Paid Streams & Playlist Placements

 

Is it smart to pay for “guaranteed streams” or placement on “curated playlists?”   That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.  Though some may disagree, the contemporary thinking appears to be that, for indie artists looking to actually advance their musical careers, paying for “guaranteed streams” is not only a waste of money, it can actually harm your long term commercial viability. 

​

There are a gazillion songs on the internet, and the number is constantly growing.  Roughly 40,000 new songs are uploaded to Spotify’s 50 million-song catalogue every single day.  That means within ten minutes of you announcing your brand-new release on every social media avenue available to you, over 270 other aspiring musicians will have done basically the same thing.  Assuming each new song is 3 minutes long, it would take three and a half days to listen to all the new songs uploaded to Spotify within an hour of your song’s big debut.  When you run out the numbers on what that means in terms of songs per day, per week, per month, per year, it’s mind-numbing.

​

With those numbers being the reality of the current music “business,” it’s no wonder so many artists on user groups like this one are desperate for someone to listen to their creations.  That’s why within minutes of a post inviting contributors to “drop links for radio play,” you, along with a tsunami of link-droppers hoping to be discovered, click the reply button, certain that if you can just get a few folks to listen to your newest masterpiece, your fanbase will grow virally, and a life sustained by royalty checks will be just around the corner.  In relatively short order, you receive an IM or email or some sort of congratulatory communication from the post’s originator saying something like “Congratulations!  Our team has listened to your work and we can’t stop playing it!” Then, the instructions that follow talk about which package available for purchase promises the best chance of internet stardom.  You select the “super exposure” option for $75, and enjoy two months of great looking Spotify playlist charts.  Then in month three, back to a trickle.  Fortunately, the service provider sends you a note saying that for just another installment of an additional $55 (it’s marked down because you’re now a preferred customer), they can get you back on track to “massive exposure.”  Then wash… rinse… and repeat. Sound familiar?

​

I don’t think anyone would say you should never pay for advertising or marketing.  In the current environment, the sheer volume of available music out there makes digital marketing of some sort essential, and like it or not, that’s going to cost you something, if not dollars, then lots and lots of time and effort carefully crafting pitch letters and electronic press kits, making phone calls, networking, and that sort of thing.  But there’s a big difference between rationally parting with a handful of your hard-earned dollars on methods that, although not guaranteed, have at least some possibility to generate legitimate, tangibly beneficial returns on your investment, and throwing money at shortcuts with little chance of bringing you any lasting benefit.      

​

First, ask yourself this question:  “How can the outfit asking for my money ‘guarantee’ some number of streams, and what if anything is that worth?”  I mean, think about it:  That basically means I can record my dog barking while I bang on a pot with a spoon, and as long as I fork over some dough, they’ll “guarantee” me a certain number of streams.  The notion that anything about that deal advances my—or anyone else’s—musical career seems pretty absurd.

​

Second, what about a promise to be “included on over 500 curated playlists?”  That sounds encouraging, doesn’t it?  Perhaps it might be if there were… say… 1500 or 15,000 or even 150,000 playlists on Spotify.  But there’s a few more than that—like 4 billion… that’s “billion” with a “B!”  And bear in mind, “curated” simply means that somebody decides what songs go on the list, which in this example is anyone who’s willing to pay, including me and my pot-banging, dog-barking musical masterpiece.

​

Third, just as technology has made it possible for anybody with an iPhone and an internet connection to launch songs out into the world, it has also made it easy for the less scrupulous opportunists out there to create computer programs that simulate people listening to your music.  The practice is commonly referred to as “streaming bots” or “click farms,” which essentially involves a computer program sending repeated mindless “play” requests to Spotify to generate those guaranteed streams you paid for.  While you’ll get a nice-looking graph to show your friends, it doesn’t mean anybody is actually listening to your song.  Additionally, you’re not actually building an audience, connecting with people who may like what you do, or establishing the beginnings of a foundation you can build upon in the longer term. 

​

There are tons of articles easily locatable on Google explaining all this and more in much greater detail, including how purchasing streams can actually be harmful for an artist seeking to capture a legitimate toe hold in the industry, such as Streaming Bots Are Ruining Careers of Indie Musicians — Venture (venturemusic.com) and Fake Streams, Listening Bots, and Click Farms: Counterfeiting Attention in the Streaming Music Economy on JSTOR, but the point is really pretty simple:  Understand what you are paying for.   If what you want is a misleading bumper sticker you can use in your efforts to hold yourself out as being more talented/popular/commercially successful etc., than you actually are, no judgement here... you be you!  But if what you’re trying to do is build a legitimate brand, grow an audience, and establish the beginnings of more lasting viability, it’s worth taking the time to educate yourself on what you’re actually buying and what it’s realistically going to do for you. 

​

​