THE BEST RELEASE STRATEGY FOR AN ARTIST THAT WANTS TO SUCCEED IN 2019

Over the past few years, there have been major changes to the music industry, impacting the way music is consumed, created and sold; therefore, the release strategy for all musicians has had to change drastically to adapt with this.

Music promotion is no longer based on getting a physical album onto the shelves and securing sales and music creating is no longer about making a full album, so people get their ‘money’s worth’, so what is it about? What is the best way to release your music in this digital era?

In this blog post, I'm going to explain the best release strategy to guarantee you can take advantage of digital streaming platforms, build a fanbase and exploit each release to secure the best results possible.

HOW IS MUSIC CONSUMED?

The way that music is consumed is one of the most drastic changes to the music industry over the past 10 years. Music consumption has changed, so the release strategy will need to adapt with it, but to know how to adapt, you need to fully understand where music is being consumed and why it is consumed in this manner, so you can create a strategy fitting for this.

Studies show that in 2018 45% of people were discovering new music video streaming services alone, with further trends showing that Spotify is on track to take over radio in terms of listenership and popularity. These statistics prove that digital streaming is the leading platform for people to listen to music and that the new nature of the industry shows how people are less likely to pay for physical music or even per track but would much rather pay a monthly subscription for unlimited music. Therefore, musicians need to follow these consumer statistics and create a release strategy that works with these trends to take full advantage of them.

MORE REVENUE!

Although many artists are distraught that music is no longer selling like it used to, this doesn’t mean revenue has dropped. As a matter of fact, revenue has actually risen, with the 2018 IFPI Global Report showing that music sales rose for the third straight year as streaming has become the biggest revenue source. Instead of looking at streaming as a negative, it should be treated as a major bonus as…

• You can upload to them easily
• Anyone can upload to them
• They work as a free marketing tool with algorithms putting music in front of the right audience
• You have music out to the world, which is better than no-one buying it and therefore never hearing it
• You don’t need to be signed to get your music distributed

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE RELEASE STRATEGY? 

Now you know where music is consumed, you need to understand how this will affect the release strategy. So, we know that streaming platforms are where most people are consuming their music, but how does this impact the musician?

WHERE THE MUSIC SHOULD BE AVAILABLE

Firstly, it shows where music should be - streaming platforms. A distributor can be used to get any artist's track onto every streaming platform out there, whether that’s Deezer, Apple Music or Spotify.

WHY SHOULD IT BE AVAILABLE ON THESE PLATFORMS?

As well as placing music in the correct place, think about why people are using these streaming platforms. For one, people no longer want to spend money on physical music, when they can get unlimited music for a much cheaper price on a subscription model, proving that all artists need to be uploading to all platforms.

Secondly, people want more choice, therefore the more content on these streaming platforms, the more likely people are to stay listening to an artist rather than explore. Finally, the most important and impactful reasons is the attention span that listeners have in this era. According to a study by Jampp, the average human attention span decreases by a whopping 88 percent every year and Microsoft found that humans now have an attention span on eight seconds! The truth may be scary but musicians need to take this into consideration.

If people’s attention spans are dropping drastically, music is becoming this transient experience, meaning people listen to it as they are performing other tasks. You probably do it yourself; try to think of the last time you actually just sat down and only listened to music without doing anything else and you’ll be surprised! Now that people struggle to pay attention to long form content, you need to make sure a release strategy reflects this as you want to keep an audience’s attention for as long as possible.