What to Do Every Day Before and After You Release a Song (for Free)

Today, we're going over exactly what to do every single day of a song rollout starting 30 days before release day all the way to 30 days after release day, spending exactly zero dollars. And spoiler alert, release day, day zero might be the least important day of the rollout. We've

We've been doing this five plus years, 280 plus episodes. We've talked to people that are operating at the highest level of the music business. We've We've absorbed all their game. And And this is the best way that we know how to roll out a song in 2026 right now. And

And we're going to give it to you using our favorite avatar. He's He's coming back for part two.

No. It's Lil Breadstick. Oh Oh God, I thought we were done with him.

We'll never be done with LB.

He's still one of our clients?

If you still manage him? doing great. He dropped Gluten Tapes in our zero to 100K episode.

That was a banger. It

It was a banger. And And he's back with a new single called Stale. Oh

Oh no.

It's a breakup song about a relationship that, you know, it didn't end in like a big fight or nothing really. No No one did anything wrong. It It just kind of went stale. Those

Those are the worst. It's

It's tough,

right? We've all had those. those. It's relatable. It's way easier when you get in a big fight, you cheat on them, like whatever the case may be.

It's going to be a fire rollout. And And the song is done. It's mixed. It's mastered.

Everything starts here.

Starting at day minus 30. This is probably the most important day of the entire rollout. And And it's where we're going to find something that we've always talked about, but we've never given a name before.

Okay. We

We finally named it. We're We're calling it The Stopper. The

The Stopper. The The Stopper. It's stopping the scroll. We're

We're stopping the scroll.

It's like the only thing that seems to matter right now in music. So

So The Stopper is the part of your song that we are going to test and find. It's It's the part that gets the most engagement, right? It catches people the quickest. And And we've found that oftentimes it's not the part that you guys think it is. You can't just start all your videos at the beginning of the hook and it works.

So when you, yeah, when you guys see videos that all start with the exact same part of a song. There's a reason for that. It's because they've tested and found The Stopper.

And that's what we're doing first. It's

It's the most important. It's the foundation of all of it.

it. Yep.

Yep. And to find The Stopper, we're going to use our guy Patrick Stafford's framework. Okay. Okay. Dead simple. You're going to pick one location. The The only requirement for this location is that A, it fits the world that you're trying to build around. That's a big one. Okay. Okay. Number Number two is that it at least has like two different looks minimum. Okay. So KELS, an artist he worked with that we've also had on the podcast. She She did a shoot at a trailer, right? She She did something outside the trailer. So like the RV was in the background and then she shot something inside the trailer. So So again, just bare minimum, two different looks, one single location. This This should not take more than like an hour, two hours tops. Okay. Okay.

Yep. And then we're shooting the entire song in both of our kind of locations within our locations, right? That's That's key is that front to back that gives us ample choices of moments to potentially find the stopper. Call Call it five to seven moments, top of hook, middle of hook, top of verse, middle of verse, the bridge, second verse, third verse. Intro, outro. Does anyone do bridges anymore? Some

Some do.

Try the bridge. There's There's plenty of opportunities to find that moment that is going to stop the scroll. So So this should, between your different, you know, locations, this should result in like 10 to 14 clips that we are going to utilize trial reels to test, right? right? So it doesn't go to your followers, just unbiased tests. We're We're going to post all of them over the next week, one to two of them a day. And then by the end of that, we'll have our stopper. So

So I'm not sure any of y'all were paying attention in science class, but this is what we call it a controlled experiment. Okay. Because Because the only thing that we're testing for here, right, is which part of the song gets the highest engagement. We are trying. The only thing that you should have in mind when you're doing this, this, you know, initial part of the plan is to find the stopper. That's That's it. That's all we're doing.

And if there's no stopper, I mean, maybe we got to choose a different song. Maybe. I don't know. know. We got to talk to you and have a conversation with

with Lil Red, you

conversation with Lil Red, you know, be real with yourselves. Like, you know, if you just want to put something out because you're passionate about it, that's great. If If you're trying to put out music to grow and turn this into a career, there's some tough choices you might have to make. And

And again, we like to use the whole like viral for you methodology here, right? So it's like, it doesn't mean that your trial reels that the stopper has to get a million views. No. No. Right. But if if you usually get 200, okay. You got 500. The stopper hopefully gets like 500 views or Something that is just an outlier within the test that helps us feel a little more confident because the stopper is what we're going to. We're going to put some gas behind the stopper, bro. We're We're going all in on the stopper. Yeah. So So like we really need the data to like make us feel very comfortable with the fact that we're about to spend a lot of energy into this part of the song. Yep.

