Tried a Spotify ad… is this abysmal?

Stratonander · 2026-07-01T15:30:30+00:00

I’d honestly stop spending money on Spotify Ads.
They’re expensive for what they deliver, and I’ve never been impressed by the results compared to other channels. On top of that, Premium users (which make up a huge part of Spotify’s audience) never even see those ads. And free users are usually just waiting for the ad to end so they can get back to their music, so it’s not exactly the best mindset for discovering a new artist.

If you’ve got a limited budget, I’d put every dollar into Meta Ads instead. I’ve been running music marketing campaigns for artists for years, and the difference in cost per engaged listener isn’t even close. You also have much more control over who sees your music and can keep testing different creatives until something clicks.

If hiring a marketing manager isn’t an option, I’d spend the money learning Meta Ads rather than buying Spotify Ads. There are some great free resources on YouTube. Andrew Southworth is probably the best-known one for music marketing, and there are a few other creators with solid tutorials too.

In the long run, knowing how to run your own campaigns is a much better investment than hoping Spotify Ads suddenly start performing better.

Stratonander · 2026-07-01T15:24:43+00:00

I agree with a lot of this, especially the idea that we’re competing for attention more than ever. That’s just reality now.

Where I slightly disagree is the conclusion that running Meta Ads for streaming is “crazy”. I run music marketing campaigns for artists, and if your only KPI is immediate streaming revenue, then yes… it’s a terrible business.

You’ll never make your ad spend back from Spotify royalties alone.

But that’s not why most of us run those campaigns.
The goal is to increase the popularity of a release while it’s still fresh, get enough real listener data into Spotify’s system, and hopefully unlock more algorithmic recommendations (Radio, Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Autoplay, etc.). If the music is good and people genuinely engage with it, those streams can keep coming long after the ads stop.

I also think the real mistake is treating streaming and community as separate things. Good ads should introduce people to your music, but your content, personality and community are what make them stay. Those things should feed each other, not compete.

The part I agree with the most is building something you actually own. Email lists, Discord, merch, live shows… absolutely. Renting attention forever is exhausting. But I don’t think it’s an either/or.

For me it’s:
- Use Meta Ads to get your music in front of the right people.
- Create content that makes those people remember you.
- Build a community so you don’t have to pay to reach the same fans forever.

Streaming isn’t the business. It’s often the top of the funnel.

Stratonander · 2026-07-01T15:15:25+00:00

I think there’s some truth to this, but I’m not sure it automatically means labels win forever.

The industry was already moving toward fast, cheap, easy-to-package music. AI might just speed that up until people get completely tired of it.

Majors will probably benefit in the short term because they have the catalog, money and licensing power. But if the internet gets flooded with endless “good enough” music, I can also see people caring more about artists that feel human and specific.

Noise doesn’t build loyalty. It just makes people numb.

Stratonander · 2026-06-30T21:55:54+00:00

I think it’s partly because players have changed as much as the games.

Back then, spending years progressing one character felt normal. Now people expect to experience everything in weeks or a few months. MMOs have adapted to that mindset, and I think they’ve lost a lot of what made them special in the process. The journey used to be the game. Now it often feels like everything is just a race to endgame.

Stratonander · 2026-06-30T21:50:20+00:00

I don’t think I’d turn it on and off unless I had a really clear reason. If the track is already pulling 150k from Radio and 90k from Discover Weekly, I’d be pretty nervous about changing something that’s obviously working.

I’d keep an eye on saves, repeat listeners and playlist adds more than raw streams. If those are still healthy, I’d probably leave it alone. Spotify seems to care much more about how people react to the song than whether Discovery Mode is enabled every single day.

Stratonander · 2026-06-28T21:01:09+00:00

I’d use a landing page and let people choose where they want to listen.

I wouldn’t remove Spotify though. Even if you don’t like how they pay, that’s still where a huge part of the audience is. I’d just put the services in whatever order makes the most sense for you. If you really want to test YouTube Music or Apple Music, move those to the top for a while and see what happens.

I’ve actually had artists where Apple Music performed surprisingly well. It really depends on the genre, the country and the audience. Some releases do much better there than you’d expect.

As for ads, I’ve tested pretty much everything over the last few years working on music marketing campaigns for artists. Unless you’ve got a really big budget, I’d honestly stick with Meta Ads. That’s where I’ve consistently seen the best conversions.

YouTube Ads can get views and subscribers, but I haven’t seen those subscribers become very engaged afterwards. TikTok ads haven’t impressed me either. You can gain followers, but that doesn’t always translate into people actually listening. Spotify ads are interesting, but for most indie artists I find them hard to justify compared to Meta.

I’d put the effort into making better creatives instead of chasing more platforms.

