# Topic · 13 playbooks
Release Strategy
Release strategy is the timing plan around a single, EP, or album drop. It covers when the press release, pre-save link, editorial pitch, social rollout, and physical asset windows open and close. A good release strategy treats Friday as a moment, not a deadline — the work happens in the ten weeks before. These playbooks codify what we see indie and established artists do when they hit number one in their tier.
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- Emerging 7
- Indie 8
- Established 6
- Major 3
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Tagged Release Strategy
- Emerging Playbook Play 001 · 5 min
AI as Co-Writer: The Two-Hour Sprint
A two-hour songwriting sprint that uses AI for the parts a co-writer would handle — prompts, alternates, structural sanity-checks — without letting it write the song for you.
- release-strategy
- Emerging Playbook Play 002 · 5 min
AI Cover Art: Ethics, Math, and the Five Rules
AI cover art is fast and cheap, which is the problem. Five rules — on disclosure, style theft, platform policy, save-rate impact, and the human-hour minimum — for using it without devaluing the work.
- marketing
- release-strategy
- Emerging Playbook Play 003 · 5 min
AI Mastering: When It Works, When It Kills the Song
AI mastering is fine on most singles, wrong on the ones that matter. A guide to when to ship the algorithm's master and when to spend the $200 on a human.
- release-strategy
- Indie Playbook Play 004 · 6 min
Reading Your Streaming Dashboard Honestly
Streaming dashboards reward overreaction. A guide to separating real growth signals from algorithmic noise, so you don't burn a quarter chasing a spike that wasn't yours.
- marketing
- release-strategy
- Established Playbook Play 005 · 7 min
Selling Your Catalog vs. Holding
Catalog sale multiples have settled in the 10-18x range. Whether that math beats holding depends on three numbers — your discount rate, your tax position, and whether the catalog is still growing.
- representation
- release-strategy
- Indie Playbook Play 006 · 6 min
Stems as a Product — Sell the Parts, Not Just the Track
Stems, parts, and project files are the most underpriced asset in electronic music. Why the next generation of electronic catalogs will sell components, not just tracks, and what that does to release math.
- djing
- release-strategy
- Emerging Playbook Play 007 · 6 min
Submitting to Beatport — What Gets Approved
Beatport is the only retailer that still matters for electronic releases. Here is exactly what gets approved, what gets filtered, and the demo mistakes that kill a track before the A&R even hits play.
- djing
- release-strategy
- label-pitching
- Established Playbook Play 008 · 6 min
The Catalog Audit
A catalog audit is the once-a-year exercise of identifying which old songs are still earning, which are silently dragging, and which deserve a refresh budget. The framework, scored by save-rate per song.
- release-strategy
- marketing
- Emerging Playbook Play 009 · 5 min
Three Numbers That Matter
Most artist dashboards drown you in charts. Three numbers actually compound — save rate, monthly listener slope, and fan-to-listener conversion. Track these, ignore the rest.
- marketing
- release-strategy
- Emerging Playbook Play 010 · 4 min
The 10-Week Release Playbook
A week-by-week schedule for indie artists to plan a release that builds momentum instead of disappearing on Friday.
- release-strategy
- marketing
- Emerging Playbook Play 011 · 5 min
Your First 1,000 Listeners
A playbook for getting from zero to a thousand monthly listeners using time, posture, and ten DMs a day — not ads.
- marketing
- release-strategy
- Established Playbook Play 012 · 6 min
The Catalog Activation Playbook
For artists who've shipped enough to have a catalog — how to make old tracks earn streams every week, not just on release day.
- release-strategy
- marketing
- Established Playbook Play 013 · 7 min
The Drake Method
Drake's between-album activity is the playbook. How major artists feed platform algorithms continuously to keep catalog hot for a decade.
- release-strategy
- marketing