) shows. Or get anyone to back their crowdfunding campaign. Or support them in any way whatsoever. These listeners are not fans of the artists, they are fans of the playlist these songs got included on. You must understand this new world of streaming we are in. 10 million plays ain’t impressive anymore. Know what is impressive? Bottom lines.

The number crunching is really over. Sure we will have stupid people doing the number crunching for at least ten years more. The serious players though has just left that game. I wrote about this in the blog post "We don't care about your social media numbers"

The smart part of the industry knows you can manipulate any numbers and it's kind of easy to check so it gives no guarantee. You have to build real fans that are the only way. Still, right now it's easier than ever to actually do that. There are hundreds of different tools to use to keep in touch with the people who like the stuff you do. So staring yourself blind that you don't have that many Spotify streams is not getting you anywhere. When you get real fans and the word is spreading anyway it will come by the fault. So start doing what you should do, take every opportunity to perform your art in all possible ways. That is the secret trick. No, you can't just sit home and think you can do it behind your computer.

So when you bump into a stupid booker that only book bands that have over 50 000 followers on Facebook. Whatever this person is booking for it will go down fast. It won't be in your interest to be there anyway. In reality, many times they use that as an argument to not book you since you are not good enough. When you hit that value they won't care if you just have 10 followers on facebook.

Don’t send released tracks.

Yes we are in the demo week in the blog. Taking out issues that we see from the demos we got in. Since I had several friends over drinking beer listening on demos I also got the most comments on what they thought failed in the presentation or music.

This was the thing that really got a lot of the A&R: s angry. Out of 50 demos actually 49 of them sent released tracks. Only one had a hidden track.

A released track is a released track; we really can’t work with it. Of course it’s not the end of the world if the track is released, but many possibilities’ has just gone out the window. We got four letters where they planned to release the track two weeks later. Of course we read this one month lat4er and we could go out and see where their track has gone. Usually nowhere!

So what is the hurry? This mistake is just pissing on your own music and don’t let it get a chance. Even with you releasing the music it takes much longer than two weeks to do marketing and other stuff. All this si that you want to get your latest stuff out to your buddy’s, we know. Still you can do it in so many cooler ways then post the shit straight up on Spotify.

One of the A&R:s played me a unreleased song of a kind of famous artist that would be released in November.  Of course it was more fun hearing it now then him sending me a link with the track on release in November. I felt special to hear the song before everybody else. And this is what you should do with your friends as well. Let them hear the new song on a secret link on soundcloud, I actually think that is more effective then be able to say the song is on Spotify. No one really care about that one.

So what happened to the release tracks? Soon the A&R: s heard the name of the band they went straight to Spotify and checked the numbers. I know it’s stupid to do that but that is what they do. And they direct discovered that nothing really had passed 10 000 streams. Witch meant that no one had put any marketing behind it, so why should they put marketing behind it.

Yes by sending a unreleased track they don’t know they outcome. Then they have a bigger chance to say yes, now we got a bigger chance to say no. So always send tracks that are unreleased, never release a track before six month has passed.

CD or streaming services

I just read a post around the thing of releasing you music on CD and don’t be on the streaming services. Of course this discussion is on a blog for independent artists in USA. I see the same discussion ten years ago in Sweden. And the answer is, forget about the CD it is a dead format. Sure you could get out so much more money out of a CD. It was totally overpriced and the audience went for the piracy as a revolt against that. The streaming services were a savior back then.

The interesting part of the whole thing is that we now are discussion how the different streaming services and attention networks work against each other. Latest one is the death of radio where smaller number of people is actually listening and it won’t effect people to dig into more of an artist. I saw this already ten years ago, where the radio would play a song but it actually didn’t affect the numbers of sales. With the new technology we can really see how little radio makes an impact.

I guess we are talking about old formats and like to stick to them. Radio was a good format in the 70:s and 80:s, CD:s was good in the 90:s but from 2000 the digital ways took over and here is where it’s done.

So is it just Spotify? You know what? Hell no we just got proof that Spotify is as little as radio on the path to make impact to people. We are just starting to look on the digital world in a totally new sense and the answer is that is not just on channel it’s a big mix of different things that will make the effect.