This is why you really can't release DIY

I'm working with The Magnettes new single "American" and I just see all the things that a DIY artist really can't release right. It's not even possible with them knowing what is needed. In fact most are actually out there written out for free to grab. They can't really access all these channels needed.

Sure there is plenty of outlets for the DIY artist to reach Spotify and some other platforms. Why I just say Spotify is more that is the general DIY artist just cares about Spotify and really nothing else. They think as long it's on Spotify it will get discovered somehow.

Since there are almost 40 000 releases uploaded to Spotify each day. So just start with that you need to have the knowledge to release on a Friday when the official release day is. Just this week I have seen at least twenty DIY artists upload and release on other days. Sometimes even on holidays, like someone would take more notation about that. Just that simple thing can make the DIY release to just go wrong.

There are though so much more to the whole thing. The Magnettes releases in two weeks. Still the PR campaign has been going one for already four weeks. For this release we have six PR teams working on different territories. On top of that we have people doing market PR for just one country. In total the whole PR team is 16 people that need to be coordinated. Even before the single was correct mixed and master, demo versions went out to different teams to determine if they were interested to work with it at all.

For a DIY artist you can't even reach these teams. they only work with artists that are released by professionals because they have all their assets together. I just took a non-scientific survey with our release team on the digital distribution and asked them how many artists actually had all their assets together? One out of a hundred was their conclusion. Can it really be that hard?
For a single, you need, single master, press photos five of them, a front cover for the single, a lyric video, a video, and a press release. It's really not that hard. this is the basic. We saw that in the DIY artists out of 100 releases none had the basics covered. Instead we had to go back and ask for basic stuff.

To make this harder. That was just the basics. On top of this you need to update all your social media, homepages with new material, press stuff, and other things. The five photos should be in a way that it's in different formats so it can fit most situations. The video should be ready before the release of the single, not after release. The biography should contain some cool line that makes people want to read about it, not just that you release a new single. It should contain quotes from the artist and quotes from media on your earlier releases.

Then you have all the hidden outlets. On The Magnettes case I have now added them to 25 different upload places for radio, so the song is in the system. I have also presented the new song to over 250 music supervisors so it can be added to commercials, tv series, movies. And for that I need to have even more assets together like right ownerships, instrumental and clean versions. Then I also have been on our special teams that handle Youtube, so the song can be placed with influencers. I also pre-cleared it for use in sports events. Everywhere it's played it counts. I have also set up all the accounts to measure all the PR activities that we are driving to see what is working and not working.

I have a special relationship with our aggregator so I have personally spoken to them to add this release as a priority release. This can't even be done at a DIY artist aggregator. On top of that I have spoken to my contacts on different outlets, so like china speed on the process so it's on their servers faster. I have pitched it to Spotify and added it to Shazam. Updated Wikipedia. I have also cleared the lyrics so any site that handles lyrics has the right version and on that we get paid every time it's looked at.

Also, I have presented the song for over 1000 industry people to find new ways and stuff to get the songs heard in different ways. These contacts are personal so it's very hard for a, DIY artist, or just tap into this vast amount of contacts.

This is just a small part of all the things that a record label a professional manger does around an artist. In the end releasing as DIY artists are impossible. These outlets are not open to the self-releasing community.

No it's not just that your song is on Spotify. In The Magnettes case we also have secured Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, Tencent and more. Things that we have because of our huge network of people. This is also the reason why a full campaign takes almost 10 weeks to go through. The average DIY is mainly put it up with one-week notice and do a couple of Instagram and Facebook posts. No as you guessed that is not enough.

And this is just the basics. We haven't even talked about that your song also has to be good!

This is what you need to release.

It's incredible how many artists don't have their things together. I was putting up artists on our festival and we use a site that you can upload your pictures, bio, and links. Okay, I can understand that you feel that is much to upload every other site now and then, but you really need a homepage that has certain things.

I counted, out of ten artists I uploaded only two had all the things I was looking for. Only one out of ten had it uploaded on the page where I was supposed to find it. In the end, this can be the reason why you don't book your band. If not all the things are there it cost me time and money to find your stuff. I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and had to go out and find pictures on other sites. I don't know if these pictures are okay for the artist or if there is a copyright on to them. I don't know if these are press pictures or picture a magazine has taken for their interview. Bio is the same thing, most of the time I just went to Facebook and took the bio there. In many cases that is what they wrote when they started the page and was not that updated.

