A skip is a vote against your song. On streaming platforms, poor sonic quality—a mix that is too loud, too quiet, or too flat—is a primary driver of skips. This is how your master impacts your growth. Streaming growth is a game of audience retention. The algorithms that drive discovery on platforms are designed to promote songs that listeners engage with. Conversely, they penalize songs that listeners skip. Your mix and master quality is a direct factor in this equation. Consider the playlist experience. A listener flows from one song to the next, expecting a consistent sonic environment. If your track is jarringly louder or noticeably quieter than the preceding one, it breaks the spell. This sensory disruption often prompts an immediate skip, even if the song itself is good. Read the full article 👇🏾 and Join The Community https://eyewillhq.com/talk/your-mix-versus-the-algorithm

Just published my first album on SPOTIFY: “America CCL: Celebrating Our Nation’s 250th” Piggybacking on the popularity of all the Freedom250 stuff going on. I staged a virtual concert at Pierhead Island, a fictional venue in Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. 4 “live” songs - rest of the album is studio tracks. Give a listen. Follow if you like it. Share feedback too- would love to hear. https://open.spotify.com/album/37bueEkX4Dy5AR8NVUp2Xq?si=TX7G20c0RDeonnHyTw8Zyw

Before royalties, before streams, there is the asset. Great songwriting is the genesis of all music-related income. Discussions about artist revenue often begin in the middle of the story. They focus on royalty splits and streaming rates, bypassing the origin of all value. That origin is the song. The composition is the foundational asset, the bedrock upon which any sustainable career is built. Without a well-crafted song, there is nothing to publish, nothing to release, and nothing for an audience to connect with. Think of your songwriting practice not as a purely artistic pursuit, but as the research and development phase of your business. Every melody crafted, every lyric refined, is an investment in the core product you will eventually monetize. https://eyewillhq.com/talk/the-song-as-your-first-revenue-stream

The work does not end on release day. It begins. Here is your content plan for the two weeks that follow. Release day is a starting line, not a finish line. Most creators exhaust their content and energy leading up to a release. This leaves a vacuum in the days that follow. That silence signals to algorithms and audiences that the moment has passed. We will correct this. https://eyewillhq.com/talk/the-post-release-imperative