Release Promotion and Best Strategies

You have done the hard work. You have written great music, found yourself an amazing recording studio, and the music quality is on point. At this point, you pat yourself on the back for all the work you’ve done and how much you have accomplished so far.

It is been tough recording this entire album and at some point, you thought that maybe you will not get through with it but here you are. You’ve done it. Right? 

Wait a minute. Is your work done really? 

It’s not the best of things you’d want to hear at this point but your work is far from done. You might have recorded your best song and is probably thinking it could be that one song that is going to change your world or redefine the music scene but none of that can be accomplished if no one ever hears it. 

Effective release promotion allows you to put out this amazing song into the music scene and let the world hear it. In some spheres, this stage is considered the make or break stage for any artist. You have to get this part right.

Now more than ever, music promotion for independent artists is easier than ever, once you know what strategies work best for you. This is possible due to the amazing developments in technology witnessed over the past few years.

This guide is going to highlight the best release promotion strategies you can employ to gain the most from your album.

Let’s dive in.

Best Strategies For Promotion Releases

When it comes to release music promotion, there is no one right or wrong way to do it. Because you are aiming for success, it’s a good idea to try out different strategies and decide what works best for you, depending on your audience demographics. It is also wise to combine different strategies so that you can make your promotion most impactful. 

Here are the best release strategies you can use.

• Release A Single Before Releasing The Album
  

A single track from your album lets your audience sample your music and keep them anticipating more from you. All it takes is just one song to break you out and book you a space in the music space. For this strategy to work, you have to put your best foot forward.

Don’t just pick your personal favorite. Consult with your trusted team what song they think is best from your album. It’s all about the fans. Your favorite song on the album may not get as far as you pictured it. Get some people you trust to help you decide.

• Set Up A Pre-order

You should set up a pre-order as soon as you start promoting your upcoming album. Setting up a pre-order allows your fans to purchase your music before the release date.

To entice your fans to buy more, you should consider offering a lower price. With this, you give them a reason to rush and get themselves a copy. 

The best place to set up a preorder is on a platform that gives you trackable sales statistics for progress monitoring and also determines whether your promotion strategies are yielding results. Your website is one great place to do so. 

• Social Media Marketing
  

You would be surprised at how effective social media can be when it comes to the music industry. In today’s music promotion world, this is one of the major marketing tools you should know how to leverage.

 From Facebook’s Facebook ads, to Twitter’s sponsored tweets, there is a huge audience to reach out on social media platforms. 

 Social media platforms offers an exciting opportunity to engage your fans and grow your music fanbase. The key is being consistent. Keep updating your fans and let them know what to expect. 

• Make Use Of The Streaming Platform
  

Streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer among others have become a great music promotion tool to reckon with. With tens of millions of fans on these platforms, you can reach a wide audience out there and what is more, you get paid while at it in terms of royalties. 

The best way to promote your music on these platforms is getting into playlists. A popular playlist will get your music listened to by a large number of people, some of which haven’t heard your music before. This is a great way of growing your fan base. 

• Use The Media
  

The media is a strong music promotion tool at your disposal. Most local radio stations and tv channels would be glad to host you for an interview during one of their segments. You can get in touch and book yourself an interview. 

When you get the opportunity, use the platform to let your fans know what you have been working on, when you are releasing your album and where they can purchase one. 

When booking radio interviews, it is good to do so within your niche. Concentrate on radio stations and radio segments that play your music genres. This way you are sure to reach the right audience.

Attend as many of such interviews as you can to make maximum impact. 

• Live Shows

With all these advancements in music promotion, artists especially new artists, tend to lean heavily on digital marketing. They are not wrong to do so. However, don’t underestimate the impact of live shows in promoting your music. 

A good live performance is a powerful tool and is also an intimate way of growing your fanbase. The interaction with fans at live shows cannot be compared to social media interactions. 

Before your music release, book yourself as many live shows as you can. Let the attendees know when your album is coming out and where they can get it from and watch your fanbase grow gig after gig.

