How to Follow an Artist and Never Miss a Release

There's a particular small disappointment in discovering that an artist you love released an album four months ago and you had no idea.

Not because you weren't interested — because nothing told you, and the moment passed.

This used to be unavoidable. Then it became avoidable and most people still don't do it, because “follow” has been so overused by social apps that it's stopped registering as a useful action.

Here's what it actually does in a music app, and how to set it up in about five minutes.

What following actually gets you

Following an artist tells the app that this person matters to you specifically — not statistically, not inferred from play counts, but declared.

That distinction is the point.

Recommendations work by pattern. Play something enough and the app concludes you probably like it.

That's useful, and it fails in two predictable ways: it can miss artists you genuinely love but haven't played recently, and it can over-weight whatever you happened to have on repeat last month.

In Zene, followed artists can appear through Artist Stories on Home — new releases, videos, tour moments and other updates from the artists you've chosen.

Not necessarily another notification to dismiss. Not another email. The information is simply there when you open the app.

The number is 20, and 20 is plenty

Zene lets you follow up to 20 artists on every plan, including free.

On the free plan, Home shows Artist Stories from the first 2 followed artists. Premium can bring stories from all 20 into view.

Twenty can sound restrictive until you actually try to name twenty artists whose next release you'd genuinely be annoyed to miss.

Most people get surprisingly far through the list before they start padding.

Who's actually worth following

Not everyone you like. That's the mistake.

The five-minute setup

Don't try to build the list entirely from memory. Your listening history usually gives you a better answer than your brain does.

That's it.

Five minutes once, and then the system can quietly keep doing its job.

Review it once a year

Follows go stale. Taste changes. Bands stop releasing music. The artist you played constantly in January may be someone you'd now describe as “a phase”.

Once a year, open the list and ask one question about each artist:

If the answer is no, unfollow.

It's not a betrayal. The artist doesn't know. You're simply making room for somebody who matters more to you now.

Picking an easy date — the start of January, your birthday, or whenever you normally clean up your subscriptions and playlists — makes the habit almost effortless.

What following doesn't do

Worth being clear so expectations are right.

Following podcasts is the same idea

Worth a line, because people often organise artists carefully and then leave podcasts entirely to memory.

Following a show gives it a stable home in your Library instead of relying on you to remember the name and search for it again.

Zene also keeps episode progress, so if you leave something halfway through, you can return later without starting from the beginning.

Why this is worth five minutes

Most of the effort people put into music apps goes into consumption — making playlists, adjusting queues, finding something for tonight.

Following is different.

It's one of the relatively rare things you can configure once and continue benefiting from long afterwards.

Artist following is available for free in Zene, with up to 20 followed artists on every plan, on Android, iPhone and iPad, and the web.