What happens:

• Welcome emails are sent out
• Book Big/Small Brief and Project Start Meeting
• We ask for invoice details
• We send out upfront invoice (1-14 days after submitting invoice details)
• Book Music Brief if we’ll produce an EP or Album together
• Get contact information
• We set up the project Google drive folders
• We get access to social accounts
• We get access to Spotify for Artists
• You get access to artists.rexiusrecords.com

Artist Responsibilities:

• Book start up meeting
• Fill in Brand Identify Form
• Book Brand Session
• Access Project Dashboard
• Add globi@rexiusrecords.com to your contacts, this is our personal bot that will give you relevant information during the project
• Fill in invoice details
• Pay upfront invoice

We have a meeting at Rexius HQ or Google Meet, and go through goals, deadlines, your brand, visual concept and target audience.

Startup Meeting:

• Starting point
• Goals
• Project expectations
• General Information

Branding Session

• How are you unique?
• What’s your image?
• How will the visuals look?
• How can we reach out?

We structure all our notes and what we have discussed on the Big/Small Brief and formalize them into a visual brief, moodboards, and MV Brief (if Big Brief).

• Marketing and Visual Report (MV Brief)
  • Artist Identity
  • Brand Archetype
• Social Media Analysis
• Moodboards
• Start Music Projects and Visual projects
• Brand book
• Release Strategy
• Create Artist Biography

Artist responsibilities:

• Submit Previous Coverage (artist)

If we’re about to produce an EP or Album together we will gather all the team and listen to your demos and together with the producer chose the songs to record. Here we will also take a look at:

• Music Target Audience
• Where to place you among the competition
• How your music can stand out
• Music feedback

All this will simplify the whole recording process.

Artists have different needs. Some are producing the music themselves and some record in studios either along with us or in other studios. No matter in what way the music is created, we would like to give our advice and input regarding the music.

Feedback

We know it’s important to give advice at the right time. For example, we won’t give feedback on songwriting in the mixing phase. This is why we have written down what we need from you in each phase and what we will give feedback on in “The Song Feedback Process“.

In short at these touchpoints we would like to receive music from you or your producer. Use the Feedback Form to send us the files. If you are using an external producer, please make sure the producer knows about our process.

• Demo
• Pre Production
• Recording
• First mix
• Last mix
• Master

Depending on your project we make a collaborative effort to improve the conditions for the success of our release.

Typically after the planning phase, we produce these types of content out of the start-up meeting, small/big brief, and music brief either for internal or external use.

• Create MV Brief
• Create a Project plan and Update the project management system with deadlines
• Keep a record of goals
• Create Artist Bio
• Create Song Target Audience including relevant playlists, artists, and songs
• A&R check-ins and evaluations along with the project

To release music we also need some visuals: Artwork and Press Photos. From the Press Photos and the Artwork, we create “release content” used in social media, when creating ads, and when distributing your music to YouTube. We also look over other needs such as video-related productions and merch.

There are pretty strict requirements for the music services regarding artwork so if you are responsible for delivering those to us, please follow the requirements:

• Cover Artwork
• Press Photos
• Release Visuals

No matter who delivers the visuals, it’s essential that we have completed the MV Brief before the visual project is started. This is to ensure a coherent branding message all the way.

Press Photos

Oftentimes the artist is responsible for the press photos. We recommend that you do not start hiring a photographer before we have made the MV Brief since this will affect your branding. You don’t want to retake your photos.

Artwork

We start with the artwork project when the related single or first song in an album is received in the “First Mix”-phase. This is to ensure we can grasp the mood of the song and know the title of the single or album before starting.

Graphic Profile

In the Artist Launch projects, we are creating a graphic profile for your artistry along with a simple logo and the creation of moodboards for your upcoming press photos and artwork. We start this project in sync with the MV Brief.

Release Content

If Release Content is part of your release, we create the content and you distribute it. Here’s a detailed guide.

Merch

We are very proud of our on-demand merch system. Merch is great content nagging material and if your project contains merch creation, we typically start these projects after the first release. In all cases, we need to be finished with some kind of visual material like artwork, press photos, graphic profiles, or logos to have some visuals to work with.

• Create visual assets
• Create mockup products
• Add to store.rexiusrecords.com
• Market and sell

A lot of work is made by Rexius Records during the Distribution phase.

