Why I Choose To Wait (To Release New Music, That Is)

I released ‘I’m Fine’ back in March and it was very positively received, to my delight. I released the song under my label Twin State Recordings, a label that was started through the music business course in the Music Production and Businss online diploma programme offered by Point Blank, London. So in fact, releasing the song was for a project that had everything to do with learning about music business and testing music strategies. I must say I’m very grateful for that project and to my tutor, Steve Hillier, for the push that I needed to really start promoting myself and my music since I changed my name to ‘Kattronique’ two years ago. But nevertheless, if it were up to me, I would have still chosen to wait, and up to now I still feel that way.

 ‘I’m Fine’ was another school project that was completed back in March 2014. The released version contained new vocals and I also polished up the mix thanks to new things I learned from the mixing course taken that term. I previously thought that I would release ‘I’m Fine’ last July, but I decided not to because I was hoping to release it with additional songs as an EP. That never happened. So then when I took the music business course earlier this year and I had to decide on the song I wanted to release, I realised that the moment was finally here. And in so doing I got to do things I had always dreamed of: starting my own label, devising and implementing a marketing campaign, taking a photoshoot to promote a song, promoting the song as a DJ, and of course, selling my music, not just online but on the ground as well! Then I also received airplay on both the Indigenous (Sundays on 102.1 FM from 8PM to 10PM) and Total Local (Thursdays on 95.5 FM from 9PM to 11PM) programmes on local radio stations, and finally registered as a COTT (a collection agency for songwriters in Trinidad and Tobago) member. It marked a time when I was finally becoming serious as an artist and now also a record label executive, and really exploring my business and marketing sensibilities as well. So I definitely saw the benefit of releasing my music, even if I wasn’t sure if was ready.

But still, with all that said, I choose to wait. This is because I’m still skeptical about the advice others have given to be constantly releasing music as singles as opposed to an EP or a full album, because of people’s waning interest. Firstly, I have many favourite bands and artists in music, and they could disappear off the face of the planet for all I care; I’ll still remember them and crave new music from them. All they have to do is announce a new album or single and I’m ecstatic and can’t wait to get their new music! Any true fan would feel this way, I’m sure of it, so there could never be any waning interest. Secondly, my music should never be disposable, and I think constantly pushing out new music in order to compete for listeners’ attention is only serving to keep music viewed as such. While I understand this concern of waning interest, I feel that artists still need to hold back a little and keep their fans anticipating and wanting more.

Thirdly, I believe that quality should still be highly favoured over quantity. The way I see it is that the more artists desire to release their music as soon as possible, the more they might instead end up sacrificing quality in the long run, which has further implications for music’s declining value and disposable nature these days. It seems like no longer are artists thinking about their songs lasting for generations to come; they just want as much money as they can get right now. Fourthly, if music sales are already down these days, wouldn’t it be just better to hold out and release music as EPs and full length albums that can stand the test of time rather than saturating an already saturated market with more ‘disposable’ music? Scaling back releases also makes sense from an economical standpoint. When I took an Economics class many years back, I learned that when the supply of a product decreases, demand increases and as a result the price can be set higher. Hence, with the concept of scarcity, you create more value for your product. So wouldn’t it then be actually wiser for all artists to scale back the volume of releases every year to increase the demand and hence create a fever pitch for new music, thus raising its value again? 

Yes, I know it’s hard. Right now, it’s hard to battle the desire to want to produce great quality, classic music with the desire to maintain engagement with my fans and to attract new fans as well with new releases. Even now, while I’m currently working on my new EP, AFROMUNE, it’s hard to not want to release a demo or a preview while I’m still working on getting the mix right. I can’t wait for my fans to be as crazy about these new songs as I am. But at the same time, I value not just myself and my career, but I value my fans. And I want to provide my fans with great groovy music exactly how I envisioned that’s not also ‘export-ready’ or ‘radio-ready’, but Kattronique-ready. So as much as I was hoping to immediately ride on the buzz of the release of my latest single, I had to control that impulse. Plus it’s equally difficult to plan another release while you’re finishing an online diploma in Music Production and Business from Point Blank (a programme I heavily recommend, by the way!), but I tried to do as much as I could when possible :) 

I think it’s helpful to remember sayings such as ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. The same should be said for great quality music. And as much as the Age of the Internet has artists at their wits end to keep at pace with their peers in terms of visibility and dominance in the music industry, I think this has done more harm than good, because music is now even more accessible and not worth as much to listeners as it used to be. So maybe a scaling back of releases should be in order. Whether or not this fact is understood by the wider industry remains to be seen, but I choose to set an example within my circle of influence. And I choose to wait.