Yep. So So the last stuff still on day minus 30, like I said, this is a very important day, is the boring stuff. We're just going to get the admin stuff out of the way. Yep. Yep. Nice and quick while we are four weeks out from release day. We're We're going to have LB get into his DistroKid account. He He pays $45 a year for a musician plus account so he can pick his release date. Dirt Dirt cheap. He's He's going to set all his splits. He's going to get his collaborators paid directly. He's going to get his HyperFollow page made automatically, which DistroKid does for him. That That becomes his pre-save link. And And also because the becomes the live listen link when the song comes out, just kind of converts one link.

And if $45 a year is not dirt cheap enough, our our sponsor of today's episode, DistroKid, is giving you guys 30% off. off. All you got to do is go to onemoretime.fm/distrokid. They They hooked us up. They're fucking awesome.

They're passing the hookup to y'all.

It's so simple to use. It's

It's easy. It's cheap. It does everything you need. And And the last thing we'll do, we'll head over to Spotify for artists and we're going to do our editorial playlist pitching, right? It's It's free. And And then we're going to go to our PRO, ask at BMI, register it there. PRO, ask at BMI, register it there. Our pub admin, make sure we're collecting all our publishing, yada, yada, yada. We have other episodes on that stuff if you need help with that. It's It's registered everywhere. The The credits, the artwork, the lyrics is done. We don't have to think about it for the rest of this rollout. I

I love the idea of getting all that shit done up front. Let's

Let's just do it. We

We have to do it anyway. So So let's just like have it behind us so that we can focus all of our efforts into the actual rollout itself.

And I think day minus 30 is a great day to do that. But that that does wrap up day minus 30. If you're excited for what we're going to be doing on the rest of these days, make sure you like this video. Drop us a nice comment or an evil comment. It doesn't really matter. A A hateful comment. They all do the same with the algorithm.

Drop your latest release in the comments or the song that you're going to release using the plan that we've put in place for Lil Breadstick. I would

would love to hear about your next release for sure. And subscribe to the channel if you aren't. About 71% of you are not subscribed. Moving Moving on to day minus 21. So we're three weeks out. The stopper test is back.

It's back. The results are in, folks.

The results are in. Whether

Whether you like it or not, whether you thought it was going to be the first verse or the chorus, it doesn't matter. Because in Lil Breadstick's case, it was the first part of the second verse.

It was the second verse. It

It was the second verse. We We had no idea that's what it was going to be. But But the data doesn't fucking lie, y'all. So don't fight

line. He goes, we never fought. We just stopped trying.

That's how it starts.

I wrote it. I I wrote the song with him, so I know how it goes. Oh,

Oh, God.

Yeah, produced it. Well, to me, he is.

You know? Okay.

Don't tell that to him, man.

Okay. He would be very disappointed. going with day minus 21. What What are we doing? So

So the results are

in. What are we doing? The

results are in. This is is content. Content. Content time.

Okay. All

built around the stopper. So So still using some of Stafford's frameworks because we just think they're great. We're We're going to build on the stopper. We're We're going to make 20 to 30 pieces of content. Basically, a month's worth of content is going to happen on this day. That's what we're doing. And And we're going to focus on selling the feeling. I think this is important to mention, right? We're We're not selling the song in LB's case with Stale. It's It's a love story that went stale in a very unique way that I think people can connect to, right? So So we're building it all around that, right? For

For sure. And I mean, these pieces of content in my mind, right? Like the testing for the stopper was just to find the part of the song. This This is more so to find exactly what works as far as like how we're messaging and marketing the song, because because we don't necessarily know what type of feeling or what type of emotion is going to really connect. We should have some ideas. Yep.

Yep. You

You wrote the fucking song. Hopefully Hopefully you have some ideas, but this is where we really break down different types of formats, different types of text hooks, right? Definitely

writing lots of, we're going to brainstorm text hooks.

Yes. Yes, exactly. So this is more testing in my mind for, again, like what is going to resonate with the audience. Okay. Cause we know what resonates with them as far as like the part of the song, but we didn't test for any of this shit. Right. So So this is where I think that all comes into play.

Yeah. It's all about the story, right? So So if he has like a voice memo of the day that he actually wrote it, anything that captures the feeling of something going stale, right? Like time-lapse video of a loaf of bread going stale over time. Okay.

Okay. With

With the song playing in the background.

don't know what'll work. Maybe Maybe that works.

We're making all of it. You know what I mean? Um, Um, anything that really hits home with the story in the world, we're building around the song. That's the content we're going to make so that we have it all pretty much ready. We'll make some more content as time goes on, but we're getting our base level of content here at day minus 21.

And honestly, try shit y'all. Like I seriously, this is where you can get creative because I mean, there's an artist named John Wild. He has has a song that went like really viral for him, uh, called home, right? him, uh, called home, right? Or home is you. And, um, these videos of like, it's a love song, right? And And it's like, you know, home is you, you know, home ain't a house that's built for two. You're the whole view. Right. It's It's like, it's very like just sweet love song. And And these videos of like animals that are in love with his song cut behind it. Fire. They They just go viral as fuck. I'm serious. Like these are the most viral videos. His His song's playing in the background. It's It's an amazing record. So like, ultimately, if you're, you know, if you love love and you love these like cute animal videos with, you know, love, uh, you know, portrayed like the song in the background, you might like that. And And it's been working for him.

