The big day is almost here! You’ve put together an awesome single, album or EP and you’re a couple of days away from release on all streaming platforms. It may feel like you’ve reached the finish line, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In order to maximize the reach of your music, it’s essential to build off the momentum of your release. We’ll share everything you’ll need to do the week of your release so that your music can reach your existing audience and find new fans.
Why Is Release Week Important?
Creating an album or EP requires a lot of time, effort, and energy. It can be tempting to give yourself a well-deserved break upon dropping your release, but this is a misstep as an artist.
Building up to a release creates a lot of anticipation that can turn into real listeners and new fans when redirected properly. While release day isn’t everything, it’s often the day where you’ll have the most concentrated anticipation from fans.
Streaming platforms are also receiving the first bits of data on your release. If they see that fans are flocking to your music and adding it to their personal playlists, it’s much more likely to become noticed by curators or earn a spot on an algorithmic playlist.
Release week is just as much an asset for your fans as it is for you. Album and single releases give your supporters to look forward to, and you can give back to your fans by ensuring that your release week is as engaging as possible.
The Essential Release Day Checklist: Everything You Need To Prepare For Your Music Drop
Gearing up for release week? Here’s everything you’ll want to plan out before your project drops.
Update Your Link In Bio
You should keep your link in bio optimized so that fans can hear your new song(s) on any platform and watch any visual content with ease. Koji allows you to customize your link in bio background for free, so it might be worth updating your link to fit within the theme of your release:
Make sure your link is consistent across all social platforms so that you can easily direct traffic sources and understand where your audience is coming from.
Don’t forget that a well-thought-out link in bio can serve as your EPK for pitching to just about anyone in the industry. Your link in bio should have everything viewers need to get a sense of who you are as a musician and creator. Here are just a few contact categories you’ll want to target around your release:
- Record label A&R’s
- Talent buyers for booking shows
- Music supervisors for sync plaments
- Press outlets, playlisters, and blog curators
- Fans
- Stakeholders or anyone who might be interested in financially backing your art
Reach Out To Curators
Playlisting and press has power. Leading up to your release, plan on reach out to blog outlets and playlist curators with your updated link in bio and audio tracks. Keep your pitch short, sweet and accessible – Your pitch email should tell a curator everything they need to know within a minute or two of reading and have clear links to your music.
You can also upload sneak peaks of your music or early released track through mini apps like Locked Audio.
Show Up On Socials
Social media still remains one of the best ways to reach out to your fanbase, so make sure you’re super active before, during, and after your release. You can monetize content teasers with mini apps like Locked Photo or Video to offer your top fans early access to your release.
Make sure your link in bio is equipped with mini apps like Tip Jar too, so that your audience can show some extra love while you’re pumping out high quality content.
This is also a good time to leverage relationships with other musicians and those working within the industry. Make sure to tag anyone (from your hair stylist to your mastering engineer) who helped make your release happen. Share a link to a folder with premade promotional assets so these separate channels have something to post surrounding your release.
Roll Out Merch
A great launch comes with new branding, which often equates to new merchandise for your fans. Fortunately, you can quickly transform your link in bio to a storefront with mini apps like Sell Physical Products. Offer discounts on your merchandise during release week to drum up early support from fans.
Build A Virtual Press Run
Create hype around your release by creating your own digital press run. During release week, your fans should have increased access to you through online and in-person experiences. This way, your fans can inadvertently do some of the work for you, since they’ll be inclined to promote some of these interactive experiences.
This could be hosting a merch or signed poster giveaway through the Giveaway mini app. You could also create a video challenge for your fans via Challenges and offer to post your favorites in an effort to go viral. A great way to drum up effective promotion material is to collect fan testimonials in Video Guestbook. Ask your fans for help – they’re happy to support you outside of listening to the music!
You can also show some of your top supporters some love by offering exclusive liner notes or stories behind your songs via Sell Downloadable Files. Another option is to test launching a music NFT and creating a listening party via NFT Listening Party. You can also host live streams directly from your link in bio with Boost It. To take it a step further, you could offer incentives like free merchandise to your top supporters in any stream during release week.
Create Virtual and In-Person Experiences
It’s important to target fans both online and offline to produce the most exposure for your album. Keep your fans up to date on in-person events like meetups and concerts with Event Calendar. If your fanbase isn’t local, you can use mini apps like Moment House to create ticketed virtual experiences for your fans.
Send Out A Newsletter Announcement
Sending out emails as a musician still holds weight as a personalized, highly-effective means of fan communication. Be sure to share some exclusive content via your email newsletter whether that’s behind the scenes album notes, a discount ticket code, or some photos of what you’re up to. Bring in new fans, too: Make sure you have the Email Collection mini app armed and ready for your release.
Show Thanks To Your Top Supporters
To earn love, you have to give love! Show your fans some support by thanking them via stories, dm, or offering discounted rates for your art. You can also open up the experience of Shoutout, where you can monetize personalized fan videos for your biggest supporters.
Don’t Forget The Importance Of IRL Promotion
While online promotion is paramount, don’t forget there’s still a major place for promoting in real life. You can still have your music hit long after it’s released by keeping the party going through touring, meetups, and organizing your fans for collective action.
You can rally together a street team to put up filers with your link in bio QR around the city. Or build a list of radio contacts that your fans can email and request songs. Release day is just the beginning of amplifying your album’s impact.
Planning out a successful release week takes a lot of work, but it’s well worth the effort. Enjoy crafting a unique release week experience for your fans!
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