Marketing 101 Ep. 4: Singles
The pacing of your releases is extremely important, and something often not thought through by independent artists, especially those without label support. Singles can be very, very useful in this regard. An album isn’t inherently better or worse than a single or EP, they're all just different ways of presenting your creative work. Being open to all of these different format options can help keep you sane, and can improve the quality of your artwork in the long-term.
Why are singles important?
It takes a long time to conceive, write, and record an album- there's a reason 2-4 years between major releases is common for many artists. Single releases allow you to give something to your audience, without having to build as much momentum as a full album project. Singles can also help with the funding of your project: the resources needed to do an amazing single in a fully professional manner are attainable for many artists, no matter how small. Scaling that up to a 7-10 song full album project might be cost prohibitive, if you’re just starting out.
Also, respect yourself as the person putting the time in to write these songs! If you feel pressure to come out with a full album of original material every single year of your life forever, that's not a sustainable pace for most people. Putting out a single or a small EP gives you the flexibility to keep moving forward creatively and do better work, without the pressure or mental toll of a full album project.
Don't do one or the other, do it all! Albums, singles, EPs, as you want to, but all options should be on the table.
Considering the long-term in your release schedule
You stand a much better chance of success as an artist if you can come out with regular, high quality work on a consistent basis. That means, from the beginning, we should be thinking of how to make our creative endeavors something sustainable long-term, for both ourselves and for our audience of fans. Sadly, many artists don’t consider these kinds of things, and unintentionally shoot themselves in the foot as a result. Here’s two common release strategies that don’t fully consider the long term. Don’t let this be you!
1. Putting out one album every ten years. This can work if you're already an established artist or have become some kind of cult music figure (think of a band like Slowdive or Dear Nora). But, this does not work for a new artist who isn't already at least a little bit known.
Sidebar: put out your work whenever you want to, and it should never feel forced! These are not right or wrong scenarios. These are examples to get you thinking about balance, sustainability, and effectiveness in your creative life.
2. Dumping an entire albums worth of material onto the internet at once, with no promotion or marketing plan, as an unknown artist.
This kind of thing is what can lead to all your hard work and time becoming a flash in the pan, and virtually guarantees your music will be lost among a sea of other releases and cat video social media posts. You just spent years, potentially, working on an album or other creative endeavor. Don’t allow it to pop up on social media for one day before getting lost forever! Understanding effective, genuine promotion is an important part of showing respect for your both your work and your time.
Making your release successful
There are tens of thousands of other amazing musicians releasing great music every single day. It’s completely overwhelming, and impossible to keep up with, as a music fan.
So, if you want people to pay attention to your one release, you need to give them a clear and specific reason why they should choose to give you their time.
Be humble: "I'm a super great artist, so you should pay attention to me", is not enough of a reason, sad to say. Not with billions of people on this planet, and with so many other great artists releasing amazing work constantly.
Hint: telling a little bit of the story behind you and/or your music might give people more reason to pay attention.
