How Artists Can Grow Their Streaming Activity in 2024

If I were an artist looking to grow my streaming activity in 2024, here are a few things I'd consider:

Before diving into the actual tactics, it's worth noting 2 really important things:

1. Before any marketing strategy or tactic, making great art that you're proud of always comes first.

The suggestions below are not intended to replace that - they are suggestions for how to holistically approach releasing music that you're proud of, increase streaming, and do it without compromising the artistry.

2. These are merely suggestions and nothing is ever guaranteed.

The point of these suggestions is to give oneself the best shot at success given the understanding of the current landscape.

Here's a few ideas...

1) Collaboration

There's a reason why some artists are doing collaborative projects with other artists and producers with multiple artists listed as primary artists.

Part of is the artistry and collaboration that's part of the creative process, but the other reason is strategy.

Releasing music with multiple primary (or main) artists can help cross promote audiences as well as tap into the algorithms of everyone involved - it can also help capitalize on some of the alerts that platforms send out to fans of those artists when something new releases.

Joint projects can not only lend themselves to bigger marketing campaigns and storytelling, but they are a great way to tap into another artist's audience in an organic way.

Doing features and collaborating on full scale EPs and projects is a massively underrated way to heat up an artist's algorithm and increase streaming consumption.

2) Remix existing music

Putting your spin on existing music is a great way to create consistent content, potentially reach a new audience (maybe fans of that artist), and hopefully drive back to streaming consumption as those fans discover your own music.

One important note is that when remixing or freestyling to another person's song, it's crucial to do so thoughtfully and morally (ie - do not try and monetize music you do not have rights to).

For example, do not upload your remix of another person's song to DSPs without their permission or getting it cleared lol.

However, uploading to free platforms like YouTube, Soundcloud, and Audiomack can still be a great way to potentially reach new fans and have that audience discover your own music on streaming services.

Over the last year alone I've discovered a handful of artists through their freestyles or remixes to other artist's songs and I turned into a fan, streaming their own music.

3) Release a large quantity of music

Duh lol. Hear me out though...

In today's streaming (and social media) landscape, it's about the number of at bats and shots on deck.

The more songs you release, the more chances you give yourself for one to connect and serve as the entry point for a new fan to your music.

Some (not all) emerging artists that are finding success are releasing upwards of 20-25 songs per year depending on the genre (through combination of singles, EPs, albums, etc).

That sheer volume of music is increasing the likelihood that at least 1 (or ideally a few) songs connect and help build a fanbase.

Releasing music consistent and often also plays into streaming platform algorithms and can help build compounded growth over time.

A helpful tactic is to reverse engineer how many songs you want to drop in 2024 and then map out how often it makes sense to release them.

Releasing a large amount of music also allows you to build a catalog that if starts to grow, can compound quickly.

The important thing not to miscontrue here is that while releasing a lot of music is important - it's also important not to compromise your artistry just for the sake of releasing in high quantity.

Creating and releasing music at that scale can be tough but if you can find a way to do so, it can be rewarding.

4) Aggressive content strategy for releases

I know I know...this is another one that's obvious.

We're all aware that content is everything in 2023 (almost 2024) for creating, nurturing, and building a fanbase.

Content can be the entry point for how fans discover your music and the more high quality content you create that's on brand and authentic, the increased likelihood one of those pieces connects.

If every song you release is a chance or a "bet" to be discovered by a new fan, every piece of individual content per song is a chance or "bet" that it will raise awareness for that song.

For example, for every song you release, you can make a checklist that you need at least X pieces of content to feel like you have enough to promote.

5) DSP best practices

Pitching your music in Spotify for Artists with enough lead time to hit Release Radar (one of Spotify's algorithmic playlists) as well as any other DSPs that offer pitching ahead of release like Amazon Music, Audiomack, etc.

In addition, ensuring your profiles are up to date with profile photos, banner images, bios, & more can help make the experience more enjoyable when fans are on your profiles listening to your music.

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