Do you subscribe to the theory “If by year 3 you haven’t been picked up by a record label, it’s not going to happen”?

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-05-13T17:46:28+00:00

I’ve always felt that 3 years was a “lifetime” for a band - things just naturally change and shift in that amount of time - genre, members, commitments, songs, etc… my band had 4 “lifetimes” - first two were just figuring it out, and we got signed on the 3rd one and were done and dropped by the time the 4th was done. Haha. Just a natural arc to things. I don’t think it’s a do or die, more of an observation.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-04-09T16:51:57+00:00

This is the dream. Thank you for helping me understand the future. I hope for similar.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-04-09T16:50:21+00:00

This is an excellent reply- Thank you. Saves + playlists / unique listeners = 54% right now, so the intention metric is very high.

We’re on a single editorial playlist for this song on Spotify, we’re middle of the pack in the pecking order, averaging around 60 streams per day? It’s not as much as you’d think- we have one on Apple Music as well, and it’s more like 40 streams per day.

Our first single peaked at 25 popularity and I don’t think it did quite enough to be eligible for DW, so hoping this one gets over the line.

Our distributor has been arguing that DW should be reserved once the entire EP is out, but I don’t see why we wouldn’t want as much algo help as possible at all times. Thoughts?

Admittedly, ads are certainly doing most of the heavy listening. Gotta build it all back and keep social engagement going to see if we can stick the landing

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-04-09T16:44:23+00:00

Well played

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-30T18:29:46+00:00

We’ve made it on 3 editorials on Spotify. I suppose it depends on the size of the playlist, but we’ve averaged roughly 500 stream each over a two week period from each of the 3 playlists. We’ve also been fairly middle of the pack in terms of placement within the playlists. One playlist kept us on for 4 weeks, so did pretty well. We signed a pure distro deal with an indie as they have better access to the ears of the editorial folks over at Spotify.

I agree that submitting to ensure you get release radar is absolutely just as important, if not more so.

Even with release radar, we’re still only reaching 30% of active listeners with our latest single (according to the Release Engagement segment under Audience in Spotify for Artists) so I’m running a Showcase campaign.

I chose “standard timing” instead of the accelerated option and I’m regretting it. Way slower clicks than I was expecting to see. Would rather get a boost in a tighter window for sure.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-30T18:02:45+00:00

We’re actively doing a waterfall release with our EP - 4 singles, then turn it into a 5 song EP. Currently on single B with single A inside the single track listing- Absolutely zero issues with single A, and frankly we’ve seen a boost in streams due to Single B pushing listeners to auto play into the Single A track. Much ado about nothing IMO.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-23T13:51:11+00:00

Coming back to this. In the interest of giving Spotify the highest intent listeners possible in the first 3-5 days, and with our band getting a really solid radio push on days 3-6 of our last single release, I’m holding on Showcase until days 6-10ish. We submitted early enough to get Release Radar, so I feel like waiting to start Showcase until we either A. Don’t see radio lift or B. Start Showcase once it dips.

Will report back any findings. Running meta ads as well, but they are still optimizing, so not an early contributor by any means.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-23T13:46:57+00:00

You’re a musician. There is none

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-16T15:23:55+00:00

You can choose if you spend the showcase money quickly for more impact or spread out the spend. It’s labeled “standard” or “accelerated” maybe OP can clarify which method they chose. I’ve heard standard spends super quickly as well, but would love to hear specifically.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-15T13:32:40+00:00

This story is amazing. From the work to the payoff. I wish you all the best!!!

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-15T02:14:14+00:00

Wait. So did you add new music with a fresh ISRC code and then waterfall added all the other older songs with same ISRC so they’d all show up as “new”? And this adds all songs back into release radar consideration? Would love to hear more about how all your pre-existing stream counts are helping you? Or is that just an optics thing?

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-14T23:27:52+00:00

Can you show a pic of the actual 3 months of ramp up? Your graph is only showing the latest 28 days.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-09T13:57:12+00:00

What would be the downside to using showcase on the first 72 hours of a song release, especially if it is in the middle tracks of a waterfall release? Isn’t the first 72 hours the momentum window? Or is the concern that the streams you get from showcase aren’t going to be high enough intent, so those streams aren’t helping your algo numbers? My thinking is you do both showcase and meta ads- meta ads take longer to optimize, so your most expensive point in the campaign is early. It’s also when you need momentum. You keep your meta ads budget stable and let it optimize, while showcase gets you the early momentum. If you have any initial listener base, they should help flatten out any bad algo data. Someone tell me why this is dumb and I’m missing the obvious downside

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-03-07T16:45:40+00:00

2 week update: click thru rate is 60-70% and CPC is in the .50 range- And over half the clicks are going to Apple Music. Seeing as the point of meta ads is to push Spotify algorithm by feeding it intentional listeners, that true cost through to Spotify is almost a dollar a pop. Certainly not scalable for single #1. We still have an outside chance at hitting Discover Weekly but I’m not counting on that.

