Pre-Saves: New Ways to Harness Creativity and Connect With Fans
Engaging And Capturing Your Biggest Fans’ Excitement
Fans are the most important people in an artist’s career. It’s the fans who bring music to life and allow a project to grow. That is why when marketing strategies are carried out, it is essential to develop innovative ways to strengthen the artist-fan relationship.
The digital age allows us to take this relationship to a new level, with endless tools at our disposal we can implement experiential strategies in which the fan can participate from the comfort of their home. This is a very attractive type of digital marketing, especially now, when physical interaction is limited.
In recent months, we have generated different strategies to rethink how we offer fans the option of saving music ahead of release (pre-save). With the tools that platforms offer us, pre-saves can be utilized to include other actions such as following the artists profile or liking a playlist. In short, when a user pre-saves a release they can also be prompted to follow the artist. Strategies like this help a track or album really pop on the day it releases.
What Are Pre-Saves?
The fact that a fan are willing to pre-save any content prior to release allows results that would normally require very high engagement to create.
The pre-save feature is a standard option in the backend of our ONErpm artist portal.
To generate these pre-save features, some of our favorite platforms are Toneden, Feature FM, and Wix, since they offer the possibility of having a specific landing page to carry out the action on the preferred streaming platform.
Promoting a “pre-save” has multiple advantages, however, when the pre-save is accompanied by an extra incentive for fans, the results are incredible.These days, fans like to connect with artists and get involved with their music. This is something ONErpm can leverage, by channeling that interaction into actions, we’re able to add to the marketing strategy.
One instance where the pre-save proved to be particularly effective is in the case of The National Parks, where fans were given different prizes and incentives in exchange for their interaction.
The National Parks – Wildflower
The National Parks are a successful indie-folk act with a substantial following in the American West. As a part of their release plan for their album Wildflower we sought to make sure we could maximize their pre-saves.
We did a conversion-optimized pre-save ad campaign to drive tens of thousands of people to our pre-save link. We did five giveaways in conjunction with this, and targeted guitar, vinyl, airpods, sneakers, and national park lovers with our successive campaigns.
Giveaways helped to motivate the fanbase to be active in the lead-up to the release. They also showed the band to new audiences.
Thousands of pre-saves and emails and primed the band for their biggest release day ever as the album landed on playlists all across Spotify, Apple Music, and elsewhere.
In Summation:
Examples such as this reflect how thinking about a musical product as a concept allows to think of creative strategies to encourage followers to bet on the content and pre-save it, in exchange for a unique, creative, personal and fun experience.
These types of strategies where greater interaction with the fans is sought –and that are aimed at pre-saving the release– translates into different advantages, improving the performance of the release before its launch and above all, inviting fans to an experience that brings them closer to the artist, and that allows greater artist-fan communication. Undoubtedly, this type of strategy is becoming a “must” when planning the release of a single, album or music video.
