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
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. Search Engine Results Page (Structured Data)
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 Specs
24. Graphics
25. Album Art
Distribution
26. Digital Distribution
27. Going Live Times
28. Direct-to-fan sales
29. CDs
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. Presaves and Pre-Adds
50. Publicity
51. Timing
52. 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 Greek multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer who goes by the moniker Oh. She made her debut in 2013 with a 24-minute debut EP, “Sleeping World”. “Trials”—a song about the struggles of her ‘lost generation’ won an international music video award in 2013. The song was selected by the Greek press as one of the top-50 events to mark Greece during the economic crisis.
“Sleeping World’ also caused a stir in the international music press. Reviewers compared her vocal talents to stars like Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Happy Rhodes, Céline Dion, Melissa Auf der Maur, Sharon Den Adel and Anneke Van Giesbergen.
In 2015, she followed up with a 34-minute instrumental progressive metal concept album “Synemotion” as a Double Limited-Edition vinyl release.
Between 2016 to 2018 Oh. released four successful single-ballads about love (“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. The innovative workflow to produce the video was showcased at NAB in 2016 by Mettle. A 3D WebGL interactive experience for the launch of the single “I’m in Love” was nominated on Awwwards.com in 2017.
The last of the single ballad series, “Deserted Eyes” was released on January 19, 2018 with an animated music video and innovative WebGL experience. The song was a semi-finalist in the 2017 International Songwriters Competition (ISC) and the music video was the winner of the Cosmocinema Awards for Best Music Video Award in the London Greek Film Festival, an official selection in the 13th Athens Animfest 2018, and winner for Best Video Art in the Five Continents International Film Festival and selection in the Experimental Dance and Music Film Festival.
A progressive metal EP, “Metallia” was released July 27 2018. The music video for the song “Red Lion” from the album is Winner of Best Music Video award in the inaugural French Riviera Film Festival (FRFF) in Cannes, France. And winner Best Music Video at the Cosmocinema Film Festival in London The short is presently a winner and official selection in 14 film festivals worldwide including Winner of Best Experimental Mixed Media in the Lost World Short Film Festival and Best music video in The Psychedelic and Transpersonal Film and Music Festival in New York. The EP “Metallia” has received over 32 reviews from 13 countries worldwide, is in top 10 progressive rock and metal charts and listed as one of the best albums of the year for 2018 on Metal Nation Radio.
In 2025, Olivia returns with a new single and short film titled “I Pray for Love”, releasing on June 27, 2025. The piece marks a shift toward distilled, prayer-like lyricism — a meditative ballad that moves through intimacy, chaos, and divine remembrance. Accompanied by a poetic visual created with the aid of AI, the film explores spiritual emergence and inner beauty, echoing Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in its symbolism. With “I Pray for Love”, Olivia continues to expand her sonic and visual language, blending progressive emotion and metaphysical depth.
Peter –
Thank you for compiling this exhaustive list. Really saves a lot of trouble and time searching online for all this information.