I knew I'd do this. So often I sit down, think about things, make a decision, tell folks about that decision, think a bit more - and change my mind.
The reason for the screeching u-turn is the result of 2 or 3 things, I guess. I'm sure other folk may have come to similar conclusions, but I thought that perhaps there might be some interest in following my own stumbling thought processes...
What I did
I recently posted about how I'd been doing some housekeeping and ended up with a metric boatload of tracks that could be released. So I planned to release about half a dozen 3 or 4 track eps, potentially using a couple of good tracks and a couple of 'b-side' releases.
Well, my last EP had 2 strong tracks on, and a couple of decent older ones. So I started down my original plan, prepped the Requiem ep, and duly passed it on to Distrokid to be added to the usual streaming services, popped it on Soundcloud and added it to Bandcamp (with some physical merch in the from of an accompanying homegrown CD for the latter). It also made it on to Emanate (more on Emanate in a later post... 😉)
Everything was presented as a 4-track EP wherever possible as that's how I'd decided to release.
Oh, and although I do understand how slim my chances were, I submitted the lead track of the EP to the Spotify editors for consideration of inclusion in one of the editorial playlists.
I did as much promo as I could, in amongst everything else. Which mainly was tweet about the EP. I did a 60 second video teaser that made it onto Instagram & Facebook as well - but the main promo was Twitter.
I also had the weight of the mighty 
So, all good. I'd not been slack. I could have done more - can't we always - but I chose to do other things. Like remind my wife what I looked like.
What happened
So. High level results on streaming numbers after a couple of weeks release are:
- Spotify - really disappointing. Even for me where I measure in 10s, not 100s or even -gasp- 1000s...
- Soundcloud - actually pretty good (again, comparatively), but
certainly helped here.
- Bandcamp - again, streaming better than I normally see. Including a small amount of sales - both digital and physical (but just for the Requiem EP)
- Youtube - 🤷♂ - I'd love to get stats for the music plays in YouTube, but it doesn't look like they tell you. Videos - yup, loadsainfo - but music submitted though distro, nope. (There was one strange thing happened in YT. It decided to include a previous video I'd uploaded for one of the tracks in the EP playlist. I need to spend a bit more quality time with YT and get to know it's quirks)
Interestingly, a couple of folk I follow did some polling on what services folk use to stream their music (including 
No surprises that Spotify is on top in all the polls I've seen. It then seems to bounce between YouTube/Soundcloud with Bandcamp making an occasional appearance.
So What?
So that go me thinking about how I can improve my numbers in Spotify. I looked again at my release plays. And noticed something interesting. The fist track in the EP had almost 5 times as many plays as the second, third and fourth. also it has been saved 3 times as many times as the second track, and nearly 10 times as tacks three and four.
Remember I said my EP would have 2 'lead' tracks and 2 'b-sides'? Well, it looks like I'd 'hidden' one of my lead tracks. The second track (which is genuinely cool IMNSHO), wasn't really getting a look in.
But on Soundcloud, it was up there.
The only difference I could think of is in presentation - Spotify presents the EP as a whole, whereas Soundcloud presents your individual tracks, and you group them into an ep using a playlist.
So this got me thinking (again) about the truism that releasing single tracks is where it's at nowadays. LPs/EPs are just not the done thing. Spotify's structure is also skewed towards a single track release. Remember I said I'd submitted a track off the EP to the editorial team at Spotify? Well, you can only do that with one track of a release. So I had (at least) two strong tracks, but could only submit one.
Also, only one track would get included in the algorithmic release radar playlist. Another missed opportunity if I have more than one strong track on a release.
It also means that the indie artist has more opportunity to keep their name in the frame - releasing 4 tracks once a week for 4 weeks is probably better than a single release every 4 weeks.
What I will do...
So, the upshot is, I'll probably swing back to single releases more often. That has knock on effects across many other services as I use one distribution service to submit to multiple sites. So be it.
But I'm old school. I like the idea of EP/LP releases. But I'm not going to knacker my potential exposure for that idealistic stance.
However, as I continued to mull things over with a coffee and listening to the sublime Pentamerous Metamorphosis by Global Communication (treat yourself if you've not herd it - you can thank me later 😉 ), I realised I could maybe have my cake an eat it.
Whilst I revery to single tracks on Spotify (et al), I can use Bandcamp to push out EP/LP releases. There's nothing saying that you have to have the same release pattern across all services. While it makes sense to release single tracks on Spotify, it makes just as much sense to put EP/LP style releases on Bandcamp - that way I can promote the advantages of buying via my Bandcamp, as I can add extras like the physical CDs, but I also added a PDF download to the digital release there as well. This feels really tidy - and actually very easy and clear to promote.
(And as a bonus, there's nothing stopping me doing a separate 'roll-up' release on Spotify to group single releases together using the same ISRC numbers to use the existing tracks further down the line. I think.)
This is getting long, so I'll stop here - I'm going to expand on this a bit I think - and I still need to think in a similar way for Soundcloud/YouTube (video)/Emanate - are there strengths there I can play to if I don't worry about doing and/or releasing the exact same thing across all platforms....?
To be continued. At some point. Probably...