The Music Industry Podcast
The Music Industry Podcast
What to realistically expect from a debut release
What if your debut music release could exceed all your expectations? Join us as we uncover the secrets to navigating the music industry's complex landscape with strategies that transform dreams into reality. We guarantee insights into achieving commendable streaming numbers while demystifying the elusive world of playlist placements. Forget the myths about New Music Friday; our focus shifts to the power of genre-specific playlists and the crucial role of specialized distributors like CD Baby, TuneCore, and DistroKid in pitching your music effectively. Discover the nuances of engaging Spotify's algorithmic playlists and the importance of genuine playlist growth to avoid the traps of fake streams and algorithm disruption.
Our episode takes a deep dive into building a strong social media presence from the ground up on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. We provide actionable strategies for crafting consistent, quality content that drives long-term engagement, even when immediate follower growth might seem elusive. Hear from debut artists about their release experiences and learn what to realistically expect in terms of streams, social media traction, and press coverage. By sharing these stories, we foster a supportive community of artists learning from one another's journeys. Subscribe for more insights and let us guide you through your musical debut with confidence and clarity.
Welcome back to the Music Industry Podcast. In today's episode we're talking a little bit more about a debut release. So if you're an artist where you are looking to release your debut release, this is going to be a great one for you. If you have released before, this one is also going to be fitting for you, because we talk about ways that you can promote your music and what to expect from those early stage releases. So, whatever stage you're at, this one's going to be useful for you. If you are looking to promote your music, whether it's a debut, whether you're a little bit further down the line, then you can inquire with us. We're a music marketing agency. We can help with that growth, with getting those streams, getting those listeners up. So you can inquire via the form on our site.
Speaker 2:Today we're talking about what to expect on your first release. You've never released music before literally your debut release, and I before literally your debut release. And I'd say, as a music marketing company, that's essentially our specialty. Whenever a major label inquires, it's normally a debut release.
Speaker 2:I don't really know why that's ended up happening for us, maybe like on their supplier system or something like yeah, all the development artists we're given you search debut release marketing company and we must be like the top one, because that's always what you never get the weekend cold play or something easy like that and on that subject is very hard on your first release to actually get initial exposure. So we're going to go through every aspect of your career and discuss what to expect from it, from your debut release let's go for streams, because that's the one that everyone's obsessed with.
Speaker 1:Um, the expectations that we usually see for a debut release is, I don't know, around 10k. I think that's what most people want to hit on their debut release, which 10 000 people is a huge, huge number it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:that's higher than I was going to go. Actually, I was going to say something around 5 000 would be good, but there are a lot of variables to expect.
Speaker 1:So, for example, editorials you know I've seen editorials on a debut release Back in the day it was really, really doable, like I would say, we would probably get like 40% success rate because we could pitch them directly and things like that. There was less competition, whereas now, now you're talking like well over 100 000 tracks a day uploaded and the tier system with spotify means that you don't really stand much of a chance for the debut unless you've got an angle like a big tiktok following.
Speaker 2:you've supported a big artist which 99 of artists debuting haven't done yet and I would say, if you do want to try and get on those editorials for debut release but bearing in mind it's very difficult to do I would say you need to find a distributor that is specialist, doesn't take on many artists but are going to pitch you and get you in front of their contacts at spotify. So, for example, we had the guys on from I.
Speaker 1:I idol, idol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had the guys on from idol who, if you can get in touch with someone like that, who is going to pitch you, who is going to support you?
Speaker 1:the orchard, all of those sort of distributors where it's not you're just paying for them to distribute your track. But very difficult to do, but doable yeah and we're not affiliated with any of them.
Speaker 2:We don't have a bias towards any of them either, so we don't recommend a particular one. In a couple of years time, I think I would like us to start our own distribution service but that's a few years from now. So for now, I would say, just look at those special ones that Maddy's just mentioned.
Speaker 1:If you are going to go with a DistroKid, a TuneCore one, where you pay for them to just upload it, make sure you do it really far in advance. Contact them directly to give you access to your Spotify for Artists, because if you don't, they'll give you access to your artist profile on the day of release, which means you didn't get the opportunity to pitch to editors and, like we said, it's very difficult to get a debut on editorials. But there's still a chance, so you still want to be able to submit.
Speaker 2:And if you can't get on any specialist distributors, people always ask which is the best one. I lean this. It's very close, but I lean towards cd baby. Um, their customer service has been the best. We do know when we speak to the editors at the streaming platforms that they do get direct pictures from cd baby still. So for me I'm kind of giving them free money with this plug, but from my side I think it's it's the best. Um, in terms of editorials, you're not going to get like new music friday. New music friday in your country.
