How I would spend $1,000 on a new song

Author

Andrew Southworth
September 04, 2023

Hey peeps!

Happy Monday! Today i’m going to answer a frequently asked question. A lot of artists I talk to on calls say…

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I have $X to promote my new song. Where should I spend this money to get the best use of it?

Music artists on calls with Andrew

So thats exactly what we’re going to talk about today!

How To Spend $1,000

First let me break down how I think you should spend this hypothetical $1,000 if your goal is to grow on Spotify and other streaming services and then we’ll talk about the why.

  • Meta (FB/IG) ads: $850

  • YouTube Ads: $100 (if you have a video to promote)

  • SubmitHub: $50 (if you’ve found it works for you)

In some cases this might be 100% Meta ads, if you don’t have a music video and you’ve found SubmitHub doesn’t work well for you. But if you do then 85% Meta ads.

Just to clarify when I say Meta ads I mean Facebook / Instagram ads.

Why so much Meta ads? Well in my experience Meta ads driving people to Spotify using conversion campaigns get you a whole lot more than results on Spotify. For example you’ll get a bunch of:

  • IG followers

  • FB followers

  • YouTube subscribers

  • YouTube comments / views

  • Other DSP platform growth

However, if you were to run just YouTube ads promoting a song, you’ll basically just end up with a bunch of YouTube views.

Now just to clarify, these numbers are if your goal is Spotify / streaming focused. Of course if your goals are email growth or sales focused, you won’t be focusing on conversion campaigns to streaming services.

If you don’t have an email list or sales funnels yet, get your 14 day free trial at MusicFunnels to get started.

What About Other Stuff?

You might be wondering what about the following…

  • Spotify playlisting companies

  • PR companies

  • Influencer campaigns

  • TikTok ads

  • Other ad platforms

In my opinion you shouldn’t use Spotify plalisting companies until you have a song thats already in the Spotify algorithm, or if you’re also running a large ad campaign. SO perhaps if you’re running a $1,500 ad budget, spend like $300 on playlisting after the song takes off.

PR campaigns are often $1-4k per month with a commitment of 2-3 months. It generally won’t get you any significant bump in streams or sales, but it can serve a good purpose later in your career.

Influencer campaigns are generally a waste of time. This is where you pay a bunch of TikTok or Instagram influencers to share our song or video on their platform. Most of the time these do nothing and cost a ton of money.

Right now Meta ads are the most effective ad platform. TikTok ads are getting better by the month so keep an eye on it, but right now its still not as effective as Meta ads.

New Content

This week I released a video comparing FeatureFM, Hypeddit and ToneDen so you can decide which one you want to use as a smart link service for your Facebook conversion campaigns promoting music on Spotify / other DSPs.

FeatureFM added a new feature to pre-saves on the platform that skip the Spotify login process for iPhones. In this new video I talk about how it works plus some commentary on pre-saves as a whole.

Apple Music Has Followers Now - Music Growth Machine

Apple Music has finally added the ability for fans to follow their favorite artists on the platform. They're calling it 'Favorites' instead of followers, but its the same thing.

musicgrowthmachine.com/apple-music-has-followers-now

Recently i’ve been posting a lot on Twitter (or now X, I guess):

News

Here are some music industry news highlights from the past week.

  • Limewire launches AI creator studio

  • ASCAP calls out BMI for their shift towards being a for-profit business

  • Goldman Sachs identifies India as an important emerging market for music streaming

  • JKBX, a music royalty trading platform will launch September 12th

Quote of the Week

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Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.

Anthony Volodkin

Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

  1. My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.

  2. My ad agency. Forbid Media specializes in running Facebook conversion ads to promote your music on Spotify.

  3. Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels is the best all-in-one platform for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels and build their mailing list.

  4. 1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or Alex Bochel here.

My Links:

Discount / Affiliate Links:

If you’d rather just purchase the e-book, or physical book or audiobook you can do so here.

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