I Waterfall Released My Debut Album. Here's What Happened.
Summary
TLDRIn this video, an independent artist discusses their experience using the waterfall release strategy for their debut album. They explain releasing singles, then EPs, and finally the full album, analyzing Spotify data and sharing key takeaways. Despite some misconceptions about data stacking, the strategy proved beneficial for streams and playlist placements. The artist concludes that singles and albums are crucial for growth, emphasizing the importance of successful songs before an album release. They also note the need to pitch new songs to Spotify for better visibility.
Takeaways
- 🎶 The artist used a 'waterfall release system' for their album, releasing songs incrementally and re-releasing them as part of an EP and then as a full album.
- 🔄 They released 8 singles from their 10-song album, followed by 2 EPs, and finally the full album, resulting in a total of 17 releases for the songs.
- 📈 The waterfall strategy was intended to stack data on Spotify for each song, using the same ISRC code for all releases to accumulate streams and other metrics.
- 🤔 Contrary to expectations, the artist found that saves and playlist data did not carry over between releases, with each release having its own unique URI and popularity score on Spotify.
- 🎯 The artist discovered that the popularity scores for their top songs were reset to zero after the full album release, which initially led to a decrease in daily streams and listeners.
- 🚀 However, a 'Discover Weekly' feature on Spotify helped to boost the album's popularity scores and streams, suggesting that full album releases may indeed compound data over time.
- 💡 The artist concluded that singles are effective for catalog growth on Spotify and should continue to be released, but with new songs included in future waterfall strategies to maintain algorithmic opportunities.
- 💽 Releasing albums is still beneficial, as the artist's first album cycle has shown positive signs for their career, despite initial challenges.
- 🏆 Having successful songs before an album release can significantly enhance the album's impact, as these songs can lift the album's performance on platforms like Spotify.
- 🔄 The artist suggests that the waterfall release strategy can work, but it requires careful planning, particularly ensuring that new songs are included in releases to maintain momentum and visibility.
- 👀 For those unfamiliar with the waterfall release strategy, the artist recommends watching a previous video they made that explains the process in detail.
Q & A
What is the waterfall release system mentioned in the script?
-The waterfall release system is a strategy where an artist releases songs incrementally, starting with one song and then releasing additional songs in subsequent releases, potentially culminating in an album release. It's designed to build anticipation and maintain listener engagement over time.
Why did the artist choose to use the waterfall release system for their album?
-The artist chose the waterfall release system to stack all of their data on Spotify, theoretically allowing streams, saves, and other metrics to accumulate on the same root file for each song, thus potentially increasing the visibility and success of the tracks.
How many songs were released individually before the album release according to the script?
-The artist released eight songs from their 10-song album as individual singles on Spotify before the album release.
What were the two EPs released by the artist, and how did they fit into the waterfall strategy?
-The artist released two EPs, 'dark' and 'light', as part of the waterfall strategy. The 'dark' EP was released using a forward waterfall strategy, starting from the top of the album, while the 'light' EP was released in reverse order.
How many times has the song 'Hero' been released according to the script?
-The song 'Hero' has been released six times as part of the artist's waterfall release strategy.
What was the artist's initial understanding of how the waterfall release strategy would affect playlist placements and algorithmic opportunities?
-The artist initially believed that the popularity score, which determines eligibility for algorithmic and editorial playlists, would carry over from one release to the next, maintaining the song's momentum on platforms like Spotify.
What did the artist discover about the waterfall release strategy after implementing it?
-The artist discovered that while streams did accumulate on the root ISRC code, the popularity scores did not carry over between releases. Each release had its own unique URI, affecting the song's eligibility for playlists.
What unexpected outcome did the artist experience after releasing the full-length album?
-After releasing the full-length album, the artist noticed that the popularity scores for their top songs tanked and reset to zero, which they initially thought would negatively impact algorithmic opportunities.
How did the artist's experience with the waterfall release strategy affect their future release plans?
-The artist learned that singles seem to be more beneficial for overall growth on Spotify and that having successful songs before an album release can help boost the album's performance. They also learned the importance of always having a new song to push within a release to maintain visibility.
What was the impact of the Discover Weekly feature on the artist's album after its release?
-The Discover Weekly feature gave the artist a significant boost in streams and listeners about 10 days after the album release, suggesting that the data might compound for a full-length album release, contrary to the initial belief.
What advice does the artist give for other independent musicians considering a waterfall release strategy?
-The artist advises to always include a new song in each release to maintain pitchability and visibility, to continue releasing singles for growth, and to ensure having successful songs before an album release to enhance its impact.
