This weekend build shows how to automate music marketing with a small, reliable stack. You will ship three workflows that cut manual work, keep creative control, and make your next release smoother.
Problem or Context
Artists release more music than ever while attention is scarce. Doing everything by hand is a grind, it does not scale, and it delays releases. The fastest path to progress is to automate the repetitive tasks while you keep the creative calls. The stack below is low cost, understandable for a mildly technical artist, and flexible for future growth.
Setup at a Glance
Use n8n to orchestrate flows. Spin up n8n Cloud or self host with Docker, then confirm you can create a workflow, run it, and view the run in Executions.
Create a Google Cloud project for your channel. Enable YouTube Data API v3 and, if you want richer metrics later, YouTube Analytics API. Create an OAuth client. If the app is in Testing, add your Google account as a test user. Remember quotas: the default is 10,000 units per day, an upload costs 1,600 units, list and read calls are cheap.
In Discord, open your channel Integrations and create a Webhook, then copy the webhook URL.
In Telegram, talk to BotFather to create a bot, copy the token, and add the bot to your group or channel if needed.
Store all credentials inside n8n Credentials, not directly in nodes.
Tip: name credentials and variables clearly, for example
youtube_oauth_artist_main, so later you can reuse them across workflows without guessing.
The Three Automations You Will Ship
| Automation | Build time | Complexity |
|---|---|---|
| Release Day Autopilot | 30-45 minutes | Low to medium |
| Performance Loop | 20-30 minutes | Low |
| Community Rally Button | 10-20 minutes | Very low |
These workflows are independent yet reinforce each other. The Autopilot publishes a teaser, the Performance Loop turns data into simple next steps, and the Rally Button makes community updates effortless.
Automation 1 - Release Day Autopilot
Goal
When a teaser is ready, the workflow uploads it to YouTube in a Shorts friendly format, then posts a link and a short message to your community on Discord and Telegram.
What you need
A vertical teaser file, your YouTube OAuth credentials stored in n8n, a Discord webhook URL, and a Telegram bot token with the target channel or group chat_id.
Steps at a glance
Start with a Manual Trigger so you can test easily. Add an HTTP Request or Google Drive node to fetch the teaser file. Make sure the video is vertical, 9 to 16 aspect, and keep it under one to three minutes depending on creative. Shorts classification uses length and aspect, so vertical is preferred.
Add the YouTube Upload node. Set the Title to your Artist and Song with the word Teaser, write a concise Description with one or two lines and include your key links and UTMs, add a few genre and mood tags, then choose Public for a live drop or Unlisted for a test. An upload consumes 1,600 quota units. If uploads stall on large files or flaky networks, switch to resumable upload semantics.
Post to Discord using your webhook URL. Keep the message clean, for example one line that announces the drop plus an embed with a title like Watch on YouTube, the video URL, a short description, and a gentle prompt like Tell us your favorite moment.
Post to Telegram with sendMessage. Point it at your channel or group chat_id, write a short note, include the link, and set parse_mode to MarkdownV2 or HTML if you want bold text or formatted links.
Asset prep
Use 1080 by 1920 when possible. Square can work but is less ideal for Shorts consumption. Choose a strong first frame and keep the caption clear and human.
Measure success
After 24 to 48 hours, query YouTube for statistics and log views, likes, and comments to a simple sheet. You will automate this in Automation 2.
Automation 2 - Performance Loop
Goal
Every morning the workflow posts a three line brief into Discord and Telegram that highlights winners, flags weak hooks, and recommends a next action.
Scheduler and data
Use Schedule Trigger at 9:00 AM local time, daily. Call YouTube Data API to fetch your recent uploads with part=snippet,statistics. Capture the title, id, published date, views, and likes. Optionally add YouTube Analytics API when you want deeper signals like watch time or geography.
Simple scoring
Compute two signals per video. First, view velocity, which is the change in views over the last week divided by seven. Second, like rate, which is likes divided by views with a guard to avoid tiny denominators. Rank videos by these metrics and pick one or two winners.
The brief
Post three lines. First line names the winner and includes the view velocity and like rate with a keep pushing suggestion. Second line offers a creative tweak, for example trim at zero minutes and eight seconds for a stronger hook, then repost a square version to IG. Third line suggests a next action such as cut a 12 second alternate teaser.
