Releasing an album is an important and special moment. However, promoting a release can be a bit more complicated—especially because promotion campaigns are completely different from the practice of creating music. Luckily, streaming services provide some useful tools to get your audience excited about your new release. Right now, one of the best strategies to promote an upcoming release is with a pre-save campaign. If you haven’t heard of this type of promotion tactic, we’ll unpack everything you need to know about running a Spotify pre-save campaign.
By going through this guide, you’ll have everything you need to run your campaign and promote your upcoming music.
Let’s get started.
What is a pre-save campaign?
A pre-save campaign is a promotion tactic used to boost awareness and generate audience engagement before a single or album release. Typically an artist will run a pre-save campaign to encourage and allow fans to pre-save an album on a specific streaming platform like Spotify before it was released.
Why are pre-saves essential?
Algorithm-based streaming platforms are all about data and measurable engagement.
Essentially, platforms like Spotify focus more on how many people listen to your track, how long they listen, and how often.
Streaming platforms also concentrate on the album and song likes and saves.
So, on release day you need to get as many people to stream your album as possible
Early engagement is a big metric that proves to the algorithm your track is essential and entertaining to lots of people.
It’s a well-known factor for getting your tracks slotted into algorithm suggestions and on the radar of well listened to playlists.
A pre-save campaign is maybe the best way to ensure early engagement. And they remind your followers to listen to your album on day one.
How to run a pre-save campaign on Spotify
You shouldn’t just create an Instagram post asking people to pre-save your album. It’s just one small part of a much bigger plan you should put together.
Whenever you release a track you need to have a marketing plan ready to go along with it.
That means carefully planning ahead of release day too.
There should be several rounds of promotion to go ahead of any launch. And, it’s an excellent idea to add pre-saves in your messaging.
Here are all the things you need to do to run a pre-save campaign on Spotify.
1. You need to distribute your music
To promote a digital release you should distribute your music through a music distributor.
Distribution providers like LANDR Distribution make it easier to get your music on every streaming platform.
When you distribute your music it’s extremely essential to have a plan in place. We recommend setting a release date well before submitting your tracks—about two to four weeks.
Having a special release date is essential to planning your pre-save campaign backward from release day. Moreover, it makes sure that your release will come out on a specific day or time.
2. Claim your Spotify profile
To run an effective pre-save campaign you should claim your Spotify for Artists profile.
Your followers won’t be able to pre-save your album or see a preview of it if you have not claimed your Spotify profile.
Here is our guide to help you take verification of your artist profile and get that blue check plus all the advantages that come with claiming your profile.
3. Get a URI for your upcoming release
To arrange a pre-save campaign you should get a Spotify URI code.
Spotify URIs is a unique ID that makes it possible for a pre-save campaign to identify your track within Spotify, even when it’s not yet public.
You’ll be able to grab it from your Spotify for Artists profile right when your track is approved for release.
Just choose the menu button on your track where to go find sharing options. Then copy the Spotify URI to your clipboard.
