How can you prepare yourself for your next release to make sure it is better marketed than your previous releases? I’ve got a couple of pointers for you…
3 THOUGHTS FROM ME
1. Do your own marketing for every release, regardless of whether you have a label release or self-release. Send your own promo emails, do your own marketing campaigns, reach out to blogs and websites, and, more importantly, build a relationship with these people you reach out to. Labels come and go, but relationships stay, and being able to build your own marketing efforts, will you make you more attractive to other labels (considering you have amazing songs, of course). You can find a whole outline of how you can schedule your releases in our free downloads section;
2. You should start planning your release strategy two to four weeks prior to your release date so you have time to align everything before the release to maximize the release date. If you’re signing your song to a label, you need to run all your plans with them, especially to avoid sending duplicate promotion efforts. For example, labels often send out promo emails to DJs two weeks in advance, so sending it a week later could be a good reminder to some DJs. At the same time, for those you know are unlikely to pick up your song after the first week, sending a duplicate could make them tag you as spam;
3. Four weeks before the release, start seeking and collecting emails from blogs, websites, youtube channels, DJ podcasts, and Spotify playlists that you think that your track would fit in. First, don’t send your track to a youtube channel that doesn’t cover your genre. Second, some channels also have Spotify playlists, so do your research if they do have it and include it in your request to feature your song on Youtube and Spotify to maximize your reach. Third, make sure the label is aligned with every promo effort you’re doing to get their permission, when needed, and avoid duplicate emails. You can read more about this in this post about promo emails.
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
Everything in your release should be aligned with your brand. If you don’t have a brand yet, here are some questions for you to think about to clear some things:
1. How do you want to be seen? If you want to be seen as goofy, how can you make your promo effort goofier? Consider looking at Fisher’s Instagram and how he promotes his releases;
2. How can your branding connect how you’re seen to how you want to be seen? Purple Disco Machine always makes sure to introduce purple elements in his branding and in his release strategy.
If you don’t know how to start your brand, check this post that I’ve written about branding and how to start it.
