How Do I Commercially Release A Song?

Congratulations. You’ve finally done it. You’ve created musical content you deem worth being consumed by other people. This is not a Soundcloud freebee; you’d like to get paid authentic royalties for this.  It’s very important that before jumping into the release it’s made sure the implications of releasing the song are understood. Creators everywhere make things consistently that never see the light of day. As a Performance Artist, be sure to curate your material. When Commercial Albums are released, the content may be new to you, but many of those songs often span a stretch of 2 – 3 years in regards to their actual tracking. And surely there were hundreds of songs between that won’t see the light of day. When you release a record, it’s a reflection of your brand, your person, and your artistry. Ask yourself how you’d like to be perceived as you continue to unravel your discography for your core fan base. All records have a purpose or intent to them, especially in an Industry built on sales and recouping. No label spends money arbitrarily. The grandiose large scale music videos, dance routines, press coverage, all the way down to the graphics and studio time cost hours and resources. Have a vision ready for each record you make. When you’re first starting, with no financial backing, you’ll only have your own resources and as we know, these are much more finite than a corporate budget. Don’t waste your own time and money. 

Moving another step backwards, before it meets your standards (standards typically lower than an Executives or AnRs), ensure that it meets the Industry standards for any release. Referring back to resources, ensure that you’ve spent the appropriate amount on the most important part of the song creation process; paying the professionals who handle the creation of the music. Performance Artists often have a vision for their records that they feel competes with the ideas and concepts of the other participants, including their Producers, Engineers, Publishers, etc. If/when you’re signed or contracted or exchanging any products for money between your person and a larger corporate institution, you’ll need to learn to play well with others. In the efforts of remaining frank and honest, if you cannot contribute something to your creative process and someone else can and does, then you need to pay that person. Between your confederates and your team, feel free to exchange creative services for no charge. But around professionals, you’ll need to pay them and give them their share. 

Until you’re in a position of leverage or acclaim, no service should be expected to be free. Without going into too much detail on royalties, know that even if you don’t pay the professionals you hire, they’ll be entitled to a percentage of your profit, and it’s non-negotiable. The benefit of paying these individuals, however, is a high quality and properly mixed beat by your Producer, which is then mixed properly and to quality by your Mix Engineer, which creates the foundation for a strong Master by your Mastering Engineer. This process should be completed before you even consider releasing music. Artists like Xxxtentacion and several members of the Southern Florida camp have found success with rough, distorted, and unmixed vocals, but this was more stylistic to fit their Metal/HipHop fusion and as they found individual success their sonic quality improved. Make no excuses and spare no expense on creating professional products. 

Included in these professionals is your Graphic Designer who will create the Cover or Album art for your release. If you’re a Recording Artist, although iPhones and DSLR cameras are capable of capturing high resolution photographs, when it comes to text choice, adding design elements, placing your “Parental Advisory” vector, ensuring proper formats for Distribution services (many of them have requirements for achieving ideal cover art), and making something that doesn’t look shabby, you’ll want to defer to a Graphic Designer regardless. If you didn’t understand all of those aforementioned terms, this is a testament to why you should hire out instead of throwing together a cover made in MS Paint. To be honest, if you’re not working out of Procreate, Photoshop or another Adobe Suite application, or any program with masking capabilities really, then don’t take it upon yourself. You’re a Recording Artist. Stick to what you excel at.

The wisest A&R I’ve encountered in the Industry to date told me “…it’s really pointless to release music if you’re not going to promote them.” This is the epitome of Industry practice; an understanding that without sales support and generated awareness, have you really produced a record at all? Once you’ve completed your record you may be swept up in the excitement of its existence, without considering its longevity. Although it’s absolutely possible to do no promotion like we see with surprise Albums and Mixtapes or middle-of-the-week drops from our favorite artists, the Recording Artists responsible for these maneuvers typically benefit from being out of the blue due to their acclaim and longstanding fanbases.  f you haven’t built a fanbase yet, you’l find when your music drops promotion-less, it tends to idle before falling out of circulation quickly. We use promotion to create “buzz,” or anticipation.  When your release is on the mind of consumers they’ll be more likely to inform other consumers about said release, if not become more involved in the release process. This opens the door for merchandise and pre-sales, two very important facets of Music Sales that generate even more revenue for you. Many professional Recording Artists can make up the sunk costs of their albums production value through Pre-Sale alone. 

Never drop a song before promoting it, especially not hours after its creation. If you’re eager for your Record to be heard, shop the product to your close friends, family, and professionals in your network to get ears and feedback.  When it comes time to Promote, tools like Social Media, Paid Advertising, Visuals, Snippets and Teasers, and Triller Videos are indispensable. Your ability to utilize these tools will depend on your budget and resources and the standard for this well of allocated resources should be the same as you spent on Tracking, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering. Announce the Records impending arrival and tag as many relevant professionals as you can. Utilize your hashtags and research each Social Media platform’s advertising capabilities. Be creative with Viral Content.  Old school tactics like flyers, CDs, and guerrilla marketing via business cards and handouts are also viable, but less successful ultimately compared to the effort of creation and passing. Try to promote locally, statewide, regionally, and nationally to hit as many demographics as possible. It only takes one person showing two friends to grow your consumer market at an exponential rate. This law dictates that an initial consumption of 100 views can turn to 300 to 900 to 2,700 rapidly, as long as your material is quality and consumable. 

At this point, the only step left is to drop the track. If you’ve done Independent or Deal-Based Distribution, you typically have a date chosen for you or that you’ll chose for which to release. Due to Distribution sometimes taking up to a month for all physical copies to hit stores and streaming platforms to receive your record, try to properly time your promotion to coincide with the actual release of the song. Do NOT change dates, last minute. Unless you’re planning on adding a J. Cole verse to your song, your fanbase and consumers will immediately see this as a falter in consistency which makes you appear as a less organized, more amateur, and overall reduces public interest.  Should you encounter errors and roadblocks, navigate them swiftly and behind closed doors. However, If everything is completed in order and in a timely manner, it should be impossible to run into any hitches. 

Past releasing your track, continue steps and strides to simply repeat this process. For more developed Singles receiving more traction, throw in Music Videos. Your visuals should be prepped prior to any announcement of the song, if not very soon after that date. Many tracks are released with visuals as a way to increase promotion by giving another form of entertainment along with the Record itself, which is always the smartest move but significantly more costly, especially for the Amateur. The important part is ensuring quality and consistency. Any Record you release will reflect on who you are as an Artist, and the last thing you’ll want to appear is unprofessional. Poor Visuals, bad Cover Art, unmixed and unmastered tracks, and horrible scheduling are the easiest ways to waste your own money and time in the studio. In turn, since the consumer doesn’t like their time being wasted, they’ll be sure to skip your Social Media content and Promotion on their feed as well. It takes time to craft anything. Give your Record the attention it deserves.