Should You Release a Single or Drop an EP First?

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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks and today's music business newsletter

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came in.

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This guy is in London, the British, and he poses

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a question that I think probably most artists in twenty

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twenty five have had this discussion. Whether you're just starting

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off or you've been around for ten years and you're

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signed to a record deal. The question is singles or EPs,

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and we're going to dive into this. I did talk

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about this in a Mattricks Minute, I believe back in

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twenty fifteen.

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I talked about singles. But this is a good email.

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I think that we can help him out and you

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can probably learn something from this as well, So let's

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dive into it.

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It says, Hey, Matthew.

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First of all, I just want to say that I

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just recently discovered The Matrics Minute on Apple Music. Thank

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you for checking it out. Your advice has been a

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huge help. I really appreciate how you keep it real

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about what it actually takes to.

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Build a career in the music industry.

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When I set out to do The Matrics Minute in

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twenty fourteen, and even when we were doing live events

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and stuff, I just wanted it to be as as cut.

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And dry as possible.

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I think sometimes people, especially in the music industry, they

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use a lot of big words and they just try

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to make themselves seem smarter than the topic really is.

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A lot of times that's done out of insecurity. I

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wanted to break down the music industry in a minute

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to two minutes per topic because I know that in

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this clickbait era, I know that the longer we can

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keep you.

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The more money we make. And that was never my

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interest or my goal.

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Go go, So the email continues.

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I am an independent artist.

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I have been a producer for the last few years,

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but I've decided to now take the leads with my

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own music and I'm getting ready to release my first

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body of work. I'm stick on a question that I

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know a lot of artists face. Should I start by

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releasing singles one at a time or hold off and

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drop a full EP once everything is ready. Back in

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twenty fifteen, we talked about this and that was you know,

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streaming was around, but we were we were there with Spotify,

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but we were still clinging to people buying our music

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on iTunes and buying it on Apple mut or Amazon Music,

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which sadly, in twenty fifteen, that is still some artist

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whole goal is to have you ignore streaming and hope

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that you spend a dollar twenty nine on their single,

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even though you have no clue who they are. But

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in twenty fifteen, I use the analogy of if you

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put wood on a fire repeatedly, constantly, how hot is

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that fire going to be? But if you come every

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nine months, every every twelve months, what does that do

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for that fire? So if a fan just happens to

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bump into your music on Spotify or finds you on Insta,

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or god forbid, if you're on X and they go

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check out your music and you got one song or

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five songs and they really dig it, But then you

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disappear for another two years, they're gonna forget about you.

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Things move way too quickly, And.

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I just hate to say that the days of artists

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being able to milk something for a few years and

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think that the fans are going to keep their attention,

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we have too much going on these days. That model

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was when you would drive to a record store, pick

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up an album or a CD, listen to it because

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you couldn't listen to any other music unless you turned

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on the radio, or you just had to love that

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album until they put something else out.

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There wasn't as much competition. So I would say, just

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like I.

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Did ten years ago, to start with singles and then

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constantly just keep putting logs on that fire to keep

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it burning hot, constantly stay in the forefront of everybody's mind.

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I mean, what do I do at the matric's minute

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and I have done, is I could put out all

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of the year's releases on an album and then be like,

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all right, I'm gonna go, you know, kick off for

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the next year.

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I'll be back. But I mean, we did you know

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twenty sixteen.

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We did the Best of twenty fourteen, which it had

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ninety tracks on it. It's the same tracks that were

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out in the you know in twenty fourteen, and individually

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those individual tracks do better on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon,

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Title wherever.

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Then the collective album does if you break.

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It down, And I think it's just because people get overwhelmed.

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People get overwhelmed with you know. I mean, I know

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some indie guys who are doing you know albums. That's

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a lot of commitment for somebody to ask, you know,

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here listening to twenty songs of mine, no matter how

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much they like you, so let's continue. The email says,

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I've already recorded five songs that I'm proud of. That's good,

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be proud of what you do. They flow together well

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as a project. But I've also heard that releasing singles

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helps build the mom momentum and feed the algorithm on

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Spotify and social media. Yeah, I mean, it's just what

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I said. You throw something out there. Spotify doesn't and

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especially if you're a new artist, the algorithm doesn't know

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what to do with you yet, doesn't know where to

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place you, doesn't know where to put you in the

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queue for when people are listening to radio, you know,

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like Spotify radio, Pandora radio.

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Doesn't know what to do with it.

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So if you put an EP out and then you disappear,

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the algorithm doesn't know what to do. You're going to

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be kind of annoying your followers that you have because

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we're you going to do promote the same EP for

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the next year two years. It is better to drop

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something you know on a consistent basis. Here's a new

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song man, you know, then they find it, then you've

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discover new fans. Now the algorithm knows what's going on

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because the way that the algorithm works with Spotify, especially

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is these people come in, say they're fans of Eminem.

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Fans of Eminem come and check your music. The more

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that that keeps happening.

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When somebody puts on Spotify Radio or it's a new

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release thing, what they'll do is they'll put your song

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with the people who like M and M because that

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is what the algorithm has been shown. But if you

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throw an EP out and there's a couple of people,

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the algorithm doesn't have enough data on you.

