Introduction
When releasing music, your goal is getting your music listened to, by as many people as possible, within the first day of release. This helps to gain traction and bust your track through the noise, hopefully garnering the attention of music industry professionals that might want to work with you and get your music featured in more places.
To do this, you want to limit distractions, and guarantee the most people possible will get the chance to sit down and give your track a good listen.
So you’re going to want to plan around those distractions, which can be:
- Festivals (ie. SXSW)
- Releases of similar artists, who might be in the same geographical region, or share the same genre, fanbase, etc
- Releases of big artists that might drown out your release
- Holidays (people on vacation and not paying attention to releases, busy with parties, don’t have their phone near them, etc, etc)
- Weather (eg. nice weather in winter = people out and about being busy, etc. Cold weather = people inside and more likely to be paying attention to online releases)
Think these things through and strategize like Sun Tzu in this War we call Art. Be one with the Spotify.
Let’s start with the best day, and actual hour of the day:
Best Hour and Day to Release Tracks
- Day: Friday, morning-time (once you’ve woken up and smelled the coffee)
- Take into consideration weather, holidays, other releases, festivals, etc
- Releasing on a Friday is the industry standard, as people are most likely to be free to listen to new music around this day, going into the weekend (though this might have changed with the pandemic)
- Friday is also the day Billboard starts the clock for song rankings. So if you’re aiming on charting, this also makes Friday a good day to release. You never know… it’s not as difficult as it used to be to chart, especially if you are in a less mainstream genre, like jazz or polka
- If you’re 100% positive you won’t chart… perhaps consider releasing your track on another day, as Fridays are quite busy (being the industry standard and all).
When is your fanbase most likely to be online, and paying attention to your posts? Consider that day. (You could use Instagram and other social media analytical tools to check the engagement of your fans based on certain hours and days. Perhaps Tuesday at 3pm might be the best time to focus all your efforts, who knows. You have to track this data though, to know for sure) - Release it once you’ve woken up and are ready to start the day, so you can spend the rest of the day (the next 18 hrs, etc) on promoting it… you want it to blow up as much as it can on the first day
- THOUGH… some people say that midnight works better for them, as people are chilling and less likely to be distracted by their daily routine or work. Once again… something to test for your own audience
Best Months to Release Music
The best months to release music are January, February, April, May, September, and the beginning of November.
Ideally you want to be releasing music every 6 weeks or so (more often if you have the resources to do so, but 6 weeks is a good frequency to aim for).
However, you can also try a quality-over-quantity approach and release only four songs a year. That would be once every 3 months. You could tie this into EP or album releases (releasing extra songs on an EP with the release of your 4th track of the year, for example).
Once you’ve decided how often you want to be releasing songs, here are the reasons why you might consider the months stated above:
- Month(s):
- Beginning of November (not much distractions yet)
- End of November – Thanksgiving, distractions starting. Music industry people won’t be paying attention as much, and most people will be busy planning for Thanksgiving (and the holidays in general)
- This used to be a bad time to release music, but since music blogs became a thing, you can still get good coverage this month. So make sure you push really hard for getting features on blogs if you’re going to release in November!
- December – Holidays… too much distractions. Also, bloggers will be doing “best of [year]” lists and such in December, and aren’t going to be taking new music into consideration to do premieres or features
- January, February (people open to newness)
- Note… energy of time of year
- Jan = uptempo / energized… not a good time for ballads
- January has not much going on… so blogs will be looking for stuff to write about, press will be looking for things to cover, and it’ll be easier to get featured (aim for the first two weeks in January)
- Also, weather sucks… less distractions
- February = people are up and running, lots of new opportunities
- (People starting new projects, and you can slot into these projects for collaborations)
- Weather still sucks, not much distractions
- Note that around February 15th the focus starts to shift towards SXSW (South by Southwest festival) so try to get your release in before then
- March – OK month
- Note: all the music industry people will be at SXSW and it will be a distraction for them, so might not be the best time to release new music, if you are looking to garner their attention
- April – good month to release music
- Because people are starting to think about going out to festivals
- So having your music out at this time gives people the opportunity to consider seeing you play at one of these gigs / festivals
- Avoid the first week or two to give more room from residual SXSW buzz
- May – good month
- About to go into summer months (ie. touring, festivals, sun)
- Though take into consideration the consumption habits of your target audience, in their part of the world. (Because people might be going on holidays at this time of year already, meaning more distractions, meaning they won’t be paying attention to your release)
- Look at distractions and consider that when planning your releases… the music you release needs to reflect that
- May, June, July (Summertime)
- Could be a good time to get on college radio (for stations that remain operational), if that’s your aim. This is because there are less releases in summer for them, so it’ll be easier to get airplay
- August – OK month
- People going back to school, so some distractions
- Could be a good month to try to get on college radio, or if you’re interested in playing the college circuit, as an indie artist
- Still less competition around this month
- September – a decent month to release music
- People going back to school, so some distractions
- Release before mid-September, to avoid getting lost in the noise from buzz around the CMJ Music Marathon in NYC
- September, October
- Can be great for indie musicians, as the college and university live circuit and radio stations are great places to get exposure for independent artists
- Though October can be a bad time to release an album for a new artist, as the media won’t have much time to give it attention.
(Some actually say October is the worst month to release music for new artists)
- Beginning of November (not much distractions yet)
Dates To Avoid (Distractions)
(Photo: Felipe Giacometti)
- National holidays (unless your song relates to that holiday)
- Days that other related artists are releasing music, for example from the same town in the same genre, or big releases, etc
- Basically anytime most people are gonna be busy with stuff, or might be on the computer at home but distracted with other big news items
Plan Out Much Ahead of Time
- This will let you avoid distractions, and time your releases in slots where they’ll have the most chance of success
- This ties in line to what is taught in “The Cycle” by Michael Kaiser, where planning very much ahead of time (up to 5 years ahead) is highly encouraged – to give you the breathing room to dream big and create great art
Releasing Music During Busy Months
If you absolutely have to release your music during a busy time, make sure it’s accompanied by some other noteworthy event, like a tour. Coinciding your release with another newsworthy story will make it more likely for the press or blogs to cover it.
Real Life Examples of Release Strategies for Huge Hits
- Despacito – Released on the weekend before Spring Break
- Got any more good examples? Leave them in the comments!
Conclusion
You want to release about every 6 weeks to 3 months (or more frequently, if you really just wanna get your feet wet and see what sticks, that’s also potential strategy).
Once you figure out how often you want to release, think about what dates you’re going to want to release around, and when will have the least distractions, based on your audience.
Remember, planning is an important element in the arts-making process. You want to be releasing songs that are presented like a fine wine – well planned, marketed, and presented with elegant packaging. People will look at that, say “wow”, and be more likely to appreciate your work.
Give your songs a fighting chance to do that for you.
If you liked this post, consider checking out these related posts: