Dear Readers,
Since my last update, a few things have changed. The most obvious thing is that I’ve consolidated my web profiles down to this single website.
When it comes to musical branding, this is probably not the best move I’ve made. It’s not going to look particularly professional when someone out there searches for Achira on the internet, goes to achira.art and then gets redirected to landersart.com.
But then I’m not sure it matters.
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’m going to release my new music. If you read last month, I talked about trying to add lyrics and using a plugin called EMVoice. Well, I’ve largely given up on that. Not permanently but definitely for this release. It’s a lot of effort, more than I can expend, to create a voice that ultimately doesn’t sound perfect. Or not perfect for the music that I’m trying to create.
It’s all good, though, because I love the music without lyrics too! I wanted to add that little something extra, a hook to draw more people in, but it’s not an issue that I won’t have it.
Anyway, as I’ve been preparing for the release cycle, I got to thinking: why release everything together in a single album?
As I’ve been listening to the tracks I have completed, I can envision them together in a single album. It tells a story, like a good album should. There are different styles and rhythms. After the party hard track, there’s a nice vocal ambience. It’s really quite lovely.
But, then, I think about how I would market the album.
How many people listen to albums from start to finish? Okay, fine, but how many of those people do it for artists they don’t know?
In my position, I have to rely on being playlisted to get heard by anyone. That’s one song on one playlist. It doesn’t often turn into a full album listening. The story is lost on those listeners.
Then I thought: if you’re an established artist with a core fanbase, a full album makes sense. Those fans will listen to the whole thing on repeat. You’ve already got people anticipating listening to your music. An artist in this category might release a single, but it’s probably only to drum up buzz for the upcoming album. But, in the end, you can tell a fuller story across all the songs on the album and you’ll have listeners there to appreciate it.
On the other hand, if you haven’t landed that audience yet then you’re in a different boat. You’re in the boat of pitching songs, trying to get on playlists, convincing people that they should absolutely listen to your music. You might achieve success but it’s short-lived and with a long release cycle, you’re forgotten before the next album comes out.
Ultimately, my target audience is different than an established artist.
You probably see where I’m going with this. Breaking up music into smaller releases, singles or EPs, provides more opportunity to pitch to editorial playlists. I’m not entirely sure it will make a difference because I’m willing to bet those playlists only want artists with an established following. But it doesn’t hurt to try, right?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Setting aside the marketing piece, having smaller releases is more manageable for me. I enjoy making music but have to work around many other projects and schedules. Smaller releases will allow me to create music when I want, how I want, and then release it when it’s ready – instead of saving it for a larger album.
Smaller releases would be less stressful.
You know, more fun. Maybe fun enough that, after a release, I won’t have to take months off from it because of how hard it was to get done.
So, that’s the new goal. The new target. The updated plan for the remainder of 2023. It’s time to kick back, make some music, and have a good time.
Thanks for stopping by,
Achira (JL)
Art by JL 
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