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.
Read playbook →Tier · Emerging · 10 playbooks
Playbooks for the emerging artist.
Emerging is the tier of first releases — under a thousand monthly listeners, the budget is your own time, every play counts twice. The plays that matter at this tier are story, posture, and the willingness to email people who don't know you yet. These playbooks codify what we see new artists do when they start to be heard.
- Audience
- < 1k monthly listeners
- Budget
- $0 – $500 / release
- Team
- 1 person
- KPI
- Save rate
- Momentum window
- First 96 hours
- Primary lever
- Cold outreach + story
Curated
Where to start
- Emerging Playbook Play 002 · 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 003 · 3 min
Pitching Labels Cold (and Getting Replies)
A breakdown of what A&Rs read in the first 3 seconds — and how to pass that filter without name-dropping.
- label-pitching
By topic
Plays grouped by what they teach
- 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 004 · 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 005 · 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 006 · 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 007 · 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 001 · 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 002 · 5 min
Producer Tags — When the Audio Drop Helps
Producer tags are the cheapest brand asset in electronic music — and the most overused. When the tag helps, when it tanks DJ adoption, and how the best producers earn the right to use one.
- djing
- marketing
- Emerging Playbook Play 003 · 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 004 · 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 005 · 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 001 · 5 min
The DJ Tier Ladder — From Bedroom to Boiler Room
A DJ career has a separate ladder from a release artist's. Five rungs, what each requires, and what kills your move to the next.
- djing
- touring
- Emerging Playbook Play 002 · 5 min
Producer Tags — When the Audio Drop Helps
Producer tags are the cheapest brand asset in electronic music — and the most overused. When the tag helps, when it tanks DJ adoption, and how the best producers earn the right to use one.
- djing
- marketing
- Emerging Playbook Play 003 · 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 001 · 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
- Emerging Playbook Play 002 · 3 min
Pitching Labels Cold (and Getting Replies)
A breakdown of what A&Rs read in the first 3 seconds — and how to pass that filter without name-dropping.
- label-pitching