Case Study: Releasing “Cunningham/Bird” on Spotify
In this promotional case study, we’re examining the release of the album Cunningham/Bird by Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham on Spotify. My complete list of different case studies can be found here.
Here’s what the promotional sequence looks like visually:
The release of “Cunningham/Bird” on Spotify.
Now, here’s the details of what each individual promotional element in this sequence looks like.
Crying in the night double single (Sept. 17)
The initial release in this sequence, containing two newly recorded songs released as a double single.
The “Crying in the Night” double single.
Without a leg to stand triple single (Sept. 30)
This release adds one new song “Without A Leg To Stand On” to the previously released tracks.
Released approximately two weeks after the initial release in the sequence.
The previous release remains up and streamable independently.
The “Without A Leg To Stand On” triple single.
Don’t let me down again quad single (Oct. 15)
This release adds the song “Don’t Let Me Down Again” to the previously released tracks.
Released approximately two weeks after the previous release in the sequence.
Both previous releases remain up and streamable independently.
The "Don't Let Me Down Again" quad single.
Cunningham Bird full album release (Oct. 18)
The full 10 track album is released.
Released 3 days after the previous release in the sequence, and 30 days after the start of this promotional buildup.
All previous releases remain up and streamable independently.
Several merch options dropped at the same time: a black vinyl record, a digital download for purchase, and a CD.
The "Cunningham/Bird" studio album release on Spotify.
Thoughts on the artwork
I typically don’t like to see carbon copied artwork being used in a run-up to a release, as it can come off as a bit spammy and lazy. I probably would have gone a little harder on the artwork here, and done at least one different piece of artwork between these different releases.
However, there’s some additional context here that’s unique to Andrew Bird, and might not apply to the DIY artist who’s self-releasing:
Andrew Bird’s music is currently being distributed by Loma Vista Recordings, a midsize indie label founded in 2012. It’s the same label that Soccer Mommy is on, and we saw a similar strategy of re-using artwork for a “stacked release single format” release buildup, in my case study of the release of their album “Evergreen”.
So, I’d speculate that this is a newer promotional strategy being tested out by Andrew Bird’s label, for at least a few of their different artists.
More context for the decision to reuse artwork
Andrew Bird is already a long-established and very prolific artist, with a pro discography that spans back decades.
If you take a zoomed-out look at his full discography, you can see he’s already done unique artwork for almost everything he’s put out to date. There’s so much unique artwork, in fact, that it’s almost too much and comes off as a bit visually disorganized and overwhelming:
A sampling of Andrew Bird's visual discography.
In the case of Andrew Bird, taking some shortcuts on duplicating artwork in this new release cycle doesn’t come off as lazy at all. It comes off as experimental, given the history, depth, and long-established quality of what has already been put out.
Within that context, it actually makes some sense to experiment with duplicating artwork a bit, to provide additional visual organization to the discography, and to mix it up and try something a bit different:
A sampling of Andrew Bird's more recent visual discography.
So, if you just happen to be Andrew Bird, with an already existing massive list of professionally recorded and award-winning work, you’re allowed to bend the rules a little bit.
I also want to note that every single one of these albums was professionally recorded, mixed, and mastered by individual specialists working at a very high level. There are very few demo albums to be found here.
If you dig into the liner notes, you’ll also see very little combining of technical positions: mixing engineers who also do cheap masters, or mastering engineers who also do cheap mixes, or producers who do everything.
When to release demos vs. more fully produced albums
Now, there’s nothing wrong with having some demos or early work inside of your discography; I actually prefer it. Audiences like to see an artist progress and develop over time.
As a fan, it’s fun to listen to your favorite artist’s early stuff and compare it to any newer, more polished stuff. It’s also fun to see your favorite artist go back and forth a bit, and maybe come out with a newer set of rough sounding demos, even if most of their current stuff is usually a bit more produced.
For Andrew Bird, there’s not a lot of demos to be found, and even his early work isn’t expressly labeled as such: scroll all the way down to the bottom and you’ll see Ballad of the Red Shoes.
This is a DIY-styled album that was self-produced, and you can tell: even though it’s got some sonic issues, it’s one of my favorite albums of his. But it’s not labeled as a demo album or anything, and you wouldn’t know it’s early work unless you were very familiar with the Andrew Bird deep cuts.
In general, you won’t see large amounts of demo quality work in this discography. It’s mostly pro-quality work, with a few select pieces of early work sprinkled in.
Applying these concepts for smaller artists
If your entire body of work contains only self-recorded albums, particularly if they’re all demo-quality, you start to get into “SoundCloud artist” territory, rather than “high-quality professional-level artist” territory. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being a hobbyist artist, I wouldn’t recommend taking this approach. Too easy for all the work you’ve done to get lost in the shuffle of everyone else doing the same thing.
Professional recording services done by real humans are more affordable than they’ve ever been in music history, right now! So, many artists can afford to do both of these things, not one or the other.
One way of squaring this circle that you’ll see with more established artists is to limit the releases of their rough demos to be supplements to their most popular studio albums.
So, they’ll release a big professionally done studio album, and if it’s a hit, they’ll then follow it up with an accompanying album of rough demos of some of those same songs. It’s a time-honored approach that still works today.
You can apply this same method working as a DIY artist, just at a smaller scale. Don’t release only demo quality, self-recorded work or only the most glossy professional studio work; do both!
Developing a more complete release timeline
In this case study, we’ve looked at the release of this album across a single promotional channel (Spotify), in order to keep it simple.
But, it’s important to note that it would be very rare for a successful release to take place using just one promotional channel. It’s much more common for a combination of at least 2-3 different channels to be used in building up for a release (YouTube, newsletters, social media, etc, all used in combination).
You can choose whatever channels you enjoy the most! You don’t need to be everywhere.
For an even more detailed release case study that takes multiple promotional channels into account, check out this case study from an artist with more than 100 million streams on their songs.
