Hey ,

Hope you're having a great day so far ^_^ Sending out this email because while recording my own album this month and chatting with a few artist coaching clients, most of them have absolutely no idea what the next steps are for releasing their music independently!

So, if you've just finished recording your latest track, but don't know what to do with it next - no worries! Here's a comprehensive list of "Next Steps" for indie artists looking to release their own music in 2025 & promote themselves online. And if you're looking for mixing / mastering services, just shoot me an email :)

RELEASING MUSIC - NEXT STEPS

After recording - next steps to release & promote music! (download PDF)

NOTE: any affiliate links below will give a kickback to the Studio. Thanks!

LEGALS & COPYRIGHT: PRO - ASCAP or BMI (Personally, I use ASCAP, but either one works) You need a PRO to collect royalties from live shows & protect your music from getting played without payment. Copyright.gov - Copyright your songs to protect your intellectual property. You can copyright your music before releasing it, as an entire body of work (album) to save money.

IDENTITY PROTECTION: This is often overlooked but SO IMPORTANT to your safety if you have an online presence or do social media! You need to get a VPN & also a data protection service so that you don't a) get doxxed b) get stalked or c) get hacked. I'm not joking, one of my best friend's websites got hacked, stalked and cyber bullied by one very belligerent "follower" online. They told me that getting a VPN saved their life and protects their family. I use SurfShark because it also includes Incogni - here's a referral link to try it out.

ONLINE SALES: Bandcamp - Set your own price & sell your music online. No wait time to release new songs. I recommend doing a “soft release” here first before releasing it to streaming services. Canva - create your own designs, posters, stickers & more. Awesome online graphic design. Printful - create your own print-to-order merch that gets automatically shipped out to your fans.

DISTRIBUTION: Distrokid- the Studio’s preferred distributor for online streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, Amazon Music, etc. Get unlimited annual uploads. NOTE: Make sure to upload your music to Distrokid at least 2-4 weeks ahead of your project’s release date!

Distrokid 7% off Referral Link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/819463

Distrokid 50% off Student Link: https://distrokid.com/student/819463 (must have a .edu email) You can use any distributor that you choose - Anti Joy, CD Baby, TuneCore, etc. Take a moment to research which is best for your budget.

PHYSICAL MERCH (Optional): DiscMakers - if you want to print physical CDs, make Vinyl records, DVDs or USB drives, then use Disc Makers to get all of your physical merch printed. NOTE: Production time is 4-8 weeks.

WEBSITE & MAILING LIST (Optional): Cardd.co - create a website, EPK & personalized landing page for your music for free. This is the cheapest & easiest to use website I've found, premium version is $20/year. SendFox - send out newsletters to mailing lists, create automated emails, and stay in touch with followers! Only costs $30 for a LIFETIME plan. So obviously, that's what I use.

PROMOTION (Optional): RePurpose.io - automatically reposts your content across all of social media. For example, I upload a TikTok, then Repurpose automatically re-uploads that video across YouTube, IG, FB & X for me.

VidIQ - (free) if you are releasing music videos & growing on YouTube, VidIQ boosts your videos, analyzes them & helps you get more subscribers faster!

Submithub - use this link for 10% off to send your song to Spotify playlist curators, radio stations, & music blogs! We use this for our clients, often.

Here's a complete Song Release Checklist PDF that I made for my artist coaching clients :) Do you have anything else that you would add to this list?

I've got a few more times available to meet next week if you have questions!

Book a 1:1 artist coaching or vocal coaching call here: https://tidycal.com/kaizenmusicstudio

P.S."Bleeding Doubt" (Click here to listen) by me & Within A Reverie just hit 4k streams on Spotify! Thank you for streaming, supporting & listening <3

Cheers,

~ Anji Kaizen

Studio Owner & Artist

My Music: https://anjikaizen.com/

Studio: https://www.kaizenmusicstudio.com