• Use Blogs And Digital Magazines To Promote Your Album

Blogs are a powerful tool nowadays when it comes to music promotion. Bloggers are always looking for new content to blog about. Of course, there are thousands of music blogs to which you can submit your music to for promotion. 

You, however, need to research on the ones with the most traffic for wider coverage as well as those that are within your genre of music. You don’t want to contact a rock music blog if you are a hip-hop artist.

Digital music magazines are also another way to get the word out to your fans. Magazines like TMZ have a wide audience coverage and getting featured on it can hugely impact your album sales.

• Make Your Music Playlist-Friendly
  

With music fans shifting towards music streaming nowadays, you want to make sure that your music is playlist-friendly. You don’t want your fans to hit next whenever they get to your song. To make a friendly playlist song, don’t make very lengthy songs otherwise you’ll only drive your loyal fans to boredom.

Keep it short and sweet. Avoid those long intros and try to start with the hook of the song in the beginning. This makes the listeners hooked at the very first moment. Keep your music family-friendly by avoiding being explicit or produce clean versions to go with the original.

• Use Your Website And The Email List

Your website is one of the best ways to promote your music and track progress. Share your website’s links on your social media platforms where your fans can buy themselves your album. 

Make sure to update your website content to improve the relevance. Include your tour schedule, links to stores where fans can buy your music, your album’s release date, and any other relevant information. 

Most importantly, make it easy for your fans that visit the website to leave their email addresses. This is how you build your email list.

A fan who leaves their email address on your website is one that wants to keep updated about your progress. This is why the email list is so essential when it comes to music promotion. 

Other than social media promotion, the emails sent to fans filter all the noise online to deliver emails directly to your fan’s mailbox. It’s a guaranteed way to reach out to your fans so make use of it.

•  Use Press Releases
  

Publications are also an impactful way of promoting your upcoming album. Make a list of the publications that are available in your area and get in contact with them. 

Entertainment publications, especially, would be more effective. All you have to do is identify a publication to use in your campaign, and then craft an informative press release to send out to them.

What Are The Challenges That Independent Artists Encounter When Finding Ways To Push Their Music?

Music promotion even for established artists can be a struggle but it is that much more of a task to new, unsigned artists without huge record labels and huge marketing teams by their side. 

Mostly this is because as an independent artist you are trying to do all the work that needs a team to do it and do it right most of which you may not know the right approach to.

There are a huge number of artists out there in every genre of music vying for the same spotlight you are vying for. 

So, what are the common challenges that you will encounter? 

Here are some of the most common ones.

• Building a genuine online following

While social media platforms are a great way to market your music, it is not as easy to build an online fan base that can make an impact on your music. When a lot of people talk of online music promotion it sounds easy to do but this is not entirely true.

Take Ariana Grande the most followed musician on Instagram as 2019 for instance. If she holds a live concert at one given time, does it mean that all the 161 million of her Instagram followers will show up? 

If she puts out a tune say on iTunes, does it mean that each of her fans will download that song? It would be fun if that happened. 

Then, in this case, she would be sure and even be able to project her streaming income on a song before she puts it out on the streaming platforms. 

Ideal situations like these don’t exist in reality. If you created an event on Facebook and a 1000 people ticked the ‘attending’ box, realistically speaking only half of those will show up if you are very lucky.

It is still one of the most effective tools in raising awareness of your music. It may take time to build up. Be patient.

• Launching your music career from talent competitions and shows

This is one of the methods which new artists often try to launch your career. However, while it might work out for some artists, it may crush other musicians' dreams as some judges have different systems of grading talent. 

From the third season of the popular music competition show ‘American Idol,’ for instance, you would be shocked to realize Jennifer Hudson finished in the seventh-place. She is, without a doubt, one of the biggest musicians to ever come out of the show.

One direction bandmates were a bunch of rejects who were put together in a band as a last resort but look at what they went ahead to accomplish. 

Even as independent artists, you will agree they are some of the biggest musicians in the market today who started from participating in live shows and events like the Xfactor or BGT.

