WHERE DO I START WHEN RELEASING MUSIC?

So you’re a relatively new artist and you have a great song that you want people to hear! Where do you start?

Branding

The number one thing that artist management companies will tell you is that their talent scouts bring in a lot of talent that don't have consistent social media handles. So, make sure that your brand from the get-go is consistent across all the different platforms, that allows your fans to migrate from one platform to the next and continuously follow you across different mediums. 

Get an artist logo to keep your branding consistent. (Check out fiverr.com for this!)  

Get your imaging/optics right. Photography is very important. If you want to be on the cover of Spotify playlist, you need to have your visuals really on point. If I’m scrolling through my news feed and I see an article about an artist with an image that is really grabbing in terms of its professionalism and colours, it jumps out. And it just screams credibility. Once you have your branding sorted, the next thing to focus on is…..

Discoverability

Get set up on absolutely every platform you can. 

Set up your YouTube channel, Instagram (focus on IG Reels!), Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, virality there is quite common. 

PRO TIP - Reddit as well is a one that's not used so much for the music industry, but it's a sneaky kind of tool that a lot of people use. The great thing about reddit and tick tock is that virality. You can upload something very short, snappy and to the point and a lot of people might like it. Especially if you hit the right sub-Reddit and use the right hashtags.

A (Compelling) Story

Nobody cares about your music until you make them care.

The vast majority of artists then you only share

a) the good stuff, the happy pics, 'look how great this is' or

b) 'So excited to release our new song, ......'

….And nobody really pays any attention.

Here's what I find works a lot better in terms of getting people interested in the artist.

A story. People love honesty and they love stories that make them feel something, whether that's happy, sad, or just makes them laugh. This helps form a personal connection.

So ask yourself 'What am I NOT telling people'? This is most likely what will help you forge connections with people, so share your story if you can. People will often thank you for it and admire your honesty, and you'd be surprised how many people you can actually help by sharing a problem or two!

So don't just share your music, share a story too to back it up too, it will mean a whole lot more to people when they know the story behind it.

Special thanks to Luke from Music Pitch Company Tunerelease.com for sharing his expertise!

See the full talk with TuneRelease here