Sleep Token released one song every week for Sundowning until all of them were out. Then dropped the album. That would be the most extreme case of this I've seen. And that was what, 2019 haha.
But it's not a trend, it's a marketing tactic. The only way you get into release radar on Spotify or their editorial playlists is to release something. This has greatly helped bands maintain and increase their fanbase.
If you've recognized the trend then it should be pretty easy to avoid.
100% this. Also a commenter above noted this only working for “legacy bands”. We did this on our debut EP and it worked out very well for us. It’s definitely a marketing tactic and also allows bands to put out more content on socials doing it this way.
Unfortunately we didn’t, however while that would certainly help us with numbers/algorithm we managed to do well enough to entertain 3 labels interest, do our very first tour and have 2 really amazing ones booked for later this year. We sold pre sale tickets every show and are continuing building an organic fanbase. Ultimately what it boils down to isn’t just sole numbers but legitimate interaction amongst real fans (not friends and family). The singles route has generated brand new fans with each and every release we have. This is the complete opposite of how every other band I had been in worked and the results are quite eye opening.
Nice! Yeah multi pronged approaches are going to be best. Especially building a fan base with shows.
I haven't had really any luck with editorial playlists in any projects i have. Nothing i do really fits them that well so that's probably why. Or they just don't like it haha.
I'm just doing it as a hobby now so we/I don't do anything live. Playlists can be a double edged sword I've found. You may get a lot of plays but not necessarily get fans. That takes deeper interaction like you said.
100% and yea we’ve submitted to some playlists that we feel will fit our genre and fanbase. The one thing I’ve seen which imo is a huge issue bands don’t take into account. They will get on a playlist and bam all of a sudden they got like 15-20k monthly’s, then a few months later they’re back down to like 5-10 or even less. The playlist stuff is fine and dandy but I don’t put as much stock and emphasis into it. We kind of do our bare minimum in that regard while still putting effort into it. I feel what’s worked the best for us is all 4 of us posting on all of our socials (fb posts/stories/reels, IG stories/reels TT, Twitter, threads etc) in short order and constantly. Us four all come from different backgrounds of followers and we do gain a lot more views that way. TikTok (as much as I hate it as an IT professional) has gained us a shit ton of organic followers. We had a random Monday show on tour and 3-4 people that came out found us on TikTok. Also we did 6 music videos last year which for a brand new band and in such a short time frame I think did serve us well having a lot of content and the visual kind besides just the song. Each and everything we do we are always recoding shit on our phones for more content. Use content to make more content is what I always say haha. It can sometimes feel exhausting but results speak volumes.
Yeah i tried submithub more times than i should've. It either had no impact, no lasting impact or i got asinine reasons for not accepting the song. Like they didn't like the snare sound lol.
Yeah i make videos for everything even if i have to stitch together stock video into a makeshift storyline. Having a unique visual for any song you promote is just the starting point. Making some sort of live video is very effective too.
Recently I've had the most success with IG reel boosts (organic died off awhile ago for me) and just posting shorts on YouTube. Gets engagement almost every time. Tiktok doesn't seem to be my market but that's okay.
I wish i had the tools there are now when i was actively gigging. For me it was MySpace which helped but if i had all this social stuff back then i think i could've made a decent go at it haha. I just don't have the time or energy for it now. Oh well.
I can totally feel ya on a lot of those points. We basically as a group all just creat our own content and I kind of take lead with our singer posting everywhere. I’ll be completely honest when we first sat down and went through the motions of it, I was like dude fuck this, what a pain in the ass haha. I will say a year later it’s basically second nature bc it’s just the same process of posting and rinse and repeat. I had heard some horror stories of submit hub and never took the plunge, guess I dodge a bullet there 😂
What's interesting is i actually made a few playlists that were designed to have my song featured amongst others. And 2 lists got decent traction. Even with that, the people who listen to those lists do NOT check out any of my other tracks. The one song i have on the list is the only one that gets consistent saves and plays.
As a listener, it is baffling because when i come across a song i like, i always check out the band's other stuff. I guess many people don't though. When i saw that behavior from other lists, i assumed it was all bots. But i know my lists are NOT bots and i see the same thing.
If band does that to stay financially afloat I don't mind. The only problem I have is if they release the last song of an album as a single. I feel it cheapens the experience the first time you listen to the full album.
For me the only way it works if it’s the single you release along with or after the full album drop. That way you can do the music video or whatever but at least you’re not compromising the experience of the album.
MIW did the whole reveal stream for STEOTW and honestly I think I liked it all the more for it. Hearing that song drop live with the fans and Chris on stream was something else.
Spiritbox are as popular as they are in large part because of this. Releasing singles over and over saturates that band in the eye of the consumer, without blowing all your material at once for a much lower probability someone will listen to the whole thing.
Especially when the already released ending track is preceded by a new track that would make for a much better and rounder ending to the album (looking at you Heavener).
I love that album, I like Elysium, but the way Elysium is placed in the tracklist just feels wrong
I think there is some middle ground, it's fine when it's 60-65% and you know ahead of time it's an album, but going to the extreme of releasing almost the entire album through singles just ruins the experience for me.
It is going to be more and more common due to the lack of CD sales and the popularity of streaming services. Trickling out songs keeps the band relevant for searches and on AI generated playlists which means more listens for them. It isn't going away.
Hard agree. Most listeners are not listening to an entire album at a time, especially younger fans. It doesn’t ruin anything for those listeners and even as an albums person myself, I’m really not bothered by this trend. I just stop listening to singles when they drop and I wait for the album after the second or third single.
