Release campaign checklist for small labels and artist managers

A small label or a manager with three acts has the same release to-do list as a major, with about a tenth of the people. The work is not hard. What goes wrong is that it is scattered: the master is in one Drive, the press photos in another, the pitch links in a spreadsheet, the dates in someone’s head, and the spend on a card nobody reconciles until the tax return.

The short answer: run each release from the act’s own workspace, work back from the release date, and keep every asset, link, date, and cost on the act it belongs to. Send press and curators one revocable link to the whole release, point bookers at one press kit URL, and log spend as it happens.

Here is the checklist, in order.

6-8 weeks out: lock the record

• Final master approved and marked as final. If this is still open, the rest of the plan is fiction. The approval process for labels and managers covers the sign-off.
• Technical check done. A Mix Health check catches true peak, loudness, and clipping problems before your distributor does.
• Alternates and stems in hand - instrumental, a cappella, clean edit if needed. The studio mix delivery checklist is worth sending to the engineer.
• Credits collected - performers, writers, producer, mix and mastering engineers - while everyone still remembers.
• Artwork final at the size your distributor needs.

5-6 weeks out: dates and delivery

• Put the dates on the act’s calendar: distributor delivery, release day, launch show, press deadlines. A shared band calendar means the act sees the same dates you do, and you are not the only person who knows when anything is due.
• Deliver to your distributor with plenty of lead time. Check their recommendation - many suggest several weeks so there is room for editorial playlist pitching.
• Budget the campaign in the act’s ledger: ads, PR, photos, launch show. See band finances.

4 weeks out: the pitch kit

• One streaming link for the whole release. Press, curators, radio, and A&R do not want five files. On Premium, a collection share link puts the whole EP or album on one page - artwork, track order, continuous playback - that anyone can stream without an account. How to send your EP to a label explains the difference between song and collection links.
• One press kit per act. Every act gets a free Electronic Press Kit on its own URL: bio, featured music, photos, videos, streaming links, booking contact, and upcoming shows pulled from the act’s calendar. Update it once and every link you have sent is current.
• Assets in the act’s files, not your personal drive: press photos, one-sheet, lyric sheets, logo. When the act’s drummer needs the hi-res photo at midnight, it is not on your laptop.

2-3 weeks out: pitch

• Send the collection link with a short, personal note. Revoke a link when its campaign is over, so an old pre-release link does not outlive its purpose.
• Send the EPK to bookers and promoters for the launch show and the dates around it.
• Track who you sent to. A simple list in the act’s files beats memory.

Release week

• Swap pre-release links for store links in the press kit.
• Revoke the pre-release collection link once the record is out, unless you want to keep it for press who asked late.
• Launch show on the calendar with the setlist and tech rider attached to the event - see the 11pm hunt for the tech rider.
• Log the spend and the income as it happens, in the act’s ledger, with receipts attached.

After release

• Year summary per act from the ledger, so recoupment conversations start from numbers everybody can already see. Splitting band income without the awkward meeting covers the band side of that.
• Keep the project together. Masters, stems, notes, artwork, and credits stay on the songs, so the sync request that arrives in eighteen months takes minutes to answer rather than a day of searching.

Doing this for several acts

The checklist does not change between acts. What changes is how many copies of it you are running at once. Keep one workspace per act, so each release’s links, dates, files, and money stay with the act they belong to. On BandVolt, Premium band memberships are unlimited, so the whole roster is one login.

See BandVolt for labels and artist managers, or contact [email protected] about label pricing for your roster.