The Waterfall Release tactic: an iterative approach to releasing an album that aims to keep your tracks ‘visible’.
How often should you release music — and what should you release when?
One of SOS For Artists’ key strengths is that it can help you streamline the process of releasing your music. Obviously, though, it’s down to you to decide what you want to release when, and the apparently relentless demands of artists in the streaming era can mean those decisions aren’t as straightforward as you might like!
To start, let’s rewind a few years, to a time before the Internet and streaming dominated the record industry. Artists typically expected to release one album per year, along with maybe three or four singles — at least one (a ‘lead single’) would be released in the run‑up to the album, to build excitement and momentum for the main release. Sometimes there’d be more in advance of the album, and others might follow, to keep the larger project in people’s minds and on the airwaves. The songs that were chosen as singles would also appear on the album, but different edits or mixes would be used, and the singles would have a B‑side or, for CD singles, maybe multiple remix versions not found on the album. This approach avoided the release of exact duplicate content (something that might not go down so well with fans), meant that singles could be made more compact and ‘radio friendly’ without compromising the artist’s vision for the album, and, importantly, felt realistically manageable.
Today, things feel very different. We’re bombarded with messages designed to keep us ‘feeding the algorithm’, and it’s all too easy for those aspiring to commercial success to assume that we must release a new track each and every month, and still spend a chunk of every day engaging with our audience. It doesn’t leave much room for the writing, recording, rehearsing and gigging, never mind having to earn a living outside of music. So what can we do to break free from this never‑ending slog?
What’s The Frequency?
The first two things to note are that there’s no universal rule about how often music should be released, and that you don’t have to bow to platform pressure. Sure, streaming has changed how music is discovered and consumed, with platforms like Spotify and Apple Music relying on engagement signals; saves, playlist adds, repeat listens and skips all feed into recommendation systems that determine which songs are presented to new listeners. But your release frequency is a strategic decision and one for you alone. There’s nothing to stop you establishing a release rhythm that puts your needs, your style of working and your artistic integrity first and, importantly, is sustainable in the longer term.
So... what might that actually look like? Well, the ideal release frequency for any given artist will be informed by several factors, including your career stage, the genre in which you work and your production workflow, as well as your long‑term goals.
For instance, artists with established audiences, touring schedules and physical releases often operate within longer album cycles. A few pre‑release singles may be enough, and still preserve the impact of the full release and supporting formats such as vinyl, ticketed performances or commissioned work. But such artists are also often in a strong enough position to drop a new album without any prior warning, since they have the support of press coverage, label marketing and a dedicated fan base.
Your releases can be scheduled to come out on different dates/times in different territories — something that can facilitate a more targeted approach to promotion.
In contrast, less visible artists may benefit from more frequent releases, precisely to make them visible. Listeners are exposed to thousands of new tracks every day, and attention can shift quickly. Without regular work to build a fan base, even strong songs can quickly fade from listeners’ consciousness. Such artists might rely more on singles to build familiarity and establish consistency. However, their release strategy still needs to be designed to build and sustain momentum, without causing fatigue.
The musical genre can also impact on how an artist approaches their release schedule. Styles that are rooted in DAW‑centric workflows (for example, pop, hip‑hop, R&B, lo‑fi and dance) tend to benefit from more frequent releases, simply because the audiences for these styles often expect more activity, and DJs and playlists regularly look for fresh tracks to play. Fans of rock, indie, folk, jazz and classical — genres that are still very much about traditional instruments, bands and ensembles — on the other hand, are usually willing to wait longer for a well‑crafted album.
Release Strategies
If you’re only interested in releasing singles, dropping one every 4‑8 weeks is probably fine, especially if you offer remixes in between the main releases. But if your aim is to record an album every year, there are a few release strategies used by labels that you might look to for inspiration...
