Play MPE is a team of passionate individuals who love, live & breathe music – working within the music industry is definitely the cherry on top. Our reps take that same passion and apply it when working with the many artists & labels looking to promote content, whether it be for the first, or the 100th time. From helping curate the best possible campaign(s), providing insight into the best suited formats & territories to target, to providing feedback throughout the entire experience, our team is here, and happy to help!
We understand there is a lot that goes into writing and producing a song, however creating the song itself is just the beginning of a whole release and promotion process. At Play MPE, we take pride in making sure you are well equipped with all of the information required in order to create an impactful music promotion campaign. We’ll do everything within our power to steer you in the right direction in hopes to get your song heard and discovered by the music industry’s most influential tastemakers.
Around the world release owners and promoters utilize Play MPE’s music promotion creation and distribution application, Caster, to set up and submit releases to tastemakers everywhere. Whether you are a full or self-service client! We really want you to get the most out of your promotional campaign! So we decided to highlight some of the most important factors which maximize the chance for success on any release be it on a major label or by an indie artist.
The most important thing we always tell our clients, when submitting a new track for release, is to always include as much metadata as possible, including an ISRC Code for every track as well as listing the composers, copyright year, etc. We cannot stress enough how important metadata is. Most radio stations cannot play a track without an ISRC Code! Some recipients will reach out directly to ask for these if they really want to play your song – but that is not always the case! Therefore if you don’t have one listed in your metadata you very well could lose out on your track being picked up for airplay. ISRC codes also help you collect royalties for your spins on reporting stations! By eliminating any potential hurdles, you are also showing programmers and tastemakers that you mean business, and have a serious understanding of how the business works.
Also, listing songwriter information, splits, PROs and any publishers makes it a lot easier for music supervisors and music curators. If you want to get noticed, have all of your musical ducks in a row. Busy professionals don’t have time to chase down your information. So avoid missed opportunities and make sure to include it!
*If you don’t believe us, at least listen to Lucy, Rebecca’s kitty know’s what’s up!
Did you know, with every release, you also get two free resends of your email blast?! You can use them anytime within 6 months of your campaign going live. This not only gives you plenty of time for your promotion, but it can serve as a friendly reminder for recipients to check out your release if they haven’t already. Sweet!
One thing we notice is that many clients that do utilize this free extra service are doing their re-blast without making any changes to their original promotional email. While this can work well if a follow-up is relatively soon after the initial blast, we do not recommend doing this for every time. The aim of the game is to entice recipients to click that “Get It Now’ button and then stream and download! Tastemakers receive tons of new music everyday, in order to stand out, switch things up a little, or update your one-sheet with glowing reviews, or an alternate promo photo.
The main purpose of a re-blast is to help your campaign stand out. Also giving you the opportunity to make slight adjustments and important updates to your campaign. One thing you can do is check out your reporting thus far and add any new information such as getting airplay, streaming stats or other fresh successes. Any new information or numbers come with time, so having these two resends also allows you to add fresh content such as new music videos, interview clips or quotes, and charting stats. By following up on your initial campaign over time you also show recipients a progression. If they see buzz happening, perhaps this time they will be more likely to open it! It’s also just a good rule to change things up a bit – you don’t want to bore recipients with multiple sends of the exact same email which they will probably just ignore. So we have some tips!
Timing your re-blasts
Don’t send your blast out again the day after the first one was sent. Recipients probably won’t pay attention to it if they just got it… It is better to space your sends out a little bit. This isn’t just a hunch, we have been doing this a long time.. We have had recipients unsubscribe from promo emails due to receiving too many of the same email in a short succession. Remember that recipients are busy music industry professionals. So this is not something we want to happen as it not only affects your chance for success, but other artists who are promoting music with our platform. Ideally you want to give recipients ample time to ingest the first blast before “spamming” their inbox with another. We suggest waiting a minimum of 2 weeks before sending another blast. You have 6 months to use the two resends so you don’t have to rush them! Think about it a little like dating. Do you want to come across as chill and confident, or like a stage 5 clinger?
Updates and fresh content
1. Make sure to change your campaign to “Impacting Now” if the initial email went out pre-release
2. If the artist has been featured in any interesting interviews or released a new music video. Make sure to include these links in the body of the blast
3. If there is buzz building on a release, try to highlight it by coming up with a catchy and enticing subject line
4. Quotes from interviews are great to add to the body of your blast too!
5. If a release has gained new radio plays, is charting, has featured on hot playlists, been licensed for a film, and/or the artist’s socials have seen a significant upswing, make sure to let recipients know about it!
Note: If there is a chance you forgot to include the ISRC codes in the first send, then make sure to add them in for the second send! If you are a full-service client, just let your release coordinator know and they will add them in for you. If you set up the release yourself, just make sure to add ISRC codes in the metadata section of the release creator in Caster!
Now of course, we will always work with your promotion campaign schedule and help you as much as we can. Sending blasts out less than 2 weeks apart isn’t out of the question! Chat to your account manager or release coordinator to discuss shorter send times. Just keep in mind, in our experience, spaced out blasts tend to get more love from tastemakers.
Have a release you are ready to promote?
Are you an artist with new music to release, trying to figure out the next steps? Whatever your goals are, you need a strategy to guide your music promotion distribution campaign. Whether it be to hear your song on the radio in Australia, or to be featured on the hottest blogs in Europe, our friendly team is always happy to share tips from the inside track to help your dreams become reality.
David is ready to take your call…. it would make this proud plant papa very happy to help you shoot for the stars!
By Play MPE’s contributing writers Rebecca (proud kitty Mama) and David (proud plant Papa)!
Photos provided by Play MPE.
Banner photo by Caleb George on Unsplash
