Is It Better To Release An Album Or An EP?

The music landscape with regard to releases has certainly evolved.

Albums have been the traditional way that musicians are able to sell their music but now we’ve seen artists releasing more EPs and mixtapes.

This has certainly changed the way music is received by fans and they don’t treat EPs in the same way they treat albums.

Which is why the question that arises the most among musicians is “Is better to release an album or an EP?”.

Well the matter of fact here is that it’s better to release an album if you have good recorded cohesive songs that can make you some money. On the other hand, if you only have a few songs that may have been left off albums or just never went anywhere then putting them on an EP can be a better option than compiling such songs to make an album.

Albums are more well thought out and are released in a certain fashion to appeal to an audience in a certain manner.

Which is why albums will usually be marketed in a completely different way.

EPs on the other hand are short projects that are usually meant to provide extra material after an album is released.

This is why EP simply stands for Extended play.

Why you should release an album

There are various reasons as to why you should release an album, the two most important of these reasons are:

To provide massive value

An album is a great way for you as the artist to create art.

People neglect the fact music is an art.

The truth is, your album is how you provide value to your audience and your music is why your followers follow you. Always remember this.

The number one reason why any artist should consider doing an album as opposed to an EP is to create a cohesive project that can be valuable for the listener.

A lot more thought and creativity goes into making an album and fans know this.

So ensure that you create a great album in order to satisfy your fans as well as improve and boost your brands credibility.

Credibility is everything because your fans and other people will judge you based on your discography.

Which means that quality work improves the quality of your discography.

So always put your audience at the forefront when creating an album because it is theirs to listen to.

To make sales

The second reason why you’d go for an album is to push some sales and make some money.

Albums generally tend to make more sales because they are perceived as full packages which makes them highly sought after.

In a situation where more sales is the goal, you’re better off putting out a full length project as opposed to an EP.

The reason is because EPs are much shorter and are for the most part sold for relatively lower price as compared to albums.

Why you should release an EP

Now that we’ve gone over why it’s important to release an album and which situations call for an album as opposed to an EP.

To get a good idea of what type of release to do, we have discuss both why an album or an EP may be the right release.

With that said, let’s go over the main reasons why people choose to release EPs and how an EP can be used as a strategic release that cam help the artist.

Let’s now get into Why you would want to release an EP

To make money off left over records

In the creation of an album, artist’s record a lot of material because the logic is to have enough records to pick from.

This can ensure that the artist pick only the best songs and since they have a lot to pick from, this is much easier to pull off.

Once some the records are picked for the final cut, the artist will remain with records that couldn’t make the cut.

Therefore to capitalize on this remainder material, the artist can easily compile the material and release it as an EP.

Mostly a profit motive is involved in such situations and the artist will do their best to push their project to make some money.

To give your fans a teaser

EPs by nature are short projects that only consist of a few songs. Sometimes, artist’s can strategically use this to their advantage.

Giving your fans a short EP as a teaser can help your future releases become even more anticipated.

Especially if your fans haven’t heard anything new from you in a while….. something like a surprise short EP to break the silence can mean a lot to your fans.

And it can have them wanting more and more music from you which leads me to my next point.

To push an album

EPs are also used as a marketing strategy for albums.

This usually involves the artist releasing the EP as a teaser promoting their upcoming album.

Giving the fans a teaser makes them even that more interested in purchasing your upcoming full length project.

Final Thoughts

The very first thing to consider when releasing any sort of project is what you want to accomplish with it.

Your end goal should determine whether to release an EP or an Album.