Getting your tracks included in playlists is crucial for the purpose of obtaining new listeners to your music. However, it’s a frustrating process as the majority of established playlist curators decline the majority of tracks received. Sometimes it could be due to some arbitrary reason; typically it’s not.
After a long experience as playlist curators here at Hit Music Group, we’ve identified the primarily song-attributes that will get your music instantly declined. Prior to this discussion, I’d like to mention a critical point that most artists don’t seem to be aware of: your music is your product; there is always a middle-ground between your artistry and providing a pleasant experience to the public. It’s inherently selfish to merely focus on your message and artistry but not on what your targeted listener segment would like to hear. Obviously, the point is not that all music should sound identical, rather its attributes shall match the target audience’s listening preferences as well as the marketing channels.
With that said, let’s return to the main topic by presenting the first reason to why your tracks get instantly declined.
Duration
I hate to break it to you: we don’t live in the 70s anymore where you could produce a 6 minute track that would later on become a world-hit. In today’s fast-paced society with a high demand for attention, it’s not a realistic expectation to conjure an abnormally lengthy song and gain a lot of listeners and/or playlist support. Regardless of genre most people don’t want this. Just observe how the majority consume entertainment today; with an unlimited amount of choices, there is no time to waste.
Recall that in the previous music-industry era, a great deal of the public consumed music through album purchases, which frankly were incredibly costly compared to today’s consumption habits. From this fact, we can sensibly deduce that those people would value their bought music in a contrastive way; to an extent, they’d appreciate more durative albums as it would signify more bang for your buck.
In conclusion: A 2-2:30 minutes long track is sufficient.
Progression
Deliver your message (song) quickly before the audience (or curators) start counting sheeps; there is simply not enough space in this century for a 50 seconds long intro or verse. While a modest amount of today’s artists with a huge listener base can afford to break this rule (sometimes), you are most likely not part of this group. Therefore there are no wins in having a dreadening arrangement that never gets to the climax; the production time increases while the possibility of landing playlists decreases.
No Audience
Related to what was previously mentioned: your music is your product. If you only create songs that solely please you, what are the expectations? Frankly, whether or not acknowledging it, most musicians create music for the purpose of others to enjoy; this might be your life’s purpose, but in the end it’s just entertainment and people will treat it as so. If they are not entertained by your product, they won’t recognize it.
The full list
Although the discussion focused around the three above reasons, there are plenty of others. To sum up, the full list including the aforementioned is presented below:
- Duration – too long songs generally perform worse (2-2:30 minutes is enough)
- Progression – ambiguous and durative arrangements
- No Audience – unmarketable music
- Weak Topline/Hooks – song doesn’t lure into re-listenings (more streams/lower skip-rate)
- Hobby Productions – DIY is fun, but if you can’t pull it off gracefully, seek assistance from professionals
- Weak Vocals – if you have a weak voice, don’t force it; find a vocalist to partner up with
- Inaccurate Targeting – your tranquil folk song won’t likely be a fit to an EDM workout playlist