Hello,
I’m going to be releasing my first single shortly and am learning a lot as I go but I had a question. I’m following the 23 day single release plan and uploaded my song to the distributor 3 weeks before as it says to do. But now I’ve been watching the “road to 1 million streams” course and Damien says to upload it 4 weeks ahead of time so there is plenty of time to pitch to playlists. So should I cancel my release and change the date now so there’s more time? New to this so any advice or experience you can share would be super helpful! Thanks, Ana
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Hey! I’m in the same sort of situation. I’m using distrokid for my debut single, and I uploaded it last Monday and I’ve now been recognised by Spotify as an artist but still waiting for permission to access my artist page.
I would say, as it’s the first single, 4 weeks might have been better just to give more time for everything to get working. But I’d imagine 3 weeks will be fine too! Although I’m in no position to give advice tbh haha!
I also just realise you posted this 2 weeks ago, so actually what did you do in the end? And how did you get on with setting everything up?
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Hey! So I ended up switching distributors and changing the release date. I’m now using distrokid after I found out you couldn’t get access to your spotify before your first release on the other platform. And I’m liking distrokid a lot better in general. Pushed the release date back by 2 weeks which has given me enough time to pitch to playlists 3 weeks in advance.I was able to access my artist page within a few days of getting my spotify URI so shouldn’t be long! Good luck with your release!
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Hey! How did your release go? I’ve got my next single out in a couple of weeks and I find distrokid so easy to use, have you found the same?
Just wondering, what did you use to promote your single and how did it go? Is there anything you recommend? Or anything you’d stay away from? Thanks!
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I’m appreciating this stream as I’ve been trying to tackle items on Damien’s Steps to Release before hand and it’s great to hear that you used Distrokid and were able to pitch to playlists. I’m also wondering how that process went and if you have any tips or things that worked best for you! Thanks in advance for sharing your journey here!
Hey! I realize this was sent months ago and I haven’t been on here in a minute but my release went well! How have you releases been doing? I mostly did promotion on instagam and tiktok. I will say the hard part is keeping the momentum going after the release. There’s a lot of planning and posting in the initial couple weeks but I find the challenge is finding new and creative ways to keep promoting it. Is there anything you’ve found to be really helpful or successful for promoting your music? And what do you use to promote it? Thanks!
Hey! Yeah distrokid is great and super easy to use. I don’t really have any tips on that part but in general I think all of Damien’s advice about not overthinking content and batch filming is really smart. My next release will be soon and I want to do much more of that. I filmed some fun stuff for my last one but it still felt like it took too long to film each piece and I was thinking a lot about each one. How did you release go?
Hey! I haven’t been on here for a long time either haha. I have released 3 singles so far, with my 4th being released on Friday 13th 
I am very good at batch filming content and have got to the point where I don’t overthink it. However my biggest issue is thinking of new ideas for content. I feel like mine are all very ‘samey’ and a bit repetitive. Maybe it’s not an issue, maybe it’s even a good thing, I don’t know!
I’ve been focusing on YouTube mainly, and I feel I’m slowly but steadily growing on there. We’ll see how the next one goes!
Honestly, I wasn’t placed on any playlists, but I imagine there are many many many songs being pitched to playlists everyday. Can I ask, are you UK based?
Yes I totally get what you mean! Trying to keep the content fresh can be tough. I’ve been trying to think of the content of the songs themselves to get new ideas. Like looking over the lyrics and seeing if anything could be translated in a visual way. Like my next single has a line about play so I was thinking of using things you actually play (like board games) to be a visual representation of that idea. And again, trying not to overthink it and just make some stuff and post it. If it does well, great, and if it doesn’t, I’m sure I learned something in the process and will use it to get better. You have any tips for batch filming stuff? And congrats on releasing your 4th one! This will be my second.
Ah ok yeah that’s a good idea, thank for you sharing!
In terms of batch filming, I choose my location for that day first. So it could be indoors at home, in the garden at home, or there are 2 places I love going for walks anyway, and there are a few good spots to stop and film in those places. I take a spare t shirt, a shirt to wear over the t shirts, and a jumper (in theory that gives me 5 outfits). And I take my guitar and a microphone.
Beforehand, I write a list of different ‘hooks’ to say. Then I film myself singing through my whole song in one outfit, then film myself saying 4/5 of the hooks in that outfit. Then I can edit each hook together with a part of the whole song I’ve filmed. Then I repeat that with the other outfits. Sometimes with my guitar, sometimes with the microphone.
With 5 outfits, and 5 hooks per outfit, it’s then 25 pieces of content in 1-2 hours. But then you can also use the full song videos for content too
It’s the editing that takes a bit more time, but I’ve found once I’m in the flow I get pretty quick at it on capcut. You can check out my YouTube shorts if you like to see what I mean? The only issue is, like I said, it makes the content quite ‘samey’. But like you said, I don’t overthink it, just post it!