The show must go on
Spotify is often referred to as a “black box”. That means: Nobody knows exactly what‘s going on inside and how decisions are made. Because there is more to be gained from secrets and opacity than from transparency, Daniel Ek has never publicly contradicted this idea. In reality, you don‘t need to study cryptology to understand what a promising streaming strategy should look like. Here we reveal the secret.
Like every other platform, Spotify attaches great importance to retaining users for as long as possible, converting casual listeners into paying customers and increasing advertising revenue through increasing user numbers. Everything you do as a creative to help achieve these goals will be rewarded. Anything that goes against this or simply does not promote it will be punished. As an outsider, it may sometimes seem quite arbitrary why some tracks end up on major playlists and are streamed millions of times, while almost identical material remain unnoticed. However, there is a very simple system behind it.
High quality, time and time again
In two enlightening YouTube videos, producer L.Dre explained exactly how he managed to turn his passion for music into a career using lofi hiphop instrumentals. [1]
His strategy for success on Spotify or any comparable app consists of a multi-phase plan:
Use streaming figures and playlist rankings to find out exactly what music is currently popular and working.
· Compose tracks that follow these trends. This is not a guide to copying, but you don‘t have to reinvent the wheel every time.
· Produce as much music as you can and develop a
release routine.
· Be active on social media. The music has to spread virally there, otherwise it won‘t be successful. This means: either you make cool videos yourself that go viral. Or, even better, as many users as possible use the music in their clips. · Reply to the comments and, if necessary, implement ideas from your fans when producing new pieces. This is how you build a very close community.
· Lead your fans from social media via links directly to the streaming pages. The more people you bring to Spotify, the more valuable you become from the algorithm‘s point of view.
· Write good press releases in which you make it clear which playlists you fit into and which hits by well-known musicians your tracks are similar to. · Follow this routine until your music ends up in playlists. Placements in the right playlists lead to a rapid increase in streams - but as soon as you are taken out again, the values drop just as dramatically.
Of course, luck is still part of it. But that has never been any different in the history of the music industry. There are also more than enough examples of careers that, just like L.Dre‘s, have developed without the influence of the majors or expensive PR agencies. French-Canadian Marc Rebillet has spent years posting his performances in simple bars and restaurants online and filming himself performing in his bedroom at home. His clip „Your New Morning Alarm“, which was less than a minute long, reached almost 40 million streams on YouTube. Shortly afterwards, the eccentric soul diva Erykah Badu came out as a fan and improvised with Rebillet on camera in completely crazy sessions.
But L-Dre‘s success also shows what success really means.
Because as the musician openly admits, even several million streams have not brought him any wealth, but “only” a terraced house with a small garden and a video game console. He is by no means financially secure. In a brutal self-deprecation, L.Dre admitted to letting things slide after achieving his goals. The “laziness” had consequences: his profile on Spotify quickly lost 31 million streams a year.
There is no time for a break, the show must go on. To a certain extent, this also applies to employees in an insurance company or tax advisors. However, in the less schematic creative field, external pressure can quickly lead to blockages. While L.Dre has now vowed to work harder than ever before, Marc Rebillet‘s strategy looks completely different: nothing new from him has appeared on YouTube or Spotify for months. Instead, he only posts occasionally on Facebook and Instagram and prefers to tour the world - including Germany.
Will he regret it once the concert series ends and his former followers are no longer interested in his online content? Perhaps. At least he will have had a lot of fun doing it - and won‘t have to publicly chastise himself afterwards. ⸬