Now is the time to start planning how you’ll release and promote music in 2025 so you can hit the ground running in the new year.

Every January, YouTube comes alive with videos about “how to get your first 1 million streams (or something similar) in 20XX”, but for me, the work begins long before the beginning of the year.

No doubt, December is all about the holidays, but it is also a time that is best suited to create a plan and start putting in the work to achieve your goals.

Here are four steps to consider if you want to make 2025 your best year yet for releasing music.

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Set a release schedule

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

We’ve all heard that one, right?

Playing the game of catchup, fighting to finish a song so you can “just get something out” is not a release strategy.

Unfortunately, this is what a lot of artists do.

Not only is it less than effective, but it’s stressful.

There’s a better way.

Before releasing music this next year, think about taking the time to craft and implement a release schedule ahead of time.

Outline how many tracks you want to get out in 2025 and space them out evenly across the year.

Whether you plan to drop five songs or 50, a release schedule will allow you to envision your goals, write them down, and then reference them in one place so you can start building next year’s catalog of work before the new year hits.

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Batch music in advance

Ok, you have your plan. Now it’s time to execute.

The first step is to get ahead of the curve and start finishing the songs you plan to put out over the next 52 weeks.

I personally love December for this batching process, the week between Christmas and New Year's, especially.

It’s the time of the year when most people are looking to wind things down and settle in before life kicks back into gear again after January 1st.

And while getting some much-needed rest and quality time with the family is important (believe me, I’m as big a fan as anyone), what sets the highest performers apart from the competition is their ability to do what others simply won’t do.

So while most people are sleeping off the holiday sweets, why not be the one who is investing in their dreams by putting together a catalog of musical assets in advance?

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Get your branding right

The success of your music is largely determined by the impact of your visual brand.

I talk about this a lot, but we live in a visual-first world, and music is no different.

Fortunately for us, getting our branding dialed in for a new-year/new-music push is relatively simple compared to larger, more complex businesses.

First, think about updating your profile picture.

You want to have the same profile picture on every single website, landing page, and social profile you own, so put together a great photo in square and wide formats (with a vertical pixel count above 3,000) to ensure you have something you can place everywhere.

Second, generate a header photo that is different from your profile picture but ties in nonetheless.

You’re looking for the same vibe and color scheme here, not the same picture.

Not many sites use the header photo these days, but for those that do, it makes a difference (plus, you can use this as your website background).

And third, use a color wheel to identify the primary 2-3 colors you’ll use across your releases and content for the year.

If you’ve ever put in the work to outline your brand strategy in the past, these will likely already be baked in, but if you haven’t, now’s as good a time as any.

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Determine your budget

If you’re going to effectively market your music in 2025, you’re going to need to spend some money.

It’s just the facts.

I know expenses are higher during the holidays and for many of us, budgets get a little tight (I have two kids—I get it), but think about putting together a reasonable dollar amount for what you might want to spend on your marketing in the new year.

My baseline is always $3,650 per year.

That’s $10 per day on ads.

Now I usually end up spending more than that, but I always just go ahead and mentally prepare myself for the fact that I am going to devote at least that amount to my ads every year.

It helps me to wrap my head around the rest of this list (notably the first two sections) in reverse order.

Maybe your budget’s higher than mine.

Maybe it’s lower.

That is entirely up to you.

Whatever it is, get it on paper (metaphorically—you can store it in a note on your phone) and do your best to stick to it.

If you can set your budget, nail your branding, get ahead of the curve on recording, and outline (and stick to) a consistent release schedule, you can dominate in 2025.

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