One of the biggest issues artists face is music streaming. While it’s great for fans to access almost every song imaginable, the payouts for artists from these platforms are too low for most to depend on.
Creating music professionally and marketing releases can be quite expensive. Typically, artists recoup those expenses by doing a tour and selling merch. However, to help generate money upfront, a trend we’re seeing more recently is this concept of windowing a release.
In this blog, I will talk about what windowing is, how you can use to maximize revenue and my top 3 platforms you should consider to window your next music release.
What is Windowing in Music?
Windowing is a content distribution strategy where you’re making your content(music) exclusively available on a platform, channel or format for a limited time before it is made widely available. The goal is capitalize on the initial demand by generating as much revenue upfront within a short window before it goes to other distribution channels that don’t pay as much. Essentially, it’s a practice where you intentionally stagger the availability to maximize how much you can generate.
For a music release, this means charging fans for early access to the new music and other perks before the release is on all streaming platforms. You want to generate as much money upfront so you’re not depending on any revenue from streaming royalties that won’t even start showing up until at least 2 or 3 months later.
The practice of windowing isn’t new, but the need and appeal for this strategy in music have grown over the years with the increasing popularity of streaming and low royalty rates.
How Should You Window Your Next Release
Before we get into specific platforms, I wanted to share some ideas and tactics to consider to ensure windowing can be successfully implemented.
The basic execution of this windowing strategy can be as simple as making your new release available to listen to and download on a specific platform (i.e. Bandcamp) before the official release date where it will be available on all streaming platforms.
For most artists, this is probably all you’ll need since it doesn’t require any lead time and is easier to execute. However, you do have the option to customize and test different tactics.
Physical Products
Windowing is easier done digitally but you can also do this with physical items like vinyl and CDs. Launch physical and digital download formats together a month in advance of the official release date on streaming platforms.
If you really want to try and milk the release upfront, consider windowing with a 3-step process where you separate the physical release first for a few weeks. Maybe another 2 weeks later, you make it available for digital download. Then after another 2 weeks, it’s available everywhere. The only thing is it requires much more planning ahead and having all the physicals pressed beforehand.
Other Perks
You can also attach other perks to incentivize fans to purchase the music physically or digitally before the streaming release date.
- Signed vinyl or CDs
- Merch bundles and fan packs
- Raffle for merch, tickets, meet & greets, etc.
- Video shout-outs (i.e. Cameo-style videos)
- Deluxe album version as a download
- Invitation to listening parties (in-person or online)
If you’re someone who cares about charting on Billboard, you can do ‘fan packs’.
Time Frame
How long should you stagger each window before the official release on streaming platforms?
If you’re only doing a digital release window, I would say 2 – 4 weeks before the official release date.
If you’re incorporating physical releases, you’ll want to widen the window more to account for fulfillment and shipping so 4 – 6 weeks.
Best Platforms for Windowing
These are the 3 most popular and accessible options for you to window an upcoming release. There are other options out there, but what you’re mainly looking for is the ability to sell, listen to the music and potentially limit access.
BandCamp
Bandcamp is a great option because it has everything you would need to successfully window a release.
They have a storefront that allows visitors to listen to the new releases and purchase digital downloads or physical merch. Visitors are limited to only 3 full plays (can be disabled or increased) of a song before they are prompted to buy.
You can also host a listening party to celebrate with your fans exclusively on the platform.
The cool thing about Bandcamp is it’s built on a strong community around supporting artists on the platform. Fans also like the ability to select the file types for downloading, including MP3, FLAC, WAV and AIFF.
Although it doesn’t cost money to create an account and host your releases there, there are fees involved.
EVEN
Started in 2022 and officially launched in April of 2024, EVEN is a direct-to-consumer music platform that allows artists to maximize revenue from their releases in a world now dominated by streaming.
Understanding that low payout rates from streaming platforms aren’t changing anytime soon, they essentially positioned themselves as a windowing platform with an unofficial tagline of:
Empowering artists to sell their music first and stream second.
The growing popularity of EVEN has been largely due to rising independent Hip Hop star LaRussell, who initially put the platform on my radar. More recently, J.Cole has used the platform to monetize the 10 year anniversary release of his 2014 Forest Hills Drive album.
Like Bandcamp, EVEN offers a “pay what you want” model where you can set a minimum amount you accept. When setting up a release, you can include various rewards or perks (EVEN calls them access points) like bonus content, merch, events and fan experiences to incentivize fans to support.
Signing up is easy, but your artist account will need to be verified by their team before you start. As for fees, EVEN does a 80/20 revenue split so you keep 80% of the money you generate through their platform.
Check out their artist playbook for more information.
Patreon
Patreon is a monetization platform for creators to earn money from memberships/subscriptions. The tools and features available on Patreon give artists a lot of flexibility, especially for something like windowing. However, I would not recommend starting a Patreon solely for windowing a release.
This option is ideal if you already built a membership community and you’re looking for a way to window your release to attract new potential members to your Patreon. For example, you can promote early access to the new release on social media and an email list by encouraging fans to join.
Patreon supports audio files so fans can easily listen to the new release in the Patreon app, Spotify or other podcasting apps (via RSS feed). You can choose to enable or disable downloading as well.
However, the one drawback is you can’t upload multiple audio tracks into one individual post. You would have to create either a post for each individual song or an edit that contains the entire album in one seamless track. This is where Bandcamp or EVEN have an advantage since those are music-centric platforms that accommodate multiple tracks.
As for selling physical merch for windowing, your best option is to create a secret, password-protected shop page and give Patreon members access. You can easily do this with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Squarespace.
Even if you have fans who don’t want to pay monthly subscription costs, you can sell access to an individual post containing the new release with a one-time charge. You can also include an album download for sale in your digital store.
For more on Patreon for Music Artists, I wrote some blogs and an ebook for you to check out.
Conclusion
As convenient music streaming is for the fans, the low payout rates on all platforms aren’t changing anytime soon. For artists looking to adapt, windowing new releases has become a viable strategy.
Just be aware that windowing a release strategy is typically reserved for artists who have a sizable fan base and multiple releases under their belt. In other words, this is not effective for newer or developing artists.
If you’ve tried windowing a release, I would love to hear your results. What platform did you use and how did you approach it?
