3 ways to break your music in 2021
By: Dan Ware
Tags: Music Business, Hip Hop, Emerging Artists, Music, Música

2) Here are the types of singles you should be creating and working

So we covered why singles are your best bet, so cool, but what kind of singles should you be dropping? Let’s go through it. You should have your: Lead Single, Follow Up Single, The Remix, and unreleased track.

Let’s start with your lead single. So all that money you were about to put into that studio time to record that full project, yeah scratch that. Put into your lead single. This should be mixed and mastered and get some dope cover art designed. This will get you a better chance of landing on playlists and taking the guesswork out of which song to promote. I know all your songs are amazing, we know, still choose the one that you know if your heart of hearts will work better than the rest. The other ones, put in a drive for later. Make sure you get a radio edit version cut as well and get that song distributed and promoted. This will give fans and influencers something to put into their daily lives and shareable content.

So bet, you released your amazing lead single, what now? Well similar to our first section you, say it with me, “FEED THE STREETS”. That’s right, that second song that you were choosing between well let’s make that your follow up single. Even better let’s make sure you drop that within the same 2 to 3 weeks of you releasing your lead single. And to be perfectly honest, if you have the ability, you should record a brand new single based on the feedback from the lead single. I know you are an artist but end of the day you are making music for your fans, lean in. Or if you are really feeling risky, release a follow up that sounds a bit different from your first, show your new fans your artistry. And what’s beautiful about releasing singles and not projects, if people don’t seem to love it like your other releases, well you didn’t spend months or even a year creating and releasing it, you can come and release another single next week.

Ok, so the remix, if you look at a lot of the more successful artists recently, they got a hot lead single then went to a DJ, Electronic artist, producer or another musician to add a little razzle dazzle to it. What happens is people either love it or hate it and then go listen to the original to compare. Double up. Each person touching the remix has their own fanbase and gives you additional content to (you know what I’m going to say)… FEED THE STREETS! So make sure you make a “stem” track so you can collab with fellow musicians and make some magic happen.

Lastly, this will segway nicely into our next topic around content, but stop holding on to those studio sessions or that song that isn’t quite perfect yet, release your unofficial releases. If you don’t want the song to be permanently out, there are a ton of ways to make these temporary releases through IG Reels, Stories, Tiktok, Triller etc. that all will just provide your fans with music to be held over until our next official release. This will get your fans to see a peek behind the curtain and truly become a fan of you and not just your music.

3) Create music videos or better yet have someone else do it

Ok, we are finally to our last section. Distributing your singles isn’t enough, you need visuals. Videos are probably the way people digest content the most nowadays and you have a ton of ways to do this. You have Youtube where you can do the music video, lyric video, live performances or studio sessions. Additionally you can put all of that content on social as well.

But you’re busy right? Well you don’t have to create each of your own videos, there are tools that can help. Breakr is a huge one. You can hire influencers on a range of different platforms to create content to your song that both of you can promote, while you leverage as official releases to create potentially viral content such as skits, contents, challenges and dance videos.

Without a doubt you should be creating multiple pieces of content for each release and always be looking to have your fans know that they are not alone and other people love your music as well. As you drop those videos, make sure you engage with EVERY user that comments, likes and messages, good and bad. It will only make them feel like they are officially on your team.