We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Abeler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.

Matt, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think it takes to be successful?

I’m still figuring this out. The answer depends on what my goal is. Am I making music to have fun and fuel my soul? If so, yes I’ve succeeded a million times over. Do I have a million monthly listeners on Spotify? Nope. Haven’t succeeded.

This interview is a wonderful moment for me to be vulnerable about how I haven’t succeeded in having a large number of repeat listeners. I’m 29 but really at the beginning of my music journey. I’m a talented musician that struggles understanding marketing. I got lucky once with a song I produced for Weston Wold, “Barely Breathing”, that did a half million streams on Spotify. Years later, I haven’t been able to replicate that. Spotify is where 90% of the listeners are. Recently, I’ve been learning Spotify’s algorithm seems to help artists get on playlists more often when a large volume of followers of an artist will stream their song the first hour after it releases.

Because I produce my own tracks in a home studio, I don’t have to spend a lot on the recording side. Generally it costs $200 to get on a user playlist of around 15K followers. “Barely Breathing” got on a user playlist with 100K followers without even pitching the track to the curator of the playlist. The playlist curator just liked the song. That is not normal and I feel very lucky.

Spotify editorial playlist curators are the gatekeepers. This is an area I’m learning how to understand better and I will have a lot more to talk about years from now. I’m not there yet.

In a study published by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), it concluded that it’s normal for a record labels marketing budget alone to cost between $200,000-$700,000 to break an artist in a major recorded music market. It’s really helpful for me to understand this – it reminds me not to be naive what I’m up against as an independent artist. I expect my tracks to go somewhere with a couple hundred bucks. Most likely, they won’t.

I’ve had a hell of fun with music! I am pushing myself to learn more about succeeded in growing more listeners. My #1 goal over these next two years is to grow to 10K listeners on Spotify by focusing on building stronger community partnerships in the pop music scene. Some advice I’ve been given so far is to release less often but the best quality music I have and do my best to turn those into collaborations featuring similar artists with slightly larger followings than me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey I’m Matt

I’m a pop artist, ghostwriter, and producer. Music fills my soul but not my stomach. Video editing keeps my music dreams afloat and lets me work remotely. I’m currently in Brazil because it’s the place where I have the best momentum with my music collabs. I’m blessed to know so many talented people there. I’m scared as hell of A.I. taking my job in the next few years, but I don’t let fear kill my positive energy. Tomatoes are my favorite fruit because they’re so versatile.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

From someone who spends a lot of time in music production… I laugh at the winds of fame. I’ve been close many times to locking in collaborations with well-known artists like Annita, Kygo, Will Gittens. It only takes one solid collab to change everything in a second. One of my best producer friends worked on a project a decade ago with Shndo. Shndo wanted to collab with him… and my friend never answered the email. Years later Shndo produced “Peaches” for Justin Bieber. My friend will kick himself for the rest of his life for not answering back that email. It’s just not a good look to reach out now. But we still have a good laugh over the could-have-beens. We count our blessings even as we make “unforgivable mistakes”.

Fame can help me eat, but it’s not everything. Sustaining music-making with a career that isn’t music is the norm. There are lots of blessings and upsides to that.

If you have any friends in the pop music scene, I would love chatting with them. Maybe one of my friends have a track that’s the right fit for them. Who knows.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I don’t think we’re a cosmic accident. We create because we have the spark of a Creator in us. We are creatures born from intelligence. God fills us with creative potential. Remembering that music is not entirely my own invention has really helped me avoid letting my soul succumb to thoughts of a meaningless existence. Even artists who “make it” can drift into a terrifyingly dark void and spiritual emptiness. My mission is to be grateful that I am not alone. I am just one human among many, but God still fills me with purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: mattabeler.com
• Instagram: @matthewabeler
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwUFmVUfANtHB86-OUY1uRg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/7JiO9RACSnweBYehIkFONI?si=oA4N3PZ8SpelBSMC34oTkQ