Music promotion · 10 min read · Updated 2026-09-27
How to Promote Your Music: A Label's Playbook
Most music promotion advice is written by people selling promotion. This is the structure we use for our own releases, what we do, in what order, and what we have stopped doing because it does not work.
The core idea: promotion is not a single push on release day. It is a four-week build-up, a loud release week, and a long tail. Each phase has a small number of things that matter. Do those things well and skip the rest.
The campaign timeline
Everything hangs off the release date. Four weeks out, the machine starts:
- Weeks 4–3 before release, pre-save page live, smart link in every bio, first teaser content
- Week 2: press release to blogs and curators, playlist pitching, Canvas live on Spotify
- Week 1: daily content, countdown, direct outreach to everyone who has ever supported you
- Release week: maximum noise: posts, stories, replies, email list, everything
- Weeks 2–6 after: the long tail: fan content, remixes, live clips, playlist follow-ups
Pre-saves: small numbers, big signal
A pre-save is a fan committing to hear your track the second it is out. Even a few hundred pre-saves produce a day-one streaming spike, and that spike is what Spotify's algorithmic playlists (Release Radar, Discover Weekly) read as demand.
Put the pre-save link everywhere three weeks out: bio links, stories, pinned posts, your email signature. Every post in the build-up should point to the same place, one smart link that sends each fan to their own platform.
Playlist pitching: editorial and independent
Spotify editorial pitching is free and happens in Spotify for Artists. You get one pitch per release, write it like a person, not a press kit: the mood, the story, where it fits. Submit at least 7 days before release; 3–4 weeks is better.
Independent curators are the other half. Find playlists that actually fit your genre (not the biggest ones, the right ones), find the curator's contact, and write a short personal message. Ten relevant playlists beat a hundred generic submissions. Never pay for guaranteed playlist placement, those playlists are botted, and Spotify removes tracks and sometimes entire catalogues over it.
Short-form video is the discovery engine
TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are where new listeners find music now. The format that works for releases: the best 15 seconds of the track, something visual that loops, posted more than once. One song can carry twenty different clips.
Make the vertical visual asset once and reuse it everywhere, a looping Spotify Canvas doubles as Reels and Shorts content. Consistency beats production value: three rough clips a week outperform one polished video a month.
Press and blogs still matter, for credibility, not streams
A blog premiere rarely drives huge streams directly. What it does is give you credibility assets: quotes for your press kit, logos for your smart link page, and proof for playlist curators and bookers that someone else vouched for you.
Send a proper press release two weeks before release: the story, the artwork, a private stream link, and a date. Keep it to one page. Curators and editors decide in under a minute.
What we stopped doing
Paid 'playlist placement' services, botted numbers, real risk. Generic follow-for-follow engagement pods, the algorithm reads the low-quality engagement and downranks you. And posting the same static artwork post ten times, if the content does not change, the reach dies after the second post.
The unglamorous truth: the releases that perform best for us are the ones where the plan was written before the build-up started. A marketing plan with phases and deadlines turns 'we should post more' into a checklist that actually gets done.
Tools for this
Free tools from TSG that do the heavy lifting for the steps above.
Smart Links
One link that sends every fan to their own platform, the hub of the whole campaign.
Marketing Plan
Turn this playbook into phases, tasks and deadlines for your release.
Spotify Canvas
Make the looping vertical video once, reuse it on Reels and Shorts.
Release Date Planner
Anchor the whole campaign to real dates.