You got to just think about what your song is the soundtrack for.

Yes. Where

Where does my song make, like what visual, whether I'm in it or not, you know what what I mean? Like what visual makes sense with this song playing underneath it? I

I love the idea. Yeah. Like just the movie test, right? Like literally like if there was a scene in a movie, what would be happening? What would be happening?

Yeah.

And in a little Resnix case for sale,

what's they're sitting on opposite sides of the room on their phones.

Yeah. You all know, like you're doom scrolling on opposite sides of the couch. You're out to dinner and yet you both are on your foot. Like it's a lot of like on your phone. It's just like, yeah, not giving a fuck about each other. at all. You're not even mad. No

No fights. You're

You're just over it.

It's just sad.

down and out.

This is sadder than a relationship that has fighting by far. This This shit is just over, man. I

I know.

He's a, he's, he's very immature for his age. age. I was given that. So day minus 20.

He's getting more real by the

the second. This is like divorcee problems. It's

It's true, man. He's

He's a young buck already going through it.

All right. All right. Come on. on. We're on day minus 14. Now let's

let's go to day minus 14. We're

We're there. We're

We're going to pre-save it. We're going to pre-sell it. So So this is when our free HyperFollow page goes live.

Okay.

when our free HyperFollow page goes live. Okay. We'll start maybe asking people to, uh, you know, go to the HyperFollow page to pre-save our song. This, This, um, includes them following us, right? So they'll follow LB and they'll get notified every time you call LB. When the song comes out, we'll start, uh, including that maybe as a CTA in some of the posts, right? Maybe like comment, uh, stale for, for something, you know, keyword stale. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And,

And, uh, they get all, also every future song shows up in their release radar as well. So So that, that pays you twice, which is nice. And

And in, in, in pure rollout fashion, I have my direct to fan shirt on. So we got to incorporate some sort of direct to fan activation as part of this rollout. are in the era of direct to fan. The reason why you're hearing about it all the time is because it's working and it's the way that the music business is operating right now. I mean, you look at someone like even the likes of J Cole, Cole, they're doing direct to fan initiatives because this is just the playing field now. Right? So So in our case, we're going to set a goal for some direct to fan initiative. initiative. What do you want to do? I

I mean, we just did the physical music episode. I I think we got to do the CD campaign.

CDs are back, baby.

CDs are back.

Okay.

Specifically described in that episode, a framework where you can, let's call it. I need a hundred pre-orders of my CD or they don't get made. So So this is how you can do this with $0 up front.

Zero risk. You

You might have some people order two or three just because they want one and and you can get creative with the, I know some of you are thinking it's a single on a CD, put the main version on there, put the clean version on there, put the instrumental on there, put the a cappella on there. Put

Put the demo, put

put the original demo voice memo on there, put a sped up version on there, put a slow down remix.

remix. If you've got a homie with a verse, verse, I've

got an EDM producer homie. You can can make the dubstep remix.

Exactly. Whatever it is. The The reason why I love this, it's also a goal. this, it's also a goal. People love a goal. can rally your community. Again, even if you have a small community, you can still rally them around a goal. Everyone Everyone loves to try and help an artist that they love reach their goal. Yep.

Yep.

Like we've done it before where we shot content basically being like day one of trying to get Russ on the podcast. And like literally he replied, you know, day two or something.

many people we hadn't even talked to or thought about in a while that came into our comments tagging Russ for us. Exactly.

Exactly. So it's fired up. Something about it psychologically where it's like kind of that underdog story or

whatever. We love to root for people. We do.

do. We do. So So that's what we're going to do with the CDs for sure. And And you can make a little money. And,

And, and you can definitely make money first of all. all. Yeah. Especially with zero dollars upfront charge charge 15 bucks. You know, I think a hundred CDs costs around like 250 bucks. Yeah.

Yeah.

If you do it on band camp, they'll take a small fee, but you're probably making four figures here. Yeah. Yeah. No No problem. And before you say that no one's going to buy a CD, go check out that episode. Seriously. Seriously. People are buying CDs to support you. They don't even own a CD player. That

That was the mind blowing part for me. Like Like when you did the research for it, there's hard data on this. Yeah. I was like, I don't believe it, but but I mean the fact that everything's up and I know people aren't like, you don't see like CD players for sale. Yeah. Like, I don't even think they stock them at like target.

People still drive cars with CD players, but like, do they? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you don't. Okay. Sorry. Mr. Bougie over here. What is a CD player?

just put myself on blast. I like nice cars. I'm sorry. Plenty

Plenty of cars still have CD players, but but the point is people would buy it if they didn't. People People buy it in the CD if it didn't play. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. To support you sometimes. So

So true.

