Sometimes I look around at the music landscape and think I’m the only geek on the planet who still listens to full albums anymore.
Then I remember that most serious musicians still release full albums, even if (or especially if) they’ve already released a series of singles. Yes, even mega-selling pop titans like Billie Eilish eventually combine their singles onto one big album release.
If you’re here, that means you’ve decided to release an album. This is a major milestone in your music career, whether it’s your first or tenth album. We’re here to outline all the steps to make your new album a success.
But first, what does releasing an album actually do for your music career?
The benefits of releasing an album
The album format brings advantages that singles just can’t match.
Releasing an album grants you:
- Increased marketing options: An album release is a major event. You may release numerous singles per year, but you probably only launch a new album every 1-3 years. It’s a rarer event, which makes it a more compelling story for your audience. Even moderns fans weaned on singles know that an album release is a big deal, so play it up! When you release your album, go harder in your marketing than you might with your singles.
- Physical media: You’re not pressing vinyl or CDs for your singles, because only the most obsessive fans buy single-song records. You know what fans do buy? Full albums! Yes, contrary to what you might have read, music on physical formats is not dead. In fact, Music Week reports that physical music sales surged in 2021, with industry-wide sales growing 34% year over year to 4.4 million units in Quarter 2 of this year. People still want to own the music their favorite artists spent so much time creating.
- Other merch sales options: Going back to our first point, releasing an album is a big deal. Most independent artists don’t release new merch for new singles due to their relative frequency. But new albums are more rare. A new album is an event you can commemorate with a shirt with the album’s artwork. Or a tote with the title. Or a hoodie with the art and the title! Because albums contain much more musical material, you also have many more options to inspire your merch.
- A bigger evolution in your music career: An album is a new chapter in your musical journey. Look at the Wikipedia page of any artist with a deep discography. You’ll see their career history marked by album releases. It’s how fans track the progress of artists. Albums are a major creative statement and a line of demarcation from your previous era. That’s especially true if you had only released singles up to that point.
- More attention from the press and industry experts: Albums aren’t only how fans track your progress; they’re how critics and other music press cover your work. While there are some reviews of singles, no one’s dedicating many words to one song. A reviewer wants to sink their teeth into a full album. Likewise, journalists generally write features on artists after they release an album, not a single. People want to read the story of how you created the entire collection of songs.
- Higher visibility on streaming platforms: Spotify, Apple Music and the other major streaming platforms still place albums at the top of artist discographies. A new album goes right to the top for all to see your achievement.
How to successfully release an album
All those benefits are great, but we’re not here to sell you on releasing an album. We’re here to tell you how to release an album that people will be excited about. An album that they’ll want to stream and even buy. Remember when people bought music? They still do! They just need a harder sell than before.
Here’s how to make people want to buy your album:
- Record more songs than you need: Spotify and Apple Music are identical in what they consider an “album”: to qualify as an album, your release must contain either seven or more tracks, or be over 30 minutes in length. If you’re aiming to just hit that seven to qualify, set your goal for recording ten to twelve tracks. It’s always better to have more songs than you need so you can be ruthless and cut the ones that don’t pass muster, saving only the absolute best for your album.
- Design attractive cover art: Yes, great cover art still matters, even in the age of streaming; especially in the age of streaming. Listeners have more music to choose from than ever before, and you want your album to stand oarut amidst the thousands of choices on fans’ feeds. These days, you can DIY professional-looking cover art for next to nothing and with pretty minimal graphic design know-how.
- Take captivating artist photos: Like cover art, artist photos are a visual representation of who you are and what kind of music you create. Hire a photographer to take professional pictures of you/your band. Have ideas of what these photos should convey ahead of time so you can communicate that at the shoot. You can use these photos in tons of formats, including your album art/liner notes, artist website, social profiles, etc. Anywhere you can upload an image, you’ll have a great shot that will put a face to all that great music.
