Releasing music in this crazy, over-saturated world is a bitch. With 100,000+ tracks per day going up on Spotify, how in the heck are you supposed to stand out? When we build our musicians’ Total Tuneups, the #1 thing artists ask us for is a specific step-by-step music release plan. Each plan we create is highly customized, but there are some steps to master and a general timeline. I have outlined them for you here…
Three Months Before Music Releases
Ensure the house’s legal side is handled and copyrights are registered. Also, I don’t have to tell you to have agreements with band members and for-hire players, do I? 🙂
Choose Or Register With Your Performing Rights Organization.
You probably already know this, but just in case—to collect your royalties, you’ll need to sign with a Performing Rights Organization (“PRO” for short) and SoundExchange. The three options in the U.S. for PROs are ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI.
For live royalties, BMI and ASCAP both offer portals to collect royalties from playing live. Once your songs are registered on the PRO database, you log in and enter any dates you have performed them, where they were performed, and which songs. The PRO companies payout quarterly so be sure to enter the performances soon after they are through, otherwise, you could miss a deadline!
You must also register with SoundExchange, which focuses on royalties for your recording (mechanical rights), while your Performing Rights Organization focuses on royalties for your song (performance rights).
Document the Recording & Creation Journey For Your Fans
What may feel mundane to you – writing, recording, mixing, mastering, being in the studio, etc. – can be really exciting for your fans. Taking them on a behind-the-scenes journey of this music release is a great way to form a stronger bond with your current and growing fanbase.
Use videos and photos on your social media to update users on how the recording, mixing, and mastering is going. Also, capture longer-form stories for Instagram Stories and your newsletter.
Engage with your following on milestones like artwork and song titles by polling your fans and holding contests to select what cover or title to go with, have your fans weigh in on photos, graphics and get them involved with the process. All this activity aims to get people excited so they are engaging and sharing your updates.
Create Your PR & Marketing Plans
A significant component when releasing new music is getting PR. You can accomplish this by hiring a team or by going the DIY route. When hiring a PR team make sure you do your homework and make sure your music is a good fit for that firm’s approach and philosophy. Be sure that the team talks to you about their well-thought-out plan for your campaign.
A PR company should work with you to ensure you are fully prepared before being introduced to the press. This is the first part of their job when you engage a firm.
If you’re going with a do-it-yourself approach, here are some tips for an effective music PR campaign:
Create Your Playlist Plan
Submit Your Music Directly to Spotify
Simply sign into your artist account (or Spotify Analytics if you are a label) and choose your best song. When submitting, take extra time to give a detailed description of the song. Supply any relevant information about the song to guide editors to the best placement for your music easily.
Build Your Own Playlisting Initiatives
If you don’t know all the steps to set up a playlist, follow this step-by-step guide. Start building and sharing playlists. It would be best if you built up plays as this impacts the current song that you are promoting, as well as any forthcoming singles. Use interesting titles and themes to grab people’s attention to aid with search.
Find Playlist Curators & Pitch
This is, of course, easier said than done! It is not easy to find curators, but it is possible with some dedication. Google and all the Socials are great places to start. Reddit has an active Spotify Playlists Page. There are also quite a few on SubmitHub that you can access for a small fee.
Two Months Before Music Release
Finalize your Single / Album / EP Artwork
Your artwork should be ready, on brand, and impressive! Ask your designer to animate it or break it into tiles for Instagram and resize it for all your social posts.
Get Great Photos
Make sure you have at least 3-4 great images. Variety is important. Most music blogs feature square or horizontal photos. When taking pictures, think through your brand and consider sizes, shapes and several looks to keep your images fresh as time goes by.
Focus on Increasing Your Audience
If you have been recording new music, you may have neglected the constant grind of keeping your social media and newsletter growing. This requires a lot of heavy lifting, and your whole band or team should be helping.
Use my Social Media Tuneup system to diagnose each of your sites and socials and update them.
If you have not kept up consistently, find your friends and people you admire (bloggers, other artists, venues, local spots you like to hang out in, etc.) on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and start following!
This will increase your audience because many people you follow will follow you back – especially if you already know them. Also, start reaching out to people in your inbox and outbox and get them on your list (remember it’s illegal to just sign people up, so do this with integrity and ask each person). Your newsletter is the place where you will be able to monetize so, don’t skip this step.
Prep Your Social Media Content Calendar
Your content calendar outlines all the assets you need for your release and the dates for each asset/action required. Countdowns, art reveals, listening or live release party announcements, ticket links, and calls to action (like Spotify Pre-saves) are all fodder to add to your content calendar.
Use my SMM Organizer to organize all of your posts and VIPs. This will help you keep track of all the content that you post. You can see there is a tab for each platform. If there are several of you on a team or in a band, assign one platform per person. You will also see a VIP tab here—this is where you will add industry people you need to connect with in real life.
