(electronic music)
- I was never intentionally really thinking about,
I wanna break the system.
Like I just, for me it's just like,
I was feeling very creative
and wanted to release my music rapidly
and when I wanted.
Without streaming it would be so difficult
to be able to do that.
- [Female Narrator] We all know streaming
is changing the way we listen to music
but it's also changing how artists release music.
Charli XCX is a singer and songwriter,
known for hits like Boom Clap,
("Boom, clap").
Boys,
("I was busy dreaming about boys".)
and "1999" with Troye Sivan.
("I just wanna go back, back to 1999").
She's known to release music however and whenever she wants.
Often with little warning.
Which would've been unthinkable before streaming.
Now artist can instantly put their music online
but this also means they have to find ways
to stand out among the millions of songs at our fingertips.
As a result,
the idea of what an album is has completely changed.
(upbeat music)
- I wanna release music when I feel like it
and how I want to.
And I find that particularly major labels,
who have like a very like strict structure
of how they want artist to release music.
That just doesn't really work for me.
And I don't think, especially now,
it doesn't really work for my fans.
- What do you mean by that?
- Well, I think fans are hungry for content
and for music from their favorite artists.
And there's so much out there at the moment, you know?
They can get whatever they want all the time.
So it's very, everything's very like rapidly digested
and people want more.
So, yeah everything moves so much quicker now.
- But first, let's take a step back.
Technology has always dictated how artist release music.
The flat record was commercialized in the 1890's
and for decades, singles were popular
because early kinds of records could only hold about
three minutes of audio.
Around the 1950's, the LP was introduced
Which could hold up to 52 minutes of audio
and the album, as we know it was born.
The traditional album lasted for decades,
continuing with the cassette and then the CD,
all the way until the 2000's,
when digital services like iTunes popped up.
This let people pick and choose
what songs they wanted to buy from albums,
ushering the singles market back.
Now, with the rise of streaming services,
how artists release music,
whether it's singles, mixed tapes, or albums,
has dramatically changed once again.
(relaxed music)
- Traditional album cycle is,
you put out a single,
maybe a second single,
if you're crazy you'll put a third single out
before an album comes out.
As a way of sort of teasing
the larger product that is to arrive.
- What are you seeing now that's different from that?
- I think the best way of putting it would be that sort of
waterfall method, where artist are putting out single,
single, more singles, and maybe a single every month,
that maybe would lead into an EP or an album
and sometimes it will take years.
- And this waterfall strategy is used by tons of big artists
like The Chain Smokers, Bebe Rexha and Billie Eilish.
- I've heard that term for like three or four years now
and its like whenever I go to a meeting with my label
and they'd be like,
yeah you know we've been thinking about this new strategy
its called the waterfall strategy.
You drop one song and then three months later
you drop another one and then three months later
you drop another one and that's the waterfall.
I'm like wow okay, every body got paid today great.
(laughing) Like its just,
its just, that's just dropping songs.
- What is the difference to you
between a mix tape and an album?
- Literally nothing (laughing)
the ones recently that I did
like "Number 1 Angel" and "Pop 2"
I called them mixed tapes
because then my label felt more relaxed about them.
Because I think for a major label,
we're making an album, then we're putting it out
there's expectations like we want it to hit this, this, this
like blah, blah, blah whatever.
And so like for me the mix tape thing like,
I just wanted to like bang bang
like two albums in one year, like lets go.
- [Zane Lowe] Artists are putting out
more and more individual songs because you can.
You don't have to wait around anymore,
get into a cue, wait for a record label
or some company to tell you its your turn up to bat.
I think you're seeing younger artists coming up
who were raised in a free space
using things like Sound Cloud to a degree,
watching iTunes democratize the release of songs
and now looking at streaming services and go well,
I can fill this with as much or as little music
as I want and I just want to be creative all the time.
I don't necessarily want to wait.
- [Female Narrator] Charli has a new album
and in the five months leading up to it
released the four stand alone singles;
"Flash Pose", "XXXTC", "Spicy" and "Dream Glow".
As well as six songs from the album
including the hit "Blame It On Your Love".
Which roughly breaks down to a single every twelve days.
(techno music)
- I think streaming really lends itself
to artists being artists,
streaming is determined by the user right
the person using the platform
so they can click on Billie Eilish
and stream her as much as possible
and they can also like go to her Instagram account
and like work out pretty quickly
that she's like a very unique and cool person
and its driven by like the kids
and the people who are listening to her music.
Which I think is really good for pop music and for culture
because its not like a bunch of like white males
at radio stations and record labels deciding
like what the general public should listen too.
- The boundary between
can people get my work could not be lower right?
Its at the lowest point in history.
We could make a track right now
and we could go put it on the internet
we could get it on Spotify almost immediately,
that's not the problem, the problem is
how do you get peoples attention once its out there?
How am I going to be noticed in that crowd
of music that's being released every single Friday?
There's like this tension
between the business of music and the artistry of music.
There's I think also a lot of people crying wolf
of like music is over
because of this new streaming economy,
songs are only going to be
one minute and twenty five seconds long,
they're not going to be meaningful.
But the thing about attention
is that people get bored of fads,
they get get bored of things that are just pure tricks.
You ultimately have to
grab someones attention and sustain it.
- How do you think streaming
has changed the way people write music?
- Oh extensively.
I've heard from multiple song writers
that they are actually thinking about
the song structure differently
because of how they are going to get paid
via song streaming.
(upbeat music)
- [Female Narrator] Which means,
streaming isn't just changing the album,
its changing songs.
- [Charlie] Like if its not for me
and if I'm writing like a song
that is for another big pop artist,
that's where I get really into my commercial zone.
So I want to play all the games
and I want this song to be huge,
be the perfect little package that will make it
as most maximally appealing to every body.
- So what are some of those tricks that you use
to make sure that the skip rate is as low as possible?
- Like chords within the first thirty seconds,
no like weird like self indulgent intro
which basically are on all the songs I put on my album.
Hook at the top, in the intro,
maybe even start with the chorus.
I think that radio songs should be like two minutes twenty,
like get in and get out
like everybody just get on with your life.
- So you just try to front load
as many of the catchy bits as possible?
- I think so.
The formula and tricks I think are used
and paid attention too so much in the streaming climate
because its all about like making sure
the person doesn't change the song.
Now its like all about like did you like grab them
in that first five seconds.
- Do you think that what you're doing
represents more what people will be doing in the future?
- I kind of think its the norm now,
I mean like Ariana Grande is one of the most
huge artists in the world
and to me it at least
it felt like she is like doing what she wants.
She just like put out an album
and then like straight away dropped like "Thank You, Next"
and I think that's happening a lot more now.
I think the new landscape really
like lends itself to artists who are unique
and have a different language
and a very specific vision
in that sense I think streaming is good
because it just opens everything up
and every thing becomes much more cross pollinated
and there's for so many you know genres
and its not about radio which is great
and so I think that's a good thing,
I think that's great.
(electronic music)
- [Female Narrator] Thanks for watching
this video is brought to you by
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For more videos like this,
like and subscribe.
Before we talk about anything else,
one thing that I'm dying to know about
is why you call yourself Charlie XCX.
- It was just my MSN screen name when I was younger
and then I would just make MP3's and put them on MySpace
and I didn't have a stage name
so I just panicked and used my MSN screen name and
- [Woman With Pink Hair] The rest is history.
- The rest is history yeah.
- God you're such a child of the internet.
- Yeah (laughing)
- An MSN screen name and then putting it up on MySpace.