- Know your story: How do you stand out from the thousands of artists also releasing music? What makes your music yours and how does your new album fit into your story? Is your band a bunch of rebels who are releasing their most aggressive album yet? Or are you an intimate solo artist writing personal confessionals? Play that up on your website, social profiles and other web presence. Speaking of…
- Optimize your web presence: Use your spiffy new artist photos to deck out your artist website and update it for the new album. This is common practice for artists, as a new album signals a new chapter. Along with your new photos, don’t forget to update your bio with information about the new album. Give this new music context in the grand vision of your story and use a compelling call to action (CTA) to entice people to check out your work. If you’re the band of rebels, try “Hear the album that almost got us kicked out of the studio.” Or if you’re the indie singer-songwriter, maybe “My new album made my producer cry on the first song.” Also, don’t forget to update your banners on social platforms. Tease the new artwork with a brief upsell like “All-new album coming soon!”
- Create awesome physical products: Like we said above, the death of the CD is greatly exaggerated, and vinyl is still mega-popular, especially in the past year. The tangibility of vinyl and CD brings fans closer to the music and the artist who created it, so print some physical media. Enhance the tactile experience of your album with things like detailed liner notes, expanded artwork exclusive only to CD or vinyl (gatefold LPs have tons of room for those artist photos you took!) and limited color vinyl.
- Give your fans a deal: Don’t be afraid to discount the CD and/or vinyl pressings of your album. When you add your new album to the store on your website, run a limited-time sale for your fans if they buy it within a certain amount of time after the release date. You can even use retargeting ads to entice someone who may have added your CD to their shopping cart but never checked out.
- Make a web store: Virtual storefront Shopify offers integration with Facebook and Instagram so you can sell your merch right on social platforms. If you created your artist website with Bandzoogle, you can integrate a commission-free web store with your website.
- Build hype for your album with singles: You can create anticipation for your impending album release with a series of singles leading to the release. Many artists will drop one single each month for a few months leading to the release of their album. If you’ve already finished all the songs for your next album, just hold off on releasing them all at once. Instead, distribute one song as a single each month for three to five months and promote each release on social media to build anticipation for the eventual full album.
- Map out a promotion strategy: Invest in your promotional efforts leading up to and after the release of your album. Even indie artists on smaller budgets can afford effective promo campaigns on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram and major websites through Show.co. It’s an essential tool in your music advertising repertoire.
- Make video content: Traditional music videos maybe be a thing of the past, but video still matters in the age of streaming. Heck, it might matter even more with the billions of users on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and tons of other social video platforms available. With all these platforms to choose from and the varying formats they host, the music video is a versatile tool at your disposal for promotional efforts, fan connection and expansion of your brand and artistry. And unlike the heydays of MTV and VH1, making a great video doesn’t have to break the bank. You can even make compelling album launch videos, Spotify Canvases, lyric videos and ads to place on Stories, Shorts and TikTok right on your phone.
- Organize your strategy with a content calendar: Teams that generate lots of content organize it all with a calendar so they know who is supposed to do what by when. Do what those experts do and map out when you’re posting videos, new singles, social posts, ads, etc. Planning ahead will mitigate the chaos you’ll inevitably feel during your album launch.
- Plan your release timeline: Much like planning your promo efforts and accompanying preparation with your content calendar, you also need to map out all the information required for your actual album release. CD Baby’s Release Plan Generator guides you through all these steps one by one. From claiming or updating streaming platform artist profiles to creating a pre-save campaign, the Release Plan Generator has you covered with everything related to your album you’ll want to do in final prep stages before its release.
- Plan a release party: You’ve gone through all this work to write, record and prep your album for release. Once that’s all done, plan an event to celebrate unleashing your creation onto the world! In our current pandemic age, this is very likely a virtual event like a livestream. Either way, give yourself about three months of cushion between when you get your CDs/vinyl back from the manufacturer and the date of the release party. This gives you ample room to send your complete album and press release out to influencers like bloggers, radio program directors, podcasters and journalists. It also gives you some wiggle room in case there are any unforeseen delays in pressing your media. Promote your livestream on your website and all your social channels to ensure the maximum attendance.
- Boost your promo with a PR campaign: Looking for an extra bump in your promo efforts? Hire a public relations professional to pitch your album, videos, release show and just you or your band to press like blogs and music websites. They’ll also help you design an electronic press kit (EPK) with all this information collected so it’s all in one handy place for anyone you’re pitching coverage to. PR professionals aren’t cheap, but the extra attention can pay dividends down the road if it means more people attend your release event or get excited for your album from your music video. All that hype translates into more listeners for your album, which means more people actually buying it. And that’s why we’re here in the first place!
