Why streaming my music on Spotify is the best way to support me right now...

Good evening fellow Romantics,

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and played "All About Love" at least once if not more!

This evening I have for you what I hope will be an interesting and enlightening piece of information to share with you regarding the mysterious and confusing world of Spotify (click here to listen/follow my profile). You see, contrary to what many people might say and believe, by streaming my music, you're actually doing me a whole lot more good than you realise. This is why...

1,000,000 streams on Spotify pays an artist roughly £2,000 to £3,000. "That's a lot of streams" I hear you say "for not much money". However, there are plenty of artists out there, many of them less known than me, collecting millions of streams per month and therefore earning thousands of pounds per month - a steady and reliable income stream - without having to do anything once the song is up on the platform.

Your next question - "How are they getting that many streams?" - has a complicated answer.

If they are a well known artist, they have lots of fans following/streaming them on a daily basis. But they are also most likely to be on one or more of the big Spotify playlists - and this is where the millions of plays build up quite fast. 

It's easier to get onto a playlist if you're signed to a big label, however lesser known and unsigned artists can and are getting onto them. There are two types of playlist - "human curated" (songs chosen/grouped together by an actual person) and "algorithmic" (songs chosen by a piece of software based on metadata tags, trends and lots of other things). Therefore, it could be luck that gets you onto a playlist, it could be the strength of the song, it could be the sway of the record company, or it could be a pick up of momentum and good timing that gets you on your way.

So now you're asking "How do we help with any of that?" Well it's simple really - by streaming my songs, preferably the newest releases (Hide EP at this moment), and following my profile. The more followers and fan driven streams I have on my new releases, the more likely those songs are to get picked up by small private playlists, which in turn increases the likelihood of getting picked up by larger human curated playlists, which in turn increases the likelihood of getting picked for a BIG SPOTIFY PLAYLIST, either human curated or algorithmic. And don't forget, I am being paid for every stream, even if it's not much to start with.

The thing is, 1,000,000 streams may seem like a lot, but when we break it down:
If I combine all of my online fans from different social media platforms - it adds up to over 10,000 people.
10,000 x 100 = 1,000,000 - so if all my online fans streamed my song(s) 100 times in a month, that's my million plays per month, my £2,000 to £3,000, my steady income. It doesn't sound too difficult when you put it like that. And that's without even being on a playlist.

Other benefits of you following my profile are that:
1. You'll be notified when and where I'm playing a gig in your area.
2. National radio are more likely to play my music if I have more followers and streams.
3. Gig and festival promoters are more likely to book me if I have more followers and streams.

To conclude, Spotify and other streaming platforms are the future of sustainable music careers for artists. With the decline of physical sales, the slow death of the album, the steady decrease in grassroots venues, and the rise of unsigned/unsupported/bedroom artists - building a streaming revenue is the key to my survival as a musician and artist in the future.

On that basis, I urge and implore you to:
1. Click here and follow my Spotify Artist Profile.
2. Stream my new single "Early Girl" as much as you can from when it's released on Feb 23rd, even if you put it on mute and press repeat! I'll be sending out a playlist so that you can press "shuffle play" and not have to worry about pressing the button over and over again.
3. Click here and stream my most recent release "Hide EP" and get it to the top of my "popular tracks". 
4. Tell your friends, fellow music lovers and gig goers that Spotify is important as well as buying the CDs and coming to see shows.

THANK YOU FOR READING TO THE END!
I hope this all made sense. Please email me if you have any questions - [email protected].

H xxx