Body of work or singles?

Yeah i agree with everything @a.blomqvist said about streaming platforms and today demands... we live in an era of fast consumption and sadly people have time to binge-watch a whole Netflix series but they don't have time to sit and go through a whole album to support us artists.

I feel like when you're an emerging artist specially, if you release a whole EP or ALBUM, a lot of your pieces won't get the love and attention that they deserve. Great pieces can go unnoticed.. that's why releasing singles not only guarantees you more chances in regards of playlists and the algorithm, but you can make sure that people will at least take the time to give that specific piece attention.

And yeah, you can always plan on releasing a 5 track EP and release 3 singles prior to the full EP or if it's an album, have the same approach. a few singles leading to it to build momentum.

Keep in mind, unless you're Ludovico Einaudi or Olafur Arnalds or Joep Beving, whatever, if you release a full album and then don't release anything for a whole year, you can lose that momentum and people can 'forget about you'. With so much music being released weekly, people don't support each artists as much as we used to 10-15 years ago, they don't have as much patience and they will look for the next thing. Of course, i am generalizing but keep that in mind, because releasing a single every 4-8 weeks is in my opinion a good way of building a fan base when you're at the beginning stages.

Its unfortunate that nowadays Streaming services and todays demand too forces artists to release singles. I prefer Albums and EP's but as you said in terms of popularity, editorials and all the release radar, radio plays for example on Spotify will notice your music much more likely when you release singles. I personally prefer to release singles and the form them as an album finally. For example releasing 5singles and then 8 track album.