Releasing Music
EmuBands are our recommended distribution partner (and a Spotify preferred partner)
How to: Self Release Music
Releasing music is an important factor in building your profile and ultimately your fanbase, after all your songs / music are the foundation of your career. For the purposes of this article I’m going to assume you’re self-releasing and using your own record label like MyBandRecords etc (however at the end of this info pack I’ve included some tips IF a record label is interested). This tutorial is based on the New Found Sound Services we offer to musicians and we hope it helps you PLAN, DISTRIBUTE & MARKET your music. IF you find this article useful please like us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/newfoundsound see ⬇️
You’ve worked tirelessly writing songs, you’ve spent lots of time and money getting to this point, it makes no sense to now rush your release with hardly any plan on promoting / marketing your music. At NFS we think you should do everything you can, give your music the best possible chance of making an impact, getting on playlists, securing airplay / press features and of course growing your fanbase.
In very general terms, we look at releasing music as having two phases, BEFORE you release your songs so Pre-release (where you PLAN your campaigns, artwork designed, register your music, agree distribution date etc etc), and AFTER so Post-release (where you continue promoting your music, growing your fanbase and seeking press features, radio, placements).
The very first thing you should do is Claim your Spotify / Apple Music Profiles and set them up with Photos, Biography, Social Media links etc etc AND of course via Songkick.com your Live shows when it’s safe to do so.
Spotify for Artists see https://artists.spotify.com click HERE for FAQs / help & HERE to Claim your profile
Apple Music for Artists see https://artists.apple.com click HERE for help & HERE to Claim your profile
New Found Sound highly RECOMMEND you register and create an Artist profile on Songkick visit https://tourbox.songkick.com (you can have LIVE gigs appear on your Spotify account and you’ll sell more tickets)
3 things to do BEFORE you choose your release date:
-1 MUSIC / AUDIO: your FINAL WAVs with ISRC codes / meta data ready (not your producer has promised to send next week, you should have the final mix back, on your computer, uploaded to SoundCloud private link etc)
-2 ARTWORK / PHOTOS / VIDEO: you should have your artwork (or photo if you’re going with that) delivered / finished before setting your release date! You will need a nice high resolution version of this 300dpi (dots per inch) at least a couple MB. Likewise, if you have a video (not essential) I’d recommend you have this ready before you start your campaign Top tip: produce 15 seconds, 30 seconds clips of your video to promote in advance of a premiere etc
-3 DISTRIBUTOR | DSPs You need a Distributor - a company who will send your music to stores like Spotify, Apple etc we recommend EmuBands and in fact can get you a 15% discount, EmuBands are one of Spotify’s Preferred distributors
get 15% discount with EmuBands via New Found Sound, simply enter NFS in the Promocode box when you register
NOW you are ready to decide upon your release date, in this example we choose: FRIDAY 25 September 2020
NEXT = RELEASE and MARKETING CAMPAIGN:
You’ve got your Music, your Artwork/Photos and your Distribution sorted, you will pitch to Spotify direct (and other playlists), decided if you’re ordering any physical products (and they’ll be delivered within your timeline), you’ll look after and treat your existing fans > you are now ready to design your Marketing campaign. The information below is designed to give you the BEST POSSIBLE chance of making an impact with your single / EP / album release
-1) DOWNLOAD our example PLANNER / CALENDAR click HERE take an afternoon between the band / your team to PLAN things with specific days / profiles, WHO is responsible for each thing, WHEN do you need it by and WHICH profile will you be posting on day 1, day 22 etc etc, be as detailed as you can (just by having some kind of PLAN means you can change things around delay your short teaser video in favour of a BBC Introducing play etc)
-2) MOST IMPORTANT tool to help you get PRESS / RADIO you need to finish / create your Electronic Press Kit (EPK) and Press Release this will contain your MUSIC / PHOTOS & ARTWORK / Videos (if you have em) plus Biography etc visit our in-depth article +download pack at: https://www.newfoundsound.co.uk/resources/electronic-press-kit
THERE are LOTS of Smart Link tools to choose from (click HERE for Music Ally review of some). EmuBands (click for instructions on how to set up using SmartURL https://manage.smarturl.it/features ] we also think it’s a good place to start. EmuBands will send you Pre-save links for your new song we recommend you use this for people to Pre-save your release. You can also use this (as far as we know the ONLY company that can send you the URI in advance) to Pitch for inclusion on Spotify Playlists.
IF you are releasing PHYSICAL product like Vinyl or CDs too, we would recommend:
Birnam CD: http://www.birnamcd.com (based in Scotland)
Key Productions: http://www.keyproduction.co.uk/ (PRS recommend, based in London)
**Ask other bands in your town where they get their CDs pressed**
For MERCHANDISE like T-shirts, Face-coverings etc we would recommend:
Parallel Prints (Glasgow) https://www.facebook.com/ParallelPrints/ email mandy@parallelprints.co.uk
We have made a lot of assumptions in this article, that you’ve got someone DESIGNING your artwork, someone taking PHOTOS and that you are a member of PRS, MCPS, PPL (and have ISRC codes etc), you have a subscriber database (like MailChimp etc) and do your own Press (you should, even although we offer this service it’s good for you to do yourself, it’s time consuming but will save you a lot of ££s). Design, Photography, Video etc contacts can be found ⬇️
Full Tutorial / download PDF with detailed information on releasing new music ⬇️click HERE
There are lots of digital distributors AWAL | The Orchard | TuneCore | Amuse | Believe Digital | CD Baby | Ditto and loads more we’ve probably forgotten about, in our opinion they’re not as good as EmuBands
If this article is useful to you, please like us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/newfoundsound | Off Axis: https://bit.ly/Off-Axis-Spotify | Scotland on Sunday: https://bit.ly/ScotlandOnSunday