How to Get Your Music On Spotify, Apple Music, And More Using TuneCore

Content generously provided by TuneCore
Even in 2019, an age when the next big single you hear could have been created by a 20-something on his or her laptop and little else, there’s still a lot that must be taken into consideration when releasing new music. If you’re an independent artist with an itch to drop a new single, EP, or album, it can feel like you’re at the bottom of a mountain looking up at what’s sure to be a tough hike ahead.
Writing, recording, mixing and mastering, designing cover art, reaching out to the press and playlisters, building up excitement on your social media channels — while it’s easy to get stressed, if you plan accordingly, you should be able to view tasks like this as fun and creative boxes to check off along the journey. Building a strategic plan and giving yourself time to promote your new music is the first step to a successful release. Choosing a digital distributor like TuneCore not only helps you get your music online and available globally, but it’s also available as a tool to keep your release plans organized and on schedule.

After the Studio
You’ve just left the studio — whether that means you were working with an engineer in a traditional studio or using Pro Tools in your bedroom — and you’ve got a finished product. Now is a good time to start thinking about adding finishing touches, like mastering. Whether you find a mastering engineer nearby or work remotely with a professional mastering house, you should educate yourself on the impact this has on a recorded project.
Next, it’s time to figure out how exactly you want to get this out to the world. For many artists, the easy answer is to upload their music to free platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp. But what about Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and the dozens of other digital platforms out there?
Partnering with a digital distributor like TuneCore will allow you to make your music available to the widest-possible audience. TuneCore distributes music to digital stores and streaming platforms all over the world, and you keep 100% of the revenue you earn. Meaning, if you’re in the US, you could get discovered by some rabid music fans in Korea, India, or Brazil — suddenly you’ve got an international fan base! At the very least, you’ve made your music available on a wide enough array of platforms to appeal to any fan of your genre.
Marketing and Promotions Planning
Now that you’ve prepped your release and selected a digital distributor, it’s time to think about what you need to address before you make your music live in stores. (Keep in mind: with TuneCore, you can distribute with a release date as far in the future as you wish!)
If you want to try to make a splash online with press and playlist curators, you should prepare a list of outlets you plan to target via email and give yourself at least a 3-week lead time. Organize your press and curator list in a spreadsheet, and take notes on individual features of what each contact might be able to offer you (i.e., interviews, premieres, special columns, etc.). If you’ve never done this sort of outreach, now is the time to get comfortable introducing yourself and promoting your music.
Put together an electronic press kit (EPK) that features a compelling bio, some press-ready photos, links to your social media channels, links to your music (you can use SoundCloud to make a private stream of your songs ahead of the official release), and any other information you want people to know about yourself and your music.
Some other things to think about when planning your release include a release show or party, a college radio promotion campaign, music videos, social media ad campaigns, and maybe even a small tour. Of course, that’s all a matter of what your current resources look like — everything mentioned earlier in this article can be done with some attention to detail and a small budget.
Building a Release Schedule
A popular trend among artists dropping EPs and albums is to roll out singles that will be featured on the longer release to build excitement and extend the lifecycle of promotional efforts. For example, you might have a 6-song EP dropping. Picking one to three songs you feel are standouts and planning your timing around pushing a single every two or four weeks leading up to the EP release gives you a chance to try new promotional tactics with each single.
If you’re not the kind of artist who wants to rapidly release content every week, take the time to map out a sensible release schedule that allows you to make the most of a do-it-yourself marketing plan.
Conversely, if you’re looking to maximize the window of promotion to drum up excitement among fans, you can use TuneCore to set up a pre-order of your release on iTunes. This gives you links to promote and even gives fans the chance to get “Instant Gratification” tracks (of your choice) when they purchase ahead of the official release date. We also offer pre-orders for Google Play and Amazon Music for you to take advantage of!
We’re Live!
Now that you’ve planned your press outreach, social media promotion, and digital distribution dates, and the release is live in Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and elsewhere, it’s time to kick back and throw your feet up.
Just kidding.
Part of your planning for a release should absolutely entail what you do to keep the momentum going after the music has been made available to the world. What that looks like is entirely up to you as an artist, but here are some strategies to consider:

Create a post-release content plan (videos, memes, contests) that keeps people talking about your music
Engage with fans who have been enjoying your release
Repurpose any press coverage you’ve received across social and email
Book local live performances
Utilize your preferred social media channels to build your fan base and further establish your “social voice”

Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a musician, releasing and promoting a new single, EP, or album takes time and planning. Just like the right email pitch can land you a cool feature and build buzz, the right distributor can ensure a smooth release with the maximum reach.
As with anything in life, it’s important to not get discouraged. If every artist or band had a hit single or viral video sensation with every single they dropped, you wouldn’t be reading this. Keep at it, stay motivated, and use every experience along the way as a lesson.
To get started with TuneCore, sign up here!
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