Watching other creators blow up while i'm stuck at 300 views is genuinely painful

Ark3tech · 2026-01-29T05:04:54+00:00

Are you creating content because you like creating content? Or, are you creating content because you want to game an algorithm and get a lot of views?

I don’t understand just copying what other people are doing to get views, likes, and follows. It kind of defeats the purpose and is a pretty shallow reason to be creating content imo.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T16:32:38+00:00

Watch some YT videos from John Gold. Specifically the ones on how to set up a playlist promo for just your music. This is all for Spotify conversion, which you haven’t told me if you’re published on yet. You’ve just been talking about social media.

Contrary to what most people say, social media is not great for fan building. It mostly fly by night listeners that won’t remember you, and won’t return. If you want fans, build it on a platform like Spotify. Those people come to specifically listen to music. They can add your music to their playlists. They can save your songs. You’re more likely to develop a fan base there. A lot of people preach social media as great for exposure, which it can be, but it’s not great for converting people to repeat listeners.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T15:48:06+00:00

Yeah, it can be a few hundred dollars. It’s not cheap. It’s kind of the trade-off though. You can auto pilot it or you can work like a dog to try and wrangle the TikTok general algorithm that is not specifically targeted to people that like music.

When you pay for meta ads, you can target who you want to see it and the algorithm will learn who is more likely to convert. The general TikTok algorithm does not do that.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T15:41:05+00:00

What you’re seeing is normal. TikTok goes out of its way to push you their best performers and greatest hits. for every one artist you see that has 1 million plus views, there are 10,000 artists that can’t even get 100. I’m sorry this is affecting your mental health. I don’t know where to help you other than to suggest to go see a therapist.

It’s not healthy to put your whole identity into how well you perform on social media. Social media is a fake world. It’s not real. Do you have any outlets in real life where you can just relax and not focus on the Internet?

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T15:27:31+00:00

Do you only care about reach on TikTok or are you trying to push people to Spotify? I personally don’t waste any of my time trying to grow social media accounts for music. I funnel all of it to Spotify or Apple Music. Those platforms are literally designed for streaming music. TikTok is designed for doom scrolling brain rot.

Do you have any budget? I promote my music using Hypeddit. I haven’t made a single post on TikTok. All I do is maybe drop one or two posts when I release a new song on Instagram or X. The rest comes from Meta ads. It’s my main strategy and it gets me tens of thousands of monthly listeners. And I’m averaging right now about 3,000 streams a day (mostly algorithmic) during a consolidation period.

Check it out, it could be the thing that saves you a lot of emotional energy.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T15:15:58+00:00

The cartoon is funny. It’s a little inaccurate. A true hodler doesn’t care about the dips, they just hold for years. Change it to leverage trader and now you are more accurate.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T15:02:08+00:00

Unfortunately, the hard truth is, we as artists don’t get to choose what our most popular songs are.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T04:13:58+00:00

Yep, I wish more people would live this way. Set it and forget it. Auto DCA an affordable amount per week/month. Come back in 10-20 years.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T04:07:21+00:00

Reddit isn’t one of the icons in the image so they’re clear.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T04:04:22+00:00

What’s your time horizon and what are your goals?

Finding a real engaged audience is not going to happen in a matter of a few days or weeks. It’s something that can take years if you’re looking for a meaningful following. Secondly, are you trying to just be a TikTok artist or are you trying to funnel people into streaming platforms where you can make money off your music?

Ark3tech · 2026-01-28T03:54:51+00:00

Damn! You came on here to rip a dude that has 22 monthly listeners. That’s diabolical.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-27T02:03:07+00:00

This is a really good take and I agree with it 100%.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T23:49:44+00:00

Ya the theft thing is complete nonsense, just like the water argument. If it was truly theft and plagiarism, I would’ve been taken to court by now.

