What a major label release looks like! feat. a Time Square Billboard (BMN Exclusive)

I wanted to break down with a "major label" release looks like. Let me start with a disclaimer, as I'm not actually signed with a label, but I wanted to treat the release and the budget as if I was.

I'll start with the context, my best performing song that I've been working over the last 2 years was something I wanted to find a "reason" to push again, so I decided to repackage a bunch of tracks I've released and a few more filler tracks to make it a complete album. I know y'all might have very specific questions so feel free to ask away in the comments!

RESULTS (after 10 days of release) :

Billboard in Time Square https://www.instagram.com/p/CnXqGMZDo8D/
Charted #28 iTunes R&B album sales
13 Spotify Editorials for lead song "Lucky"
Went from 60k to ~400k monthly listeners in 3 weeks
Approx. 3 millions streams in the last month

There's going to be 4 main parts I'd cover:

Asset Creation

Pre-release strategy

Release strategy

Post-release (2 weeks after release)

Asset Creation (Budget approx. $5k)

12 songs, 1 "lead song", 3 other singles, 5-6 album songs ~$4k of recording equipment/studio time/misc. (but spread through 2-3 years)
Album artwork (Front, Back), Spotify Banner, Studio Rental ~1k

Admittedly, this portion of the album can be significantly higher or lower, the $4k budget realistically is me doing 85% things "in house" (mixing, production etc.) and the rest is paying features/booking time when my own setup wouldn't cut it.

Pre-release strategy (Approx. <$200)

I'm not a big believer in big pre-release strategies as I don't think you need them to have a successful campaign. Admittedly, I find it challenging to time things/build momentum by announcing a project so far ahead in advance from the release date.

Instagram Conversion Ads from pixeled Instagram users (mostly as a test to see how it would do) $200

I announced a pre-save campaign on Jan 2. 2023, and had the album was to be released in Jan 13th. It led to a toneden link I created that was basically a hyperfollow from distrokid to "save" the album.

Release Strategy (Approx. $20k)

Time Square BIllboard ($1k)
Influencer (YouTube Covers) $4k
Conversion Ads to Landing Page for Lead song ($15k)
Album buying budget to chart on iTunes ($1500)

I got a billboard in time square to commemorate the release of the album on Instagram. I bought it about 2-3 weeks in advance, and it rotated in time square for a minute every 10 mins for a whole day. Was able to get some really great 4k video shots of it for Instagram (this is what I used as my "album is out now" post. I also started getting YouTube covers of my lead song to build SEO results and social proof. I started this around the holiday season last year but it finally to start moving forward this month. I put about 1k-1500 daily adspend into my conversion ad to my lead single where my album was at. I had another adspend budget to chart my album in the top 50 of iTunes for R&B albums.

Post-release Strategy (Approx 15k-50k)

Press articles (~5k)
Plaque to commerate charting on iTunes (~$400)
15k to finish pushing adspend, 30k in reserve to scale ads, or push 2nd single

I wanted to do a press run and specifically have my eyes set on a Seattle Times or GQ article to give social proof on charting. The rest of the adspend is used to push the lead single (I have extra money that I got through business credit) and depending on what song does organically on the album I'll use as a 2nd single to push separately.

Total budget spent so far: $35k (Through the strength of my LLC and business credit)

I'll have to update y'all on how much I make back in streams/publishing. Hope the article was transparent enough, I'll be going through the next few days to add detail make edits! 💪

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