Recording an album is daunting. But so does promoting an album release.
You have to take your vitamins and gather more energy because recording’s just the beginning!
After that comes mastering, manufacturing, and last but not the least—marketing and promotion.
Marketing is definitely a must and you should have started it months before recording. You see, even if you release the best album of all time, with no marketing or promotion, then it won’t go anywhere.
But even if you started a bit late, there are hacks to get people talking about your album.
To help you along, here are 10 ways you can do to add more buzz to your album release.
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10 WAYS TO ADD MORE BUZZ TO YOUR ALBUM RELEASE
#1. PUT UP A PRE-ORDER FOR YOUR ALBUM AND MERCH
Before the actual release of your album (preferably a month or two) do a pre-order of your albums and merchandise (if you plan on having any).
This is a good way to make your fans know that you’re actually cooking something up. Well, you can drop an album if you like, but you have to be someone like Beyonce. For everyone else, it’s better to promote your album months before its release.
In addition to this, you will be able to sell more albums since fans who do not have money ready anytime will have time to save money to buy your album.
This will also give you a general idea of how many records to press.
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#2. CREATE CATCHY VIDEO CONTENT TO POST ON TIKTOK
A lot of songs that have gone viral were from videos uploaded on TikTok.
It’s the home of most viral songs and will be a good place to go viral too. You have to be really creative about how you use your songs on this app, though, or you will probably just be wasting time and effort.
There is the usual dance challenge you can do, and make the choreography simple but still catchy and attractive. But if this is not your thing, there are so many other ways like making absurd videos (it’s what our client Petey did).
There are a lot of other challenges you can do, you just have to look for that specific one that would go well with your personality and your album.
Related Articles:
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#3. PLAN AND REALIZE MERCHANDISE THAT WILL SHOCK THE PEOPLE
If you’re planning on a merch, make sure that they would be attention-grabbing. In fact, try to use them as a promotion for your album.
We have a lot of merch items for you to customize from shirts to novelty items.
This should create noise among fans which would then reach other people they know, and so on.
Don’t shock them because of bad quality though, or that would just paint a bad image for you.
Related Articles:
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#4. ENSURE YOU REACH OUT TO THE PEOPLE ESSENTIAL TO YOUR PROMOTION
Before you let the public know about your album, you have to let a certain group of people know about it first. They will be the ones who will help you promote your album.
Who are these people?
These are the journalists, the music bloggers, podcasters, radio stations, and many more.
And so, you better have your EPK (electronic press kit) ready since it will be the resume you will be sending to these people. Most of them, you have to pay. But there are some who would be willing to feature you for free.
For your EPK, include your bio, the music you’re about to release, and photos. With the press, you will also have to include a press release along with the EPK to inform them of the details of your album release.
For music bloggers, you send them a private Soundcloud playlist that has your unreleased album’s tracks.
With radio stations and podcasters, you can send them a request to be a guest on their radio or podcast, or maybe request to have your songs played on the radio.
Related Article:
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#5. COLLABORATE OR BE THE OPENING ACT FOR THE OTHER ARTISTS
Another thing you can do is have other artists help you promote but that’s not just straight out helping though, since you will still need to do some work.
In this case, we are talking about asking fellow artists for a collaboration or asking them to choose you as their opening act for a concert.
With collaborations, you get to reach music fans that you might not have reached yet. And if you’re doing a little promo for that collaboration, you can also add to the mix the fact that you are going to be releasing an album soon.
Another thing is to have a collaboration track or tracks on your upcoming album.
This way, fans of the artist would know about the album you will be releasing. It will be a great move since most fans would surely check the whole album out, especially if they liked the collaboration song.
Being an opening act for a concert is not a subtle way of promotion, but it still works as long as you put up a good opening.
After performing, you end it with a ment thanking the artist/s and their fans, and also promoting your upcoming album release.
Related Article:
7 Ways To Collaborate With Musicians (And Some Golden Tips On How To Do It Right)
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#6. PRESS A FEW VINYL RECORDS
You probably have already seen vinyl’s ever-growing popularity not just among old people, but also among the young generation.
