After all the blood, sweat and tears it took to finally get your new music out into the world, it’s finally time to get as many people to listen to it as possible! From the technical stuff like registering with PROs to the fun stuff like social media promo, here are some of the most important things every musician should be doing after their release goes live. Let’s dive in…

What To Do After Making Your Music Available Online

Register with a PRO

To make sure you receive the royalties you’re rightfully owed, your songs need to be properly registered with either ASCAP, SESAC or BMI. Sadly, we can’t do this for you. Only you as the writer can affiliate with a PRO. (However, we do have an entire post right here that explains everything you need to know about PRO’s, including how to do it without messing up.) 😎

If your music is being distributed, performed worldwide, and you don’t have a publishing deal, your royalties are sitting in collection societies around the world waiting to be claimed by you. If you don’t register in time to collect your royalties, the collection societies will retain the royalties and you will miss out on that additional revenue. That’s why we created our publishing administration service to help you get through this process as easily as possible. If you’d like to learn more, check out this page.

Register with SoundExchange

SoundExchange has paid out more than $7 BILLION in royalties to date. They are the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings. They’re the ones who collect these digital performance rights from non-interactive music streaming on internet sources like SiriusXM and Pandora. If you don’t want to miss out on this money, Symphonic can collect SoundExchange royalties on behalf of sound recording owners and/or rightsholders.

• To deliver your catalog to SoundExchange with Symphonic, just create a request to opt-in. We’ll do the rest.

Sign Up for Lyric Distribution

Symphonic has three methods and partnerships for lyrics distribution and submission; Apple Music, Musixmatch, and LyricFind. With these partnerships, we’re able to streamline and expedite the submission process for faster turnarounds and less hassle. // Learn more about these partners and how to get started here.

Update your ‘Artist Pick’ on Spotify

Artist Pick is a great way to highlight what’s important to you right now, whether it be your latest release, playlist, show announcement, or even a Fan Support link. Check out the video below to learn how to do it…

Promote It On Socials

Social media offers an easy and effective method for promoting your latest track. To do so, start by creating a strategy tailored to your goals and target audience. Next, you can engage with your followers by posting your song in Reels, Stories, TikTok’s, and wherever else your fans frequent. You can also collaborate with fellow artists to expand your reach even further. Remember to utilize relevant hashtags, create visually appealing content, and consider running targeted ads for wider exposure. Lastly, always encourage user-generated content from your fans! Ask them to tag you in their own posts featuring your song, and get permission to re-post it on your own profile.

If social media isn’t your strong suit, check out these posts to guide the way…

• How To Use TikTok To Promote Your Music
• How To Use Spotify Promo Cards
• Easy Instagram Reels Ideas for Independent Musicians
• How TikTok Views Can Improve Your Spotify Streams

Pitch for Sync

When we talk about sync licensing in the music business, we’re referring to the act of synchronizing a piece of music with any form of visual media. That means getting your music featured in movies, TV episodes, commercials, video games, etc.

With Symphonic, you can get started with sync licensing through our in-house sync licensing division, Bodega Sync. Once accepted, your music gets pitched to supervisors and advertising agencies, we negotiate licensing deals, complete all the paperwork, and make sure you get paid properly. — Not to mention when you get featured in your favorite show, you can hype it up across socials and get even more attention on your amazing new track.

Get Some Press

After releasing new music, it’s always a good idea to send your music to music journalists, bloggers, and magazines for potential reviews and features. You can even share it in Facebook Groups, Reddit threads, or anywhere else where people can see your new song and share it with their communities.

In Conclusion…

You worked hard on your new track. Don’t let it get lost in the shuffle of thousands of songs trying to break through this crazy industry. Practicing things like consistently hyping yourself up on socials, optimizing your Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, etc. profiles, and everything else we covered above, can make or break the performance of your work.

In the meantime, be proud of all your hard work! Keep going, be consistent, and believe in your talents as an artist.

Good luck!