Bigger albums often appear in stores weeks before release day. Fans can order them early, and some songs can be played right away. For an independent artist, album pre-orders can look like a major-label trick, but the idea behind them is simple, and parts of it work for any album.
What an album pre-order is
A pre-order means the album has a page in a store before its release date. On download stores such as the iTunes Store, people can buy the album in advance, and it lands in their library on release day. On Apple Music, listeners can pre-add an upcoming album, so it appears in their library when it comes out. Some streaming services also offer pre-release pages or countdowns for eligible artists through their own artist tools.
The point is attention. Instead of a single release day, you get several weeks in which the album already exists, can be shared and keeps collecting interest.
Instant grat tracks and pre-release singles
During a pre-order, some tracks can be unlocked early. In the industry they are often called "instant grat" tracks, short for instant gratification: someone who pre-orders gets these songs immediately, and on streaming services they become playable before the album is out.
A plan for a ten-track album might look like this:
- Six weeks before release: the pre-order opens, with the first single available at once.
- Three weeks before: a second track is unlocked.
- One week before: a third track.
- Release day: the full album.
Each unlocked track gives you a new reason to post, pitch and talk about the album, while the album page keeps gathering fans.
How pre-orders are set up, in general
Technically, the album is delivered to stores earlier than usual, with a pre-order start date, a release date and, for each instant grat track, the date it becomes available. Which stores accept pre-orders, and how far ahead, depends on each platform and on what your distributor can deliver. Not every distributor offers pre-orders, and the options differ, so ask before you build a campaign around one.
One more thing follows from this. Tracks that came out earlier as singles should appear on the album with the same ISRC. That keeps their streams and playlist adds together and stops the album from being treated as a duplicate.
Everything has to be ready earlier
This is the part that catches artists out. When the pre-order opens, the album is already in stores. So by that date you need:
- final masters of every track, not only the singles;
- final artwork;
- the track order, titles, version labels and explicit flags;
- complete credits for all songs;
- a release date you are sure of.
Changing a track after the pre-order starts can be difficult or impossible on some stores, and it confuses buyers. Treat the pre-order start as your real deadline, not the release date.
If pre-orders aren't available to you
You can get most of the benefit without a formal pre-order:
- Release two or three songs from the album as singles in the weeks before it, each with its own release date, then put them on the album with the same ISRCs.
- Announce the album date and track list when the first single comes out, so every single points to the album.
- Ask listeners to follow your artist profile, so the album reaches them through the platforms' new-release features.
- If you use pre-save links from third-party services, remember that they are a separate tool, not a store pre-order.
Sabina Arzu, an invented singer, had no pre-order for her first album. She released three singles four weeks apart, announced the album with the second one, and put all three on the album with the same codes. On release day, her listeners already knew a third of the record.
Common mistakes
- Announcing a date before the masters are finished, then having to move it.
- Putting a different mix of a single on the album, which makes it a new recording with a new code and cuts it off from its history.
- Unlocking so many tracks early that nothing new is left for release day.