If you don't know who Aries is.... you will very soon. Aries is the buzzing new singer/ rapper with a very electric rock-oriented twist. He had not released music for all of 2020, going dark on social media for over a year, and was still able to maintain millions of monthly listeners.
Within the past few weeks, Aries is officially back and has released two songs "Fools Gold" (11/6), and "Conversations", last night (12/9).
"Fool's Gold" Music video (2020)
What's interesting here is not his long-awaited return or the style of his releases. Instead, it's what he did on Spotify to ensure that you would listen to his previous single "Fools Gold" while you listened to his brand new song "Conversations".....
So here is a screenshot of Aries' Spotify page. You can see his banner photo up top, his popular songs on the left, and his newest song "Conversations" as his Artist pick (right).
(This image is on the desktop version on Spotify. To see artists' picks on mobile, just scroll down and you will see the artist's pick)
When you click on fool's gold, all you will see is one song. The Fools gold song and artwork. Everything is normal.
However, let's take a look at what he did for "Conversations". When you click on "Conversations", his Fools Gold song also pops up directly below. He bundled them together in the release. This means that when you finish listening to Conversations, Spotify will automatically have you listen to Fools Gold.
On the upload, Aries labels this song as a single, but he really disguised this upload as a 2-song EP. When you play "Fools Gold" through this view, the play count still accumulates to the play total on his original single posted above (See 1st screenshot with 4+ million plays).
He does this by copying the ISRC code from the previous song and adding it to this new single. An ISRC code is basically a unique identifier for the metadata of the song. If you were to change any instruments, credits, etc, the ISRC will change. So when he copies the ISRC, this means The Fools Gold song attached to "Conversations" is the exact song that was posted last month.
This means whether you listen to the song as a single, or his 2-single EP, the song is the same ISRC. Spotify will merge all play counts for the same ISRC to display as 1 total play count on the home page.
This is just another tactic to piggyback off the release. I do not know how many artists are using this tactic, but this is the first time I have noticed this method.
Now there are two spots to like the song to add it to your library. You can click where the highlighted heart is now, or you can click on the individual song which will appear to the left of the time stamp. BUT, if you click where the highlighted heart is now, you will accidentally be liking both songs since they are combined on the release, and both "Conversations" AND "Fools Gold" will be added to your library.... Tricky stuff!
Personally, I think he's incredible. Dude is going to be up there with the biggest names in a few years. Post Malone type potential.
Artists: If you would like me to do a short write-up on how to make this possible through your distribution companies please let me know and I will follow up!
To listen to Aries' other music:
Thank you to Parker Morsey for confirming the strategy, and showing me how to upload this on Spotify.
Paker's Music (P.MO)
Peace,
EE