How to release your original music: Creating hype

This is the third part of our series on how to release your original music—check out our previous articles on Distributors and the upload process for more context.

Now that we’ve completed those steps, here’s how I go about creating some hype around the song!

You can add a link tree to your social media and pin the pre-save link

Pre-save link
This should be available from your distributor. You can use this to send to your existing audience and advertise the song before it comes out. The more pre-saves you get, the better chance your song will have of reaching algorithmic playlists.

 

Download LinkTree for free and add outlinks to different streaming platforms, YouTube, social media channels and websites. 

Spotify For Artists
Of all major streaming services, Spotify holds the largest share at 30.5% (with other services averaging 10% each). It can be a powerful tool to amplify your reach:

  • Pitch to playlists: If your song has a lot of pre-saves, back-end algorithms will pick it up more easily, increasing the likelihood of reaching new audiences.
  • Canvas: You can add a short (3-8 seconds) reel that plays in the background when people stream the song.
  • Paid campaigns (min £80): This is a banner that can be shown to interested audiences to boost awareness of your new track.
I used Final Cut Pro (FCPX) to make a music video after recording the song at a showreel - you can use any number of free softwares to make a creative

Creatives
A creative is any media (image or video) you use to promote the song. These can be used for posts, reels, and stories:

  • Live video of the song
  • Music video
  • Anything else creative you can think of (I used a static video of a cabin and overlaid it with the song and release date)
  • Make sure you include the song name and release date in the video
 

You can use a number of apps (e.g. CapCut) or professional software such as FCPX to make quality creatives. These have multiple uses across socials, Spotify canvases, stories, and more!

Post a live video of your song and add a pre-save link to the video to channel people to pre-save

Social media content
Social media is a great way to market your song directly to your existing audience and beyond:

  • Posts reach your followers (no hashtags needed).
  • Reels reach your followers and new audiences (use hashtags to target new listeners).
  • Stories create a daily reminder for your audience when you’re promoting. Live videos and talking increase your rapport with your audience.
  • Create several different types of content: produced, live, monologue, etc.
Performing "Breakfast in Bed" at Dragonfly Sky Festival in summer 2024 - click to see video

Perform the song live
The best way to get people to listen to your song is to perform it live—they connect with you personally, and you can create that star persona:

  • Mix in popular covers to ‘prime’ your audience.
  • Try to match similar artists/key/tempo once they’re in that mindset.
  • Tell a short story about the song and how you came to write it.
Marketing funnel involves creating awareness and consideration before people convert - click image to read our previous article on marketing

Marketing
A few quick pointers on where to market your song:

  • Linktree
  • Instagram/Facebook bio
  • Stories every two days (with pre-save link)
  • Posts 1-2 times a week (caption “link in bio”)
 

Marketing is your holistic effort to make the user’s journey to your links as short as possible—the easier you make it, the more traction you’ll get!

The song in question comes out on November 2nd, and we’ll do a comparison to previous releases to understand more about how the campaign works—sign up for the newsletter to stay updated!