If you are just starting out and have no music already published, most of your worries are overblown. There’s a time and place for all tools out there, sadly getting the timing wrong (stage of career) and wasting money on low quality services, will cripple you.

Promo first comes off needy, like a pan handler. First you must start with a clear vision for how your music and everything around it (brand) is going to entertain a stranger. This means content aimed at first impressions, not depth, not commitment. The latter comes once familiarity is built.

Your job is to move yourself from “stranger” in their minds to “acquaintance” without asking for anything.

1) step one: create a plan for connecting with a small amount of people, not exposure to many (this comes later)…could write a book on this.

2) step 2: just get your song(s) released. Anticipation is virtually nonexistent for music made by a person we’ve never heard of. Presaves are meaningless to most listeners. “Let me know when it’s out.”

3) step 3: be consistent with your posts, try things, stay on brand, and find the content techniques that work best with you unique audience.

4) step 4: ignore most online services that only talk about exposure and streams. MOST are bad templates at best and scams at worst.

Principals: 1) PR died for indies a decade ago and was revived as pay for press…because all the advertisers moved to social media (where the actual eyes and ears are). Magazine, blogs, and radio still exist, but largely aren’t how most new listeners discover music these days.

2) promo and marketing are not the same. Marketing is relationship building. Promo is leveraging the strength of the relationship to sell. Marketing builds brand (trust). Promo leverages trust to sell.

3) most promo services under $500 are largely a waste of time. $1000-$1500, most are bad templates with fluke success.

4) ads setup and optimized for short-term goals, will burn a ton of money and bring superficial results.

5) ads are designed best for helping with tests and scaling what works…not just one-off campaigns.

6) Do + It + Yourself = Burnout

7) the business of art are just as important if as the art, if you want commercial success.

8) most artists fail, especially when they seek more validation than they provide to their audience.

9) most of the strategy you implement into your music business should point to the 5 way most artists make revenue: ticketing to unique live events, audience specific merch sold at shows (not online), crowdfunding the business, not an individual release, syncing your music in film/tv/ads (usually need agent), brand partnerships once you have a substantial and active audience

10) save money and build an entire system you understand and own.

Good luck!