What is the best day to release music?

What is the best day to release music?

“You likely have no business with Billboard charts as an unsigned upcoming artist. It’s hard to swallow, but that’s the bitter truth”.

Friday is the Sabbath day for music listeners all around the world. It’s the day when everyone takes a deep breath in anticipation of new records and singles.

Like a magician performing hypnosis on his subjects, the big labels have conditioned the public to expect new music on Friday, but has it always been that way? No, Tuesday used to be the day that physical records were distributed throughout chain stores or record stores in America.

However, due to months of hype and love for particular genres such as rock, hip hop, RnB, and the likes, music fans used to queue at record stores to purchase LPs for $18.99. However, the emergence of the world wide web (www) changed how we consume music. Instead of lining up at record stores in your local area, fans now access music remotely in their homes via their gadgets.

This article will recommend the best month of the year, day of the week, and time to drop music. You will also learn the history of Global release dates, why the artists you look up to are so obsessed with Fridays, and the consequences of releasing a record at “the wrong time”. Here we go.

Nothing Was The Same: The Advent of the Internet of Playlists (IoP)

Like culture, music is diverse. Each region had its dominant genres, and in the pre-internet era, it was very hard for music to crossover from one nation to another, largely due to differences in experiences, perspectives, and languages. Unless your music was extremely popular and pushed by big labels, there’s no way a kid from China would vibe to your hip-hop record, and the same is true for other cultures.

The emergence of the internet was a unifying factor, and it was not until streaming platforms emerged that music crossovers became a thing. It is usual for established artists and even upcoming musicians to connect with foreign fans. 

We have artists like Chris Brown and Wizkid touring across Europe, Africa, and Asia, thanks to the advent of the WWW. Once the internet bridged limiting straits and borders, the second problem was the difference in time zones across the globe. The following section will discuss how the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) solved the puzzle and united the 45 major recorded music markets globally.

The Timezone Dilemma & New Music Fridays

Pre-2015 saw different countries adhere to various release days. For instance, it was pretty conventional for French and UK labels to drop on Mondays. Tuesday was the official day in the US and Canada, while Australia and Germany adopted Fridays.

Sticking to different local release days will inevitably create confusion among fans and musicians across the globe. In addition, critics and popular chart agencies would not know when to expect music and how they should judge or tally releases. In the long run, such a disorganized system would nurture erratic consumer behavior across regions, making it impossible for curators, managers, and promoters to predict their audiences. The ultimate solution is to create a global release day. That way, it would be easier for every music industry sector to put their affairs in order.

The Global Release Day

The Global Release day, known as New Music Fridays, is the globally agreed day for putting out LPs and singles. The agreement became effective on the 10th of July 2015, but it was later announced by the IFPI the day after. While big labels, publications, and playlist curators adhere to Global release day, no legal document mandates music creatives to drop music on Fridays exists.

Is Friday the best day to release?

So, If you were reading this guide to this point, you might be tempted to think that we’re recommending “Friday” as the best day to put out music, but that’s far from the truth!

The major reason established artists drop on Friday is to get the best chance of landing on the charts. Billboard counts record sales from Friday to Friday, making it one week.

So dropping on Friday gives you enough time to acquire a lot of sales and debut your release on the globally-coveted Billboard charts. If you are an established artist with a concrete fanbase, fat budget, and big plugs to the media, then Friday is the best day to release. However, if you are an upcoming artist with little following online, you might want to consider dropping earlier. Let’s move to the next section, where we will discuss the most appropriate time to make a release for upcoming artists.

What Is The Best Time For Upcoming Artists To Release Music?

You likely have no business with Billboard charts as an unsigned upcoming artist. It’s hard to swallow, but that’s the bitter truth.

The music game is deceptive such that you cannot tell what’s happening in the industry until you start playing the game at a certain level. For instance, you might think that 10,000 dollars are a healthy budget for a release, but big labels use millions to push their top artists who debut on Billboard Hot 100. Also, Spotify is partly owned by Sony, Universal, and Warner Music; hence they control a good chunk of its playlists. Same with other streaming platforms like Apple, Tidal, and the likes.

For example, even on his worst day, Drake debuted most of the songs on his album titled — honestly, never mind — on Billboard charts. Indie artists with better albums might never appear on the charts even if they had 100k to spend. As an upcoming artist, I want you to understand that the game is rigged against you. So playing by “their” rules will hurt your growth. Instead, you need to make your own rules and stick to them until you are big enough to aim for Billboard charts. “Making your rules” involves not following the Global Release Day unless necessary. However, you can find the most suitable day for your upcoming release in several ways.

Make the best use of your social media and Spotify dashboard stats

Social media and streaming platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify let you know when your audience is most active. By checking your Instagram dashboard, you can know when

you are getting the most traffic on your page. This advice is for artists with a sizable audience (1000 followers and above). The way to know when you get the most engagement is to use the same content formula and post consistently over a month. That way, you can pinpoint the time and day when your followers are most active. 

“Dropping a song without an audience is the first rule on our list of the “1000 ways to flop as a musician”. 

If you use different content outlines, your engagement stats would inevitably vary for different posts. But with the same content structure, you can separate the good and bad days.

