Record label marketing: how labels promote artists, and a week-by-week plan you can repeat for every release

Record label marketing: the short answer

Record label marketing is the work a label does to get each release heard, written about and bought, run as a plan it can repeat for every artist on the roster. For a small independent label, that means doing five things in order: deliver the music early, pitch the platforms' editors, show the video to the right viewers with real ads, give press and radio enough lead time, and measure what each channel returned so the next release is cheaper to promote.

Lead times decide most of it. UK distributor Kudos asks for new releases to be complete and approved for delivery at least four weeks before release date, and says Apple Music editorial needs products delivered at least two weeks in advance. Spotify's rule is that a song must be pitched at least seven days before release to reach the artist's followers through Release Radar. Print takes longer: UK music PR firm Quite Great says national publications may need three to four months of lead time.

A release fixed three weeks out has already missed print and the time to test ads. The plan below starts eight weeks out for a single; for an album or national print, start three to four months out.

How do record labels promote artists on Spotify? Pitching, pre-saves and playlists

Spotify's editors only hear what is pitched to them through Spotify for Artists. According to Spotify's pitching guide, the song must be unreleased, anyone with Admin or Editor access can pitch it, and you can pitch one song at a time; once it goes live you can pitch the next. Compilations and songs where the artist is only featured are not eligible. Spotify is plain that pitching doesn't guarantee placement.

Spotify's access levels let Admins and Editors edit the profile, add Canvas and Clips, pitch releases and run campaigns; Readers can only see stats. Only Admins can add payment methods, and only a Team Admin can change who has which level. Set this up for each new signing before their first release.

Pre-saves. Spotify's Countdown Pages let fans pre-save, preview the tracklist and watch countdown videos. They are open to artists with at least 3,000 monthly active listeners and only to new, original albums and EPs, not singles or reissues. Spotify says that on average nearly 60% of people who pre-save an album stream it in the first week. For singles, or artists below the threshold, a pre-save link from your distributor or a link tool collects the same intent.

Playlists without paying for placements. Spotify states that paid services that guarantee streams aren't legitimate and that any service offering guaranteed playlist placement in exchange for money violates its terms. When it confirms artificial streaming it may withhold royalties, correct stream counts, remove the song from playlists or, in repeated or egregious cases, remove the content. It also charges labels and distributors per track for flagrant cases, so the cost lands on you as well as the artist.

The honest routes are editorial pitching, label playlists, curators approached with no payment tied to placement, and Spotify's own paid tools. Its Marquee and Showcase display campaigns need at least 1,000 streams over the last 28 days in the target market; Marquee also needs 5,000 monthly active listeners there and only runs within 21 days of release. More on curator platforms in our guide to Spotify promotion.

YouTube, video and paid ads

Start with the channel. An Official Artist Channel merges the artist's topic channel, Vevo channel and own channel into one, and YouTube tells artists to request it through their label or distributor. Eligibility includes at least one official release delivered by a distributor or label, so request it for every new signing.

Release the video as a Premiere: YouTube creates a public watch page where fans can set a reminder and chat, and notifies them about 30 minutes before and again when it starts. Cut vertical clips for Shorts, which can run up to three minutes, square or vertical.

In Google Ads, a Video campaign can be set to a reach, views and engagement objective, bid on target cost per view, and be aimed by location, language, audience and placement. Google's audience segments include custom segments built from keywords, URLs and apps, and people who have already engaged with your YouTube content.

Under Google's view metrics, a skippable in-stream ad counts as a view when someone watches 30 seconds, or to the end if it is shorter, or interacts with it, and those paid views are included in the public view count. Bought views from anyone else are a different matter: YouTube's fake engagement policy bans anything that artificially increases views, likes or comments, and repeated violations can end in channel termination.

Record label PR, radio, live, socials and email

Press. Record label PR is where small labels most often run out of time. Give the few outlets that matter for this genre the music, a press release, photos and a reason to write now. Our free music press release template and EPK template cover the assets, and how much music PR costs covers publicists' published prices.

If you pay for coverage or for creators to use a track, say so. The FTC's native advertising guide says an ad shouldn't suggest it is anything other than an ad, and its Disclosures 101 for influencers asks for the connection to be disclosed in the post itself (in the video, for video), in plain words such as "ad" or "sponsored" rather than "sp" or "collab".

Radio. In the US, the FCC's February 2025 enforcement advisory describes payola as the unreported payment of money, services or other valuable consideration to station staff or programme suppliers to get airplay. Section 507 of the Communications Act requires anyone paying or accepting such payments to report it, and section 317 requires the station to announce that the material was paid for. Failing to report can mean a fine of up to $10,000, up to a year in prison, or both. Hiring a plugger to pitch stations is normal practice; paying for spins without disclosure is not.