Distribute your album
After all that prep, you’re finally ready to get your album out to the world! To do this, you’ll need a distributor to send your album to all the digital platforms. That’s where CD Baby comes in.
We distribute your music to 150+ platforms worldwide. Plus we offer a suite of optional services to take your music further and collect all the money you’re owed (more on that soon).
How to prepare for your album release
Those are the essential steps to take while preparing your album’s release so you can give it the best chance at succeeding. There’s also some general housekeeping and paperwork you’ll want to do during and after you complete the submission process to protect your music and get paid for every sale, stream and use once they start rolling in.
During your album submission, you’ll want to:
Protect your copyright
Copyright signifies the ownership of intellectual property by a person or group.
There are two types of music copyright:
- The composition (PA copyright) — which is the music and lyrics, owned by songwriters and/or publishers
- The sound recording (SR copyright) — which is a particular recorded version of that music and lyrics, owned by artists or labels
If you wrote and recorded your songs by yourself, you own all your copyrights! If you wrote and/or recorded with other people, you’ll want to get your ownerships in writing using documents called split sheets.
Once you’ve figured all that out, you’ll want to register your composition and sound recording copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office. You don’t have to do this before you release your album. However, it’s a good idea to do it sooner rather than later so you’ll be protected.
Administer your publishing
The second part of protecting your copyright involves registering your compositions with performing rights organizations (PRO) and mechanical agencies. These organizations collect revenue for the use of your composition through publishing royalties. They exploit your composition’s publishing rights anywhere they’re used so you get paid what you’re owed.
Publishing is collected all over the world, and you need administrators to collect it all for you. For instance, even if your music isn’t on Pandora (yet!), it could be getting satellite airplay you don’t even know about. When you add CDB Boost to any of your releases, we do three things for you:
- Register your music with The MLC and SoundExchange
- Collect mechanical and digital performance royalties on your behalf
- Distribute the money right into your CD Baby account
Plus, when you opt in, we add your tracks to our sync licensing library for potential placement. Our Sync Licensing team has placed thousands of songs across HBO, Netflix, TV networks, film studios, and more!
Beyond CDB Boost, we also recommend registering with a PRO to collect your performance royalties. It’s a free and easy way to start making more money from your music.
Monetize your songs
“Isn’t monetizing my music just making money from my songs?” you might ask. Well yes, but there’s more to it.
Music monetization is a new-ish term that describes seeking out revenue from new, non-traditional sources like social media and video platforms.
You can monetize these platforms to earn revenue any time your music is played:
- YouTube
- TikTok/Resso
- Snapchat
As with just about everything on this list, CD Baby can help you monetize your music on those platforms. Just opt in for monetization while submitting your album and we’ll send your songs to those platforms. This will allow creators to use them in their posts, and will generate some revenue for you for those uses, which CD Baby also collects!
Make and sell merch
A new album calls for new merch! Print your album art on a shirt or slap the title on a hat. Merch related to a specific album makes the items seem limited and special. It’s different from a generic band shirt with your name on it. People want to collect something special, because they know albums don’t come around often.
Once you make your merch, there are a few places to sell it:
- Spotify: Spotify offers integration with Shopify to sell merch from your Spotify profile.
- Your website: If you don’t have an artist website yet, you should. Even in the age of social media, an official artist website is an essential component of your marketing efforts. You can create an intuitive, attractive website using Bandzoogle. While your website is a great way to keep in touch with fans and promote your music, it’s also a perfect place to sell merch since you keep most of the proceeds (or all if you use Bandzoogle’s Store Feature).
- Facebook and Instagram: We already mentioned Shopify above, but we’ll plug them again. You can sell your merch on social super easily with their storefront.
- At a show: They’re coming back! Slowly but surely, artists are gigging again. We’ve talked a lot about virtual merch tables, but what about analog ones? A well-stocked merch table at a show is the original way artists sell merch directly to fans. The best part? All that money goes right to you. And of course the smiling faces of happy fans purchasing your wares.
As you can see, an album release is a major event in an artist’s career. There’s a ton to plan for and much more work required than there is when releasing a single. But if you follow the steps above, you’ll be on your way to making a significant leap in your music’s success.