Why You Should Write Albums, Not Singles | Pulling The Lever S1E7
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
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Holistic Songwriting is the most relevant resource for modern Songwriters/Producers on the net.
Friedemann Findeisen is an award-winning songwriter and the author of the bestselling book "The Addiction Formula". As a musical profiler, he coaches some of the biggest producers in Germany.
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“Welcome back, it’s aderedggdfvjkdxs from wholistic songwriting.”
😆
Hahaha so original, gets me everytime
I hear that EVERY video lol.
It's his trademark! :D
lol
Albums. Concept albums, where each song relates to the next and its one idea overall altogether. Albums where it’s all one big particular loop, where the end of one song bleeds into the next. Albums where the there’s a hidden track, before the first song and after the last track.
You can listen to a single on the radio, but nothing beats listening to a whole record from start to finish and letting the music speak to your soul.
There's an album like that from a guy named David Crowder, name of the album is Church Music...
It blew my mind how it flowed and worked as a whole. Takes something special.
I'd love to do that for an EP with 5 or 6 songs in this fashion.
Suppose if you have a few albums you could actually pick some songs that work together as well and re record them as an EP or one looong 'track' for streaming...
Just thinking as I type...
Amen 🙌
tell that to the vast majority of listeners these days. don't get me wrong I love creating albums and such but a man's gotta eat
@msalazar2011 the wall?
TOOL!!!
What I like about albums is that not every song needs to be the a potential hit single. You have some room to breathe and stretch as an artist, and present a wider range of music and ideas to the listener.
A good album has an ebb and flow to it, and I feel like I'm getting so much more than just a bunch of songs by the same artist.
Next week: Why You Should Write Sins, Not Tragedies
leave
Exactly what came to my mind lmao.
It makes me sad to know that most people don't listen to albums anymore and prefer singles. I've always been an album listener and I always will be.
Me to facts
To me the idea of a musician not releasing albums is like a painter not releasing paintings or a filmmaker not releasing films, it just doesn't make sense.
I understand that singles are more commercial than albums. But I'd still rather listen to Rumours than just Dreams.
Personally, I want to tell stories with my music. This is why love the idea of concept EPs/LPs in which each and every piece is a chapter in your story. I really get that marketing-wise it makes way more sense to release singles every now and then, but I don't know... I prefer to release a big project on which I can put in so much love instead of just releasing a single. It's just not as satisfying in an artistic sense for me.
Also, I love to hold a CD in my hand after the production is done. It just feels way more rewarding as "just" a digital single. I for myself love to buy CDs, read the booklet and enjoy the beautifully designed artwork, so I also want to release my music like that. If that's the reason that keeps me from getting more successful as an artist, so be it. But in the end, I can at least be proud of every release I did, because I went the extra mile (concept, graphics, etc...) for it.
I think albums are either a work of art (concept album) or a collection of songs written in a period of time. It totally depends on the artist and how they view releasing their work into the world which is an art form in itself
As a listener, I much rather prefer albums, I like listening full albums. But as someone who's looking to have a musical project and record, I think an EPs (5 or 6 songs) is a good compromise between both worlds. You can spread an idea and a concept as an artist, but with a much shorter span and with less cost. If you can keep the EPs flowing, you can have newer material to show your audience much faster than waiting for a full album, and you can always sell newer EPs in venues.
The length of songs also has an impact.
5 songs each lasting 4 minutes or more can stand on its own and justify fans purchases easier than 5 songs that are 2-3minutes. There are differences between 12 minutes EPs and 25 minutes EPs.
And it may be easy to make an album that last 20-30 minutes and harder to make an album that is 45-60 minutes. Depending on the intricacies of the genre it can also be harder or easier. If there are lots of vocal melodies and small details or if the structure is simple and there are lots of parts that are simple to record.
Hushed Tones with how my generation moves n think today NONE of us will listen to an EP/Album for 45-60 minutes 25-40 tops 👌🏾
Most important to me was the point about how if you only release a single... where does the listener go from there? I LOVE having a body of work to dig into. Theres nothing more satisfying for me than discovering an artist and digging through their entire discography. By the end of that journey, for better or for worse, I feel like I truly know the artist and their vision.
