“Everything AFTER the music…”
Want your release to a be a success? Then you need much more than mastered music files.
There are a number of big-picture and nitty-gritty things you’ll want to prepare before you launch your next single or album into the world.
In this episode of the DIY Musician Podcast, we talk through the whole checklist.
To skip right to a particular section, just hit the timestamp corresponding to:
- 00:00 INTRO
- 05:24 What else you need once the music is mixed & mastered
- 07:17 Making a music release checklist
- 08:44 Defining your priority goal and budget for this music release
- 15:09 Music file formats, cloud storage, and private sharing
- 18:07 Formatted lyrics
- 19:14 Variations of your artist image
- 20:25 Good artist photos, album art, social imagery
- 25:32 A consistent brand and style guidelines
- 28:43 Building a world around your music
- 29:49 Dialing in your artist story
- 31:43 UPC, ISRCs, RIYL (what other artists do you sound like?)
- 36:26 The essential components of your web presence
- 38:48 Getting fans’ contact info with a lead magnet
- 41:27 Have one good live video
- 44:30 Getting press, playlist placements, and audience attention
- 47:06 Music promo tools to simplify your life
- 49:20 A checklist on its own won’t drive success
- 51:37 Listener calls and emails
- 51:55 How to use Spotify’s notes field when pitching
- 55:48 How to write a great music pitch or ad copy
- 57:44 Expanding the gender demographics of your fanbase
- 01:06:30 Kickstarer vs pre-orders
- 01:11:14 Final Thoughts
Be sure to use our free Release Plan Generator to make the most of your next single or album launch!
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.