CREATE A PRE-SAVE FOR SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC IN 4 STEPS

A high stream-count on the release date can be an indicator of success for your newest song or album on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. Why is this important? Because in order to get placed in large playlists with thousands or millions of followers, you have to boost your first-day stream totals AND also be getting fans to save your song to their libraries. With Spotify and Apple music pre-save campaigns you have the chance to demonstrate both quality and quantity this way.

Just like downloading pre-sales on iTunes and Amazon, a pre-save campaign on Spotify and Apple Music gives you a window of time where your fans can listen your music before its release, as soon as it becomes available. Pre-save not only increases the hype and expectation about your release, but also makes your listener data look much better than a regular release. Moreover, just like download pre-sales, the more people that pre-save your release on Spotify, the more impressive your first-day streaming activity will be (therefore increasing your charting success).

In order to be eligible for a pre-save track for either platform, here are the steps you should follow:

1) Select a release date for yourself and work backwards. This would be official release date, and your pre-save campaign would start a week before the official date.

2) Release your music via a distributor. Some of the most popular distributors for independent artists to release their music are CDBaby and Tunecore. Your distributor will deliver your music to Spotify and Apple Music, who will then make it available on the release date you want. (Keep in mind to submit your music not later than 1 month before the official release date, this will prevent any unwanted delays and will give your more leeway should they occur.)

3) Get your unique identifier link for the pre-save song for Apple Music and Spotify. Your distributors would have this link, so contact them to get it.

4) Promote when the pre-save date arrives! Social media promotion,, contests, exclusive merchandise are all great incentives for fans to save your music to their libraries. You can create many different incentives to be creative here, such as a t-shirt giveaway, backstage passes or access to private Soundcloud tracks…

A pre-save campaign takes a little extra planning and coordination, but it’s worth doing if you want your new release to make the most of  Spotify and Apple Music. A pre-add on both platforms gives you one more way to let your fans take concrete action ahead of your new music’s release, and to consequently make your music a bigger success!