Could you look at Mariah Carey songwriting styles since she has 18 number one songs and she writes majority of her songs
Ive written 4 concept albums (basically 50 min songs) when i was a teenager but honestly nowdays i prefer to write singles that are connected in some way but with the freedom to diverge from the ideas ive used in the other songs. sure, its nice to have go-2-sounds, specific reoccuring chord progressions and such for an entire album but in the end it allows for a lot more creativity to start every song from scratch in my opinion. i really enjoy letting the soundscape dictate the next step rather than trying to fit an idea from another song into the next.
The person you're describing at circa 17:15 is the Swedish artist Laleh. She's a self made musician and producer. She lied that she knew how to produce when she was going to make her first album (or actually, she was naive and innocent as always, she thought she could learn, so she said that she does know how to do it), so they gave her free reins in the studio and she won the Swedish Grammy as a producer, beating all the pros. Her songs really have character, she is truly an artist, especially with her first few albums, nowdays she's gone more pop, but it's not bad, it just sounds a little more mainstream.
I'm currently mixing my EP that contains 6 songs, It's been exhausting to experiment a sound that I feel proud of but as cliché as it sounds, I've realised that its more about the journey than the destination and I'm looking forward to finally putting this project to an end and taking everything I've learned to write new music.
I totally understand you
My process is recording myself meditatively improvising with my guitar for hours and hours (no breaks) and then composing off of any of the ideas I hear that I can envision being part of my overall project.
I usually find that the ideas I improvise that naturally come to me without any planning are almost always my best.
I change my process every time and always stress out over every song, but I have to do it. Moments are fun, proud, etc, but it’s not easy... and I just wrote an album and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
In my opinion an album is kinda what makes an artist. Stating they have something to say and to take or leave me as I am , but will put it out front 100% authentically with the process. Working on my first album now! It’s been a lot of fun putting together and been a long time coming of just putting myself in the music.
Your album Subface is Dope !!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 i love the hook of something beautiful and the sequence of the album. It the kind of album you want to start from beginning to end. It really sounds unfiltered and honest. Congratulations! It’s good to see the teacher proving what he teaches !
Thank you man! Means a lot :)
Set your parameters and boundaries and then work within them.
I've been waiting a whole week for this vid.
Tesseract first released an EP which they made into tracks 3-8 of their first album, which was quite an interesting move. They padded it from both ends.
An album seems to be more of a long-term artistic project, whereas a single is more of a commercial teaser.
I've been building up a stock of single worthy songs, treating it sort of as an album but knowing they'll be released separately. Still gives me the benefit of a lot of the pros in this video. Of course, once I release them I won't have time to stockpile again, so I'm really trying to cement my process down while I prepare to pull the lever
"It is rare to find someone who is great at songwriting, great at performing, great at recording, great at mixing, and great at mastering."
True... as an artist, I have found the need to develop these skills over the years. I would be curious to know what do you think of my last album, where I wrote, composed, recorded all instruments (except drums - programmed), mixed and mastered everything myself.
Just keep at it and keep on learning and improving your skillset. Do everything you can to give yourself the best chance of figuring it out.
Damn where is your album bro? I wanna hear it
Album all the way! Just did ours and I'm so glad we did it, even if we shouldn't have lol
I can't imagine approaching album composition any other way.
You are the Binging with Babish of music production
Great video, Couldn't have come at a better time for me, been struggling to decide between EP and Album for next months release. Leaning towards album now
Great points! I feel like it's definitely a new playing field going into 2020. People are able to go to streaming apps and totally flip an artist's project from the way the artist intended to deliver it. (Playlists mainly) There's a great population of consumers that'll do as they please with anything you release, and that's a blessing and a curse.
Great video, good info and genius the way you manage to start the hype and promote your first album through this video.
Best of luck.
This is sooo validating thank you so much
And we thank you for all the guidance bro
Epic live performance songs which don't work as singles are the best reason for releasing albums IMO.
I started producing about five years ago (I was a pro jazz trombone player at the time), and one thing I quickly learned about myself is that I don't really produce/write individual songs, it's just not the way I hear the ideas in my head. When I listened to To Be Kind for the first time a few years ago I realized that the way they approach music composition is similar to the way I think about it. Ever since this realization I have been learning everything I can about Swans and the way they approach music composition and production.