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Yet, his email continues.

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At the same time, I feel like an EP would

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show the full range of my sound and give people

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something more complete to connect with. People don't care they're

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for a new artist. Unless they're your mom or your

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significant other or your bestie. Nobody is going to discover you.

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Go listen to your music and be like, Wow, this

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flows so well. We just got I just got the

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whole picture painted of what this guy is trying to

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do or what this band is.

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Trying to do.

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You're thinking too much of yourself. They're gonna go, oh,

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is that a good song?

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Do I like it? Yes? Or no? Am I gonna

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save it to my account, put it in my playlist.

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Yes or no? Am I gonna tell my friends about it?

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Yes or no? They're not gonna sit there and be like.

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You know, Bobby yea Birmingham. You can't got a full

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range of sound here. I think I'm a fan now

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because of this full range of sound doesn't work that way.

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Nobody cares. That's an artist talking right there.

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That's you going up to your girlfriend, Bob and going, hey,

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don't you don't you feel like this full range of

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sound just makes.

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This more complaint? She goes, yeah, baby, of course that's

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an artist thing. Don't do that.

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Email continues, here's my current setup. I record everything myself

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at home. Good, keep your keep your money going out

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down And he says I've been slowly growing on TikTok

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and Instagram slow.

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Instead, he always wins the race.

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He says, I don't have a big budget for marketing,

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but I'm willing to put in the time and effort

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to promote my music. Right, you don't need a big

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budget for marketing. I don't think you should spend any

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money on marketing. I see so many artists and we

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have an email coming up later this week or next

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week where somebody's asking about advertising you know on Instagram

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or whatever, and we'll dive into that more next week.

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But when you pay TikTok, when you pay Instagram to

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promote your real your post, whatever, it's a dopamine hit

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for you right away. But the problem is is that

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Instagram and TikTok or YouTube or whoever knows you got

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money to spend, and so what they'll do is they'll

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they'll they'll tank. I made this mistake on my personal

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account a couple of years ago. They'll tank your account.

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They will not put you in the algorithm because they

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realize you got money to spend, and they'll wait it out.

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They don't need you, so they will wait out putting

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your stuff through the algorithm because I know you got

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money to spend, even.

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If it's fifty bucks.

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The best marketing, the best marketing that you can do

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is one on one personal connections with people on Instagram,

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on TikTok.

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That's the best you have.

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But I love that you have a willingness to put

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the time and effort in to promote your music. You'd

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be shocked how many artists don't do that. Bob says,

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to approach this.

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What would you do if you are starting from scratch today?

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Appreciate you, Bob. What would I do if I was

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starting from scratch today? Is this release a single? Release

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one single, and when it gets to a thousand plays

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on Spotify, release another single, and when that one gets

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to a thousand plays, if it happens a lot quicker,

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then start gearing up for the third one. But you

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don't want your Spotify account. You don't want people going

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going to your artist page on Spotify.

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And seeing a bunch of tracks under a thousand plays.

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I would rather because even as and I might be

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jaded because I'm in the industry, but if I go

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to somebody's page and every song is under a thousand,

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this looks really small to me as a fan of music,

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as an industry person. Yeah, okay, cool, I'm going to

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dive into this, but not a let people think like me.

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So just like what I do with the matrics mean

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it is is I, you know, we put stuff out.

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And I see if it sticks.

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And I've had some matrics mints that have done one

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hundred thousand plays on Spotify alone in two weeks, and

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I've had something have done forty fifty thousand, and in

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my world, that's kind of a failure. But I want

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to just keep pounding stuff out there if nobody was listening.

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But you got to make sure that the way you're

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marketing your stuff to Instagram, to TikTok is. I know

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this one artist who's done nothing in her career, and

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she's incredibly difficult to work with, and she's an indie artist,

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and every day she posts the same thing about my

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music to my playlist, save my music to my playlist,

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to your playlist, save my music to your playlist. Song's

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been out for like six months, and I don't even

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think she's broke a thousand plays. Now she's a woman,

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so she gets a lot of followers, but that doesn't

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mean it everybody's tuning out her message because it's just NonStop.

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It's just the same thing over and over and over again.

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So if you're gonna market I would say for any artist,

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put one song out when it gets to a thousand plays,

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Now you have a goal. Gets to a thousand plays,

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put the next song out. When that one gets to

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a thousand places, put the next song out.

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So now you have a goal.

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Now you're working towards something instead of just like because

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I think what a lot of artists do is they

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throw everything out there, nothing sticks, and then they get

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they don't get motivated. Well I tried, let me spend

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some money.

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It just doesn't work that way. But great Email Bob

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in Birmingham, UK.

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I know that this is a question that you had

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the guts to ask that others didn't. And if you

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have a question that you want asked on the music industry,

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just go to Matthew Ricks dot com click submit your question,

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give me as much information as possible and we will

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answer it here on this channel, or if you're listening

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on the audio version, we will answer it there for you.

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And not only will you be able to help yourself,

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but you will be able to help artists all around

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the world.

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And until next time, I will talk to you later