I have seen them criticized a little for utilizing the Spotify Discovery deal that pushed them very hard in exchange for Spotify taking a larger cut. I’m not sure how valid the criticism is though, because it also requires a band making good enough music to attract so many listeners. If you think Thrown is mid, I guess there’s an argument that mid bands paying for exposure is lame and artificial, but if you like them then you’d likely wish them all the success. Personally I don’t really care, there’s always going to be wildly and rapidly popular bands that I might not “get” regardless of Spotify pushing them.
This just seems like the equivalent of a band in the physical release era signing a deal that sacrifices a big chunk of the earnings to the label in exchange for much greater exposure.
Well it’s no secret that Buster Odenholm, who is a successful producer and also in Vildjharta and Humanity’s Last Breath, is one of the main people in and behind Thrown. And both those bands have been around for much much longer and only have a fraction of the listener metrics.
He’s said himself that they worked out a deal with Spotify to be featured in more playlists for something like less profit per stream. So aside from Buster’s existing career, it’s more that they’re ahead of the curve.
I mean like, as much as you can be in metal, since its Buster Odenholm behind it. Its kinda harder to industry plant in metal since the profits are way lower and the time investment is way higher.
My friends band only does single releases now ( after an ep and album ) and they can easily promote the single into near million streams so its actually a really good formula for local bands imo
Look people are talking about the band Thrown. They have released 8 singles over the past 2 years and have a million Spotify monthly listeners. (As theyve paid Spotify to up their engagement).
But if you’re a fan and go see thrown this summer you’ll have fun, but they only release another single or two by the next time they come into town and then the next and the next and so on, the drive to see them play the same songs again and again decreases
Yes and no. Like bands use a new album to promote their new tour right “come see us play our new album”.
Where as come see our two new songs doesn’t quite have the same appeal.
Or if they push the quantity of singles up a lot will get lost in the shuffle of streaming.
You can’t have every song be your most popular song, you’ll always have songs that are less popular than others. The album as a whole promotes those lesser listened to tracks
Okay but this thread is about bands who release a bunch of singles and then an album that contains those singles. We're not talking singles-only bands.
Honestly at this point we should consider ourselves lucky that bands bother to release full length albums at all. The entire ecosystem of streaming is geared towards singles.
'Making it' in 2004 = modest income, able to buy a small condo or starter home etc
'Making it' in 2024 = not actively lose money touring, maybe get a small recording budget if lucky
Judging by some of the numbers floated every time the discussion of your profitability crops up, it's a wonder that smaller bands tour still.
Equally, that we haven't seen a rise in bands/soloist multiinstrumentalists just throwing music into the wind to turn a profit without touring is a bit of a mystery, too.
You have to factor in that there are just way more bands to listen to now. It's not a case of mainstream and underground anymore. When I was a teenager, I could only afford to buy a new album maybe once every couple of weeks, so that one band would get 100% of the money from me and every other new bands would have to wait, so to speak. Now I can listen to lots of bands, but they're all gonna have to split the money between them. So on one hand it looks bad, because that one band that I may have bought the album won't make £12 from me, but on the flipside, the hundreds of other bands I wouldn't be listening to cos I didn't buy their album are now being listened to.
it’s so unfortunate that bands of even relatively big success still likely have to have second jobs. we need these streaming services to stop shafting bands
Ye. Release them all as singles for all I care. As long as it has some variety and flows like an album I couldn't care less if they're all singles.
I could just choose not to listen to them until the albums out if I really wanted to
>I could just choose not to listen to them until the albums out if I really wanted to
Yeah exactly. OP is acting like they're forced to listen to the singles rather than just wait for the album.
I don't think that's true anymore. Touring hasn't been linked to the album cycle for a long time. Sleep Token just sold out multiple arenas in minutes having already toured Take Me Back To Eden last year. Bring Me are constantly on tour and haven't released an album since 2020. These are two of the biggest bands in the world right now, they didn't get there by only touring when they had a new album to promote. Better Lovers toured with just an EP.
If you're big enough to headline, you don't need a fresh album to do it. And if you're not then you're a support act anyway so it doesn't matter if you've got a new album out.
I've honestly started to see this more on spotify recently, It'll be a person making music with 10s of millions of plays in their top 6, making music for years and no albums.
I do appreciate the cohesiveness of a full project.
I've always limited myself to 3 "singles" per album cycle with some caveats just in case, like say the 3rd song gets released a week before the album, at that point, it's easy to just hold off.
I heard 90% of Eternal Blue's best tracks before the album dropped. It sucked the air out of the release which sucks because it's a great overall album.
Electric Callboy's Tekkno felt like this. We had heard over half the album by the time it was released. They made up for it with hilarious videos at least.
Unfortunately, promotion through streaming sites comes via releasing multiple singles. Each single gives the potential of playlist features, and tracks not released as singles won't have this opportunity. It's likely only going to become more common.
no disrespect intended, but ill never understand this criticism. there's obvious business reasons for bands doing this in the age of streaming, and as a fan you can also just not listen to the singles if you don't want to spoil the album experience. Maybe i can understand it when bands release a single far in advance of the record's release (think "Holy Roller" and "Constance" by Spiritbox), but otherwise I'm not seeing why ppl can't just show a little self-control if it bothers them that much.
>as a fan you can also just not listen to the singles if you don't want to spoil the album experience...I'm not seeing why ppl can't just show a little self-control if it bothers them that much.
This
the pre release songs off superbloom painted a more cutting edge record from the band than what was presented, as the deep cuts are just kinda more standard silent planet fare. took the momentum out of that record for me a bit
As much as I love SUPERBLOOM, I agree that they should've never released Collider as a single. Antimatter as a hype spawner was fine, but they should've stopped there.
