Music Competition Promotion Checklist

What this is

A working checklist for artists who are about to enter — or have just entered — a fan-voted music competition. It breaks the run into five phases: pre-entry prep, entry day, week one, the middle grind, the final push, and post-competition follow-through. Each phase has concrete tasks.

Most artists lose fan-voted competitions for one of two reasons. Either they submit and go silent, hoping the song does the work, or they blast a public "PLEASE VOTE" message on day one, exhaust their goodwill in 48 hours, and go silent for the remaining three weeks. Neither approach respects how attention actually works.

This checklist is written for the artist who is willing to treat a competition run like a small marketing campaign — one that starts before the entry form goes in and continues after the results are announced. Nothing here guarantees a win. What it does is guarantee you finish the competition with more listeners, more DMs, and more relationships than you started with, regardless of where you place.

When to use it

Pull this up the week you decide to enter. Work the pre-entry phase before you hit submit, then keep the file open and treat each phase like a checklist you tick off. If you are mid-competition and just found this, jump to the phase that matches where you are and start there — do not try to backfill.

Common mistakes

• Submitting a mix that sounds fine on studio monitors but muddy on a phone speaker where 90% of voting happens.
• Public begging ("PLEASE VOTE") instead of private, specific asks to people who actually know you.
• Posting the same static graphic every day for three weeks and wondering why engagement dies.
• Ignoring other entrants instead of cross-promoting with them where the rules allow.
• Buying votes or hiring a "boost" service — this gets you disqualified, banned, and often flagged on streaming platforms too.
• Forgetting to say thank you, especially to the fans who shared without being asked.
• Treating loss as failure instead of using the momentum to book a show or announce the next single.

How to use it

1. Print or bookmark this page the week before you submit.
2. Work through the pre-entry phase first — do not skip it, even if the deadline is tomorrow.
3. On entry day, follow the exact sequence: post, story, DM, pin, story reminder.
4. Every week of the competition, open this doc on a Monday and pick that phase's tasks.
5. After the results, do the after-the-competition phase within 48 hours. Momentum decays fast.

The blank template

MUSIC COMPETITION PROMOTION CHECKLIST
Competition: ____________________________
Song entered: ____________________________
Entry date: __________  End date: __________

PHASE 1 — BEFORE ENTRY (48–72 hours prior)
[ ] Final mix played back on phone speaker, car, and earbuds
[ ] Cover art / thumbnail exported at every required size, tested small
[ ] Entry form filled correctly — bio, credits, links, spelling
[ ] Track file uploads confirmed (correct version, correct loudness)
[ ] Instagram / TikTok / streaming bios updated with current links
[ ] Pinned post cleared to make room for the entry announcement
[ ] Private list built: 30 closest people who will vote day one
[ ] Announcement post drafted (caption + graphic + link)
[ ] Announcement story drafted (vertical, plain text overlay ok)

PHASE 2 — ENTRY DAY
[ ] Announcement post published with direct entry link
[ ] Follow-up story thanking early voters posted within 3 hours
[ ] 20 private DMs sent — specific, not mass-copy, no "please"
[ ] Post pinned to top of profile
[ ] Story reminder scheduled for 24 hours later
[ ] Text/voice memo sent to the 5 people who always show up

PHASE 3 — WEEK 1 (early lead)
[ ] Daily story reminder (rotate the visual — not the same image)
[ ] 3 friends with mutual audiences tagged in a post/story
[ ] Cross-promo with another entrant arranged (if rules allow)
[ ] Snippet of the entered song posted as a Reel / TikTok
[ ] Behind-the-scenes video from the entry / recording process posted

PHASE 4 — WEEKS 2–3 (grind)
[ ] Content type rotated: snippet, reaction, live clip, performance
[ ] Voters/sharers thanked BY NAME in stories
[ ] No repeat of the same static graphic more than twice
[ ] One "why this song matters to me" post published
[ ] Check-in DM to the top 5 sharers, no ask attached

