How to use pre-save Spotify to promote your music

Pre-saves on popular streaming platforms can be considered as a digital music streaming equivalent to a release pre-ordering. By pre-saving your track, your fans will have it appear in their liked tracks into their library once it’s released (it saves to their ‘Song’ or ‘Album’ list). Moreover, the streaming services’ algorithms will support your pre-save campaign (at least, most of the time) and feature the track in the algorithmic playlist ‘Release Radar’ on Friday of the week it’s been published. When pre-saving, fans can also choose to add the track to one of their own playlists to have it ready to listen to once it’s out.

The fundamental purpose and benefit of running a pre-save campaign is having the track pushed on the platform the day one it’s released.

Once your music is made available, all pre-saves will automatically turn into ‘liked tracks’ which will show up in the radar of Deezer or Spotify editors (‘x number of users ‘liked’ the track’) and the platforms’ algorithms will push the track to gain as many streams as possible. Therefore, the more track pre-saves you get, the better!

Another advantage of having a pre-save page is creating awareness of your upcoming music and building excitement prior to its launch. Not only that your fans will be aware of you coming up with some great new music but, by pre-saving it, they will make sure not to miss it! They will know that your music will be awaiting them and they can jump on it as soon as it’s available on the platform.

Therefore, even though the pre-save link will be available to everyone, the ability to listen to the newest track the moment it’s out creates a feeling of exclusivity and so hypes up your fans even more. Additionally, it ensures an early engagement with your fans and followers and allows your fans to feel closer to you and your music.

Pre-saving campaigns present an outstanding way for musicians to ensure that they’re launching to an audience. Not only fans will be excited and make sure not to miss your music but also you, as a musician, will know that your upcoming track is off to a good start since there are already people showing incentive to listen to it beforehand. It's kind of a win-win situation, isn't it?

Bear in mind that surprise releases are not that likely to skyrocket your music’s success and performance on streaming platforms. This may be especially difficult for independent artists as the music market is very saturated with around 100,000 new tracks being released just on Spotify every day. That means almost one track per second! Pre-save links will drive real tangible action right upon your track’s release and allow your new music to gain traction and guarantee listens right away.

Releasing brand new music may also be a stressful event for any musician out there. Knowing that you will launch it to an already existing crowd can make you feel calmer as well as more confident about your work of art. Additionally, pre-saves will not only drive immediate listens but may ensure future ones, too. If your listeners are fond of your new track, they will be highly unlikely to delete it from their library and, on the other hand, more than likely to listen to it again, and share it with others, as well. This may then have a great impact on the longevity of your success on the platform - not only considering the performance of your newest track but your whole body of art, too.

The magic of a pre-save page pretty much lies in the continuance of its power to drive more listens, listeners, engagement and, in general, action long after a track is available. Not only that fans that love your newly published music will most probably listen to it multiple times after it’s out, but they are also highly likely to always return to it as it will stay in their library.

The track may also drive streams to your previously-released music and by potentially including your track(s) in various playlists, your audience may help you drive even more engagement and streams, as well as attract new listeners and prospective fans of your music. What’s more, as we know, streams equal monetary value so by increasing your number of streams, pre-save pages will also contribute to your financial success on the platform.

Driving listens and increasing the number of listeners and fans on streaming platforms may also boost the number of your followers across social media channels as people are likely to follow the artists they actively listen to. This also goes the other way around. By having a pre-save page on platforms such as Spotify or Deezer and promoting the link to it on your social media accounts, you encourage your followers to go, pre-save and then directly listen to a particular track of yours.

The great thing about pre-saves is that, as a link, you can promote it via any tools or on any platforms that you like and suits your marketing strategy the best. It can be social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, YouTube or in case you’re focusing on public relations as part of your promotional activities, you can share the link in your press releases or any other publications, both digital and printed.

As mentioned before, streaming platforms such as Spotify and Deezer, don’t enable musicians to create release pages in advance and so don’t give the fans the possibility to pre-save the new upcoming music of their favorite artists.

That’s why at iMusician, we’re coming with our own pre-save feature that will be available for free to any musician as part of our Release Pages Pro+. The goal of the iMusician’s tool is to contribute to your success as a musician and help you reach the career goals that you dream of. The Release Pages Pro+ will let you take your artist brand to a new level by providing you with a free pre-save page, fully customizable release page, electronic press kit and box office in one single link.

This link will become the drive of your marketing force and allow you to fully promote your music as a professional, before, during and after the release date of your track. It will therefore help you grow your fan base, increase your engagement as well as boost your streams and presence across various platforms, both music streaming and social media channels.

One of the biggest benefits of our Release Pages Pro+ feature is that unlike other pre-save and smartlinks, iMusician’s Release Pages Pro+ turn the link from a pre-save page for Spotify and Deezer into a release page with all shops and all your promotional material — this will happen automatically on the date of the release. As a musician, you therefore only have to set up the link once while all your fans have to do is click on it, pre-save it and then listen!

This ultimately suggests that all the work that you’ve done with your pre-save link as part of your music promotion, such as sharing it on social media or in press releases, etc., can stay as is because the link will remain the same even after the track is released. This means that even when people click on the link a bit later (when the release is already available on streaming platforms), it will still allow them to listen to the track and they won’t go to a broken page.

1. During the creation of your release, you can opt-in for the Release Pages Pro+ feature and so get the opportunity to benefit from all its features

2. Once you complete your release, you will get an access to the Release Pages editor

3. There you will see the option to activate a free pre-save page - this option will be available for Spotify or Deezer or both!

4. Once you purchase your Release Page Pro+ tool, you will be generated a page URL and access it in your release page

5. You can share this link with your fans allowing them to pre-save your upcoming track which will be then automatically added to their Spotify or Deezer library once released

6. When your release goes live, the ‘pre-save options’ will automatically and immediately swipe up for ‘stream options’

7. The link doesn’t change so a pre-save link will be automatically converted into a smartlink

Smartlinks have proven to be powerful tools to use to promote your music - mostly because they make listeners’ experience and journey to your music simple and easily accessible. Whatever social media platforms you’re active on — from Facebook, to Twitter, to Instagram — you can share your Artis Hub Pro release page in your bio, post captions, tweets or stories, and enable your fans to access your music with just one click.

You can also insert your smartlink in your YouTube descriptions, newsletters, promotional emails, blog articles, playlists, press releases and media sites, or other types of content (including gated content) that you create and produce. The possibilities are immense!

In case of physical content materials, you can generate your Release Page Pro+ link as a QR code and add it into your printed press releases, ads or any other publishings such as magazines, brochures or even your merch!