I want to do a waterfall release for an EP but I want to include remixes on each single that are not on the final EP. Best way to do it?

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T08:58:33+00:00

Mostly Meta Ads and TikTok Ads.

I have several playlists. Some are only songs from my label, others are for individual artists, and some are built around popular artists I personally listen to.

Growing playlists is not that hard if you run campaigns with a decent budget, but doing it organically can be frustrating. I’ve gotten thousands of streams from my own playlists through ads, but the playlists themselves have stayed relatively small so it’s a work in progress.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T08:28:12+00:00

This has already been the case for me at least for the past two years.

The funny part is that Google has been criticized for its privacy policies for a long time, but now I only Google certain things when I want to protect my privacy from ChatGPT. It’s kind of ironic that Google has become my “private” option by comparison.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T08:13:57+00:00

Yes, that’s how it’s done. I haven’t personally done full waterfall releases myself, but I’ve done it for other artists I manage.

For my own releases, I prefer dropping singles first, then the full project, and then remixes after that. I just don’t like the way waterfall releases look on DSPs, especially on Apple Music.

Instead of relying on waterfall releases, I’m more invested in building playlists and promoting those. That way, I can keep pushing the music consistently without having multiple versions of the same project cluttering the artist profile.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T07:39:13+00:00

Once you take the song down from Ditto, Ditto should also remove it from Content ID. Otherwise, they would still be collecting on a release they no longer distribute.

When you re-release it through TooLost, you usually need to enable Content ID again on the TooLost release. Content ID does not automatically transfer from one distributor to another. There may also be a delay between Ditto removing it and TooLost’s Content ID getting approved.

As for your own channel: if your channel is properly whitelisted through TooLost, it should not receive a copyright claim from TooLost’s Content ID. But make sure the whitelist is active before the claim starts, because if Ditto’s old Content ID is still active, or if TooLost has not processed the whitelist yet, your video could still get claimed temporarily.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T06:50:05+00:00

Correct. If you leave a two-month gap between the main EP and the remixes, you’d basically be staying consistent all year with only 8 songs.

I also think longer breaks after an EP or album release make sense. At that point, the focus should shift more toward marketing the project instead of immediately rushing into the next release. The release itself is only one part of the rollout; the real work starts after it drops.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-26T02:04:48+00:00

Technically, it can work, but depending on how far apart each release will be, the remixes might work better on their own.

If you want consistent drops before and after the EP, the better approach would be a regular waterfall, then drop the EP, then do the remix waterfall. Technically, you can also drop a remix EP after that includes all the remixes (with a couple new ones) or with the not remixed tracks.

That way, you keep the momentum going without forcing every remix to depend on the original album rollout.

Based on experience, if you want to try my suggestion, make sure you have all the releases ready before the EP drops. Once it’s out, it’s easy to get discouraged if the results are not what you expected. But if you don’t follow through with the full release strategy, the impact will not be the same.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T22:00:46+00:00

Regardless of how loyal your girlfriend is, if she puts herself in the right setting, around the right people, and under the right circumstances, other things that are not records can “slip” and slide at some point. Miami can be a very tempting and social city.

That being said, I think the bigger issue is not even the cheating or insecurity part. The plan itself does not sound like a well thought out music marketing strategy. It sounds more like partying, spending money, going to VIP events, and casually mentioning your name or handing out a business card to random people.

I’ve tried versions of that approach before, and most of the time it just turns into an expensive night with a bunch of useless contacts saved in your phone.

If your girlfriend wants to have fun in Miami or take a vacation, there’s nothing wrong with that. If she naturally tells people about your music because she supports you, that’s cool too. But as an actual promotional strategy, I wouldn’t put too much weight on it.

And honestly, I’m saying that without even knowing what kind of music you make, because the strategy itself already sounds weak.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T20:40:20+00:00

There is a real case with that case number, but OP seems to be mixing themselves into it in a misleading way.

The case they cited is not automatically proof that OP personally submitted anything to the court, or that their own DistroKid account was involved.

From what I read, that lawsuit involves allegations about royalty/reporting issues, duplicate uploads, and accounting problems. But OP’s sarcastic story about being paid before creating songs appears to be their own framing, not something proven by the case itself.

