I’m releasing three songs over the next three months.
Normally, I don’t use this newsletter as a place to promote my own music. And don’t worry – despite that self-focused headline, the principle won’t change.
But I do want to use these songs as an opportunity to walk you through my own thought process for a release strategy.
Because “Jon, what should my release plan be?” is the second most common question I’m asked, behind only “Jon, are you the frontman for the 1970s rock band Yes?” (to which the answer, funnily enough, is no).
I can’t tell you what your release plan should be. But I can tell you what mine actually is, and hopefully that’ll be helpful as a starting point.
Let’s get into it.
Before I do any sort of planning – for myself or anyone else – I like to know two things:
1) What is the goal?
2) What are the limiting factors?
Both questions are helpful, but I think the first question is more important. Limits (like time and money) can be renegotiated, but forward motion is impossible without a direction to move toward.
So, after some caffeine-fueled journaling in the San Juan islands last week, here’s my personal goal for the three songs:
I’d like to get 1,000,000 streams by August 2025.
I run a group called the Million+ Streams Membership, and I don’t have 1,000,000 streams on my own music. That’s hypocritical, and I’d like to fix it.
Now, in my defense, a) my own music isn’t great, and b) I have helped plenty of other artists cross the 1m+ stream threshold. Those who can’t do, teach, you know?
But still, if for nothing other than my own pride, I want to make this happen. And I think the upcoming three songs are good enough to get me there.
So that’s the sitch: By August 2025, I want those three songs to have a total of 1,000,000 streams.
With that as the endpoint to move toward, here are my limiting factors.
- I’ve got a budget of $6,000.
Basically, I’m allocating $500 per month over the next year to my promotion. For most indie artists, I know that’s a chunk of change. I’m in the fortunate position of being able to count it as a business expense. But still, it’s an investment, and I don’t expect to make it back directly, especially in the short term.
Because even if everything goes to plan, I’ll only make $3,000 to $4,000 in streaming royalties. So we’re looking at at least a $2,000 loss this year. And again, that’s in a good scenario.
Some people (including many passionate people in my YouTube comments) would say the negative short-term ROI means the promo isn’t worth it. They’re entitled to their own opinions – but hey, if every YouTube comment was the gospel truth, I’d literally be Gordon Hayward.
The spend will not be directly ROI positive, but it’s worth it to me.
- I’ve got two hours per week to spend on promo.
I think.
Actually, two hours per week might be generous; time is a stricter limiting factor for me than budget. But I’m going to try to carve some out.
So, with that goal and those limiting factors, here’s the actual release plan.
Starting this Friday, I’m going to release one single per month for the next three months.
I’ll do it in the classic waterfall format – so, the second single will be released along with the first single, and the third will be released atop the other two. Here’s a graphic that Tom made two years ago to help you visualize it:
I’ll submit each single for editorial playlist consideration. But honestly, I’m not banking on any editorial placements; I’m just treating the submissions as lottery tickets.
For the first single, here’s the spending breakdown:
- $50 on SubmitHub playlists
- $150 on Marquee
- $300 on Meta ads
And then I’ll basically rinse and repeat from there, with updates to the spend based on the data.
For example: On the second single, I’ll recalibrate the spend between Marquee and Meta based on my results from the first single. If Marquee outperforms my ads, I’ll push more money there. (I’m almost positive Meta will be a better investment, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.)
I’ll follow the same process for the third single. Then, after the release months, all of my spend will move to Meta ads.
If at any point in my Meta advertising campaign I reach a significant growth trajectory on a song (i.e., I get a great CPR or a very high streams per listener and start getting algorithmic traction), then I’ll focus on that song and push the remainder of my budget there.
In other words, I’m not trying to evenly distribute streams across the three tracks. I want to figure out where I’ll get the most bang for my buck, and then put all of my chips down on what’s working.
In my experience, that’s the best way to get the highest total number of streams.
(Side note: This is why it’s important to set goals. If my goal was to have each track reach, say, 200,000 streams, I’d spread things more evenly.)
Throughout all of this, I’ll be doing two other things:
- Adding my songs to any of my relevant playlists.
- Writing and posting on socials.
I could (and probably should) write whole newsletters on each of those two points. But I’m not a social media guru, in case you can’t tell. The gist is that I’m setting aside a couple of hours a week to try some things, and if anything gets traction, I’ll double down on it. (Unless, after further review, I decide that what’s working is not good for my soul.)
Two final notes:
First, I’m really not doing much pre-promotion at all. I’m increasingly coming around to the perspective that post-promotion is more important then trumpeting about upcoming music – because after the song is out, people can actually listen to it.
I’ve seen people put tons of energy into letting their fanbase know that a song will be coming out, and while I understand the thought process, let’s be honest: Modern attention spans are shorter than Gregg Berhalter’s second stint with the USMNT.
If you post a week or two before your song is out, it’s unlikely that your audience will remember anything about it when release day comes.
Second, I’m not going for any PR (by which I mean press coverage).
I think press still has its place, but I’ve got limited time and money, and my goal is streams, not nice words. So my promo will reflect that.
So, that’s the plan.
Honestly, I’m not sure if it’ll work or not; there’s definitely a decent chance that I fall way short of the mark and give the YouTube haters something else to scoff at (besides the sad fact that Spotify promotion is usually ROI negative and the sadder fact that I struggle to blink on camera).
But I’m optimistic.
If you want to follow along on my 1,000,000 stream journey, I’ll be making YouTube videos to track the progress. And I’m also planning to do more detailed breakdowns of what’s working / how the campaigns are going in my membership community.
