Marveille’s secret to millions of Spotify streams: Unreleased tracks
Discover how Marveille’s strategic use of unfinished songs led to millions of Spotify streams.
by Chris Robley of Reverbnation Blog
The music career of 16-year-old songwriter Marveille is skyrocketing right now.
All thanks to the songs she DIDN’T release.
What the heck does that mean?
Stick with me for a second…
The French singer’s infectious R&B track “Citadelle” has garnered more than 25 million streams on Spotify, appearing on numerous official playlists like Afro Hits and R&Bae:
She’s performed onstage with musical heroes such as Tayc, saying of the experience:
Who would have believed it?
That one day me — Marveille — who was listening to Dadju and Tayc in my lost city (St Etienne) — who started on BandLab in my room with my phone and headphones — who had no money, nobody to help me, again the neglected, forgotten, insulted girl… I am still asking the question:
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT that such a wonderful day would be here?
Nobody.
– Marveille
Selectivity: the secret to her success
Marveille shows obvious talent, style, and effort.
But she also had enough material “in the hopper” that the true gems were allowed to shine.
In this edition of Why It Worked, we’ll take a quick look at the wisdom of Mervaille’s prolific music-production process.
Because having more songs than she needed helped Marveille put her best foot forward.
Why you need dozens of unfinished songs
Around the time “Citadelle” was gaining traction, Marveille stated that she had 140 different pieces of music she’d created on her phone using BandLab.
That audio stockpile presumably includes:
- finished tracks that remain unreleased
- songs that are still in-the-works
- barely-formed bursts of inspiration
- beats without vocals/lyrics
- demos of song sketches without production
140 possible tracks!
This speaks to the importance of your creativity staying ahead of your output.
The benefits of prolific music production
THE MORE YOU CREATE, THE BETTER YOU GET
Like any craft, practice can help you accelerate idea-generation and problem-solving.
THE MORE YOU MAKE, THE LESS PRECIOUS YOU GET
When a process becomes freer, you can achieve faster output and take more risks.
THE MORE YOU PRODUCE, THE QUICKER YOU’LL IDENTIFY YOUR OWN WEAKNESSES
If you find that the last 20 times you sat down to make music, you struggled with drum programming, it might not JUST be the learning curve.
This may be an area where you’d benefit from collaboration.
THE MORE TRACKS YOU HAVE, THE MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO REACH AUDIENCES
This one is pretty obvious, but it requires that you put actual marketing effort into every official release.
You should promote your music every time!
THE MORE TRACKS YOU HAVE, THE MORE YOU CAN WINNOW
This is the process of separating the wheat from the chaff (as people used to say) to officially release the very best music you’ve made.
It’s not always true, but sometimes the more rocks, the more gold.
THE MORE TRACKS, THE LESS TIME BETWEEN RELEASES
With more songs in production, you’re never far from your next official release.
THE MORE TRACKS, THE MORE DATA
This can be true BEFORE official releases (where sharing tracks on BandLab allowed Marveille to see what was working best) as well as after release, where various performance metrics can indicate what a wider audience likes best in your music.
How to maintain a prolific creative process
It’s easy to look at Marveille and see the benefits of active music creation.
However, it might be harder to incorporate that lesson into your own busy life.
If so, here’s…
6 tips to help you get (and stay) productive:
1. KEEP YOUR PRODUCTION AND RELEASE SCHEDULES SEPARATE
If the point is to keep a sense of freedom and play in the process, and to winnow the results to the best tracks, then you do NOT want production and release schedules closely correlated.
Because…
2. YOU SHOULD NOT RELEASE EVERYTHING
I mean, you can eventually if it’s all great material. But again, the point is to allow yourself a place to sprawl, get messy, and find homes for bad ideas.
By leaving some of these tracks behind, you’re clearing space for the hits.
3. PRODUCTION SHOULD BE MOBILE
Or at least have a mobile component. Make music on the move! So you can keep creative output up when touring or traveling.
Recording ideas in BandLab means you can make music anywhere inspiration strikes. Then if you want to complete the idea later in the studio or at home, you’ve at least kept your process flowing without interruption.
4. SCHEDULE CREATIVE TIME AND KEEP IT SACRED
This is one of the most obvious bits of advice, but seems to be the hardest to follow for many artists.
Whether you can commit time daily, weekly, or monthly, put it on the calendar, remove all other obligations, and when that time comes, dedicate yourself to songwriting, production, mixing, etc.
If you work with other musicians, you may have to keep two related schedules, one for the full group, and one where individual contributions happen.
5. HAVE A METHOD TO GATHER FEEDBACK
This could be sharing a track in-progress on BandLab. It could be that you send the recording to a group of trusted friends.
Whatever works for you to get actionable input BEFORE you’ve committed to a finished version of the song.
6. BUILD A RESERVE FOR WHEN YOU’RE BUSY
Although you should try to keep your production time sacred, life happens. “Writer’s block” sets in. Which is why it’s always helpful to build a little buffer.
A batch of tracks that are great, near-finished (or fully finished), and just a few decisions away from becoming an official release.
This ensures that pauses in your process or career won’t get in the way of your music’s momentum.
Conclusion
Whether Marveille intentionally built her creative process around the benefits I’ve mentioned above, or it’s just a happy accident of an impressive stretch of inspiration, the lesson still stands:
The more you make, the better you get.
And I’m excited to see how Marveille’s music and career make new leaps in the years ahead.
This headline is misleading. There is no secret. Tons of unreleased tracks doesn’t mean shit if they suck. While your advice is helpful, if a bit generic, the reason she is successful is that she is a great artist, not because she has unreleased material. Try to do better next time.