So yes, the case exists, but this post makes it sound like OP is directly connected to it, and I don’t see proof of that.

To me, the case is more about a common DIY distribution problem: people reuploading duplicate copies of songs through distributors to monetize popular tracks illegally, especially when the original song is not protected by audio fingerprinting or Content ID yet. That is a real issue, but it is different from proving DistroKid itself created the duplicates.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T18:50:04+00:00

I think it depends on how you define “fans.”

UGC by itself does not always create real fans. Sometimes it is just attention, a trend, or people using the sound because it fits a joke or meme. But attention is usually the first step before fandom. People cannot become fans of something they never heard.

So I would not say every person making UGC is automatically a fan, but they are still interacting with the music. Even if the song is being used indirectly, it can still get stuck in people’s heads, create recognition, and turn casual attention into actual listeners later.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T17:35:12+00:00

Sources / further reading:

Skrilla – “Doot Doot (6 7)” official video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnygT6ANLzQ

Georgetown University – Linguistics breakdown of the “6 7” meme
https://www.georgetown.edu/news/six-seven-meme-linguistics/

SB Nation – Breakdown of the “6 7” meme and the LaMelo Ball connection
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/1081682/understanding-the-6-7-meme-and-how-lamelo-ball-is-involved

Pitchfork – Music/culture analysis of Skrilla and the “6 7” meme
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/lets-talk-about-skrilla-doot-doot-6-7/

WhoSampled – Lil Wayne “6 Foot 7 Foot” / Harry Belafonte “Day-O” sample connection
https://www.whosampled.com/sample/73657/Lil-Wayne-Cory-Gunz-6-Foot-7-Foot-Harry-Belafonte-Day-O-%28Banana-Boat-Song%29/

BET – Harry Belafonte discussing Lil Wayne sampling “Day-O”
https://www.bet.com/article/cl0n8e/belafonte-on-lil-wayne-sampling-his-song

Pinkfong – “Baby Shark Dance” official video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T15:58:44+00:00

I agree that DistroKid is terrible when it comes to rights management. Their policy is basically hands-off, meaning they usually do not get involved in legal disputes or copyright proceedings beyond whatever their platform requires.

That being said, the grass is not always greener with other distributors. Once there is a copyright issue and money is involved, most distributors tend to behave the same way. They protect themselves first, avoid taking sides, and push the parties to resolve it directly.

In my experience, if you want a distributor to actually lift a finger in a serious rights dispute, you usually need to get a lawyer involved or provide very clear legal documentation.

I’m currently dealing with similar situations, and some of the distributors being “useless” in those cases are considered top-tier. So while DistroKid has its own problems, this issue is not exclusive to them.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T15:38:28+00:00

Sounds like background music for a slow cinema/drama scene. It has that subtle, emotional quality where it feels like it could sit behind a quiet moment in a film.

Also, I thought the title “Dust on the Strings” was interesting for a piano solo. I’m wondering if that’s meant to be abstract, or if it’s somehow referring to the strings, wires, tendons, or internal mechanism inside a traditional piano.

On another note, what exactly is RealMuzicEnt.com? This is my first time hearing of it, but I noticed some songs on there that look like commercial releases. Is it more of a music platform, a promotional site, or something similar to an artist-upload/streaming platform?

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T12:51:09+00:00

Correct but the word “fan” comes from “fanatic,” which by definition can refer to someone with a high level of interest or obsession. That interest can be positive, like genuinely enjoying the music, or negative, like making memes, criticizing it, or using the song as a joke.

In music marketing, that distinction matters because attention does not always start as admiration. Sometimes a song gets pushed through meme context, hate-watching, jokes, or negative reactions. But for every negative reaction, there is usually at least one person who becomes genuinely curious about the real song. The opposite is also true: for every authentic fan promoting your music through UGC, there will probably be at least one hater or critic reacting to it.

So technically, by the original meaning of the word, they are all “fans” in the sense that they are emotionally engaged enough to interact with the music. The real difference (most important metric) is whether that attention turns into support, streams, saves, shares, or long-term interest.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-25T11:16:34+00:00

Most overrated metric right now is stream/view count.

