Monthly playlists
Unfortunately, I suspect that the listeners you mentioned don't exist yet Andi which is the reason for wanting to explore our naming convention options. If you search "metalcore" on Spotify you'll find that your playlist doesn't come up at all. Sure, it comes up if you search "Metal Academy" or "The Revolution" but that requires a level of prior knowledge which I don't believe is there right now. We also need to be doing regular advertising to create exposure which we're currently not doing. I intend on putting together some plans in that space too once we've developed a new naming/description/imaging convention that will come up in relevant searches.
I'm thinking that a good way to move forwards with the monthly playlist name change concept might be for me to develop a new tenth playlist that I can use as a test case in order to see if I can draw a wider audience to it. That way I can avoid fucking around with our established playlists. I've started to program one already but will take my time with it because it's important that it's of a very high quality & is programmed in a way that will attract an audience if it's going to make for a valid test case i.e. people need to be wowed by it if they're going to commit to subscribing to it & I'm not sure I've given that idea enough care in the past. I also need to do more research on how to name it well because most experts seem to say that changing the name of your playlist is a bad idea as it confuses your audience.
Some more tips from the web are that a) it's best practice to start your playlist with the five strongest tracks as a majority of people only give a playlist a maximum of five songs to win them over & b) you'll draw more hits if you include some classic songs in each playlist in order to draw in the less educated market segment. It's also worth including some of the more popular bands that reflect the overarching sound of your list in the playlist description in order to jag some additional search results.
OK, excuse me, Daniel, but I am getting a little bit confused now. Are we changing the focus away from programming the playlists to reflect the members' listening habits over the previous month to something that is more likely to attract new listeners? If the majority of any given playlist comes from other members' suggestions then the playlist compiler has to play the hand he is dealt, thus making the tips you suggest very difficult to follow. For The Fallen, for example, youself, Vinny and I tend very often towards the more extreme end of the Fallen scope, so producing a list to reflect these new guidelines would be quite challenging, given the tastes of the contributing members. I don't really know how to proceed now, I must be honest.
OK, excuse me, Daniel, but I am getting a little bit confused now. Are we changing the focus away from programming the playlists to reflect the members' listening habits over the previous month to something that is more likely to attract new listeners? If the majority of any given playlist comes from other members' suggestions then the playlist compiler has to play the hand he is dealt, thus making the tips you suggest very difficult to follow. For The Fallen, for example, youself, Vinny and I tend very often towards the more extreme end of the Fallen scope, so producing a list to reflect these new guidelines would be quite challenging, given the tastes of the contributing members. I don't really know how to proceed now, I must be honest.
No, I'm not suggesting that we change our nomination process Sonny. The playlists should still be an accumulation of our members listening habits wherever possible but I'd suggest that we could curve our programming processes to ensure that the start of the lists are really strong. When I mentioned classic songs I was simply saying that we shouldn't look at it as a bad thing if people nominate Metallica, Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath songs for our playlists. The majority of our playlists are still being selected by the playlist owner too (see The Revolution, The Sphere, The Gateway, The Guardians, etc.) so the programmer has the option to throw in a couple of classic tracks at their discretion on occasion but I'm not dictating any "guidelines" here as such. These are just suggestions to help us gain more listeners.
For a test, I just changed the title of The Horde playlist to "Death metal grindcore" & did a search for "death metal grindcore" on Spotify & our playlist came up in first place. In our current format it doesn't come up at all. That's how important it is that we get the title right. It clearly needs to include key words that we think our audience would search for. I'm open to the concept of us excluding the clans &/or the Metal Academy brand from the title in the interest of growing our listenership. We can always use the image & description for greater detail. Nothing's off the table at this point.
OK, so I've decided to change the title of The Horde playlist to "Death Metal/Grindcore Apocalypse" to see how it goes. Strangely none of the other death/graind-related playlists have used the word "apocalypse" as yet as far as I can see. I've also changed the description to read as follows:
"Metal Academy website's monthly two-hour "The Horde" clan death metal & grindcore playlist covering new releases, old classics & underground gems as well as all of the subgenres. Think Death, Cryptopsy, Morbid Angel, Nails, Gorguts, Atheist, Carcass, Behemoth, At The Gates, Entombed & Pig Destroyer."
When I conduct various searches it seems to do very well but I'm wondering if that's because I created it & are listening to it regularly. It might be worth you doing your own searches to see if they result in the same outcome as listed below:
Death metal grindcore - 1
Death metal - 6
Grindcore - 5
Apocalypse - 1
I'll be very surprised if that doesn't result in more likes but we may need to look at using more professional looking images too. I might see if I can get a version of the Neuropath CD cover without the logo & title on it as that would probably be more likely to attract people than our clan image.
I tried the same searches and pretty much got the same result, Daniel:
Death metal grindcore - 1
Death metal - 6
Grindcore - 3
Apocalypse - 1
Awesome! Have a think about how you might like to adjust the title of The Fallen then Sonny. I think we've been missing a trick here in a big way. Apparently including the more popular band names in the description helps too. Interestingly the list still comes up when I search on "Metal Academy" too, despite it no longer being listed in the playlist title.