Many artists think that we can contact them and get this info from them. There is no time for this when you have a thigh deadline and must release the next morning. You really expect that these things are on their homepage. If not it’s not a professional artist. Instead, you just know that some will come back and nag that it's the wrong bio or picture that is on the homepage. And you also will hold a grudge against them since they are not professional enough to provide you with what you need, instead they criticize that you have taken the time and effort to correct the artist mistake.

When I book, I sometimes just ignore artists when they haven't uploaded the right things for me. I know how much work it is and it's not worth all the time even how good your music is. Just that you don't have it just prove you are not professional. So why bother to book your band. I can easily move along and get the same quality artists with everything uploaded. This is the reason why people like to work with professional agencies since they can deliver what you need. To be fair we don't ask for much.

What you need is a working homepage. No, it's not good enough with a picture that says "coming soon" or a picture of you with links to your social media like Facebook, Instagram, Spotify. We can't get what we need on any of these social media things. The worst is the ones that but a domain name and then link it to their Facebook page.

You need press pictures on your site. Several of the artists had pictures. But they had put them in programs so they would slide nicely, but with that, you can't download them. You really need to have some pictures that you can download in high resolution. If not, people will start to take pictures that you can't control or old pictures that are outdated. This is as crucial as tuning your instrument.

Bio, yes, we need a short bio. Not updating your own bio on your homepage is darn stupid. This is the place where you look to find the latest and most reason bio, I don’t want to use Facebook or Instagram for that. In reality, if you don't have this, stop releasing music. If you are good you have two different versions one long and one short, the short is only 500 characters long.

Links, yes you need links but not to Spotify or Facebook so much (they are good if they are there. You need them to your YouTube. You know how many times I look for a video and don't know what version it is, or even the right artist (the artist is sometimes so fancy pants, so they are not in the picture you know). It's not hard to embed videos to your homepage so doing that I not even need the links.

Then SoundCloud, I guess fifty percent didn't have a SoundCloud link. All linked to their Spotify. You know what. Spotify is not that good to link into since many countries don't have it or you need an account to hear the right song. That is why many bloggers use Soundcloud. If you don't embed that or link to it, yes it can be hard to find depending on the artist name. No Spotify is not really a page that you need to link to that much.

Your upcoming gigs. Also, this can be crucial and there are so many sites that update on your homepage automatically like Songkick so there is no reason whatsoever not to have your upcoming gigs on the homepage. Same with done gigs. Yes, it is interesting for me as a booker to see that you played on that cool festival. It can be the difference between I book you or not book you.

So do a nice homepage, doesn't need to be flashy, you can buy your domain for almost nothing and use Wix. You need press photos, a bio, and links. That's it, the sad part seems that even this simple task is hard for many artists to grasp.

Get these blogs updates straight to your mail.
Enter your email address:

Changing the rules of release again!

We got information from Spotify that they wanted releases six months ahead right before Christmas. Well, not a big chance that artist actually would submit stuff that early. But most record labels recommended ten weeks at least as lead time.

I was in London in meetings and the band and I was on a dinner with some people on very high positions on a major record company and the band was asking about when their favorite artists would release their next record since they know these guys are the PR team.

- Well not tomorrow!
- What do you mean with not tomorrow?
- Right now we actually get most information for release around 48 hours before. So it won't be tomorrow.

This is the biggest artists there is and the record labels get the info of a release 48 hours before? Yes it was true, they got the info so late. Of course, this is so big artists that they just have to say that they will do something and they get recognition on social media. But the strategy is not to get the fans excited beforehand. People don't have the long attention span so right now they are working that the release comes so fast so when the fans hear about it they actually can find it on Youtube or Spotify.

The PR starts directly after that when people can find something to listen to.

The problem is to organize all teams so fast. That is not easy and many other artists become bumped just because a big artist just decided to release that week.

Well, this won't work for a small or even a midsize artist. But you can see how things change so fast, was right two months ago is now totally changed again. In the end, I guess no one knows really what is going on or how it's done.

Get these blogs updates straight to your mail.
Enter your email address:

Don't stress you gonna keep it for life.

