“You likely have no business with Billboard charts as an unsigned upcoming artist. It’s hard to swallow, but that’s the bitter truth”.
Friday is the Sabbath day for music listeners all around the world. It’s the day when everyone takes a deep breath in anticipation of new records and singles.
Like a magician performing hypnosis on his subjects, the big labels have conditioned the public to expect new music on Friday, but has it always been that way? No, Tuesday used to be the day that physical records were distributed throughout chain stores or record stores in America.
However, due to months of hype and love for particular genres such as rock, hip hop, RnB, and the likes, music fans used to queue at record stores to purchase LPs for $18.99. However, the emergence of the world wide web (www) changed how we consume music. Instead of lining up at record stores in your local area, fans now access music remotely in their homes via their gadgets.
This article will recommend the best month of the year, day of the week, and time to drop music. You will also learn the history of Global release dates, why the artists you look up to are so obsessed with Fridays, and the consequences of releasing a record at “the wrong time”. Here we go.
Nothing Was The Same: The Advent of the Internet of Playlists (IoP)
Like culture, music is diverse. Each region had its dominant genres, and in the pre-internet era, it was very hard for music to crossover from one nation to another, largely due to differences in experiences, perspectives, and languages. Unless your music was extremely popular and pushed by big labels, there’s no way a kid from China would vibe to your hip-hop record, and the same is true for other cultures.
The emergence of the internet was a unifying factor, and it was not until streaming platforms emerged that music crossovers became a thing. It is usual for established artists and even upcoming musicians to connect with foreign fans.
We have artists like Chris Brown and Wizkid touring across Europe, Africa, and Asia, thanks to the advent of the WWW. Once the internet bridged limiting straits and borders, the second problem was the difference in time zones across the globe. The following section will discuss how the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) solved the puzzle and united the 45 major recorded music markets globally.
The Timezone Dilemma & New Music Fridays
Pre-2015 saw different countries adhere to various release days. For instance, it was pretty conventional for French and UK labels to drop on Mondays. Tuesday was the official day in the US and Canada, while Australia and Germany adopted Fridays.
Sticking to different local release days will inevitably create confusion among fans and musicians across the globe. In addition, critics and popular chart agencies would not know when to expect music and how they should judge or tally releases. In the long run, such a disorganized system would nurture erratic consumer behavior across regions, making it impossible for curators, managers, and promoters to predict their audiences. The ultimate solution is to create a global release day. That way, it would be easier for every music industry sector to put their affairs in order.
The Global Release Day
The Global Release day, known as New Music Fridays, is the globally agreed day for putting out LPs and singles. The agreement became effective on the 10th of July 2015, but it was later announced by the IFPI the day after. While big labels, publications, and playlist curators adhere to Global release day, no legal document mandates music creatives to drop music on Fridays exists.
Is Friday the best day to release?
So, If you were reading this guide to this point, you might be tempted to think that we’re recommending “Friday” as the best day to put out music, but that’s far from the truth!
The major reason established artists drop on Friday is to get the best chance of landing on the charts. Billboard counts record sales from Friday to Friday, making it one week.
So dropping on Friday gives you enough time to acquire a lot of sales and debut your release on the globally-coveted Billboard charts. If you are an established artist with a concrete fanbase, fat budget, and big plugs to the media, then Friday is the best day to release. However, if you are an upcoming artist with little following online, you might want to consider dropping earlier. Let’s move to the next section, where we will discuss the most appropriate time to make a release for upcoming artists.
What Is The Best Time For Upcoming Artists To Release Music?
You likely have no business with Billboard charts as an unsigned upcoming artist. It’s hard to swallow, but that’s the bitter truth.
The music game is deceptive such that you cannot tell what’s happening in the industry until you start playing the game at a certain level. For instance, you might think that 10,000 dollars are a healthy budget for a release, but big labels use millions to push their top artists who debut on Billboard Hot 100. Also, Spotify is partly owned by Sony, Universal, and Warner Music; hence they control a good chunk of its playlists. Same with other streaming platforms like Apple, Tidal, and the likes.