For artists with no social media followers, build a following before finding what day suits you best. You can build a fanbase by singing cover songs of similar artists and riding their wave. Dropping a song without an audience is the first rule on our list of the “1000 ways to flop as a musician”. Also, Spotify lets you know how many streams you get per day. By checking your Spotify for Artist dashboard, you can tell when your fans are actively consuming your records. Again, artists with no songs on Spotify can build a buzz on social media and judge using their social media data. Simple as ABC.

Tease your songs

Music is the arrangement, combination, and synchronization of sound(s) that appeal to the listener. Note that more emphasis is placed on the word “appealing,” meaning if a track doesn’t appeal to the listener, it won’t fly.

Even influential artists leak or tease their songs to get a reaction from the audience, especially when they don’t know what would work.

As an upcoming artist, you ought to give your audience or potential audience the freebies. However, you must understand that not everyone’s track record in the studio should be released. Some should never make it out of the studio.

Let your trusted friends and associates listen to your songs beforehand. Then, tease the 30s to one-minute snippets out to your fans and measure their reactions.

While teasing your song won’t directly give you an idea of what day is best to release your song, it gives you an idea of what would work since there is no “right day” to release mid-songs. If it does not appeal to your audience, it will flop regardless of the day you drop it.

The mood of the song

After using the ‘gram’ and Spotify for Artists to know when your audiences are most active and teased out snippets to know what works, you should let the song’s mood determine the date. Energetic songs used for working out can be dropped on Tuesdays, and party songs can be dropped on Thursdays to help your audience prepare for the weekend. On the contrary, Christian songs can be dropped on Sundays, as we’ve seen with Kanye West’s Donda, which sold 309,000 units in its first week of release and dominated the Billboard and Apple Music charts. However, you should review your stats, and the days might vary.

Sincerely, we suggest avoiding Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Why?

People are too busy with their lives on Mondays and will not leave their pending works for your “new release”. They won’t pay you enough attention even if they check it out. Some bars will escape their mind, the chords won’t hit their soft spots, and the Melodies, the almighty melodies, won’t register in their subconscious as they should. So dear artists, your audiences also have their lives to live. Don’t interrupt their Mondays or, similarly, Saturdays. Releasing on Saturdays is like arriving at the club when the party’s over.

There are a few exceptions, though. Unless your song is titled Saturday, never drop on a Saturday. The same goes for Monday and Friday. Also, if your track relates to a holiday or event on any of the three forbidden days, feel free to seize the day and break the rule.

Final Thoughts

If you can pinpoint the time of the day when your fans are most active, you can drop during that time so they can engage your release and give your record the best push it deserves. The global time for release is 00:01, but you can choose your preferred time via the dashboard provided by your distributor. Next week we will provide you with a follow-up article discussing how to read the mood of your audience using tested and trusted techniques used by label executives, established artists, and super managers.

NFTs for Musicians: Here’s all you need to know about the non-fungible tokens

NFTs for Musicians: Here’s all you need to know about the non-fungible tokens

Stop underselling yourself by restricting your music to royalty-based platforms like Apple Music, Deezer, and Spotify. As an artist, you can earn thousands (if not millions) of dollars by selling easy-to-make digital NFTs like BTS of your music videos, tour pictures, 3D animations, images, and throwaway music that would never make it to the publisher anyways.

It’s all about Leverage

When was the last time Rihanna released a record? Can’t remember right? She dropped her last record, Anti, in 2016 (6 years ago). Yet, she was declared a billionaire in 2021 (approximately $1.7 billion).

Did she attain the “billi” status off her back catalog? Not at all!

In recent times, Riri has been everywhere (except the music studio) flaunting her baby bump. She realized making music would only enrich her label management instead of her. Hence, she banked on her leverage as a world-class artist to create Fenty. Yes, she became a billionaire by selling cosmetics and perfumes. She clearly understood the power of leverage.

Same thing with Kanye West, an artist that went through the loss of his mother, divorce, and almost filed for bankruptcy in one decade. However, he turned his life around by using his leverage to sell fashion products. He is currently worth $2 billion. Like Rihanna, Ye understood the immense power of leverage.

Fans who are dedicated to your music won’t mind paying money to get rare digital content like unreleased music or images in the form of non-fungible tokens. These people want to access rare items from their favorite artists and they don’t mind paying for them.

It’s the same logic that enables artists to pay for after-party tickets after the main show. Some of them want to brag about partying with you and not just watch you perform on a distant show.

View NFT platforms as a patron platform only that people purchase access with cryptocurrencies. On platforms like Opensea, artists sell digital fragments of their lifestyles.

What is Music NFT?

NFTs became so popular in 2021 that it was featured in Collins dictionary as the word of the year. For most people, the Bored Ape Avatar or crypto art monkey was their first contact with the NFT world. The cosign from artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Tory Lanez helped shine more light on the NFT community on Twitter, Discord, Reddit, and other highly interactive media.

So what the hell are music NFTs? To better grasp the concept of an NFT audio, you must understand what NFT entails. NFT is the acronym for non-fungible tokens. It is any digital asset be it a painting, music, videos, or in-game item that can be owned or traded. When you pay for an NFT, you don’t just pay for the art but also its ownership which is stored in the blockchain every time a transaction is completed from artist to fans or fans to fans.

