Advice on Album release plan and which digital distribution?

The Lounge General Discussion
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Hi, sorry for the long title….

I’m going to release an album for my new project in the beginning of 2024.

It’s my first solo release so I feel that I need a little advice from you guys on planing the release and which distribution to use.

I been putting out records as a part of bands for the past 10 years but it has always been on small indie labels and in a different genre than electronic music.
This time I doing everything myself and it’s quiet a mouthful so I thought that I better ask for some tips and advice here on elektronauts.

I plan to release an 9 track Album but also 3-4 of the tracks are suitable as singles and I want the put them out supported by videos.

So I’m a bit undecided about what should come first, the whole Album or a string of singles/videos and then the Album.

How do you plan your releases and in which order do you release?

How long a gap between the singles would you plan on and do you release the singles first as audio and then as video( to create more momentum/hype)?

I’m gonna put the album up on Bandcamp but im also interested in the opportunity to putting it up on the streaming services as Spotify, Tidal etc….

So I’ve been looking into the digital distribution offerings like Distrokid and Ditto, leaning towards Ditto.

It looks like you can plan your release date “better” on Ditto as in choosing a specific date for the release/s.

I also have another project that I want to release in Q3 of 2024 which is a collaboration and Ditto offer a way to split money/ royalties easier.

Some say Ditto is slower with uploading but more transparent regarding cost vs Distrokid…

What is your experiences with the digital distribution services and streaming platforms?

Are you using Distrokid or Ditto or something else and why?

I know that I’m not going to make a lot of money on streaming but think that it’s important to be available on the platform at least as an opportunity for others to find the music and listen.

I would really appreciate any tips and suggestions/ experiences you have gained from your own releases.

Pros and cons. Dos and don’t

Thanks

Ringo

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I’m a big fan of Traxx.Space the guy that runs it is a fellow elektronaut and has been very cool to work with. I’ve made 500+ using them, I don’t know why

Also they have a free plan where they only take 10% of your royalties made from sales/streaming setup from their site.

As far as the method of when to release, its suggested to give yourself 1.5 months from your first release.

Thats all I know

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Singles come before albums. Space em out 3 weeks or so in between.

Most of the distro services all do the same thing. Heard good things about Distrokid, most folks I know use it.

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The top four previous topics from this search may be of interest to you:
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=music%20distribution

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…ditto and distrokid are not first choice…a publisher, no label, but a publisher would be better…
but in many cases, that might be not possible…
sounds like ditto would do the trick for u…so stick to that solution…for now…
if there’s any option for at least some direct monetary returns, bandcamp is best solution for lonely sonic fighters anyways…
while sure, visibility/availibilty on streaming farms is a good thing, even given the fact, that there’s no real returns to hope for…

release the album whatsoever, but then start to focus on ur focus tracks…formerly known as singles…that singles must drop upfront, before an album is oldschool business thinking and kind of a myst and obsolete these days, if u don’t go along with a properly managed and paid for dedicated promo campaign…
but u need visual content for each of them, no matter what…
u need a u tube channel, no matter what…
u need various snippets of ur videos for tiktok/u tube shorts/insta…and therefor an account for those…where u start posting frequently…
always with links to the album…
look around and find suitable hashtags for what u feel ur standing for/wanna be associated within ur genre and beyond ur music…attach those always to all ur content…
prepare all that for the first focus track…and then start dropping the snippets…
at least for 3 weeks…
then u can slowly start to drop all that for the next focustrack…
pick wisely, since within the streamingfarms ecosystem, u have only one focustrack shot…
but that’s not the place where the traffic, if any, really happens…traffic happens with the snippets first…if they all lead/link to the album, that’s pretty much all u can do…
never be too obvious in comunicating click me click me click me…understatement and confidence will suit u better…but keep an eye on how frequent and various u post…
apart from delivering solid sexy hexy whatsoever music in first place, make sure ur visual content always supports that in somewhat suitable and various fashion…
if u see any option to join forces with any other conent creators u like or feel familiar with, that are willing to use same snippets of ur music also for underlaying to their content, willing to link u properly, do it…multiplication in self promoting wonderland has many many faces and always goes mysterious ways…

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Jesus how does anyone find time to do all that shit, and still make music?

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Srsly.

You work a full time job and then…

I have to create a video, visuals, networking, and so many things.

So that I can finally have some free time in my free time to work on music

Edit: what if you have a family to take care of?

Then you’re limited to your free time within your free time and your free time within that to work on music

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How does it work when releasing singles first on Spotify/Itunes and it later being part of an album/EP?

Is this a function you can select when uploading the first single? Or do you already need to upload the whole album first and select dates for the singles to be released before?

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Thanks friends

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Thanks @Ryan
I’ll look into this opportunity and see if it’s something that would work for me.

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Wow @reeloy thanks for taking the time to answer and provide all this information.

I need to go through it a couple of times to really grasp it all but I think it’s interesting thinking reg the focus tracks and album before the singles. Especially the latter is opposite what we would normally do in the Indie world.
But I’m open to new things and learning

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Thanks @PeterHanes.

