Build the Hype Around Your Release - Tips and Guide : Blog

Ready to release your first song but still not sure what needs to be done? To help you, we've prepared a complete guide of tips to make an impactful launch and build hype around the release. So take a deep breath, get ready and grab a pencil to jot down notes. We have a lot to talk about the communication strategies for your next successful release.

Build the hype for your release

Sometimes, after the process of writing, arranging, recording, mixing and mastering a track, we feel the despair of not knowing what to do next. Your work is ready to be out there in the world taking your persona as an artist with it. People are about to know not only your music, but your aspirations, what you stand for, what you stand against, if you’re cool, if you’re uptight, if you’re charming, if you’re funny or serious… an infinite number of things and you can’t even control all of them. But some of it, you can. At these times, it is important to ask yourself the following questions. Write down the answers, rationalize things - it’ll help your communicative decisions:

Who have I made my music for?
What are the ideas behind the piece?
And what has inspired me?

With clarity about the structuring ideas, this is the time for you to think and write about your audience. When we launch something, we launch it for someone (who has well-defined characteristics and behaviors). It's important that you structure connective points that will be used for your campaign to reach specific people. If it's your first release and you still don't have a clue about your audience, assume and test it. It is only in practice that you will find who will engage with you. With that, knowing the narrative behind your music and who to tell it to, we can start preparing the actions that will lead to build the hype of your release.

Timeline

Many people simply put together a whole set of actions for the appointed day. But, in this way, they forget to prepare an audience to await this release. First of all, update all your social networks. As we know, it is essential to transform a "cold" audience ( one who doesn't know you) into a warm audience (the one who adores you) before delivering your music to them. This is a process that takes time and effort, but it determines the engagement of your music once it's released. In general, we recommend a warm-up period that lasts between 15 and 20 days in order to prepare your audience's curiosity without tiring them. Also, after the release, it's important to keep the movement and flow of your communication focused on the music for at least another 15 days. In this way, we have around a month in the launch campaign. But don't forget, all the promotional material that will be used must already be ready and available. Without it, you run the risk of losing your breath and the timing of the launch. In each country, the process of registering the musical work (composition) and the phonogram (sound recording) is different. But according to an international convention, there are basically two types of rights from which derive many types of royalties. The Sound Recording rights are used when the phonogram of your song is played. It’ll generate revenues like the Public Performance Royalties, Digital Streaming Royalties, Non-Interactive Digital Streaming Royalties (digital radios for example) and a few others. Composition Rights regards the use of your composition, your abstract work that you materialized into a song. This is where you’ll get revenue from people covering your songs, people playing your songs live, and other situations like those.

What does every music release need to have?

To help with your organization and preparation, we've summarized the main processes that can build hype around your release.

Pre-save

As Spotify itself tells us, it does not provide the option to pre-save your audience. But, recently, this has become a structural strategy to prepare the audience and make them want to listen to your music. More and more tools are emerging to support pre-saving music. Some of them are Feature.fm and Presave. You can use this strategy to help warm up your audience for the arrival of the big launch, with a countdown.

Video

Another widely used strategy to build hype is to release a video as support material for the music release. However, it cannot be just any video, its goal must be sharing. In addition, there are several formats. Many opt for clips, visualizer or lyric videos. The most important thing is to be aligned with your identity in connection with your audience. In order to help you with the shares, you can explore resources such as comedy, romance, ostentation or adventure. At the end of the day, what matters most is arousing the desire to show the video to other people. These will be the audience that actively engages with your work.

Cover Art

The main vehicle for communicating your music's visual identity is probably the cover art. In other words, it will probably be the first thing to be seen and the most important. In short, research good references, align the elements (fonts, colors, images, etc.) to your narrative and your audience, and learn the ideal format to upload on each platform.

Press kit

Many people forget about this procedure, but it's very important. Well, good material prepared to be sent to contacts in the cultural industry saves a lot of headaches. It is useful both when it comes to increasing the visibility and authority of your music and when you’re selling your shows. In the press kit, you should include:

general information, such as song name, artist or band name, genre, location.
a bio paragraph, with only the essential information.
the clip.
videos and promotional photos.
contact.

In addition, you can put reviews, list of radio stations where your music has been played, clipping articles with the main press vehicles where you've been featured on, biggest shows you've played etc. On the other hand, remember to be brief and keep it easy to read.

Social media

As we all know, social networks are an inexhaustible subject. It is in them that the magic happens, where new contacts and relationships are created between the artist and their possible audiences. For your Social Media Music Marketing, you can study, build captivating profiles and remember to always respond and engage with your audience. Who doesn't like to find new music to save? One of the best ways to get your music found is by joining a playlist. For that, you need to pitch your music. You can write about it, about yourself and about the importance of the release for the moment of your career. Be succinct. There are editorial playlists, which have platform curators, and user-administered playlists. For platforms, we recommend filling out the pitch form weeks in advance of launch. On the other hand, you can always look for playlist admin users to present your work.

Digital Ads

For those who have a little (or a lot) money to invest in their launch, online ads can be their best friend. They are great traffic boosters and can attract many people with the potential to become your audience. To manage the ads, it is necessary to hire a professional or dedicate time to study these tools. The main ones are Spotify Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Ads and TikTok Ads.

Who to contact about the launch?

Building a good audience is also about gathering people who have met you in different appearances. For that, it is necessary to appear in different places. Explore growing your network by contacting influencers, radio program directors, website and blog experts in new music releases, journalists, your fan base, partner artists, playlist curators, producers and programmers of cultural spaces and/or shows etc. Although a song's release campaign has an end, you can continue to take actions to build the hype around your release. This is hard work, but the more constant you are, the more audience your music will have.

Build the Hype Around Your Release – Tips and Guide