Releasing your music to streaming platforms will be a goal for many composers. Not only is it a way for you to share your music with your friends and family, but it also allows you to reach a potential audience that extends worldwide.
Whilst it has never been easier to release your music to the world, without the right plan in place for promotion, releasing a track can often feel like a drop in the ocean. You really have to map out a release strategy so that your track can keep its momentum for the weeks and months after the release date.
One artist who we believe does this very well is Benjamin Cook, and so we sat down with him to pick his brains and share some tips that you can use to promote your music and get the most out of every release.
Read on below to discover!
Benjamin Cook - A Man of Many Talents
As a composer of film and classical music, Benjamin's career has been ever increasing in its exciting opportunities and phenomenal achievements. Working on prestigious projects for the UK government, Land Rover, Samsung, and Media Trust, Benjamin's work is continuing to excel, recently scoring the short film The Consultant, earning recognition as Best Thriller Film at both the FiFF Film Festival in London and the Lonely Wolf International Film Festival.
Outside of scoring for film, Benjamin's classical works have achieved over 400,000 overall streams, two of which having over 100,000 streams respectively, pulling inspiration from composers such as Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter. With recent performances in prestigious venues such as the Southbank Centre and at the Sofar Sounds event, Benjamin has experience ranging across every facet of the music industry. If there is anyone who can help us untangle the mysteries surrounding the successful release of your own music, Benjamin is our guy!
Bens latest single "Freedom" featuring strings provided by Northern Film Orchestra.
It Ain't All About the Release Date
When you release your music it isn't a one and done event, it is something to continue to promote for months, or even years after the initial release date. In this section we will discuss this further with a few helpful tips and tricks along the way.
Once you have released a track, then the real work begins. The build up to the release is important, but once you have built up the momentum it is important to keep it rolling! Benjamin believes that neglecting post-release is one of the biggest mistakes composers can make. He suggests devising a content and promotion plan that covers the 4 - 6 weeks post-release. This, he suggests, is when the biggest push should be - it's your opportunity to spread your music as far and as wide as you can.
When planning your posts it is vital to remember the golden rule of social media - consistency. 2 or 3 sporadic posts will not see anything happen. But with consistency, frequency and sustained effort you can make your audience care about your music, driving them to listen to it whilst also widening the circle your posts will be recommended to. Once you get the ball rolling it is important to keep it up!
Many assume that over-posting may annoy their followers, but when tactfully handled this couldn't be further from the truth. Benjamin has found the perfect balance for this - whilst posting frequently about his music, including tracks released over 3 years ago, but by varying the content type, his posts remain fresh and engaging for his audience. This allows him to get the most mileage out of each release before moving on to the next project. The key is consistency and variation! Social media is a powerful tool for musicians, and when handled correctly it can elevate your release to the next level.
A Plan Always Helps…
…But where do you even begin!? Here we will discuss the importance of planning content well in advance, alongside our suggested methods of doing so.
Breaking the promotion up into mouth sized chunks is a good place to start. Here is our starter template for a promotion;
- The 4 weeks leading up to release - begin to tease your music, get your audience curious and excited. Give enough away that you engage your audience, but make sure you don't accidentally release your music early!
- Release day - this is the day to flood your social media with celebratory posts. It is an opportunity to truly celebrate your achievement - it isn't easy getting music to the point of a big release!
- The 6 weeks post-release push - this is your opportunity to do your biggest promotions, be consistent, frequent and vary your content in exciting and engaging ways for your audience.
- The easy 12 weeks post-release - this is when the promotion continues but at a slightly lesser rate, keep that consistency but begin to use the extra time to focus on your next project.
Creating a detailed plan for your music release will help you to stay consistent in your promotion.
Within this, you can plan different types of content, and which type works best for each platform. Below we have put together Benjamin's top tips for planning your content.
Use small teasers in the build up to the release - don't give away too much until the actual release date, but enough to get people interested.
In your plan, have a content schedule - consistently posting 2-3 times per week, at about the same time of the week will often improve your chances of engaging with your audience.
Differ your content for each platform - whilst photos and videos are great for Instagram and TikTok, they don't work as well for X or Facebook.
TikTok and Reels thrive on 10-15 second content - perfect for teasing parts of your music to draw listeners into streaming the full piece.