So that's day minus 14. We're We're going to speed on ahead to day minus seven.

Yeah. We are. are. This is basically where we're going to warm. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to warm up the people that we already have. have. Okay. So something that we are guilty of as well, and I know y'all are too, is we all love the new followers, the new fans, the new eyeballs, right? And And we love it so much that oftentimes we're, we're forgetting about the people that actually exist for us, right? That That want to support us, that have supported us, They're primed and ready to activate and we just, we don't do it enough, right? So this is kind of where we kick some of that into play. Okay. Okay. So we're going to DM everyone that we know copped Gluten Tapes, right? We We know was tapped in with the, with the classic that is Gluten Tapes volume one.

Because we have LB's fan data because we're good managers who keep track of that stuff. You You guys should all have a list. Of

Of course we have it. We We have their IG handles. We have their emails, got SMS going wherever wherever it is that you have your list. We've built resources to help you guys track that. But But wherever it is that you have this list of like your super fans or like top supporters, this is where you're going to activate them. Right. And And you got to let them know the project is dropping. They They got to know, they got to know the pre-save is out. They got to know about the CD goal. Like Like this is where you're going to really, really try and rally them. Yes.

Yes. Because they are, they're your, uh, evangelists, I think is the word I was trying to pull for there.

They're preaching the good news. You

You could hope that you grab a few people from a brand new post out of the blue, or you could get one person to get really excited and tell all his friends, you know what I mean? And that's that's automatically, uh, just it multiplies as you can tell. So some more like creative ideas to activate some warm audience. We're We're going to do the stale hotline.

Okay.

So we're going to grab a, check this out. We're We're going to grab a free Google voice number and do some content along the lines of leave a voicemail at this number about a relationship that went stale. Okay. Okay. And we can turn those into content. I

I love this. And I, and I can already hear some of y'all be like, no one's going to do that. Like I don't have any, I don't have any fans that'll do that.

You'd be shocked.

Okay. First of all, you'd be shocked. And And second of all, I want y'all to really try and flip your mindset into like thinking that you have to have like a hundred people do this for it to be a success, bro. If you have two people, that's two pieces of people leave a voicemail on this hotline. Like that shows that they're like a real supporter. If they're taking time out of their day to do something like this, that's a good sign.

And you're clearly not big enough to not take time out of your day to show love back to them.

them. Exactly. great.

We get started somewhere.

But yeah. And then I love the idea of like, you know, repurposing it for content. Like that's huge. Like Like everything that we do, I'm telling you the best artists right now, as far as like, you know, marketing wise, those artists are taking every bit of their journey as an artist and they're making sure that they're making content around it. Like, and I know y'all are sick of hearing that shit, but I just went and saw Cameron Whitcomb here in Atlanta. Incredible performer. Right. The The second, like literally the day after it might've been like an hour after he got off stage, there was a piece of content put up from the show that I was at. And And that's just, again, like documenting his process, his, his live performance as an artist. So same thing with this. It's It's like, this is a little cute, you know, direct to fan, like engagement effort. Let's Let's make content out of it.

I don't like how you called it cute. This

This is cute.

This is smart. This

This is smart.

I guess it can be.

What do you have against cute? I

I don't know.

Cutesy little marketing thing.

thing. That's a cute little marketing thing you did there.

Is it condescending?

Well, you're going to love this next one.

Okay. What else do you got?

I came up with the bread unlock. Oh Lord. This is just like everything we're talking about here, guys is like meant to get your gears turning. Like Like don't copy all this. Exactly. We just want to show you. Well, yeah, because your name's name's not a Lil Breadstick.

So for the bread unlock, let's say that like, yeah, they can't copy the bread unlock. Well,

Well, they could do the blank unlock.

like, yeah, they can't copy the bread unlock. Well, they could do the blank unlock. I know. I'm just saying, saying, don't take it literally.

Let's say that we have a snippet of like the entire second verse, right? People People obviously like the second verse, but they've only been getting the stopper. You're

You're right.

They probably want to hear the whole second verse. I

I got to hear it. Let's

Let's say that for every bread emoji in the comments, unlocks another second, one second, maybe of the second verse.

Hey, I'm all for trying shit, man.

So we're just rallying comments around. Like I want to hear getting their friends to comment bread emoji so we can get the entire verse.

Let's

do it. This is just like, just take, you know, just have fun It's supposed to be fun.

It's literally supposed to be fun. Like Like we've had too many people come on this podcast and talk about how, like, if you want to do this just to make money, get the fuck out right now. You You need to be having fun with this. we wanted to do this just for money, holy shit, we would have quit four years ago. Yes. Yes. A

A long time ago. Seriously.