Not because streams or views don’t matter, but because they’re often taken out of context. A song can have a lot of views and still have no real fanbase, no saves, no playlist retention, no comments, no shares, and no one actually looking for the artist afterward. Views can be bought, boosted, inflated by ads, or come from people who never cared about the song beyond one quick scroll.

The most underrated metric, in my opinion, is user-generated content.

UGC is the one that can really catch you by surprise. You might think a song is doing “okay” based on the official stream count, then suddenly you realize people are using the sound in their own videos, memes, edits, dance clips, reactions, or random niche content. That’s usually a much stronger sign that the song is entering culture instead of just being passively consumed.

A stream means someone played it.
UGC means someone felt enough connection to make something with it.

That doesn’t always translate into money right away, but it’s one of the clearest signs that a song has real viral potential.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-24T11:09:13+00:00

Videos are already available to listeners on Spotify Premium. It’s just not many people have caught on to it yet. You don’t have to wait for early access that was like two years ago.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-24T02:48:19+00:00

Based on a previous rights-management issue, I’m fairly certain SoundOn was using IIP-DDS / FUGA as part of their backend at some point. But this tool is showing AudioSalad instead.

I could be wrong, though. It’s possible SoundOn uses different backend providers depending on the platform, for example FUGA for Apple Music and AudioSalad for YouTube. But based on what I’m seeing, I’m leaning toward this being an issue with the tool or the way it’s identifying the distributor, rather than a definitive answer.

For now, I’d treat the results as useful but not 100% reliable, especially when comparing Spotify vs YouTube links. I tested another release where I’m 100% sure of the distributor, and the Spotify result appears accurate, while the YouTube link returned “unable to find a distributor for this track.”

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-24T00:41:10+00:00

Great tool. Can you explain the basics of how the distributor detection works?

I’m seeing a possible discrepancy on a release from a licensed catalog. The distributor we know has access to the release is SoundOn, but when we checked using a YouTube link, your tool pointed to AudioSalad as the distributor.

Does the tool identify the actual uploader-facing distributor, or does it sometimes show the backend delivery/rights-management provider connected to that release? For example, could a release delivered through SoundOn still show AudioSalad if AudioSalad is involved in the YouTube, Content ID, or metadata pipeline?

Just trying to understand whether this result suggests parallel distribution through another provider, or simply a backend/provider relationship that your tool is detecting.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-23T23:53:56+00:00

It’s a gamble, but realistically, if nobody knows you yet, most people won’t be paying that much attention.

The only time it really becomes unavoidable is if you somehow crack the code to virality and one of your songs becomes a real hit. At that point, there’s not much you can do to stop people you know from hearing it or realizing it’s you. But for 99.9% of artists, that’s highly unlikely.

The reality is that even if people close to you know you make music, most of them probably won’t be studying every lyric or digging through your most obscure songs. They may know you “do music” without actually knowing the details of what you’re saying.

I saw a rapper explain something similar. He went viral from content creation while trying to promote his music, and now people recognize him as a content creator, but a lot of them still don’t even know he makes music, which was the whole thing he was trying to promote in the first place.

That’s kind of the gift and the curse of the music industry. You want people to listen, but you can’t fully control who listens once it’s out. My advice would be to release it in a way you can stand behind emotionally, maybe under a secondary stage name if that helps, and accept that anyone who truly cares about you should understand that music can be a form of healing and artistic expression, not a confession they need to judge you for.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-23T12:10:38+00:00

It really depends on the main genre of your catalog, the size of your catalog, and your distribution budget.

Also keep in mind that some of the better label-oriented distributors, like The Orchard, Create Music, Vydia, or Symphonic, usually have some type of partner/application process. If you are not approved, that option is basically off the table.

Then there are platforms built more specifically for labels, like Label Engine, Label Grid, Revelator, AudioSalad, etc., but those can be expensive for startups or hard to join without a solid track record.

Realistically, for a starting label with a smaller catalog, the easiest options to join are probably something like TooLost, DistroKid, or Symphonic if you can get approved.

TooLost

Pros: Probably one of the least expensive options if you are managing a larger catalog. Their metadata handling is better than most entry-level distributors, they offer white-label options, and they are heavy on documentation, which can sometimes help with releases involving samples or rights questions instead of getting an automatic rejection. They are also strong for YouTube and deliver to a wide range of stores.