Usually, NFT artists release limited copies of their records or singles. Then, the fans who purchased it initially can sell the NFT project for higher amounts. A good example is Tory Lanez’s NFT album titled “When it’s Dark”. The album was sold exclusively on E-NFT, a platform presented by Emmersive Entertainment.

The project sold for $1 per copy and one million copies were sold out in a minute. Tory is not alone in the NFT space as many artists like Shawn Mendes, Mike Shinoda, and Ja Rule amongst many others.

Music NFT is a certificate stored within the blockchain system that proves the ownership of a musical project. The rights that come with the acquisition of music NFTs are determined by the original owners (artists or labels).

While fans will be able to earn money alongside the artists when they sell their music NFT copies, they cannot license them out to advertisers or claim the master rights unless stated otherwise by the artist. It is necessary for fans to understand the limits of their ownership rights before music NFTs.

Things you need to make music NFTs

Minting your music NFT is quite easy, but without understanding the essentials, you may find yourself in a tough spot for days. Below are the things you need to mint music NFTs.

Crypto wallet

A crypto wallet is used to store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Technically, you can’t buy an NFT art with fiat currencies like dollars or cold cash. Music NFTs are sold or purchased using cryptocurrencies. However, you can purchase crypto money; then, buy music NFTs with your cryptocurrency.

These wallets come in form of applications or browser extensions. Go for crypto wallets that are easy to use and compatible with most of the NFT marketplaces. The good thing about crypto wallets is that almost every crypto marketplace has its own wallet for instance Coinbase, Binance, Coinomi, Bitcoin Core, and BitPay. With basic knowledge of how crypto works, you are good to go.

Not all crypto wallets are compatible with the blockchain protocol NFTs are designed on. In addition, your chosen wallet must be compatible with the currency you intend to purchase your NFT. The general currencies for purchasing NFTs are Ethereum, Ether, and Bitcoin.

An address is given to every crypto wallet. Like your bank account number, your crypto wallet address is the information you provide a sender whenever you are making a transaction on the blockchain system.

Alongside the address, you will have to create a private key and seed phrase that should be kept private at all times. Hackers can steal your cryptocurrency or NFT if they have access to your private key or seed phrase.

A private key is synonymous with a password. It is a chain of numbers and letters that serves as a pass to your blockchain data and asset. You are advised to store your private key on physical media like paper or a hard drive but in case you lose your password, you can recover your account using a 12-word seed phrase.

Please note that you cannot recover your digital asset if you lose your private key and seed phrase.

NFT Marketplace

Let’s say you have converted your fiat currency into cryptocurrency and you want to start minting your music NFT. The next step is to choose an NFT platform that you trust. Established artists are constantly wooed by these platforms and oftentimes offered mouth-watering deals and promotion budgets.

As an upcoming artist, you have to create an account on the platform yourself and promote your music NFTs with your own money.

There are various NFT platforms out there. Popular examples of such platforms include Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Larva Labs, NBA Top Shot Marketplace, SuperRare, Raible, etc.

In the case of OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace for artists, you need a Metamask crypto wallet and ethereum cryptocurrency to start minting your music NFT. Creating an OpenSea and NFT collection is pretty easy. The process and requirements differ for every platform. It is recommended you compare and contrast different platforms before choosing one.

Gas fee for minting

In the same way you pay processing fees when making transactions at banks, the desired NFT platform will require you to pay the gas fee for minting operations.

Minting refers to the process of publishing one’s token on the blockchain system to make it sellable. Prior to the minting process, your digital asset is tokenized, meaning a random identifier is generated to avoid unauthorized access and confirm the ownership of the music NFT.

Gas fee funds the NFT platform and most importantly the miners of the crypto community. The price differs for every platform. OpenSea charges its NFT creators an initial gas fee of $70 -$300 for initiating an account and $10 – $30 to access your NFT. In addition, they will charge you 2.5 percent of the profit made per music NFT sale.

Final Thoughts

There are several ways you can make money through your music outside the royalty system. Whether you decide to sell a physical merch or digital NFT asset, the grass is greener on any side when you water it enough. Even the deserts of Saudi Arabia get fertile when watered.

Get every track on your album playlisted on Spotify using the Waterfall Release Strategy

Get every track on your album playlisted on Spotify using the Waterfall Release Strategy

Suppose you desire the Spotify algorithm boost that comes with releasing singles on Spotify while building momentum for your album; this guide might be the most important message you will ever read because it will break down the Spotify waterfall release strategy (a tested and trusted strategy that bridges the gap between a single release and album release). This strategy allows you to build a loyal fanbase, spread content over a more extended period, and attain your desired milestones.

Here’s a sneak peek of what this guide entails for those in a hurry. So have a taste, bookmark this page and come back for the full meal when you are free.

● What is a Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy?
● Does Spotify support the Waterfall Release Strategy?
● How do you do Waterfalls on Spotify?
● Benefits of the Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy
● Examples of Popular Artists who use the Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy
● Final Thoughts: Movement Creates Impact

Did you know that Spotify only allows artists to pitch a song per release? This policy gives single releases an edge over album releases. Hence, it is counterintuitive to drop an EP or album without building momentum before the record release as an upcoming artist.

A release is not the same as a song. An album release consists of a variety of songs (ranging between 30 minutes to 2 hours). On the other hand, when an artist puts out a single track, the release is the same as the song. There are other forms of music releases like the mixtape and EP (but that’s a discussion for another day).

