Why you should use the pre-save feature to promote your releases

One of the most commonly asked questions by artists is how to increase excitement ahead of the release of a track or album. This can be a difficult task, especially if you haven’t yet amassed a large worldwide fanbase. One of the newest tactics for generating interest around a release is the pre-save feature, which is most commonly used on Spotify but has now spread to Apple Music and Deezer too. This new feature allows fans to pre-save your track in order to have it automatically added to their library upon release. But why is using the pre-save feature so beneficial for artists?

In order to set up the option for pre-save, you will need to use a service like the aptly named ‘Presave To Spotify’, although there are plenty of other options available too. Despite the fact that you will have to pay for their services, the benefits of doing so make it worthwhile. Plenty of electronic music artists are taking advantage of the pre-save feature including The Chainsmokers, Don Diablo and Steve Angello as well as major labels like Universal Music Group and Sony Music.

Increases streams across platforms

First and foremost, using pre-save is a great way to ensure that your music ends up being streamed more often on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. Simply put, when you release a track, even some of your most dedicated fans may forget to listen or add it to their playlists. Pre-save ensures that your new release will be added to the libraries of those who opt-in as soon as it is available in their country. This ensures that nobody can simply forget about your new track or album, and eliminates the risk of your release being ignored by your fanbase and the masses

Gives access to Spotify libraries

The vast majority of the pre-save services available require fans to allow certain permissions in order to complete the pre-save. Through this, not only can you make sure your track goes straight into your fans’ libraries, but you can also create playlists and make sure they follow your profile, increasing your audience vastly. Plus, once these permissions are in place, you can continue to add playlists on their behalf, generating even more streams in the future. The only downside is that a fan can revoke your permissions if you overuse this ability, so be careful not to overload their account with new playlists.

Public playlist additions

As part of adding a playlist for your fans, you can also make this playlist public so that all of their followers will be able to see it and interact with it. This could include following the playlist or even streaming your tracks as a result. This could generate even more streams for your content into the future as it will offer you exposure on a much greater scale. This could result in you gaining even more dedicated fans through making an initial connection.

Run a competition

You can generate even more excitement around the pre-save by offering fans the chance to win an item of merchandise or a ticket to a show if they sign up. This not only guarantees more pre-saves, but the posts you make on social media have the potential to go viral. To round off the promotion for the particular track you could give away a piece of merchandise that includes the name of the single or album.

Steve Angello’s ‘HUMAN’ campaign

A great example of a pre-save campaign was Steve Angello’s use of the service to encourage fans to pre-save his album ‘HUMAN’ that was released earlier this year. In order to generate as many pre-saves as possible, he ran a competition offering a number of fans a lifetime supply of AAA passes to any of his future shows. Naturally, this competition proved hugely popular and generated a great deal more streams for the album.

Collect data on your fans

Using pre-save is also a great way to collect data from fans. This could include details like their email address for use later on when sending promotional emails. Generating a database with useful details on your fanbase is incredibly beneficial as it can be used in the future when targeting a future campaign. Many of the pre-save services also include geo-data, allowing you to track which countries responded best and worst to your campaign. This is also a great indication of which countries are the most supportive of your brand and allows you to have a better understanding of where you should look to tour in the future.

Analytics tracking

Through your campaign, you can also track analytics to see how beneficial your tactics were. This is ideal if you’re thinking about running multiple campaigns in this format as it allows you to learn from any mistakes. Learning from your past analytics is the single best way to improve your strategy in the future. This puts you on the right path to create even more success with your campaigns in the future.

Operating a pre-save campaign is one of the single most effective methods for building anticipation for a release, increasing streams and followers at an exponential rate, and collecting a vast amount of data on your fans. The benefits for this method are truly endless and could be set to improve your career in the long-run. Planning your pre-save campaign is an integral aspect of your pre-release strategy, never fail to underestimate the value of thorough planning.