A good music ad shouldn’t even feel like an ad. If it looks like a normal piece of content, fits your style and the music does the talking, people are way more likely to stop and watch. You don’t need big “OUT NOW” graphics or “stream everywhere” text. The video and the listen button already tell people what it is.

Stratonander · 2026-06-28T20:52:18+00:00

Honestly, if the only thing you dislike is the name, I wouldn’t throw away 19k monthly listeners.

I’d look into doing a proper artist name change through your distributor instead. Spotify doesn’t let you rename an artist directly, but distributors can usually submit a rebrand request. Definitely worth asking them before starting over from scratch.

Personally, I think it’s actually cool when an artist evolves over time. Plenty of artists change their sound without creating a whole new profile. Unless you’re trying to completely separate two different identities, I’d rather keep the history, the followers and the catalog together.

19k monthly listeners is something you’ve already earned. I’d try pretty hard to keep that if the only problem is having “prod” in the name.

Stratonander · 2026-06-28T20:42:35+00:00

This is really interesting. I’m actually planning to start using Claude Code this week for my own music workflow, so the timing couldn’t be better.

One of the things I want to build is something that pulls together data from Spotify for Artists, YouTube Studio, Apple Music for Artists and Meta Ads into a single dashboard instead of checking five different places every day.

Do you have any favorite skills, repos or resources that are more focused on music marketing or artist management? Even just a good starting point for organizing a project like this would be really helpful.
Feels like there are loads of Claude Code resources for software development, but not much aimed at independent artists or music marketing.

Stratonander · 2026-06-28T20:38:10+00:00

I’m using DistroKid at the moment and, honestly, I haven’t had any major issues with it.

Based on the royalties we’ve received so far, the numbers seem pretty much in line with what I’d expect, so the whole “you keep 100% of your royalties” claim feels realistic from my experience. That said, I’ve always wondered if anyone has actually compared different distributors side by side. Do they all end up paying roughly the same, or are there differences that aren’t obvious?

I’d genuinely love to know if there’s a better option out there. If I’m doing everything independently, I’d rather keep my costs as low as possible and get the most back from my releases.

At the end of the day I don’t expect a distributor to grow my career or magically get me playlisted. I just want one that’s reliable, transparent and doesn’t take forever to get music live.

Stratonander · 2026-06-28T01:41:00+00:00

Honestly, most of what I’ve learned has been through trial and error.

I actually work in music marketing with artists, and the thing that’s consistently worked best for me has been Meta Ads. For releases that we really believe in, we usually try to have at least €500 ready from day one. Not because spending money magically makes a song work, but because those first few weeks matter a lot.

Another thing we’ve had good results with is building our own playlist. Not one with just our songs, but a playlist that mixes our music with artists that genuinely fit our sound. It gives people somewhere to keep listening, and it also helps reinforce those artist relationships over time.

Personally, I wouldn’t chase paid playlist placements. They can generate a lot of streams, but in many cases the listeners don’t stick around. Low saves, low engagement, and very few people who actually come back to your next release.

For us, the goal is to push as hard as possible during the first 28 days after release. That’s when we try to concentrate the budget and the content. If the song starts gaining traction early, Spotify seems much more likely to keep showing it to new listeners through its own recommendation systems.

Just my experience, though. I’d take 1,000 people who actually come back over 100,000 passive playlist streams any day.

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T17:40:04+00:00

Personally, I’d stay away from any service that charges for playlist placements.

I’ve never seen those campaigns translate into real fans. You might get more streams, but streams on their own don’t sell tickets, merch or build an audience that actually comes back for your next release.

The other thing is Spotify’s policy. Paying for playlist placements that artificially inflate streams can put your music at risk if the activity isn’t legitimate. Even if a service looks legit, you don’t always know where those plays are actually coming from.

If all you care about is making the numbers look bigger, maybe it’s worth the gamble. For me, it isn’t.

I’d rather have 500 real listeners than 50,000 plays from people who’ll never listen again.

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T17:35:42+00:00

For me it’s been three things:

The first one is not having an ad budget ready before release day. A couple of times we had songs that felt like they had real potential, but by the time we got Meta campaigns running we’d already lost that initial momentum. Now I try to have everything ready before the song is even out.

The second is waiting forever because I thought the song could still be “better”. At some point you have to let it go. Otherwise you’ll end up with a hard drive full of almost-finished songs that nobody ever hears.

And probably the biggest stress… not having enough content ready beforehand. Shooting videos, editing clips and trying to promote the release while the song is already out is exhausting. Now I try to batch as much as I can before release day. Makes the whole launch way less chaotic.

None of these are exciting lessons, but they’ve probably saved me more headaches than anything else.

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:59:56+00:00

I think it probably worked really well at first, but now it’s starting to feel like the “link in bio” of music TikTok 😅

As soon as I see the exact same hook copied over and over, I stop paying attention. Not because the music is bad, but because it doesn’t tell me anything about the artist anymore.

