#220: The One Thing We’ll Do Differently in 2026 (and Why It Matters)

Stop counting playlist streams and start building momentum where it matters. Marc Matthews and Tim Benson unpack a year of wins and lessons that took monthly listeners from modest to meaningful, and the theme is simple. When you optimise for saves, repeats and fast post-release engagement, Spotify’s algorithm does the heavy lifting. That means Radio, Discover Weekly, and personalised mixes begin to surface your music beyond your immediate circle—and the compounding effect beats a single playlist spike every time.

We share the unglamorous work that unlocks creativity at speed: DAW templates, organised drum kits, and a handful of trusted synth presets that act as launchpads instead of cages. There’s a balance to strike between efficiency and originality, so we talk about stepping away when tweaks turn into time sinks, coming back with fresh ears, and capturing the patches worth saving. We also get candid about release cadence and genre clarity. Keeping one artist profile sonically consistent helps Spotify place you next to the right peers; if you love variety, set up separate profiles so each lane feels coherent.

Collaboration sits at the heart of our 2026 plan. We’re reaching out to local vocalists to bring songs to life and share with audiences in a way that attracts editorial and radio attention. On the business side, we dig into the small but real revenue streams that stack: PRS, PPL, publishing admin via Songtrust or Sentric, DistroKid splits, and even modest YouTube monetisation. Add in smart seeding through SubmitHub and user curators to spark early signals, and you have a repeatable system that turns good music into sustainable growth.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Got a win from 2025 or a goal for 2026? We want to hear it, and we’re featuring listener wins on an upcoming show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: Streams Vs Algorithm
• 1:31 Host Welcome And Setup
• 3:41 Year-End Format And Listener Survey
• 4:07 Goals For 2026: Process And Speed
• 7:43 Time Traps And Knowing When To Stop
• 10:30 Templates, Drum Kits And Presets
• 13:14 Saving Sounds Vs Fresh Starts
• 14:10 Spotify Growth And Listener Peaks
• 16:42 Triggering Algorithmic Playlists
• 19:38 Quality, Niche And Finding Your Tribe
• 22:27 Collaborations And Local Vocalists
• 25:04 Royalties, PROs And Admin Made Easy
• 27:59 Release Cadence And Momentum
• 31:01 Multiple Artist Profiles And Genre Focus
• 34:24 Seasonal Boosts And Christmas Tracks
• 37:04 Listener Prompt And Creative Goals
• 39:04 Membership CTA And Related Episodes
• 39:34 Sign-Off And Thanks

Transcript

Tim Benson: 0:28

I think people often get very bogged down in sort of how many streams they're going to get from a playlist or this, that, or the other. But I think the thing that's really important is triggering the algorithm itself. And if you trigger the algorithm and Spotify Radio and um, you know, uh Discover Weekly and all the other algorithmic playlists, if you get on them and you will only get on them if Spotify sees people liking your song, saving your song, listening to your song, which does mean getting on other user playlists. That's very, very helpful.

Marc Matthews: 1:03

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews. Welcome to Inside the Mix, your go-to podcast for music creation and production. Whether you're crafting your first track or refining your mixing skills, join me each week for expert interviews, practical tutorials, and insights to help you level up your music and smash it in the music industry. Let's dive in. Hey folks, welcome to Inside the Mix. Welcome back if you are a returning listener and if you're a new listener or viewer, if you're watching this on YouTube, a big welcome again. In this episode, uh for the final time in 2025, I am joined by my uh good friend and co-host um from the county adjoining Devon, uh Tim Benson, aka Isle 9. Tim, how are you? How's how are things?

Tim Benson: 1:55

I'm alright. I'm uh a little bit post uh post-dose of the lovely COVID, but I'm alright, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 2:03

Yeah, I think we were discussing this off air, weren't we, about COVID? It's where it's it's a weird one, it goes all quiet, and then suddenly you somebody you know gets COVID and then you remember it's a thing. Yeah, exactly.

Tim Benson: 2:12

Yeah, we all forget it and then suddenly yeah, yeah. I didn't the other week, and you know, couple couple of weeks actually, it's taken me to just sort of begin to feel a bit more normal again.