Some songs are better off as singles than album fillers. It’s painful when songs never attain their full potential because the album overshadowed their brilliance. Using this strategy gives your tracks exclusive exposure, and every time you promote your OTG project using ads, it will up the streams for your previous tracks.

Artists like Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, or Kanye West can afford to drop albums or double albums without dropping lead singles because they have fanatic fanbases. As a result, these artists are inevitable on social media, plus they have stans who spam Google Search every day for more information about them. (If you followed the annual Billboard report of the most trending artists on Google Search in previous years, this wouldn’t be new to you).

Putting out lead singles before your album release helps you build a fanbase, get more press, take your audience through a beautiful album rollout/experience and provide the Spotify algorithm with more data, hence helping it identify your lookalike audience.

“If you examine the waterfall concept well enough, you will understand that movement creates impact”

What is a Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy?

A Spotify waterfall release strategy, also known as the building-the-album strategy or SWRS, is a strategy that originated from the growing need to adapt to the streaming era without having to sacrifice conventional album release cycles.

It involves releasing an album track-by-track (gradually) over a specific time until the final tracklist is completely available on Spotify.

Alternatively, SWRS can also be defined as a chain of singles distributed to compile an album as time goes on. An album released with this method does not equate to a playlist, as it can be featured on Wikipedia and Google Knowledge Panel as a record, while playlists don’t get acknowledged in the same light.

The album era was in the 1960s. At first, the primary consumers of albums were wealthier old music fans. As time went by, listeners across all the demographics became consumers of albums, and every genre made it a part of their culture. The production styles differed, but the rollout method was the same – labels built momentum with catchy lead singles and toured radio and TV shows in preparation for the album release.

In the 90s, the album culture primed, and the music industry recorded a revenue boost of about $15 billion from pure CD sales. The big problem was that no one saw the internet coming.

The rise of file-sharing platforms like Napsters wrecked the revenue from CD sales. Then, the 21st century witnessed a decline in album sales. It was not until 2015 that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that music revenue had bounced back due to the advent of proprietary streaming and media services like Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, etc.

Even though the revenue from music sales is back to normal, the music culture has shifted in favour of singles. We are now in the streaming era, an era plagued with inattentive listeners with unending options.

As we proceed, you will learn how to take advantage of the Spotify bias towards singles while reaping the benefits of an album release.

Most blog publishers won’t take you seriously as an upcoming artist if you approach them with a single. They may not get past the first sentence of your email pitch.

Dropping a body of work lets music fans know that you have musical depth and attracts listeners who love to binge artists’ catalogues. Who knows? You may be lucky enough to build a massive fanbase like the Beliebers (Justin Bieber’s fanbase), ASAP Mob (ASAP Rocky’s fans), or Ragers (Travis Scott’s fans).

Does Spotify support the Waterfall Release Strategy?

Spotify is a fan of the waterfall release strategy as it promotes the streaming culture and ensures that users visit their platform from time to time.

How to release an album using the Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy?

Earlier in this article, we differentiated between

a release and a track. You can revisit the definition to understand the issues we are about to trash out here.

The Waterfall Release Strategy involves replacing the previous release on your artist page with multiple releases over time. The newer releases include fresh and old tracks that are organised so that listeners consume the new ones first. As the marketing method matures, unfamiliar audiences will get to discover previous releases while established listeners enjoy the growing musical experience.

Although Spotify treats each release separately, the artist can add old tracks to their latest releases using the Uniform Resource Indicator (URI) code.

Instead of making one release and adding tracks to it over time, the waterfall strategy involves making multiple single releases and adding all the tracks when the full album is ripe.

It must be noted that Spotify does not support the Instant Gratification release strategy. The I.G strategy allows artists to make some tracks in an album available for instant purchase before the release date. Then, when the full album is out, platforms that support IGS notify its users.

Do not confuse IGS releases with waterfall releases. Spotify has a distaste for IGS and does not support that release. However, other platforms like Apple Music, Amazon, Tidal, iTunes, and Deezer support the Instant Gratification album release method.

Below are the steps required to make a successful waterfall release on Spotify.

  1. Have a distributor plan that supports multiple releases for a cheap fee because, in 6-12 months, you would be releasing singles back to back. On the other hand, if your distributor requires a one-time fee per release, you may spend too much on the project. For example, Distrokid allows you to put out multiple releases for an annual fee (which depends on the premium tier you subscribe to). You may also want to look at distribution platform such as CDBaby. Still, for artists who want to release multiple songs per year and don’t mind paying annual fees, Distrokid’s model is the bee’s knees.
  2. Draft your plan and release sequence. Yes, we know you want to roll out an album using SWRS, but you need to know how you want the

record to be arranged. Also, you want to outline your budget for each release. Your budget does not have to be the same for every release as listeners would have their favourites, and you ought to keep promoting your best releases throughout the album campaign.

3. Once you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s, you are ready to make your first
release (which has just one track). Let’s dub your first release – “release A.” Once release A goes live, you should keep promoting it and let your fans know more music is coming from your album. Then, you wait till it’s time to make your next release.

