10 Crucial Steps for a Successful Music Release Day

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So let's get real here! You want your song to do well, and release day is one of those weird days where you can kinda go off, be annoying and everyone gets it. You get to be closer to the top of the list of the many people asking for your audience's attention and finally spread your song into the algorithm in a big way. But most of all, this is a chance to set that song you believe in up for success. 

Let’s dive into the best way to go about your release day to launch your song into the algorithm of Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and, of course, into the text messages of other friends.

The Power of Release Day

Your release day is a day to call attention to yourself. You now have the number one thing on your side that can help your music get more fans: you know, a new song. So It's time to call attention to yourself, and for those of you who get shy about promotion, think of it this way - This is essentially your birthday. It’s the day fans will allow you to call attention to yourself and even forgive those annoying story shares and retweets where fans pour adoration on you. This is the one day it's all tolerable.

Today is the day to remind people to listen to your track. The more you do it, the more opportunities you have that can change your life, so let's put on our best extrovert face and do this.

Let's also remember that one of the main reasons people end up checking out your music is that they feel like they have seen your name enough times that they need to know who you are, simply to have conversations about you with other people they know.

When your name comes up from people sharing it, and people see it in more places, the chance of potential fans investigating and listening to your track becomes more and more likely…Let’s go over how we make that happen: 

The Release Day Game Plan

So now that we understand the importance and advantage of release day, here's a step-by-step guide to maximizing your song’s impact:

1. Email Blast at Midnight

Fire up an email right at midnight to your email list telling people to listen to your new song. There is a certain way to do this: 

Here is a BAD example:

"‘Fitcheck at the Holocaust Museum’ out now on all streaming services"

We want to do what I coined as “emotional song marketing” - which is to tell the listener how they will feel if they listen to it.

These are GOOD examples:

"I just released my sick new ripper 'Dabbing On The Way To Death” jam it and you'll headbang your head off'"

Or

 "I just dropped the most tragic love song you've ever heard “I Fell In Love With A Girl With A MAGA TRAMP STAMP'"

Your audience is more likely to stream your song if you tell them an emotion they would rather feel than the one they are feeling now. Remember, music at its core is a mood-altering drug that makes you feel a way you'd rather feel. Use that to your advantage.

2. Text Your Fans

The same goes here- a quick brief text with a link to play your song on Spotify and YouTube goes quite far. 

One of the things to remember is that both Spotify and YouTube measure your song’s early performance immediately after it is released. The best way to get momentum is to use every minute your song is out, ensuring that you’re maximizing your engagement.

This is especially true with Spotify–who is deciding whether to put you into the algorithm for playlists like Release Radar, Discover Weekly, that insufferable AI DJ and so many more. The fans who give you their email and phone number are the same ones likely to listen repeatedly and drive up your popularity score so you get on those playlists.

3. Set a YouTube Premiere

We have to take advantage of one of the most under-discussed opportunities musicians don't take advantage of, which is the YouTube premiere. 

The YouTube premiere has 2 advantages:

1. Early Subscription Feed: When people browse their feeds looking for something to watch, they can click a reminder and be reminded when your video comes out. Allow your song to create awareness before it's out in the feed and increase the chances of it getting heard afterward. 

2. Premiere Chats: the real advantage it gives you is that you can have a chat in the premiere and bond with fans. A great opportunity to give fans more things to say about you. Be sure to let all your followers on socials know you will be hanging out in the chat during the premiere. 

Pro Tip: do these premieres when your YouTube analytics say the majority of your subscribers are online (typically around noon).

And yes you can announce this a few days before since so many of you are dying to start announcing your new song and can't believe I tell you pre-saves and teasing aren't the best way to promote a song when you have a small fanbase. 

4. Minimum Viable Videos

In 2024, posting still image videos of your album cover isn't the smartest thing to do for your release. I suggest you post what I call “minimum viable videos”.

Reels, TikTok, or YouTube shorts, the ADHD scrolling destroyed attention spans, and we are now used to a video with motion. Low-budget videos with any sort of movement go a long way. You can film these for free or just above that and still get millions of views. Simply see them as “visualizers” as opposed to the actual hi-effort music video you’ll release later on.

5. Post Stories/ Short Form Text All Day Long

Remember social media does not have a perfect time to post. People consume social media in the morning, afternoon, evening, and even at midnight – which is 9 pm on the West Coast if you're on the East Coast.

Since you're allowed to post anything you want for release day, you need to post all day long. Post late in the day to catch the night owls and post first thing in the morning to catch the early risers. Use the afternoon to get people to join your YouTube premiere chat.

6. Instagram or TikTok Live

Go live on Instagram or TikTok - whichever you do better - with any of the producers, mixers, or other collaborators on your song. Also, do this a month later when your music video drops with the directors, actors, or dancers who are in the video.

Announce that you'll be doing this, and then let the power of Instagram show all of those people you invite as followers seeing your name and getting alerted to you going live. 

This is becoming a big thing again for the first time since the pandemic, and it has been proven that if you go live, the apps boost your videos to more people, which will increase the likelihood of your post getting spread and your song getting a good first-day splash.

7. Instagram Carousel Posts

Have a compelling image of yourself, album artwork, or something that you can tell a story around and post it to your Instagram. Always upload posts as a carousel since it dramatically increases your reach. 

Instagram now allows collaborative carousels, which are huge in the algorithm and will get even more spread if you have a collaborator on your song to post with. 

This is the most likely way you can get someone to go from just seeing your post to actually listening to your music, and that's the goal here. 

8. Reconnect with Your Network

So many people forget to do this - go through your contact list of people who have written about or expressed interest in your music, and just check in with them. 

Ask those people how they've been and re-up your relationship with them. Then tell them that you just put out a new track and start a conversation about it. Maybe listen to theirs if they make music as well. 

Staying on top of people's minds on what to listen to and who to think of for opportunities is half the battle in this business. And if you've reminded people you're working hard, they will think of you when it's time for them to do things.

9. Short Form Videos for Audience Finding

As for your short-form videos, you want to be doing what I call “audience-finding videos”. These are videos where you signal who your song is for using prompts like “if you like ___, then you’ll like ___” or “what genre am I?” or “POV you just found your new favorite hyper emo band from South Africa”

This is how you find the right people for your new song. We want to put one of those videos up today in order to try to assemble the people likely to enjoy your song.

10. The Long Game: Sustained Promotion

I want to leave you with one important philosophy. Remember, literally no song — even those songs that blow up on TikTok or Reels— do so overnight. They do not blow up on release day. In my member feed artist dissections, we see that a lot of the artists’ songs blow up a month, if not months, later from consistent, sustained promotion. 

So many people reach despair when numbers are not doing well. Let me remind you of the horrible fact that Lil Nas X has recorded the most popular song of all time, which did nothing on the first day out. He kept pushing it and telling stories around it until it became one the most popular songs ever. 

Remember the difference in the size of your fan base will always be determined by how much you push and sustain promotion for 9 to 18 months. Don't get down when things aren't changing on release day, and keep pushing. Take the temperature after a week of really pushing hard, not a few hours.