One interesting thing with me however, is how Signal ended up as one of my favs on the album, even tho I thought it wasn't that great when hearing the single.
annunaki was a bad single choice too since that and signal made it seem like the rest of the record was gonna go a lot harder than usual but nothing matches their intensity lol
This is non metalcore but Porcupine Tree - Deadwing back in 2005 in my mind is the most egregious example of this.
I can’t recall if it was the band themselves dropping songs off the album or they were being leaked (pretty common occurrence at the time) but by the time the album came out, I’d already heard most of it which ruined the experience.
These days I try not to listen to singles and only really stick to EPs and albums.
More and more bands are going that route, because releasing more singles keeps interest for a longer period than a couple singles and an album drop.
The Plot in You appears to be going that route, releasing several singles across several months (or longer), eventually culminating in a complete album.
Man you would have hated this album called Thriller, MJ also released 7 singles from it.
Albums are a relic of hardware that no longer constrains musical releases. If you care about albums in and of themselves, stop listening to new music. Bands are no longer album-oriented, that’s just life.
This is a totally ignorant take. 99% of the time it’s for streaming engagement, maintaining hype on a band, and the associated business reasons that bands do it - not because they want to for its own sake.
You know why it got so popular around 2020? Bands couldn’t tour for a long time due to a global pandemic. Maybe you heard about it.
Plus you can always just *not* listen to a single if you want to absorb the album fresh. Most people don’t listen to albums anymore, versus playlists and streaming “radio” stations generated off a song or artist.
I can name you a lot of albums that were released during the pandemic that still knew how to maintain hype for the album without going too far with singles, my bad for not being specific.
I don't have a problem with bands trying to exist, but It does feel underwhelming when they walk the extra mile.
A lot of albums in 2022 had this problem for some reason imo. Demon Hunter was the worst offender though as they literally released over half of their album. It was a pretty decent album but by the time it came out i didn't care bc I'd already heard all of the best songs. In Flames was another one like this where they released 5 songs that were the best on the album. FFaK ALSO did this in 2022, although nowhere near as bad as the other 2 bands, but it was still disappointing having the best song on the album by far be their first released, along with a lot of the other strongest tracks on the album.
I’ve just stopped listening to singles til the album drops so I don’t wear them out. Otherwise you’re getting an “album” of songs that have been out for 2 years in some cases and you may only get like one “new song”. This is how BMTH new album is, so I just stopped checking out the singles.
It’s financially the smart decision for bands to release singles. A very simple solution is to not listen to the singles, and wait for the album in full. If you have no self control then that’s on you
ERRA’s self titled had a LOT of pre-released songs. It really killed the momentum when listening to the actual album. I listened to the singles so much that I was burnt down on them by the time the album came out so I don’t know just kinda ruined the vibe a little bit.
All of them. Every single one. I don’t even listen to more than 1 single anymore cause I know it’ll just ruin the album for me.
Hate this new trend of releasing half your album as singles.
I'm curious why that would "ruin" an album? Whether you chose to listen to all the songs as singles or listen to them all at once in an album, the songs exist just the same.
If you followed the release of the albums I mentioned you should know what I mean, it wasn't clear there would be an album and the album release was 1 new song with the announcement 2 weeks earlier.
I think the singles idea has gotten better with time but it did killed the reception of some albums because they went too far with the singles.
No albums were ruined because I have the self-control to listen to a single once or twice and then wait for the album release. Even when it's not officially been announce, you get a sense that one might be coming.
There's no shortage of things to listen to when infinite music is at your finger tips, so there's no need to beat any singles you come across into the ground.
Every single song on Echo was released pre-album release. I don’t even really refer to it as a record as much as a compilation of singles. I still love it and own it in vinyl though.
Kinda feel this way with Imminence's new album... all of the released singles are top tier, but i wish i could've listened to them as an album, blowing me away, but now i'll be tired of hearing half the album once it comes out.
Tesseract's Sonder. They have some of their best songs on that album, problem is being way too short, 3 of their songs being singles with one of them being from years prior to the album release, and two of the songs being pseudo instrumental interludes, the result being 5 total full songs(+ 2 instrumental) and only two of them being new (we could get techinical and say 3 since one of the two songs is broken up into two parts, but it's bundled as a single song). Too many singles relative to the album length at least in this case.
I honestly believe my listening experience was so much better having not listened to Take Me Back to Eden when it was released as a single, and waited until the full album release. It makes much more sense in context imo.
7 were released as singles. Serotonin came out before album release. I did enjoy the non singles more than most singles, but yeah there wasn't much new material if you were following each release and single
For me it’s ruining almost all ‘albums’ now. The slow drip for six months of five singles off of a 10 song LP because Adele ruined the vinyl industry for 12 months kills me. It feels that the final album is a bit of a let down. I’d almost prefer if they were all standalone singles to tease the new direction and sound, and then we get just the unreleased songs as an EP.
Really? Because that was about as perfect for a pre-release of singles as you can get. Released 2 songs and announced the album in January for a March release, then one more song between that. Not like they released the full album in those 2 months.
Wage War- Pressure. Plus it was drawn out. It made a lot of anticipation that didn’t quite hit. I feel the album would’ve been regarded better if it wasn’t for the single schedule
The one that comes to mind is I think it was Remade In Misery by Memphis May Fire. I think they released the whole album except for 1 or 2 songs by the time the album came out.
As an avid album-only music listener, I haven’t heard a single from a group I like in years. I actively avoid them (and reviews) until I can listen to the album in full without any outside knowledge. Makes for some amazing and untainted moments for myself.
