I’d like to say that I am talking about my experiences so far and I still have many things to learn and to improve, but through my experiments I got way better stats than I had one year ago. There are few steps that would already improve your results and make the releasing a bit less frustrating <3
CREATIVE DATA
Need to have: Finished Track & Cover
This is the minimum that you really need to have.
Cover: make sure your cover looks good, you can find inspiration on Pinterest, if you can’t do your own cover, hire a graphic designer on fiver. If you have no budget for that please do your research on Youtube for free picture editing softwares.
Good to have:
Videos: It can be the square Insta video with your cover and your track (bonus: if you can make it move somehow: rotate or ad a glitchy effect). Or a random video of people dancing with your track in the background. What I also do sometimes, I make stories with me doing something and let my unreleased track play in the background.
Banners: For all your social media accounts. 1 Series of Banners with the announcement for your release with the cover. 2 Series of Banners on release date with the OUT NOW writing (or something in this nature) And don’t forget to mention where to find your track, you can use icons or you can write “available on all digital platforms”.
Email List: Do not moan, it works. An email is more personal and an email list is something no one can take away from you. I wouldn’t spam the people and would also keep it short. I almost always announce in my Stories when I send an email to encourage the people. I use Mailchimp to collect my email list, also to design the email form. I believe there have to be better websites but it's a question of how much are you able to spend.
Nice to have:
Moving Banners: Animated Banners are really sexy! Just some small details that move are already enough usually.
You announcing your next release video: It can be a classic announcement video, but you can also get creative with it and do something funny. What I also found really nice is when Alison Wonderland explained the meaning for all of her songs from the album that she was about to release! She made a series of short videos for each track and posted on her Insta. If you have a story behind your track, tell it, it’s interesting!
RELEASE DATE
I would suggest to set a release date when you have all your creative data ready to post and to release. When you have your release date, make a post with your cover the release date. Keep doing it till the release date. I personally wouldn’t overdo with the posts, especially if you don’t have a variation of different posts.
STAY ACTIVE
Social media can get challenging sometimes, but if you are active once a month it will get really hard to get peoples attention. This is hard work but it’s possible to do. I struggle with it as well :) Posts, stories and interaction with others, try out things and stay consistent.
ADDS
Facebook & Insta
Now this is where you use your video and this is where it gets expensive, but if you specify your target group, age, target your country or few specific countries you can benefit from it. Remember other big artists invest a lot of money in promotions so don’t compare yourself to them, they also have a team, don’t be too hard on yourself :)
BE CAREFUL!
You might heard of or even got some emails from so called “fake promotion companies” that promise you thousands of streams, which is even true, BUT! The streams are in fact fake. I tried once a promotion like that because they were so specific and seemed professional. Then I noticed that the profiles who reposted, liked and commented on my track had 1-3 followers, they all had same reposts, each profile had their one used “comment” that they posted on each reposted track and they also liked the same tracks… Thats not what you want, this won’t bring you any further.
HYPEDDIT
This website is in my opinion game changing! Here you can create a link where people that want to have your track have to do something for it, commenting, following but you can also create a link with all the digital platforms your track is on, you can also promote it and spend money but you don’t have to. If your track is good you will get attention anyways here. They have really good tutorials on the website how to use it.
WHAT WE'VE LEARNED
The hard truth is that nobody cares and you have to make them care. Thats why staying active is so important. There are many things that people didn't feel comfortable at first but you really get good at something when you do it often. GaryVee has a video about how he build his following and this is hard work but if you stay focused and consistant you will get there! I started also to do much more livestreams and yesterday even one where I just talked and guess what, I didn't felt comfortable but I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone and be direct with the people that support me :) I hope I could help you on your way with this post. Tell me if you like it or not I'd like to know either way.