Seriously. We We have fun doing this. We like this shit. I

I know you guys signed up to be music makers, but like there is fun and creativity to be had in the business and marketing side and also money to be made. So So that's kind of nice.

For sure.

If you like money, go ahead and like, comment, subscribe to the channel. But if you love music, on the other hand, also like, comment and subscribe to the channel.

Okay. Where are we at in the, in the, in the plan? As

As we move along to what we're going to call this the countdown, right?

Okay. This

This is like, here it comes. This we'll call it day minus five through minus one. We're getting close, right? This isn't going to be overly complicated. We're We're going to be very active. We're going to be in here, but we're doing most, a lot of the same stuff, right? So we're posting the stopper day day minus five winning version, right? Like Like if you saw maybe an angle working better, maybe we're making more versions of that. A

A text hook that was resonating,

We're going to make more versions of that. Variations on winners, stuff that's not working. We're going to put a pause on that. The other types of content that we talked about, right? Content talking about the story, talking about maybe the writing of it, any kind of BTS, voice memos, original voice memos are always great. Day minus two. This is when we're like really like in the weeds with telling people, you know, like DMs, emails, whatever we've got to do. Here's the pre-save link. It's coming out in a couple of days. Updating people on our CD goal, right? Like Like they love an update. 73 people have pre-ordered. We need need 27 more or it's not getting made. Tell your friends. And then day minus one is my favorite one.

Okay. This

This is when we would definitely like be hitting up everyone, letting them know you you could DM them or you could take it a step further and send them a video right right in their DMs. The video message is super underrated. Or Or if you're a little shy, audio is great too. I think people like a voice, but but if you could just cameo style, just hold your phone up, say their name, right? Like Like yo, Chuck, man, I I know you checked out Gluten Tapes. I I could tell by your comments. You were really fired up about it. It really resonated with you. You're You're going to love stale, bro. Like stale. Like I, I'm telling you, you know, I looked at your page, like you and your girl look a little bored in that one picture. So it's really going to hit with you.

This just got a little personal. Leave Chuck and his girl out of this, bro.

point is like, let's personalize people. Let's really activate them.

I do love that. And like maybe show some appreciation for them being a part of your community, It's like, yo, appreciate you being part of the, uh, the Breadhead. The Breadhead.

Yeah. We talked about this for the episode,

It was right on the tip of the tongue.

It's the Breadheads.

It's the Breadheads. Name your, name your fans, by Yeah, appreciate you being part of the Breadheads. Yes. Yes. You're You're a, you're a valued part of the community. Yes. You're a, you're a valued part of the community. Top Breadhead. You're a, you're a valued part of the community. Top Breadhead. You're a top Breadhead. Top G. Yeah. But But no, seriously, like it's huge. And And honestly, it's damn near like faster than typing. I don't know. In

In some ways, you know, as long as you're not overthinking it, it it definitely shouldn't take your entire day, but you should be super locked in anyway. Cause you know, we're, we're in it now. It's, it's release day. It's

It's release day. I

I had to take a break from today's episode guys, because I'm terrified that too many of you are not collecting all the royalties that you're owed. It's It's hard enough to make a dollar and you guys are leaving money on the table. Unlike your master royalties that are generated when you upload through your distributor, publishing royalties do not get collected by default. Could you hypothetically register your song with hundreds of collection societies around the world? Yes, Yes, but ain't nobody got time for that. That's why a pub admin like KOSIGN, the sponsor of today's episode is extremely beneficial to make sure that you get every single dollar that you're owed on the publishing side of the house.

KOSIGN is backed by the fourth largest music publisher in the world. So they have an absolute beast of a machine supporting you to make sure that you get every dollar that you're owed. They're They're selective with who they work with.

That way they can provide the best customer experience possible for their clients, but but it's free to apply. So there's absolutely nothing to lose. The link's in the description. Now

Now let's get back to the episode.

Let's go ahead and fast forward that day counter that I'm sure we have on the screen to day zero. Wow.

Wow.

And like we said at the beginning, not the crazy, we've already done so much of the work, right? We figured out all the marketing.

The reason that release day - We're not fucking charting over here. That's

That's why people think it's such a big deal is because like first day sales, first week sales are such a big thing for those people, even in the past. But like we were independent artists in 2026. Your Your song, once it's out, is going to live forever. It could blow up anytime. Anyone Anyone could discover it at any time. live forever. It could blow up anytime. Anyone could discover it at any time. Release day is we're going to post the stopper. You know, we're not going to do an out now, like just the cover art post. That's That's pretty boring. We We are going to be very active. Yeah. Maybe

Maybe go on live. I

I think live is excellent. Yes, absolutely. Replying to every comment, right? This is the day that our pre-save link turns into our listen link. Yeah.

Yeah. So

So we're pushing people there.

