It's always a special feeling when your album is finally ready. All those weeks, even months, of hard work finally produce a musical masterpiece you can't wait to share with the world. You've probably released singles before, but this is a chance for your listeners to experience you differently.

For an indie artist, however, the weeks or months of hard work don't end with the completion of an album. You have created, now you must distribute. For what good is a musical masterpiece if nobody listens to it?

7 Album Promotion Hacks

Promotion and distribution of an album is a different animal to production. You need a completely different set of skills to carry out these two critical phases of releasing an album. The good news is you can do it, and I have some real-life tips for you...

Release teasers

Nothing builds up anticipation more than suspense, and nothing builds up suspense more than teasers. As trailers are to blockbuster movies, so are teasers for your album. They'll give your audience a snippet of what's coming, just enough to whet their appetite.

You want to make sure they don't see everything because they'll be nothing for them to look forward to. And when there's no anticipation, the excitement when your album drops will be as dry as a leaf in autumn.

Post pictures or short videos of you in the studio, a line or two of lyrics, or even a 5-second video of someone enjoying what you're working on. These small snippets will fan up the anticipation for your album long before it's even ready.

Use social media

One of the main selling points of record labels is they do all your promotion and distribution for you, worldwide. They have the financial muscle needed to carry the gospel of your album across the globe. Indie artists have labored trying to get their albums out as far as they can, but it's always been an uphill task. Then came the age of social media.

2.8 billion people use Facebook, about 2.3 billion use YouTube, and more than a billion people use TikTok. Do you understand the implications of this? With the right application, you could potentially reach billions of people from your bedroom. What better place to promote your album than this?

Drop TikTok challenges

In 2019, a relatively unknown Nigerian artist named Clay released a song called Love Nwantiti. It never really blew up when he first released it, but today it has more than 15 billion streams on TikTok, the most by any African artist ever. It all started with one TikTok challenge. Another popular example of the massive penetration a TikTok challenge can have is Drake's Toosie Slide challenge.

TikTok is a gold mine if you can use it right. Take one of your favorite songs from the album and make a challenge on TikTok for it. Form a dance, ask for a remix, or do any fun task you can come up with. If people like it, they'll jump on it. If they jump on it, nothing can stop you from hitting those huge streaming numbers.

Creating your album is only half the battle. You have to be the number one promoter of your album if you want to reach the masses.

Contests and Giveaways

The more online activity related to your album, the more traction it builds. Similarly to TikTok challenges, contests and giveaways are an amazing way to promote your album. You can run them yourself or get social media influencers to help you out.

Call for graphic designers to make you album art, producers to make you a beat, singers or rappers to make covers, or anything you can think of that's easy enough to try but tough enough to be a challenge. Then attach a prize to it.

Promote Your Merch

This one might be difficult to do all by yourself, but there's no harm in mentioning it. Releasing merchandise, or mech, alongside your album is a nice way to create a buzz around it. Some people will get your merch because they enjoy your music, and others will get it because it looks good on them. Whatever their reason for buying, it means more publicity for your album. Merch also fits in well with other promotion activities.

You can use the merch in giveaways, and you can get influencers to make online content with your merch. Picture seeing videos of people doing your TikTok challenge while wearing your album merch. If that doesn't bring a smile to your face, I wonder what will.

Offer Pre-orders

Make your album available for pre-order and attach special benefits to it. Whether it's free entry to your show or a signed item, offer an incentive. Those who pre-order are probably your biggest, most loyal fans. I like to call them superfans. Make the offer available to everyone, but there are some specific targets you should have.

Email marketing is one extremely effective tool that has gone relatively unnoticed. First, you must build an email list from your online audience. Your list will be made up of people who already love your work and are interested in following your journey. They're your inner circle of fans. A pre-order offer will be well received there.

A Facebook group is another place where a pre-order offer can thrive. Like your email list, it's a tight-knit community of people who already love what you do. You don't have to convince them of your quality because they're already fans. This makes it much easier for them to pre-order your album.

Drop a Single

I won't speak much about this because I expect you know something about it. It's common to see artists release a single from their album before the album itself drops. This is all part of the mission to build anticipation and drive more online attention toward your album.

It also helps you see how people will respond. Do they like the tone? Can they relate to your lyrics? Is there something you need to change? Dropping a single one helps you answer all these questions. So it serves not only to build anticipation but to help you sample the market.

Final Thoughts

Promoting an album without the backing of a record label is no easy feat, but you can do it. One mistake you must avoid is waiting until the album is ready before you start promoting it. Apply these tips early on.

Start building the anticipation so that by the time your album is ready to go, the fans are ready to receive it. I'll close with a lyric by NF in his song, Outro, from his Perception album.

The fans keep saying that they’re hungry for new music

Well, that’s pretty convenient ’cause I just made a plate for ’em…

This can be you too.