It's very complex, difficult, expensive, interesting and fun to be an independent music producer. Volume three covers my attempts to: make acoustic improvements to the studio; cut down my production times; learn the art of mastering in-house ad muc...
I can't just make great music. (If that wasn't hard enough to do). I have to get people to "come to the water to drink". The "wells" I want to refresh people at are my accounts on the various the streaming services that I will be distributing my music on through CDBaby. Spotify is just one of many but an important one at that. In today's diary post, I glean the best tips from the video above and for me this idea of a hyper-follow is new. Tell me what you think and or share your best tips in the comments below! Many say that 70%/80% of making an album do well is promotion and 30%/20% is the content of the album (quality of the music).
I don't mind promoting if I know this music is going to soothe, help people find peace of mind and come closer to unconditional love from above. But is is so much more work than I ever thought it would be. These three tools are awesome and stretch my budget for promotion.
Like I've said before: for every right step in the right direction I take, I come closer to my goal. Promotion is a necessary step but it has to be cost-effective.
For aspiring indie artists:
The video above is a *game changer because it makes life easier for your fans to follow you through the three free tools you can use to create a follow link to your Spotify artist's account even before your album release.
1. Free Spotify "Follow" button that you can embed custom html on your websites, blog etc.
Make it simple for people to follow you on Spotify. Put the follow button wherever you can. Just follow the instructions in the video!
You don't want to lose people along the way. Make it easy for ppl to follow you by creating the follow button in your artist's account and embedding that follow button on your website.
2. Linktree (I've mentioned them before)
You can also use your Linktr.ee to create a call to action to follow you on Spotify (as one of many alternatives. (See the video and my earlier posts). No Instagram account should be without a gateway link like Linktree. But the downside is that a typical Linktr.ee link is
Having a link from your page to your Spotify account seems all well and good but when your fan lands on your Spotify account you might just lose them there. Why? Because they have too many options: the option of just listening; the option to share your account/songs without listening; the option to save your music and the option of clicking away without listening at all. You want them to listen and add your music to their music so that they and their followers and boost your music even before the release. What you need in that case is a hyper follow link that lead them to one single option: a save and follow button.
3. Hyper follow links:
In the video he names that you can get a hyper-follow link both at Show.co (CDBaby) and through buying a one year prescription to Distrokid distribution (even if you distribute through some other company). I am running with CDBaby and that means I will be using Show.co once they (CDBaby) has created my artist's account.
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Distrokid's Hyper follow
This service is free for subscribers to Distrokid. It is powerful because it allows your fans to do two things at once: save the music on their list(s) and follow you at the same time. In this way, you can get a great opening "bump" on listeners through pre-follows before your album drops: Distrokid has a $20 a year feature. You can link to the hyper follow. This is great because you can link to your artist's page before the album release and your album gets automatically saved on that follower's account. So that when the album drops they get the album sent to their playlist and they will most probably listen as soon as they open Spotify. This boosts the release and helps your music gain traction even before the release.
Show.co Pre-save setup
How to do a pre-save is explained in this
If you drop an album without promoting it no one is going to find it. Plain and simple.
One way you can create support for you album/release over the period of weeks right before your release is by setting up a pre-save for your music in good time before the drop. In this way your fans/community can create a demand for your album that spikes on release day and that gets the attention of Spotify's algorithms and can lead to a successful release.
This is what you need to set up a pre-save on Spotify. After your music is ready to roll you need
1. Time. Get started in good time before the drop.
2. New Music (with a launch 3 - 6 weeks away)
3. Distribution (I use CDBaby)
4. A URI (not URL) it is a unique identifier code for music on their platform. Once CDBaby has delivered your music to Spotify you can contact Spotify through their help center.and get your unique URI
5. You also need to create a Show.co account by going into your CDBaby dashboard
Watch the video for step by step instructions!
Today I took some time to watch the above two videos and summarised them here. Then I went into my CDBaby account to see if I could prepare my account for the pre-save option. Nope. Reason? I haven't yet released any music. So, I made this important conclusion today:
If I want to promote the Change My Mind album with a pre-save option through Show.co in time for the album release (3-6 weeks before the drop), I need to release at least a single long before the album drop. This will give me time to get my artist's account set up and test how to do the promotion before I drop the Change My Mind album.
Homework: Find out
1.Which one of my HD photos would be the best for a profile pic. I need to take some time and check other artist's account and see what is trending. Add it to my CDBaby artist's profile making sure that that profile is the one I will use for the Change My Mind launch as well.
2. My Google analytics code (needed for the pre-save).
3. What to give people to get them to preorder/sign up: I need to think through a giveaway that will be useful in getting people to give me their emails. A T-shirt or something better.
At least I went in today and filled in important information on my artist's profile and I'm getting a better picture of how to prepare this album for promotion and that feels good. Now, back to mixing. :-)
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