PHASE 5 — FINAL WEEK (push)
[ ] Daily post + daily story, both
[ ] Live stream featuring a stripped-down version of the song
[ ] Peers asked to share (not fans — peers with audiences)
[ ] Zero public begging
[ ] Zero purchased votes / boost services
[ ] Community you built pre-entry re-activated with a direct ask

PHASE 6 — AFTER (win, lose, or place)
[ ] Thank-you post published within 48 hours of results
[ ] Every top voter / sharer tagged
[ ] "What I learned" story arc posted
[ ] Next release / booking / show announced while attention is warm
[ ] Contacts made during the run added to your list

Completed example

Competition: SongBattle — Summer Bracket
Song entered: "Freeway Hymns" — K. Vaughn
Entry date: 2026-06-03   End date: 2026-06-24

PHASE 1 — BEFORE ENTRY
[x] Mix checked on iPhone speaker, Camry factory system, AirPods
[x] Cover exported 3000x3000, 1080x1080, 1080x1350 — legible at thumbnail
[x] Entry form filled — bio trimmed to 380 chars, all links live
[x] WAV uploaded, -9 LUFS integrated, verified against reference track
[x] Bio-link updated: "voting open — link in story"
[x] Cleared old pinned post
[x] Private list: 32 names in Notes app, grouped by tier
[x] Announcement caption drafted, cut from 4 lines to 2
[x] Story graphic drafted with plain text: "up on SongBattle. link below."

PHASE 2 — ENTRY DAY (June 3)
[x] Post live at 10:04am, direct link in first comment + bio
[x] Thank-you story at 1pm to the first 40 voters
[x] 22 DMs sent — each mentioned something specific about the person
[x] Post pinned
[x] Reminder story scheduled for June 4, 10am
[x] Voice memo sent to five closest collaborators

PHASE 3 — WEEK 1
[x] Story reminders daily — rotated between studio photo, lyric card,
    voter shoutout, and a 6-second snippet
[x] Tagged three producers with overlapping audiences
[x] Swapped shout-out stories with two other entrants (allowed per rules)
[x] Posted 22-second Reel of the second verse — 4,100 views
[x] Posted BTS clip of the take that made the final cut

PHASE 4 — WEEKS 2–3
[x] Rotated: snippet → live-in-the-room clip → reaction to fan cover →
    stripped acoustic take
[x] Named 14 sharers across stories over two weeks
[x] Never repeated the same static graphic
[x] "Why this song" post — got the most saves of the run
[x] DM'd top 5 sharers just to say thanks, no ask

PHASE 5 — FINAL WEEK
[x] Daily post + daily story, June 18–24
[x] IG Live on June 22 — stripped version + Q&A, 180 concurrent
[x] Asked 6 peer artists to share; 4 did
[x] Did not beg. Did not buy votes.
[x] Re-activated the pre-entry list of 32 with a personal note

PHASE 6 — AFTER (placed 3rd)
[x] Thank-you post live within 24 hours of results
[x] Tagged all 14 named sharers + top 3 voters
[x] Posted a three-slide "what I learned" carousel
[x] Announced a follow-up single for July 15 while momentum was warm
[x] Added 41 new contacts (voters, DMs, collaborators) to running list

A note on vote fraud

Do not buy votes. Do not hire a "boost" service. Do not run bots against the voting page.

Every legitimate fan-voted competition — SongBattle included — runs anti-fraud detection on IP, device fingerprints, vote velocity, and account age. When fraud is caught, three things happen in order: your votes are stripped, you are disqualified, and your account is often permanently banned from future events. In the worst cases, the same services that sell fake competition votes also sell fake streams — and streaming platforms flag artists connected to those services, which can trigger removals and ban you from editorial playlisting.

The math is simple. A first-round disqualification is worse than a last-place finish. A permanent ban is worse than losing five competitions in a row.

Related SongBattle reading

• How to Win a Music Competition
• What Makes a Fair Fan-Voted Music Competition
• How to Get Your Rap Music Heard in 2026
• The Six-Week Single Rollout
• How SongBattle's Anti-Fraud Voting Works