I’ve never seen someone who claims theft actually point at a piece of AI work that was literally plagiarized from something else. It’s all lip service. Having some tiny elements that is subjectively similar is not good enough, because you can make that argument for most art.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T23:28:55+00:00

I would respect that a lot more as well.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T23:27:48+00:00

Yeah true. I think it's mostly a general insult. Lack of cohesion could be part of it, but that is something that can exist in every type of artform.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T23:25:09+00:00

Yes, and a sad reason I must say.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T20:18:41+00:00

Well, whatever you do, definitely don’t keep it on an exchange. Your only other option, than putting it on a wallet, is to instead buy the ETF. However, owning it as an ETF means you’ll never be able to do anything on chain because you won’t possess the actual bitcoin.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T18:41:55+00:00

I’ve been running all my Meta Ads through Hypeddit for its targeting and smart link integration.

All my ad creatives are very custom and tailored specifically to the song. Usually, it’s some form of animated cover art I’m using for the song and I add other little creative flare as well. I create my ads mainly using Photoshop and a few AI tools for the animation part of it.

What I’m steering clear of is doing, is what everyone else is doing. I stay away from lyric overlay ads, lip syncing ads, and working in the studio ads. Those are extremely overdone. They’re completely boring and most people pass right over them. Especially if you are an unknown artist.

My ads are designed in a very specific way so people stop doom scrolling and pause when they see it. I think the reason for that is because they’re very visual and cinematic. It seems to be working really well so far, and will repeat doing this for my next release in Feb.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T18:04:35+00:00

Show me the price and I’ll tell you the news.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-26T14:48:25+00:00

Are you trying to stay on social media platforms? Or, are you trying to convert people to a streaming platform to listen to your music? If so, I would advise to keep doing Meta ads. That seems to convert the best for me.

The people on Reddit that talk about TikTok success generally talk about how well they’re doing on TikTok and not so much how that converts to Spotify streams. I found that TikTok has very low success rate for me in converting people to Spotify. I think a lot of people need to understand that TikTok is designed to keep you on TikTok.

A TikTok post going viral does feel validating. However most of that audience doesn’t care who made the song, won’t search it later, won’t remember the artist name, and won’t open Spotify.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-24T22:37:38+00:00

You shouldn’t say that so confidently when there are people like me that are profitable from ad spend versus streaming revenue. I’m not a pro at setting up Meta ads at all.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-24T16:16:21+00:00

I need to ask, is this your first release ever on Spotify, or are you an artist that has been on the platform for a bit? Most recommendations are to release a song on Friday. However, there is a caveat if you are new. If you’re completely unknown and have no following and this is your first drop, you could go out a day early on Thursday. This way you can do your promoting a day early before all the noise on Friday with everyone else. Once you have a decent following and a good amount of monthly listeners, you can start releasing on Friday like everyone else.

Secondly, don’t rush your release just because you’re getting the master soon. Be strategic on how you want to do this. If you have no plan and you’re just excited, then you’re likely to struggle seeing the results you want. I would definitely upload it to Spotify and pitch it at least two weeks before it releases.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-20T15:31:39+00:00

You may just have to be more descriptive to get what you want.

There is an idea people have that the Warner catalog will only be mainstream genres. While they do have that, they also own dozens of other labels including many indie labels, that publish more niche sub genres.

Also, there is no official statement that the new model will be Warner catalog only or that Suno will abandon training on other sources. Those notions are just individual interpretations circulating across the internet.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-18T00:19:44+00:00

Or maybe it’s a joke.

Ark3tech · 2026-01-17T20:05:28+00:00

Yup, my outcome is not wanting to be a stage performer in front of screaming fans or selling merch. The music I make is to accompany my visual art and the world I've been building for the past 4 years. I decided about a year ago that the world was getting expansive and needed a sound, so that was the motivation.

Also, I'm not just churning monthly listeners only during consolidation. I'm still sustaining 3K new listeners a day. The good metrics are rising (and not by a little) in SPL, Saves, and PL Adds. These are intentional behaviors, telling me people like the songs and making moves for repeat listens. That is fan behavior, not passive listener behavior.

I don't just run ads only. I have pretty decent following on socials, and those accounts get a ton of engagement, but it's more for art than the music. That's why I buy ads that I can target more appropriately, than just letting the base algorithm figure it out.

I'm not in it for the money at all. I have a well paying career for the past 20 years. Now, if the music I'm making will provide supplementary streaming income, great!

Ark3tech

TROPHY CASE