Voost is a 20 year old DJ & producer from Eindhoven, Netherlands. He’s stacking up millions and millions of plays on streaming platforms right now and already received support by massive names like Tiesto, Sam Feldt, Lumberjack and others.
We had the chance to chat with the talented ForTunes user Voost and get a few insights into the life of an upcoming artists in the digital age.
Tell us about Voost: What made you get into making music and what was your biggest influence when starting out?
I first got in touch with music production when I was about 14 years old. Someone in my class showed me FL Studio and Virtual DJ and I got hooked right away. After school I downloaded FL Studio and started playing around with it for a while. After some time, I developed other interests and I did not open FL Studio for a while.
Around 3 years ago when Future House got big, I was really interested in the scene and got back into music production. I also think that was the biggest influence for me as it was a daily drive to make better productions and have certain goals set. From there on I started to develop my style into more deep house-oriented tracks.
Do you have some insights on conducting an efficient music production?
I always had a lot of trouble with this. When I started off, I could never finish tracks and was just playing around. Last year, I’ve started to create this sort of arrangement that I felt like works well, especially Spotify oriented.
It also really helped my production efficiency by a ton and made me have a better vision of how a track should be structured. Especially when you open that blank DAW screen, you don’t have a clue where to start.
Indie vs. Major – how do you currently exploit your music?
As many other producers I started on Indie labels. My first “professional” releases were in June 2018, so I haven’t been doing it for that long. Most of the experiences I had with Indie labels we’re really good.
They really focus on growing an artist and get the best stats possible for a release because that’s also the way how they grow and how they get a better reputation. I recently released a track on Spinnin’ Next which is my first major release of many (I hope) haha.
When making the first deals, as a newcomer – what are the most important things, you have to be aware of?
When I just started releasing music I was doing everything on my own. I had zero experience in contracts or the music industry in general. If you’re not completely aware of what a contract says or means you should really get someone on it who understands all the legal terms. There can be small details that say one thing but mean the other (depends on interpretation).
Another thing what’s important is to stay independent to a certain level. Of course, you need big labels, a publisher, manager etc. to get bigger but I think it’s important to not be reliable on those things. In the end it’s a hobby and passion for most of us and you want to do what you want to do and not have someone tell you what to do or make, this could result in a writer’s block.
How does the perfect release strategy look like in your opinion?
Communication is key. The label has to be clear and point out its strategy regarding social media posts and other marketing aspects. Also, trading playlist placements beforehand maybe even result in having the track being premiered on big YouTube channels. This could also help a lot to hype a track.
You already stacked up millions of plays on Spotify alone, powered by strong playlist placements. Can you give us some insights in your playlist game?
I think that’s the power that Indie labels have nowadays. Everyone wants to get their name out there and smaller labels also want to grow so they trade (playlist placements) among each other.
I also think, because I released a couple tracks on for example “ChillYourMind”, that its fanbase recognize my name and would think it’s worth to take a listen to it compared to an ‘unknown’ artist.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an up and coming artist in the digital age?
The biggest challenge I had was to find my way into this industry. I’ve come from a none-musical background and no one in my family does anything music-related, so growing this fast is pretty overwhelming to be honest.
Luckily, I have a good manager whom I’ve been working with for over the last 9 months. This helps me a lot because I’m not the best at making choices and I’m a perfectionist. So, for me it’s good to have someone who just has to say “Yes” or “No” to certain things haha.
When you start a new Voost track – what are the first steps? Do you have a routine?
I always start by playing around on the piano, trying to create a cool chord progression a melody or just a bassline and build it from there. I notice when I do it this way, I can lay down my ideas so much faster and be a lot more efficient than looking for a cool sound for 2 hours straight and looking at my screen with no clue what to do haha.
Also, creating all the melodies (chords, top melody etc.) in one pattern on piano could also help with sparking some more creativity. Especially if you put them on a different pattern later on and lay down the whole arrangement, then it’s just a question of sound selection and ‘creating’ the track.
Name 3 artist social media feeds that you dig and tell us why.
I’m a big fan of Jonas Aden’s feed. He’s really doing the social media game right. Also, the STMPD feed is studying graphic design that could also maybe be the reason why haha). Also, the musical freedom style is really sick, such as the lyric videos they put out on YouTube. I think my favourite one is from Dallask – I Know.
Name your top 3 software tools for engaging in musical content. Why you think they’re awesome?
I’m using ForTunes, SpotOnTrack and the Spotify for Artist app a lot to keep track of my stats and playlist placements. Sometimes, one app registers a placement and the other doesn’t. That’s why I like to use multiple tools to see how my tracks are doing on a daily basis.
How important are data insights for your (strategic) decisions?
I think it’s one of the most important things, of course you need to make music which you like the most. But if you want to build a profile and get fans, I think it’s really important to know what they like and enjoy listening to.
So, keeping track of which tracks get a lot of streams and finding the reason why they get a lot of stream also helps sometimes to go into a certain direction for a track, even though I always try to experiment to give new productions a new twist.
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