I just love watching your videos, I genuinely eagerly wait every week and think what is going to be the next topic @hollistic songwriting😅
Thank you! :) Means a lot!
@@Holistic-songwriting welcome sir
Your videos really help me with my song writing. Thank you
Interesting video and topic. I agree with most of your points, except 2, well actually just 1 1/2 : a) Your reasoning for point #1 - writing 12 songs for an album and then releasing them individually means they're technically still singles. But i get and agree with what you mean by building a catalog first. b) #2 While i agree it's helpful to find a kind of blueprint for your sound and that streamlining your production process can speed up things i actually think it can be counterproductive creativity wise to streamline it too much. Sure, you get things done quicker - but that's not really the main goal when writing or producing music. Your first goal should be to make great tracks, and with a too streamlined process you run the risk of your individual songs becoming too similar and bland. Because: Struggling with the workflow and encountering challenges no matter if they're technical, musical or lyricwise can lead to a very important thing: Happy accidents. As also a graphic designer with focus on creating logos for clients, the happy accidents are one cornerstone of my creative strategy, albeit not the only one of course. If my process would be too streamlined, i couldn't really count on them anymore which would really be a loss, because sometimes (not always) it's exactly those "mistakes" that bring out the best (unique) results. As far as singles vs albums goes, i guess my strategy will be to indeed record an album's worth of songs, then release 2-4 max of those as singles, then release the whole album. This way you kind of have a few tasters (that will be included on the album) but you haven't wasted too many to not being able to sell/ promote the album anymore. But it all depends on your music, your target audience, if you play live or not and your marketing strategy. You can't seperate those from each other anymore nowadays.
P.S. One more thing: A good argument for albums is that the not-so-in-your-face songs can be a counterpoint to the more hard hitting ones in the context of an album. Just like in many good songs, novels, theater plays, movies etc you have tension&release, dynamics or simply contrast, the same can work within the frame of an album - fast vs. slow, obvious vs. deep, loud vs. quiet etc.
Thank you so much for sharing this video! :D I'm just now thinking whether to release singles (and perform each one on local festivals) or to write album.. This is going to be my first album.. (I'm singer and lyric writer) I'm 29, but now I have competence to perform with pleasure, and now I have courage and inspiration. :D :D Wow! Your video helps a lot! :D I'm amazed!
7:22 * Doom metal artists stare confusedly *
I’m gonna tell you my (short) experience. I prefer doing singles because when I meet a producer I didn’t work before with, I make a song just to feel how does it work. Most of the times they are producers who work with different projects at the same time, so for me it is a risk if they get lost in the process. Also, I can’t focus in just one style of music. Then, when I get confidential with the producer, I write more songs but again, it happened to me that they don’t really understand what I am looking for. So, it was expensive for me to make each individual song and video, but I have to date six different singles and I noticed that people and me feel more connected when I play them live. Collab is a great thing but I realized that I have to give my 100% in the making of a project and then learn the production techniques and just ask for help when needed.
I’m experimenting on processing 13 songs from 1.0 version to 2.0 and may be to 3.0 versions.
I make live album 1.0 out of them 2.0 versions and publish it in few weeks.
And then I see, if I need to work more on them, or go on tour with them and write more songs.
Songs are now in intuitive order in playlist ’Vernal Equinox’.
Thankx for sharing such a great knowledge and insights of music imdustry
Thank you so much for your videos!
Consept Albums !!
Nuff said !!
Make a video on why Frederick Douglass never dropped an album.
What's your take on Rick Rubens approach to albums where the band writes literally 100-150 songs and choose the best ones to start production on?
Nothing wrong with that (other than the amount of time it takes to write that much). I highly recommend that everyone writing an album writes AT LEAST 2-3 times as many songs as will appear on the album. It's a necessary step to make sure you aren't putting out crap.
To me the idea of a musician not releasing albums is like a painter not releasing paintings or a filmmaker not releasing films, it just doesn't make sense.
I understand that singles are more commercial than albums. But I'd still rather listen to Rumours than just Dreams.