Outlines
🎶 Independent Artist's Waterfall Release Strategy
This paragraph discusses the process of an independent artist's first album release using a waterfall release system. The artist explains how they initially released eight songs as individual singles on Spotify, followed by two EPs, and finally, the full-length album. The strategy involved releasing songs incrementally, starting with one and building up to three at a time. The artist also provides a track listing for the album, which includes an intro and outro, totaling ten songs. The main takeaway is that this method theoretically stacks all Spotify data onto the original song release, but the artist found that while streams accumulated, other metrics like saves and playlist adds did not carry over between releases.
🔄 Reflections on the Waterfall Release Impact
In this paragraph, the artist reflects on the impact of the waterfall release strategy on their music catalog. They discovered that while the strategy stacked streams for each song, the popularity scores, which determine eligibility for algorithmic and editorial playlists on Spotify, reset with each re-release. This led to a temporary decrease in listeners and streams after the full album release. However, a spot on Discover Weekly helped to boost the popularity scores again. The artist concludes that singles are beneficial for catalog growth, and for future releases, they plan to include new songs to maintain algorithmic opportunities. They also emphasize the importance of having successful songs before an album release to enhance its impact.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Waterfall Release System
💡Independent Artist
💡Spotify
💡EP
💡ISRC Code
💡Popularity Score
💡Algorithmic Playlists
💡Discover Weekly
💡Release Radar
💡Daily Streams
💡Average Monthly Listeners
Highlights
Released first album as an independent artist using the waterfall release system.
Released and re-released songs multiple times leading up to the album.
Waterfall release system: released a song, then two, then three, and so on.
Released eight songs as individual singles on Spotify.
Released two EPs as the A side and B side of the record before the full-length album.
Total of 16 releases for the songs, including the final album.
Each song used the same ISRC code to stack data on Spotify.
Stream data carried over across releases, but saves and playlists did not.
Popularity scores on Spotify are unique to each release version.
Full-length album release caused popularity scores to reset, impacting algorithmic opportunities.
Cover art mapped to the album release, maintaining a cohesive look.
Initial drop in listeners and daily streams after album release.
Discover Weekly boost helped improve popularity scores post-album release.
Singles are effective for overall catalog growth on Spotify.
Future waterfall releases will include a new song for pitching to Spotify.
Having successful singles before album release benefits album performance.
More successful songs prior to album release result in better album performance.
Successful single versions help lift album versions in Spotify algorithms.
Transcripts
just under two weeks ago I released my
very first album as an independent
artist but I didn't start with an album
I have released and re-released all the
songs on this record multiple times
leading up to this to do this I utilized
what's referred to as the waterfall
release system wherein I released a song
then released two songs and three songs
repeating releases over time so in this
video we're gonna walk through exactly
how I structured all of these releases
we're gonna look at the data on Spotify
and talk about how things played out for
me and I'm going to walk you through
some key takeaways of some stuff that I
have learned through this process that
hopefully you can use if you decide to
Waterfall release your own music in the
future to start I released eight songs
of my 10 song album as individual
singles on Spotify after that I released
two EPS on Spotify sort of as the a side
and B side of my record and then finally
I released my full length album first
one as an independent artist now taking
a step back to the EPS technically
speaking the waterfall releasing began
with my EP roller I have my dark EP on
the top right I released three EPS
leading up to that and the same with
light on the bottom so if you're doing
the math out there all told I actually
have 16 releases for these songs 17
including this album that just came out
now before we move forward to give you
some context about this strategy this is
the track listing for my album I have 10
songs on the record technically speaking
eight full songs with an intro and an
outro on either end so if we look at the
first waterfall strategy that ultimately
ended with my EP dark I started from the
top of my record and just released the
first five songs in a waterfall strategy
now for the second EP I waterfall
released these songs as well but I did
it in reverse so for the first EP light
hero I have hero and then Daybreak with
Daybreak being the outro of the full
length album end of this five song EP so
now that the album is out this is the
complete overview of how this release
strategy has played out on the left side
you can see all of the singles I
released all eight of them on the top is
my dark EP strategy G on the bottom is
my light EP strategy and on the far top
right is the album itself with all 10
tracks if you're doing the math here you
can see that to the Wolves has
technically been released six times same
with hero it has been released six times
but if you jump over to dark you can see
that we can run has been released three
times same with Darkness on the light EP
it has only been released three times
and then in the middle the other songs
have been released sort of a varying
range in between now the main benefit of
using the waterfall strategy and the
reason I wanted to try this on my own is
because theoretically it Stacks all of