Speaker 1:You might get something like hot new bands or fresh finds at the very most I'd say also I don't believe new music friday is the one to aim for anyway. From an algorithm perspective, it's actually not going to benefit you because you are alongside so many artists with so many different genres that if you are placed there you are probably going to get skipped more than if you're on a genre specific editorial. So that's something to keep in mind. Don't just aim for new music friday always because it's not the best one. It's. It's great for credibility, but it's not like the end goal. It's not going to be.
Speaker 2:You're not going to see huge spike in streams from that one uh, do you want to touch on algorithm pickup as well in terms of? Should discover weekly be picked up on debut release?
Speaker 1:yeah. So the algorithm is difficult to trigger in itself, let alone with the debut. So with things like release radar, that will show up if someone follows you on spotify or if they've played loads of your songs. So as a debut artist, that's just not going to happen. So I wouldn't rely too heavily on that. The discover weekly you can potentially get that to trigger later down the line. Obviously it's not going to trigger on release day, but you can get it to trigger later down the line if you do get some playlist placement. I think that's something worth discussing.
Speaker 1:Getting user curated playlists because this is a hot topic at the moment. It's an absolute mess out there, but it can be beneficial to to get on these user curated playlists because that's your best way of triggering the algorithm. If you're on the right playlists and that's the most important thing the right playlist, like the big number ones that you can submit to and submit hub one, are they legitimate? Are the streamers in the countries that you want them to be, and are they actually streaming your style of music? Because if you're on I don't know a movie soundtrack and you're not actually in that movie soundtrack, you're going to get skipped. It's not your style of music. It's not beneficial for the algorithm, so those user curated ones are only useful if it's the right genre and they're legitimate listeners I think that's's a very key.
Speaker 2:Keep it genre specific. If you are folk, aim for folk playlists. This is for your debut release. Just let the algorithm learn who you are, what your sound is like and what type of fans and listeners like you. That is more key than the numbers at your debut release.
Speaker 1:The difficult thing is explaining how to get on those playlists because, in this case, I'd say in the last three years, it's got to a point where it's very, very difficult to find legitimate playlists.
Speaker 2:I work on the principle of fake until proven legit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because what you will find is you can use platforms like Chartmetric and Spot on Track and they have bought followers over time or they're running ads in really cheap countries, so you can't actually guarantee that they are legitimate, or or they're streamers that you actually want to get, because there is no point getting a ton of listeners in countries you're never going to play live. All it's doing is boosting your numbers and then it's going to confuse the algorithm and you're an english artist and it's pushing you out to countries that you don't want to be pushed out to and this is company coming from a company who shut down their own playlist search tool.
Speaker 2:We were making money from that search tool and we thought, no, this isn't right. It went through months of a case of people weren't actually able to find legit playlists. So we thought, no, it's not good for artists. So that's why we actually own our own playlist now, and that is at least we know from the core that it's all organic and there will be potentially some playlists out there that are doing a similar thing, that, like, they've grown their own playlists.
Speaker 1:However, you've got to think like, why are they doing it? If they are taking a huge payment from you and then spending that on ads, yep, okay, that might make sense, but if they are just placing you on for like five dollars, that's not cost effective for them, it's not legitimate. So you have to think about the how they are benefiting from this ad. Um, how they've grown their following. Ask to see proof of that. Because someone just saying like, oh, people search for it and found it. It doesn't happen anymore. Like, usually they're a creator on socials or they're running ads and they're an actual agency or a media platform. So that's the best way to kind of check if someone's legitimate, look at how they're growing the playlist and ask for proof of it, rather than just kind of hoping that it is legit, because you could potentially lose your profile and get the track pulled down and if that's your debut release, that's your one shot and you've kind of lost it moving on Instagram, I would say that let's assume you're on somewhere between 100 to 500 followers.
Speaker 2:It's your personal account for now, or you've created a new artist account. Whatever you want to do, that's completely up to you. I would not expect many followers from the streams itself. I've got a really good video and I'll link it at the end of this video which is your journey to breaking as an artist and that shows you where you're going to get your followers from in relation to your streams, your TikTok, any kind of influencer marketing, that kind of thing Very good for understanding when everything's going to come into each other, but do not expect huge amounts of followers in the early stages.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to work very hard on reels to be able to get those instagram followers in plus, even if you're getting very good streams on streaming platforms, the chances of them trickling down to your instagram yet is quite slim because they've heard one track. It's a long-term plan you have to have in place, which means multiple releases, getting them really hooked on your music before they even trickle down to socials. So, yes, you're going to get a few that will dm you being like oh, I found you on this playlist or my friend recommended it and that's, that's a gold. Make sure you reply to those dms, interact with those people. But it's not going to be huge numbers trickling down yet. You've got to kind of treat this as building the foundations, like like a pinterest account.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like just post it's just this is your first post, this is your first thing, so it needs to be on brand. It needs to be the sound that you like, the style you're going to stick with, because if people discover that, they will stick around. But you have to keep proving yourself to them, so constantly releasing that good quality music so they can trickle down on socials and engage with you. But they're also not going to engage if the content's not good. And, like you said, reels are the best way to do that. They're not too time consuming, you can post them as often as you like and the return you get for those is huge.