4. On your artist dashboard provided by your distributor, prepare a new release of two songs dubbed release B. The Ep will contain your next single and your first release. Note that your new release will have a fresh UPC, but to include your last release, you must add the Uniform Resource Indicator (URI) code of the last track when filling in the details for Release B. To avoid any project delay or confusion, make sure the track metadata for the first track is the same as the one on the previous release. This will ensure that you keep the stream count garnered from the last track, plus new listeners would be wowed if they found that some of your old tracks are already popping. Also, the metrics from the first release remain the same when added to another release. You may wonder what all the fuss about metrics is? Metrics from a release help the Spotify algorithm decide who to recommend your music to. The more metrics you can provide the algorithm throughout the release process, the higher the chance of building a strong fanbase when the full album drops.

5. Repeat the process for as many releases as you intend to put out. And be consistent with it. An album can consist of 10-30 songs (as long as the total duration of the record exceeds 30 minutes).

6. Since all distributors offer different dashboards and systems, there is no one way to synchronize the date of your releases. If you get lost in the process, you should contact your distributor for more details.

Benefits of the Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy

I’m sure you must have noticed some of the few benefits we outlined earlier, but this section discusses the pros of the SWR strategy on a deeper level.

Artists will be able to pitch every song on the Ep for playlist consideration.

Spotify only lets you pitch a track per release, meaning if you want to put out your album at once, you will only get a shot at editorial playlisting. That’s it – just one shot. However, if you practice the strategy we preached here, you can pitch all your album tracks to Spotify. And if your pitch is solid enough, all your album tracks may get playlisted

Solve the cold start problem before the album is released

In our previous article, we discussed how the Spotify algorithm works. The report explained why every new artist doesn’t get the right exposure they deserve because of the cold start problem. Using the SWR strategy as a new artist will solve that problem before releasing your album.

The algorithm compiles enough data on the 

artist’s by the audience, giving Spotify BaRT insight into the type of people who would most likely appreciate your music when your song is recommended. Next, build momentum for the release of your album. Then, you will always have content to post.

Boosts previous songs.

Pretty obvious if you keep adding previous releases to the latest ones, you will get more people to stream your old tracks. This is a great deal, especially for artists who pay Zuckerberg for Facebook ads. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.

Examples of Popular Artists who use the Spotify Waterfall Release Strategy

Two music brands, namely the Chainsmokers and Spirit box, have employed the waterfall release strategy in the past. The more popular brand, the Chainsmoker, experimented with the relatively new idea in 2018 and recorded outstanding results after the campaign. At first, mapping out the strategy was a headache, according to Joe Gallo of Columbia Records. Their first release using the building-the-album strategy had 112 million but garnered more streams (3.3 million streams) when it was added to the second release titled ‘You Owe Me.’ Finally, as highlighted by a Billboard report, they solved the problem they wanted to tackle – the reduction of streams gotten by streams after all the pre and post-release buzz had died down. Also, they could see what single was suitable for radio promotion from their dashboard and build momentum before their album release date.

Final Thoughts: Movement creates Impact

One of the most beautiful things in life is the waterfall (the pirouettes of river dance). It’s a sacred place for many naturalists who appreciate the basic things of life and engross themselves in the musical notes made by every drop of water. In the enlightening words of D Mason, the sound of a waterfall is nature’s lullaby”. Following this note, don’t drop your album all at once since it will be less impactful. Instead, give your audience some time to digest your album, one track after another. Are you curious to get read more on how to BEAT THE SPOTIFY ALGORITHM and BUILD A PROFITABLE FAN BASE? Sign up for Loudlab newsletter updates.

Understanding How Spotify Algorithm Works

Understanding How Spotify Algorithm Works

The dream of every artist is to go viral on Spotify. Hacking the Spotify algorithm comes with global exposure, the influx of deals from labels, and of course, plenty of money.

It is not enough to record great music; you must also understand how the Spotify algorithm works. In this guide, we will explain how you can unlock the potential of Spotify and expose the way the algorithm works through natural language processing, content-based filtering, and collaborative filtering.

Spotify triggered a paradigm shift in the music industry in 2008 with music streaming. Its emergence made CDs and DVDs things of the past. For a small monthly fee per user, the Swedish company made millions of records available to listeners.

Even though Spotify started earlier than most digital streaming platforms, it is not safe from the wrath of competition.  The streaming giant is contesting with the likes of Apple Music and Amazon (Amazon Music), and Google (YouTube Music), hence it is left with two options — dominate or face the fate of obsolete streaming platforms like Soundcloud and Napster. According to Statista, Spotify has 188 million paying subscribers globally. Please note that its total number of users (both free and premium) exceeds 365 million). 

Although Spotify is on its winning streak, it is losing market share to Apple Music, especially in the States. The only way out for Spotify is to solidify its influence among music listeners and artists. That feat can be attained with the help of smart algorithms and machine learning programs. 

Convincing users to become premium consumers becomes a lot easier when the user experience on the platform is top-notch. People just want an unlimited good music experience and they would not mind paying for it. 

So far, so good; Spotify has been doing good despite the pressure from competitors and scandals that have rocked its very foundation. How did they come this far? Your guess is as good as mine; by garnering reliable data and actively tweaking their algorithm. So let’s dive deeper into the physiology of Spotify’s popular algorithm.

Spotify Home Screen

Spotify Home Screen is like the maitre d’hotel that gave you a warm welcome when you lodged at a guest house during your last vacation to Italy. 