And look, don't, don't get me wrong. Like Like obviously algorithmically Spotify and all platforms, they do look for signals. Yes. For people to start consuming the thing that just went live. It's It's true. So So as much as we're like shitting on release day, let's, you know, we're not fucking idiots over here. here. We know. Don't make any plans. Yeah. On release day. Yeah. For sure. But just also like be realistic.

Yes. And

And don't go so hard on release day that you don't have gas for the 30 days that we're now claiming you need to be extending past release day. day. We're only halfway through the race. Exactly. Exactly.

And then maybe the race goes on for years, depending on how big this song is.

Yeah. And just like mentally, if the numbers aren't going bonkers, like if you guys have listened to any of our episodes or just anyone out on the internet about the music business, like old songs can blow up. If your song is good, it might not be the right time. It might not have been the right piece of content. It might not have been the right message, whatever. Like, it's not like, Oh God, it didn't go crazy on release day. We're fucked. Like, Like, so just, you know, taper the expectations too.

It's out forever now. Like I said, as long as you have to pay your $45 a year, just your kid subscription. It's not going anywhere.

Yeah. But like the, you know, the more people we can get to streaming, right? Like Like on release day, it does help for

for sure. Yeah. We're not absolutely delusional, just level setting. for sure. Yeah. We're not absolutely delusional, just level setting. Yeah. For sure.

So where are we at now? Let's

Let's go to day three, day sure. Yeah. We're not absolutely delusional, just level setting. Yeah. For sure. So where are we at now? Let's go to day three, day three. This is where we're going to do a little bit of, uh, analytics research, right? We're We're going to go to a couple of dashboards here. This is, we're going to find what's working and we're going to double down. This This is a huge part of any marketing effort for anything. I think this this

is like everything an artist should think about always.

Yeah. I

I mean, cause I think of it the same as far as like sonically. If you guys are trying a bunch of different sounds, working with different producers, writing different and different styles, whatever. Did

Did it work? Did

Did it work? Did Did it not? If If it works, let's do more of it. I'm sorry.

That's it. The second

second that you guys do something well, you seem to want to try something new. And I don't really fucking understand it at all, to be completely honest. And

And it's, we're not saying just copy paste your song. No, No, but like there's plenty of creativity still to be had.

But let's, let's give ourselves a chance here for a second, like fall back just for a second. And let's like make it another like song in a similar style. Let's Let's make some more content with the same text. So, I I mean, Matt Hansen, literally who, you know, we've had on the pod. It's like, he's a text hook God. All All right. Him and his manager, he said, spend hours and hours and hours a day just thinking about text hooks. Like what is going on screen for his content. And And it's always super simple, but it always fucking slaps. And he reuses the ones that work over and over and over again. And it'll be like, send this to the love of your life. He He probably had that on like, when I scrolled his feed, probably had that on like 10 videos in a row. And like a bunch of y'all will be like, well, it's so uncreative. I'm I'm sorry. Right. He He has over a billion streams and does global tours and. And you guys are still thinking that independent artists.

You guys still think that every post is going to be seen by every person. Like Like we got to start reframing our minds around like discovery. Like Like when we're, when we're trying to break through, you got to make posts as if they're being seen by people for the first time. So if you use the same text hook in a second video, it's not like, oh, they're going to see it again. Ton of people didn't see the first one. And

And honestly, like there's a ton of artists that I've found have been able to make content that can achieve that discovery while also not like alienating their existing base either.

For sure.

So there's not like an either or all the time. Like we talk about like top of funnel content and how that's supposed to be for like new eyeballs, whatever. But like, nah, not really. In my mind, I think that sometimes top of funnel can also keep your existing fans cool and like, you know, satiate them too. So I don't think it's an either or type of conversation. It takes a little more thought, right. You You know, but I don't think that they have to be exclusive to be honest.

Yeah. So first dashboard, we're going to go to Spotify for artists. We're We're going to check the saves, right. The playlist ads, the streams obviously is one. And And let's just see like, you know, how's the song doing compared to our last releases? And And then obviously our social dashboards. We're looking for the posts that have the most shares and the most saves. Yeah. Views, you know, it's such a weak metric. I think these days. Comments is kind of weird. That can get skewed

skewed sometimes. I love shares, bro.

Shares might be the best one.

I'm team shares.

I'm team shares as well. I

just know that like when I find an artist, I'm sharing that post. With friends. With friends. That's

That's a huge indicator that you got something something and you need to double down on

Exactly. Whether it's to my story or to the group chat or whatever. Yeah. Like DM, like I'm sharing it, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know some people probably use saves to like come back to it and not forget about the song or something. I I don't have that experience. So, So, and just psychologically, I think that that tends to be maybe more for like educational type of content, like stuff. I want to make sure I don't forget like, you know, educationally. But But for me, I love, I love the shares metric. And I love the shares metric. And then also like link clicks. You can, you can look at like how many people clicked your external link. Link, AKA, AKA the link in your bio. You

You got someone to leave the platform. That's

That's like the best. That's That's the best. That takes a little more digging. Like I might like shares more a little bit still. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. It's

It's harder to get someone to leave, but the share, man, you're you're in group chats out there in the world.

knows what happens there? That's like out into the universe at that point. You don't really know. Yeah.

