The Independent Artist Cheat Sheet for Releases
"I'm an independent artist releasing music and I need to promote my music effectively, but I can't do it without help."
I've heard this countless times! Do you feel like you're struggling to promote your music? Are you spending hours and hours per day doing research and trying to find the best promotions and social media strategies?
The struggle is real, and we know how hard it is. We've been in the same position as you, so below you will find a week by week strategy, of what to focus on when releasing your music!
WEEK 1
Branding Optimisation for all Social Media Channels
Setting up all your social media channels with your cover art profile picture and banners, creating all channels to be uniform. Include SEO practices on your channels to help people find you more accessible on search engines, there are companies that can assist with this such as View Maniac, Ditto or alternatively you can have a separate fund to promote your Facebook and Instagram posts via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Create video trailers and promo teasers to match your branding and single.
WEEK 2
Press Release and Distribution
The hardest thing is getting the music out there! Distributing the music is ket, companies like Ditto or CD Baby are great for this. The next thing to do, is craft a press release and submit it to all the blogs you know, you can develop your own contact list of magazines and blogs. Make sure to give yourself at least a month in advance of the release of your music. Press is busy and they need time to process your submission.
WEEK 3
Social Media Marketing Campaign
Instagram Marketing
You should target 3000 - 5000 Instagram followers more than your current following, you can do this by engaging with like minded accounts, show the love but DO NOT SPAM people! Target those users daily, think about who would most resonate with your music (the genre, messaging and demographic that is specific to your message)
Youtube Promotion
Promote your video by way of blog promotion, email marketing, and ad placement. Your video will receive social shares, video favourites and more.
Twitter Promotion
Your Twitter page can be embedded with a blog promotion campaign to create more impressions on your tweets. Also, make sure to support and celebrate the people you like, sharing is caring!
WEEK 4
Radio Submission Campaign
Radio airplay is a great way to get your music out to the public. It can be more difficult than you might think, but there are many steps you can take to increase your chances of getting on the radio.
1) Make sure that you have a good song. Radio stations will not play songs that they do not like, so if they don't like it, no one will hear it.
2) Get your song into rotation on college radio stations first before trying to get it played on commercial radio stations. College radio stations are less picky about what gets played and are more likely to play new artists who are just starting out.
3) Submit your song to as many radio stations as possible in order to increase your chances of getting airplay on one of them
WEEK 5
Spotify Play listing
Spotify is the number one music app in the world, generating a majority of consumer listeners, after listening to your track on the radio or seeing it online people stream your song via Spotify. Therefore Spotify Promotion is well worth the investment. Getting on these playlists is a great way to increase your chances of being discovered by new listeners. There are two ways to get on Spotify playlists:
1) Create your own playlist and share it with Spotify curators
2) Find a playlist that you think your music would fit in with and contact the curator.
By PRS Standards you should aim for:
One play on a BBC 1 Primetime show
Six plays on Sky 1
Two plays on ITV
Three plays on Channel 4
Five plays on BBC Radio 1
150 plays on an independent local radio station
200 plays on an MTV Music Channel
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: GUESS WHAT! We're offering all of this and more in our new service The Maverick Pack for £49.50/ month. We only have room for 200 placements so if you feel compelled, sign up superstar!
