Planning Your Music Release

Now that you have your next release ready to go, it’s time to develop a release timeline. Ideally you should start planning three months in advance of your chosen release date.

Three Months Before Release Date

Make sure you are registered with an Performing Rights Organization such as PRS, ASCAP, BMI or SOCAN. You want to make sure you get paid whenever your song is played so this is a crucial part of your planning process. You might think 'well, my music really isn't getting played that much anyways, what's the point?' Well, it's better to set yourself up now to receive royalties. Many artists don't even realize the kind of income they are missing out on.

You want to make sure that you hit the ground running once your release is live. Figure out what type of budget you are able to work with and whether you will be doing all the promotion yourself or hiring a PR rm. Hiring a PR rm, although can be expensive, has the ability to connect you with big media outlets, write and send out professional press releases to their contact list and help get your music out into parts of the music world you were unable to reach before. Whatever your PR plan is, you must have one. You can have the best music that anyone has ever heard, but without the right promotional plan, no one will ever have the chance to hear it

Two Months Before Release Date

Make sure you update your press photos and keep on brand to the release. Once you start getting some press opportunities, you should have some fresh photos that are of professional quality.

Make sure that you are staying active on all your social platforms. Share some countdown photos, “behind the scenes” of what you are up to, Instagram or Facebook live videos and anything else that can engage your audience. Fans like to feel like they are a part of the process so keep engaging with them up until the release date. You also want to focus on growing your existing fanbase so don’t be afraid to spend some money on Facebook or Instagram ads.

Four to Six Weeks Before Release Date

This is the time to submit your music to the distributor. Whether it be CDBaby, Distrokid, Tunecore, etc., the absolute deadline to submit your music is four weeks from the release date (and you should be aiming for even EARLIER than that). Four to Six Weeks Before Release Date Make sure that you are staying active on all your social platforms. Share some countdown photos, “behind the scenes” of what you are up to, Instagram or Facebook live videos and anything else that can engage your audience. Fans like to feel like they are a part of the process so keep engaging with them up until the release date. You also want to focus on growing your existing fanbase so don’t be afraid to spend some money on Facebook or Instagram ads. Once you have received a Spotify URI code from the distributor of your choice, (make sure you ASK them for it...) you can use this opportunity to set up a pre-save campaign. Pre-save campaigns are great and can help generate more streams, monthly listeners and followers to your Spotify page as soon as the release has gone live.