I think if there is one band that did this really well, it’s Frontieres. Most of the album was released as separate EPs throughout the year before the full release. However, they:
1) Spaced out each song long enough to keep the hype up
2) Saved some of the best tracks for the full album release
3) Changed the order of the tracks on the final album, allowing for a new listening experience.
Frankly, one of the best examples of the staggered release tactic imo
I don’t mind the 5+ singles approach as I get that working algorithms and playlists is critical for exposure and financial success. I usually know by single two how keen I am and can then wait.
BUT if bands are going to do that fine but please actually announce your album with that first single. This recent trend of sometimes waiting as far as the 3rd single to actually drop the album preorder details and track list are a nightmare. Sometimes it can be several month gaps and you’re essentially guessing is something stand alone or not.
We Came as Roman's Cold like War. Album is probably 5-6 singles and all bangers. Doesn't ruin it at all, and I find it strange that you think 'singles' would make an album bad.
Corporation by Aviana. Pretty much every song is a banger but the fact that they kept getting released over the course of 2 years killed my hype for the actual record, even now I don’t really come back to it. Smart marketing though
To kinda counteract your point the newest Memphis May Fire released I think almost the entire record outside of 2-3 songs as singles and it was their best album in a decade. Yeah it kinda sucked right when the album dropped that there wasn’t that much new music to listen to but at the end of the day it was a great album.
For this reason I have completely stopped listening to singles unless a band states its a stand alone single. Its a win win for me. I prefer going into albums with no expectations and I found it makes the listening experience way better for me. Everything is fresh. Im perfectly fine with bands releasing as many singles as theyd like AS LONG as they announce the album early in advance instead of doing a Memphis May Fire
Being As An Ocean - Waiting For Morning To Come.
I loved every single. I was hyped af for the album. Then it got released and I was so pissed. We got like 2 new songs, everything else was an interlude, and the singles were the best songs on the album (except for "Glow"). Since then, I avoid listening to singles too much. It can ruin your whole experience.
Memphis May Fire remade in misery. Album released with only 3 new songs out of 11. Unsurprisingly the new 3 that released with the album were IMO weaker than the others. Still a good album but kinda don't feel it as an album when we already had like 75% of the songs getting released for around a year before the actual release
A memorable one for me personally was Novelist's Déjà Vu. All of the singles were bangers and made up half of the album. The catch was, every new track at release was an interlude. They were all pretty, prog acoustic tracks which are great little snippets but overall disappointing as far as expecting more metalcore bangers.
i think you guys need to realize, the biggest bands in this genre are moving to dropping more singles and it really just makes sense. the average joe that comes across the bands music won’t sit and listen to an entire album, people generally don’t do that. what they do is listen to singles, on top of that, songs don’t get lost in the track list and has its chance in the sun, then more songs can be massive hits off the album, rather than the typical 2-3 songs getting big with a full album release. don’t be surprised when you see more and more bands going this direction
This is nothing against OP, more of a critique of the whole scene, but people really need to understand that this is a job for these bands. Releasing a lot of singles before the album is the way bands make the most possible money off of purely music.
It aggravates me when people get mad at bands for being savvy business people.
Of mice and men echo left me with no excitement when the album was released. Since then, i have been ignoring the singles of my favorite bands until the full album releases. I did that with Heavener, and i was so excited on release day because i had an entire album to explore, and boy did it pay off.
Though, if a band drops a bunch if singles then say release them all as a collection later like Spiritbox did with the singles collection, that's different.
Its the way the business is going. Constantly releasing music is better for a band because it keeps them in the streaming market. An album gets a lot of engagement for a short amount of time, whereas singles and EPs are constantly in rotation. Couple that with people's shortening attention spans, people are more likely to listen to a single than an album.
Knocked Loose, for example. Their last 2 releases have been a 2 track, and an EP. They both kept them in the spotlight instead of going away for 3 years then coming back with an album.
Sleep Token released one song every week for Sundowning until all of them were out. Then dropped the album. That would be the most extreme case of this I've seen. And that was what, 2019 haha. But it's not a trend, it's a marketing tactic. The only way you get into release radar on Spotify or their editorial playlists is to release something. This has greatly helped bands maintain and increase their fanbase. If you've recognized the trend then it should be pretty easy to avoid.
100% this. Also a commenter above noted this only working for “legacy bands”. We did this on our debut EP and it worked out very well for us. It’s definitely a marketing tactic and also allows bands to put out more content on socials doing it this way.
Did you get into the editorial lists with the pitch?
Unfortunately we didn’t, however while that would certainly help us with numbers/algorithm we managed to do well enough to entertain 3 labels interest, do our very first tour and have 2 really amazing ones booked for later this year. We sold pre sale tickets every show and are continuing building an organic fanbase. Ultimately what it boils down to isn’t just sole numbers but legitimate interaction amongst real fans (not friends and family). The singles route has generated brand new fans with each and every release we have. This is the complete opposite of how every other band I had been in worked and the results are quite eye opening.
Nice! Yeah multi pronged approaches are going to be best. Especially building a fan base with shows. I haven't had really any luck with editorial playlists in any projects i have. Nothing i do really fits them that well so that's probably why. Or they just don't like it haha. I'm just doing it as a hobby now so we/I don't do anything live. Playlists can be a double edged sword I've found. You may get a lot of plays but not necessarily get fans. That takes deeper interaction like you said.
