Why Release Day Sucks! (and what to do about it)

Tell me if you relate to this…

Just a few weeks ago I had my own release day… I’ve been a musician for awhile so I was able to prepare myself for the inevitable release day blues…

That feeling of 2-3 years of work all released on one single day…

Release days can feel anticlimactic.

I think it’s because we unknowingly put too much pressure on one day that disappointment becomes inevitable.

It’s either because we’ve set unattainable goals (NMF, selling out of vinyl) or it’s because we fail to set attainable goals for artists and their releases.

Here are a few ways we can take the pressure off of release days…

1) Stop caring! Music is forever, albums can live well beyond their release day. Some albums have a big premiere, while some are slow burns that only become fully realized years later. Fans don’t care where in the album cycle they discover new music and we shouldn’t either.

2) Create achievable goals! Give yourself and the artist an easy win. Create goals that are fun and doable like aiming for just one blog post, one third-party playlist, selling five physical copies.

3) Create a post release day plan. Save content (videos, interviews, b-sides) to be released in the days/weeks/months after release day. This reframes release day as a starting line as opposed to a finish line.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: WHY RELEASE DAYS SUCKS!

Listen to this episode on our Other Record Labels podcast…

I hope you’ve found this helpful and encouraging!

Make sure to grab a copy of any of our record label resources.