It's Time To Focus On Releasing Singles Instead Of An Album. Here's Why!

With this particular topic, I feel I have always been ahead of the curve. Much to the dismay of my managers, I have never wanted to record a full album, and I always wanted to release every single track before the EP.

I have always recorded an EP, I have found them to be the most cost-effective and here in Australia, we have only ever needed to put 6 songs on an EP for it to count towards our biggest charts as an album.

I could never understand why you would record 6 tracks, release 2 or 3 of them as singles and then release the rest on an album only for them to be buried. People talk about their songs being "singles" or "album tracks", "that's not as great, it's probably more of an album track" then why put it on there? Whatever you release, it is meant to show your best work, well at least that is how I looked at it.

Thanks mainly to streaming, artists and managers alike are beginning to realise that it is far more beneficial to release all tracks as singles to give them the best chance of being chosen for playlists, plus using the tracks for marketing. We need to be smart with our money and therefore need to get the most value out of everything that we create.

I do it with my blogs, I will write a blog, record a video with it, strip it down and convert it into a podcast and then take a piece of it and use it for my social media. We want to get the most out of every product we create.

Why record singles and not just do an EP? Well, I think that you should do an EP, 9 times out of 10 it will be more cost-efficient for you in a studio environment to record between 4-6 tracks. However, I advise against only putting a few singles out.

You should release every track from the EP. As I mentioned earlier, my managers have always been against this idea. However, with the streaming world becoming immensely popular, you want to give every track that you have recorded the chance to be included in a playlist. If it is included in a Spotify or Apple playlist, then this will expose your music to a new audience, giving you the chance to increase your fanbase significantly.

Should I still release it as an EP? Everyone loves seeing a new piece of work such as an EP. Generally, an EP has a story, the songs on it create a picture for the consumer and have some kind of theme, so it is essential to release your EP along with its artwork so that your super fans still have a chance to buy, download or stream it. I still print some physical copies to take with me on tour, because even though the album as we know it is dead, there are people that still love to purchase a physical copy and have it signed, so, therefore, it is still essential to release all of your songs as an EP.

Getting value for money. As an artist, our goal is to build our fanbase and then engage and shower them with excellent quality content that keeps them interested and invested. Creating music is costly, even when you stick with a reasonable budget, so it is incredibly important to ensure that if you are spending money on the products, then you need to be getting the full value from it. Use it to create and recreate content to share with your audience.

Do I need to have a new single cover for each single? Absolutely! If you are only starting out and your budget is only minimal then there is no reason you can't use a website like Canva.com, remember you don't even have to include a picture of yourself on the artwork, it just has to be engaging. If you are creating new artwork for your projects then it says something to your audience, it says "hey, I am over here releasing a bunch of songs for you, I won't leave you! I'm here to stay!".

I say it all of the time; people love consistency; they love to know that you will continue to show up, continue to do what they love you doing. Make a big deal out of each release so you can ensure that you are getting value for money.