OK, so I've decided to change the title of The Horde playlist to "Death Metal/Grindcore Apocalypse" to see how it goes. Strangely none of the other death/graind-related playlists have used the word "apocalypse" as yet as far as I can see.
I think changing the playlists' names to include a word appropriate for the clans and their genres (while making sure no other playlists uses the chosen word) really is a wise move, rather than following the "academic" theme. Here's what I would suggest for my clan playlists:
The Revolution - Metalcore Riot
The Sphere - Industrial Metal Future
I don’t mind “riot” for The Revolution” & agree with your thinking. I think it could also be “rebellion” which I think sounds a touch better in my opinion.
I don’t like “future” for The Sphere though. It’s not metal enough for my liking. Perhaps “invasion”?
Yeah, I agree that "Rebellion" and "Invasion" sound better. Good suggestions, Daniel.
Actually, why not simply "Metalcore Revolution"? That'll kill two birds with one stone.
Also, I'm gonna have to find space to include the website address in the playlist descriptions.
Actually, why not simply "Metalcore Revolution"? That'll kill two birds with one stone.
Sounds good, Daniel.
Alright, I've changed The Revolution & it's now coming up as number one when I search for "metalcore". Let's see how we go from here.
Interestingly, I can't insert links to the website in the description because Spotify reserve that functionality for artists & labels. I'll see if I can get around it somehow.
Awesome! Have a think about how you might like to adjust the title of The Fallen then Sonny. I think we've been missing a trick here in a big way. Apparently including the more popular band names in the description helps too. Interestingly the list still comes up when I search on "Metal Academy" too, despite it no longer being listed in the playlist title.
I'm not really very good at this sort of thing, but how about "Metal Darkness: Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal"?
Or "Reflections from the Abyss: Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal"?
Or, maybe to attract a group with a specific interest: "Cthulhu Awakes: Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal".
You're certainly on the right track Sonny. I would suggest beginning the title with the genre(s) as the Spotify searches cut off the names & people will want to see their genre of choice immediately if they're going to be enticed to click on the icon.
OK, so how does "Doom and Sludge Metal Darkness" sound? The other two don't seem quite right the other way round.
Alternatively:
Doom Metal Domination
Doom Metal Dominion
Doomination: Doom & Sludge Metal
Doom Metal Apocalypse
Suggestions for The Pit:
Thrash & Speed Metal Massacre
Thrash Metal & Speed Metal Madness
Thrash Metal Menace
Thrash Metal Destruction
Thrash Metal Punishment
Fearless Thrash Metal Machines
Thrash & Speed Metal Swarm
Thrash & Speed Metal Annihilation
Thrashlethics
OK, so how does "Doom and Sludge Metal Darkness" sound? The other two don't seem quite right the other way round.
Alternatively:
Doom Metal Domination
Doom Metal Dominion
Doomination: Doom & Sludge Metal
Doom Metal Apocalypse
I just did a search & found that someone else has already used "Doomination" which is disappointing as a I quite liked that idea. I've already used "Apocalypse" for The Horde too. "Doom Metal Dominion" is my preference of the ones that you've listed. I'll do some test searches & see how it fairs.
Suggestions for The Pit:
Thrash & Speed Metal Massacre
Thrash Metal & Speed Metal Madness
Thrash Metal Menace
Thrash Metal Destruction
Thrash Metal Punishment
Fearless Thrash Metal Machines
Thrash & Speed Metal Swarm
Thrash & Speed Metal Annihilation
Thrashlethics
Thrash/Speed Metal Annihilation is my preference of those listed Vinny. I'll do some test searches & see how it fairs this afternoon.
Suggestions for The Pit:
Thrash & Speed Metal Massacre
Thrash Metal & Speed Metal Madness
Thrash Metal Menace
Thrash Metal Destruction
Thrash Metal Punishment
Fearless Thrash Metal Machines
Thrash & Speed Metal Swarm
Thrash & Speed Metal Annihilation
Thrashlethics
Thrash/Speed Metal Annihilation is my preference of those listed Vinny. I'll do some test searches & see how it fairs this afternoon.
Agreed
Hey Daniel, are you implementing any changes to the titles and descriptions of the playlists yourself, or do we list compilers need to do it?
I've just done The Fallen, The Sphere & The Pit. Any ideas for The Gateway, The Infinite & The North playlist names?
It's worth noting that the newly named The Fallen playlist is not as easy to get to come up in searches as there's a large quantity of other playlists withe the genres listed in their titles. The searches take into account the number of streams/listens to prioritize the results so the moral of the story is that the more you listen to your playlist, the more likely it is to come up in other people's searches. I've actually been leaving The Horde playlist running all night on my laptop while I'm asleep to ensure maximum coverage & it's still sitting quite high up in the searches.
Interestingly, one of our inactive members has created a 224 hour Spotify playlist called "The Fallen" & has used our The Fallen clan symbol as the image which isn't wonderful, especially given that some of the content isn't in line with the Metal Academy clan genre trees.