4 Reasons Why December Is The Best Time To Release New Music
Timing is everything when it comes to picking a release date for any genre of music. Major labels kick off their promo campaigns as early as possible, so it is important to start banging about a project at least 6 weeks ahead if you want to stand out from the storm.
To ultimately decide when to reveal the outcome of your hard work, you need to define your end goals.
If you are aiming to catch influencer shoutouts, garner as many press or radio for your single or album as you can, then there is a lot of scheduling and timetable planning to prepare for.
At MusicPromoToday, based on insights, data, and market analytics, we help artists find out the best time for them to drop their music. One of the most frequent questions we get is whether or not to release music between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and our answer is always: DEFINITELY YES!
Below we pointed out 4 reasons why December is the best time to release new music.
1- There are not many big releases
For some reason, many labels decide not to drop any new music after December 15 and to stop all promotional efforts around the same time. Why? They defend their decision by explaining how busy everyone is and how the industry is overloaded by consumerism and Christmas vibes. It’s “the end of the year”.
As much as music and Christmas-related industries are overlapping, they are still separate branches. When major labels step back to rest, it gives independent artists a lot more room to market their new releases and steal the whole spotlight!
Canadian Music Blog prepared research of album releases in 2014 and 2015. The findings are shocking: less than 15 full-length albums were dropped in December, while a month before in November the number was six times higher. It means that the industry is sleeping during this time, so be bold and release your music in December, the competition is very low and that’s your time to shine!
2- Summer Festivals Pre-Game
Most of the summer festivals are booked at least 6 months ahead. Scheduling usually starts in Autumn and ends in February, leaving plenty of time for artists to pitch to festivals and secure gigs.
Kicking off the marketing campaign in September or October gives great chances that your release will be spotted by the festival’s organizers and they will try to book your show. Also, if you put the effort in promoting your music throughout Autumn and Winter, and build a solid fanbase till January / February, your fans and booking agents spotting you will eventually start asking about your next move, release, and event.
3- Christmas Fever
In general, the winter holidays mark the most consumer spending at both the individual and national levels. Generally viewed as the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many major artists and labels should plan their own release dates during these weeks in order to fully take advantage of gift purchases to boost their own sales.
HowMuch.net estimates that the average American spends over $1k during the Winter Holidays season. Moreover, sales in November and December are projected to even increase between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent in 2019, reaching between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion. There is a lot of money to spend! Why not promote your music before Christmas, and snatch a little bit for yourself?
4- Traffic During Holiday Season
It’s often believed that people unplug on Christmas Day and it’s a poor time to run any online advertising. As much as everyone likes to brag about social media rehab and enjoying time with family, the data, however, shows quite the opposite and proves an increase in online activity.
The only time that users turn off their socials for a bit is for a few hours on Christmas Eve. The rest of that holiday week marks higher-than-usuals online movement. Traffic peaks happen especially on Boxing Day increasing 15-20% higher than the previous week. That day, users start their internet usage very early in the morning and stay online till later at night.
What do people do online during the Christmas holidays? Sandive’s research shows that YouTube and Facebook are the most used apps, which leaves plenty of marketing opportunities: ads, sponsored content, boosts, and so on.
Wrap Up
If you decide to release your music video or single or EP around the Christmas season, remember to start hyping your promotion and publicity 10 to 15 days in advance so you can reap in the most benefits by the end of the month.
If you need help in building a winning December release plan and don’t know where to start, schedule a call with MusicPromoToday and let’s get the ball rolling.
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