• Noise saturation

While online platforms are a great way to push your music, there is a lot of noise to cut through and deliver the message to your fans. You could be using social media to promote your music but there are lots of other internet users who are using these social media platforms to rant about virtually anything. 

Everyone is trying to score their 15 seconds of fame using these same platforms you are trying to use to get the word out. People are busy and no one has the time to check out every little thing that pops up on their timeline.

As an unsigned artist, you must try to cut through the noise and deliver the message to the people who need to hear it. 

This is not always easy to do but this means you have to work harder to get through and make a significant impact with your music promotion.

• The ever-changing technology

When it comes to digital music promotion, technology is always changing and it can be hard at times to keep up with the changes. Today, Facebook may be the most effective online marketing platform but tomorrow it may not be.  

Marketing your music on Myspace may have worked magic back in the day but today you may not reach as many people as you may have reached back in the day. 

As an upcoming artist, you must keep in touch with the upcoming marketing trends to be ahead and also so that you can invest your efforts where you are likely to get the most results. 

• Juggling too much

As an unsigned artist, most of the times you have to do most of the work alone because you cannot afford to hire a management team. You have to manage your social media pages, plan events, book venues among other things.

This can be exhausting for anybody and may result in you not executing these duties properly. You need to consult widely. Some services may not cost you money.

Also, you can get someone to work for you part-time doing some of the tasks you are supposed to do like managing your social media pages for a small amount of money. You don’t have to have full-time employees.

Handling the competition

At any one given time, there is an uncountable number of unsigned artists just like you trying their best to put their music out and gain a following. 

For every weekend you are trying to deliver a live show to an audience somewhere, there are several other artists out there equally talented doing the same thing you are doing. 

It is even harder because you have to compete in the same market as artists with big record labels and teams of people assisting them. 

It is a tough world out there for artists and it takes a lot of effort to push your music to the level you desire. 

How to overcome music promotion hurdles

As I have already explained, it is a tough world out there for unsigned artists trying to scale the ladder. For you to succeed you need to be resilient to weather the rough road ahead of you to the promised land if that is where you are headed. Here are a few things to remember you can do to make it easier. 

• Turn up in person

In this digital era, it is easy to assume that you can handle everything behind a computer keyboard. To some extent, that may be true but there’s a huge potential in interpersonal relations when it comes to music promotion and building a fan base.

Interacting with people is also a great way to establish meaningful relationships that are beneficial to your music career. 

You can attend events and start talking to people who can help you on this journey. Approach that DJ or that producer and engage them in a real conversation. 

There is no guarantee that they will say yes to you and your advances but in this industry, you must be ready to handle rejection. It is embedded in it.

• Identify your goals

As an unsigned artist, you cannot handle everything all at once. The way to effectively handle everything without neglecting some areas is by d listing all the things you need to do and then allocating them different times. 

Develop a schedule for doing different things like promoting a single, working on an album, performing on live shows and so on. This way, your work becomes easier for you to do and it is easier to note areas you need you to put more effort in.

• Get promotion packages

There are amazing promotion packages that you can get that are of great help in pushing your music on the right platform. For a very small fee you can maximize on streaming royalties and you can build a fanbase quite easily.

This makes your workload way much lighter by taking some things off your hands and you can concentrate on other things much more without worrying that you are neglecting some duties.

• Understand your fans and where you are most likely to be

Building a social media following one follower at a time can be tedious and time-consuming but it is all useless if your fans can only be reached through radio. It is important to find out the best method to reach your fans. 

This is going to take your time to find out but when you finally figure it out, it's going to make your music promotion a lot easier. Before you do though, you have to keep using every promoting your music on every platform at your disposal. 

Promoting your music release is an integral part of a successful in the music business. It is important that you understand how to navigate this space. 

You could be incredibly talented but if you don’t know how to get this talent out into the world it will not benefit you much financially. 

There is no shortage of talented musicians out there in the field but only a few make it to stardom. The key is knowing how to brand and market yourself as an artist. Knowing how to push your release is one part of that process.