Product Description
Your great music, an awesome recording and top of the line mixing and mastering is only part of the process.
- For a new artist with no previous experience releasing an album or single— here is your roadmap.
- For the established artist—here is a manual for your street team.
- For the small independent label—here is a primer for your new staff.
There is a lot of digital paperwork to complete before distributing music. There are steps you must take to ensure you receive royalties and get reviews. There are sales tracking and monitoring platforms you need to submit to for the music charts.
In the Ultimate Album Release Checklist will find information about digital and physical distribution methods. How to get artists profiles on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube. How to sign up for a PRO, get copyrights and collect royalties. Learn about sales tracking and Billboard music charts. How to set up preorders and the new Spotify Pre-saves and Apple Music Pre-adds. Tips on how to get a musician’s Knowledge Graph panel on Google’s search engine results page. And, some cool new growth hacking tools for musicians.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Band Name
1. Domain Name
2. Social Media Profiles
Website
3. Hosting
4. Theme
5. Mobile Responsive
6. Google Webmaster Tools
7. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
8. Speed Test
9. Knowledge Graph Panel for Musicians
10. Google Analytics
11. Start a mailing list
12. Alternative website builders
13. SoundCloud
14. Concert Listings
Press Kit
15. Photo shoot
16. Write your bio
17. Press Kit
Copyrights
18. License any cover songs
19. Copyright
20. Split Sheet
Performing Rights Organizations
21. Register with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
Specs, Files, Codes, Graphics
22. UPC and ISRC Codes
23. Audio
24. Graphics
25. Album Art
Distribution
26. Digital Distribution
27. Going Live Times
28. Direct-to-fan sales
29. CDs and Vinyl
Royalty Collection
30. Register with SoundExchange
31. Music Reports
Sales Tracking & Music Charts
32. Register with SoundScan
33. Nielsen Broadcast Data System (BDS)
34. Mediabase
Music Metadata Recognition
35. Gracenote
36. AllMusic
37. Crowdsourced Music Databases
38. Review Aggregators
Artist’s Profiles
39. Google Play Music
40. Spotify
41. iTunes
42. Shazam
43. YouTube Official Artist Channel
44. Deezer
45. Last.fm
46. Lyrics
47. Submit Your Songs to Pandora
Before you Release
48. Preorders
49. Music Charts
50. Pre-save and Pre-Add
51. Publicity
52. Timing
53. Analytics
Conclusion
ALSO AVAILABLE on AMAZON KINDLE
Hey musician friends and colleagues!
Many of you have asked me for advice on how to release an album or single as an independent artist. For five years, with each release, I gathered a list of the basic essentials. I want to share this “checklist” with you.
Though every album release is unique. There are basic requirements and steps in common with all releases across all genres. To distribute your music, attract a fanbase and receive payments, there is a lot of paperwork. You must make plans and do research.
If you are an independent musician, you might not have a lot of free time, a label or street team.
This e-book is a checklist I wish I had when I released my first EP. There is no commentary or fluff in this list. It contains the bullet points, precise links and instructions. It is a starting place for your release and an introduction to some music biz basics.
It will help you level the playing field and get heard in the crowd. It will save you hundreds of hours of research and give you more time to do what you love—making music.
It’s available on Amazon Kindle and my website for the price of a cup of coffee.
So, let’s put aside the guitar, bass or those drumsticks for a while – and let’s focus on getting this necessary work done.
Wish your album or single be a great success! And, your music heard and appreciated by enthusiastic fans around the world.
Oh.
Olivia Hadjiioannou is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and director. She is an independent musician who performs under the moniker “Oh.”
She made her debut in 2013 with the rock EP, “Sleeping World.” “Trials”—a song about the struggles of her ‘lost generation’—won an international music video award and was selected by the Greek press as one of the top-50 events to mark Greece during the economic crisis.
From 2015 to 2018, she released four single-ballads “Love Will Heal”, “Love of Avalanches”, “I’m In Love” and “Deserted Eyes”.
The music video for “Love of Avalanches” was one of the first handmade 360 virtual reality (VR) videos on YouTube and was showcased at NAB 2016. The 3D WebGL interactive experience made for the launch of the single “I’m in Love” was nominated on Awwwards.com in 2017. And finally, “Deserted Eyes” won three international music video awards, most recently in the London Greek Film Festival in 2018.
Her other releases include two progressive metal concept albums “Synemotion” and “Metallia” which are to be part of a trilogy. She is the co-author of the e-book, “The Ultimate Album Release Checklist”.
Her work can be viewed on her website olitunes.com and you can connect with her on social media @olitunes.
Peter –
Thank you for compiling this exhaustive list. Really saves a lot of trouble and time searching online for all this information.