How To Get Noticed: What’s cool is, there have actually been studies done on this. I am going to share those results with you, as well as give you some insight as to why that many songs have to be released for most artists to blow up. This is a study, not a guess. Somebody researched it, and it probably took a lot of work.
I’m Rob Level, and this is the #1 educational platform in the music industry – Smart Rapper. We’re going to help you get smarter.
The More, The Merrier
When I tell you this number initially, you’re going to say, “Wow, that’s going to take a lot of work.” But you’re also going to say, “I can do that. That makes sense.” That’s what’s beautiful about this, is when you can see the end of the road, the top of the mountain, and what it will actually take, it’ll be easier for you to believe you can do it.
If you’ve seen my videos and been subscribed to my channel, you’ll know I always tell you guys that you need to be cranking out songs like a madman. This is across any industry, pop and rock included, because there are a few benefits to releasing a lot of songs (or, at the very least, creating a lot of songs).
The More Songs You CREATE…
The more songs you create, the better you’re going to get at making music. That one’s obvious. We had to start with that one.
The More Songs You RELEASE…
The more songs you release, the more you can see how people respond to the music you’re creating. If you’re not open-minded like I used to be, you need to get that way so that you can study how people respond to your music. You can ask yourself, “Okay, they don’t like this, but why don’t they like this?” You can figure out what’s not right and what can be better.
Then, you’ll develop faster into making music that people like more, and that is essential. Every song you release will be better than the last as you get closer to this number of songs that this study shows. You have to be developed before the number matters.
The Sooner You’re Developed, The Faster You Can Grow A Fanbase.
The faster you can grow a fanbase, the sooner you can start making money from your music career. That’s everyone’s dream, even if it’s just enough to live on. That’s a beautiful thing.
You don’t have to be a superstar. If you’re living off of your music, you don’t have to go to a day job, and you’re your own boss, that’s a blessing. That is massive. You can quit your job.
We all want that. We want to reach that moment, and I hope you do. If you watch my videos and read my articles, you have a much higher chance of doing that. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmdn6cfYCxy-KKtK4KDLbw
If you’re not releasing enough music, you’re never going to know what’s right and what’s wrong. You’re just going to assume, based on your own biases. Of course, you’re going to be biased because it’s your music that came out of your soul, and you’re attached to it. You know already, a lot of people think their stuff is really good when it actually sucks.
Releasing a ton of music is going to help you evolve faster, which I think is key.
How Many Songs Does It Take To Get Noticed?
Quick disclaimer: These numbers are part of the study of how many songs it takes ON AVERAGE for an artist to blow up. This also depends on a couple of factors that we will touch on.
I’m going to break down why I believe it takes that many songs, which I find very interesting.
Based on a study that looked at popular artists, the average number of songs that they had to release BEFORE they became successful, popular, or at least on the low end where they were buzzing and had people paying attention to them…was 32 released songs.
That doesn’t seem like a crazy amount of songs, but for most people, that’s like three small projects or two big projects. Most people don’t have any projects out, containing music that’s really good.
Let me break down why it takes 32 songs – not just 32 random songs being released. That’s not how it works. You have to take into account exactly what this study…studied. It based its data on artists who were already popular and signed to labels from the get-go.
What Does That Tell Us?
What that tells us is, since you don’t get signed to a label until you’re already developed, upon releasing song 1 out of 32, they were already developed. How many songs did they release prior to that that had been scrapped? Was that included in the study? They didn’t mention that, but a lot of these artists hadn’t released a song yet. They were developed and branded on a major label and then pushed from the first song. The average still came out to be 32.
You gotta remember, it’s extremely rare for an artist to blow up from their first project. I did, but that’s because I spent so much time developing before I even started releasing songs. Read more about that here: https://www.smartrapper.com/12-terrifying-mistakes-new-rappers-make/
So, when I finally released songs, it was the best stuff I had. Because of that and my marketing strategies, I blew up.
If it’s 32 songs on average for an artist who’s signed to a major label, you can assume it’ll take you about 1-2 mixtapes to really start developing your sound and style, growing your voice, perfecting your tone, choosing the right beats, getting the right flows, developing your flows, getting your lyrics down, and getting better.
It’ll take about two projects. Let’s say that’s about 12 songs each – you’re going to release about 24 songs prior to those 32 songs. Let me elaborate.
Real-Life Industry Examples
Look at a lot of the artists who are really big right now, like DaBaby. These artists had how many mixtapes before they blew up? How long have they been releasing music? How long did it take for them to blow up? Roddy Rich didn’t blow up until 2018, but I was seeing videos of him in 2014-2015.
Look at Lil’ Uzi. It took him two additional years to develop. How many songs did he release before his bigger songs came out? Lil’ Baby was signed by a label with a lot of power beforehand, so to have that and then start releasing music, he was destined to blow up within those first 32 songs.
It’s all about DEVELOPMENT, and then those first 32 songs. Go develop yourself and your music, your sound, your brain, your image, and your style. i show you how to do all of this and more in these courses right here: https://www.smartrapper.com/coming-soon/
Manage Your Marketing Dollars
In addition to the songs released, you have to learn where to allocate your funds/marketing dollars. Every marketing dollar spent in the wrong place is a waste of money. Also, every marketing dollar spent before you are developed as an artist is a waste of your money.
You shouldn’t even be spending marketing dollars to get people to listen to your music on a bigger scale until you’re fully developed. You should be doing all of the grunt work for the free stuff while you’re stacking your money. Then, when you’re further developed and you have solid records, then you start pushing.
That’s the smarter decision. If I can get $5,000 saved up for marketing for my third project because for my first two projects, I didn’t spend $1,000-$2,500 promoting each of those, I’ll have more money to promote the better project.
I’m not telling you to procrastinate. I’m telling you to develop yourself before you start spending money. Again, try out these courses, and become a Smart Rapper: https://www.smartrapper.com/coming-soon/