I agree with every single thing you said.
I just subscribed and I’m really excited to watch more of your videos because I think on the same wavelength as you haha! Working on my second album right now...
Dude you should do an episode on this band called the silver thinkers, their music is complex, and it’s amazing. Beautiful solos, riffs lyrics, like nothing in the market. Trust me
Great video. I think most musicians, in the zone, prefer to make a whole album. My forthcoming album is going to have taken more than a year to produce, and I expect to easily be my very best ! That is why it is rewarding.
Now I'm curious about your Canohead album, but I couldn't find it on Spotify and Bandcamp. Has it been released yet?
that's something
th-cam.com/video/Ixp67FCxsZE/w-d-xo.html
Don't know if you know or not, but Canohead is on Spotify now.
@@jackhill3273 Thanks, I've listened to it and liked it more than expected.
It also feels like your advocating for an artist to hide creatively behind a book of songs, i.e. an album, rather than putting their all in each and every song, which pulls the audience in the direction of not seeing the importance in every song that they create and is essentially an extension of the single itself. Your videos are super intriguing- just attempting to engage.
thanks for these videos! they really help me out a lot
Can I send you my CD (free of course)? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. And thank you for this video, I have liked and subscribed. This was very helpful for me. Your points were very insightful. I had settled on 12 songs, but so many people are saying albums are a thing of the past, and that attention span is drastically diminished. But I also agree with everything you've said, it's accurate, because a compilation really shows more of what an artist has to offer and delivers a full experience. I always think of having enough music to take an hour long drive or bike ride with. I enjoy a full experience with multiple facets. This first CD is almost done and has taken me years to complete. But loving to have a hard copy album in hand, I will likely start on the next album as soon as this one is finished. Each one is a different genre, which is why I need to do albums, to keep the genres together in separate compilations.
I learned, singles aren't the best at the beginning for me, and it's crazy cuz i payed in to studio time for them and they are bangers but the song's i recorded off my laptop where sound quality is kind of all over the place and my those song's got put into mixtapes i got allot more feedback from those so next goal is to make an album Ina studio! 🔥 Get more people talking!
Ur video is amazing dude thanks for making it
Personally, I think when you're starting out the 7-song format (mini album? mixtape? slightly longer EP??) is a good in-between - it's long enough for new people to get a sense of who you are but short enough to not bore them and to leave them wanting more.
There are options hahaha I love that reference
All these thoughts should already be evident to an experienced songwriter, and wasted on those who have not put in the time and effort. You seem quite knowledgeable and I look forward to listening to your actual songs. Can you suggest your best examples and where to find them?
What are some classic/ great songs that worked as tracks on albums but would not have worked as singles? What are some classic 'transitional' songs'?
A Day in The Life by The Beatles. An absolute classic and perfect song. Last track in Sgt. Peppers but would not have worked as a single in my opinion.
While I love full length albums, LPs unfortunately aren't the most efficient way to release music anymore. The vast majority of consumers don't have the attention span to listen to an entire 40+ minutes of music, especially from an artist they don't necessarily care about. This is what we get when everything we could ever want is accessible immediately at the click of a button.
However, I do believe that recording a full batch of songs at once and releasing them in pieces over a year or two is the most efficient way to maintain your market's attention. Whether that's recording 12, or 35 songs at a time, and releasing them 1-4 at a time, is up to you. This also gives you that entire period of time to be writing more music, thus appearing as if you are constantly participating in the whole write/record/release cycle and staying in the minds of your people.
What's your vocal range? Are there distorted vocals on Canohead? I want to hear Canohead :) , any teaser coming soon?
Love the Dodge and Fuski example 😂
"building a relationship" that's true
Electioneering never made sense on OK Computer imo. Always felt like a Bends leftover.
P.P.S Can you do a "How Prince.." video ? I don't know if that can be done at all (in my view he had his very own way of treating harmonies, melodies and scales that are not that easy to figure out beyond the obvious), but it would be awesome if you'd give it a try ! :)
Just what I needed to hear tnx!
Why should you or why you should? What do grammar rules say?
Make more videos !!! Please ?
