Four Releases, One New Chapter – Looking Back at ALIMA’s First Release Wave

Four releases. Four weeks. A lot of work – and even more lessons learned.

When I started ALIMA’s first release wave with “Free With You”, I felt exactly what you would probably expect: excitement, anticipation and curiosity about what would happen next.

But surprisingly, there was almost no internal pressure.

The goal was never to expect everything to explode overnight. It was about something much more important: waking the ALIMA project up again.

After returning to music and releasing new material over the past few years, I wanted to create real momentum this time. Instead of releasing one track and disappearing again for weeks or months, I wanted ALIMA to become active, visible and – hopefully – part of the conversation again.

And that meant one thing:

Consistency.

Four Releases in Four Weeks

The first wave consisted of four releases:

Free With You
Made of Light
Together
Eternal Pulse

Each track has its own character, story and energy. And while I genuinely love all four tracks and all their different versions, “Together” probably means the most to me personally.

But the biggest challenge of this release wave wasn’t producing or finishing one particular song.

It was everything around the music.

Releasing a track every week means that as soon as one release goes live, the next one is already approaching.

Artwork. Distribution. Website updates. Social media. Release pages. Promotion. Content. Links. Metadata. And everything else that happens behind the scenes.

At first, doing all of that every seven days sounded ambitious.

In reality, it taught me something important:

Once you build a system that actually works, weekly releases become surprisingly manageable.

“Momentum starts with consistency.”

The Biggest Change Happened Behind the Scenes

This might actually be the most important result of the entire first release wave.

My workflow has changed completely.

In the past, sometimes simply getting a release out into the world and doing some promotion afterwards already felt like a huge amount of work.

Today, that process looks very different.

Over the past months I have built a much more structured system around ALIMA. Certain parts of social media work, website maintenance and the general release process can now be prepared, streamlined or partially automated.

That doesn’t mean less care goes into a release.

It means less unnecessary friction.

Instead of constantly starting from zero, there is now a workflow.

And that allowed me to move from one release to the next without feeling overwhelmed by the short turnaround.

For me, that is probably the biggest lesson from Wave One.

Numbers, Expectations and Perspective

Of course, I also went into these releases with expectations.

And looking back, some of them were simply too high.

I hoped the new releases would generate noticeably more Spotify streams than some of my releases from late last year. So far, the overall streaming numbers have remained below those personal expectations.

But I’ve also learned to look at those numbers differently.

They are still small.

But they are not meaningless.

Especially the activity on release day and the following day showed me that people are actually listening.

And sometimes one unexpected development can change the perspective completely.

The Radio Edit of “Free With You”, for example, was picked up by a strong playlist and has generated almost 400 streams from that placement alone.

For a major artist, that number would barely be worth mentioning.

For me, it matters.

Because every stream represents someone somewhere pressing play.

It is proof that the work can reach people.

And that makes every hour spent producing, preparing releases, maintaining the website and creating content feel worthwhile.

Building More Than a Spotify Profile

Another major part of this release wave wasn’t happening on Spotify at all.

It was happening here.

The ALIMA website has become increasingly important to me because I no longer see it simply as an artist website.

I see it as the central destination of the entire project.

Streaming platforms, social networks and algorithms can always change. On my own website, I can decide what people discover next, how releases are presented and where the journey continues.

That makes the website an essential part of the long-term ALIMA strategy.

And during this first wave, another piece of that strategy became much more important:

The Vault.

Going Beyond the Music

The idea behind the ALIMA Vault is simple.

I don’t want someone who visits this website to find exactly the same things they can already find everywhere else.

The Vault should provide genuine added value.

Exclusive downloads. Visual content. Alternative material. Things connected to the music that aren’t simply another Spotify or SoundCloud link.

Most importantly, I want it to give listeners and supporters a reason to return.

There is something special about discovering material that isn’t available everywhere.

And over time, I want that exclusivity to become another way of creating a stronger connection between listeners and the ALIMA project.

The Vault will continue to grow gradually – without rushing it.

Quality and real value are more important than simply filling it with content.

So, What Happens Next?

For now, the weekly release cycle is finished.

And that’s intentional.

The coming weeks will be used to continue developing the ALIMA ecosystem – especially the website, new articles with real value and additional Vault content.

After four intensive weeks, there is also plenty to evaluate and improve.

Because one of the best things about Wave One is that it didn’t just produce four new releases.

It produced experience.

I know much more clearly now what works, what can be improved and how I want to approach the next phase.

And yes:

New music is coming.

That’s all I’m going to say about that for now.

The Beginning, Not the Finish Line

Looking back, the best three words to describe this first release wave would probably be:

Fast. Intense. Educational.

The streaming numbers may not yet be where I eventually want them to be.

That’s okay.

The bigger achievement is that ALIMA now has momentum, a working release system and a growing ecosystem around the music.

Four releases were never supposed to be the finish line.

They were supposed to wake the project up.

And that’s exactly what happened.

ALIMA isn’t simply back. The project is evolving – deliberately, consistently and one step at a time.