Marc Matthews: 2:23

Yeah, it does knock you off your feet. I mean, yeah, I'm quite lucky. Three touch words, it's been about three years since I've had it, to be fair. So good, and I'll make that continue, especially uh uh spoil spoiler alert here for anyone who does care. Um, at the point recording this is the 27th of October. I'm getting married on the 31st on Halloween. Yeah, so um yeah, fingers crossed, I don't get it before then. Uh no, because yeah, my other half, she would not be happy. No, there'd be no sympathy for me. Yeah, you'd like to do that.

Tim Benson: 2:52

You just have to not see anybody between now and then, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 2:56

Which is quite quite quite good the way I the way I work. So generally, that uh that's pretty much what happens. Don't really sit there. Everything's done virtually, so it works out quite well. Um this episode, folks, is uh I said in my notes there, I've got we're wrapping up the year with a reflective episode. Now, I appreciate the time this episode goes live, which is going to be around mid-November, it's not really the end of the year, but as we approach the end of the year, um I'm gonna be doing more sort of episodes where I'm gonna be hosting other podcasts that I listen to. So um exchanging RSS feeds and just letting you in on some of the podcasts I listen to, and they've kindly allowed me to um share their content on Inside the Mix and uh a couple of other episode formats as well. So this is gonna be really the last opportunity that I get to uh chat with Tim, for example, about what we're gonna be doing differently in 2026 with regards to our sort of creative path. But I touched on their uh last episodes, folks. Before we dive into that, I am actually building up uh the well rather curating ideas for Inside the Mix in 2026. And there is a link in the episode description. Do click on that link because I'd love your feedback, your input on what you enjoy about the podcast, and maybe also or rather, also what you would like to hear or see from the podcast in 2026, or maybe a format that you're not a particular fan of that you'd like to see less of. So always reflective. So please do click on that link, and you can also share your win of 2025 and get it featured on episode 227, which is going to air on December the 30th. So in that episode, I'll be sharing your win. So please do click on that link. Let me know what's going well with the podcast, maybe what could be improved in 2026, and also your win. And you've got until November the 29th to do that if memory serves. So that's my call to action out the way. So yeah, in this episode, we're really looking at what um we're gonna be doing differently in 2026. So I think as I do with all these ones, I've I've wittered on for a bit now. So maybe I'll throw the microphone over to you, Tim. So thoughts and reflections, maybe what you'll do differently in, or maybe develop. Different might be the wrong word. Progress.

Tim Benson: 5:12

Yes, well, uh I've sort of, you know, it feels a little bit early in the year, doesn't it? To be having like um, you know, sort of uh sort of new ideas for 2026. But um I feel like I have to have that after I've eaten Christmas pudding. But like um I I I'm sort of I feel like I mean I've had a I've had a really good year with my music actually. It's done uh, you know, well, and I've uh I've had sort of a further reach and more streams and things than I have before monthly listeners and stuff, so that's been good. I think though, um I sort of one thing I I want to dumb sort of you know work on and sort of drum down on really is my sort of process because I sort of think I was working this out, it's sort of a little bit contradictory, but on one hand, I want to sort of streamline my process so that I'm getting tracks done quicker, um, that they're taking a bit less time, um, which I think will mean sort of working on things like um creating more presets, saving more things within my door to sort of speed up my process, you know, um templates and things, and I'll have to do my 2026 template because it will probably be nothing like my 2025 template. But you know, sort of work on some things like that in the background and sample libraries and things. I always find there's stuff to do like that that if I get it a bit more honed in, sort of saves me time. But at the same time, I want to try and not not sort of end up doing stuff by sort of numbers and like sort of you know, you don't want to make your tracks less creative by doing that. So I want to be more creative and quicker, and I think the two may be a little hard to sort of sit against each other because like you know you need to sort of sort of like find a happy medium between the two, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 7:10

If you were to like identify one challenge or friction point at the moment that stops you from like being more prolific, what we what would you say it is?