Right off the bat, Spotify greets its visitors with customized playlists and recommendations. Intrigued users are presented with a variety of recommended playlists. Famous examples of recommended playlists are Release Radar, Discover Weekly, your mixtapes, B Slide,  etc. 

The Other sections menu aka shelves features Recently Played, Recommended for today, or Jump Back In. 

The Spotify home screen is designed to suck listeners back into the streaming app. If there is one thing Spotify hates, it is users exiting their app. The AI responsible for creating and curating the home screen is dubbed BaRT (meaning Bandits for Recommendations as

Treatments). We will give you a breakdown of BaRT as we proceed. 

If you are logged into Spotify as a user, you will find sections like “Recommended songs” (automatic playlist continuations), and you “might also like” placed side by side with the recommended playlists mentioned earlier. Also, these sections are placed under every playlist and album. The idea is that no user screen is the same and every user has a customized Spotify screen.

All backend designers will tell you that you need data to run an interactive user interface, hence Spotify’s algorithm is only as powerful as the data its users feed it when they click the “allow Spotify to track…” pop-up. 

The data is needed to dish out music to users and fine-tune the song predictions whether the user is on the Spotify app or listening to music in the background. How does Spotify get its data and what are its sources? Let’s find out in the next section.

Data

Like all big data collectors, Spotify needs the user’s approval to kick-off. Most Spotify users are cool with being tracked because they enjoy the superb user experience, perfect recommendations, and end-of-the-year stats provided by Spotify. 

Spotify tracks everything from the time spent on the platforms to the songs interacted with the most. 

Spotify wrapped became a thing in 2020. There’s a really good chance you have come across a screenshot of Spotify Wrapped from a random Twitter user. The feature offers users the breakdown of the duration and the genres they listened to the most. 

Users post their SPotify Wrapped to boast about the uniqueness of their music taste. The information contained in Spotify’s “year in review” report includes the listening time, genre, favorite podcasts, favorite artists, and newcomers. 

It is not just the users who provide Spotify with data, the artists are not exempted. Without lifting a finger, Spotify is showered with details such as song descriptions, song names, genre, song files, lyrics, and images. The more data Spotify collects from you as an artist, the higher your chance of getting playlisted on algorithmic playlists and recommended to its users. 

When consumers consent to share their data with Spotify, they give the streaming giant the access to their skipped songs, listening history, number of times a song is repeated, social interactions (when they share music covers to social media sites like Instagram and Twitter), and playlists stored.

While getting internal data from artists and users, Spotify also gets external data from its blog posts or articles about music. 

Spotify Acquisitions

In the tech space, there are two ways you can own an innovation. You can either sponsor research into the field and build for years or just acquire people who have created what you want. An acquisition is like a larger whale suckin-up smaller fishes. For just 100 million dollars, Spotify bought Echonest in 2014. 

Echonest is a music intelligence and data platform that had over 1 billard of data on songs and artists when it was acquired by Spotify. Its strategy of amassing data according to its founder (Brian Whitman) is filtering over 10 million websites in the music space to determine what’s popping and what’s not. 

Another acquisition that strengthened Spotify’s leverage in the music market is the acquisition of Seed Scientific, a data science and analytics consultancy. 

Two years after the deal, Spotify also acquired Sonalytic, an audio detection company. 

Audio detection technology helps identify a song even if you have no metadata about the song. If you have used Shazam before, you would clearly understand the concept of audio detection. 

There are two major ways Spotify benefits from audio detection. Firstly, it helps them tackle the issue of copyright violations and avoid being sued by artists and labels. Secondly, it uses audio detection to fortify the customization in playlists and songs so they can “match songs with compositions and…improve its publishing data system”. These three purchases are part of what makes Spotify better than its rivals. 

Even though the amount spent for the deal to come to fruition was not disclosed, the deal must have cost Spotify millions of dollars at least. Why did Spotify bet on Sonalytic? 

Recommender System

Every giant tech service has a recommender system that predicts what the user wants and recommends it to them. Recommender systems determine what movie a user wants to see next (Netflix), what keyword the consumer may be interested in (Google), and the type of music a Kanye fan would appreciate when discovered (Spotify).  Now that I think about it, the recommender system pretty much rules the internet. It is on every app and site you turn to.

The recommender system is reliant on consumer behavior and data inputted directly when filling forms or bio. People are comfortable with the recommender system doing the hard work for them. According to the Spotify Research Team, “users are overwhelmed by the choice of what to watch, buy, read, and listen to online”, making recommender systems essential in the decision-making process. The work of the recommender system is simply to suggest music to Spotify users.  

At the beginning of the article, we stated that the Spotify algorithm works via collaborative filtering, natural language processing, and a content-based recommender system. Let’s discuss the three methods in detail.

  • Collaborative-filtering: A jazz listener barely changes genre overnight and many people have favorite musicians whom they would listen to for life. Collaborative filtering works based on the logic that users would repeat similar decisions they’ve made in the past and love the type of music they’ve always listened to.
  • Content-based: Black Americans love hip hop because it was created by them and features a good part of their history. In simple terms, they love hip hop because it is relatable. Content-based recommender systems predict content based on the data inputted by the user, for instance, age, gender, territory, and preferred genre.
  • Hybrid: Hybrid recommender systems use both methods — that is content-based and collaborative filtering — to predict songs to listeners. Once you understand the three above-mentioned systems, it will be easy to comprehend the Spotify BaRT algorithm. Let’s go.

