While Spotify and other streaming services are continuously moving up to the next level, exponentially growing and constantly adding and eliminating user features – so must those that are marketing products on streaming sites.
Back in the day you could promote/market your music using one single tactic before moving onto another. In this new, faster paced music industry, you must synchronize multiple facets of marketing, promotion and advertising, simultaneously to be successful.
Playlist Pitching has been the primary marketing strategy for promoting tracks on streaming services; especially Spotify. As Spotifys track offerings have more than tripled in number, the manner of marketing has barely–if any–evolved to keep up with the changing landscape. If you Google Playlist Pitching Services, youll get over 800,000 results of companies that offer strictly Playlist Pitching; of which many of these companies just seem to pop out of the woodwork. If all these companies are doing the same thing – its hard to wrap your head around how this will help little ole you and your track, to stand out.
Playlist Pitching is only 1 spoke in the large wheel. So you get your track on a couple of playlists
that doesnt mean anyones going to stream it. Finding a campaign that works both the B2B angle (Business to Business, getting your track on Spotify) and the B2C angle (getting consumers to STREAM your track on Spotify) is key. Another important factor is the duration of your campaign. Artist buying marketing services need to stretch their dollars. Many of these companies either dont give you a timeframe (or give you a very limited timeframe) for which their services will continue to help you. The longer the campaign runs, the longer they continue to work on your track, and the longer your results will last.
The only way to get your product to get streamed on streaming sites is no different than when artists were competing to get a consumer to purchase their CD at physical retail. The only difference with the latter scenario is that in record stores, artists were competing with around 1,000 products versus 22 million products to get consumers to pay attention to them.
Like any other product, your product requires that you employ a variety of techniques. For instance – a local restaurant or car dealer markets their business via multiple mediums including flyers in mailboxes, on local radio & TV, on social media, on their website, on mobile phones, etc.
Artists need a multi-tiered streaming marketing campaign – not a single tactic (aka Playlist Pitching). They also need to make sure the firm is legitimate (not buying streams and placements that go against the T&Cs); and preferably a Firm that has been in the music marketing landscape for at least 5-10 years or more. If they were not legitimate, they likely wouldnt be around anymore. Finding a campaign that works both the B2B angle (Business to Business, getting your track on Spotify) and the B2C angle (getting consumers to STREAM your track and/or FOLLOW you on Spotify).
As of the writing of this communication, we found one company
( www.spotifypromotions.com ) that offers full fledged twelve (12) week B2B & B2C streaming campaigns. The company has been in the music marketing business for over 30 years and is highly reputable (https://bit.ly/3rz1Met))
They employ six (6) B2B marketing techniques including: emails sent directly to Independent Spotify Curators, and to in-house Spotify Curators; Manual submissions to Indie Curators that curate individual playlists (contacting curators individually), Playlist Pitching to Curators that run more than one playlist or giant follower playlists and direct placements with high positioning on Collaborative Playlists.
Addressing the consumer audience theyve cultivated over their 30 years in business, and applying the other services they have been using to gain exposure for their artists, they provide a variety of B2C services such as: social media outreach to an established 10K audience (included in their Spotify marketing campaigns) plus optional services including: advertising campaigns, fan expansion via social media, online and traditional PR, music video marketing and more.
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