Six Weeks Before Music Release
Submit Your Music to Your Distributor
If you are leading this music release with a single (or two), make sure to let them know you are releasing a single(s) FIRST before the EP (if this is the case). You must have your single artwork ready at this time! Tunecore, CD Baby, and other aggregators need upwards of 6 weeks to send your music to iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music, and other digital service providers (DSPs).
Submit Your Single to The Spotify Curators
Log in to your Spotify For Artists account and submit your track for playlist consideration.Follow this guide so you don’t miss an opportunity.
Launch a Facebook Ad Campaign to Get More Email Signups
Or if you have not done so in a long time, go through your personal Facebook Page and ask all of your friends to subscribe to your email.
One Month Before Music Release
Release Your First Single
You may want to consider releasing ALL of your tracks as singles – in this case, space them out 4-6 weeks apart. This is a great way to build buzz, get fans excited, and get some media interested.
Be sure to reach your “within reason” dream targets with your single(s). It’s not best to wait to reach out to these loftier sites with your album.
Album reviews take a considerable amount of time, and if you look, most music sites reserve these full album review slots for the most anticipated albums, so don’t feel disappointed if you don’t get full album / EP reviews (they are not en vogue these days).
Announce a Music Release Event: Live Show, Livestream, or Listening Party
If you play live shows, book a release show or a Live Stream and do something to make this show more special than the others. Decorate the venue or your studio if you are live streaming. When we get back to everyday life you can have a real release party at an actual venue, work with the bar to create a particular shot or cocktail, pre-sell a merch pack, hire a party bus, ask a food truck to pull outside the venue, etc.
You might want to consider a special interactive show using Volume.com Here is our Livestream marketing checksheet to help you along.
If you don’t play out, create a listening party at a small bar, create an after-work happy hour, or choose a local favorite coffee shop. If you are just starting and don’t think you can draw a large crowd, hold a listening house party with wine tasting, cupcake bake-off, fondue party, etc. Think about your fans and make this special for them. And, of course, the key is to announce that tickets are on sale and share links!
Launch Your Music PR or Playlisting Campaign
This is a great way to build buzz. If you are hiring a PR team, this will be when they will launch.
If you have not hired a PR team I suggest that you check out my book It will tell you all you need to know about how to get publicity for our music.
Two Weeks Before Music Release
Build the Momentum!
Keep the excitement up on your socials by scheduling countdowns across your socials.
Email your superfans and ask them to share your music on release day on their socials. Please give them the tools to do this properly. This means write the posts for them to share and provide the artwork!)
Write your “Day Of” email to prepare it to go out.
Hold a contest to win the new music or give away tickets to your show or listening party.
Be Ready For Release Day
Prep Your Website:
- Change the artwork on your homepage to announce the new music
- Add an announcement to the News section if you have one
- Update your bio if needed
Make Sure all socials say “out now!”
- Use Canva to size and design
- Create graphics for each platform to post
Email:
- Send your email announcement to your mailing list. Ideally, you should have already asked your super fans to help you spread the word!
Instagram:
- Change your bio to announce the release—add a musical note or an appropriate emoji, too! Also, add the streaming link.
- Create a release post with the album / single art and say “out now” with a CTA to click the link in your bio.
- Create an Instagram Story / REEL video and post.
- Go to Instagram Live and talk about the fact that the music is available and ask for fan feedback
Facebook:
- Make a fun video about the release – and Boost!
- Boost or Buy an Ad announcing the release to your fans and a lookalike audience
- Edit the “About” section to include the new release
- Post a status update announcing your release, and pin it to the top as a timeline feature
- Go to Facebook Live and talk about the fact that the music is available and ask for fan feedback
Spotify:
- Header and Profile Photo: Keep these up to date and in line with the rest of your social profiles
- Image Gallery: Choose images most aligned with your brand and recent music
- Social Media Links: Add links to your socials. Here’s a How To from Spotify on adding those and an image gallery
- Spotify Bio: With 1500 characters to share with your fans, you can update this whenever it makes sense. Keep your bio updated, including shows, notable press, and new singles. Optimize your bio by tagging other artists when appropriate
- Add an Artist’s Pick: You can designate a song, album, or playlist as the “Artist’s Pick.” This will appear at the top of your profile with your note. You can add a custom image to your Pick or share tour dates if preferred. Read more here.
YouTube:
- Customize the banner to announce new music
- Add your streaming link and mention the release in the “About” section
- Upload a video or a short of the cover art with the track playing in the background
Threads:
- Post your release announcement
- jump into conversations about releasing music with others (or anything topical having to do with your songs)
And Finally … Keep Up The Momentum!
Phew! That was A LOT. Now, you have to keep the energy up and the word out. Your new baby will be new for quite some time; even though it feels like it may be the end of the journey, it is just beginning.
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