Continues with things you should do while running a pre-save campaign on Spotify.
4. Create a SmartURL account
Okay, now that you’ve claimed your Spotify account and you’ve got a URI code for your upcoming track it’s time to arrange your pre-save campaign.
The first step you need to do is to head over to SmartURL and sign up for a free account.
SmartURL integrates directly with Spotify—they pull and store all the information you need to run your campaign and generate a landing page where fans will save your album before launch.
Navigate to the pre-save section on SmartURL and fill in the essential information.
You should enter:
- Your Spotify artist name (it will populate automatically once you search)
- Your release URI (written as Spotify Product ID)
- Album title in the “Product Name” section
- Release dates free of charge and paid Spotify customers
- Your custom playlist name and playlist URI, if necessary
Here’s what it looks like on SmartURL’s website.
Hot tip: If you enter your Spotify URI code, keep in mind to remove the
“Spotify:artist:” text from the code, because you just need the actual code to identify your track.
5. Customize your landing page
Once you fill all of your information, SmartURL will generate a landing page and a link for you.
This is the destination page where fans can pre-save your album into their libraries and enter your music instantly on day one.
You’ll be able to customize this page by including album artwork and an artist banner beneath SmartURL’s information part.
If you want to customize the way your URL looks whenever you share it with fans on social media, you’ll be able to configure your URL appearance settings here too.
Hot tip: When you’ve already claimed your Spotify for Artists profile, SmartURL will merely pull your artist banner when you don’t add a customized one. So all you must do is add your album art.
6. Generate rounds of social media posts
Alright, you need to decide your release date, you have an excellent looking Spotify for Artists profile and you have your landing page and pre-save link.
Great work!
Now it’s time to make awareness about your upcoming release.
Think carefully about the way you want to present your new music to your followers. One or two Instagram posts really isn’t enough.
However, spamming your followers with repetitive announcements isn’t a great idea either!
You should create a compelling story around your music and overall persona as an artist.
Spend some time coming up with a mood board or concept for your release—the artwork, colors, fonts, storytelling, and symbolism you’ll use around your release are essential for capturing the attention of your followers.
Hot tip: You’ll be able to easily add links to your SmartURL landing page by including your social media profile URLs to the Platform URLs section when setting up your landing page.
7. Build an email list
Email lists are an effective way to keep your biggest followers in the loop. So think about adding a mailing list to your marketing plan if you haven’t already.
There couldn’t be a better group of people to send a pre-save link to than those dedicated followers who have voluntarily requested you to email them updates!
8. Post about it on your website
If you don’t have an artist website, you must definitely consider getting one.
Having a dedicated piece of online space that you fully control comes with lots of practical applications and makes use of.
One application is using your website as a space to talk about your upcoming music and request followers to pre-save your upcoming release.
We’ve written about getting probably the most out of your artist website before if you want more concepts!
9. Mention it in your press release
Getting press ahead of an album release is big for putting your new tracks in front of a brand new audience that might not already know your music.
So if you’re planning a PR blitz about your new release, don’t forget to include a link to your pre-save page.
It’s great to increase your opportunities of getting some extra pre-saves ahead of release day.
Save the date
Your pre-save campaign is just one part of a wider promotion strategy. However, it’s an incredibly practical device to keep in your album marketing arsenal.
Next time you release a track, make sure you get your Spotify URI so you’ll be able to run a pre-save campaign of your own.
Hot tip: LANDR is a preferred partner with Spotify, meaning you’ll be able to quickly and easily claim your profile to get started with your pre-save campaign!