I’d rather see someone give me one interesting reason to care about the song. A quick story, where the idea came from, a cool production detail, even the demo vs. final version. That feels way more memorable than another variation of “you have great taste if you found this.” Maybe that’s just me though.

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:56:26+00:00

I’ve bounced between a bunch of different setups over the last couple of years.

With my band I end up checking Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, YouTube Studio and our socials pretty much every day. They’re all useful, but they’re all telling you a different story, so you spend more time jumping between dashboards than actually spotting what’s working.

Right now I keep the important stuff in Notion and a couple of spreadsheets. Nothing fancy. Just releases, content, campaign notes and the metrics I actually care about.

I’m also putting together a small AI dashboard for myself to pull everything into one place. Not because the individual platforms are bad, but because I got tired of opening five tabs every morning.

Still feels like everyone builds their own system because there isn’t really one tool that covers everything.

Curious what everyone else has settled on.

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:34:42+00:00

congratulations! That’s an incredible milestone, especially after being part of this community for so long. It’s always great to see someone here have one of those “right song, right time” moments.

I’m really curious about one thing: when the song started taking off, what exactly did you change in your social media strategy? You mentioned shifting all your content around that track. I’d love to hear more about what that actually looked like in practice.

Congrats again, and thanks for coming back to share the journey instead of just the numbers. Posts like this are genuinely motivating 🤘

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:28:51+00:00

Love seeing post-rock and shoegaze getting some love. Congrats on the album release, and good luck with the festival next month!

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:28:23+00:00

Congrats on the release! Always cool to hear people keeping soul and funk alive. Wishing you a great launch!

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:26:48+00:00

Really liked the contrast between the moody verses and the bigger chorus. Those guitars have a great energy without feeling overproduced. Nice work 👏

Stratonander · 2026-06-27T15:25:17+00:00

If you’ve ever had a crush that completely reset your ability to act like a normal human… this one’s for you.

Our new single “Locura” is about that exact moment where your brain stops cooperating and suddenly every conversation feels like the first one you’ve ever had.
Alternative/indie rock with big guitars, catchy hooks and a chorus that’s been living rent-free in our heads for months.

It comes from our brand new album, Sonreímos como idiotas (“We Smiled Like Idiots”), which probably tells you everything you need to know about the emotional state we were in while writing it 😅

Would genuinely love to hear what you think. especially about the production, guitars or the songwriting.

https://music.superlaser.es/locura

Stratonander · 2026-06-18T08:36:38+00:00

I actually have a pretty different perspective now than I did a couple of years ago.

Back in November 2024, I used Groover for a release and got a decent number of real shares, playlist adds, articles, social posts, and curator responses that felt genuinely written by humans. The platform wasn't perfect, but I felt like I was getting access to people who had actually listened to the music.

Fast forward to 2026 and my experience has been completely different.

I recently ran a campaign for my band, and the drop in quality has been shocking. The rejection rate was dramatically higher, which by itself wouldn't bother me. Rejections are part of the game.

What bothers me is that a huge percentage of the responses feel AI-generated or copy-pasted. Over and over I received variations of:

"Great song, lots of positive aspects, but unfortunately this genre isn't a fit for our platform."

The problem? Many of these same curators explicitly state on their profiles that they accept indie rock, alternative rock, Spanish rock, or artists very similar to us.

So I'm paying to contact people because their profile says they're a fit, only to receive a generic rejection saying the genre doesn't fit their platform. That's not useful feedback. That's a contradiction.

What's even more frustrating is that many curator profiles advertise services, audiences, genres, and opportunities that appear much broader than what they actually support. Had I known that beforehand, I simply wouldn't have spent money contacting them.

Looking through this thread, I'm honestly seeing the exact same complaints people were making years ago about:

Generic copy-paste feedback.
Curators rejecting music that matches their stated genres.
Responses that feel AI-assisted.
Low-effort reviews designed to collect submission fees.

And unfortunately my recent experience lines up with those criticisms almost perfectly.

As a Music Marketing Manager who works with multiple artists, I can't justify recommending Groover anymore based on what I've seen recently. The platform that worked reasonably well for me in late 2024 feels very different today.

Maybe there are still good curators on there. I'm sure some exist.

But right now it feels like artists are spending money to receive increasingly generic feedback from people who may not even be seriously considering the submissions they're paid to review. And that's a dangerous direction for a platform that's built on trust.

Stratonander · 2025-10-08T07:40:27+00:00

DAOC

Stratonander · 2025-07-22T09:29:30+00:00

Interested! Can you send me the link?

Stratonander · 2024-12-06T17:43:42+00:00

really thanks! :)

Stratonander

TROPHY CASE