Tim Benson: 7:23

Yeah, it's probably our dogs needing a walk. Um no, uh just as I'm hitting that brilliant spot, it's like no, it's three o'clock and I have to take you for a walk. No, um no, I don't know. Yeah, it's time time is is often a constraint, sort of not not um, you know, often time management though, it's funny, it's like like earlier today, it's like the amount of time I spent like trying to edit a sound, and like sort of, you know, and then I end up I decided, you know, you've got a preset and you start editing it, and and then you end up going like, do you know what? I don't like this. Like I've spent like sort of you know three quarters of an hour editing a sound and now I prefer the original preset, or in fact I might just scrap that track and go and look for a different sound entirely. So yeah, I think it's that sort of thing of knowing when you're getting bogged down in something and when you can you need to stop and come out of it. But of course that's difficult because sometimes it could be really, really creative. But yeah, I do sort of find I'm sort of losing pockets of time in certain directions, so it's streamlining that in somehow, you know.

Marc Matthews: 8:31

Yeah, I uh it's interesting you mentioned that because the the song I released, uh Narcissist, there's uh there's a lead synth I using that uh in the chorus. And I remember when I was writing that and uh I came up with a melody, and I was like, I just need a sound to stick in there, just so I got something so I can so I can hear what it's gonna sound like. And uh I wasn't like like you said there, I I messed around for a bit and I was like, oh, this will do for now. And then uh I didn't touch it again for two or three weeks because I was working on some other stuff, and I came back to it, and then I was just like, Yeah, that'll do. I'll leave that in. And uh I just roll with it, didn't touch it again. So it's one of those ones where I find time often helps. Uh I find it helps me a lot when I'm when I'm getting in my own head with idea with like sounds in particular, and then I'll just leave it for long enough that I forget and then come back, come back to it. I'm like, yeah, that's fine. I mean, it might be as a result of me thinking I just need to release this and get it out, and then I just settled for the sound that is there. But no, I find that that often that often helps, stepping away, and I think working on other people's stuff in between really did help because I could really disassociate myself from that project and then um and then come back to it.

Tim Benson: 10:08

Yeah, yeah, you can come back and have a fresh. I mean, I say walking the dogs can be a negative thing, of course, it can be a really positive thing. If you've been working all day, you go out, have some fresh air, you come back, you listen to something afresh, and you can go like, oh, actually, you know, that's working quite well. I like that all. You go like, nah, that's I really must stop putting lots of energy into this. This isn't right, uh, leave it, start a new project or something. But yeah, yeah, so I think it's really helpful if you've kind of done the legwork behind, and obviously, I mean, you and I both sort of do this a lot, so you you you obviously have got your sort of um systems in place, but like um sometimes it is just really helpful, like going. I mean, it's like a while ago I created some battery, because I use battery, native instruments battery quite a lot for my drums, and I created sort of whole sort of sets in battery of like a whole kit, for instance, of kick drums, a whole kit that's just snare drums, a whole kit that's just hi-hats, whatever, which might sound like an odd idea, but I like to have them each on individual tracks, not the whole kit on one track. So I will have my kick drum pattern on one track, so um, I can EQ it and do what I want with it. Um, but then it's really handy if you've got all the kicks you like the best in one kit, because then you can just cycle through them all and go, ah, which kit's working best here? You know, and you've got them, you can even process them and stuff in in the plug-in a little bit and sort of have things pretty kind of near ready to go. So that kind of thing can save you a lot of time, but of course, it takes a lot of time to put into getting those sort of things um you know in a good place. Um, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 11:59

I used to do uh used to do that. Admittedly, I haven't done it in a while to be fair, but much like you, I had I'm in logic with a sampler instrument, I would just have uh a library of kicks, a library of snares, and uh I would have them. I think at the time it was like I had a um a folder just of like Lindrum samples of uh Roland samples and just all these different samples, and then I would and then I'd put them in on an individual track like yourself, so I could I could tailor make each track, and then in logic, I would just go into the the piano role and just go up and down until one stood out to me, just come up and down these different samples, and it works really well.

Tim Benson: 12:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sort of things like that. And yeah, so I want to sort of continue that a bit more with synths with other things like I'm I'm in some ways it's great not being sort of you know, you you you don't save, I don't save every sort of synth pad I come up with or lead or something and go, right, I must save this as a lot of the time it's just saved in the project, it's there, and I don't necessarily save it out into preset folders and everything else, which is nice because I'm almost always sort of starting from a brank blank sort of slate and creating, but it's very time consuming, you know. And sometimes it would be great to at least have a good starting point and go, I like all these sounds and these work well. Maybe I'm going to edit this sound today and create another one, or or when I create something nice to actually save it because it might be useful in another song, and I often don't, I just go, Oh, that was nice and move on.

