Guide 04 of 07
Filling the room
Nearly every sale here comes from a release that held a launch party, and the full rooms are booked days ahead. This is what fills one, measured on the platform.
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Read this first
Everything below comes from what has happened here so far, not from what we hoped would happen. It is a young platform and the numbers are small, so treat this as the clearest pattern we can see rather than a law. When it stops being true, we will rewrite it.
Know where the sale happens
More than nine sales in ten happen on a release that held a launch party, and seven in ten land inside the three hours the party runs. Releases that never had one have sold next to nothing, and it is not for lack of time, because they are on average older than the ones that did. The party is not promotion for the release. It is the moment people decide.
Understand what an empty room costs you
A party with nobody in it has never sold a single copy. Not once. Scheduling is the easy half and it buys you nothing on its own. Everything below is about the other half.
Build the audience before you schedule
The people who show up are the people who already follow you. Follow count before the party is the strongest thing we can see predicting how full the room gets. If you have a handful of followers, spend a few weeks there first: release notes, replies, showing up in other people's parties. Then schedule.
Book it days ahead, not minutes ahead
This is the single biggest thing separating a full room from an empty one. Nearly half the launch parties here are booked less than a day before they start, and about half of those play to an empty room. No party booked three or more days out has ever played to an empty room, and those parties draw several times the crowd. Book a week ahead, so people have time to hear about it. The reason is the next step.
Who turns up, by how far ahead the party was booked. A party booked three or more days out draws around four times the crowd of one booked the same day. Get alerts set, they are the RSVP
Anyone can set an alert on your scheduled party and get pinged when it starts. Parties that gathered even a few alerts filled up. Parties with none played to an empty room four times out of five. The alert is the most reliable signal we have of who will turn up, and it is the thing to ask for by name when you share the link.
Give people a reason to be there live
Buyers get a discount for the length of the party, and the room sees who bought unless they choose to stay anonymous. Say that when you invite people. A synchronized first listen with the artist in the chat is something they cannot get by opening the release page on their own on Tuesday.
Pick the time for your people, not for you
The party runs the length of your release, at the minute you chose, in every attendee's own timezone. Ask where your listeners actually are before locking a slot. A great party at 3am for most of your audience is an empty one.
Show up in the room
The chat is live and you are in it. The parties that sold are the ones where the artist was present and talking, not the ones that ran unattended. This is the part no feature can do for you.