your data on Spotify so as long as you
use the same isrc code every time you
release a song No Matter What release it
is on it will map to that exact same
root file in spotify's database and
report all of the streams and data down
to that root file so Hero has the exact
same isrc code for all six releases that
it has appeared on they all map to the
exact same file now before I tested the
waterfall release strategy for myself my
understanding was that all of the data
for a song would report all the way down
to this root isrc code not just streams
but also playlist ads saves and
everything else that Spotify keeps track
of for your music and I was technically
right about stream all of the streams
for hero show exactly the same on every
one of these releases So to that end the
waterfall strategy technically does
stack data from release to release
however I was wrong about saves and
playlists technically speaking because
every single one of these releases is
its own album and they all have their
own individual album title they also get
their own unique identifier for Spotify
which they refer to as a track or album
URI so not only does every album have
its own unique URI every single track on
that album has its own unique URI and
because they're completely different
that means every single album and every
single track release of hero has its own
unique popularity and attracts
popularity score is how Spotify
determines whether or not the song is
eligible for algorithmic playlists and
editorial playlists on the platform so
things like radio release radar discover
weekly and all the way up to actual
editorial playlists on the platform all
of that is determined by a song's
popularity score so before doing the
waterfall method I thought if my
original song Hero has a popularity
score of 30 the next release will have
that popularity score as well but I was
wrong about that every time I dropped a
new waterfall single or EP in this
process none of the data seem to carry
over to the new singles in the new EP
none of the cover art changed out the
popularity scores wouldn't update the
only thing that has continued to carry
my catalog has been the original
releases not the EP stuff in the middle
and so before I released a full-length
album I kind of had it in my head that
this is how it was going to play out
once again for me but a couple of
surprises did happen first of all all of
my cover art mapped to the album once it
was out which was cool with me because I
like the cohesive look anyway as
evidenced by all of my cover however I
also noticed that all of the popularity
scores for my top song songs had tanked
so all of my songs like hero and lions
tracks that have been sort of carrying
my catalog all got reset to zero and in
my mind that meant all of the
algorithmic opportunity was gone these
are songs that had already been out so
they weren't going to be on release
radar day one because I couldn't pitch
them and now we're back at zero so I
can't get on Discover weekly as easily
as a result of this over the first week
or so of my album being released my
listeners uh gradually decreased my
daily streams gradually decreased and I
ended up sort of flatlining around 11
000 average monthly listeners whereas
before I dropped the record I was at
like 16 000 or something like that but
fortunately the Monday 10 days after the
release of my album I got a big discover
weekly spot once I got this discover
weekly boost I went back and checked the
popularity scores for the album again
and saw that they had begun to climb
this has me thinking that maybe the data
doesn't stack for re-releases of singles
and EPS however when you release a
full-length album the data actually does
compound okay so now that I've done this
process for myself what did we learn
well the first thing is singles are the
way to go for me I'm going to keep
releasing singles those seem to do more
for your catalog at large growth on
Spotify that being said if I do release
a waterfall strategy or waterfall
release any p in the future I will make
sure to always have a new song to push
inside of that release that way I can
pitch it to Spotify get on release radar
for my followers the next thing I
learned is I'm definitely going to keep
releasing albums now I'm still really
fresh into my album cycle for my first
album that I've ever released but all
signs point to this being actually a
pretty positive event for me as an
artist and then the last thing I learned
is that the more songs I have that are
successful before I release an album the
better I was fortunate before I released
this record to have both hero and lions
as songs that have continued to lift my
catalog which has helped fuel the uh
impact of the record when it first came
out if I only had songs that were sort
of like sitting at 10 popularity score
15 popularity score and below the album
definitely really would not have done as
well I'm getting a good discover weekly
push this week as a result of the single
versions of my songs not necessarily the
album versions of my songs I believe
those single versions are lifting the
album versions which then hopefully
we'll see will trigger release radar in
return and then trigger discover weekly
again in return after that I'll have to
say the more successful songs I have
leading into an album the better I think
that album will ultimately do which
obviously makes sense so I hope this
video has taught you a little something
about waterfall releasing your own music
now if I just did a complete flyby on
you and you still have no idea how the
waterfall release strategy Works
fortunately for you I have a video on
that very topic that I released about a
year ago explaining the nuts and bolts
of how this plays out before I even
tested it for myself you wanna watch
that you can check that video out right
here and as always thanks for watching
and I'll catch you on the next one peace
[Music]
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