In times of rapid, technological growth and streaming it might seem intuitive to go with the flow of rapid content publication. To flood the sphere with music. And there are definitely advocates and reasons rightfully supporting this point of view: Expanding your visibility naturally elevates the potential of a single piece of content breaking through the buzz. The less you release, on the other hand, the more pressure on a single piece of music. Sounds like a simple equation, right?
That’s why fast media like Instagram have gained such an important role in the overall marketing mix of music campaigning: Fast content is, in many cases, the key to engaging in a hungry audience. Once artists start delivering in a fast-paced manner, it is somewhat expected of them to continue in this fashion. At this point, it’s entirely useful to separate lighthearted, entertaining social media content from actual music releases, though. Catering to the demands of a social media channel doesn’t necessarily mean releasing music in an equally high frequency. Nor does it imply the imperative to align these release-strategies.
This article engages in a distinct line of thought, leaning towards the direction of quality over quantity. It might best be described as a counter-intuitive approach to dealing with market over-saturation. Of not swimming with the masses, or giving in to pressure of premature release.
The first argument pro quality deals with very positive, technological developments in the area of media publication. Let’s start with blogs…
Media submission catalysts
Before SubmitHub came along, it was a great deal harder to submit to blogs and actually get a decent chance of exposure. And even to this day, reaching media curators is a damn hard thing to accomplish.
The amount of daily submissions seems taunting. And while media submission catalysts – like SubmitHub – have made it easier to filter content and establish useful connections, it has also broadened the market. It has has leveled out the playing-field, at least to an extent. This also means that every content producer out there can get a shot at a blog placement, and some naturally take it more seriously than others.
You’ll have people submitting very finely crafted music, but also those who care more about the amount than the value.
Even if it is POSSIBLE to reach 30, 40 media people in one shot – think about wether your music is on a competitive level yet. While new, payed services open up the corridor to convenient, broad submissions – it should not keep you from spending enough time at the drawing board. If you don’t hit a nerve with what you produce, even quantity won’t do the trick.
Direct Spotify playlist submission
People are discussing the pro’s and con’s of the streaming platform’s new direct playlist submission right now.
In case you haven’t heard, the service basically opened the floodgates. At least that’s what they are indicating. This means every artist can now log-in to an intuitive backend and pitch her music to relevant curators.
The pro’s of this are obvious: It’s a solid measure towards a more fair and transparent access to a vitally important market mechanism. And while it gives thousands of creators worldwide the feeling of being slightly more in control of where their music is headed, the process is still quite nebulous. The inner workings unclear. But that’s a discussion on streaming politics – let’s focus on what it does to the culture of submission.
Creating and opening a playlist-submission tool to the public leads to acceleration. More individuals are now empowered to snatch a piece of the cake, this means competition can actually rise, creating new forms of market pressure.
The danger of neglecting quality over the possibility of potential, frequent playlisting in streaming becomes a realistic factor. Pitch to playlists every two weeks, every month, and the chances of landing something, ANYTHING, seem to rise. Right? Not necessarily. Curators are still very much inclined to screen for quality in music and style. Just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD pitch to playlists.
DAW accessibility
The development of intuitive DAW’s and exceptionally powerful software tools has carved out a new generation of highly intuitive, fast-paced content producers. And don’t get us wrong – that’s a great thing. DAW’s should facilitate creative possibilities for a wide range of people, including professionals and rookies alike.
Still, this shouldn’t be a substitute for craft, or for extensive, deep musical or productive learning. Using tools to speed up workflow is great. Actually knowing what these tools do, though, should be a prerequisite. And that might sound harsh. But most people can pick up a ball and land a hoop from time to time. Professionals learn to control and master this action, they can reproduce it because their output is based on years of experience.
There’s no fast-track to producing musical quality on a regular basis.
The grind is part of the game.
0 be the first one to show some appreciation for this!