How This Song Got 12 Million Spotify Streams In 6 Months

[@AndrewSouthworth]

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[@amonrahh]

They spent 12,000 and did 12 million spotify streams, every 1 million streams is = 4000 give or take. They been made that money back and alot more.

[@Karlagarciamusic]

I was doing this but it is really overwhelming to be honest, being an artist doing all the creative part and on top of that self promotion it is just tiring….

[@thereesebonneau]

That’s just the job homie

[@mightbefire]

@@thereesebonneau It's the job

[@scunny]

You deal with it and get somewhere or you don't. Up to you.

[@VishalPawarMusic]

It took me 11 years learn digital marketing. It's not work. It's the part of music. Don't consider its a different thing.

[@thereesebonneau]

@@VishalPawarMusic music is the work kiddo

[@marsexalted]

77% algorithmic, my goodness! Another banger Andrew!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I know i've never seen it so high! Thanks!

[@WhoWhereWhenWhy]

Question for everyone : After watching some videos i wonder if the more budget (and optimisation ofc) you put into the campaign, the more volume u can get from Radio, DW, RR etc. For exemple the higher you drop a ball the higher it will bounce, as i can see, no matter if you have a 3S/L ratio or 7, a high budget can apparently provide a better chance to get a ROI, what do you all think about that ?

[@Plagger]

Yo: sorry for the long ass comment, but I been spending my time & money on ads & looking at data, so here's my experience Basically if u really break it down, other than the direct people u will bring through ads, who will ofc ideally be repetitive listeners (more streams), the next source of streams there is, that u can "rely on", and also give u a significant push to say "it was worth it" in terms of streams at least, is from release radar, and then utterly discover weekly Cuz otherwise u only rely on the streams that u basically "paid for", from the ads, which are worth it ofc, but ideally u wanna trigger a bigger spike Andrew has a great video on "cracking the Spotify algorithm" which gives some good insight and numbers. Personally, I usually spent like $50-$100/song, from which I've got a good push in 2 songs from release radar. One got around 1.5k streams from release radar, and the other one around 6k After also wasting a bunch of money on other songs that did well on the fb side, but no release radar push, I think that each week has a different "weight" for the algorithm to spike, with the very first week having the biggest impact of all by far (release on Fri), then week 2 which right after I get the first big push, then week 3 hopefully with a 2nd release radar push. For my case I've noticed that in order to cause even that small 1.5k push, I needed AT LEAST 200 streams in the 1st week. Then 2nd week is usually higher anyway So yeah if u got 12k u'll ofc trigger release radar & then discover weekly, let alone the direct repetitive listeners from such a huge budget, which from then on takes its journey to millions through all other sources 👌📈

[@karlosmartos4646]

hey andrew, im always wondering 1 thing with budgets this big : If the song ends up perfoming so well with spotify algorithmic playlists, isnt 1000$ enough to push it to this? Because once the algorithm picks it up and likes it, shouldnt it just ride the wave? If you need 12k$ for this, does it mean its impossible with budget of 300-1000$? Im always wondering, because i always thought if the song is great, it keeps generating streams, just like after a campaign

[@GeorgiKrastevMusic]

same question

[@PedrooFerroo]

1k can achieve crazy results but every extra dollar makes it more secure, raises the potential peak of a song, and on top, it makes it go quicker, you cant achieve this in 6 months with a 1k budget, but maybe over 2 years it could happen.

[@AsadKhan-gr7ml]

The more money you put in the more users you are reaching which gives spotify more data to understand what kind of people they can push the song to. Remember the spotify algorithm is all based on numbers so if you are getting a lot more streams per day and as a result more streams in a 28day period you will get a much bigger push on discover weekly, radio and release radar. If you can manage a 15-25c cost per conversion and you have money in the bank you can bet your luck you can have a song blow up on spotify. BUT remember it also depends on the genre. EDM listeners are more passive than rap/pop/rock/indie so they are more likely to play through the whole song instead of skipping. Same goes with lofi.

[@RAPSTAR7LLC]

Thanks for sharing, always great time to watch your video

[@TensePeacock]

I haven't watched the video yet as it just came out a minute ago but I wonder, do such amount of streams translate well in the real world? Do these streams create a real audience that will be present if a show takes place? Do these streams translate into merch sales? Just curious, big fan of your work Andrew!

[@doce.c.1365]

That’s is always or should always be the question with any strategy. I’m interested in that answer as well.