What is BaRT?

We briefly explained what BaRT stands for in the early part of this guide. The BaRT algorithm can switch between two modes: exploration and exploitation.

The exploitation mode helps users find music based on what they already like while the exploration mode helps them find new music without considering their music consumption history. 

The data considered in exploitation mode include the skips, liked songs, and repeated songs. The exploration mode relies on data from the trending music to what other users enjoy, as Spotify users don’t just want to be fed with what they already love, they also want to explore new music on the platform.

Primarily, recommender systems function in exploitation mode using collaborative filtering. It is the bees knees when the users provide it with sufficient data. 

However, on the flipside, exploitation mode flops when there is no data for the algorithm to act on, meaning the user has not interacted enough with the Spotify app. The exploitation mode is always at the mercy of the user.

When the exploitation mode fails, the exploration mode comes into action. The designers of the BaRT algorithm anticipated such situations. Exploration mode does not require data from the user to function. In fact, it blossoms in uncertainty. 

According to a research titled — Explore, Exploit, and Explain: Personalising Explainable Recommendations with Bandits by James McInerney, Benjamin Lacker, Samantha Hansen, Karl Higley, Hugues Bouchard, Alois Gruson, and Rishabh Mehrotra – Exploration recommends content with uncertain predicted user engagement for the purpose of gathering more information. The importance of exploration has been recognized in recent years, particularly in settings with new users, new items, non-stationary preferences, and attributes.

Simply put, the algorithm gives a new song a chance to shine even though it has not garnered enough user data about it. When the BaRT algorithm gives a new song exposure, it monitors and records how users interacted with the record. 

When users listen to a song for less than 30 seconds, it hurts their chances of getting more exposure. On the other hand, when users listen for more than 30 seconds and interact with the song further via playlisting, liking or saving, the song gets more exposure. 

The BaRT algorithm considers the negative and positive recommendations before choosing what songs to recommend to more users.

The exploration mode is useful when there is low certainty on the relevance of a record while the reverse is true for the exploitation mode. Yes, the BaRT model can make mistakes but the beauty of the algorithm is that it learns from its mistakes and predicts better next time. It gauges consumer satisfaction using click-through rates and positive feedback. 

Through reinforcement learning, BaRT is able to log, learn and adjust using its experience with millions of Spotify users. To provide optimal satisfaction and correctly recommend songs to users, the BaRT model utilizes a multi-armed bandit (which is programmed to initiate a specific action ‘A’ in anticipation of the best reward ‘R’. Therefore, future action ‘A’ is reliant on former actions and rewards. 

A Multi-armed Bandit (aka MAB) is tasked to pick actions that optimize the overall sum of rewards. The first type of MAB did not have an eye for the context of the task such as device, playlist, time of the day, user features among others. To better serve the listeners, the Spotify team came up with a better version which is also known as the contextual multi-armed bandit. This version collects and considers contextual data before picking the appropriate action. 

Four determinants are responsible for the success or failure of a contextual MAB, 

namely the context, the training procedure, the reward model, and the exploitation-exploration policy. The report quoted earlier offers a formula for getting any of the three parameters that are contained within the reward mode. The three parameters are an item j (the record), an explanation e (why the song was chosen), and the context x. The formula below houses the three parameters.

 θ refers to the coefficients of the logistic regression and 1_i denotes a one-hot vector of zeros with a single 1 at index. 

Currently, the reward function influences the action. In a specific context x the user u initiates the maximal action using the equation below

The authors in the report we quoted earlier used the epsilon greedy for the exploration approach. According to them, “[This “gives equal probability mass to all non-optimal items in the validity set f (e,x) and (1−ε) additional mass to the optimal action (j∗,e∗).” [2] The policy is set to “either exploit or explore the item and explanation simultaneously”.

The procedure by which the algorithm enlightens itself is not out of the ordinary as BaRT educates itself periodically in batch mode. The problem that arises when the algorithm encounters a new artist with no prior songs to learn from is called the cold start problem. Collaborative filtering is not the best method for new and relatively unknown songs.

How Spotify solves the cold start problem

When there is no historical data to learn from, the major source of data at the algorithm’s disposal is the record itself. While this process of evaluation is quite complex and requires thorough computer activity, it is necessary to solve the cold start problem and give the algorithm an edge. 

Regarding how records are analyzed, a then-employee of Spotify named Sander Dieleman gave a detailed explanation in a 2014 blog article. According to Sander, the model has four convolutional layers and three dense layers. Instead of inputting the raw audio files, the machine learning model adopts spectrograms which are just representations of the audio track. Every song analyzed through this process is converted to Mel-spectrograms

 

The Mel-spectrogram of a track is unique to it, making it a valid way of interpreting audio files. It is a time-frequency graph plot of audio. The concept behind the Mel scale is to imitate the human listening response. 

There is a good likelihood that the current Spotify algorithm has the Spotify Dieleman prototype, thereby rendering his model obsolete. However, if you are interested in his explanations, you can check out this report

Natural Language Processing and Music Intelligence

The acquisitions of Echonest places Spotify on par with its competitors, data-wise. The music intelligence platform uses web crawling and Natural Language Processing to track and store information from over 10 million websites. With the aid of NLP, Spotify can keep up with trends, discussions, and people’s predilections in the music industry. The NLP system can also measure the relevance of certain musical keywords.

