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Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

stevebenjamins.com

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Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#221

Post by csa »

capableweb wrote: post #199
oht wrote: post #59

The author is the same guy behind a $40k/month website builder review site. Big fan of his interview on Indie Hackers[1] It's interesting to see him use SEO to describe algorithmic playlists. He would know, SEO is a huge part of his other business. [1] https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/besting-the-competiti...

There is even a shout out to HN in that article! > I worried that readers would not trust this arrangement [affiliate links] when I first started. But in practice it hasn't been a big issue. In fact, readers ask me which links to click to ensure I get my commission. Honestly, negativity about my business model is more likely to come from a community like Hacker News than it is from my readers.

That’s a backhanded shout out if I have ever seen one.

... although I think it’s probably accurate.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#222

Post by [deleted] »

Spivak wrote: post #175
Alupis wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. Have you tried Pandora's for an extended period and are able to compare? For me, Spotify ended up just playing the same artist, same album even, over and over. Same problem with their Shuffle feature - I could have a playlist with 500 songs from various artists, albums, genres and more... but I'd get the same artist, same album back to back to back far too often. So often, it didn't feel random at all. J…

They are random! It's just that what is random in a mathematical sense isn't random to a human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustering_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping The best song randomizer I've seen described generates a permutation of songs, then "plots" them in n dimensional space with closeness being closeness being a weighted distance of closeness in the playlist and whatever metadata…

[deleted]

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#223

Post by tbodt »

dcbadacd wrote: post #212
vmception wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oooooh I thought Spotify just had a schizophrenic A/B test started every other quarter, I didn't realize the UI changes are contingent on what kind of song list you were listening to.

They do have schizophrenic A/B testing though. Just recently they started playing the exact same ads but sometimes they have a few syllables messed up. I think I now have first-hand experience in being gaslit, it really makes you doubt your sanity if you heard the "same" ad but "wrong".

That could be advertisers doing schizophrenic A/B testing rather than Spotify.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#224

Post by dannytatom »

john-shaffer wrote: post #42
boplicity wrote: post #21

65,000 listeners a month – $800 in revenue. 1.23 cents per listener per month. That works out to 14.7 cents per year. To earn a modest $50,000, you would need ~360,000 monthly listeners. This doesn't seem sustainable without outside sources of revenue.

That's $800/month for a tiny artist that would otherwise be making about $0/month. > I don't tour, I don't sell merch and I'm not on a major label. I'm just a small indie artist making music in my evenings— and Spotify is making that possible. In other words, it's a hobby.

good money for a hobby tho if you can luck into a playlist

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#225

Post by gen3 »

ehnto wrote: post #9
jdxcode wrote: post #8

I feel Spotify makes it hard to listen to albums. I can queue up a song to play and it’ll then get back to my playlist, but if I play and album eventually it’ll reach the end and quit playing anything. Then I will have to stop what I’m doing and find something else to play. I feel the UX could be improved and it might change listening habits similar to Discover Weekly

What do you want to happen after an album is finished?

Tidal goes into a mix based off of the album, which is nice.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#226

Post by freehunter »

volkk wrote: post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

Apple Music does the same thing. I spent a week listening to ambient music at work and it has permanently destroyed my recommendations. I don’t get a single “For You” list that doesn’t include ambient music which really kills the vibe.

That was almost a year ago and it’s still recommending ambient artists.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#227

Post by sharkweek »

dang wrote: post #198
sharkweek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, this is why bands tour and sell shirts and other merch, and for most, work second jobs. As an anecdote, friend of mine is in two or three bands at any given time and bartends most nights he’s not playing shows. Spotify makes it easier than ever for an artist to get their work out there, which is great, but it’s similar to the publishing world, where most authors who self publish do so into the void.

> friend of mine is in two or three bands at any given time and bartends most nights he’s not playing shows What and how has he been doing during lockdown?

He lives in NYC to make matters worse during those earlier months. He's alive and didn't catch it though, so there's that.

Doesn't come from like a super wealthy family, but he'll be fine financially if things never return to normal. We're in our 30s so I do think he's looking for something more structured anyways, this might be a catalyst.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#228

Post by sharkweek »

jjice wrote: post #141
sharkweek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, this is why bands tour and sell shirts and other merch, and for most, work second jobs. As an anecdote, friend of mine is in two or three bands at any given time and bartends most nights he’s not playing shows. Spotify makes it easier than ever for an artist to get their work out there, which is great, but it’s similar to the publishing world, where most authors who self publish do so into the void.

The best way to support an artist you really like is to purchase merchandise, buy their music on Bandcamp, and see them live. For bands I really like, I buy the album on Bandcamp and then just listen to it on Spotify for convenience. Besides, who doesn't love a good tee with your favorite band's lyrics on it?

I love buying tour t-shirts. I have amassed a large collection I hope to pass onto my kids at some point.

What I wouldn't give for some of the shirts I've seen my dad wearing in old photos of shows he went to. Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, etc.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#229

Post by annoyingnoob »

wallawe wrote: post #207
annoyingnoob wrote: post #152

Its cool that what looks like your hobby generates income. What do you do to pay the bills otherwise?

He's actually got a really cool story, I happened to recognize him from this Indie Hackers interview: https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/site-builder-report-f...

Nice, good for him.

Re: Carving out a niche as a small artist on Spotify

#230

Post by wyclif »

freehunter wrote: post #226
volkk wrote: post #34

Spotify's discovery playlist is a double edged sword. My account is permanently screwed because I decided to listen to a lot of rain sounds when going to sleep for a few months while I had a puppy. Now ALL I get for recommendations are calm sounds. I don't actually listen to these during the day, I want my old stuff. I hate it and want to reset the discovery playlist, but seems I have no way of doing so aside from ge…

Apple Music does the same thing. I spent a week listening to ambient music at work and it has permanently destroyed my recommendations. I don’t get a single “For You” list that doesn’t include ambient music which really kills the vibe. That was almost a year ago and it’s still recommending ambient artists.

Yeah, so like others recommmend above, you need to create a few playlists and I'm fairly certain you'll be getting different recommendations. Still, I also agree with people here who say that you should be able to 'reset' it whenever you want.
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