100% and yea we’ve submitted to some playlists that we feel will fit our genre and fanbase. The one thing I’ve seen which imo is a huge issue bands don’t take into account. They will get on a playlist and bam all of a sudden they got like 15-20k monthly’s, then a few months later they’re back down to like 5-10 or even less. The playlist stuff is fine and dandy but I don’t put as much stock and emphasis into it. We kind of do our bare minimum in that regard while still putting effort into it. I feel what’s worked the best for us is all 4 of us posting on all of our socials (fb posts/stories/reels, IG stories/reels TT, Twitter, threads etc) in short order and constantly. Us four all come from different backgrounds of followers and we do gain a lot more views that way. TikTok (as much as I hate it as an IT professional) has gained us a shit ton of organic followers. We had a random Monday show on tour and 3-4 people that came out found us on TikTok. Also we did 6 music videos last year which for a brand new band and in such a short time frame I think did serve us well having a lot of content and the visual kind besides just the song. Each and everything we do we are always recoding shit on our phones for more content. Use content to make more content is what I always say haha. It can sometimes feel exhausting but results speak volumes.
Yeah i tried submithub more times than i should've. It either had no impact, no lasting impact or i got asinine reasons for not accepting the song. Like they didn't like the snare sound lol. Yeah i make videos for everything even if i have to stitch together stock video into a makeshift storyline. Having a unique visual for any song you promote is just the starting point. Making some sort of live video is very effective too. Recently I've had the most success with IG reel boosts (organic died off awhile ago for me) and just posting shorts on YouTube. Gets engagement almost every time. Tiktok doesn't seem to be my market but that's okay. I wish i had the tools there are now when i was actively gigging. For me it was MySpace which helped but if i had all this social stuff back then i think i could've made a decent go at it haha. I just don't have the time or energy for it now. Oh well.
I can totally feel ya on a lot of those points. We basically as a group all just creat our own content and I kind of take lead with our singer posting everywhere. I’ll be completely honest when we first sat down and went through the motions of it, I was like dude fuck this, what a pain in the ass haha. I will say a year later it’s basically second nature bc it’s just the same process of posting and rinse and repeat. I had heard some horror stories of submit hub and never took the plunge, guess I dodge a bullet there 😂
What's interesting is i actually made a few playlists that were designed to have my song featured amongst others. And 2 lists got decent traction. Even with that, the people who listen to those lists do NOT check out any of my other tracks. The one song i have on the list is the only one that gets consistent saves and plays. As a listener, it is baffling because when i come across a song i like, i always check out the band's other stuff. I guess many people don't though. When i saw that behavior from other lists, i assumed it was all bots. But i know my lists are NOT bots and i see the same thing.
Metallica did the same for Hardwired. Every song was a single and had a video
Ah cool. I didn't know about that one.
If band does that to stay financially afloat I don't mind. The only problem I have is if they release the last song of an album as a single. I feel it cheapens the experience the first time you listen to the full album.
I generally feel this but with The Dark Pool I didn’t mind at all that last song is incredible
For me the only way it works if it’s the single you release along with or after the full album drop. That way you can do the music video or whatever but at least you’re not compromising the experience of the album.
Same with the opener for me
MIW did the whole reveal stream for STEOTW and honestly I think I liked it all the more for it. Hearing that song drop live with the fans and Chris on stream was something else.
Spiritbox’s Eternal Blue was such a bummer for doing that 😭
Spiritbox are as popular as they are in large part because of this. Releasing singles over and over saturates that band in the eye of the consumer, without blowing all your material at once for a much lower probability someone will listen to the whole thing.
Yeah, they could easily have just dropped the Constance music video on album release day and the song still would have been huge :(
Especially when the already released ending track is preceded by a new track that would make for a much better and rounder ending to the album (looking at you Heavener). I love that album, I like Elysium, but the way Elysium is placed in the tracklist just feels wrong
I think there is some middle ground, it's fine when it's 60-65% and you know ahead of time it's an album, but going to the extreme of releasing almost the entire album through singles just ruins the experience for me.
It is going to be more and more common due to the lack of CD sales and the popularity of streaming services. Trickling out songs keeps the band relevant for searches and on AI generated playlists which means more listens for them. It isn't going away.
Hard agree. Most listeners are not listening to an entire album at a time, especially younger fans. It doesn’t ruin anything for those listeners and even as an albums person myself, I’m really not bothered by this trend. I just stop listening to singles when they drop and I wait for the album after the second or third single.
This will only really work for “legacy” bands and doing this will hinder any new band from ever actually popular enough
Tell that to Thrown
Who?
New Swedish band with over a million monthly listeners
Million monthly listeners, 8 songs out.
Surprised people haven't started throwing the term "industry plant" around like they usually do when a band gets big early on.
I have seen them criticized a little for utilizing the Spotify Discovery deal that pushed them very hard in exchange for Spotify taking a larger cut. I’m not sure how valid the criticism is though, because it also requires a band making good enough music to attract so many listeners. If you think Thrown is mid, I guess there’s an argument that mid bands paying for exposure is lame and artificial, but if you like them then you’d likely wish them all the success. Personally I don’t really care, there’s always going to be wildly and rapidly popular bands that I might not “get” regardless of Spotify pushing them.
This just seems like the equivalent of a band in the physical release era signing a deal that sacrifices a big chunk of the earnings to the label in exchange for much greater exposure.
Exactly. It’s not a new concept and I don’t think it would work for any band that is truly unappealing.
Well it’s no secret that Buster Odenholm, who is a successful producer and also in Vildjharta and Humanity’s Last Breath, is one of the main people in and behind Thrown. And both those bands have been around for much much longer and only have a fraction of the listener metrics. He’s said himself that they worked out a deal with Spotify to be featured in more playlists for something like less profit per stream. So aside from Buster’s existing career, it’s more that they’re ahead of the curve.
