Case Study: Releasing “Hungry Animal” by Luke Temple

Here’s my breakdown of a partial promotional timeline for the recent Luke Temple album “Hungry Animals”. Check out all of my creative case studies for even more on managing an album release cycle. The label used for this release was Western Vinyl.

Here’s a timeline that presents this sequence visually:

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Partial promotional timeline for “Hungry Animal” by Luke Temple.

Let’s dig in deeper.

Promotional elements

This album release had a few promotional elements:

1. 3 different lead up singles

2. 3 simple lead up music videos

3. 1 vinyl preorder

4. 1 release show

These were all released gradually across multiple channels: Bandcamp, Social Media (both personal and label Instagrams), YouTube, Streaming Digital (Spotify and more), the Western Vinyl website, and an in-person release show at a local venue.

One item of note for DIYers: the videos used during this release were fairly innovative, in that they didn’t take a lot of money or time to pull off. You’ll notice that these so-called “visualizer videos” are really just a single camera mounted inside of a car while the artist drives around, with the various singles playing as the background audio. The third music video was just a static piece of artwork done as a YouTube Short, with the full audio of the third single playing in the background.

So, you don’t need to break the bank on music videos to come up with something interesting, that could work well when placed inside of a larger promotional sequence.

Promotional phases

This release was divided into roughly three phases, each spaced about a month apart, and with the third phase being the full album release.

I usually like to work backwards from the album release date when planning a release cycle. In this case, the release date was set as February 13, so each preceding phase took place about 30 days prior, around January 13th and December 13th.

Overall, this release sequence took place over about 3 months of time. That’s about the minimum amount of time I’d recommend spending when promoting your full album, especially if you’re an unknown artist just starting out. Luke Temple was not, when this particular album was released: he’s been an established indie artist for some time.

Let’s examine each phase of this release cycle.

Phase 1: Vinyl preorders, lead single, videos

December 10

• The complete album tracklist was released on Bandcamp, and fans notified of vinyl preorders through the Bandcamp email list. This was where I personally got pulled into this release, as I’ve been on Luke Temple’s Bandcamp email list for a while.

• The first single “Echo Park Donut” was released on Bandcamp and wider digital streaming outlets.

• A music “visualizer” video for the lead single drops on Youtube.

Phase 2: second single, videos

January 13 (+ approx. 30 days)

• The second single “Hungry Animal” released on Bandcamp and wider digital streaming.

• A music “visualizer” video for the second single drops on YouTube.

• Album release is featured on the Western Vinyl website.

Phase 3: third single, vinyl ships, videos

February 9 (+ approx. 30 days)

• The third single “Shake Me Awake” released on Bandcamp and wider digital streaming.

• A YouTube Short video single for the third single drops on YouTube. This is another very simple video, just a static piece of artwork with the full length audio playing in the background.

• Instagram posts promote the release, both from the label and on the artists personal social media.

• Vinyl preorders have shipped, and start arriving to customers.

• Album release continues to be featured on the Western Vinyl website.

Phase 3a: wider full album release, live show, vinyl ships.

February 10-13 (+ approx. 1-4 days)

• 2/10

  • a release show at Zebulon in Los Angeles, a fairly small local venue with a strong indie pedigree.

• 2/13

  • Bandcamp digital release of the full album.

  • Streaming digital wide release of the full album.

  • Vinyl continues to ship.

  • Instagram posts celebrating the release, both personal and label posts.

  • Album release continues to be featured on the Western Vinyl website.

Takeaways

This is a strong and fairly traditional release cycle here, but one that I’d personally consider somewhat of a minimum when it comes to music promotion inside of our modern media landscape.

You won’t see any of the massive press tours and coordinated media pushes that we went over during the release of Charlie xcx’s Brat, and none of the massive viral listener counts and sales, but that’s OK! Luke Temple is a different type of artist, he’s not a major label pop star, and his release style reflects that.

I’d note that a release cycle done in this style is probably good for maintaining an existing fanbase, but maybe not as strong if you’re trying to increase the size of your audience or reach new listeners.

Luke Temple got very lucky in his career early on with his previous band Here We Go Magic; they had an album produced by Nigel Godrich of Radiohead that gave them a big leg up. In some ways, this particular release cycle is still coasting on that initial success: this release probably popped up on your radar if you’re already a big Luke Temple fan, but you might have missed it if you didn’t already know who this artist is.

So, for the DIYers who are not already established artists: taking this style of approach to release is a good lesson in doing a professional level minimum. But, you might need to do even more than this if you’re just starting out, and don’t get lucky working with a famous record producer early on.