Waterfall Releases: We talked earlier about the idea of an annual album release being preceded by singles, to warm up the fan base and build momentum, and a similar tactic has evolved in the streaming world. Many independent artists had taken to releasing a single on streaming platforms every month, and then bundling those tracks into an EP or album once they’d all been released. The ‘waterfall strategy’ takes this idea a step further. A track is initially released as a single. Then, a few weeks later, a second single is released, but the first track is also bundled into that release. And when the third single is released, both the first and second singles are bundled with that... and so on. You’re still only promoting one album, but staggering the releases to extend your visibility: you build the EP or album one brick at a time, and use the traction gained by each new release to ensure the preceding tracks remain ‘visible’ for longer.
From a platform perspective, it offers repeated opportunities for pitching, editorial consideration and audience re‑engagement. From an artist’s perspective, it presents opportunities to re‑present your earlier work. The strategy won’t suit everyone — the biggest risk is that it dilutes a carefully crafted album, but it can be very effective. For that to be the case, it’s important that you use identical metadata and the same ISRC code each time you add an existing track to a new release bundle. That way, existing stream stats will be displayed for your newly bundled duplicate tracks. If using SOS For Artists, this is really easy to set up: you can duplicate existing releases and copy metadata across to save time.
Deluxe Edition: Another popular tactic is to wait a few weeks after an initial album release, and then release a deluxe version of it, containing additional tracks, collaborations or remixes that are designed to spark a second wave of attention. Again, make sure to retain the exact same metadata and ISRC codes for the duplicate tracks, so that streaming numbers for those tracks are boosted.
Focus Track Strategy: Instead of promoting the entire album as a whole, consider selecting a different track from it every few weeks, and focus your marketing effort around each one. Pitching these to new playlists, and recording performances for your video channels, can help to keep your album project ‘alive’ for longer.
Staggered Territory Rollouts: Some labels sequence releases so that they come out at different times in different territories. Now, we realise that not every artist has a global tour planned, but if you think your music would work well in a particular territory, or you want to raise your profile in a particular area ahead of some performance dates, this approach can help you find the time to contact local radio stations, set up interviews and run a more targeted social media campaign. It can be easier for a solo artist or band to manage things in stages like this, and can spread the cost of promotion over time, as well as extending the life of a release. In SOS For Artists you can plan ahead by creating duplicates of your release, and selecting in which territories you want each to appear and when, under the Release Setting tab.
Pre‑save campaigns can be a great way to accumulate early engagement and trigger strong day‑one numbers.
Pre‑save Campaigns: Because the first 24 to 72 hours are particularly important on streaming platforms, labels try to build momentum before their releases through aggressive ‘pre‑save’ campaigns. These can be a great way to accumulate early engagement, and trigger strong day‑one numbers. All you need to do is share a link and encourage your fans to pre‑save your release. If they do that, it will show up in their music collection on the day of release, boosting your launch day plays, which in turn boosts the algorithm and results in more visibility for you across streaming platforms. SOS For Artists creates these links automatically for you: once your release has been processed, they can be found on the Promolinks tab.
SOS For Artists automatically creates promo links that can be used in your ‘pre‑save’ campaigns ahead of release day.
Strategic Collaborations: Even solo artists don’t have to go it alone! Consider teaming up with another band or artist whose material complements yours in some way. The idea is to encourage cross‑pollination of your fan bases, and to increase playlist opportunities. Collaborations can also be great one‑off projects that help to maintain visibility between album releases — and they can be a lot of fun too.
A Schedule You Can Sustain!
Of course, not all of the above tactics are mutually exclusive, and they can be supported by other activity and content: adding video clips to your social channels, booking mini promotional tours in different regions, setting up interviews, and more. But overcommitment is a genuine problem — it’s one of the most common pitfalls in release planning. Generally, while the streaming era has undeniably changed expectations amongst listeners, the most effective release schedule is always going to be the one that supports your work and that you can sustain year after year. Better, then, to adopt a modest plan that you know you can maintain for six to 12 months, rather than draw up an aggressive schedule that consumes all your energy and quickly becomes unworkable. We’d suggest giving yourself at least 3‑4 weeks ahead of each release to allow time for playlist submission, video recording, setting up interviews and so on.