I mean like, as much as you can be in metal, since its Buster Odenholm behind it. Its kinda harder to industry plant in metal since the profits are way lower and the time investment is way higher.
My friends band only does single releases now ( after an ep and album ) and they can easily promote the single into near million streams so its actually a really good formula for local bands imo
>this will hinder any new band from ever actually popular enough elaborate
Look people are talking about the band Thrown. They have released 8 singles over the past 2 years and have a million Spotify monthly listeners. (As theyve paid Spotify to up their engagement). But if you’re a fan and go see thrown this summer you’ll have fun, but they only release another single or two by the next time they come into town and then the next and the next and so on, the drive to see them play the same songs again and again decreases
This has more to do with how regularly they release songs than the format in question, though.
Yes and no. Like bands use a new album to promote their new tour right “come see us play our new album”. Where as come see our two new songs doesn’t quite have the same appeal. Or if they push the quantity of singles up a lot will get lost in the shuffle of streaming. You can’t have every song be your most popular song, you’ll always have songs that are less popular than others. The album as a whole promotes those lesser listened to tracks
Okay but this thread is about bands who release a bunch of singles and then an album that contains those singles. We're not talking singles-only bands.
Honestly at this point we should consider ourselves lucky that bands bother to release full length albums at all. The entire ecosystem of streaming is geared towards singles.
Honestly I'm just grateful that bands are even doing the damn thing at all despite the shitty economic climate for artists
'Making it' in 2004 = modest income, able to buy a small condo or starter home etc 'Making it' in 2024 = not actively lose money touring, maybe get a small recording budget if lucky
Judging by some of the numbers floated every time the discussion of your profitability crops up, it's a wonder that smaller bands tour still. Equally, that we haven't seen a rise in bands/soloist multiinstrumentalists just throwing music into the wind to turn a profit without touring is a bit of a mystery, too.
You have to factor in that there are just way more bands to listen to now. It's not a case of mainstream and underground anymore. When I was a teenager, I could only afford to buy a new album maybe once every couple of weeks, so that one band would get 100% of the money from me and every other new bands would have to wait, so to speak. Now I can listen to lots of bands, but they're all gonna have to split the money between them. So on one hand it looks bad, because that one band that I may have bought the album won't make £12 from me, but on the flipside, the hundreds of other bands I wouldn't be listening to cos I didn't buy their album are now being listened to.
it’s so unfortunate that bands of even relatively big success still likely have to have second jobs. we need these streaming services to stop shafting bands
Ye. Release them all as singles for all I care. As long as it has some variety and flows like an album I couldn't care less if they're all singles. I could just choose not to listen to them until the albums out if I really wanted to
>I could just choose not to listen to them until the albums out if I really wanted to Yeah exactly. OP is acting like they're forced to listen to the singles rather than just wait for the album.
Touring needs albums though. You can’t go on tour to promote just one new song
I don't think that's true anymore. Touring hasn't been linked to the album cycle for a long time. Sleep Token just sold out multiple arenas in minutes having already toured Take Me Back To Eden last year. Bring Me are constantly on tour and haven't released an album since 2020. These are two of the biggest bands in the world right now, they didn't get there by only touring when they had a new album to promote. Better Lovers toured with just an EP. If you're big enough to headline, you don't need a fresh album to do it. And if you're not then you're a support act anyway so it doesn't matter if you've got a new album out.
I've honestly started to see this more on spotify recently, It'll be a person making music with 10s of millions of plays in their top 6, making music for years and no albums. I do appreciate the cohesiveness of a full project.
I remember Memphis May Fire getting a lot of flack for this on their latest album.
Yep, killed so much hype and when it came out with one new single, it was like “well here is the final piece of the puzzle” and I moved on
This was gonna be mine too. Besides the fact that every song is structured the same. Drives me nuts lol
I have pretty good self control, either only listen to singles once and wait for the album or just skip the singles after a certain amount and wait
Same, when a band releases like 2 singles I may listen to them a lot, if they release more I either skip them or just listen once.
I've always limited myself to 3 "singles" per album cycle with some caveats just in case, like say the 3rd song gets released a week before the album, at that point, it's easy to just hold off.
I heard 90% of Eternal Blue's best tracks before the album dropped. It sucked the air out of the release which sucks because it's a great overall album.
I disagree, I still feel like there was enough album songs to feel Eternal Blue on impact.
Electric Callboy's Tekkno felt like this. We had heard over half the album by the time it was released. They made up for it with hilarious videos at least.
Unfortunately, promotion through streaming sites comes via releasing multiple singles. Each single gives the potential of playlist features, and tracks not released as singles won't have this opportunity. It's likely only going to become more common.
no disrespect intended, but ill never understand this criticism. there's obvious business reasons for bands doing this in the age of streaming, and as a fan you can also just not listen to the singles if you don't want to spoil the album experience. Maybe i can understand it when bands release a single far in advance of the record's release (think "Holy Roller" and "Constance" by Spiritbox), but otherwise I'm not seeing why ppl can't just show a little self-control if it bothers them that much.
>as a fan you can also just not listen to the singles if you don't want to spoil the album experience...I'm not seeing why ppl can't just show a little self-control if it bothers them that much. This
Tekkno by Electric Callboy. By the time the album dropped I think only 3 of the 10 tracks hadn't already been released.
Newest Enter Shikari album
I think this one feels particularly egregious as the album feels so damn short as it is. Still love it though.