For example, even on his worst day, Drake debuted most of the songs on his album titled — honestly, never mind — on Billboard charts. Indie artists with better albums might never appear on the charts even if they had 100k to spend. As an upcoming artist, I want you to understand that the game is rigged against you. So playing by “their” rules will hurt your growth. Instead, you need to make your own rules and stick to them until you are big enough to aim for Billboard charts. “Making your rules” involves not following the Global Release Day unless necessary. However, you can find the most suitable day for your upcoming release in several ways.
Make the best use of your social media and Spotify dashboard stats
Social media and streaming platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify let you know when your audience is most active. By checking your Instagram dashboard, you can know when
you are getting the most traffic on your page. This advice is for artists with a sizable audience (1000 followers and above). The way to know when you get the most engagement is to use the same content formula and post consistently over a month. That way, you can pinpoint the time and day when your followers are most active.
“Dropping a song without an audience is the first rule on our list of the “1000 ways to flop as a musician”.
If you use different content outlines, your engagement stats would inevitably vary for different posts. But with the same content structure, you can separate the good and bad days.
For artists with no social media followers, build a following before finding what day suits you best. You can build a fanbase by singing cover songs of similar artists and riding their wave. Dropping a song without an audience is the first rule on our list of the “1000 ways to flop as a musician”. Also, Spotify lets you know how many streams you get per day. By checking your Spotify for Artist dashboard, you can tell when your fans are actively consuming your records. Again, artists with no songs on Spotify can build a buzz on social media and judge using their social media data. Simple as ABC.
Tease your songs
Music is the arrangement, combination, and synchronization of sound(s) that appeal to the listener. Note that more emphasis is placed on the word “appealing,” meaning if a track doesn’t appeal to the listener, it won’t fly.
Even influential artists leak or tease their songs to get a reaction from the audience, especially when they don’t know what would work.
As an upcoming artist, you ought to give your audience or potential audience the freebies. However, you must understand that not everyone’s track record in the studio should be released. Some should never make it out of the studio.
Let your trusted friends and associates listen to your songs beforehand. Then, tease the 30s to one-minute snippets out to your fans and measure their reactions.
While teasing your song won’t directly give you an idea of what day is best to release your song, it gives you an idea of what would work since there is no “right day” to release mid-songs. If it does not appeal to your audience, it will flop regardless of the day you drop it.
The mood of the song
After using the ‘gram’ and Spotify for Artists to know when your audiences are most active and teased out snippets to know what works, you should let the song’s mood determine the date. Energetic songs used for working out can be dropped on Tuesdays, and party songs can be dropped on Thursdays to help your audience prepare for the weekend. On the contrary, Christian songs can be dropped on Sundays, as we’ve seen with Kanye West’s Donda, which sold 309,000 units in its first week of release and dominated the Billboard and Apple Music charts. However, you should review your stats, and the days might vary.
Sincerely, we suggest avoiding Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Why?
People are too busy with their lives on Mondays and will not leave their pending works for your “new release”. They won’t pay you enough attention even if they check it out. Some bars will escape their mind, the chords won’t hit their soft spots, and the Melodies, the almighty melodies, won’t register in their subconscious as they should. So dear artists, your audiences also have their lives to live. Don’t interrupt their Mondays or, similarly, Saturdays. Releasing on Saturdays is like arriving at the club when the party’s over.
There are a few exceptions, though. Unless your song is titled Saturday, never drop on a Saturday. The same goes for Monday and Friday. Also, if your track relates to a holiday or event on any of the three forbidden days, feel free to seize the day and break the rule.
Final Thoughts
If you can pinpoint the time of the day when your fans are most active, you can drop during that time so they can engage your release and give your record the best push it deserves. The global time for release is 00:01, but you can choose your preferred time via the dashboard provided by your distributor. Next week we will provide you with a follow-up article discussing how to read the mood of your audience using tested and trusted techniques used by label executives, established artists, and super managers.