Analyze THAT

New song is out! Sick. Played two shows! Sick! Let’s put on our analysis hats and as Keith says…. “Trust the numbers.”

First things first, we don’t agree with how Spotify or most streaming sites operate in terms of artist support/artist payment, etc. BUT in our situation, we can’t really afford to NOT put our music on the digital streaming platforms (aka DSPs). That’s where we currently stand and I’m gonna really try not to get too deep in the weeds. 

We released a song called “If You’re So Rich, Why Aren’t You Smart?” on Friday, July 25 so as of writing this, the song has been available for 12 days. We’ll cross over 6,000 streams. We have 2,800 month listeners. We have 4,600 followers. Our popularity index is 15% and currently rising. That’s just Spotify numbers by the way since Spotify is what most promoters are looking at. 

Promoters, venues, labels want to see 20k+ monthly listeners. They want to see a song cross over 10k streams. Then 20k, then 50k, then 100k. I think they like a popularity index over 25% or something. 

Playlists seem to be a flash in the pan now a days. We get in cool magazine/blog playlists like Lambgoat or The Noise but they don’t really push our music forward much. 5-10 streams. You really want editorial playlists but those seems to be gate kept pretty heavily. We got one of our first singles “Who’s Afraid of Eleven Wolves” in the editorial playlists but nothing since.

A band our size survives on the Spotify radio feature or playing after you finish an album. Most people might not let that continue to play but that’s where the bulk of our streams ideally come from. The algorithm needs to learn “if listener like Better Lovers/Norma Jean, then we need to show them The Undertaking!”

The best thing we have going for us right now is a back log of songs. Last year, we only released two new singles. Now we have 4 more (not including Rich/Smart) plus more music that we need to finish up. The idea is release a song every 6 weeks to curate and train the algorithm into a breathing machine that pumps people to our page. Ugh. Music Industry 2025 babyyyyy. 

We make basically zero dollars from Spotify. We currently have $75 in our distrokid bank. Laughable. We sold 10 shirts at our Better Lovers show, which is pretty solid. 3 at our Resider show. Not as solid. Would be sick to get to 10 shirts every show.

In recap, we’re in a solid spot. I’ll follow up in a couple months and we can examine where our streams/numbers are!

Here’s the take-away for you, dear reader. Pay attention.

How to help your favorite bands: make a playlist on Spotify with your favorite band and a couple other sick bands that sound similar. Buy merch from their web store or at a show. Share their music. Also, try to buy tickets in advance. You have no idea how much that helps the promoters, venues/staff and bands as they prepare for a show. 

Our August 15 show at Soda Bar has 11 tickets sold and so everyone realizes we need to push it as hard as we can! Can’t rely on 40 walk ups! 

Also, I laughed titling this Analyze That. Pretty sure that’s the sequel to Analyze This. I remember that being a pretty hot movie back in the early 2000s. 

Back to music: I wish we didn’t have to worry about these numbers. I wish these numbers weren’t easily fudged by bots and artificial streams…. I wish it wasn’t the case but it is. At the end of the day, we’re here to have fun. We’re here to create. We’re here to play our music live as chaotic as energetic as can be. And that’s why we keep doing it. 

Let me know if anyone wants me to go more in depth on this stuff. I can’t imagine it’s super interesting. But it is to us and this is our newsletter. Also down to chat about better ways to do all this too! 

MEDIA CONSUMPTION

I watched Past Lives the other night. Really well made movie with great performances. It’s on Netflix now. During Comic Con, I saw Fantastic Four. Its fine. 

GODSEYES

Go stream their new song. “F[L]avor Of [Cheese]” Love those baby boys. Yes, I’m aware that song isn’t Flavor Of Cheese. okay? Oh, go see them tour with Zao too.

Discord. Merch store

And finally, photos from our Better Lovers show by Micala Austin