By 60 Second Music Marketing on 28/07/2017

How To Breathe New Life Into Your Old Albums

Music released on a physical format used to have a short lifespan. It would be released, consumed and all eyes would then be on your next release. The advent of streaming with ‘long tail’ music discovery coupled with easy access to online audio means that your music can have a much longer shelf life.

Chris Robley at the DIY Musician blog recently wrote a great article giving tips on how to increase the lifespan of your older albums. Here are my favourites:

Get All Of Your Stuff Online

Don’t focus on your new songs, make sure all your older albums are available on all online streaming platforms. Make sure you upload all your songs to YouTube with the necessary tags. Here’s a great article about optimsing your videos for YouTube music discovery.

Create Playlists Featuring Your Older Music

Create new playlists which feature your older materials and mix new material with your back catalogue classics.

You’ll robably have to use a plugger to try and get included on tastemaker playlists.

Get Creative In Drawing Up Attention

Throw a Tweet Along Party
Encourage all your fans to listen to an old album whilst you tweet facts about the songs in real time
Celebrate anniversaries.
Highlight older albums on their 5th, 10th anniversaries etc. Play anniversary concerts where you play the album in its entirety for its 10th birthday.
Use As Leverage For New Purchases
If you have older albums lying around, use them as a ‘buy one get one free’ offer when someone buys your new CD. Build your mailing list by offering a free (signed) old CD in exchange for an email address.