The Basics of Marketing Music for New Artists: Release Strategy

Planning your Release

You’ve finished recording, mixing and mastering, and you’re ready to release your art, what’s next?

Your first step should be picking a release date. While it sounds simple and arbitrary, the day your song or project goes live can add or take away momentum from your music, for many reasons.

• First, it takes at least a week for your music to get to some stores, and for most, it takes at least two. You have to plan ahead, and the more time you give your distributor to put your music in stores, the more likely it will release in all stores at the same time, so plan to release your music at least a month after you submit.

• Second, Friday is recognized as the international release day for music. Majority of major artists will drop music, and people expect to hear new music on Friday. Also, Spotify’s algorithm prioritizes music released on Friday, adding music to algorithmic playlists. Releasing on this day will also theoretically put your music next to established artists, potentially giving your music a chance at being discovered by listeners who think your cover art stands out, or just want to hear new artists.

• Third, some months are better for releases for different types of music. Ideally, you should be releasing music that’s appropriate for the season. For example, music that is more upbeat works better in the spring/summer months and the beginning of the year when people are excited. 

• Finally, you should avoid major holidays at all costs. Listeners have their go-to playlists for whatever holiday they are celebrating and aren’t looking for new music. From Black Friday until New Year’s isn’t a good time to release music because people would be distracted with the holidays. 

While these guidelines could help the momentum of your release, as an independent artist, you can overcome these if you were to go against them. As a new artist, you don’t have expectations to sell many units, so you can do what you want.

Promotional Cycle

Depending on how much promotional content you have, you should start promoting at least two weeks before your release date. This is the time for self-promotion. 

Presave Franklin Stone and KevKov’s upcoming joint EP, Ambiguity!

• In this time, you will release snippets, behind the scenes videos and announcements on social media and music sharing sites. 

• This is also the time to decide which publications you want to send your music to, as they will prepare for a release date post (premier)  about you and your music. 

• Finally, you should begin a presave/pre-order campaign that will guarantee that you have listeners on your release date and boost your music in the algorithms. 

For the day of release, the goal is to remind the listeners to which you’ve promoted that your music is out, while introducing your music to new listeners. 

• If you have a video ready, the release day is a great time to upload, allowing you to reach the YouTube demographic. 

• Make sure you have a website or landing page with all of your links where you can direct traffic. Post this link on your socials and in text messages. Be creative in your posts, find out how you can stand apart from the other artists posting about their music. We give advice on marketing on music sharing sites.

• Now that your links are active, you can submit your song(s) to playlists. Here’s how to find playlist curators, and here’s how to approach them. Playlists are the new age radio, so utilizing them can really boost streams, saves, and followers.

Your work isn’t done after release day, as you can promote your music for the rest of your life. Being a new independent artist means that there are plenty of people that haven’t heard your music yet, and you can always gain new listeners. It is important that when you’ve secured a following that you don’t forget about them, so you have to find creative ways to promote that puts your music in front of new people and rewards the people who already listen. 

• This can be done by repackaging your music. You can release a remix featuring another artist, or if you haven’t already, release a video for the song(s).

• Going on tour and performing is a great way to bring people who support you and new listeners together, while adding a chance for your fans to get to know you.

• Finally, releasing merchandise with the theme of your project will not only reward your fans, but also earn some money.

The benefit of streaming is that once it’s released, your music will always be accessible to supporters and new listeners, with potential to earn continuously while you live life and create more art. You can always work on building a following, even if you don’t have music to release. You should continuously strive to increase your influence.

Becoming an Influencer

One of the ways to build a following that appreciates your music is to build a following around other creators’ music. Building trust in your taste in music will carry over to the music that you create. There are different areas where you can become an influencer:

• Playlists

  • Spotify is the closest streaming site to being a social media platform. There is a follow mechanic for profiles that notify followers of what you’re doing and listening to. Building a following by curating playlists that showcase your taste will benefit in two ways: artists will want to be a part of it, and you can put your songs on the playlists to generate streams.

• Social Media

  • Social media provides an outlet outside of the scope of music. Most playlist curators use social media to accept submissions and you can too, as well as post about the artists you like. Once trust is built around the people you support, you can convert that following to your own music. Also, even if you can’t capitalize on your own art, you can still assume the role as an influencer and generate revenue that way.

Building a Relationship with Other Creators

When you build relationships with other artists and creators, you’re also cross promoting and merging each other’s following. Not only can doing features or guest appearances help with cross promotion, but purely promoting for another artist will too. When you promote other artists, without a direct connection to your own music, you create a feeling that you’re genuinely looking out for other artists, and when the time comes, they will return the favor.

Here at Stoned Produce, our goal is to get your music heard and soon we will be starting our artist discovery blog posts back up again. Our posts are a great way to boost your online presence and to get on our front page, so be on the look out for new artists!