So, you’ve poured your heart into a great song, or maybe even a collection of tracks, and now you’re ready to share your music with the world. Fantastic! Congratulations! But beware—while it has become easier than ever to release music and make it available to the masses, it can still be tricky to successfully navigate the current musical landscape.
If you want your work to stand out, you can’t just drop your music into the world without some advanced planning. If you do, it will likely go nowhere, and you’ll be disappointed by the results. Although it is easier than ever to share music via services like SoundCloud and Bandcamp, as well as major streaming partners like Spotify and Apple Music, there’s much more to think about if you really want your music to reach a broad audience.
Before you set about releasing that fantastic new single or album, read on below for the four things you have to do first! Then, let’s start talking about how we can properly promote your fantastic work.
In This Article:
Release A Single First
Claim Your Artist Page
Create A Marketing Strategy
Protect Your Copyright
Release A Single First
Your album is recorded, mixed, mastered and now it’s time for the world to consume, right? Well, artistically it may be ready, but it’s not wise to start with the full-length.
Instead of uploading the complete project and going, why not start with at least one single? It’s a fantastic way to get listeners excited for what’s to come, and it allows them to focus on the tune and really fall in love with it. Giving people too much at once can actually devalue the art, whereas doling the project out bit-by-bit is a better way to ensure each piece of content is consumed as much as it deserves to be.
Claim Your Artist Page
Another great reason why you should launch singles, standalone songs or even an EP or two before you drop an album is so you can get the most out of your profile on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. These companies typically don’t allow musicians to claim their official artist pages until they have released several pieces of music of any kind. So, if you want everything to look on the up-and-up when your first proper album arrives, it’s best if your profile is actually yours.
Create A Marketing Strategy
Just because the music is ready, that doesn’t mean you should drop it right away. Promoting and marketing your release takes time, both in the planning stages and while executing your vision.
Create a timeline. Give yourself between one and three months for your campaign, at least to start. You should plan on promoting your music both before it comes out and after it’s released, sometimes for months.
Giving advanced heads-ups to your followers is great, but be careful! Don’t promote your music until your fans can take action! It’s not worth spending a month teasing an album if they can’t pre-order or pre-save it on a streaming site! Your listeners can help you create anticipation by sharing it with their networks, too.
Spend the time to create content that will get people excited, including photos, GIFs, videos, text-based items, and so on. Craft a complete messaging and marketing strategy, including PR, radio promotion, and especially social. Squeeze every little bit out of all the songs, clips and even the full-length and you will hopefully see engagement climb, and with it, streams and sales.
Not sure where to begin when it comes to crafting a marketing strategy? That’s our specialty! Give us a call and we can fill you in: (323) 952-5050
Protect Your Copyright
Make sure your art is protected by registering it with your local copyright office. A copyright gives you and you alone (or the owner) the exclusive rights to the music, and allows you to collect royalties if anyone else covers your work or uses it in another project. It also protects you from someone else who might claim to have written the music, melody or lyrics first.
Just remember, in the music industry, every track has two copyrights: one for the musical composition, and one for the recording. It can all be a bit complicated, so you’ll want to make sure you read up on the subject a bit before you dive in.
Once you have your basic copyright, you’ll also want to look into other forms of legal protection. That’s another article entirely, but you want to make sure you have all of that prepared and ready to go before the music goes out into the world, just in case.