This means that vinyl records would never die.
There has been a great demand for them and we’re pretty sure your fans would love to have a copy of your album on vinyl. Again, try to promote a pre-order to see.
And the good thing is that you can actually press only 100 units of vinyl with us.
And to make sure you get the attention you want from this, you better have a custom vinyl record, though you can still have a standard version on black. Make sure that the design is something that would catch attention because if you didn’t know, this format has collectors.
As long as you have good music, high-quality vinyl pressing, and crazy good artwork for your packaging, then you are all set.
Related Articles:
11 Reasons You Should Press Vinyl Now (And Not Later!)
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#7. RELEASE YOUR ALBUM ON CASSETTE TAPE
You might also want to release your album on cassette tapes.
You see, old audio formats are making a buzz since the pandemic and they are continuing to this day, so why not jump on that?
It’d be another item you can add to your merch table if you ever go on a tour for this release. Also, it adds to the choices your fans have. If they can’t afford to buy vinyl, then they can at least have a much cheaper cassette.
Related Articles:
Album Releases That Are Even More Awesome With Cassettes
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#8. RELEASE GOOD SINGLES FROM THE UPCMONG ALBUM
Singles are another way to get that buzz for your album.
If you’ve released great singles, then people’s expectations for your album will be much more. It’s like giving your fans and the general public a taste of your album.
And you better make them want for more, so choose at least three of your best tracks. It would be preferable to have one or more collab song, if you’ve got that on your album.
Make an awesome music video for it too and we’re sure it’ll be a successful promotion.
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#9. MAKE NOISE ON YOUR SOCIAL HANDLES
This is pretty basic.
There are already a lot of social media platforms you can use for online media promotion, but you’ve got to choose what platforms you’ll be focusing on.
You can do this by knowing where your fans are most active. Are they still on Facebook? Or are they hanging out on TikTok or Instagram more often these days?
Make sure that your posts will be eye-catching (cool photos, cool videos) to really grab the attention of your fans.
They also allow the sharing of posts so that even if a person is not following another, they may see the other’s post through the retweeting or liking of a shared mutual.
Related Article:
20 Music Marketing Essentials Every Musician Should Have In 2021
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#10. GO ON TOUR
Of course, you have to go on tour.
It’s the easiest way to create more buzz for your album. It will also prolong that attention on you and your album.
Since you will be visiting places, there will be much more buzz from the places you will be visiting.
It will definitely be a good way to reach a wider audience. It doesn’t even need to be a big tour, maybe you can do a city tour if you think you’re not up for going from country to country.
If you really want a well-promoted album release, then it would be best to do all the things we’ve listed down.
Ten is a lot, we know that so here are some tips so you’ll have an easier time promoting and releasing your album.
Related Articles:
Indie Musicians: The Dos And Don’ts Of Touring
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SOME MORE TIPS:
START 6 MONTHS IN ADVANCE
Just like any album release preparation, preparation for its promotions should also be done in advance.
You have to do it 6 months before the actual release of the album so that you will have enough time to adjust if need be.
This is a must because releasing an album is not that easy and so is promoting it.
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CREATE A TIMELINE OF THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO
Next, you will have to create a timeline of what’s needed to be done or finished before that set time.
This is like your marketing plan checklist. Let’s say you put “start pre-order” on your “two months before release” or maybe have “website makeover” on your “3 months before release”.
This way you will be able to monitor what you have and haven’t done yet. It’ll help you ease your mind too. We know, there is a lot of pressure and anxiety when releasing an album, with this timeline/to-do list, you will be able to put your mind at ease.
We hope that this article has helped you form a clear marketing plan for your upcoming album releases!
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James Hill is a veteran of the music industry. He first worked at Warner Reprise Records then later joined Interscope/ Geffen Records where he managed producers and songwriters and got his first platinum record for Keyshia Cole’s The Way It Is. He is now helping indie artists with branding and manufacturing through his company Unified Manufacturing, a CD/DVD/vinyl and merch company in LA.
