2 Big Reasons Why Albums Won’t Grow Your Spotify

I feel I have enough experience to talk about my own data and why I avoid albums. I’m not going to make this overly long, so if you got value out of it, let me know and share it. Also feel free to check my affiliate link to distrokid if you aren’t already on these platforms.

Distrokid Affiliate Link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/1498084

Additionally, this doesn’t just apply to spotify, but apple music/amazon music and other platforms. So you can use this information for their platforms as well.

The More Consistent You Are, The More Spotify Loves You

This is perhaps the biggest reason I do not bother with albums. In order to qualify to be an album, you need at least 6 tracks on it. Otherwise, it will be classified as either an EP or a single. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to invest in an album due to the fact that this is time you could have spent just uploading six individual tracks and making some kind of playlist for them when it’s all done.

Spreading what would have been a six-track album out over six weeks as six separate singles makes you appear more consistently to your audience, shows you are active and if these songs are driving traffic it tells their algorithm to keep pushing your content. The same can apply to other platforms such as Apple Music, Amazon Music etc. These platforms only care about how much content they have that is updated frequently, taking months to produce 12 tracks isn’t gonna cut it if you are trying to grow.

Mass Uploading Kills Your Potential Streams

You only get one shot to get people’s attention and that is a very fickle thing these days. So most people aren’t going to sit down and listen to your entire album. Hence, if you have a good song on track four, but the first track doesn’t capture their attention, you pretty much lose out on potential streams since it’s attached to the whole product. Therefore, singles are far better for first impressions as while they may not like the first track, they may see something like a pretty piece of cover art in another single, listen to it, save it and go through your list. Whereas if you had an album, they might not have even bothered with that single because it was attached to something they didn’t enjoy.

What’s The Takeaway?

My recommendation is to just go ahead and upload them over the course of a week so Spotify has time to distribute them. Then, once they are all uploaded, just create a playlist, give it a spotlight on your profile and you’ll still achieve the same effect as an album if you really want. Furthermore, if you are already established, you can still go ahead and make an album; but I’d argue even with people bigger than myself you’d see far better returns and mileage by just sticking to singles.