Guest Post: Timeline for Promoting a UK Single Release

The name Caroline Bottomley may sound familiar to you on The Daily Rind. As Managing Director of our Marketplace partner Radar Music Videos, Caroline has already guest written for us to share the merits and best practices of her amazing platform, which connects artists and labels with talented music video directors around the world. Today, she gives us a timeline for promoting an independent single release, beginning 14 weeks from release date, and on an imaginary budget of £5,000. 

A lot of promo people we talk to say artists and managers often don’t know what professionals do to promote single releases. So we asked for help from some real professionals. Then we made up an indie band with an established following and a few previous releases. We made up £5,000 to spend. And we wrote this rough guide.

14 WEEKS FROM RELEASE

• Commission single artwork, even if it’s for download only — Designer: £300
• Commission artist photos — Photographer: £500

TIP: “Commission nice/weird/cool COLOUR band photos, the brighter the better.” –David Laurie, SiC Records

• Start social media engagement — Digital Promotions: £500 – £1,000

NOTE: Social media work continues from here up to and after release date.

12 WEEKS FROM RELEASE

• Begin promoting. Release advance copies/links to share to monthly press, for reviews, i.e. Q, Mojo, Clash, Uncut. Start with sending out a simple press release announcing the single and put the single into context, i.e. is it from an album or a stand-alone track; and will there be associated shows? — Engage PR: £500 – £1,500

TIP: “There are very few print outlets for singles, a couple of dozen really. It’s ALL about online for singles.” –David Laurie, SiC Records

NOTE: Press work continues from this point up to and after release date.

TIP: “The press release needs to be straightforward and attention-grabbing. ‘Artist releases great new song/album’ just isn’t enough. What’s your story? What’s special about you/the song/album and why?” –Gillian, Million PR and Naked Press.

• Engage Agent: 10% of gross
• Engage Radio and Video Plugger: £500 – £1,500
  Note from The Orchard: We also have a radio plugging partner app in the Marketplace: iPluggers. 

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The Marketplace Presents: iPluggers

Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world.

With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for you to pitch your music to more than 30,000 radio stations of all genres and all types, including AM, FM, satellite, internet, and more. You can create an artist profile (or online airplay kit) on which to share and promote your tunes in minutes by following the steps below:

• Install iPluggers through the Marketplace on the artist of your choice, and select a profile name for your iPluggers page (typically the name of your artist or band). Enter a contact email address on which you can be reached and click Submit.

• On the next page, select “add a new release for worldwide plugging.”

• This is where it gets interesting. First, choose what kind of release you’ll be plugging (Single, EP or Album). Then, choose a release cover from the pre-populated drop-down menu or upload a new one. Select the title of the release, confirm the artist name and add any featuring artists if needed. Choose the tracks you’d like to promote and click Next.

• Once your tracks have been imported, you can choose up to three genres you’d like to target. You also have the option to carve out territories you don’t want to plug your music to. Optionally fill out release information to give radio stations some more background on why they should plug your release and click Next.

• The last step before submission is completing your track information. While The Orchard provides a handful of iPluggers’s required metadata, there will still be missing fields. To fill them out, click on Edit Track Details and go through the fields to confirm pre-populated metadata and fill out what’s missing, such as Composers/Writers, Publisher and Song Genres. Click Submit.

Now iPluggers will review your release before approving it to plug. This can take up to 5 business days, and you’ll get a notification as soon as they’ve given it the green light. Once your release has gone through iPluggers’s system, you’ll get to set a plugging date, after which all radio stations subscribed to the genre you chose to plug will receive your release. To increase the likelihood of your release getting picked up, we also recommend that you complete your Artist Profile. Many fields will already be completed thanks to the app’s integration with our API, but you’ll need to tweak it to make it just right for iPluggers.

Track your releases by clicking on the Results menu and download reports for your plugged tracks by clicking on the corresponding link. You’ll be able to track the artist, song, radio station and country as well as when said radio station downloaded your track. While iPluggers can’t track if a specific radio station has actually played the song, the likelihood is high once the song has been downloaded (because stations can preview the song on your artist profile, it’s unlikely they would download it unless they intended to play it). Furthermore, all plays will be tracked via the usual SoundExchange/CMJ/MediaBase channels.

As Next Big Sound shared recently, and against popular belief, radio spins continue to positively impact track sales. Now that you have it all laid out in simple steps, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of that extra push to bump up your sales!

See below for a more in-depth demo on how to get your music heard around the globe:

iPluggers is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them, including special pricing for The Orchard’s clients, on their One-Sheet.