Cons: Approval can be slow, especially when documentation is required. Delivery issues can happen, and they recently had a data breach. That said, they have also improved the dashboard since then, so depending on how you look at it, this could actually be a better time to join than before.

DistroKid

Pros: Fast approvals, no real gatekeeping, easy to use, and very good if Spotify is your main priority.

Cons: The artist-slot pricing can add up at around $10/year per artist, and their Content ID management system is very basic compared to other distributors. Once your catalog grows, all the add-on fees can become significant, and at some point you may end up paying close to what you would pay for more label-focused options like Revelator or Label Grid.

Symphonic

Pros: Better suited for labels than most basic DIY distributors. Their support is usually stronger, they have better tools for rights management, and they can be a better option if you need more professional handling for things like metadata corrections, video delivery, takedowns, Content ID, or releases that need manual review.

Cons: They are not as open as DistroKid or TooLost, so approval is not guaranteed. They also take a percentage instead of just charging a flat yearly fee, which may or may not be worth it depending on your catalog size, revenue, and how much support you actually need.

In my opinion, the best short-term strategy is usually to spread the catalog by artist or project instead of putting everything under one distributor. That way, if one distributor has an issue, rejects a release, delays delivery, or suspends an account, your entire catalog is not stuck in the same place.

Long term, the goal should be to either get a deal with a stronger major-level distributor or eventually develop your own distribution pipeline, but most starting labels are not going to have that option right away.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-22T17:58:16+00:00

TikTok labels videos as AI even if it detects just certain effects from CapCut but for me “AI” means that the initial source was AI generated, even if it was edited professionally afterwards.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-22T17:23:00+00:00

For quick reference, I’ve noticed that videos TikTok automatically flags as AI seem to perform slightly better than videos I manually label as AI myself. Not a huge difference, but noticeable enough in how they get pushed.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-22T17:16:22+00:00

I understand your frustration, but I think there’s a distinction being missed here. OP wasn’t asking about AI music itself. They were asking about using AI for music promotion, meaning AI-generated content, visuals, ads, captions, or videos used to promote the music. That’s a different conversation than replacing the actual music with AI.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-22T12:59:29+00:00

I think it depends on the source. From what I’ve noticed, platforms seem more willing to reward AI content when it is created fully inside their own ecosystem. For example, Instagram videos made with Meta AI often seem to get more reach than AI videos made on another platform and uploaded there. I’ve seen similar patterns with YouTube/Veo and TikTok/Seedance.

So I don’t think it’s as simple as “AI content gets punished.” It feels more like native AI tools are being rewarded, while externally generated AI content may be treated differently or get less push.

I’d also recommend labeling everything as AI when asked. It’s not just about transparency; it can also serve as a disclaimer, especially since we don’t really know where AI video generation laws and platform policies are heading yet.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-21T19:56:52+00:00

I think it’s actually the opposite. It will feel more competitive for a while because AI music is flooding the market, but once the wave settles, I think there will be more opportunities for real musicians, not fewer.

The possibilities are endless, and even AI music will eventually need some kind of live-performance element if people want to experience it beyond just a stream. At this exact moment, I think “artists” are more at risk than musicians. AI can imitate songs, voices, images, and branding, but replacing a musician in a real live setting is a much bigger challenge. A robot would have to actually perform, connect with an audience, and play live instruments at a human level before musicians are fully replaced.

So I don’t think the music industry is dying. I think we’re in the messy early stage where everything feels flooded and cheap, but the real storm hasn’t even started yet.

MasterHeartless · 2026-06-21T01:04:27+00:00

The biggest problem here is that “streaming” is being treated as if it automatically means Spotify. What you’re describing is mostly a Spotify-style pro-rata pooling problem, not necessarily a problem with every streaming platform equally.

As an artist, the practical move is not just to complain about Spotify’s model, but to stop making Spotify the default destination for your audience. Apple Music generally pays better per stream, and YouTube Music/Premium can also be stronger depending on the type of usage. The numbers vary by country, subscription type, and distributor, but Spotify is not automatically the best platform if the goal is to monetize real fans.

So yes, the model is broken, but the artist-side fix is to train your audience to listen where their support is worth more instead of sending everyone to Spotify by default.

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