Moin Friedemann, thanks for these interesting videos! I think EPs can be a good compromise though. Hayley Kiyoko released 3 EPs before she finally made a proper Album. (Can you PLEASE do an Artists Feature on Hayley Kiyoko? I think she is one of the few really interesting pop singers writing her own stuff right now - it's commercial, yet innovative). She released 2-3 Singles per EP. Then her second music video of her second EP went viral ... this way she had more than just a few random singles out when she broke and had a better starting position in the music industry and with her following for releasing her "debut" album.
Cheers / Grüße
I'm cooking_up a e.p. and I've already written my album😀😀😀😍😍😍😳😳😝😝😊☺😞😂😂😂😂🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅🐍🐱🐍👀💦👄✌✌
Totally agree with you!
But what if you write singles that bleeds into each other? Isn't that like an album?
I need to listen to your music
I’m slightly confused...in the single pros episode, you said that the overhead of a single is cheaper, but in the album pros you said the cost per song is cheaper. Why wouldn’t you just do a a “full album session” of singles to bring your costs down and have enough single material to release over time while working on more future releases? You could streamline your release dates, i.e. marketing campaigns, utilizing a social media dashboard such as Hootesuite while you work on more material. Thoughts?
That's certainly possible, and of course you can mix and match, but doing it this way also prevents you from taking advantage of the many unique perks of writing singles, like not being able to react to the markets.
Holistic Songwriting great point! I failed to consider the spontaneity factor of single releases.
I've got a question:
When you release an album and you have a single from this album, can only the single chart or can another song from the album also chart individually?
Chart rules have changed with streaming. Before it was individual singles.
Now we have horrific instances like Ed Sheerean's entire album being in the top 20 charts because the songs are being streamed individually
@@jumhed994 thank you for your answer :)
Great video, i am the meddle right now, started to release some singles, now i am going for the EP next October, Via Distrokid. Cheers
MAY I ASK IF WHEN making an album, do all the songs have to be the same one genre? Or it could be two genres that are related to each other? Like bedroom pop and lofi in one album.. would that be bad?
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take care, stay gefährlich
Thanks for the great video!
One question: What song did you use in the background?
A single can just never be as big as Sgt Pepper, Thriller, Dark Side of the Moon, etc. I can't even name a single that's that big.
Catface we live in a different time though
Listening to albyms is just quite a different experiemnce. Good albums are coherent and it's always diving into artist;'s world for 45 minutes, which is what listening to music is all about for me.
Jump, van Halen
Despacito
Bohemian Rhapsody??
Hey I'm a complete beginner. Please someone guide from the very start to very end. I'm feeling very overwhelmed. I mean give me some kind of blueprint and resources to learn from. Please!
A painting vs an exhibition.
is there a link to part 1?
Where's your album, I'd like to hear it?
Is this available in a podcast??
Another pro for albums: media are more likely to cover them than singles.
Also its cheaper to market an album 12 for the price of 1..also do you have a link to your album?
what's a CD?
I don't know why this is a recommendation xd but I watched the whole thing
Metallica's Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning - their pioneering records - had only 8 songs - 4 per side.
Yeah, but some of those songs were really long and had more going on in 2 minutes than most bands have in half an album.
There will always be bands that are outliers and buck the common perception.
wrongarithmetic and one was an instrumental
Where can we hear your music?
Got an album coming out in February :)
I’m sorry unless you are signed by a label and have so the benefits from the label , you should only be doing singles . Just try to promote an album and see how far and long you can sustain that album . I’m doing one song a month .
Feels like a hot take in 2019.
What's the name of your album?
If you do 8 tracks, should you just put it on tape?
Don’t do something unless you can do it twice . Do 16 & decide on 8, let it work it’s magic then drop a video for one of the other 8 you have in a stash
wait what u litterally have a video that we should make singles not albums! im soooooo confused!
he's playing devil's advocate on both sides to show the pros and cons of each
What's?the difference??
It seems unfair to me that in many arguments you compare a 12 song album with 4 singles.
Why not compare a 12 song album with 12 singles? You use this reasoning in for example the live repertoires argument.
“Why you should make more videos vs why you should make mor Vedeos”
Please do a video about imagine dragons
I second that!