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Music marketing articles, tools, and analysis. Deep-dive guides on music marketing, streaming growth, Meta ads, YouTube, distribution, and the systems behind sustainable artist growth.

guides: 148; guides
videos: 78; videos
newsletter issues: 105; newsletter issues
tools: 8; tools

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the difference between singles, EPs and albums

Nov 17, 2024Music Marketing Spotify

What is the difference between a single, EP and album?

You may have noticed in your music distributor that you can't typically select ‘single', ‘EP' or ‘album' for your release. The streaming services categorize singles, EPs and albums automatically. But how do they decide? The track counts for singles, EPs and albums on Spotify, Apple Music and other DSPs are: There are some other interesting...

Spotify music marketing report screenshot

Nov 16, 2024Music Marketing Spotify

When Does Spotify Wrapped Come Out In 2024?

Spotify Wrapped is one of the highlights of being a Spotify user each year, and every year people wonder when does Spotify wrapped come out? Well in this post we're going to cover what Spotify Wrapped is, how to get it, when it comes out and more! What Is Spotify Wrapped? Spotify Wrapped allows listeners...

ToneDen Alternatives

Nov 11, 2024Digital Ads Music Marketing

ToneDen Alternatives: Top 4 Music Marketing Smart Link Services

The best ToneDen alternatives are Hypeddit, Smart Noise, FeatureFM and SubmitHub Links. Bam, no clickbait here. If you've been marketing your music for a while now, you may be familiar with ToneDen. ToneDen is a music marketing software where you can create smart links, pre-save links etc. and run automated Facebook ad campaigns on them....

How Major Label Artists Make Their Song Go Viral On Instagram

Nov 6, 2024Digital Ads Music Marketing

How Major Label Artists Make Their Song Go Viral On Instagram

I'm going to show you how you can promote your sound on Instagram using Facebook ads, to try and get more people using your song in their reels. Objective: To create a Facebook or meta ad campaign to promote a sound on Instagram, encouraging more people to use the sound in their user-generated content (UGC)....

Spotify Release Radar

Nov 2, 2024Glossary Music Marketing

What is Spotify Release Radar?

What Is Release Radar? Release Radar is an algorithmic playlist on the music DSP Spotify designed to show you new music from artists you follow alongside some new songs the algorithmic thinks you'll like. The official description on Spotify is “Catch all the latest music from artists you follow, plus new singles picked for you....

Spotify Engagement Rate or Intent Rate

Oct 30, 2024Glossary Music Marketing

Spotify Intent Rate: How to Calculate It and What It Means

Spotify Intent Rate measures listener engagement by combining Playlist Adds and Saves relative to total listeners. It helps compare the effectiveness of different marketing strategies for songs, albums, or artist profiles over various time periods.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Oct 21, 2024

The value of networking at music conferences

Networking at music conferences like ADE and NAMM offers opportunities to learn new skills, meet online contacts in person, and connect with industry professionals from companies like Spotify and Soundcloud. These events also provide a chance to experience live music and explore new markets.

Matchfy

Oct 19, 2024Music Marketing Reviews

Matchfy Review

Matchfy is a music marketing platform that connects artists and playlist curators in a unique way. Instead of paying per submission, you pay one monthly fee and can submit to as many playlists as you like. On the surface it seems enticing, but there are some serious drawbacks to their approach and we're going to...

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Oct 14, 2024

Why artist.tools is awesome for artists, labels and curators

Artist.tools helps musicians, labels, and curators research Spotify playlists for legitimacy, track follower growth, and find playlist contact info. It offers affordable analytics features that support smarter playlist pitching and marketing decisions.

Music marketing with Spotify playlists compared to Facebook Ads by Andrew Southworth.

Oct 9, 2024Music Marketing

Stop Wasting Money On Spotify Playlists For Music Marketing

I've seen countless artists talk about how Spotify playlists and Spotify playlisting is the bulk of their music marketing strategy. But in my opinion this is a massive waste of time and money in most cases. There are a lot of situations where playlisting makes sense but it should never be used as the foundation...

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Oct 7, 2024

How do people discover and consume music?

