The Song Release Checklist
Successfully releasing a song in 2022 is as much of an art and science as the actual creation and performance of music. Spotify receives around 60,000 songs a day. With so much music coming out, it’s important to plan your release so that your songs don’t get lost in the fray. With so many factors to a successful release, it’s easy to forget about a step, or miss an opportunity to give your song more traction. This post will move through the different steps you should follow in order to release your songs as effectively as possible.
1) Plan one song at a time
The days of walking into a record store and paying $25 for a 10 song album from an artist you’ve never heard of are over. Streaming platforms only care about 1 song per release. When you submit new music to Spotify, they will pick one song from that release to promote - that’s true of a 1 song single or a 20 song album. Don’t risk 19 of your songs being forgotten; spend the time to release each one on their own into streaming.
Even if you are thinking of bundling songs into an album, do that after all the songs have been individually promoted. Streaming services allow artists to bundle past releases into albums for this reason.
2) Capture the process
Behind the scenes pictures and video of the writing and production process are great content for promoting your song. They don’t have to be super high quality either. Be intentional about capturing the process. You can share content as you go along, or wait to share it until the song is done.
3) Finish the song
While it’s a good thing to think about your release strategy before you finish your song, you shouldn’t start planning too many things until your song is fully mixed and mastered. Only when this is true should you fully move into release mode.
Setting release dates before a song is finished is a great way to put yourself in a tight spot if the song takes longer than you originally anticipated. Do yourself a favor and wait until a week after your song is finished to start planning release dates.
Giving yourself a week will help you make sure you LOVE the final master before you declare the song finished.
4) Pick an album cover
Your album cover is often the first thing people will use to judge your song. You could have a great song, but never get any listens if you have an unattractive or offensive cover.
If you are a new artist, I recommend incorporating an image of your face in the cover. You are introducing yourself to the world as an artist - it can be artsy, but it’s a good idea to let people know who they are listening to.
5) Pick a distributor
If you don’t already have a digital distributor, it’s time to find one. A digital distributor will allow you to upload your song to all music stores and streaming services at once and pick a coordinated release date.They will also allow you to promote your release by doing things like presave campaigns.
Distrokid and Tunecore are the main ones, but there are a good amount out there with their own benefits, drawbacks, and pricing points.
Distrokid is owned by Spotify, so if building a Spotify audience is your main concern, then it might be the best option for you.
6) Pick a release date
Make sure to pick a date at least 1 month after you submit your song to your distributor. This gives them time to deliver your song to stores, and to potentially add your song to editorial playlists. If you don’t give streaming services enough time between uploading and releasing, you will lose out on potential free promotion from the streaming services themselves.
7) Promote your song
Now that your song is uploaded to your digital distributor and you have a release date set, it’s time to promote your song! Here are some ways you can do that:
Post about your upcoming song on social media - you can use behind the scenes pictures or video, share the story behind the song, or share a link to follow you on streaming platforms, or presave the song to their library.
Presave campaigns - a presave campaign is great for your first single. When someone presaves your song, it will show up in their library as soon as that song goes live. To do a presave campaign, you will need to get a presave link from your digital distributor to share with your following
Follow campaigns - once you’ve released your first song and have access to your artist profiles on streaming platforms, people can follow you on platforms like Spotify to get notified about new releases. Following an artist on Spotify is like presaving all of their future releases. If you’ve already released a song and have access to your Spotify for Artists account, getting follows is more valuable than presaves.
Release show - playing a release show is a great way to get people to come out to a show and to listen to your song. A release show says: “Hey, I’m going to be playing new material” and doubles as a celebration of your release.
8) Create content around your song
With so many songs coming out, creating content around a song is a great way to help people know it’s out. Create a music video, an acoustic performance video, or a lyric video to help promote the song and get it in front of more listeners.
9) Promote your song after your release
Once your song is out, let everyone know! Post about it on social media, send out an email to your following, put it on your website; utilize whatever channels you have. You can now do things like submit it to playlists and blogs, and send it to radio stations.
10) Reflect
It’s now time to look at your release and see what you did well and what you can improve upon next time. Make sure to be honest with yourself about what you liked and disliked. Make sure to write down your thoughts so that you remember them when you go to work on your next song. Make sure to reflect on:
Songwriting/production - were there elements that were particularly strong or week about the lyrics, melody, structure, chords, and instrumentation of this song? What contributed to the strength or weakness of these factors? Is there anything you could do to improve them on your next song?
Mix and master - were there elements that were particularly strong or week about the overall sonic quality of this song? What contributed to the strength or weakness of the end sonic result? Is there anything you could do to improve them on your next song?
Release strategy - how happy were you with the reception of your song? Did it get lots of streams, find you more fans, or help move your career in a positive direction? What are some things you did well to promote your song, and what are some ways that you can release and promote your song better next time?
The process - how do you feel about the process from start to finish of writing, producing, and releasing your song? Did you enjoy it? Was it stressful and panic inducing? What could you do next time to make sure you are able to achieve results more efficiently?
Don’t rush the reflection process. You might need a few weeks or months to answer all the questions fully.
11) Plan your next release
Now that you’ve finished your song and have recorded all the things you want to repeat, and all the things that you want to improve, it’s time to start on your next song!
Conclusion
There is no such thing as a perfect song or release. Every artist from Paul McCartney to the kid in their mom’s basement has things that they wish they had done differently about every song.
Every artist will grow, change, and that growth and change will be reflected in their music. This is a GOOD thing. Making music is challenging, and requires lots of work and soul searching. Fans don’t expect you to be perfect, they expect you to make music that speaks to them.
As you continue to grow and release music, make sure to remember to enjoy the process, and have grace with yourself. At the end of the day, streaming numbers, loud punchy mixes, and trendy production decisions aren’t what’s going to bring ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment to your life.