I’ll check them out

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Making videos may take a looong time. So make them, then release one by one. Don’t release the album then ask yourself how to make that video thing ( like I use to do)

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Thanks for the advice @pumpkin_head

Yeah it is something I haven’t planed well in the past and often ended up with not creating anything due to time running out.

But I think I got that part of the plan covered and will dedication December for the video production and shorts/snips(as @reeloy suggested)

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…yup…this is all a big mess of paradigm shifts…

there’s no real album market anymore…formerly known as ep’s are the new album…
almost no one anymore really listens to a whole album…while a 3 to 6 track collection still might do…

once u were promoting ur album with tourdates…nowadays, ur album is promoting ur tourdates…
u might even had different plans and timeframes for different locations globally…
but that’s all out of the window…even blockbusters try their best to nail first public appearance on one same date globally, due to the fact, once it’s out there, it’s out there…
there is simply no album/tour once a year and then every two or three years cycle anymore…
that’s all last century business style and long gone…

once it was better, to count down to big release dates and a certain single, or even two released upfront “…from the forthcoming album…” was a real thing to consider…not anymore…not really…in some rare cases, sure, it still might do some trick, but nah…as mentioned, if there’s no real professional promoplan involved, with clear strategies of when where what, far beyond plain release dating, including dedicated multiplication factors with cross promo and appearance formats, it’s pretty much worthless…

in a world, where every single day sees at least 50thousand next new releases, it all became a niche of a niche thing, if ur not backed up by some bigger players…and even then, there’s still only a few that can really make a cut…while even the biggest names don’t last that long anymore in the fast fashion fame game and even millions and millions of clicks and likes never pays out like it would have in physical sales of any kind…

for the average single artist or artist collective of any sort, u need to focus, have a serious 360 artistic concept to endorse and do all the work besides ur music of former essence on ur very own somehow…no way around it…and sure, that means, u must be at least rich already, when it comes to time u have at ur disposal to do so…

so, always work with what is there…don’t overthink ur album, no real need to spent time and effort to nail at least 8 or even 12 tracks first of all to feel ready to get started…for most genres, 3 to 5 will totally do…u still got the option to think in artistic mainframe album concepts, but win the real option to cut short, which is way better/easier and healthier for any artistic mindset to grasp forward in all these shorter and shorter product cycles and distraction fights for overall attention…

so nope, just drop ur album in almost silence but all over the place (as said, it better be “cut in half” to be a once called ep and therefor u can last longer through each year/promocycle with feeding off from the content u created) at any point in time and then do anything possible to promote/multiply ur piece of art with single focus tracks taken from that collection…

and since so so many out there try to shout out as loud as possible but ur genre might not be really that LOUD and in ur face at all by nature, take the understatement and patient way to do so…

keep in mind, in a world where everything is NEW!!!, nothing’s new for real anymore…
so try to be ur very own timeless classic…push forward for the need of frequently appearance, oook, but never hussel urself with the feeling u need to rush…the last luxury ressort to have for real, is time…
so don’t exhaust urself and inner artist soul and take UR time…

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If you do it all under your own steam, tell the world via social media there will be a release date for whatever it is your planning.
Keep dropping stuff on social media with snippets to gain some interest (if at all possible) in the run up to releases.
So get your artwork and vids and other media sorted well in advance.
Use Distrokid. It’s easy, fast and reliable imo. I didn’t have any issues with the platform.
The real work is in constantly having to push an image or a theme that can be easily found and disseminated.
The music will matter more to you but that ironically is not really the point of the industry anymore so if you are clueless in terms of promotion forget everything I’ve just said and try to find someone else to represent you and who will do all that shit for you while you concentrate just on making music.

edit. You can plan release dates via Distrokid for the various platforms. Atleast the last time I released something a year ago that was the case.

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Another tip if you do use Distrokid. This may be the same for Ditto (I have no idea)…
Do you have a Youtube ‘artist account’? If not, set one up in advance. It can take time to be accepted and you need to do some upload work in advance for it to be accepted. The reason I am telling you about this is because the distribution services allow you the option to upload your tracks to Youtube and if you cannot couple an artist account when you do that it will create a ‘topic’. Your tracks will be available to listen to individually on YT (with just your artwork as static image). You can then later merge the topic with your artist account if you want to.
Another ironic thing about this (and possibly a good thing for you as an artist) is that YT will put adverts before your track plays and because it’s new material it will be softly promoted when you first do it without you even knowing about it. Personally I hate advertising on YT but I was none the wiser and you will find out later when you see that you have made a little bit of money simply through what appears to be random clicks or access to your media online and the revenue is provided via the adverts.
Totally fucking bizarre but hey I made a little money doing almost nothing to promote my music, generated purely through YT ads. That money easily paid for my annual Distrokid subscription and quite a few beers :wink:

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Nice tip @jasl, love beers! ; )

I have a YT account where I been posting blibs and blobs but I think it’s not a dedicated artist YT account.

I guess they are not the same?

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I am not sure as I am not super savvy with it all - check the settings as there may be a way to apply / upgrade it if needed. The fact that you already have media uploaded is a plus though.

edit - I just had a quick check and it may be that you have to apply for it via the distribution service but you may be able to couple your existing account.

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Thanks, yes I’ll check the settings on my YT