[@Sutidamuskun]

Depends on where you & your listeners are. Ex: I'm in the US, but a lot of my listeners are in Brazil, Mexico, etc. So obv, they are unlikely to ever see me perform (unless I blow up or something). That said, I have shouted out my performances in the past and had fans who previously found my music via ad campaigns say they WOULD come...if they lived in my country lol. So short answer, you are likely to build some dedicated fans, and that may help with selling merch and stuff, but building an audience for live performances will depend on the country. If you want to build live fans, I've found local open mics & artist showcases have worked very well, and they typically land you more live opportunities & fans :]

[@cblanchhiphop]

I feel it’s important to track new followers - they’ll be the ones getting all your new releases on release radar

[@MaPa60]

Yeah, curious about the same. If you advertise, you probably need to run campaigns very specific for the areas where you play. These big campaigns, it's hard to tell if there are true fans behind the numbers. The streaming payouts doesn't really matter, even for a mill streams, but if it works as social proof to pull in ticket buyers, it might be worth a go.

[@karlosmartos4646]

No it wont translate too well because most people listened through radio, meaning they never checked out the artists. Now with this many streams, you still get alot people checking you out though

[@maxtothmusic]

Love your videos, but It would be great if you could link the song, or at least let us know the artist so we can take a listen!

[@iamtheone2000]

just wondering, you always do these facebook adds and playlist push . Do you feel like you have actual fans tho ? that’s my struggle with that whole playlist campaign thing. like yea it’s cool but the monthly listeners really just looks good , how many of those are actually real fans ?

[@Sutidamuskun]

He'll probably reply by saying that this is the purpose of Email lists, social media posts, etc -- Ultimately, ads are to drive people to your music. You could use followers on Spotify & socials as an indicator of fan base, but ultimately, building true fans that care about YOU is going to come down largely to social media, local performances, talking to fans etc. All the non-music stuff. I'd be curious of what Andrew thinks about Instagram/Meta ads for post/reel engagement and/or followers to build a fanbase

[@Malekai43]

This is a good thing to ponder and I feel like this is why ads shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. Organic content is important, hiring a publicist is important, interaction with the people listening, having a good presence on social media, performing live all matters greatly. Otherwise these people may just listen to the song a few times and not care to actually follow up and invest into you as an artist. You gotta do it all to really make it last.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

@Sutidamuskun and @Malekai43 have excellent replies here, this is basically what I was going to say! Just as a clarification though, I don't use Playlist Push and I generally don't recommend it due to the high cost per pitch compared to SubmitHub. It's a legit platform, just expensive for what it does. In terms of the ads generating real fans, that depends on how you define real fans? These ads generate people that listen to music many times and they keep listening after the campaign stops. Additionally it causes in increase in social media followers, KZbin subscribers, Shazams etc. Typically artists get DM's from these listeners as well. But for the most die hard fans that will come from everything else you do to convert someone from first time listen to long term fan. Organic content, consistent releases, email lists, retargeting, sales, touring, PR, etc.... You can get a lot of movement with ads alone but as others have said, ads shouldn't exist in a vacuum. Even Spotify ads specifically shouldn't live in a vacuum, because there are so many other types of ads you can do to serve different objectives.

[@Eddierath]

Thank you Andrew, I've noticed people don't understand the long term Value to their platforms and music this provides.

[@_CYHF]

Smooth with the like 💀

[@AndrewSouthworth]

hahaha thanks! I've been trying to squeeze them in clever ways recently.

[@VishalPawarMusic]

This one is so inspirational huge profits. I hope they gonna crack million dollar mark with this song. I was the same guy who questioned you about spotify profits. I was watching you since last 3 and half years. You tried Facebook ads with video view campaigns after that you did some experiment with traffic campaigns for spotify and finally you cracked the code with conversion ads that's where everyone started noticing you. But this video is huge thing. Congratulations both of you

[@speedcrawlmusic]

this video was super helpful for understanding how to interpret the data

[@speedcrawlmusic]

halfway through and i realized i've had my jaw dropped this entire time 😆

[@basil_kewes]

Thanks

[@ralphquaglia5637]

Hmm what is on everyones mind is probably, how much money does the artist actually get? Especially since it is a cover song. Or are they spending $12000 for followers amd listeners?

[@bjornark]

What would be cool is to calculate if your current ad-spend / cost pr conversion is going to be profitable or not. Helping you make a decision in regards of risk. For example: If I spend 5000 USD on this ad, what is the lowest amount I can get back in streaming royalties in X amount of time.

[@oopsySeason]

1000 streams = $3(roughly) 5000/3 = 1666 1666 x 1000 = 1666000 streams needed to recoupe $5000 ad spend at a $3 per 1000 rate.

