In the growing landscape of the modern music industry, where countless artists strive to make their mark and capture the hearts of listeners, one critical factor stands out above all others: effective music promotion. As an artist, you can’t simply release a song and wait for it to go viral overnight. Instead, you must actively promote it and ensure it reaches a broader audience. Through this article, we will help you to navigate through when you should promote your music, consider this a strategic timeline for your music promotion! The Importance of Music Promotion The music industry is more crowded and competitive than ever before. With countless new songs released daily, standing out is a daunting task. Effective promotion ensures that your music doesn't get lost in the sea of releases.Promoting your music, especially by running ads, can impact factors like your music visibility, boost your fan engagement, and generate revenue!When Should You Start Doing Music Promotion?Pre-Release Phase One common misconception among artists is that music promotion should begin only after the release date. However, that’s far from the truth. Starting your promotional efforts well in advance, particularly through social media ads, can serve several purposes. To get a brief overview of what you should do before your release, check out our article How To Prepare For A Music Release. 3 - 4 months before the releaseThis is the planning phase of your marketing campaign. Artists can consider using social media advertising to gather data and insights on your target audience’s preferences. Establish clear goals for your promotion, whether it is the streaming numbers you want to reach, amount of followers on social media, or the sales you want to get. Artists can start running advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram to build an audience based on similar artists. This strategy helps you better understand the demographics and interests of potential fans. Running ads on multiple platforms can be challenging, especially for artists without extensive marketing knowledge. That’s why many artists opt for promotion services like Base For Music to help navigate through the difficulties of ad campaigns and maximize their effectiveness. Moreover, you can also check out our article Music Marketing: Our Review Of Top 4 Strategies Before Your Music Release for a preference on what you would need to plan.2 - 3 months before the release Start creating promotional content like teasers, behind-the-scenes videos, and engaging in social posts. These materials can be used to build up the momentum for your release day! Social media advertising can be crucial at this stage, ensuring that your content reaches the right target audience.For instance, share a short video teaser on TikTok or Instagram, revealing snippets of your upcoming music video or behind-the-scenes videos. Or check our opinion on 4 other social platforms to promote your music here!1 - 2 months before the release Build anticipation with teaser posts, engage with your fanbase, and collaborate with other artists if possible. This is the golden time for you to run ads on social media to maximize your visibility and engagement and remind your audience about your upcoming release.You can use the materials of teasers and behind-the-scenes videos and promote them through ads on social media to grasp the attention of your audience from this moment. Other than that, start pitching your songs to Spotify curators to have them featured on Spotify playlists after the release. Check out our Checklist for your Spotify pitch now! Release Day This release day is the moment when your music is officially available to the public. It represents months of hard work, and promoting your music on this day is crucial. It’s your opportunity to capitalize on the buzz and excitement that you’ve created in the pre-release phase. Consider these strategies: Utilize email newsletters, social media posts, and personal messages to your network to promote your release and make sure it reaches as many people as possible.Continue to use pre-save links to encourage your audience to be among the first to hear your music. Social media ads can help artists drive traffic to your pre-save pages, boosting the impact of your release. To learn more about setting up advertising on social media with a pre-save link, have a look at our guide on the Pre-save link here. Post-Release Phase After your music is out, it’s essential to maintain its impact and momentum. Here’s how you can do it: 1 - 2 weeks after the release Continue promoting your music through social media, run ads, and email marketing to keep the heat going. Your promotion should align with your post-release goals, whether it’s increasing streaming numbers, followers, or the sales of your music. For example: Artists can run a contest on social media, encouraging fans to create content with your music, like dancing videos, or covers of your songs. 1 month after the release Release your music video or lyric video to sustain the audience's engagement with you. Promoting these videos through social media advertising to ensure they reach your target audience. Ongoing promotion After the period of one month after release, artists should continue to promote music on social media and streaming platforms. The goal here is to continue attracting streams, reaching your target audience, and sustaining your music’s success. Base For Music is a promotion service, we support artists to easily expand music on different platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram,... We simplified the social media advertising process by allowing you to run multiple campaigns under 1 single dashboard, making it easier for you to keep track of your advertising plan and reach your goals as quickly as possible. Automate the growth of your fan community and unleash the full potential of your music. Create your free account today!