Dutch producer Lorin started making music just 2 years ago and already released his debut album “Reece”. We picked the mind of the young producer about release- and social media strategies and gathered some insights about his playlist game. Read on to learn more.
Tell us about the beginning of LORIN. How did you get into producing music? What are your influences?
At the end of 2017, I unexpectedly ended up in hospital. I was in the middle of the 2nd year of my education. During the half year of heavy surgery, I was looking for something to kill time. I bought a music production software and started making my own music.
At that moment I had no way to express my feelings except for the music. In this time I have been able to produce several tracks. After showing it to my friends, they told me I had to release it somewhere. From that point I started to release my tracks on Soundcloud.
This went well very quickly. My tracks started to be listened to a lot and I even got the number 2 of the top 50 Netherlands at the time. This motivated me to stick with music production and I started educating myself more and more.
You did release your first Album “Reece” a few months ago. How’s your take on Single releases vs. Album releases? Why did you choose to release a whole album?
Because of all the tracks I made in the hospital, I had a lot ready to release.
At the end of 2018, I set a number of targets for 2019. In order to achieve these goals, I would have to release my music on major streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. In this way my first official release on these platforms became a fact. The single “Reece” was the 2nd song I ever made. This song was very much in line with the feeling I had during the hard times in the hospital. My music tells the story of my music career as it started off pretty difficult.
After releasing 3 singles in a row, I finished a few more songs that I made before. From that point I set a new target to releasing an entire album independently.
I simply wanted to officially close that period of my life. I did this by bringing together 10 unique songs on one album. The order of the songs on the album describes the ups and downs I felt emotionally. May 10th 2019 has been the day to achieve my goal of successfully releasing my album “Reece”.
Answering your question about releasing singles vs albums: Releasing singles is commercially much smarter since it makes you much more constant in releasing content for the listener. It also helps the algorithms to notice you as an actively releasing artist.
Do you like collaboration with others? How would you describe the perfect form of musical collaboration?
The song “Why You” has been my first track to have lyrics on it. I wrote it together with Noami as I was looking for a vocalist to fit my style of music.
I visited the artist school of Noami and spotted her immediately. We worked on the track for 3 months and we are very happy with the result. It was such a nice experience to collaborate with an artist like Noami. There were no limits because of our inexperience. This way we’ve made a kind of song that no one’s ever heard. In the future, I would love to collaborate with other artists.
Right now you’re running a remix contest for a “Reece” remixes EP. Tell us a bit more about that project.
Recently, I came up with the idea to start a remix contest for my album “Reece”. This is because I would love to hear my music from another person’s perspective. This way, we can experience the album in a whole different way which I think is awesome.
If you’re interested in joining this contest, visit http://www.lorinmusic.nl/ and submit now!
Let’s talk social media: Do you have a strategy for your socials? Can you share some Dos and Don’ts with us?
I think social media is really important to express yourself as an artist. I love to give behind the scenes on my social media and interact with my fans. Just because I’ve never expected anyone to listen to my music, surprises me when people message me and tell me they love my tracks.
My strategy for social media is having a clear visual expression. I’m lucky to be able to create all of my cover artworks. This way I can give everything on my social media the same visual style as the artworks I create for my tracks.
The thing I think you shouldn’t do: Don’t spam everyone you see with “listen to my track”. It’s just going to work against you instead of gaining fans. Try convincing new people in a subtle way to listen to your tracks . Think about looking for people who like the same kind of artists as you think you are.
How do you manage to get your music added to playlists? Do you have some insights for aspiring artists who are just starting?
I’m looking for new playlists to get added to every single day. It’s the most direct way to get your music in front of the right listeners. When I started doing this, I made myself a list with keywords that could lead to playlist who fit my music style. After you made this list, you should look on Spotify for playlists that are made by regular Spotify users and check if they have similar songs on it. If so, try contacting the playlist curators and ask them (in a subtle way) if they could see your song on their playlist.
If you searched all the possible Spotify playlists for your track, try using those keywords on Youtube to find channels that post your kind of music. Believe me, there are a lot of nice people in this world that want to share your music. Your song could be good content for these channels so it basically is a win / win situation for the both of you.
When you start a new Lorin track – what are the first steps? Do you have a songwriting routine or ritual?
When I start a new track, I fist decide what kind of track I want to make combining the emotion I feel at that very moment. From that point I am going to look for songs or samples that fit my track idea. Once I found them, I will try to remake the vibe and structure of those samples or songs. From that point, I just let my thoughts lead the rest of the track. I need to finish the whole structure of my track as soon as possible. This keeps me motivated to work on it later. I don’t always experience this process. Sometimes I just start a new project and make a perfect sound myself. After finding that sound, I will build the rest of the track around it.
When I’m writing a song, I need to have the beat or chords ready. I decide what emotion I feel with the track and then I’ll just start writing. From this point I’ll repeat each part of the track over and over again until I find the lyrics for it. Don’t overthink anything and keep moving from start till the end in one row.
If you finished this process, start to look back on what you wrote and decide if it makes sense in the moral of the story that you want to tell. If it does, keep it, if it doesn’t try to change it until it makes sense.
Is there there a prominent musician currently killing it visually wise? Tell us how!
I really look up to the artist called “Kina”. He is currently killing it. This artist released his first tracks independently just like I did and he is currently reaching millions of streams a day on them. This artist inspires me that everything is possible in the music industry nowadays.
How important are data insights for your (strategic) decisions?
The first weeks after the release of my album “Reece”, I decided to not start any paid promotions for it yet. I was constantly looking at the statistics of the album. Once I had a clear vision on which tracks had been listened to more often, I started to pick one track to run promotions for. This track was “Why You (ft. Noami)”. At this point, the track has got over 100.000 streams on Spotify and is starting to get listened all over the world.
Try picking one track at the time and get the most possible out of it. If you feel that your track could be big, never give up on it.
Follow Lorin and listen to his music right here:
Spotify
SoundCloud
YouTube
Instagram
Facebook
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