Playlists playlists playlists!! Lots of companies advertise them and make you promises of getting on them, but what is the actual reality? In this streaming era, let’s be honest - you can’t ignore the importance of getting on playlists - because ultimately, you need the exposure! You want people to listen to your music - you’ve already invested time and money into creating it right?
I’ve managed and worked with a number of artists and have had to utilise some of the services that are on offer. This is what I’m going to shed light on. So should you spend your money or do it yourself? Hmmmmmm….
Let me start with Submit Hub
They have different tiers - I couldn’t really get my head around it at first, they have over 1000 influencers on their platform though so something is working!
The free option lets you submit your links - though with no guarantee of anything in return. It’s always worth a try though so you never know…
Then you can purchase credits - these let you submit to curators with guarantee of feedback if you desire. I thought I needed to have that option, so I used it. Then it turned out it was better for me not to have it. I wasn’t really after feedback, I just wanted placements. I ended up getting only one, so it was a waste of money for me.
You have to search through curators and submit one by one, which is quite laborious as you have to set filters and then scroll and scroll. The process could definitely be simplified ALOT.
Basically what I found was - it’s not effective at all for Hip Hop or Black music genres. ESPECIALLY if you’re UK based. I found minimal curators and found myself submitting just because they said they accepted Urban, so I could use up my credit. It’s put me off using it again - if I did, it would be the free option.
Playlist Push
I went as far as completing all the required info, as this was my FIRST choice to use. I know people who have had results and really wanted to test it myself. BUT! A notification pops up to say that campaigns below $300 tend to yield results. I opted not to bother. If you’ve used them, what has your experience been? Share and let us know!
Omari Inc
I was really keen to try these guys out - I’ve seen all the ads on YouTube and although I always skip them, I know what it is they do. (The power of awareness eh??)
Sadly - I couldn’t even get as far as submitting because THEY ONLY ACCEPT CLEAN MUSIC. No profanity whatsoever. Well I work in Hip Hop so that was a big red cross for me! It also showed me that the playlists they do have, are in no way going to be a good fit for the artists I work with. Although I have clean versions of all tracks, (specifically for radio play) they are not uploaded to Spotify. So! Bear this in mind if you are thinking about using them… if they do decide to remove this as a prerequisite then I’d try them out.
Daimoon
Of all the paid services I found, this is one of the cheapest - not the cheapest though. You have lots of different options here - I’ve used the option for €40 and €150. After that it jumps in price to €399 which was a NO for me!
Their interface is really quick and easy to use, which is great. You select what you want, choose add ons if required, submit your link, select genres and pay. As I said, I work with Hip Hop/Grime/Trap music artists predominantly. Daimoon basically pays curators to place your music in their playlists. They have low tier playlists and higher tier ones. Basically they are aiming to trigger the algorithms within Spotify so you get picked up by the algorithmic playlists.
The playlists aren’t very strong if I’m honest - you will get some streams, it can vary. Sometimes it will take a long time to get placed - I’ve had to chase them up more than once. Their customer service is always polite and will take time to look into your query but they won’t give a refund if you don’t get the results. It seems as though some of their playlists are generic, run by a few people who have lots of playlists and I’m not convinced their following is real. Just saying… On some tracks I’ve got up to 7k streams from using Daimoons €40 option. The last track I was able to get about 1k.
Because of the inconsistencies, I’ve decided to stop using it, as even with the bigger budget, it didn’t generate enough to impress me.
Music Promotion Corp
These guys bombard me with emails all the time - they go straight to the bin. They promise to make you famous (eye roll) with all their different options for promo. It’s pretty simple to use, you literally select what you want, submit your links and pay.
This is the cheapest service I found - they have options from as little as $15 so it makes you feel like you can experiment a little bit. I tried the $30 option for one track. It generated around 3k streams which isn’t bad, but I did expect better. I did have to chase them up though as I didn’t see the results in the timeframe they set out. They did get back to me and said they would run the promo again, which they appeared to do. They have a chatbox on their site which is quite helpful as you get to ask questions as you go along. It’s not the best for UK Black music, so do bear that in mind if you decide to use them. Around 10% of their playlists are European - which could mean anything to be honest.
They don’t keep you informed either - so you never really know if your music has been accepted, where it’s been submitted or when the campaign has finished. I always like to know what’s happening - especially when I’ve paid!
If I used them again, I wouldn’t go higher than the $15 option and it would literally be as a top up to other things I’m doing. I’d just use it as a basis to kick start streams.
Artist Push Me
I actually found this the worst one to deal with! They have options for you to buy streams from as little as $5 - but I’m not an advocator of that. You definitely do not want to send any signs to Spotify that you are buying streams. They have a wide range of playlist options for inclusion across the DSP’s so not just limited to Spotify. At the time of writing, you could buy 1 million streams for $990.
It’s really simple to use - look for what you want, select and pay. Unfortunately, my experience with them was not a good one. I paid $110 to be placed in playlists with 70,000 followers, in a rap and Hip Hop category. This was supposed to generate between 5k to 10k streams. Pretty simple right?? What actually happened was, I got an email saying to check the proof of the track being added. It had 25k followers. Hmmmmmm. When I asked about the remaining playlists, their reply was: What more? We put you into one. If the playlist generated 1k streams, that is being overly generous.
They told me they would update their system and get back to me. They didn’t and I don’t expect them to. Be very wary of these - don’t spend anything more than $10.
Hopefully I’ve managed to save you some money or at least given you a better insight on where to spend it. To sum up - I spent a total of £120 and generated around 1.8k streams. Which is NOT WORTH THE MONEY!!! I don’t think any of the above are really a good match for UK Hip Hop and subgenres.
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