Final Thoughts: How to “Exploit” the BaRT algorithm

It’s pretty simple. Feed the Spotify algorithm with data. The first way to feed the algorithm with data is to submit your music for playlisting prior to the release date. 

When pitching your song, fill out the form and send links to blog posts mentioning your new project (as it will help the NLP system). 

Also, ensure that you push the music on the first week of release so that the algorithm can get information from your listeners and push the record to similar listeners. 

Please do not add your song to unrelated playlists because the algorithm will punish your record when it gets negative feedback from uninterested listeners.

Web 3 : An alternate universe where independent artists are richer than labels

Web 3 : An alternate universe where independent artists are richer than labels

Did you know that artists made $83 million in basic sales via NFTs in 2021? The good news, according to an exclusive Bloomberg report, is that a whooping 70% of that bag went to independent artists. You heard that right! In this guide, we will discuss how artists are using the web 3.0 as a leverage to make more money from their music compared to the pennies they get from digital streaming platforms.

In a modern music industry built by the labels and for the labels between the 30s and 50s, saying that independent artists made more money than labels sounds like wishful thinking. I guess you were baffled when this blog came up on your screen. But you can rest assured this blog is no prank.

Yes, it is true that the majority of the music market is controlled by three giant corporate labels, namely, the Warner Music Group (American), Universal Music Group (French), and Sony Music Entertainment (Japanese). And a large chunk of the most-sought-after artists are also signed to these companies.

However, the internet, the same artificial factor that caught the music industry by surprise in 

the early 2000s and democratised music distribution, remains undefeated. Instead it has evolved into a more decentralised version, web 3.0.

What is Web 3.0?

The Future, one where users become owners. Unlike Web 2.0 which is controlled by big tech companies (who also own the music industry), web 3.0 is a decentralised internet built on the back of Blockchain technology and token-based economics. Coined by the Ethereum founder, Gavin wood, Web 3  became the alias for the decentralised web. 

Death of Big Data and the rise of Independent artists

Big data is an umbrella term for data sets that are too complex for conventional data-processing application software. It lets big organisations make precise decisions. Do you wonder how Sony Music A&Rs know the best time to drop music? They have access to information smaller artists can’t access, hence they have not just financial power but statistical power over independent artists.

The primary benefits of Web 3.0 according to experts are data security, scalability, and privacy. Have you ever been harassed by pop-up ads on websites asking you to give them access to your data before you can proceed? Can you recollect seeing an ad about a product on Facebook after you searched for a related term on Google? In the Web 2.0, our online behavioral patterns are being monitored and our cameras have been infiltrated. 

On the other hand, the web 3.0 is their worst nightmare as it relinquishes their hold on artists and everyday users. For independent musicians, the web 3.0 marks the beginning of new markets similar to those that emerged as a result of cryptocurrencies and NFTs  (non-fungible tokens). Artists can now earn more money from their music by selling audio files as non-fungible tokens.

Of course, there are endless channels of monetizing your music. Here’s the catch — From merchandise sales to touring, these means of revenue are not entirely accessible to booming artists plus they require capital to be successful.

Out of the vast array of financial opportunities of cashing out via your music, the NFT sphere pays the most and provides uncensored access directly to artists  (upcoming or established). 

In a Bloomberg interview, an international independent artist named Europe, revealed that she made $60,000 from her music NFTs sales. According to her, “I had one person buy my song for the amount it would have taken a million streams to get”. She made more money in NFTs  per month than she got on a monthly basis for 4 million streams from digital streaming platforms.

Europe is not the only artist who went platinum by selling NFTs. A Canadian rapper, Tory lanez, claimed he went platinum a minute after his NFT  project, when it’s dark. 

Artists no longer have to slave off to get record deals. In fact, they don’t need any label contract. To create an NFT project, all you need to do is attach your music  to a verifiable digital token and auction it for any amount of online marketplaces like OpenSea, Block Party, 

Rarible, or Mintable. These platforms also keep the track record of transactions. Like CDs, buyers of NFTs own the copies they purchased and can resell them in the future. The ability to resell an art increases its value, positioning your music as an investment rather than a common commodity like a can of coke. 

For instance, an artist who goes by the name Allan Kyariga sold ten projects for $40,000. Luckily for the user who bought one of his singles, the person resold it for seven times the original price. The funniest part is that Allan almost gave up on music when the big labels that in his words, “didn’t make sense to take”.

Final Thoughts 

Web 3.0 is everything web 2.0 and 1.0 aren’t; hope for the independent artist, checkmate to the big labels, and Robin Hood for our personal data. With powerful companies buying lands in the Metaverse and eyeing the NFT music space, we are unsure if the prosperity of independent artists would continue. While buyers of NFTs don’t own copyright, there is a grey area regarding what they can do with their copies and what they cannot do. However, we can say for sure that this new technology will change the tides of time.

We "Cracked" Spotify's Algorithm!

 

and we have a system to make it work in your favor.

We are preparing some great material to guide music artists on their path to success.

Subscribe and be the first to be informed!

You have Successfully Subscribed!