Live and socials. Film any show near release week for Shorts, Reels and TikTok, and get short clips from each artist before release, so label and artist post the same moment on the same day.

Email and fan data. Email is the one channel the label owns outright. Collect addresses at shows, on the label site and with every merch or Bandcamp order, and send one short email on release day with the links.

A record label marketing plan for one release, week by week

This plan is for a single with a music video, released on a Friday. Copy it into a shared sheet for each artist; only the dates change. For an album or a print campaign, add four to eight weeks at the front.

Budget split, and what to hand to an outside team

There is no published benchmark for how a small independent label should split a release budget, and we won't invent one. This is an order of priorities, not a set of percentages.

1. Assets first. Master, artwork, photos and the video are used by every other channel, so a weak video costs you everywhere.
2. A test budget for paid video. Run the video to two or three audiences before release week, then put the money behind the one with the best view rate and cost per view. Our YouTube promotion cost calculator estimates what a budget buys from published cost-per-view ranges. The streaming royalties calculator shows what a number of streams is likely to pay back.
3. Press and radio, where there is a realistic target. A publicist or plugger is worth paying when the artist has a story and the outlets fit. If not, spend on reach.
4. A reserve for weeks two to six. Hold some budget back for the audience that is already working and for people who watched once.
5. Nothing on streams, followers or guaranteed playlists. Beyond breaking the rules, Spotify's per-track charges for flagrant artificial streaming fall on labels and distributors.

Most small labels run some of this in-house and hand the rest out, release by release. A workable split:

• Keep in-house: signing and A&R, the release calendar, artist relationships, the label's look, the email list and fan data, Spotify for Artists access, and the final say on every asset and word published about an artist.
• Hand over: work that needs specialist time per release, such as running paid video campaigns, press writing and pitching, radio plugging, or editing short clips.
• Brief each campaign in writing: the artist and release, the date, the video link, three to five similar artists, the countries that matter, the budget, and the one result you want (views from new viewers, press to quote, a booking).
• Insist on reporting: weekly, taken from the platform itself (a Google Ads report, not a screenshot of a total), showing spend, views, view rate, cost per view and top countries, with live links to any coverage. Ask in writing what is and isn't guaranteed before you pay.

How to promote a record label as a brand

Music label marketing has a second job beyond the releases. Fans follow artists, but curators, journalists, bookers and the next artist you want to sign also follow labels, so record label promotion means being recognisable and trusted by those people.

• A&R reputation. Sign fewer artists and release them properly. A label known for a sound gets its emails opened.
• A consistent visual identity. The same logo placement, type and artwork system across every release, the label site and socials, so a cover is recognisable before anyone reads the name.
• Label playlists. A Spotify playlist and a YouTube playlist that carry every release next to artists you admire, updated every release week. YouTube Analytics shows when a playlist sends viewers to a video.
• A label EPK. One page with the label's story, its sound, the roster, recent releases, coverage and contacts. Start from the EPK template and our guide to what goes in an EPK.
• A press page and release calendar on the label's site, so a journalist finds every upcoming release and the right contact in one place.

How to measure a release

Spotify's source of streams report splits streams into active sources, where listeners sought the music out, and programmed sources, where Spotify or another listener chose it for them. A release that grows in active sources over six weeks is building a following; one that only rises while it sits on a playlist has not yet.

In Google Ads, view rate and "video played to" figures show where viewers drop off, and earned actions count likes, shares and subscriptions within seven days of a paid view, at no charge. YouTube's Reach tab shows impressions, click-through rate and traffic sources, including external sites and the playlists featuring the video.

Where Blue Leopard Media fits

Blue Leopard Media can take on the paid video and press part of the plan above, artist by artist. For any artist on your roster, our music marketing runs a worldwide YouTube campaign, the artist's video shown as Google Ads to people who watch similar artists, with a Google Ads report every week. It comes with an editorial feature about the artist, with their name in the headline and their own digital cover, on one of the publications we work with.

It is booked campaign by campaign, from $249 per artist, with the scope and fee in writing before anything starts. Targeting specific countries or cities is priced separately. We take no rights in the music and no share of its royalties: the label simply pays for the campaign.

You or the artist approve every word of the feature. On the four core titles it goes live within 24 hours of your approval of the final draft, counted in business days, or you get a full refund, as the refund policy sets out. Features are sponsored content and labelled as such (disclaimer). We don't sell or promise streams, playlist placements or chart positions.

If you have a release coming, book a free 15-minute consultation about it. There is no obligation to buy anything.