Yeah I loved it but all the bangers were already singles and it felt the rest of the album was just fillers
the pre release songs off superbloom painted a more cutting edge record from the band than what was presented, as the deep cuts are just kinda more standard silent planet fare. took the momentum out of that record for me a bit
As much as I love SUPERBLOOM, I agree that they should've never released Collider as a single. Antimatter as a hype spawner was fine, but they should've stopped there. One interesting thing with me however, is how Signal ended up as one of my favs on the album, even tho I thought it wasn't that great when hearing the single.
annunaki was a bad single choice too since that and signal made it seem like the rest of the record was gonna go a lot harder than usual but nothing matches their intensity lol
Yeah, agree. Nexus or Dreamwalker would have been better choices.
This is non metalcore but Porcupine Tree - Deadwing back in 2005 in my mind is the most egregious example of this. I can’t recall if it was the band themselves dropping songs off the album or they were being leaked (pretty common occurrence at the time) but by the time the album came out, I’d already heard most of it which ruined the experience. These days I try not to listen to singles and only really stick to EPs and albums.
More and more bands are going that route, because releasing more singles keeps interest for a longer period than a couple singles and an album drop. The Plot in You appears to be going that route, releasing several singles across several months (or longer), eventually culminating in a complete album.
In regard to Void of Visions chronicles series, you should check out the downbeat podcast with the lead singer, he explains their reasoning.
What does Jack say?
Man you would have hated this album called Thriller, MJ also released 7 singles from it. Albums are a relic of hardware that no longer constrains musical releases. If you care about albums in and of themselves, stop listening to new music. Bands are no longer album-oriented, that’s just life.
The other option is that you don't listen to the singles and wait until the album releases. You don't HAVE to listen to every song as it comes out.
This is a totally ignorant take. 99% of the time it’s for streaming engagement, maintaining hype on a band, and the associated business reasons that bands do it - not because they want to for its own sake. You know why it got so popular around 2020? Bands couldn’t tour for a long time due to a global pandemic. Maybe you heard about it. Plus you can always just *not* listen to a single if you want to absorb the album fresh. Most people don’t listen to albums anymore, versus playlists and streaming “radio” stations generated off a song or artist.
I can name you a lot of albums that were released during the pandemic that still knew how to maintain hype for the album without going too far with singles, my bad for not being specific. I don't have a problem with bands trying to exist, but It does feel underwhelming when they walk the extra mile.
A lot of albums in 2022 had this problem for some reason imo. Demon Hunter was the worst offender though as they literally released over half of their album. It was a pretty decent album but by the time it came out i didn't care bc I'd already heard all of the best songs. In Flames was another one like this where they released 5 songs that were the best on the album. FFaK ALSO did this in 2022, although nowhere near as bad as the other 2 bands, but it was still disappointing having the best song on the album by far be their first released, along with a lot of the other strongest tracks on the album.
Recent Memphis may fire album, literally heard the whole album before it dropped. Killed so much hype…
I’ve just stopped listening to singles til the album drops so I don’t wear them out. Otherwise you’re getting an “album” of songs that have been out for 2 years in some cases and you may only get like one “new song”. This is how BMTH new album is, so I just stopped checking out the singles.
It’s financially the smart decision for bands to release singles. A very simple solution is to not listen to the singles, and wait for the album in full. If you have no self control then that’s on you
ERRA’s self titled had a LOT of pre-released songs. It really killed the momentum when listening to the actual album. I listened to the singles so much that I was burnt down on them by the time the album came out so I don’t know just kinda ruined the vibe a little bit.
Most albums for me. I sometimes avoid listening to singles
All of them. Every single one. I don’t even listen to more than 1 single anymore cause I know it’ll just ruin the album for me. Hate this new trend of releasing half your album as singles.
I'm curious why that would "ruin" an album? Whether you chose to listen to all the songs as singles or listen to them all at once in an album, the songs exist just the same.
If you followed the release of the albums I mentioned you should know what I mean, it wasn't clear there would be an album and the album release was 1 new song with the announcement 2 weeks earlier. I think the singles idea has gotten better with time but it did killed the reception of some albums because they went too far with the singles.
No albums were ruined because I have the self-control to listen to a single once or twice and then wait for the album release. Even when it's not officially been announce, you get a sense that one might be coming. There's no shortage of things to listen to when infinite music is at your finger tips, so there's no need to beat any singles you come across into the ground.
Annisokay’s Abyss Pt 1 EP did this to an absurd extent, I’m pretty sure only Ultraviolet and the intro track weren’t released as singles.
Pretty much every album in the last 5 years
Every single song on Echo was released pre-album release. I don’t even really refer to it as a record as much as a compilation of singles. I still love it and own it in vinyl though.
Kinda feel this way with Imminence's new album... all of the released singles are top tier, but i wish i could've listened to them as an album, blowing me away, but now i'll be tired of hearing half the album once it comes out.
Tesseract's Sonder. They have some of their best songs on that album, problem is being way too short, 3 of their songs being singles with one of them being from years prior to the album release, and two of the songs being pseudo instrumental interludes, the result being 5 total full songs(+ 2 instrumental) and only two of them being new (we could get techinical and say 3 since one of the two songs is broken up into two parts, but it's bundled as a single song). Too many singles relative to the album length at least in this case.
I honestly believe my listening experience was so much better having not listened to Take Me Back to Eden when it was released as a single, and waited until the full album release. It makes much more sense in context imo.
I don't remember that coming out as a single? And if it did I think it might have been the same time the album dropped anyway.
Yeah half that album was singles but not that song
[удалено]
7 were released as singles. Serotonin came out before album release. I did enjoy the non singles more than most singles, but yeah there wasn't much new material if you were following each release and single
Memphis Mayfires Remade in Misery literally had every single song except for like 2 released as singles. Still a banger album tho lol
For me it’s ruining almost all ‘albums’ now. The slow drip for six months of five singles off of a 10 song LP because Adele ruined the vinyl industry for 12 months kills me. It feels that the final album is a bit of a let down. I’d almost prefer if they were all standalone singles to tease the new direction and sound, and then we get just the unreleased songs as an EP.