Explore how typical music fans discover and consume music differently from industry insiders. Understanding these habits helps tailor your marketing strategy to reach listeners where they actually find and engage with new music.

"Spotify Killer" TikTok Music Is Dead Already Thumbnail by Andrew Southworth.

Oct 2, 2024Music Marketing Videos

“Spotify Killer” TikTok Music Is Dead Already, and more news

TikTok Music is shutting down for good, Spotify has added AI playlist creation, Canada wants some streaming money and thousands of music videos have vanished off of YouTube.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Sep 23, 2024

Should artists use Spotify Discovery Mode?

Spotify Discovery Mode lets artists opt-in songs for algorithmic playlist promotion in exchange for a 30% commission on streams. It’s typically available to artists with 5k-10k monthly listeners and can boost stream growth significantly.

YouTube Ads For Music Marketing 2024 (100k Views for $170?!)

Sep 20, 2024Music Marketing

YouTube Ads For Music Marketing 2024 (10k Views for $17?!)

Imagine you need 100,000 real human views on a music video for as fast or as cheap as possible. What would you do? The answer is what I call a ‘YouTube ads fluff campaign'. It's very similar to how I would normally run ads on YouTube to promote a music video, except designed more around...

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Sep 11, 2024

Traffic vs conversion ads for Spotify promotion

Conversion ads with landing pages outperform traffic ads for Spotify promotion by optimizing for deeper engagement, filtering out accidental clicks and bots, and driving more intentional listeners to stream your music.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Sep 2, 2024

Retargeting and custom audiences in Meta ads

Retargeting with Meta ads targets people who have already interacted with your music or brand, using custom audiences like Instagram followers or video viewers. This approach helps focus your ads on warmer audiences rather than cold prospects.

Spotify music marketing report screenshot

Aug 27, 2024Music Marketing

Spotify Marquee In August 2024

I've covered Spotify Marquee on my YouTube channel and on my other blog, but this is the first time on this blog. Today i'm going to go over a $500 Spotify Marquee campaign I ran in August 2024. It looks like Spotify added a bunch more analytics to the results page for Marquee, so that's...

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Aug 26, 2024

20+ hours of FREE Music Marketing Content

Access over 20 hours of free music marketing content designed to help musicians and marketers build their audience, improve engagement, and optimize their promotional strategies without any cost or commitment.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Aug 19, 2024

Inside a $730 music streaming ad campaign

A $730 USD ad campaign in July 2024 promoted a song that reached 22,000 Spotify streams, 1,636 saves, and 1,796 playlist adds within a month, showing steady growth and algorithmic playlist traction.

1 million spotify streams

Aug 16, 2024Facebook Ads Guides

Your First 1 Million Streams (Ultimate Guide)

It is 100% feasible for you to get your first 1 million streams on your music in 1 year. All you need is good music, a hard work ethic and ideally some budget. This strategy revolves around 4 core principles: I can hear you cringing at the idea of making social media content already, but...

Spotify artificial streaming

Aug 15, 2024Distributors Spotify

Spotify Removed Music For Artificial Streaming?

Over the past couple years Spotify has been trying, and failing, to crack down on bot streams on their platform. More artists that have done nothing wrong get their music pulled than artists actually committing artificial streaming. In this post i'll talk about what artificial streaming is, how most artists get caught up in it,...

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Aug 5, 2024

How to use TikTok ads to gain TikTok followers

Learn how to use TikTok ads to grow your follower count efficiently, with practical steps on setting up campaigns, targeting, budgeting, and ad creation. Understand when and why to invest in follower growth through paid ads.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Jul 29, 2024

Apple Music now shows radio spins?!

Apple Music now provides detailed radio spins analytics for real radio stations, showing which songs are played and where. This new data offers insight into radio exposure previously hidden from artists and marketers.

Music Marketing Monday newsletter by Andrew Southworth

Jul 22, 2024

Spotify Showcase: 31 streams per listener?

A Spotify Showcase campaign promoting a 16-song relaxing piano album generated 31 streams per listener at a cost of $1.11 per listener, resulting in 2,837 total streams for $100. This analysis covers setup, key stats, and campaign value.