The importance of pre-save campaigns in releasing music on Spotify

Anyone with a credit card can release music today. This is a radical shift from the gatekeeper structure set up by the record companies of previous decades. While we would occasionally see artists like Ashanti, Frank Ocean or Chance the Rapper make the big time as independents, it generally took the support of one of the major record labels to get on the public’s radar.

So, now the floodgates are open and someone like Zara Larsson can have little or no presence on radio and generate over a billion streams on Spotify. It also means that the noise level on the streaming platforms is insanely high. With over 40,000 new postings a day and 3 million plus artists on Spotify alone, how does an artist get someone to pay attention? That is the question.

While Spotify is not the most profitable of platforms for artists (see my painful chart in this article),  it does have the largest user base making it the most powerful marketing platform of the streaming sites. It is also the one that gives artists the ability to influence how people find an artist’s music.

One option is to pursue playlists. These are, at their best, curated lists of songs that a human being has actually listened to and is recommending. Playlists that ask for money from you are typically bot driven and run afoul of Spotify’s policies and we saw Spotify take down hundreds of thousands of songs because of this earlier this year. 

This makes a structured approach to releasing music critical to your success as it allows you to do things that CAN have an impact on people listening.

• Step 1: Use a platform that allows you to set a release date and put it at least two weeks in the future

This running room allows you to start a pre-save campaign using a tool like DistroKid’s Hyperfollow,  a tool like LinkTree or even a homemade campaign using something like SmartURL. Spotify’s algorithmic playlists strongly weight interaction with an artist so they pay attention to followers and pre-saves. The more pre-saves and follows you have the more likely you are to land on an algorithmic playlist. While it may feel icky you need to ask people to follow and pre-save these links because it costs them nothing and is potentially very valuable to you as an artist.

This means that friends stream friend’s songs (and don’t hit skip for at LEAST thirty seconds), but it is even more important that they pre-save and follow friend’s releases! Keep in mind that Spotify doesn’t consider themselves a streaming service, they consider themselves a social media platform, so they are ALWAYS looking for ways to increase interaction. You should have a network of people (both friends and fans) that you can ask to click that pre-save button. It costs them NOTHING but it could make a big difference for you. Which means you need to follow through when YOUR friends release music. If you will click “like” on a FB or IG post you should be willing to click “Pre-save” on a Spotify prerelease notice.

• Step 2: ASK for some playlist placement

Spotify’s editorial playlists are always looking for new material and artists to feature. They will only consider music that is in their system, but hasn’t been released yet! This two-week window I suggested allows a couple of days for your music to make it through the distribution systems where it will show up on your “upcoming music” link on your Spotify for Artists page. 

 

If you haven’t yet claimed your Artist page on Spotify, do so NOW!!  Having an artist account costs you nothing and gives you access to data and tools you will not have otherwise. You will use this to pitch Spotify a track off your new release and they might be interested! Getting listed on one of their editorial playlists can have a powerful impact on the size of your audience.

Amazon has a similar program for which you will also need to claim your Amazon artist status as well.

Once you have done this you can submit to their editorial playlist sites. Amazon is not as influential as Spotify but there is NO downside to getting some additional coverage and followers. Their interface for submitting is simple and shows up here on the web version of their Amazon Artists page.

Do some of your own research as well. Oftentimes a playlist curator will have a way to submit songs for consideration, but pay attention to genre. Don’t submit your Nordic death metal anthem to a playlist filled with songs by the Carpenters. They won’t list it, and you will both be mad.  

If there is not a playlist for the music style you like, consider starting one. You will have the best read on music that is in a similar style as your own and you may be able to give someone else a leg up as well. As a note, don’t bother to start a playlist with only your music on it. Your mom might click follow, but its reach will be pretty limited. Consider a playlist as a way to educate people on the types of music you like and the sounds that inspire you!

• Step 3: Tell everyone that your song is out when it launches

I know that this may feel redundant, but remember that most people do not act on advertising (you might as well admit that is what we are doing here) until they have seen a message three times. You won’t get the algorithmic benefit of a pre-save but this may be the reminder they need to click on “follow” on your Spotify page. They might also pay attention to the next release and click pre-save on it.

Just a reminder, you are competing with 39,999 other artists that released something that day. You may feel weird telling people about it multiple times but it is the only way to be sure that people that actually would like to hear your music know that it is out there. Don’t be shy.

• Step 4: Thank people for the enthusiastic response to this song when you launch the next one

Yes, I know it may be somewhat inaccurate if only three people followed the first track…and one of them was you. THAT IS NOT THE POINT. This is about having another opportunity to link to the track and allow someone to click on it the first time. This might be the FIRST time that person chose to pay attention to your posts and they may click on it to see what the fuss about. They just might like it and then hit pre-save on the next track!

It also means that you need to make sure you are attaching the link to that track on Spotify every time you talk about it. You can continue to use HyperFollow if you use DistroKid by editing the page so it has all the live links for all the streaming services which makes it look like this:

Or if you would rather include direct links to songs on your Spotify page you can grab the link for a song or and album here:

It also points out that the best way to attract attention is to consistently release music. If you have not heard of the “waterfall strategy” it basically involves releasing an EP or album as a string of singles that you put back together right after you release the last one. This gives you the ability to continually talk about the music you are releasing so you can maintain attention from an audience with an increasingly shorter attention span.

So, nothing in this article will make you rich, but it will make a difference in the number of streams, followers and shares that you get. Making great music is only half the battle…you still have to do everything you can to make sure that people will actually click play!