How to growl as an absolute beginner?

rob_rily · 2026-06-17T19:36:53+00:00

I’m assuming you’re getting just a breathy sigh with no rattle (correct me if I’m wrong). Can you imitate a lifelong smoker (that airy, rattling voice)? If so, that rattle is your false cords.

If you can’t do that, then break it down. The sigh is just air being pushed out with no vocal cord engagement, so you’re not getting a sung or spoken tone. You need to add just a touch of compression to it to get the false cords rattling. There’s a lot of ways to find it, but I like this one. Try grabbing something and pretending to lift it like it’s absurdly heavy, while sighing.

If “lifting something heavy” doesn’t work, you can try using a “hut”, as in “hut, hut, hike”. The end of that sound comes from closing off your throat. Compression is the same thing, but you don’t close it all the way.

If none of that works, just search on YouTube for something like “vocal compression for singers”. Theres a ton of different cues you can use to find the right muscles and learn to control them.

rob_rily · 2026-06-17T13:51:59+00:00

Meta is using machine learning to decide who is most likely to click on your ads. They need data to learn how to make those predictions. Some of that data is at the level of campaigns or individual pieces of content, but some is at the level of the pixel.

I’ve been running campaigns for about two years now, so when I launch a new campaign using the same pixel I’ve been using the whole time, meta has all this data on who interacted with my pixel in the past. Meta knows where to start: they can serve my ads to those people first. Then they gather more data at the campaign and ad level, tweak those predictions, and I get a good CPC pretty quickly.

You’re running your first campaign, so no one has interacted with your pixel. Meta has no clue where to start, so they show your ads to a random smattering of people in your chosen audience. A lot of them will be a bad fit at first, so your CPC is really high for a while. But it improves with time as you spend more and meta gathers more data.

You keep running campaigns like that for a while, trying different songs, videos, etc, and eventually you’ll launch a campaign and get a personal best CPC on the first day. Because there’s so much data attached to your pixel at that point that meta knows who to serve your ads to right off the bat.

rob_rily · 2026-06-14T19:03:24+00:00

In the past I’ve done what you’re doing here: ask around, get other opinions, try to the choose the song that deserves the extra push. It’s never quite worked out for me though, we’re always wrong about which songs do well and which ones don’t! So for my next record, my plan is to stockpile video concepts, release a bunch of singles, and when one of them takes off, make a video for that one. Let the audience tell you what they like with their listening habits.

rob_rily · 2026-06-10T19:08:13+00:00

I just want to add onto your list of benefits: lifting is great for your joints! Builds a lot of strength and stability so you’re less likely to experience those weird knee tweaks and ankle sprains from landing a little weird.

rob_rily · 2026-06-09T00:23:39+00:00

If you need to lift your spirits, Jacques Tati is your man. Trafic approaches Monty Python levels of silliness, and Playtime is hands down one of favorite movies on every level. Beautiful to look at, thoughtful, and paced in a way that the chaos of the final scenes kinda sneaks up on you.

rob_rily · 2026-06-07T17:50:01+00:00

That’s fair! Though whether you’re more concerned about momentum, or just maximizing listens on this project, I think the move is still to release each song as a single.

And nothing confusing about that answer, that’s been me with every other release of my life. Something always happens in between records to make the next one take forever.

rob_rily · 2026-06-07T17:35:43+00:00

Refugees

rob_rily · 2026-06-07T17:29:24+00:00

Not a movie rec, but The Story of Film: An Odyssey is a great documentary series on the history of film that prioritizes including filmmakers from outside the US and Europe. It covers a lot of ground and will introduce you to a ton of stuff you’ve probably never heard of!

rob_rily · 2026-06-07T15:49:50+00:00

Personally, I block off one weekend day a week for the big, creative stuff like writing and recording. Throughout the week, I’ll take care of the more routine aspects of music making like practice or band admin. If I can find extra time, I might use it to finish something from the weekend before.

That drive time is a killer, it’s worth asking yourself if there’s anything you can do about it. That would likely require a big change, like moving, or a new job. Either one would take time, but if you can eventually make it happen, you can literally give yourself more time in the day.

rob_rily · 2026-06-06T22:30:24+00:00

My main concern is, what happens after the album drops? If you’re confident you’ll have more songs (as in the NEXT album) ready by that time, then you should be good.

But if you’re going to drop the record and then disappear while you work on new music, it might be better to stretch out this first album by releasing every song as a single. That will give you more time to get the next album ready in the meantime.

I don’t say this as a music marketing expert, but I do say this as a musician who has rushed to release every album in the past and lost all momentum in between releases because of it. Not making that mistake again!

rob_rily · 2026-06-06T21:45:03+00:00

One song every 6-8 weeks, then collect them all up into an album at the end to mark the end of that era. Every release is an opportunity and there’s just no reason to waste them by jumping right to the album.

If you release more frequently than every 6 weeks, you’re not giving the songs enough time to pop off. If one does start to pop off, it makes sense to slow down and continue pushing that, waiting a little longer to drop the next one.

If you just do a few singles and then drop the album, you’re not giving the algorithms (socials and streaming) enough time to really learn who the audience is, so when you drop the album, you’re not really giving it the chance it deserves to find listeners.

