Pre-release

Building anticipation and setting your new music up for success with a multi-format release plan

700M

times fans discovered a song on Shorts and then consumed it on long-form video within a week.¹

2B+

Over two billion logged-in users watch a music video each month on YouTube.

What is a multi-format release strategy?

It's a promotional strategy that uses more than one type of content format to promote the release of a song or project.

ON YOUTUBE, YOU CAN USE:

SHORTS

VIDEO

LIVE

Why should I start promoting my music before its release date?

Reminding fans about an upcoming release can build anticipation, familiarity and overall hype on the lead-up to the big day. Get your fans excited for your new music by promoting the release with teasers, previews and more.

Pre-release hacks

Plan your creative vision

Cohesive branding can impact how fans connect with your release, so:

Build a world around your music for fans to immerse themselves in
Make promotion easier to recognise
Help fans connect and engage more deeply

Engage (or re-engage) fans before your music comes out

Consider the pre-release phase a way to 'warm up' your channel ahead of your release. It can:

Boost channel engagement
Help the algorithm learn who to recommend your music and content to

PRO TIP

If you haven't put out any music in a while, give yourself more time to post teasers and content to re-engage your fans. Remind them of what made them fans of your music, but also get them excited for what's coming next.

Shorts

Tease your release with a preview

A preview is a clip of a song that's made available on Shorts before the song is officially out.

Romy made the preview of her song, accompanied by a compilation of performance and behind-the-scenes footage, into a Short.

Learn more here

On previews

When you deliver a preview of your song, fans will see a 'Notify me' button that they can tap to get notifications when your song is officially out.

WHERE DO THEY APPEAR?

1. On your Shorts using the preview sound

2. On the song library page for your track

Encourage and inspire fans to create

Build hype for your song and put out Shorts that invite fans to start creating using your upcoming track, or make compelling Shorts that stand out to get fans hooked early.

To tease the beginning of her song, Ciara made a Short featuring her power-walking with dancers from the music video.

Pre-saves

YouTube Music is available for pre-saves on Feature.fm and Linkfire.

Set up a pre-save campaign to build momentum ahead of your release, allowing fans to automatically save your new music and increasing streams on the day it drops.

WHY?

Get a head start on promotion
Increase the number of creations and views prior to release
Grow your audience and subscribers ahead of the release
Build excitement for release day

Video

SUMMER WALKER

Upload a trailer or teaser for your upcoming release about two weeks before it drops.

WHY?

Fresh content for new fans coming to your channel
Build anticipation for your upcoming release

Live

Set up a live stream to serve as a pre-show to your music video Premiere.

TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER

Set your stream up as a Live Redirect so that fans are taken to your music video immediately after the live stream.

Premieres

Set up a Premiere for your official music video

Premieres allow you and your fans to watch and experience your music video together with a live chat.

Build hype for your Premiere by promoting the link on socials.
After the Premiere, the content will remain as a video on your channel.

WHY?

Fans will get reminders to tune in
Engaging with fans in live chat during a Premiere can make them more likely to engage with you and your new music
You can promote the Premiere link with fans on your socials.