Marc Matthews: 13:31

Yeah, no, I know exactly what you mean. There's a particular bass patch or preset rather that I use in serum uh whenever I'm writing now, and it's just my go-to, and it just speeds up the process so much. Um, and that that that's helped me no end with regards to doing that. But I know what you mean. I know what you mean. I can't remember the last time I saved a preset or because I you I get like a preset and then I'll tweak it and whatnot, but I cannot remember the last time I actually saved one that I that I made a change to.

Tim Benson: 13:58

Yeah, and you yeah, you've made changes to it and save it in your own way.

Marc Matthews: 14:02

Yeah, should probably do that to be fair.

Tim Benson: 14:04

Yeah, so I think I need to streamline things.

Marc Matthews: 14:07

Yeah. Out of interest for the audience listening, um, you mentioned there about uh right back at the beginning, Spotify numbers. Uh I obviously I don't want to get too bogged down on on Spotify numbers, but what did you start the year at in terms of listeners, monthly listeners?

Tim Benson: 14:23

Hmm. I'm trying to remember. I I don't know. It was I might have managed to hit 10,000 but before the beginning of the year, but I'm not sure if I had. It was it was either just under that or sort of around that kind of figure. But I I managed to well, I managed this year to sort of I think I went over I nearly sort of 26,000, 27,000 was my sort of peak um during the year. So that was a I mean I think my my my monthly listeners, oh it must have been more than that because I I seem to remember looky at Spotify for artists here, that like um Spotify for artists um tells you sort of all these lovely facts, doesn't it? Which you look at far too many times during a day if you're me. Um and um I think what over the last 12 months, yeah, my my listeners went up 132%, and um my streams went up 164%. So it was a good year from the stats point of view, you know.

Marc Matthews: 15:26

Yeah, yeah. You got me looking at doing this odd air here, looking at myself uh for the past 12 months. That's amazing, though. Getting over 26,000. Did that open up a new feature on Spotify out of interest?

Tim Benson: 15:38

No, I've heard something about uh oh well. I was like, oh, won't this want to get something nicer? Oh no, I didn't see anything.

Marc Matthews: 15:46

I mean I thought or I read something about you could I don't know, it was like a 30% something or other, which then meant you and it would improve your discoverability, but you had to have over 25% 20 25, over 25,000. I've crudely described that because it's only something I heard about this week on another podcast.

Tim Benson: 16:07

I don't know if algorithmically it has changed something. I certainly find that a thing I've learned more than anything this year from doing that is that I think people often get very bogged down in sort of how many streams they're gonna get from a playlist or this, that, or the other. But I think the thing that's really important is triggering the algorithm itself. And if you trigger the algorithm and Spotify Radio and um you know uh Discover Weekly and all the other algorithmic playlists, if you get on them and you will only get on them if if Spotify sees people liking your song, saving your song, listening to your song, which does mean getting on other uh user playlists, that's very, very helpful. Submit hub and other things, but they've got to see enough positive stuff. And if quite quickly after you release it, and if they do, then algorithmically you get pushed out, and if they don't, you don't get pushed out, and uh it gets buried, you know, pretty much. So if you you get it pushed out, you you will see a big boost in your monthly listeners, um, more than likely. But it's not actually the boost isn't off one particular playlist. I don't go on one playlist and get loads of monthly listeners. I will get 100 extra monthly listeners off a playlist or something, maybe, but like that's great, but it's really what happens with the algorithm that's makes the difference.

Marc Matthews: 17:35

So totally agree, and it's something I experienced this year, and because previously I hadn't really paid a great deal of attention to it. But for example, going through the the playlists here in the last 28 days, you've got like radio plays, mixes, smart shuffle, daylist, release radar, your DJ, Discover Weekly, Blend, all Spotify all Spotify algorithmics. Yeah, and that's the bulk of my streams. That's where the bulk of my and there's there's one playlist which is like an outlier where there's loads. Um I got that through Submit Hub because I had some money left over, and I was like, ah, sod it. I'll no I'll I'll apply to some playlists. And I got lucky to get on this one in particular, but um, but it I've noticed like this in particular radio. If you can start to um get on that rate on the radio, Spotify radio, then you can see quite quickly, you can see a hockey stick curve. And I've seen that a few times throughout this year. If you can trigger that, then you can you can you can quite quickly grow.

