u/Alvalanker

Genuinely curious if anyone else has experienced this or has a theory.

I'm an independent artist, record under the name Alvalanker. When I pulled my Apple Music for Artists data recently I noticed one of my instrumentals — Digital Siege — has 6,029 Shazam counts but only about 1,921 plays on Apple Music. The follow-up track Digital Siege Pt. II has another 2,035 Shazams on top of that.

For context, Shazam counts mean someone heard the song somewhere — a store, a car, a video, a public space — didn't know what it was, and pulled out their phone to find out. So roughly 8,000 times people encountered this song without me doing anything to put it there.

The gap between Shazams and actual streams tells me people are finding it but not converting — either they're not Apple Music subscribers, or they search and don't find enough to make them follow through.

The song itself is instrumental, kind of dark electronic/industrial with a lot of texture and movement. I make everything myself in Ableton, play guitar on most of it.

Has anyone else pulled this kind of data and found a similar disconnect? And what did you do about it?

[Bandcamp link to Digital Siege if anyone wants to hear what 6,000 people apparently stumbled into]

Hey everyone. I don't post here much but I've been lurking for years and this felt like the right place to share this.

My name is Daniel, I record under the name Alvalanker. I started out playing guitar in bands in the NJ/NYC underground, ended up getting a call from Slick Idiot out of nowhere in 2012 and spent time touring North America as lead guitarist for En Esch and Mona Mur. That experience changed everything for me creatively and pointed me toward the kind of music I make now — industrial, electronic, psychedelic, heavy, hard to categorize.

Since then I've gone fully independent, started my own label (Ctrl Rm Music LLC), and released 7 studio albums since 2018. A writer named Charlotte Nightstar recently wrote a pretty personal piece about the whole journey — the touring years, getting sober, the Columbia University A/V work, why I make the music I make. I didn't ask her to write it. She just did.

I thought this community might find it interesting, especially if you're a fan of the KMFDM/En Esch world or just curious about what the independent side of this genre looks like when nobody's watching.

Article: https://charnightstar.substack.com/p/nightstar-exclusive-interview-with

If you want to hear the music: I'm on Spotify and Bandcamp under Alvalanker. Happy to answer any questions about the touring years or the independent release process.