Imagine the effort, energy, and resources you’ve poured into making good music. Then, on the release day, your target listeners are unaware of its existence. It’s all about planning your release day hype.
Ask successful artists and music promoters; they’ll tell you that the release day hype is the deal-breaker. There’s a lot the release day hype can do to make or break your release.
Don’t allow the anxiety and excitement of putting together a release rob you of the attention you need to give your release day hype. As a rule of thumb, until you are sure of what to do to generate enough hype, you should not set a release date. Your release date amounts to nothing if your album is not being anticipated before the release and trending on the release day.
Think of release day hype as charging a smartphone. It would be best if you did not unplug the charger until it’s 100%. You’ll be able to get the most out of your release day if you can get it to 100%, unlike when it’s just half full at 50%.
Here are five things you can do to create hype for your music;
1. Employ the Power of Storytelling For Release Day Hype
Everyone has a story to tell, the same way everyone loves stories. In the build-up to your release date, use whatever is unique about your new music to tell a story.
With storytelling, your music becomes more relatable, personal, and engaging.
It can be a spin-off that inspired you to write the music, where you were writing the music, or something significant that the music relates to in your life.
You’ll need to find answers to these questions and make a story out of it. With the story, the audience is already in love with your music even before the release date.
2. Create Visuals For Your Music Story
In the current music industry today, visuals have become important than ever.
This is why you’ll need to start your hype activities with a story. With a story in mind, it’ll be easier to develop corresponding images, videos, and even color schemes.
Being an indie artist, you need to help people understand your music by coming up with visuals to make people want to know you.
Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed at this point. Find the right professionals that can deliver.
Ensure your banners, posters, artwork, and merch are in sync with your story.
Let your story check out.
3. Don’t Wait Until the Eleventh Hour Before Uploading
To get it right with your music release hype, you’ll need to do away with all of the important distractions. One of such is the uploading of your music to your distributor.
As an indie artist, you can upload your music to Disctopia 4 to 6 years, even before the release date. With this, you can fully focus on the important task of building up the hype.
There’s no harm in having a release plan that spans an entire year.
4. Start Pitching to Playlist Editors
It would be best if you did not doubt the potency of playlists in building the hype for your release. However, pitching your music to playlist editors after the release is more of “medicine after death.”
Make it at least a couple of weeks before your release. This should be communicated to the playlist editors also.
Popular playlist editors get pitched thousands of tracks weekly, which is why you need to pitch well ahead of your release.
You are giving them enough time to listen and consider your music.
5. Release a Teaser to Create Release Day Hype.
Even if it’s going to be just a few seconds, you need to give your fans a teaser. Get them excited with an appetizer and make them wait it out.
More so, if you will be shooting a video for the song, release the video after you must have released the song. This will help to build the momentum of the song and keep your fans looking out for more.
Choose the part that you consider most appealing and emotionally enticing that should form your teaser.
Final Thoughts
Releasing music amidst hype takes a lot of planning, a skill that most artists do not possess. You can focus on making good music and leave the task of release to music promoters.
As an indie artist, the more you are able to hype up your release, the more you can reach even listeners that have never encountered your music.