Tim Benson: 18:33

Yeah. I think that's very key for a lot of artists, is like, but that yes, that does mean getting on user playlists and whatever, like and sp and and submit hub is a brilliant place to do that, I think. But but again, it's not that you've got to look and go, how many streams am I gonna get from your playlist? That may not be all that important. I mean, it it I mean it is to a degree, but it's it's it's most important that like you know, um Spotify sees sort of listeners listen to your track, play it again, save it, all these certain things that they judge. Um, but yeah, you you've got to get it out fairly quickly once you've produced the track, released it, and and get people's to listen to it over the next 48 hours, even I think is quite important.

Marc Matthews: 19:22

Like I think ultimately as well, um you've got to have something half decent, which helps. Um I think it all that it all boil boils down to that, really, doesn't it? You've got to have something that somebody wants to listen to, um, to say, um, but I think that's where a lot of it stems from. You can you can obviously you can release, release, release, but if you're releasing something that no one wants to listen to, which I don't know, I think like ultimately sweeping statement, but there's an audience for your mus for everybody's music. So I that might be totally wrong, you know. I mean, uh I don't know. What what I'm trying to get at is like if you like it, then there's gonna be somebody else that are out there who's gonna like it as well. I think that's where I'm trying to go with that. But yeah. Spotify interesting, yeah. Yeah, just your just your fabric or just I'll lose over and over again.

Tim Benson: 20:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean I think I mean it is a I think a lot of a lot of us find. I mean, genre, that that whole sort of pigeonholing, and you know, that that can be very hard for artists because it can just be hard if you don't really sit in some sort of genre or whatever. It can be hard to find a home for your music and and uh people who really like your style of music if you don't really write music that sort of neatly fits in something. But um I I think it's still possible, but I think you need that combination of sort of good music, determination, um, and uh good promo promotion, artwork, all those things. But you've yeah, you do need to find some, you know, there will be, as you say, somewhere there will be a niche of people that like what you do, yeah. And you and you need to sort of fit in and find that you know what do they say?

Marc Matthews: 21:12

You've got to find your tribe, I believe that is. I might have coined that from someone, and it could be Damien Keyes. I might have finded that from right, yeah. Could well have coined that from him.

Tim Benson: 21:23

Yeah, he used to rehearse in my studio. I know Damien.

Marc Matthews: 21:27

Yes, I remember this story, yeah. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, um he's a wise man, yeah. Lots of interesting stuff. Uh so thank you, Tib, for sharing that. I I think that's one that I um I'm always looking to do as well, in particular, processes and systems and just improving and and doubling down on what works, I find. But one that what my moving on to mine, and this is something I I probably I did start this year working on, and this was more collaborations. Now I've worked uh I've collaborated with Indigo twice this year, so with vocals on on a couple tracks, which has worked really well. But um, it's something that I want to work on more in 2026, so less working in in a in a silo by myself releasing tunes, but actually getting other people involved as well. Uh, notably what I'm gonna try and do in particular is reach out to the local area. So I'm based in Devon in the UK in the southwest. So see if I can reach out and start making connections with some local artists, notably singers is is the one um that I want because I love having vocals on my tracks. I really do. I mean, I like I like doing instrumentals, but I find for me I find the most enjoyment when I hear a vocal bring a track to life, basically. That's that's what really wins for me. So that's what I want to do more of in 2026. And there's obviously there's the it's gonna broaden my uh creativity in terms of music, but also reach as well. So reaching a new audience. So as we all know, collaborating with someone is then gonna in by its nature is gonna expose you to their audience as well. So I do that with the podcast, for example. So I'm looking to do that more in 2026. I've set myself with a goal of three, so three new, totally new collaborations, people I haven't worked with before. So we've we've collabed on a track, um Lost and Found, um, which still chugs along nicely. Um PRS, thank you very much. We got £1.50, I think, this year from that, which was nice. Um so yeah, yeah. Got 17 pounds in total, but there we go.