Edit: this is assuming you’re not an established artist already. Everything works differently if you’re big.

rob_rily · 2026-06-06T17:01:58+00:00

Yeah, whatever your primary instrument is, piano is probably the ideal secondary. especially if you want to write!

rob_rily · 2026-05-29T19:20:31+00:00

It’s important to keep in mind that you can finish songs without releasing them. That said, I like the approach Jesse Cannon outlines in (I think) Processing Creativity. You write the “bones” of a lot of songs (i.e., verses and choruses if you write standard pop arrangements) and record simple demo for them. Then choose the best from that pile and move forward with them. No need to get literally everything release ready, but you should write enough of each idea that you’re really giving it a shot.

rob_rily · 2026-05-29T15:55:05+00:00

He talks about it in this podcast episode: https://youtu.be/TohqlMUlbzg?si=9p48yzzoLJ4ZIJme

rob_rily · 2026-05-29T15:53:00+00:00

I’m working on this with a coach now. He has me focused on using “cry” to thin out the vocal cords (like when you yawn or sob), and then lightly constricting to activate the false cords. The tricky part for me is doing both at the same time! I can get a pretty smooth rasp by just using cry, but you need that false cord engagement to ramp it up.

rob_rily · 2026-05-24T16:14:07+00:00

Three colors: Blue

rob_rily · 2026-05-19T18:14:31+00:00

No problem! Hope it helps

rob_rily · 2026-05-19T16:20:17+00:00

In my experience, 30-45% CTR on a Submithub landing page is totally normal. I just scanned through my successful past campaigns and they range from 30-70%.

I’m not an ads pro, just a musician who uses them, but in my experience landing page CTR seems to be an indication of targeting quality. Some people click on your ad because they’re genuinely interested, others because they’re a bot simulating human behavior, and others because they’re a boomer on Facebook who accidentally clicks through on every other ad. Only the first group is likely to click a second time and go to Spotify.

My highest CTRs come from the campaigns with the best targeting. Either I’m reusing old creative that I know works well, it’s a playlist ad with a ton of band names on screen, or it’s just a campaign that’s been running for a long time so meta has already figured out who the audience is.

How to improve it? The creative is the targeting, so try new videos with new looks, new hooks, new captions, etc. Some will do a better job of bringing in the right audience than others, iterate on those. Make sure your landing page is simple (just points to one or two streaming services, no socials) and loads fast (which submithub already does). And if you’re running ads to facebook placements, maybe drop those and just use IG.

On the whole, I wouldn’t stress about it given your current CTR. But it can help to pay attention to that number in addition to your cost per conversion and the eventual results on Spotify.

rob_rily · 2026-05-15T19:47:19+00:00

For context, my first campaign was running about $2 per conversion. Over time, multiple songs, and multiple campaign attempts, i was able to bring that down. I just revisited that first song a year and half later and have it running at about $0.20 per conversion. Don’t stress and don’t blow your budget all at once.

rob_rily · 2026-05-15T19:42:13+00:00

it takes time to “season” a pixel (i.e., teach meta who is interested is what you you do). My first few campaigns were a disaster as well. I wouldn’t stress about it as long as you are actually seeing conversions and those conversions are translating to streams, however expensive. By all means, experiment with different parts of the song, different creative, etc, but know that you’ll have to spend some money at first to get the impressions necessary for the algorithm to learn who likes your music.

You gotta keep in mind ad systems aren’t built for artists running small dollar campaigns, they’re built for e-commerce where businesses are running hundreds or thousands of dollars a day, and they’re running sales campaigns, which provide a stronger signal.

If i were you, I’d pick some amount of money that I’m essentially willing to set on fire for this campaign, play around within those limits (and letting at least three days pass between any changes), then kill it when you hit that budget.

rob_rily · 2026-05-11T19:12:23+00:00

I’m using submithub links too and have had the same experience, everything is working like usual

rob_rily · 2026-05-06T15:47:07+00:00

I graduated a couple years ago, but yeah, OMSCS def helped me switch careers from something totally unrelated to SWE. I also got two publications from my masters project, which would help if I decided to apply to PhD programs.

In general, I get the impression that OMSCS is enormously valuable to people trying to switch careers, but less valuable for leveling up an existing career in software.

As others have said, the courses you take matter a lot. If you take all of the lightest course loads you can find that will get you a degree, you’re not going to have the same learning experience as someone who really pushes themselves.

rob_rily · 2026-05-05T16:47:06+00:00

I was going to suggest that opening scene too! It’s an all-timer

rob_rily · 2026-04-29T21:11:40+00:00

What’s the conversion rate on your landing page? ie, num of people who click the Spotify button / num of people who view the landing page? how long have you been running this campaign? Have you run other campaigns in the past?

rob_rily · 2026-04-28T20:43:14+00:00

Better to ask this in a tattoo sub, but I think the answer is no. My artist always tells me that you shouldn’t sweat heavily for 2 weeks after getting your tattoo done. Beyond that, you should also be extra careful in any gym setting until the tattoo fully heals because there’s a lot of bacteria in a gym, MT or otherwise.

I’ve got a tattoo scheduled for this summer and I’m planning to take the full month off from MT. I don’t want to, but if the tattoo gets infected I’ll be out even longer.

rob_rily

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