YouTube is a fantastic tool with a large audience that allows you to post longer 1 minute punchy shorts, or longer form videos so is an ideal tool post-release to connect with potential fans.
Show yourself! - People love to feel connected with the person behind the music, so don't be afraid to show your face and personality!
Offer Something More Than Just the Music - Getting The Most Out of Each Release
Keeping your posts varied engages your audience, and with that comes the additional ‘spin offs’ that can help keep the ball rolling beyond simply releasing the music.
Here are some of the additional benefits Benjamin offers to his supporters:
Performance videos, live performances or recording session videos.
Behind-the-scenes video, “making of” content.
Sheet music.
Merch.
Alternate version of tracks and remixes.
Live performance videos make for excellent content to share on your social media.
It is important to note that people often like having something physical of the music that they love - this is where merch and sheet music are a fantastic tool. There is no better feeling than playing your favourite music! It is also an opportunity to get creative, don't allow this list to be the only things you try, the more creative the posts or offers, the better the outcome.
It is with this content that you have the opportunity to interact with your audience. Create a community, reply to comments, show the fantastic work they are doing in appreciation of your music - if someone is a fan, encourage it!
Below is just a segment of Benjamin’s Instagram page - look at the variety of content types and what they focus on. It is a fantastic example of how to structure social media. Follow the recent posts back to the release of his most recent track - Freedom - and see how Benjamin has transitioned throughout the different phases of a release, and maybe give his fantastic track a listen!
A snapshot of Bens instagram page showing the variety of content.
Spotify - The Good and The Bad
Streaming platforms have always divided the musical community. Where they open your music to the world, there are many negatives that cause some to think long and hard about the positives they offer. Here we focus on one of the largest - Spotify - and the pointers both Benjamin and Jack Hughes, Director of the NFO, can offer to us.
Spotify is great at getting you noticed by new and potential listeners on a global level. Be this through playlists, suggestions or as a method of delivering your music to your followers, Spotify excels. However, it is not necessarily great for converting them into fans, and it is these fans who are loyal and promote your music through word-of-mouth that are more important than the number of listeners you have per month…
Stats aren't everything - It's easy to let the numbers get you down, so try not to give them too much importance. Some of the most impressive stats belong to musicians you will not even recognise the name of!
Constantly release new music in a steady and organised fashion. 2 or 3 tracks per year is a realistic but excellent rate to be releasing your music.
We are not factories - we are artists - It's much better to focus on delivering quality material rather than a high quantity of tracks. People can always tell when commercial opportunity overtakes quality, from supermarkets to music, and quickly popularity leaves those who do not value themselves and their art more than the monetary gain of quantity.
Similarly, it is worth mentioning that people will always wait for good quality, passionate music. Don't feel the need to be pumping out tracks all the time, if anything the suspense helps the product!
Through using these principles Benjamin has had half a million streams in 3 years. It is always very slow going in the beginning but with perseverance you can achieve great things, just as Benjamin has!
Appearing on Spotify playlists can be a great way for you to reach new listeners.
Playlists
Playlists are a fairly recent and interesting phenomenon. Before streaming, music was always made for the music’s sake, to fit in the album, film or single they were intended for. Playlisting has now changed this dynamic - people are feeling incentivised to make music for the playlists instead of for the music’s sake. Although useful for discovering new artists on streaming platforms, don't be lured in to make music that caters to the playlist trend. Only by producing something unique, original and are inherently proud of can you gain fans and stand out in these playlists.
Make your best music but also consider commercial success if this is important to you. Artists always exist on a sliding scale between making music that is wild, crazy and innovative vs familiar but more accessible music for a wider audience.
In the end…
It's all about a good plan, good execution and passion behind every project. When you have a good plan it is easy to keep up with the demands of social media. Keep it consistent. Keep it engaging. Keep it fresh. Your music should be as unique as you are, and as demonstrated by the fantastic success of Benjamin Cook, it is possible to make it far following a few simple steps!
It is worth looking through Benjamin’s profiles on social media, Spotify and website to see just how he does it.
Contact - jack@northernfilmorchestra.com
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/nforchestra
Twitter - https://twitter.com/NFOrchestra
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