It’s that time of year when bands gradually start rolling out new albums for the listening public. In the run up to the release date it’s now fairly common for them to release a ‘single’ to give fans a taster of what’s to come. ‘But it’s always been like that!’ I hear you say – well indeed, but the method of which the single is released and promoted  has changed dramatically.

Physical singles are no more...

Since 2008 when Woolworths stopped selling CD singles and digital downloads became chart-eligible in 2005, the singles market is now an online game. With the advent of music streaming services such as Spotify, Last.fm and the clear popularity of streaming music from your website, thinking outside the box in terms of digital release is essential. As well as generating money, releasing a single is beneficial in terms of marketing the new product. Once you get your new track out there, there are many gains to be had. Many bands collect e-mail addresses or get fans to tweet about them which is the obvious choice. What’s also useful is the potential for viral marketing depending on how you present the track.

Music videos are useful virally, especially YouTube videos which can be easily shared, embedded and favourited. However not all singles necessarily have an accompanying music video so the trick is working out how to use YouTube’s popularity but at the same time create something that stands out or is useful to fans in some way.

Recently two bands have released their new singles off their forthcoming albums on YouTube and presented them in an interesting way. The tracks by Stone Sour and Avenged Sevenfold have the lyrics to the songs displayed whilst the track is playing. This is something that’s been happening for a while but instead of the bands themselves doing it, many of the fans have posted videos containing the lyrics to songs. Just have a quick search for any song you like and add the word ‘lyrics’ after it. You’re bound to find the lyrics for the track you’re looking for. It seems like this trend is something that the major players in music have caught on to and are starting to produce quality versions of this idea. Watch the two videos below and see how they approach this differently.

Stone Sour – Say You’ll Haunt Me

Avenged Sevenfold – Buried Alive

As you can see, Avenged Sevenfold have taken this idea and really run with it. Great animations and well presented song lyrics make this a great video to turn viral. Stone Sour’s version is simple but also effective making the song more accessible to fans who want to know more about the words.

The point is, by doing this you are opening up another opportunity to stream your music online in an interesting way. Instead of streaming a track with just a picture of the band, you are giving the fans something interesting to see. I can see official lyric videos becoming far more common so it’s a good time to get in there early and start creating some of your own. Start with a few of your major tracks and see how it goes from there.