Yeah. So make 10 more versions, you know, variations.

Yeah. This is the double down. This

is not reinventing yourself. Every single post, every single single, like let's, let's just lock into our world for a bit. Cause

Cause that also complicates it. It's harder.

And we're not building on our momentum. So we're not doing that. Yeah. Let's also find some comments, right? Like let's see the common comments that people are leaving.

What's the narrative?

double down on that. What are people talking about? Yeah. How is this making people feel?

What are they saying? Let's

Let's make some videos replying to those comments. That's

That's easy content. Huge,

Huge, easy content and whatever's not working. It's fine. We We learned that it doesn't work. We're not going to do it anymore. Park Park it. Just like that. Let's Let's go to day seven. Day

Day seven. This

This is the day where most independent artists songs been out for a week. They They basically just give up, Ben.

Oh, Henry. Let's take a moment of silence for those that stopped going.

But not Lil Breadstick because he's got me and Ben on his not you guys either. We're We're going just as hard as ever on day seven. We know know that the song is out there forever. It could blow up at any time. It could catch traction at any time. Someone could discover it right now.

Bro, I don't know if you saw Druski on Diary of a CEO. Of course I did. did. But like, I mean, dude, he had like a little, you know, clip about this. this. It's been going super viral where it's like, bro, people don't really want this. What do you mean by that? People People yap all the time about how bad they want to be. Number one, they want to be the best. Most people don't really want it. They're going to stop. But if you don't stop, like I'm serious. It sounds cliche as fuck. But the only reason that we are at all a successful music business podcast, but whatever that even means, it's literally because we didn't stop.

We just never stopped doing it. Bro.

And we wanted to. not special. We wanted wanted to, man. We We didn't. But we didn't do it.

That's it. So,

So, you know, that's where I kind of think like day seven's key because it might start getting boring and you're not seeing the results that you thought you should have. All that like entitlement or all the like gaslighting yourself, like whatever. Throw that shit out the window, bro.

This is just our check-in with Lil Breadstick. Like, look, song's been out for a week. This This is when instead of turning down a bit, we're going to turn up. Yes.

Yes. Don't take your foot off the gas. Push the pedal down.

New versions of the stopper. Yes. Let's repost our winners. Let's share some more hotline voicemails. Let's reply to some more comments. Let's Let's keep this shit going, guys. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And like, guys, people can also tell like if you're not excited about the song still.

Oh, that's a big one. If

If you're not excited about the song still, one week later.

If you've moved on. We're

We're trying to get people to listen to your song for the rest of time. That's our goal here. We We want people bumping Stale by Lil Breadstick. Yes.

Yes. In

In decades from now. Like, Like, that's what we want as managers of Lil Breadstick.

Moving on to day 14. Day

Day 14. This

This is decision day, Ben.

Okay. D-Day? This

This is D-Day. We've put in some good effort. We're going to check Spotify for artists. Again, Again, we're going to check those same numbers, right? Saves, Saves, ads, streams. We're going to see, again, if Stale is an outlier compared to our other songs. And And we're going to get real with ourselves here, right? Because Because music careers, especially the independent ones, are quite the conveyor belt, maybe? There's just always - It's the hamster wheel. Hamster wheel. Yes. Yes. So So it's important that we remove our ego out of the equation if we want to grow.

And - Got to look at the data, man. We

We got to look at the data and decide. Because like we just said, this is going to sound a little contradictory to keeping the gas going. But But if the song isn't working as well, we're not going to stop posting content. We're going to maintain a minimum, right? But we are going to get real with ourselves about maybe starting to shift our attention to the next one. Because Because this is, it's not like you drop one song and it hits. Exactly.

Exactly. That's the biggest thing. Is that like, we're not suggesting that you don't ever post about this song again. Right. Right. Right. Especially Especially if you believe in it. You You kind of know like deep down, like this is your baby, right? I mean, like you have to live with this. You have to live with this. And you got to live with the fact that you're putting time and energy. And, you know, potentially if you did want to not do this for free and spend money on it, God forbid, that's that's your decision. This is your career.

But we're going to acknowledge a flop.

Correct. We have to. And again, it's all relative.

It is.

you. I don't give a fuck if it got 10 streams this time. Did Did the last one get five? That's

That's a double up. That's

That's a double up, bro. Because

Because if it is working, this is when we pour it the fuck on.

Let's go. We're

We're shooting more content.

Oh, yes.

Maybe we drop that sped up and slowed down version that was on the CDs. We're just, we're increasing efforts. People People like this. And that is a big signal to keep it going. And

And because, bro, this is something where, I mean, look, you all know the artists that I'm talking about. But, like, if they have a song that's working, they're

they're going to push it.

