Today, we are all educating ourselves on how best to strategize and schedule your releases and how best to market your music as an artist.
In this article, you will learn more about the 8 Uncommon Secrets For Uploading, Marketing & Releasing Your Music.
1. Have a Plan!
Repeat after me: “Let’s just put this out ASAP and see what happens” is not a plan! Having done this process countless times, I realized – “I need a real written process and one that I can share with my team, so everything is practically self-automated.”
After writing everything down, I realized that we had over 70 different process items for independent label releases taking place in the 6 weeks leading up to the release date! Now, this is different if you’re a major label. For a major label, you might start 3-6 months before your release.
To summarize the Top Uncommon Secret #1 – Have a Plan!
2. Give Yourself the Gift of Time
This one ties into #1 above. I can’t tell you how many people will say “I want my song to come out next week, because it’s my birthday” or some “random” reason for a release date. NOPE. You really need 5-6 weeks upfront to your release. That’s what is consistently recommended by the DSP’s. You’ll want to have enough “upfront” time for several reasons- most importantly, to be able to pitch your music to those editorial and creative playlisters that can help support! Also, you’ll want to absolutely fill out your Spotify for Artists pitch forms so that you’ll be sure to show up in your fans “Release Radar” playlist, and as – or more – importantly, make sure your music gets to the right Spotify editorial teams.
The other reason why “let’s get it out next week” isn’t a good idea is sometimes things go wrong! For instance, maybe there’s a mistake in the master, the artwork isn’t high resolution enough, there’s an issue in Apple policy on the artwork – all of this and more has happened to artists who often do rush releases. So do you want to have 6 weeks to correct the problem, or have zero time? I think you know the answer.
3. YouTube Promoted Videos
YouTube Promoted Videos (i.e. pre-roll before a video) are the biggest bang for your buck in my opinion. If you do this correctly, you should be able to get a CPV (cost per view) down to .02-.03 cents (or less). And not just a “view,” but a “targeted” view, someone who is bound to be a new fan, based on the interests and other qualifications you’ve set up in the campaign. I’d especially jump on this if you have a killer video!
4. Hiring a TikTok Influencer Company
This one is a little pricey, but if you get it right, these can be homeruns. Now, I’ll be the first to say that “let’s do a #TikTok challenge” is the cringe equivalent to saying “let’s make a viral video.” Meaning – anyone who set out to make a viral video usually never succeeded. LOL. However, for about $5,000 (starting price), you can hire one of the best TikTok influencer companies, who will outsource and hire their network of influencers to “seed” your #challenge or your original sound. From there, it’s off to the races.
This is the primary marketing tool I see the major labels using today, where they’ll easily spend $30,000 + on a campaign. Here’s the thing: it’s just not about having a great #challenge or TikTok concept. You need connectors to spread the idea. You need the right influencers to carry those sonic frequencies and spark the fire.
5. Hiring a PR Company / Publicist
Here’s what you need in order to make your publicist valuable: 1. Amazing music. 2. Your culture – meaning is there “weight” to your project? 3. A visual identity (that’s right – people respond to that). 4) Is what you’re doing actually cool? 5) Do you have an awesome story? If you don’t have all 5 of those elements, and you’re a new artist – I would seriously reconsider hiring a publicist. For now. Alternatively, if you have at least 4 of the above 5 factors, then get to it!
6. Don’t Pay for Spammy Playlisting Directories and Fake Streams
Here’s a shortcut for Playlisting and Building Fans: There is no shortcut! A common mistake I often see is paying for DSP, Spotify, Apple playlisting directories and hiring playlist marketing services. Or even worse – “pay for play” streams. Basically, those just don’t work. The best shortcut to getting your music the right attention is to put in the work, have a long term objective, and a plan which allows you to consistently release high quality music.
7. Collaborate with Featured Artists
Here’s one that’s obvious, but often underutilized. You see this a lot in the Hip Hop and EDM space (and somewhat in pop), but not as much in the other genres. The idea here is super simple. Identify an artist in your genre (or even a cross genre collaboration!) that you’d love to work with. Maybe you’ve been on tour with them, Maybe you’re a fan, Maybe this artist is in your Spotify “Fans Also Like” section. Reach out to them with an interesting collaboration idea and release the song so that your collaborative efforts will impact the attention on your song (engaging both your fanbase and your collaborator’s) with all the streams counting towards your Spotify Monthly Listeners.
HINT: Are you limited to just 1 featured artist? Nope! No doubt there are upwards of 3 and 4 total featured artists these days on one song. You should try it as well!
8. Who Not How? Aka Ask for Help
The question is not “how are you going to have success launching your music? You see, the great movers and shakers of the world are not necessarily great “how-ers,’ but great “who-ers.” Who can help you and who can you graciously ask for help? I see this happen all the time.
An artist has their big moment to release their album, and while they may have a great network of influencers, famous artists and friends around them they ultimately don’t ask for help via a Retweet, Instagram like or mention, etc. Why? It feels a little “hand in hat” and ultimately probably just really “not cool?”. Even if you were a touring band and were in the trenches with other artists for 3 months and were like “brothers” or “sisters,” I still find artists won’t ask for help.
We hope this article was very insightful!
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