Maximize your musical visibility with Wiseband’s Waterfall Release Strategy

In today’s digital music landscape, how an artist chooses to unveil their latest work can be critical to the success of their project. So, if you’re looking for an innovative and effective approach, the Waterfall Strategy could well be the key to increasing the visibility of your music.

In this article, we’ll explore this strategy in detail, highlight its benefits, and discuss how you can implement it to propel your music career.

Understanding the Waterfall Release Strategy

The waterfall release strategy is characterized by the successive release of singles, each gradually integrating to form an EP or album. Unlike releasing singles as stand-alone titles, this approach creates a connection between the tracks, forming a coherent whole over time.

A concrete example of this strategy is The Chainsmokers, who were pioneers (if not the first) with the album ‘Sick Boy’. Every month of 2018, a new single was unveiled (except in May and June), creating constant anticipation until the album’s full release in December of the same year.

Putting the strategy into practice

For Phoebe Bridgers and her album ‘Punisher’, released in 2020, the Waterfall release strategy was also implemented for the first three singles. Each of the songs saw a steady increase in streams with each new release, creating synergy between the tracks.

Other artists, such as Cassie Raptor , COLORÉ and LUZ, are currently using this strategy ahead of the launch of their respective projects. This clever approach optimizes streaming platforms, especially Spotify, where exponential stream growth is strongly encouraged.

The benefits of the Waterfall release strategy

1. Avoiding off-peak periods
With over 100,000 new songs released daily on Spotify, staying in the public mind is a challenge. The waterfall release strategy allows a complete work to be broken down into tracks, avoiding long periods without new music.

2. Optimizing the Spotify algorithm
Spotify promotes exponential stream growth. By adopting this strategy, you increase your chances of entering algorithmic playlists such as Release Radar or Discover Weekly.

3. Reaching editorial playlists
Pitching each single individually for Spotify’s editorial playlists is limited. The waterfall strategy bypasses this restriction, increasing your chances of inclusion.

4. Increasing your royalties
The cumulative effect of the above benefits translates into increased visibility, potentially leading to a significant increase in streams and, consequently, revenues.

Implement your Waterfall release strategy with Wiseband

Practical implementation of the Waterfall release strategy is simple with Wiseband. Follow these steps to upload your Waterfall outputs:

⚠️ Important information ⚠️: When adding your existing singles into the new products to be distributed (2nd & 3rd release), please use exactly the same metadatas, audio files and corresponding ISRC codes already assigned!

Important technical tips

Respect the track order, as it cannot be changed after distribution.
Use different titles for each “single” output to avoid confusion.
Make sure that the UPC/EAN code is different for each release, but the ISRC codes for each track remain the same.

Complementary strategies

To maximize the impact of your cascading release strategy, consider the following tactics:

• Create videos and live sessions for each single.
• Collaborate with other artists for featurings.
• Launch advertising campaigns on social networks.
• Add lyrics with Musixmatch and canvas videos on Spotify (through your own Spotify For Artists access).
• Use Wiseband’s promotion service to promote your music to the media and playlists.

In conclusion, with over 100,000 tracks released every day, the Waterfall release strategy is proving to be an effective way for artists to stand out from the crowd. Spotify, the leader in music streaming, encourages this approach, offering independent artists an opportunity for exponential stream growth. By carefully planning your releases and using distribution platforms such as Wiseband, you can fully exploit the benefits of this strategy.

Take the time to plan and implement your own Waterfall release strategy. Whether you’re an emerging or established artist, this approach can be a catalyst for growing your fanbase and attracting the attention of music industry professionals.

Don’t forget that releasing an album is no longer just symbolic, but the way you deploy your music is crucial. If you’d like to explore other release strategies, check out our article on 3 successful strategies for independent artists. What’s more, if you’re an artist just starting out, our guide to releasing music as an independent artist can be very helpful.

Finally, if you’re interested in the vinyl adventure, our article on releasing a vinyl record could be your next exciting read. Maximize your musical visibility with the Waterfall release strategy, and prepare to conquer the streaming platforms wisely.