Album Release Strategies In The Time Of Coronavirus

By Matt Benton, Hold Tight! PR and Dave Owen, Label Manager, Big Scary Monsters

Needless to say, Coronavirus is infecting and affecting every aspect, every cog of the music industry. From promotion, to distribution, press, and the obvious sad loss of any form of live music, these are completely unprecedented times. 

In consequence, there is no rulebook at play here – everyone is approaching the situation in their own way. Today we look at release schedules, and how to approach releasing new music in the time of Coronavirus. 

The inspiration for this piece came about in two ways – firstly through personal experience, having seen a number of artists decide to postpone their album release dates by either a matter of weeks or some months.

Secondly, on Twitter (where I spend far too much time) I saw an engaging conversation involving among others, Mike Hemsley of Kartel Music Group, and Dave Owen, label manager of Big Scary Monsters. The topic in play was – basically speaking – should releases be postponed? Are people craving music now, in lockdown, as a captive audience? Or is it better to wait?

I decided to pick Dave’s brain on what he thinks of our new musical landscape… 

Dave Owens, Label Manager, Big Scary Monsters Tw: @copperandstars Tw: @bsmrocks

On a completely practical level, there are several elements - key pillars if you will - that for many bands and albums are essential at a certain level. I would say that two of these are live music and retail. The thought would go (if you were postponing) that if you can't play gigs to promote the record and you can't sell physical copies in record shops then why would you release a record you can't promote/sell?

This is where I think that if you're not of a certain size, or wedded to those ideas (for practical reasons) you can definitely still release music successfully during this period.

 Digitally, it's my understanding everything is still running smoothly in that world - so crack on. Keep your DSP profiles up to date (latest bio, photo, whack a playlist or two up there - keep it ticking over!). Make sure you're letting DSPs know your song is coming out (thinking the Spotify for Artists submission tool here!). When it's out - have you got a good mailing list? An incredible amount of Facebook page followers? Twitter/Instagram reach? Get the streaming links out there - get your own hustle on.

Do you shift a lot of physical music? Do you have the Bandcamp/Webstore etc to handle physical sales at the moment? Again get your hustle on and use your marketing channels to let your fans know it's all there!

From a press point-of-view, I agree with Dave here. Fans still exist, and are still listening to music – if the channels still exist that mean that you can reach these fans, then they are still worth exploiting. We’re advising plenty of our clients to look at every digital marketing option possible, whether it’s mailing lists, social media advertising, online press, video content on Youtube… if the mechanism exists whereby fans can stream new music, then there’s no need to postpone. We’ve noticed since the covid-19 outbreak an increased uptake in our digital marketing services for clients as they look to strategise in other ways and you can find out more about that here or contact darren@holdtightpr.com for info.

 As Dave says: 

If you haven't got physical records yet, you can split digital and physical release dates too. Be creative and adaptable but most of all keep your fans updated. If they know when and what's coming, they'll get involved! Also again - get creative outside just your music too - one of our artists, for example, has just done a photo journal featuring pics from previous tours and sold them out! Get that run of tees out - companies like Awesome Merch and VinoSangre are still up and running and busting to help you.

I personally believe that if your band is a certain size with a captive audience - why wait? Get your DIY hat on, and get it out there and use all the tools at your disposal to shout about it. With uncertainty surrounding when all of this might end, if you keep postponing etc, you might end up releasing your music in a bottleneck where everyone is doing the same.”

This for me is the key point. I’ve noticed a significant proportion of artists postponing releases (and tours) ‘til September. There are a variety of outcomes here: either the whole virus situation has died down, everything returns to normality but as a result we have an overly-squeezed, hyper-competitive month; we are still in lockdown and releases will have to be postponed again; or we are in lockdown, you decide not to postpone a second time and then are playing catch-up, developing strategies that others are developing now as they adapt to this virtual, digital-led life. For me it seems a risk not necessarily worth taking.

Fortunately though – as we are all in this together – there are plenty of organisations out there offering assistance.

 Dave continues: 

“If you’re looking for financial help - there's some great support out there from a variety of sources - check out PRS (if you're a member), Help For Musicians amongst others. 

There is no such thing as an ideal release strategy generally, just what is right for that band and that particular release! Fans still want music. Ask for advice - labels, managers, PRs, booking agents etc - all out there - and the majority are always happy to answer any questions (of which there is no such thing as a stupid question!).

Finally, and most importantly – hopefully this blog will be fully redundant in a few months. Remember, this thing ain't forever and hopefully will see you all in a sweaty gig venue soon xxx “

If you have any questions or need any advice on the above: our door is always open, for chats, tea and biscuits, or to discuss what to do with your stunning new video or song. Email me at: matt@holdtightpr.com

About the author: Matt is based in London but likes to escape every so often, although not lately. When not distracting the rest of the HTPR office with (awful?) puns, he focuses on print and online PR in heavy, progressive, and alternative music. With extensive experience in the world of music PR, Matt also has a degree in music from Cambridge, gained at the expense of an overly verbose vocabulary. Passionate about all things ahead of the curve, art, history, hiking and anything edible.