08/17/2026
Dear Artists,
Do these steps with your music and keep repeating them. Pay attention to each step because they all matter, and every time you go through the process you should be learning something from the last release.
As an artist, you’re a creator, so the first step is very important of course.
1. Creating better music
Write better songs, keep improving, record your music properly and make sure your production is on point. Be unique and develop your own sound. Focus on making quality music before thinking so much about promotion because promotion can get someone to listen, but you still need good music when they get there.
2. Planning before releasing the music
Before you release music, have some kind of strategy. Plan what you’re going to do before and after the release. Decide your release date, what kind of content you’re going to make, how you’re going to promote it, what your budget is and what you actually want to accomplish with the release.
Don’t wait until the song comes out to start thinking about all of this.
3. Register the music
Before you release your music, make sure the business side is handled too.
Figure out your splits and ownership, make sure the information on the song is correct and handle whatever copyright, PRO, publishing and royalty registrations apply to you.
Don’t make the mistake of waiting for a song to start doing numbers before you decide to figure this stuff out. You don’t want to learn the hard way.
4. Release the music
Distributing music nowadays is easier than it used to be, but make sure everything is ready before you send it in.
Have your artwork ready, make sure your metadata and credits are correct, make sure you’re using the right master and give yourself enough time before the release date.
5. Promote the music
Don’t just drop your song and relax hoping people are somehow going to find it.
This is where a lot of artists go wrong. I’ve seen good songs sitting at less than 100 plays simply because hardly anybody knows they exist.
Use social media, playlists, radio, blogs, influencers, live performances, interviews, collaborations, advertising or whatever makes sense for you and your audience.
You also need to be careful with playlists or services promising guaranteed streams. Not every number is a real listener and fake streams aren’t going to build your career.
And please stop promoting a song for three days and moving on. Keep promoting it as long as you’re finding new ways to put it in front of people.
6. Engage with your supporters
Don’t just release music and go quiet.
Respond to comments, reply to messages when you can, thank people who share your music and talk to the people who continue showing up.
If somebody keeps supporting what you’re doing, let them know you appreciate it.
7. Analyze so you can improve
Study your results.
Go into your streaming analytics and social media insights. Look at where your listeners are coming from, what content did better, what people shared, what they saved and what didn’t really get a reaction.
Sometimes you’ll find something you weren’t expecting.
If one song does better than the others, figure out why people connected with it. I’m not saying make the same song again. I’m saying learn from what happened and use that information going forward.
8. Improve and repeat the circle again
Take what you learned from the last release and use it on the next one.
Not every release is going to do good and some things you try just aren’t going to work. That’s why you have to pay attention.
Then you start the process again.
Also, in today’s era I think every single should have some type of visual with it if possible. A music video is great, but it doesn’t always have to be one. You can do a visualizer, lyric video, performance video or something else that gives people something to watch with the song.
A lot of artists think success is going to come from releasing one hit song. It can happen, but that’s not something you can depend on.
For most artists, you have to keep doing this over and over and get better at it as you go.
Create. Plan. Register. Release. Promote. Engage. Analyze. Improve. Repeat.