Every week there is an artist that wants to take something off the distribution. If you ask why in 80% they are redoing it or improve the release.

- we will just master the track, we didn't have time for that when we released.

- we want to change the picture, we have done a much better one now.

Both things I hear very often.

Stop stress out releases. No one is really waiting. Just because your best friend think it was a while ago you released something you don't have to act on it. You have to live with this release for eternity so make it right from the beginning. Wait to get the right mix and master. Have time to take the right pictures for the cover (as well as press).

It's not good to take releases up and down all the time just because you want to change things.
Do it right from the beginning so keep calm and don't be to excited the product should stay for life.

No, a business plan doesn't make you professional!

When I meet other people in the industry, there are certain things you can just say and they all nod and roll their eyes.

First is the planning. Artist seems to think to have a well-structured plan will make them look professional. The big mistake is that the plan is not correct in any way and can easily put into pieces seems to be nothing they are afraid of.

They start off with, we should release a new album by may.
- Okay, do you have the songs ready?
- No, we will write those next month.
- Well, maybe you won't write that good song next mouth. And what makes you so sure that you can write as many as twelve good songs?
- We have planned to have an album out in may!
- Good but you plan things that are not there. The songs are not written, produced, recorded. And that is ALWAYS delayed. On top of that, you need promo pictures a couple of videos and a PR budget. In the end, we start planning your release when you have all these assets in your hand?

You can never really plan these things. In the end, may next year maybe is a shitty place to release on for some reason. Also release in may is a kind of crappy place to release on anyway because it's too late to book on the album to festivals. The only time you can do that is the album is ready now and you can already send it to bookers and talk that the release will happen, but to do that you need everything ready. So saying to release in may you need to have týour shit together in November.

Somewhere someone has told these people that a business plan is a thing to do. And yes it is but they are structured totally different than your average seven eleven. An artist career is depending on so many things that will come along the way that these plans just wishful thinking and nothing you really can work with. 

Second is our music is great. I guess deep down inside they have doubts, but on the outside, they all seem to think they are god gift to mankind on the music front. The truth is, no they are not. And even if they where it will need a hell of a lot of PR to get it out there anyway. And also if everything is perfect there is nothing to learn and it will be really really boring.

Right now when there are more channels than ever to get out to. The plans will be longer and harder to predict. At the same time, the most artist has learned by digital standards you can release stuff instantly. These worlds will collide it's the time for that right now.

The change of release schedule.

We are writing a new album now. And we will tour again in March 2019.

Artists that write like that I guess doesn't have a cell phone just a pager. Since the touring cycle that they are talking about is from 1985.

Okay, let's be clear about it. It's not writing time, recording time, Pr time release time and tour with that album time. That is as normal as having a phone stuck with a cord to the wall.

Today you write all the time. You need more material so everything happens at the same time. Somethings are on hold some are ongoing. Still, it's all the time. If you only can focus on one thing at the time, you out of the game.

So forget the myth of sitting and write songs to next album sipping wine. Or a fully booked schedule for three months and then it's done.

No, we are here working full time all the time.

Vlog about tip-off how to release music in the correct way.

Why not rush releases. Tip-off how to release music in the correct way. How to get people NOT listen to a song. How much time is needed for a release?
#Tokyo #Release #DIY

You don't lose on the delay!

I have been working on a song that got stuck in the system for a couple of days. It got me thinking when this happens and you don't have a great person behind it. In the case I'm on right now the artist is great but I have meet worse cases.

Errors always happen. You can't get around it. If you release on a certain date and it won't happen well it's not good but not the end of the world.
Many times you get from the artist when it happens that it's so important with this release and now they have lost so many people not listening to it.
This argument is so bloody boring. People won't be, ohh it's not out 5 of September I will never listen to that song. And your old stats show that your past three releases have not gone over 1000 listens on Spotify and you have 16 followers and 50 monthly listeners. I don't think this release is so special that it would draw a million streams.

Many big bands actually use the tactic of just release the song and let the audience find it.

But we had a release party and it was not on Spotify. Well, that is also kind of dumb, you had the master play it in the speakers get the email addresses and send a message to them when it's up.

Yes, turn all the delay to your advantage instead of acting like a victim.

No, you didn't lose several thousand dollars on that release being delayed. Don't give me that crap.