How to Rap: Drop Singles or an Album?

To accomplish an effective rap presence you must decide if it’s best to drop an album or singles. While it may seem clear to you at first, there are many reasons why I recommend starting off with singles rather an album. This article is aimed for artists who recently started publishing music on streaming platforms.

Why Your Album Didn’t Do Numbers

Many rappers find themselves discouraged when their new album didn’t do the numbers they expected. This can be frustrating especially when you put endless hours into this project. After a terrible turnout of your new or debut album, you start to think if this rap career is even worth pursuing. Well, I’m here to tell you that it may not have anything to do with your talent, but more so your timing.

If you drop an album during the beginning stages of your rap career, you simply don’t have enough listeners waiting for your projects. Growing your audience is crucial when it comes to building anticipation for your new album. How do you build an audience? You consistently publish music is a way that builds predictability. For example, if you consistently publish new music or content every Tuesday at 3pm, then a listener can trust that you will continue to post every Tuesday at 3pm. Predictability builds trust, and trust builds a loyal fanbase!

How To Build An Audience Before Your Rap Album

A great way to build an audience before a significant rap album is by dropping singles. This is why I recommend starting to drop singles rather than an album. When you start to drop singles at a consistent pace, you gain traction with your music. More people will be able to trust the fact that you deliver on a consistent basis.

The common algorithm for streaming platforms leans towards consistent artists. This is because these artists prove active on the streaming platforms. Regardless of your talent, you are likely guaranteed to grow an audience if you consistently post.

Avoid Over Posting Singles

Now I know we talked about how important it is to be consistent but don’t get carried away and post music every day. I recommend posting a song once a week for beginners, or once every 2 weeks for intermediate rappers with a small audience. The reason why you do not want to post every day or as much as you can is because it’s unstable. Unstable because a lot random posts without structure does not build predictability. This can only work if you truly stick to the schedule.

Some of you already have lots of songs in the chamber and so you might think it’ll be a good idea to post loads every day until you run out. If you have multiple singles ready to be published, I strongly encourage you to schedule these singles weekly with the streaming platform scheduling system. Soundcloud, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more have scheduling systems available. Look them up!

Fill In The Gaps In Your Schedule

With the scheduled posts and tracks on their way, it is time to fill up the gaps in between! To fill up these gaps, you can utilize music snippets, in-studio videos, fan engagements and more. These don’t necessarily need to be timed in a specific way, just simply provide these in between each scheduled track.

Conclusion

Whether you are a beginner or intermediate, I think it’ll be best to drop singles in a consistent manner. Rather than dropping an album every other month, singles can consistently drive results to your page. On top of that, each streaming platform algorithm favors consistent artists over non active artists. Next time you think about dropping an album, consider dropping the album in singles so it extends a longer timeframe. Hope this helped!