Speaker 2:It's immense Better than.
Speaker 1:TikTok, I would say now.
Speaker 2:And don't go posting clips of your music video and things like that on your reels. It's not going to get pushed out. If you want to perform your track on a reel and put some text which is going to engage people, then that is the best way for you to get to a new audience. I don't even expect people to really find that track and go stream it, but you might get some followers from it. So I would still do that and still be pleased with the results, but I wouldn't expect anything to completely blow up from there.
Speaker 1:I've done a full video on Instagram. Make sure you watch the recent one, because the algorithm's always changing, so the recent one is fitting to the current algorithm and you might find that useful for the reels.
Speaker 2:In terms of Instagram stories. I wouldn't go plugging on Instagram stories. You're not going to get the views and also I would only essentially have a story live for the sake of showing new people that your account is active. However, I wouldn't go trying to create content for stories at this point, because all of your resources should be going into Reels, because Reels are what gets pushed out to your non-followers.
Speaker 1:TikTok is a little different. You can actually expect to see quite significant growth on there, I believe, because you don't actually have to link it directly to that one release. Plus, you can be a lot more repetitive than on Instagram, because on Instagram it's hitting your current audience every time. Tiktok is not guaranteed to hit the audience that follow you, so you can just rinse and repeat that same video. If it's good quality, if it's linking back to the track, you can literally just promote as much as you want on there, which is gold for an artist to hear. So make sure you're on that platform. If you're not, populate both TikTok and Instagram before you even release as well, because if people discover your music and they trickle down onto it and there's nothing there, they're not going to follow. If it looks like you've had the account for quite a while, that's definitely going to work for you.
Speaker 2:Press. We recommend a little bit of press in terms of SEO. If people are going to Google your name or this is mainly for people who are looking to book you for like live shows or something like that that is more useful for it. You're not going to get followers, you're not going to get streams from it. We offer press as a service, but we don't really push our clients towards it, especially in the early stages of their career.
Speaker 1:so press is essentially just for seo and a bit of credibility, but I wouldn't go further than that I would say and I've seen it firsthand multiple times getting a large piece of coverage, not notion clash wonderland, who do feature debut artists. Um, there's a direct correlation between getting that and getting an editorial, which is mad, it sounds cheapish the industry is, but it's how it works. So if you have the budget to do that sort of thing, great, I would suggest doing it, just for that credibility, the industry to kind of take you seriously.
Speaker 2:But it's, it's not needed and finally, there are plenty platforms out there that are supporting new artists, so I would recommend going on to those and seeing if you can get something on there, for example, bbc introducing in your area. Just submit to that. We've got amazing radio in the uk as well. I think that might be worldwide actually. So and then australia.
Speaker 1:You have triple j like look into the country you're in and what uploaders there are. There are plenty of platforms as well where you can pay for tokens and you can submit to things. I wouldn't recommend doing it they've all gone to shit yeah, they're over, they're oversaturated.
Speaker 1:There are so many artists on there. There are so many blogs, radios, playlists, all of this on there and they're making money from it, from how many submissions they take doesn't mean that you have to post about them, so I wouldn't say it's a good use of your budget or your time. If you you're going to do those things, just do it personally. It's more time consuming, but you've got a better chance of actually getting some success and building a relationship with that person.
Speaker 2:And make your own playlist as well. If you're submitting a playlist on those submission platforms, look at how they grew theirs and then do it yourself, because for me, at least you know it's organic, at least you know where your fans are coming from. Know where your fans are coming from, at least you could potentially retarget and they become a fan of your music.
Speaker 1:so so much power there as well yeah, and you own all of the data, and that is just something that you could never have from pitching to another one. I think it'd be really useful if everyone put in the comments what happened with their debut release. If you released already, just so other artists can kind of see what to expect, like what streaming numbers did you get within the first couple of months? Did you see how much social growth did you see? Any press like let us know in the comments what you saw from your debut release, just so other artists can see and can know what to expect thanks very much for watching and subscribe.
Speaker 2:If you're not already, drop it a like if you found this useful and we'll see you in the next video.