Mazed Haque: Tapping into the secret of streaming music

The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating, creating a clear divide between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic worlds. Amidst the challenges, artists like electro-pop musician Mazed Haque have turned adversity into opportunity.

Currently trending on Spotify and iTunes, Mazed began his musical journey in 2018. A textile engineer by day, he lives the dual life of a self-established musician by night.  His music has surpassed 50,000 Spotify streams and last week, he released his latest single 'Shomudror Teere'. 

"I began making my own music in 2018 but a year later, I started working at a textile company, which took my focus away from music a bit." Mazed reminisced while talking to The Business Standard. 

"When the lockdown happened, I got a lot of time to explore my own style. That's when I tried learning on my own how to compose and record and also improve at playing instruments, like the keys; I could already play the guitar," he added.

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Going by the stage name 'Max Mazed,' he has released other singles in the recent past. 

'Ghum', his prior release to 'You' was recently featured on 'New Music Friday Bangladesh'. This is essentially a Spotify playlist that seeks out new music for listeners to enjoy over weekends. His other grossing singles are 'Mon Kharaper Dine' and 'Krishnochura Haate.'

Touching on his latest single 'Shomudror Teere', Mazed said that the idea for the song came to him during a visit to Cox's Bazar. "The concept was clear but I couldn't really work with it at that time. It was during my recent visit back at Cox's Bazar when I decided to finalise the song." 

Mazed's story is one of hope that rises from the ashes of our country's decaying music scene where musicians are simply not able to make a living out of the old ways. 

In fact, Mazed has his musical roots in rock and metal and even has a full album titled 'Before Dawn' containing songs that came out in January. "Most of my singles saw a lot more streams than all the songs in my album combined." 

Long gone are the days of rock lovers queueing in front of cassettes and CD shops every time a band dropped an album. But times have changed since, so has music's influence. But how?

"I began with rock and metal but I leaned towards the influence of Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and others to base my own music on," Mazed said, adding, "I made a few drafts of the kind of music I want to do and I wanted to break away from rock or metal. So I tried EDM (Electronic Dance Music)." 

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"For this year's Father's Day, I released 'Baba Tumi Kothay.' It received a decent listenership," he said regarding his growing visibility on music streaming platforms. 

This begged the question of how he was getting his music on these platforms.

"You can use the website DistroKid for that. It functions like a virtual record label. You buy a subscription from them and upload your music. Then the website distributes your songs on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Music, etc. This is a great opportunity for independent musicians to take their music to the world," he explained to us. 

Streaming royalty pours right into the musician's account and the distributing site keeps a cut of 20% whereas traditional distributors keep nearly half the royalty.

"No label likes to experiment with a new musician," Mazed said. "So, I went on and did it myself."

Streaming platforms thrive on recommendations, tailoring suggestions based on users' preferences. Mazed's music aligns with the tastes of contemporary listeners, gradually building traction as it resonates with the audience.

The mode of choosing the popular genre has only changed and according to Mazed, it has become simpler in comparison to old ways.

Nonetheless, this doesn't secure an independent musician's career in the long run. "You just need to market your music to be really popular and for that you have to be prepared to make some serious investment," he added. 

But this shouldn't dishearten newer musicians who are only starting out. "The mass listeners prefer Xefer's Jhumka and classic listeners, by design, prefer classics. One has to start first and make slow progress without stopping." 

As we delved into the shift from albums to singles, Mazed said, "I always dreamt of creating an album. It's out there now, but listeners nowadays prefer one song at a time." 

In an era with access to an extensive musical library on a single device, the constraints of sticking to a single artist or genre have faded.

When it comes to marketing music, Mazed, despite being a DIY musician, emphasised the need for investment. Whether personally managed or through agencies, he highlighted that effective marketing becomes crucial for broader exposure, more listeners, and subsequently increased income.

One of his singles made about $90 in the last three months. That may not seem like much but if you multiply that number to the numerous songs that are growing in popularity, it becomes a lot. All you need to do is keep track of trending music, the rest will sort itself out.