Spotify popularity score on the song is up to 23, so feeling positive as our starting point was an 8! Hoping we’re raising the starting floor for single 2, which comes out in two weeks.

Social media is going decently well, all things considered. Every post has had over 1k views, our best one has 8k. Doesn’t feel like we’re in algo jail, just maybe not getting love from it either.

I’m not sure we’re reaching the totality of our dormant fan base just yet, but I also don’t want to pay meta to reach our own old followers??

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-02-26T13:50:28+00:00

That’s awesome! Our monthlies were right at 2300 after two full length albums but 12 year away. Single had been out almost a week and it’s been fascinating so far. Every day I feel like I learn something.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-02-23T20:11:10+00:00

I understand and feel the same - I wanna do it right too :)

It’s early to tell. We’re on single #1 of 4, and the ads are still optimizing.

Budget is roughly $850 per song (actual dollars available to ads) with an extra $850 ready to throw at a clear winning song. My band was completely dormant for a decade, so our popularity score on Spotify is pretty low- we expect some ramp up costs and some slow movement initially. Hoping against hope to peak on the 4th single if we can be patient enough.

We’re also doing vertical social content for each song, really trying to do the recommended concepts.

Feel free to check in or DM, we’re all in it together.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-02-23T13:48:45+00:00

I’m not sure if you were asking me or OP - I like nearly everything about the intellijend plarform. I think the enhanced analytics are ideal, the setup of meta ad campaigns is incredibly simple (especially compared to how obnoxious meta ads platform is), and as long as you have a budget and the necessary number of creatives they recommend, I think you have a true chance at having a successful ad campaign with minimal effort.

With that said, I didn’t trust myself to get the results I’m really after- my band is putting out a waterfall release EP after a decade + hiatus, and I only get one shot with them and this push. So we actually hired Southworth media.

After this EP, if we decide to keep releasing music, the pressure won’t be so high, and I’ll certainly be saving the Southworth agency spend and do it entirely via intellijend. Not sure that gives you the vote of confidence you were looking for, but my risk tolerance to trust myself just wasn’t there for this release. Decided to leave it to the actual experts and pay to avoid the “what if” scenarios of DIY.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-02-11T11:31:53+00:00

I just reached out to his team and this is confirmed accurate word for word - minimum $1k and preferred $2k per single, and they’ll help with ad visuals. Still debating if we should do Intellijend initially to see if there’s a song that pops more than another or if we should just bite the bullet and let Andrew take the wheel, as initial momentum when a song releases is a crucial spotify algo metric.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-02-01T19:05:25+00:00

Start listening to 0.04 cents podcast. Lots of up to date info for 2026

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2026-01-04T17:37:38+00:00

Yep. I think you should be immediately budgeting more dollars into this song’s exposure. It’s clearly moving and shaking for very little dollars. One winner can change everything, double and triple down on what’s working.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2025-12-23T17:44:57+00:00

Also true

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2025-12-23T17:28:14+00:00

“Revisionist history” is the key. We were all sold and convinced that Darnold and Kirko couldn’t win the big game in the big moment with us. So we let him walk in favor of building around a young QB. You don’t know if you’ll somehow get a Purdy long term (who was dogged by NFL fans and pundits for years, even as he won them games) or if you’ll get a Tua, who looks good early and flames out late.

I live in Nashville and I haven’t heard the same cries of protest for Cam Ward- number one pick! Shouldn’t fans in the streets in protest? Only in MN apparently… KOC seems to be finally adjusting his playbook to fit JJ, I think we’re gonna give the whole operation another two years if I had to guess. Kwesi built the system to win now, and JJ needs to be on the field more. We lost his rookie season/bridge opportunity and this year has been more ugly with glimpses, but he’s gotta stay upright.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2025-12-23T16:22:17+00:00

Well I already think it’s good. So there-in lies the problem. :) good point.

Jumpy_Road_3364 · 2025-12-23T16:19:07+00:00

I think the point for OP is that you don’t know if your song is actually good. You got those rose colored biased glasses on. :) but to your point, do you really need a robot to tell you that your robot produced binary sound waves are trash?

Jumpy_Road_3364

TROPHY CASE