the number must go up

I’m romantic for an era with less data. An era with records and CD’s where there was no daily play count, but rather just an update from the team every few months that the new song was “doing well!” I actively still try to live in that era to some degree. I’ve deleted all my artists stats apps, Spotify for Artists, Apple Artists, etc. Day one numbers can be so soul-crushing to artists that I’m legitimately impressed by anyone that continues to keep going after a “miss”. Even worse, it can convince you that you don’t like your song anymore. How insane is that.

So what do we do with all this data? Who is this data for? The labels, the brands, and the companies that built the apps. It’s marketed as something that’s “for artists,” I mean it’s literally the name of the apps… But it’s not. It’s not for you.

I’ve never met anyone who wrote a better song because of all the data they had from a previous release. We’re sold on the idea of monitoring daily stats that this will help your process, I argue it can have the opposite effect. There’s no true inspiration I get from seeing that line go up (or down). Don’t let data get a writing credit on your next song, it doesn’t deserve it.

Art is a practice, not an industry. An important thing to remember if you’re… you know… the artist.

- felix