A music marketing plan is a one-page document that states the goal of a release, who it is for, the budget, the channels and the dates. Use the eight sections below, or download them as a CSV of questions and open it in Google Sheets or Excel.
The plan does not need to be long. Its job is to make you choose: one goal, a few channels, a date for each task. Without it most releases turn into posting whenever there is time.
Download
It is a spreadsheet with three columns: section, question and your answer. We have not made PDF or slide versions.
The eight sections
| Section | What to decide | One-line example |
|---|
| 1. Goal and metric | One result and the number that shows it | Collect 500 fan emails by release day |
| 2. Audience | One type of listener, not everyone | Listeners of bedroom pop in the UK who go to small shows |
| 3. Positioning | The release in one sentence | A soft, late-night single about moving cities |
| 4. Assets | What must exist before you promote | Press photo, EPK, one-sheet, smart link, pre-save page |
| 5. Channels | Three at most, with a weekly action each | Email, short video, press |
| 6. Budget | Money and hours per week | $0 and four hours a week |
| 7. Timeline | Dates for each task | Use the release checklist |
| 8. Review | What you will look at four weeks after | Emails collected, clicks by source, what to repeat |
A filled-in plan
This one is for an invented artist, North Pier, releasing a single. The numbers are targets, not results.
- Goal: 500 fan emails collected by release day.
- Audience: listeners who follow small-venue indie acts in two cities.
- Positioning: a late-night single for people who moved away from home.
- Assets: press photo, updated EPK, smart link with pre-save, fan email box on the link.
- Channels: email (three sends), short video (three clips a week), press (ten outlets, pitched four weeks out).
- Budget: $0 and four hours a week.
- Timeline: from the checklist, release in eight weeks.
- Review: four weeks after, compare emails against the 500 target and see which source sent the most clicks.
Budget tiers
The plan works with no money. If you do have a budget, decide before you spend what result it is for and when you will stop. The sourced breakdown for $0, $100 and $1,000 a month is in music promotion on $0, $100 and $1,000 a month, and the signals for stopping a paid campaign are in when to kill a music ad campaign.
FAQ
What should a music marketing plan include?
A goal with a number, an audience, a one-line description of the release, the assets you need, up to three channels, a budget, a timeline and a review date.
How long should it be?
One page. If it takes longer to write than the release took to record, cut it down.
Do I need a plan for a single?
Yes, a short one. The decisions are the same, just fewer. The dated release checklist is the short version.
Where do I keep it?
Anywhere you will look at it weekly. In Stage, the Release Calendar holds the dates.
Let HANI draft it
Stage's AI assistant, HANI, can draft a first version of a plan from your profile and release when you ask; you edit it. Free members get 15 questions a month. See the AI manager page and start at stage.groovegainer.com. The tools the plan names, from smart link to EPK, are free in Stage; see how to promote a single before release.
Corrections: info@groovegainer.com.
