As mentioned in this post from wtfislibrious, Spotify has a tendency to combine singles from the same album release cycle into one Spotify exclusive EP. The issue is that this new “EP” falls under the same name as the single that’s released on other streaming platforms. My question is as such, should these Spotify exclusive “EPs” get their own RG or should they be included in the same RG as the single that’s available on all other platforms? An example that I came across is on Slushii’s album “A Slushii Summer” where 13 of the 15 tracks on it are available as singles. In this example, the last 8 singles released have 6 tracks associated with them and the first 5 singles have a tracklisting that is equal to the number of the release (1st release has 1 track, 2nd release has 2 tracks, etc.). In this case, I’m fine with labeling the first 3 or 4 releases as singles given that there are only a few tracks on them but when a release has 6 different tracks associated with it I tend to look at it as a separate EP. Making things more confusing, Spotify themselves label releases with 4-6 tracks as EPs as can be seen in their style guidelines. How should these EPs be handled going forward?
That’s how I’ve always done tbh. I don’t consider those true EPs. An EP is an extended-play consisting of songs that usually aren’t enough to cover a whole album, they can have their own concepts like an album, but most of the time they are just throwaway tracks to prepare for the major release. These are neither. They’re more a compilation of singles than an actual EP.
Also, I personally don’t think it’s necessary to clog up MB with so many release groups, which was a point I made in the post you mentioned. The main title and target of these releases are still the current single, so it makes sense to have them all in the same RG.
I agree. With singles there are similar cases also with physical releases. Sometimes the same single (same primary song, same or very similar cover) gets released in some markets with one vor two additional tracks.
Spotify is making a playlist of singles. This is just like a high street record store putting all the remix singles into one bag to sell on offer. It is still just the selection of singles, just being sold as a discount package.
Agree with above, this is a single with lots of tracks on (this topic pops up quite often)
Is there a link to this? I didn’t see it.
Here are a few of them:
I think this is an artist decision and not necessarily a Spotify decision. Singles being released with previous singles is something that I’ve also encountered with other music stores. An artist said he did that so people find out about the previous singles they might have missed the releases of.
Also worth noting that iTunes allows an album to be released incrementally: the whole track list is viewable, but only some songs in it are playable. Spotify doesn’t have that feature, so releasing new singles with previous singles is the only option artists have if they wanna make an album available bit by but.
Even when platforms support tracks being released on different dates than the whole release, different record companies may choose whether to use it. Sony Music (Japan) is known to use the feature on iTunes, but even though their own music store mora offers the same feature, they refuse to use it.
It’s not quite the same thing. It’s only accessible on mobile, I can’t even open the page on web because it redirects to the main page and it’s not recognized as a release, unlike Deezer and Apple Music. Listening to the songs on mobile just redirects to the already released singles.