If they’re on Bandcamp (mostly independent artists), following them there will notify you of new releases by them
no, I'm looking at the big ones (millions if not hundreds of millions of streams)
I use Songkick for shows and Apple Music does notify me of artists’ new releases under Home > Account (user image on top-right) > Notifications. 
whoa, thank you!
so is it only artists I star?
also, am I able to view these notifactions later somehow? I'd like to be able to check back whenever. Instead of having to view it when it releases, I wanna maybe check once a week and go through all the new stuff. either way, thank you!
I think it’s more than artists you star. Mine started notifying me about new releases of artists within my local library.
fine by me, thanks
Free version is too limited but if you are willing to pay a sub use musicbutler
https://spotifyreleaselist.netlify.app/
Assuming you still have Spotify
Not sure if you’re already aware of this but on AM, tap a band’s name and hit “go to artist”. On that page, there is a star that can be clicked in the upper right hand corner. I believe this then marks which artists you will get notifications from per the settings that someone else mentioned here.
I'm using https://www.musicbutler.io/ works great and is reliable.
you can sign up for amoeba music's newsletter, or metacritic's new album music section for ratings.