Wendy Day breaks down how independent musicians should release music: singles build fans, full albums work as promotional events. The market is driven by streaming. She warns against calling releases mixtapes, recommends building multiple revenue streams from shows to Patreon, and stresses that first impressions in the music industry stick forever.
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Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to 2020 Bijan. One of the things that you're going to want to decide as an artist is whether to put out just singles or whether you're going to release full-length projects or EPs, which stands for extended play. Um, an EP is when you put out, um, a project that has anywhere from 3 to 8 songs, right? Um, a full-length is like 9 or above, 10 or above, somewhere in there. And singles are when you put out one, or you might even do like an, like an extended single that has 2 different songs on it. Um, but for the most part, that's really your decision whether you want to put out an entire project or whether you just want to put out singles. It's definitely a singles market. Um, that's one of the joys of streaming is that it introduces people to you as songs instead of full-length projects. You can absolutely put a full-length project on Apple or Spotify, but for the most part, when people don't know who you are yet, they're really just looking at your singles, at your songs, to see what you're about and who you are. For me, for my opinion, um, I very much believe that it's a singles market. I usually promote singles heavily, and I use full-length projects as an event, like a reason. Like, I'll put out, let's say, um, 8 singles in a row, right? So maybe at single number 4, I drop a full-length album that has all 8 of those singles and maybe 2 additional singles that I'm not promoting separately online, but I'm not doing it because I expect people to listen to the whole project. I'm doing it because I want something else for the artist to talk about. It's the consistency and the repetition that is reaching your fans, that's giving people a sense of who you are. So I want as many different reasons for you to talk about your music online as possible, and dropping a full-length project is one of those reasons, right? So you can drop single number 1, single number 2, single number 3, single number 4, single number 5. You're gonna drop a full-length project somewhere between single number 3 and single number 6, depending on the reaction to your singles. If you're brand, brand new and people don't know who you are yet, I would get a foundation of singles going before I dropped full-length— a full-length project. Um, also, if you're going to drop a mixtape, I suggest you don't call it a mixtape because mixtape implies that it's free and it implies that it's of lesser quality. And that's just because of the artists that have come before you and put out mixtapes that were free and lesser quality. So there's just a stigma about mixtapes. So I don't drop mixtapes, I drop product or releases, um, or if you're old school, you can call them albums. But I don't ever want to imply, even though we give away a lot of free music, I don't ever want to imply that music is and should be free. I love the idea of people paying to stream your music, or people paying to come see a show, or people paying for your merchandise because they're supporting you. There's even artists out there that do, um, Patreon accounts, and that's where fans get to give you whatever they feel they want to. So it's more of a donation than, um, paying for product, right? And I kind of like that idea too, um, And it just depends on what your philosophy is, you know. I love the idea of YouTube having a button now where people can pay, so you can go live and do a show on YouTube and people can contribute. It's sort of like putting money in a tip jar, if you will, you know. And I, I kind of like that. I think that's, you know, it's got like an old world sensibility about it. And it leaves it up to your fan to give you what they feel they want to. It's not like a preconceived price of $2 or $5 or $20, or, or, you know, in the case of a Jay-Z concert, you're spending like $1,000 to get tickets on the floor, you know. So, and not that there's anything wrong with that, I think that it's wonderful that people get to that level where their fans really support them. But when you're a new artist it's, it's really challenging to monetize. It's really challenging to not only find a way for people to pay, but to figure out when they should start paying. And there's no answer to that. Like, that's really your call. You're going to get a feel for when people start to offer you money for paid shows. That's really when you start to charge. You know, you might want to feel the promoter out when they call to say, hey, can you come through and do a show? You know, you can ask them, hey, do you have a budget to pay me? Can you at least pay my expenses to get there, my travel, you know, whatever? And you'll be able to feel out pretty quickly if you're at a point where they're gonna start paying you. And, or you can just be, you know, really hard-nosed about it and say, okay, I need $500 to do this. Don't do that when you're brand, brand new, 'cause you'll never get a show. And remember, however you portray yourself in this industry, early on is how you're going to be seen for quite some time. You can't make a first impression a second time. So people are going to see you a certain way, and you're going to have a certain reputation. And, you know, let me just tell you now, this is— this— it seems like a big industry, but it's not. It's a really small industry. Like, we all talk, and everybody knows who the asshole up-and-coming artists are. Everybody knows who are the artists that bring a fear of violence with them or a fear of having something happen at the club, having something jump off because they're a troll online and they're baiting people and setting themselves up to cause drama at a show, you know, and nobody wants that. So just bear in mind that that first impression is going to stick with you for a very long time. So, you know, come professionally. It's a business. So treat it like a business. Okay guys, thanks for tuning in.