Dude. I mean, KELS, again, God, she's just all we talk about, I feel like. I know. She's a great example. She's just such a good example for, like, the modern day artist. She's posted about her song, Gone, that's now been out probably, like, over a year. Gone, that's now been out probably, like, over a year. She still posts, posted at least a couple times a week, guaranteed. least. She's posted it probably 600, 700 times now. I I think it was 600 by the time that we had her on the podcast, which has been a long time since now. Now, it's it's got to have been now, like, 700, 800 times.

Because it's like, think about a business. Like, if every time I run this ad, I get sales. Why Why would you stop running the ad?

Or if you have a flagship product. Yeah. You think Coca-Cola is going to stop selling Coca-Cola? If

If every time I post about this song, people come into my world and start streaming my music and discover me and fall in love with me. Yeah. Yeah. Who the hell are you to stop posting that song? I don't care how long it's been.

Exactly.

I don't care what your current followers think. They get it. They love you. Like, Like, you know, there's a thing as viewer fatigue, sure. But like, yeah, we're not going to stop completely. There's just ain't no way.

Exactly. And

And this would also be our CD pre-order day. So hopefully we hit our 100 goal.

we did.

We 100% did.

did. I mean, Lil Breastick hit his goal. He

He hit it. If

you didn't, refund everyone. Please. Not keep their money without giving them the product or service that you quoted them here.

It's the tricky thing about these pre-orders. Yes. It's your responsibility to do the refund. So all all the way now to day 30.

Oh God, we're here.

We are at day 30.

30. We did it, y'all. Come on.

Clap it up.

Let's clap it up. We We did it.

Good job, LB.

I'm tired.

I'm exhausted. And now we have to do it all over again. Oh

Oh my God. Because

Because day 30 is when the day 30 flips back into the day minus 30 again. We We started all over with the next song.

a bitch.

That's what it is, man. We got to do more releases.

This is the life y'all chose, though. It It is. First of all. That's like us. It's like, we just posted a podcast episode.

What's the next one?

one? What's

What's the next one?

Is the next one edited? Is the next one clipped? Is Is it this and that? It's tiring, bro. It's next one clipped? Is it this and that? It's tiring, bro. It's a hamster wheel, which is why I hope you guys actually love this shit.

Otherwise, you're going to get burned out and it's not going to work. But give each song a nice little, we like two months here is what we put in between releases. I I think that's quick enough. I think one or two drops a year is just not going to do it. Some people have dropped every week. I I don't think you get enough attention shown to a song when you're doing it that frequently. So So one or two months, at least a single. I

I love like 45 days, to be honest. But I mean, obviously obviously with this example, we're kind of giving you the 60 day framework where, you know, you start the next one at the end of the like, you know, day plus 30. So it's not that deep either. That's why, you know, you kind of said like, this is an example. Yes. Don't fucking do it. Like it doesn't have to be like literally 30 days and then 60 days, right?

Like, yeah, just take the frameworks, take the ideas. We just hope you're inspired and we want to leave you with a few golden rules to close it out.

love these.

That's a new kind of, it's a nice golden rules. Nice, like, yeah, words of wisdom to sum it all

What did we just, what did we just talk about here? So

So number one golden rule, the rollout starts when the song is done. Not when the song is out. Yeah. The most important shit we did was, you know, really that like first month before the song was out and and release day ended up being not that important.

I mean, ideally it should take a lot of the like stress out of it too. Yes. Like Like planning again, I know y'all are. Admin is done. I know a lot of y'all are procrastinators. The procrastinators, this guy included sometimes, but it's like, but dude, like the planning is key. It It is right. It's It's going to help things all, all around. Number two, we're going to find a stopper and we're not going to spend a single ounce of energy or posting or money. If you should, you know, have any to spend on it before we found it before before we found the stopper dude. The stopper is the key. on it before we found it before we found the stopper dude. The stopper is the key. Yep.

And I kind of hinted at number three, but again, let's just stop glamorizing release day so much. Yeah. Yeah. It's just not as it is an important day that you need to be around. You need to be active. You need to be doing stuff. Don't take it off. Don't make plans, but there's there's so much other work to be done. And when you spread it out, when you have a plan, yes, everything's going to go way smoother for you.

Absolutely. Number Number four, when something works, do it 10 more times, double down. Like Like I just, I love that. Just quintuple down.

The quintuple is only five.

It's less than, yeah.

Deck, uh, deck cup deck.

Just do it. Just do it a lot more. Do Do it

it a lot more.

I can do it a lot more.

Yes.

Again, this is just like, this is already hard enough. Let's not make our lives any more difficult where we're always feeling the need to like do something different. Cause different. So cool. It's It's not like it's shit. Working is cool.