Tim Benson: 23:42

Yes, yeah, you talked about it. All adds up, all adds up. I got £12.50. Did you? Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 23:48

Uh when you see it all come in from different angles, PRS, PPL, I think I got about a penny.

Tim Benson: 23:54

Um my publishing song trust has actually just gone past because unlike you, you've signed up with Centric, haven't you? I think. Yeah. And so the the plus point of Centric being that you don't have to pay anything up front, you sign up and they take a little bit more, don't they, in the background. But like it, to be honest, uh, it makes a lot of sense doing it that way. Um, but I signed up with Song Trust and I've I've made $108, which means I've actually paid back my £100 that I had to pay $100 that I had to pay in the first place. So yeah, yeah. I'm sort of um I'm actually going to start making some money from it eventually.

Marc Matthews: 24:36

I uh I haven't had anything from Centric yet, so I'm waiting for that to materialise. But much it's I I'd no doubt, I have no doubt. It takes them forever just to register one of my songs and like have it that takes bloody long enough. But like much like yourself, this year I finally paid back the the £50 um that I paid PRS over 10 years ago when I was a student to join. So I'm now making money from PRS, which is quite nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully that continues.

Tim Benson: 25:10

Always say to people, I think it's you know it is a bit of a pain to set all those things up, but it's it's worth it in the end, although that may be quite some way in the distance. But once you've set it up, it's also it's relatively easy to use them. I mean, once you've got uh publishing admin and PRS, for instance, you know, set up, you just go in and add your next track on your publishing thing, very simple process normally, and and that's it. They do the rest with PRS and everything else, and you don't have to do all of that, so it can it all works out in the end, I think.

Marc Matthews: 25:47

Um yeah, so that that's one thing I realized this year with Centric, it makes it a lot easier. Because previously, when I was just doing it on my own and um I hadn't registered with before I registered with Centric, and I had to do do it on PRS myself, but it just takes a bit of time, got away, it's a bit of a pain in the arse. But and then when you get that IS was it WC code, then I have to go back and then make sure like with BBC Introducing, I have to put it in there to make and I mean that page that takes about a year to get any money from that um from from being from being played on the BBC. It's the turnaround, the turnaround of it is is quite long. It is quite they like playing your stuff though, they don't like I am five for five this year with BBC Introducing. I know it's impressive, it really is in the Southwest, so not the biggie yet. Uh it's been listened to by the um main radio, like the dance basically. Um I think rock the the rock and metal show, the metal show listened to it or the rock show. And I was like, I'm not entirely sure why it was attributed to them, but thanks for listening either way. Um but I don't I don't think they were gonna play it and they didn't, but there we go. But that I mean that's one thing I need to work on. I I had an episode on this way back, way, way back when, about my reaching out to radio stations, and I am so shit at doing it. And like I will upload the BBC Ray uh BBC Introducing, and I've got a list of radio stations, about 30 or 40 radio stations in the database. Um audience listening, if you want that, ping me an email, send me a message, happy to happy to share it with you. Uh, but I still, I still, it's one of those things that I just procrastinate and never end up doing, much to my detriment, I think.

Tim Benson: 27:29

It's good that you've done the BBC Introducing though, because that's definitely good. It's something I forget to do with um, but although I do think it you're far more likely to get somewhere with it with um vocal tracks. I do think they're not particularly interested in instrumentals, which is understandable, but it's not really what most people listen to on the yeah, and I find length as well uh makes a difference.

Marc Matthews: 27:56

Like I think the songs I put on there just under three minutes uh until about three minute twenty, three minutes thirty, something like that. Certainly makes a difference. Um, not that I shoot for that, it just so happens that's the length of the track, but that that does make a difference. Um but that's why I think going back to my collaboration point as well. I think it'd be nice to collaborate with others in the UK to then submit songs in their particular region, which would be quite cool. Um but yeah, audience listening, if you if you're a vocalist and uh you uh sort of don't have to necessarily specialise in like EDM or dance or anything like that, but if you're a vocalist and you're looking to get on a track or two, ping, send me a message, get in touch, because I'm gonna look for extending my network, building my network out in 2026. So that for me is the big one. I suppose another one, if I if I was to add another one, I'm going off on a tangent here as well. It's touching on what we mentioned there about royalty with like PRS, PPL, publishing. Obviously, you've got distro kit as well. But obviously, my I see obviously, like everybody knows. Um, so I retract that statement, but my YouTube channel is now monetized as well, so that's also bringing in uh money. Very, I mean, it comes in like 70p to two pounds a day, but it's another sort of income stream to add, yeah, to add to the streaming. This is from music from the podcast. And in 2026, I want to uh I think another goal of mine would be to see that to see to kick on and and grow that both with streaming music, music streaming rather, and also the the YouTube monetization as well. So I think those are targets for me in 2026. Um cadence-wise, I'm quite happy with what the I think I put out five songs this year. I think that's worked quite well. Maybe I'll shoot for six next year.

