As an independent artist, a well-timed release has the potential to greatly impact your music career. Good timing can be the difference between a song that takes off right away and a song that gets overshadowed by a cultural or political event, or even another big artist’s project release.

So when exactly is the best time to release music? Follow these tips to release your song at the right time and get your music heard.

Key Takeaways

So when is the best time to release music as an independent artist? To summarize, here are our recommendations:

• Give yourself at least a month after the song is finished to properly prepare your music promotion campaign, give distributors time to make your song available everywhere, and prepare your pitch.
• Give yourself a minimum of 3 months if you are releasing an EP or album
• Fridays boost your chances of getting into playlists and maximizing the impact of your music release.
• May, June, July, September, October, January, and February are all good months to release, and January/February are especially favorable for indie artists.
• Schedule you music to be released at midnight but post about it on social media the afternoon prior and on the morning of release day.

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1. How much time should you give yourself?

Once your song has been fully recorded, mixed and mastered, give yourself at least a month to distribute your music and prepare the marketing campaign. It is common to have your upcoming release take a couple weeks to show up on your Spotify for artists dashboard after you’ve submitted to your digital distributor. Make sure to account for this, as a lot of your marketing may be done through Spotify. You’ll need as much time as possible to organize promotional content, create a release strategy, and build hype.

The one month rule works well when preparing singles, but if you are releasing an EP or a new album, give yourself a minimum of 3 months. This can include planning a first single leading up to the EP or album release. If you want to work with a PR agent, you need to give them enough time to properly pitch your project to the media. If you decide to take the music promotion into your own hands, check out Groover: an innovative platform that lets artists contact influencers in the music industry with guaranteed feedback.

Within your release strategy can exist a number of things that are all worth preparing in advance, such as pre-saves. Pre-saves generate excitement about your new release and create a concrete call to action for your fans. They can also help boost streams from the moment the song is released, as the song will automatically show up in the pre-savers’ Spotify library on release day.

Something else that should be outlined beforehand is the pitch you’ll be sending out when you submit your music to Spotify editorial playlists. If you decide on a release date that is only a week away, you won’t have enough time to properly pitch your song, and you won’t give the editorial team the time to properly look for a playlist your song would fit well in.

2. Best day to release music

Across every streaming platform, the best day to release music as an independent artist is Friday. Releasing new music on Fridays has been an industry standard amongst record labels and indie musicians for a while now and this can be traced back to the Billboard charts.

In 2015, they changed their weekly cycle back to run from Friday to Thursday. Music released on the first day of that cycle would have better chances of reaching the top of the charts.

Music streaming platforms like Spotify ended up reflecting this system, and now update playlists like Release Radar and New Music Friday on Fridays. A couple years back, Bandcamp launched Bandcamp Fridays, where they waive their revenue share and artists get to keep 100% of the profits on the first Friday of every month. When in doubt, choose a Friday.

Releasing music on this day will increase your chances of getting into these playlists, and you’ll catch the eye of those who know to look out for new music every week. It should be noted that while Friday is the industry standard, some artists consider a weekend release to be better because time off from work is when audiences will seek entertainment the most. Knowing your audience demographics and listening habits will help you decide what day you think makes the most sense!

3. Best months to release music

What are the best months to release music as an independent artist? First, think about the genre of the song you’re releasing. If your new song is a Christmas jingle, for example, don’t pick a release date in the summer. Think about the mood of your song and make sure to time it with the right season. Ready to release an upbeat summer jam? Set the release date for May or June. Got a cozy and warm-sounding song? Time the release for the beginning of autumn.

If your music doesn’t necessarily fit a particular season, there are certain months to favor and certain months to avoid.

Best months to release music:

• May/June/July: Warmer days are back and summer is just around the corner. These are great months to release new music and also coincide with the summer festival season, which is very active in August. If you’re releasing music during this time, try to book some gigs to promote your latest release.
• September/October: Fall is a great time to release new music because people are back to work and back to school. Take advantage of music industry professionals being back in the office and students wanting to find new music to party or study to.
• January/February: New year, new you, new resolutions, and new songs. January and February are slow months for bigger artists releasing new projects but work well for emerging artists and independent artists. Everyone has that start of year motivation to seek out new music and industry professionals could be looking for the next big thing. Use the quiet time to fill the music landscape with your work!

Times to avoid:

It is best to steer clear of times of the year that are busy with holidays, cultural events (the Oscars, Superbowl, Olympics) or political events (elections, inaugurations). They generate too much buzz and may overshadow the campaigning you’re doing for your release.

Avoid the second half of December unless you’re releasing holiday music; industry professionals are usually checked out and spending time with their families. This goes for your fanbase as well. Catch their attention after vacation.

4. Best hour to release for optimal fan engagement

Digital distributors will automatically set all music to release at midnight on the chosen release date. This is pretty standard, though some distributors like TuneCore and DistroKid now allow artists to choose a custom release time of their choosing through Spotify.

If you go this route, after choosing a custom release time you can then decide if you want to synchronize the release to be available at the same moment across the world, regardless of time zone. Being able to release the song everywhere at once means no listener of yours will have to wait a few more hours while a different time zone has already gotten streaming access.

Midnight remains the best time to release a song and also builds hype. Either you go to bed knowing you’ll wake up to a treat, or you’ll go to bed having listened to the song you’ve been itching to hear for weeks.

Remind your fans the day before your release that the song will hit streaming services at midnight. Of course, make sure to post about the song and share it on release day when people are awake as well. Some of your most devoted fans will stay up until midnight to hear the track, but most people will listen to it on release day. If your song is scheduled to be released on streaming platforms at midnight on Friday, for example, we recommend engaging your community by:

• Posting on social media on Thursday afternoon around 3pm to remind your fans that the song is being released at midnight
• Posting on social media on Friday at 10am to announce the song is available on all streaming platforms

Now that you know when is the best time to release a song, start the music promotion phase with Groover!

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Next articles:

> How to prepare the release of your single?
> Single < EP < Album – Develop a solid music promotion strategy
> How to release music the best way?

Go further:

> How to release an album

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