Pre-Save, Pre-Add and Waitlist: What Each One Actually Does
They look like the same button. They do measurably different things to a release.
Every release campaign asks you to pre-save. It is worth knowing what that click does, because it does more than it looks like it does.
You can listen to our full playlist which contains the artist's music, and know more about the artist's work by scrolling down the page.
PLAYLIST
A pre-save adds the record to your library automatically on release day. For the artist, the value is not the save itself but the timing: it converts scattered interest into concentrated day-one activity, which is exactly the signal recommendation systems weight most heavily.
Pre-add is the same mechanism on a different platform, with the same effect. Both usually require granting the campaign tool access to your library, which is worth understanding - you are authorising a third party to modify your account, and those permissions persist until revoked.
Follows are the more durable version. A pre-save affects one release; following an artist affects every subsequent one, because new releases from followed artists get surfaced automatically. For an artist, a follow is worth considerably more over time than a single pre-save.
Waitlists and notification sign-ups sit outside the platforms entirely, which is why artists increasingly prefer them. An email list is owned, cannot be de-prioritised by an algorithm change, and reaches people who have explicitly asked to hear from you.
The honest summary: pre-saving genuinely helps an artist you care about, at the cost of a permission you should periodically review. Following helps more and costs nothing. A mailing list helps them most.