• Preparing the distribution (Meta Data, Royalty Administration, IFPI registration)
• Creation of your artist page on rexiusflow.com
• Creation of release page on rexiusflow.com
• Distribution to music services
• Submitting lyrics
• Inviting stakeholders to the royalty split
• Creating Press Release, Sales Points, and sometimes translations (Launchpad / Momentum)
• Creating the Electronic Press Kit with all the produced content (Launchpad / Momentum)
• Setting up Spotify Pre-Save links  (Launchpad / Momentum)
• Creating Influencer Hit List (Momentum)

• Artwork according to artwork requirements
• Press Photos according to press photo requirements
• Songs according to master requirements
• Meta Data (song info such as song titles, composers, and authors)
• See why it’s important to add credits to your releases here.

This is what we do during the pre-release phase:

6-8 weeks from Release

• Submit pitch points to distributor for editorial features and playlists (Launchpad / Momentum)
• Pitching the music to Spotify and other Editorials (Launchpad / Momentum
• Scheduling posts on your social media channels (Artist)
• We prepare the “Hit List” of relevant influencers matching your target audience. (Momentum)
• Schedule the release brief together with artist

4 weeks from Release:

• We pitch the Release to relevant influencers in the business depending on the goals and focus. (Momentum)
• Pitch to European Public Service Radio stations (Momentum)
• We are creating release content (if included in scope)
• Monitoring and Communicating with influencers (Momentum)

We strive to make our releases as efficient and cost-effective as possible. We have tried and tested many things over the years to figure out what best utilizes the artist’s budget. After years of experience, we’ve realized that there are a lot of things that we’re better off not doing, like posting on social media, pitching to local newspapers and blogs, or arranging release parties.

In the Launchpad Release, the artist is responsible for a larger scope compared to the Momentum Release where we add more resources into the project. However, in all releases, a key success factor is the number of hours the artist puts in.

Here are some quick tips on how you can enhance your release and what you can focus on:

Release Checklist for Artists – How to enhance my release

A lot of artists are asking us about what they can do before and after the release so we have created a few guides on the topic.

• How we use social media
• Our playlisting strategy
• An artist’s guide to Marketing and Social Media
• Quick Social Media Tips
• Release Checklist for Artists
• How to elevate your artistry without releasing music
• Who will register the music on STIM?
• Never pay for Playlist Placements

The Peak Promo phase is between 1 week before the Release Date and approximately two weeks after. A lot of work is made during the peak promo such as:

Same week as release:

• Pitching Music to Indie Alliance Playlist Network (Launchpad / Momentum)
• Pitching the music to other music influencers such as playlist curators and blogs (Momentum)

Day of release:

• We receive links from music services, create a smarturl
• Paid Advertising (Based on scope and budget budget)
• Pitch to Radio Stations (Momentum)

Post Release:

• Pitching the music to social media influencers (Momentum)
• Following up on features from influencers, blogs and curators and informing artist (Momentum)
• Sending Early report of results (Momentum)

30 days after release (if Symphonic as distributor)

• Opportunity meeting
• Decide if go for Spotify Discovery Mode or not

Even though we pitch your music before the release a lot of influencers won’t answer directly. Sometimes, we have seen blog posts coming up 3 months after the release. We take care of all the requests coming in and what to do about them.

You will be notified every time we hear something in terms of success from any influencer.

The music business is not like before where there is a huge peak during the release date and then all sales will go down to a low level. Today, a release can be built organically and stay up higher for a longer period if you play the cards well. Please take a look at this guide about our playlisting strategy!

Another way to keep your release alive is by creative nagging on social media and maybe it’s time to create some merch?

We are constantly working on different ways to enhance our catalog and set it in front of the right audience. Your release will be part of our catalog for as long as the term sheet, meaning if there’s an opportunity in x years, your music will be treated on the same terms as our newly released music.

With no reflection, there is no progress. A couple of months after your release we will arrange an evaluation meeting where:

• We evaluate the project according to the goals.
• You will receive an export of all the feedback we have received from blogs.
• We will evaluate if you have gotten to the next level.
• We will discuss what opportunities lie ahead?

• FAQ
• Support Desk
• Expectations Agreement
• Evaluation Form
• Royalty Payouts