Tim Benson: 29:46

Yeah, I I sort of was doing quite well on getting one song out every month, pretty much, and then this month is looking very unlikely unless I manage to somehow get something out by Friday. Which is not entirely impossible, but let's face it, it's unlikely to even get on release radar at this current moment. So um, yeah, it's yeah, I I've just ended up not able to do anything the last couple of weeks, but um was really annoying. But yeah, I got out things most, you know, kept kept busy. So yeah, I think that that has a big effect as well. Like you really want to be putting something out every six weeks, and it's like I saw where my monthly listeners were like at the end of my last release, sort of about a month later or whatever. And then they I I now just watched them tail off because you know, because if you don't release anything and you don't keep that momentum going, I mean, yes, you can get it back, but like it's it is very much if you want to build it, you want to keep releasing obviously good material. I don't think you want to just put out something. That's um for that's the other thing, isn't it? It's like making things quicker, but like I'm I'm thinking of actually doing a bit of diversification as well, sort of this year. If I can I've I say it every year is sort of I I feel like I've got lots of musical avenues that I enjoy working in, and it's not just um my Iron Iron project, although that is my my baby really. Um I sort of um have lots of sort of back catalogue and all sorts of stuff that I've never put out, and I just sort of I've I've got that, I've got um the top tier now on DistroKid where I've got lots of ArcSIS profiles I can use. And you know, I just thought, right, do it. Like put out lots of these different things, and you know, just even if it's just my back catalogue, just release all these things that are just hanging around, and um, you know, some of them sort of band things from different bands I've done, some of them are like solo projects, um, singer-songwriter stuff, some with other people, and it's just like you know, I really don't want to just sit on music that I do nothing with. Um, plus, if I get those things out there, I might start writing something and go, oh, I'll put that out on this artist, or you know, feed feed the different things I have, but it's hard to get them up and running, really.

Marc Matthews: 32:16

Yeah, I I know exactly what you mean. There are times when I'm working on stuff and I'm thinking I'd like to put a name to this and release it under a different moniker, uh, and and do that myself. Um, and just because I see other artists doing it, other sort of uh tiered artists, a bit uh maybe a few tiers ahead of as it were. And I'm thinking it works really well. Just having a okay, I've got this particular sound, I can release it under that name, I've got this sound, I can release it under that name, rather than just having a name and then releasing a whole hodgepodge of different different genres, which which was kind of what I was doing, but I've sort of reined that in a bit now, and I know kind of like I know the the direction that my music's heading. I think that does help as well with regards to the audience, because I can see that in my head, I'm guessing that the algorithm is figuring okay, well, this artist is releasing this style of music, this is the audience, so we'll push it out to that audience. And that that in my head, that's what would make sense, whether or not that's the way it works.

Tim Benson: 33:14

I I think that's very true. I think like you know, if if it sort of works out, I mean it of course, on your appears on and like, you know, what on what someone it's the kind of things that in the say you go into certain playlists and other artists are played in that playlist next to you, it's that whole sort of thing of like Spotify's trying to kind of make a pattern that makes sense, isn't it? Of like where you sit next to other artists, and if you kind of just release totally different things and end up in totally different playlists with some one week you're a produce a brilliant house track, the next week you produce a metal track. The trouble is you are confounding the algorithm making sense of that. It is just like finding it really hard to you know, always in a metal playlist, always in a you know, melodic house. It doesn't make sense to the algorithm, and and then you end up sort of falling between all of these stools, I think. So yeah, don't do that, is my my theory. Um, I mean, I suppose you could be renowned for doing uh doing some a sort of style that is impossible to you know uh pigeonhole, but like you know, yeah, I think I think you're right.

