Why Good Music Gets Overlooked and What to Do Before You Release

Mistake 1: The song reaches distribution too late

Many artists upload a track and pick the earliest possible date. With OGRECORDS^™ that is 5 business days from today, which is enough for delivery to the stores. It is not enough to get attention. The pitch tool in Spotify for Artists needs at least 7 days of lead time, otherwise you cannot submit the song to the editors at all. A song pitched there in time also appears in your followers' Release Radar on release day. Without the lead time you lose both.

So plan at least three to four weeks between upload and release date. If you want to use our playlist pitching, that is required anyway: the deadline is 21 days before release. Pitching costs €50 per track, nobody can guarantee a placement, and you get the results on the Monday after release.

Mistake 2: Nobody knows something is coming

A single post on release day disappears in the feed. If you want people to listen on day one, you need to show them beforehand that something is on the way. In the weeks before, share short snippets of the song, photos from the studio or the story behind the lyrics on TikTok and Instagram. The clips do not need to be polished. The point is that your listeners already know the song before it comes out.

Each of those posts needs a link that lets fans act. That is what a pre-save is for: listeners save the song in advance and it lands in their library automatically on release day. With OGRECORDS^™, pre-save switches on automatically once you submit. The earlier you submit, the longer you can collect pre-saves. The glossary entry on pre-save explains how it works.

Mistake 3: One link per platform instead of one link for everyone

If your bio only has a Spotify link, you lose everyone who uses Apple Music, Amazon Music or Deezer. A smart link fixes that: one address where each listener picks their own service. Before release the same link leads to the pre-save, afterwards to the stores.

Smart links on ogr.fm are included with OGRECORDS^™ at no extra cost. You can use your release link in your bio, stories, newsletter and press emails. More on the smart links page.

Mistake 4: Press emails with too much and too little

Music editors receive a lot of submissions. They skip long biographies and phrases like "a sound like no other". Keep it short and specific: who you are, the genre, who you sound like, why this song is coming out now and when. A handful of sentences is enough.

Put everything someone needs for a feature into one message: a private listening link, the full size cover, a press photo, your bio and your contact details. No heavy attachments, just a link to a tidy folder. And send it ahead of time, not on release day. Editors plan their features in advance.

Pick ten blogs, playlists or radio shows that actually fit your genre rather than writing to a hundred random addresses. Read what they usually feature and address the person by name. A short, personal email to the right place does more than a mass mailing to everyone.

After release: check the numbers instead of guessing

The work does not stop on release Friday. In the days after, look at which countries are listening, which stores bring the most streams and whether your pre-save push made a difference. With OGRECORDS^™ you see your streaming statistics in the dashboard and in the free iOS and Android app. The stores report with a delay of 1 to 3 days, so the most recent days are still incomplete.

Use those numbers to plan the next song: which channel worked, where more effort pays off, when interest peaked. A fixed release plan with deadlines helps you get it right from the start next time. And since OGRECORDS^™ charges no subscription and no per release fee, only a 10% revenue share, each new song only costs you something once it earns money.