1 min readStrategyPaid Media
Pre-saves are the first week, before the first week
A release does not start on release day. The chart position is mostly decided by what was captured in the fortnight before it.
KSI’s Dissimulation entered the UK album chart at #2 with 50k+ Spotify pre-saves behind it. Kris Wu and Travis Scott’s Deserve collected 8k+ pre-saves in under 24 hours and went to #1 on the iTunes US chart. In both cases the number that mattered on release day had been built before it.
[ 01 ]Why the pre-save matters more than the stream
A pre-save is a first-day stream with a name attached. It lands in the window the charts count, it is a listener you can reach again, and it tells the platforms that the release has an audience waiting. Streams after launch are the result; pre-saves are the input you can actually buy and build.
[ 02 ]Run it as a campaign, not a link in the bio
- Announce with a pre-save as the only call to action, so nothing competes with it
- Buy against the pre-save conversion from day one, with creative that shows the artist rather than the artwork
- Phase the singles so each one re-opens the pre-save for people who missed the last
- Keep the label’s release team in the loop on what is converting, so the plan moves with the data
Then release week is a confirmation of work already done. On Dissimulation that work carried on to 350M+ Spotify streams and 75M+ YouTube views; the chart entry was the starting gun, not the finish.