Marc Matthews: 34:28

I think you're right. And uh I think it's one of the reasons why I've noticed my listeners have have increased this. My target was to get to 10,000 by the end of the year, and I think I'll hit that because I've got my Ace in the Pack, which is my uh my Christmas song, which will dust off the cobwebs and hit the algorithm, and people will start listening to that again probably early next month into December, and that'll give me a nice little boost. So you can always rely on that around Christmas time, yeah. So that's all we do.

Tim Benson: 34:57

I haven't done a Christmas song last year. I don't know if I will this year either. I have two already. Yeah, do you have two? I know we I have Christmas eighty-four, yeah.

Marc Matthews: 35:07

Which was the I remember that one. And what was the other one?

Tim Benson: 35:10

The truce.

Marc Matthews: 35:12

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Tim Benson: 35:14

Which is sort of based off of Christmas '84. It's kind of the same track, but sort of different.

Marc Matthews: 35:20

Yeah. I uh at the beginning of the year I said to my other half, I was like, Oh what? I'm gonna do a Christmas song this year, I'm gonna cover one, what shall I do? And uh, and then the year got away from me, and then uh it's not gonna, I don't think it's gonna happen now. I don't think it will. I think I'll need the I need the motivation and the enthusiasm to do it, and I don't as much as I love Christmas, I don't think I've got it now. But I'll let um Christmas baby please come home, I'll dust that off, and then uh that will start start hitting people's ears again. Um which was which was quite fun. I think I turned that around in about two weeks if I remember rightly. I think I do that quite fast. It's got um sleepless nights on guitar. Yeah, I enjoyed that. Um folks, we've discussed long enough now and gone on tangents as we do with these episodes. So my target for you, or rather my prompt for you, uh, if you've been working solo all year, who's one person you would could one person you could collab with in 2026? So thinking about who you could collab with next year, um, or maybe just in general, what are you gonna look to do or improve on next year? So you can send me a message in the episode description and uh I'll look to share it on a on a future episode, probably episode 227 to be honest. So if you're gonna be collabing with anyone, or you could collab with anyone, anyone at all, anyone at all, alive or unfortunately no longer with us. Um, who could you I say that, but with AI now, so you could probably collab with anyone to be honest. Um yeah, yeah. Um I'm trying to think, did he ever do? I don't think he did. I don't think Ozzy ever did. I know he released changes. Did he release changes with a with Kelly Osborne around Christmas once? Possibly, can't remember, but that would be quite cool. So there you go, folks. Uh send me a message. What are you gonna look on improving next year? And also if you could collab with anyone, who could or who would you collab with? Um, Tim, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much for uh chatting today. Yeah, I appreciate that you uh you've been under the weather, so um sticking around and doing this is uh I do do thank you for this. And um that's fine. I haven't had any major coughing fits, which is good. No, no, no, no, that's uh to be fair, post you can always get rid of those, or you can leave it in like we did with the seagulls usually, but and now because it is is uh approaching winter, the seagulls are less apparent. Yeah, no, they're they're they're all hiding, I think. Yeah, yeah. Um, folks, before we wrap things up, if uh if you have enjoyed this episode, uh do consider joining as a member on YouTube for the less than the price of a coffee per month. And uh I do love coffee, so um, that would be hard push for me. Yeah, you get access to uh videos or episodes early before anyone else. You get priority replied to comments, and you get a badge as well. Everybody, if you love a badge, not a physical badge, but you get a badge as well next to your name. So please uh do consider supporting the podcast in that way. And if you've enjoyed this episode, check out episode 175, which Tim and I did, I think it dropped on New Year's Day last year, which has turned out to be, I think, the most popular episode of the year, or one of amazing. Yeah, episode 175, which is What's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving clarity and dynamics in a mix. It sounds perfect, doesn't it? The perfect pairing. I've got in my notes here the perfect pairing with today's theme. It's not really because we haven't spoken anything of muddiness or achieving clarity. Um, but Tim's there, so there is a tenuous link. Uh, folks, uh big thank you for this. Um I don't know. Thank you, thank you, thanking folks. I've got fun at a tangent here. Um until next time, keep creating, keep mixing, and I will see you in the next one.