With a booking campaign on Spotify you have the opportunity to demonstrate both quality and quantity, increasing the total number of listeners on the first day AND getting fans to add your song to their listening queue.
Pre-bookings are an easy way to gain momentum on Spotify before the official release date of your music.
A high number of listeners on the first day can be an indicator of success for your new song or album on Spotify, as it shows Spotify that it may be worth sharing your music with its users via:
- algorithmic playlists (such as Release Radar and Weekly Discovery)
- email notifications to your followers
- official Spotify plays
- et cetera.
But Spotify’s algorithm isn’t just interested in your number of plays; look for a good listen-follow relationship. This means that of all the people who heard your song, how many have saved it in their library, listening queue or playlists? This is the kind of activity that really strengthens your music on the platform.
With a booking campaign on Spotify you have the opportunity to demonstrate both quality and quantity, increasing the total number of listeners on the first day AND getting fans to add your song to their listening queue.
Although reservations have been used especially by superstars like Kendrick Lamar, Avicii and Miley Cyrus, they are now also available to independent artists.
What is a Spotify pre-booking?
Just like pre-sales downloads on iTunes and Amazon, a booking campaign on Spotify gives you a window of time when your fans can DO something with the music you promote before it’s released. Specifically, save the song or album in your listening queue so you can hear it as soon as it’s available on Spotify.
There’s no point in sharing your enthusiasm about your next post in a tweet or email if no one can click to buy, book or listen to it!
With a booking campaign you can encourage your Spotify audience to take action during that pre-launch promotional period by setting up a contest or offering access to exclusive content, while ensuring that your song has the greatest possible impact on Day One (which is a key factor in the performance of the launch algorithm).
Just as pre-sales of downloads count as first day sales (improving your chances of getting on the lists), the more people who book your Spotify publication, the higher your streaming activity will be on the first day.
I launched a booking campaign for my simple “Irretrievable Beauty” and had a great time preparing it and looking for creative ways to deliver the message. My strength in Spotify is modest and I got a lot of email responses saying things like “I’m really looking forward to hearing the new song, but I’m not in Spotify”, but I must say that out of the total number of listeners the song had on the day of its release, just under half were thanks to reservations, so it was really worth it.
Note: I didn’t make a screenshot until the song was released, so imagine the little green button says “Pre-Save on Spotify. Automatically switches to “Add to My Music” on release day.
Related: How to Start a Streaming Music Business: Building an App Like Spotify
How do I make a booking campaign on Spotify?
Set a publication date and make an inverse calendar
If you’re going to make your music available for booking a month before publication, that means you have to get everything up and running in plenty of time to run the campaign.
If all the information about your release is entered correctly and completely during the distribution registration process, CD Baby will be able to send your Spotify music very quickly, but would still recommend having an extra week or two as a mattress.
For example, if you want your music to be in Spotify on December 1st and you want the booking campaign to start on November 1st, I suggest that you register everything with your distributor by mid-October. Then you’ll see why.
Distribute your music
As I mentioned in the previous step, you need to bring your music to Spotify through a distributor (ideally CD Baby).
During the registration process you will enter the target release date. Once your release has been completed, we will deliver it to Spotify – and all other download and streaming partners – and those platforms will make it available on the release date.
Get your Spotify URI
What is a Spotify URI?
A Spotify URI is a unique identifier for a song, album or playlist on Spotify. This is different from a URL which is a web address.
You can find a URI for any music that is ALREADY in Spotify by clicking on the ellipses next to the song, album or playlist in Spotify and scrolling down. Something like this will appear: spotify:album:5HsLJuoLxi83psFBAhAAe7
But how do you find a URI of music that hasn’t yet been published on Spotify?
You can’t. Not by yourself. So ask your distributor to send you the URI, which they can find in their API (Spotify interface).
Again, this may take some time, as Spotify must receive your music before they can assign a URI and send it to the distributor, so allow some waiting time on your calendar.
Once you have the URI…
Think about how you’ll encourage fans to make the reservation.
Maybe being the first to hear the song is enough for your fans. But if you’re trying to increase interest, it’s worth thinking of other ways for people to click on “book” when they get to your campaign page.
A T-shirt draw? Backstage passes? Access to private Soundcloud tracks?
Once someone clicks on “book”, you can take them anywhere you want to access a file, a URL or some experience. Oh, and if you’re making gifts or a raffle, you’ll also have their contact info.
Find the hook
“Be the first to hear my new single” could be a seductive headline for your most loyal fans, but try to find an extra hook, something that has an emotional appeal.
A couple of real-life examples that come to mind:
- “Listen to the song that took us off the stage.”
- “Listen to the song that made me go 500 miles from home.”
What is the human story, the drama, the mystery related to your new music? Play with it in your campaign messages on different social media accounts.
