I am a newbie. I have never released an album before and I am shaking in my boots. It takes a lot of guts and a ton of hard work to get the album done and when it is starting to materialize you have to start planning a release date. I am shooting for my birthday this fall but I won't tell you when that is (or how old I really am).
In any case, many things have to fall into place for an album to be ready for a release. Let me share a few of the things I've read about album releases in various places. I write them here to remind me where to look and what to do as my release date approaches. They are here for you too - if you find yourself wondering what do I do next.
1. Plan from your pockets: Read about how others have planned their release and pick out those things that are within your budget. No budget? Make one!
I can highly recommend Ari Herstand's book, The New Music Business in many ways. See the bridge on pages 114 - 118. I can't possibly take time from my project to list everything he says there and it would be plagiarism as well. Maybe you won't need to or be able to do all the steps in his book, but having his list in front of you will stretch your imagination and help you think outside of your "box". You'll probably find things there that you should be doing but that you didn't even know existed and thank him (and me) for it.
Make sure that you plan for what you can afford from that list. I set up that list and now I am trying to work what is left of it into a plan before the release date.
2. List the things you need to do on a Wunderlist do list
Wunderlist is great. Sit down with your Wunderlist app and think through all the things that need to be done before you release your album. Add the things you should do one after the other and put them in order of importance and or what "A" needs to be done before "B" can happen. This way you can check them off one by one as they get done.
I thought that this list was so good so I copied the whole thing before I started checking things off. That way I have a well thought through list ready to copy to a new to do list for my next project. This saves me the effort of thinking it through the next time.
3. Plan the time you have up to your release. Plan backwards
O.k. You know your budget and you know what you want to do, but when are you going to get those things done? If I am to get my record released by my birthday, that means I have "x" amount of months to get a certain amount of things done.
4. Prioritise If you are like me - pretty much doing this all alone and almost no money left, things get easy. You do what you can and let the other stuff go. You don't have to do everything on Ari's list to get your music published or to be successful.
Almost everything on that list costs money to get done. Everything on the list costs time to get done. Everybody wants to get paid for helping you release you album - few will do it for free. When they are involved, you have to give them enough time to get it done plus a margin of error. So make life easier for yourself on your first release. Prioritise making your music great, protected and published.
5. Plan the release on a Friday
6. Try to get your release heard by the bloggers that are the gatekeepers within your niche.
7. Make sure to create a hunger for your music in every way you can - on Social Media, on your website, everywhere. Do it professionally and intermittently with increasing excitement. Create a plan to release
There is much much more for me to learn about this and I suppose you'll be hearing more from me in Volume 2 about this as I approach the release date. But I will leave it here for now.
Links:
http://blog.reverbnation.com/2017/01/24/6-tips-for-a-successful-album-release/
How to promote your album
http://blog.discmakers.com/2016/04/how-to-promote-your-music/?utm_campaign=EOMR1015&utm_source=DMOffer&utm_medium=Email&spMailingID=55665270&spUserID=MzUwNTE2NTQ2OTk5S0&spJobID=1420522120&spReportId=MTQyMDQyMzU1OAS2