Tip: pin your daily brief channel in Discord so the team sees it first thing. It keeps decisions fast and light.
Quota sanity
Default quota is 10,000 units per day. List calls are cheap, so the daily brief will not dent the budget. Save expensive uploads for meaningful drops. If you are new to Shorts, classification depends on duration and aspect. Upload via the API like any video and keep assets vertical or square to qualify.
Automation 3 - Community Rally Button
Goal
Make community posts effortless. Add a row to a sheet or click a button, and n8n publishes an on brand message to Discord and Telegram with clean links.
Pattern A - Google Sheets Post Queue
Create a sheet with columns named when, message, url, utm_source, utm_campaign, and optional image_url. Use the Google Sheets node to watch or read rows and then publish. For Discord, send the message as content and add an embed that links to the url with utm_source=discord and utm_campaign from the row. For Telegram, send the same message and url with utm_source=telegram.
Pattern B - Time boxed Tour Blast
Insert a Filter node that only publishes if the when timestamp is less than or equal to now. Run a Schedule Trigger hourly. When a row is due, the workflow posts the message and marks that row as sent.
Light A or B Testing Without Ad APIs
Even without ad platforms you can run meaningful tests. Append a simple hook=a or hook=b parameter to your links along with utm_source. Log clickthrough at the community layer in your sheet. In the morning report, compare view velocity and like rate across variants. Keep the winners and either re cut or retire the losers. Vary posting time as well. Try morning versus evening across different days and compare deltas.
When you are ready to scale, have n8n generate a Google Ads Editor CSV so you can import a handful of creative or copy variants without writing to the Ads API.
Troubleshooting and Gotchas
- If you see OAuth App not verified in Google, add the channel account as a test user while the app is in Testing.
- For large uploads that fail, use resumable uploads so the transfer can restart from the last chunk.
- If schedules run at odd hours, confirm the workflow timezone and the instance timezone.
- For Discord,
embedsmust be an array even if you only include one. Each message must include eithercontentorembeds. - For Telegram formatting, set
parse_modewhen you expect bold or links, otherwise you will see raw characters. - Keep upload calls intentional because each costs 1,600 units. Batch read calls for your daily brief to stay far under 10,000.
Exact Node Configurations Without Code
Here is what to fill in, step by step, without code snippets.
YouTube upload: operation is Upload, title uses Artist and Song with Teaser in parentheses, the Description is two short lines with your main link, tags include your genre and mood, privacy is Public for live or Unlisted for test. If you fetched or converted the file inside n8n, set the Binary Property to the same name used when you attached the file. For very large files switch to a custom HTTP Request using the resumable protocol with uploadType=resumable.
Discord webhook: send a POST to your webhook URL. Include either a simple text content field or an embed with a title, a url pointing to your YouTube video, and a short description. If nothing shows up, check that you sent at least content or an embed and that the JSON is valid. Keep emojis tasteful and minimal.
Telegram sendMessage: send a POST to the Bot API sendMessage endpoint. Provide your channel or group chat_id, the message text, and set parse_mode to MarkdownV2 or HTML if you want bold or links. Note that some channel or group ids are negative numbers.
Good Taste Rules
- Cap announcements to one or two per day per channel. Rotate angles, for example a drop announcement, a behind the scenes clip, a live moment, or a fan quote.
- Keep the first line tight and human. Put your link on the next line or inside an embed.
- Reuse winners that show the highest like rate and the best three second retention. Retire the rest. Your daily brief will make decisions obvious.
Optional Add Ons
Use a Google Sheets control panel if your team likes spreadsheets. Edit rows to schedule posts, change copy, or swap UTMs. If your team lives in Notion, replace Sheets with Notion, the pattern is identical. Later consider a lightweight shortlink at the edge and log clicks for tighter link layer testing.
What You Get by Sunday Night
You will have a repeatable release workflow that actually posts your teaser and tells fans where to watch, a daily feedback loop that highlights what is working and suggests concrete next steps, and a community rally button that publishes clean, consistent announcements with UTMs. It is the scaffolding most artists never build. It is inexpensive, understandable, and ready to support paid distribution when you want to add it.