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Which is better; releasing singles or an album?


This post loosely accompanies Gab & Jam, 294. Which is better; releasing singles or an album?



Yep, here’s one of those questions that keeps circulating for modern musical artists. Which is better; releasing singles—aka “The Waterfall Method”—or releasing an album?

This was spurred on Art Juice podcast, “How to sell your art” (episode 205): https://play.stitcher.com/episode/302451497



Check out the episode for the full discussion or the accompanying video: https://bit.ly/294waterfallvid



What IS the “waterfall” record release method?

With the traditional album release, all songs are bundled as a collection and so get released all at once—sometimes, soon after one or two singles are released. In the “waterfall” method, singles are released alone—for as many songs as you think would make good singles—and then the album—that includes any remaining songs—is released as a bundle after all the singles have been exhausted.


We have used the traditional album for decades—up to and including our last album, “Sugar Fit” (in 2020) (https://bit.ly/SugarFitlanding). However, we are on a mission to do better—and to reach more people—so, we are willing to try a different method. That’s where we are now.



Is the album still relevant? https://bit.ly/albumsirrelevantyoutube

 

Here are 4 ways in which the “waterfall” method is working for us:


1. Keeps the excitement

Helps us keep finding ways to get excited about the project as a whole (by being able to showcase the individual songs). —As songwriters, it’s easy to just keep moving forward and creating more, but by KNOWING that we are in the middle of a pre-planned drip release plan, helps us NOT forget about how wonderful the songs on this project are and maintaining the excitement enough to keep sharing about them.



2. A new way to be creative

This is an opportunity to be creative in a new way. By releasing a song at a time allows us to find new ways to tell the song’s story, gives us time—and the focus—to make really cool promotional material, like music videos and posts that we may have never taken the time to produce.



Here's the assembly line on our snail mail Record Store crawl: https://bit.ly/bpjobtflwlinks



3. Gives us reasons to engage

This method allows us to BETTER nurture our people. Because we’re excited about the rolling out of the singles, we are doing things like livestreams—which we were NEVER motivated to do before—and to talk about the making of the songs and to share what else is happening in the world with the buzz created by the songs. —We also think this helps more people get excited about the music, to see the songs in a new way and to share it with folks who might have similar music tastes. These are all things that we neglected to tap into when we released Sugar Fit (in 2020). (https://bit.ly/SugarFitlanding )


As you can see above, we share an example of ways we’re going about continuing to engage our people. We just did our first snail Mail campaign in about a year to record stores, thanking them for turning folks on to new music, offering them the chance to come to our livestream in a week, and giving them the limited edition sticker, as well as a QR code to go look at details about the album. I doubt if this would’ve happened if we hadn’t had more time and space to include new ways to reach our people.


Here’s why you should be buying ads for your music https://bit.ly/234adsformusicblog


4. A chance to grow Spotify

Another GREAT result of doing it this way is that we’ve been able to build our Spotify on a more significant way, because we’ve been able to approach playlists, because we’ve had something fresh to send them about once a month.


So, these are all the ways that pursuing the “waterfall” method of releasing our music is really working together for our good. We KNOW that much of this could have been accomplished using more traditional methods, but until we tried this method, we could not sustain the energy to continue to dig back into our promotional toolkit. That’s why we HIGHLY recommend giving it a try.



 



 


So, will we do it again? HELL, YEAH! 🙌🏾 In fact, our NEXT livestream is scheduled for Friday, June 30, where we will debut for Bourgeoisie Paper Jam’s next single “One Love.” We will also premiere the music video live and on-air—unless you are a member of our Patreon community. (If you’re in our Patreon, you will see the video one week earlier. Join here.)



What about you? Which record release have you tried? Which works best for YOU?

 

Did you know that along with putting together our next album, we are working on our first book?

Here’s the link, if you want to pre-order: https://bit.ly/prejippiebklanding


 

Here’s what we’re into now:

· We’re featured in Variety Magazine! https://bit.ly/featuresxsw2023

· The video for “Every Heartbeat” is doing well in Indonesia! https://bit.ly/everyheartbeatvid

· The Tony Webb "Funkalicious" video is going crazy in Honduras, y'all! https://bit.ly/twebbfunkaliciousvid

· One of our videos for our song, “Tell Me What You Want,” is going gangbusters in Vietnam! https://bit.ly/tellmewhatyouwantvid





If you like this, you might enjoy:

· Basic Recording Studio Setup: https://bit.ly/246basicstudiopost

· What to do when real life interrupts your artistic process? https://bit.ly/241reallifeblog

· 7 Strategies for rebounding from creative burnout: https://bit.ly/239digoutofburnoutblog

· How to give better interviews (for D.I.Y. Rock Star): https://bit.ly/236betterinterviewsblog

· How to give better live performances: https://bit.ly/219betterliveblog

· How to collaborate better (for D.I.Y. Rock Star): https://bit.ly/Ep163collaborateblog

· How to write quicker, but better (for D.I.Y. Rock Star): https://bit.ly/228writebetterblogpost

· Should you ever play for free? https://bit.ly/214playfreeblog

· 17 Tips for taking better band photos—ESPECIALLY if you taking them yourself: http://bit.ly/betterbandphotos



 

NOW:

New single, “Every Heartbeat,” by Bourgeoisie Paper Jam http://bit.ly/BandCampPMG and

follow on Spotify at https://bit.ly/bpjspotfollow



 

More Ways to experience B L O O M I N G P R E J I P P I E :

· All things “Obtanium Flow”: https://bit.ly/bpjobtflwlinks

· Gab & Jam podcast: https://bit.ly/gabandjamhq

· Soundcloud (music): https://soundcloud.com/prejippie

· Join the Bourgeoisie Paper Jam Street Team! https://bit.ly/BPJstreetteam

· Prejippie Patreon: https://bit.ly/PMGPatreon

· Be the NEXT D.I.Y. Rock Star Handbook Pre-order: https://bit.ly/prejippiebklanding

· Funky Happy People (Who Listen to a Variety of Genres of Music) Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/funkyhappyjoin

· Be the Next D.I.Y. Rock Star Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/diyrockstarjoin


Please subscribe. Thanks. http://bit.ly/youtubesubprejippie

Until next Monday, here’s wishing love, peace, and chicken grease!



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