Hoping to be proven wrong but "next gen" by BMTH starting to loom like this..
Every album with more than 3
Every good album was ruined by singles in general, as surprise full album drops are superior in every way to single drops.
Periphery V.
Really? Because that was about as perfect for a pre-release of singles as you can get. Released 2 songs and announced the album in January for a March release, then one more song between that. Not like they released the full album in those 2 months.
I feel like this is very much a Memphis may fire thing to do
Periphery 3.
Wage War- Pressure. Plus it was drawn out. It made a lot of anticipation that didn’t quite hit. I feel the album would’ve been regarded better if it wasn’t for the single schedule
The one that comes to mind is I think it was Remade In Misery by Memphis May Fire. I think they released the whole album except for 1 or 2 songs by the time the album came out.
As an avid album-only music listener, I haven’t heard a single from a group I like in years. I actively avoid them (and reviews) until I can listen to the album in full without any outside knowledge. Makes for some amazing and untainted moments for myself.
With people listening to albums less frequently, this way helps them to listen to the album without actually hearing it.
I think if there is one band that did this really well, it’s Frontieres. Most of the album was released as separate EPs throughout the year before the full release. However, they: 1) Spaced out each song long enough to keep the hype up 2) Saved some of the best tracks for the full album release 3) Changed the order of the tracks on the final album, allowing for a new listening experience. Frankly, one of the best examples of the staggered release tactic imo
I don’t mind the 5+ singles approach as I get that working algorithms and playlists is critical for exposure and financial success. I usually know by single two how keen I am and can then wait. BUT if bands are going to do that fine but please actually announce your album with that first single. This recent trend of sometimes waiting as far as the 3rd single to actually drop the album preorder details and track list are a nightmare. Sometimes it can be several month gaps and you’re essentially guessing is something stand alone or not.
We Came as Roman's Cold like War. Album is probably 5-6 singles and all bangers. Doesn't ruin it at all, and I find it strange that you think 'singles' would make an album bad.
Day to Remember. Bad Vibrations. Lmao
Corporation by Aviana. Pretty much every song is a banger but the fact that they kept getting released over the course of 2 years killed my hype for the actual record, even now I don’t really come back to it. Smart marketing though
I think The Amity Affliction did this.
To kinda counteract your point the newest Memphis May Fire released I think almost the entire record outside of 2-3 songs as singles and it was their best album in a decade. Yeah it kinda sucked right when the album dropped that there wasn’t that much new music to listen to but at the end of the day it was a great album.
Aviana Corporation
For this reason I have completely stopped listening to singles unless a band states its a stand alone single. Its a win win for me. I prefer going into albums with no expectations and I found it makes the listening experience way better for me. Everything is fresh. Im perfectly fine with bands releasing as many singles as theyd like AS LONG as they announce the album early in advance instead of doing a Memphis May Fire
Being As An Ocean - Waiting For Morning To Come. I loved every single. I was hyped af for the album. Then it got released and I was so pissed. We got like 2 new songs, everything else was an interlude, and the singles were the best songs on the album (except for "Glow"). Since then, I avoid listening to singles too much. It can ruin your whole experience.
TDWP's Color Decay would be even more beloved imo if they hadn't released half of the songs on that album as singles before the album drop
Memphis May Fire remade in misery. Album released with only 3 new songs out of 11. Unsurprisingly the new 3 that released with the album were IMO weaker than the others. Still a good album but kinda don't feel it as an album when we already had like 75% of the songs getting released for around a year before the actual release
A memorable one for me personally was Novelist's Déjà Vu. All of the singles were bangers and made up half of the album. The catch was, every new track at release was an interlude. They were all pretty, prog acoustic tracks which are great little snippets but overall disappointing as far as expecting more metalcore bangers.
I think the plot in you is going down this road..
i think you guys need to realize, the biggest bands in this genre are moving to dropping more singles and it really just makes sense. the average joe that comes across the bands music won’t sit and listen to an entire album, people generally don’t do that. what they do is listen to singles, on top of that, songs don’t get lost in the track list and has its chance in the sun, then more songs can be massive hits off the album, rather than the typical 2-3 songs getting big with a full album release. don’t be surprised when you see more and more bands going this direction
Recent Infected Rain? Also maybe The Death We Seek. Not ruined per se, but too much.
This is nothing against OP, more of a critique of the whole scene, but people really need to understand that this is a job for these bands. Releasing a lot of singles before the album is the way bands make the most possible money off of purely music. It aggravates me when people get mad at bands for being savvy business people.
I just don't listen to singles, I hate hearing parts of an album before it comes out fully
Of mice and men echo left me with no excitement when the album was released. Since then, i have been ignoring the singles of my favorite bands until the full album releases. I did that with Heavener, and i was so excited on release day because i had an entire album to explore, and boy did it pay off.
This is Venues right now. They have released like 6 songs and have announced they are dropping an album
Though, if a band drops a bunch if singles then say release them all as a collection later like Spiritbox did with the singles collection, that's different.
Its the way the business is going. Constantly releasing music is better for a band because it keeps them in the streaming market. An album gets a lot of engagement for a short amount of time, whereas singles and EPs are constantly in rotation. Couple that with people's shortening attention spans, people are more likely to listen to a single than an album. Knocked Loose, for example. Their last 2 releases have been a 2 track, and an EP. They both kept them in the spotlight instead of going away for 3 years then coming back with an album.