Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023.
Hey, it’s TJ Miller, “you want some game?” Let's #tipundathehat!
For the best indie music from indie artists, click, and follow Indie Artist Of The Week Unda The Hat. This week, Bobby Falk Group Be sure to hit the like button and follow this amazing group of indie artists. They will be big time soon.
Releasing 1, 2, 3….? - Let’s go -
So I’ll admit, a lot of my topics come from real conversations I either have or overhear or even hear on social media. Sometimes it’s great information that I want to impart to my readers, and sometimes it’s the craziest thing that I’ve heard and say, I want to make sure no one else is thinking like this. This topic is about the latter. So I heard a guy tell someone that if they released a project on Spotify and there was an issue with it, well that was just it. It would be there forever, issues and all. He said you can put up another one but you would have two versions of the same song on Spotify. 🤯I mean you can’t make this stuff up.
So first and foremost, yes, a song can be re-released after it has been released. There are a few reasons why an artist might choose to do this. For example, you may want to switch distributors, you might have gotten a bigger better distribution deal, you may want to promote the song to a new audience, or you may want to release a new version of the song with different features or remixes. Now there’s a word you don’t hear too often anymore, The Remix; remember those? Back in the 90’s just about every hip hop song had a remix. And guess what that in itself was a re-release. Now here’s a little music history side note. The remix as we know it had its roots in the dance hall culture of late-1960s/early-1970s Jamaica. After that, all of the great R&B ballads of the 80s had a jazz remix. Ok, but I digress…
There are a few things to keep in mind when re-releasing a song. First, you will either need to get permission from the original label or publisher if you don’t own the rights to the song. In this case, you probably will own it already. One good example of this is Eric & Josh Willis’s original version of the song “We’re Strolling.” Eric Majied then did a re-release of the song as a vibraphone solo. This is his version of “We’re Strolling.” Eric had to get permission from Eric the copyright holder. I like saying that.
Second, you will need to make sure that the new version of the song is different enough from the original version to avoid copyright infringement. In my example, you can see that it was. Additionally, you will need to market the re-release harder than the first one, because people will think it’s the same song, get ad fatigue, and not pay attention to the new version.
Now let’s say you decide that you want all of your releases under one umbrella. Previously you had songs on TuenCore, Band Camp, and DistroKid. Now you want all of your music on CDbaby. Well, you will need to issue a takedown or let the distributors know that you will be removing your song from them. Now this will remove it from all of the digital stores until you re-release it. Moreover, it is important to use your original ISRC and UPC codes for your release when re-uploading it with another distributor. This helps ensure that the tracks match and any streams you’ve accumulated won’t be lost.
Yet another reason to re-release a song is that you just don’t like the way it sounds. Let’s say you learned some new mixing and mastering tricks, and you decide to change the baseline. Or if you want to change the artwork, or your music was just ahead of its time, and a new audience will appreciate it now 5 years later. Again this is nothing new, Parliament released the song Testify twice once in the 60s and again in the 70s. There’s nothing new under the sun, trust me. So you will need to delete the release just as you did earlier and go through the process. Just remember, be patient and persistent, sometimes these distributors take a while to get it to all of the stores at the same time the second time around.
This week's #IAOTW - Independent Artists Of The Week is - Bobby Falk Group. 
Drummer Bobby Falk is a Louisville, KY native, who grew up in a musical family, and now lives in Dallas TX. Upon graduating from the University of Louisville, Bobby started composing music and established the “Bobby Falk Group” a contemporary jazz ensemble.
Click on her name link, scroll down to their picture, then click and support. You won’t believe how talented she is.
For more information on this or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week!!