[@mightbefire]

Why engagement vs traffic?

[@AlexSaheli]

😊😊🎉

[@oskar2253]

Hey Andrew, I saw a weirdly similar breakdown about a weirdly similar song on the @shufflemedia channel with also a big campaign also about a adele festival remix… is this completely unrelated or the same artist?

[@AlterLoy]

comparing the graphs it's definitely the same artist and song. while both andrew's & shuffle's campaigns have had an amazing performance, one should bear in mind that the explosion in numbers has more to the story than andrew's and shuffle's points of view, since the artist seems to be diversifying in who knows how many campaigns

[@AlterLoy]

in particular, i think knowing this adds more insight to the guess work andrew was doing around 9:36

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Whoa holy crap this is weird. In the video I mentioned we had no idea if they were doing other marketing as well, it seems they were! Although in this case our campaign was much larger. This other channel looks like he spent around $3k or so. Im surprised this other dude didn’t even bother to hide the song like I did. I also find it crazy that he’s claiming he drove 8 million streams for $20 / day. I’m guessing he just assumed he was doing 100% of the marketing.

[@oskar2253]

Yeah and apparently he had a crazy cpc of like 6ct or smth hich i honestly find a little hard to believe... but he shows it...I dont know its all a bit weird ^^ but Im glad to hear you didnt know about it, because he definitely makes it seem like he had inhuman results with his campaign... and is using it to advertise his agency. It just feels a bit fishy.@@AndrewSouthworth

[@chrisfuller6283]

And as of today that song is sitting at 50+ million streams, wild

[@tertlert]

And after all that you earned a total of $226 lmaoo

[@AndrewSouthworth]

In this case about $36,000.

[@ill.anatomy]

Dudes sitting at 70k so far

[@tertlert]

Good luck living off of that for more than a year

[@ill.anatomy]

@@tertlert You're weird dude, so negative, and for what? This dude has now made over $130,000.00 off one song. that's passive income at its finest bud. Not to mention the spill over onto his other songs.

[@AmazingHeroes-xk1pm]

Bruh come on 77 k conversions will not convert into 12 million streams , , you should speak on what you bring to the table , This song has a lot going on

[@AndrewSouthworth]

A BIG part of these ads is how they trigger the algorithm, and the algorithm was spiked pretty hard in this case. I covered that in this video and showed all the stats, nothing was hidden. I've had campaigns with 1500 conversions result in over 700k streams with just ads, nothing else (not even social media content).

[@yourboylb]

What's are some of the worst ad campaigns youve done with a big budget? Like whats the results from a "bad ad"

[@BTAVmusic]

Couple questions…. 1. Was this run to a playlist since the ad creative mentioned the list of artists, and was their song at the very top of the playlist? Additionally, as a edm artist myself should we run ads to a single or a playlist? 2. Did you guys provide this artist with the creative or did they come up with the idea?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Hey man! 1. This was run directly to the song, no playlist. 2. We made the ad creative, we've used this type of ad for similar songs in the past so we tried it for this one and it went well.

[@BTAVmusic]

@@AndrewSouthworth ah so the copy in the ad was something like for those who like x,y, and z artists

[@alizar951]

I really appreciate videos like this

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks!

[@NicholasSosin]

How do you tell how many total streams came from the ads VS the artist bringing organic traffic by promoting on their own socials or playing this song live?

[@BOF303]

you can't

[@wendellvv]

the one thing you can track is where was the link that the person clicked from, it being from instagram, twitter, facebook ads or whatever

[@tokyogamer5825]

just wondering why someone like this wouldnt get any editorial love?

[@benny_bisquits]

Watching a video example of how to get 12 million when I’d be over the moon to get even 50 listeners in a month 😅. Love your stuff Andrew 🙏

[@AndrewSouthworth]

thank you! Everyone starts from 0, and everyone is excited when they get their first 50, 500, 5k, etc. You'll get there!

[@stratonander]

Hi @AndrewSouthworth, could you say what the frequency was in the two adsets over time?

[@Joshualeang]

Legend 12,000 omg😅😅😅😅😅

[@johnnye_music]

Is it worth running ads for a fire song that I posted 5 months ago? Right now I'm doing a facebook ad for it on $2 a day, its preforming well with a $0.07 per click! Should I keep running it or should i stop the ad since the song dropped 5 months ago? Any advice would help!

[@kingmoreorless2810]

Andrew big fan quick question. With the huge amount that you are spending how did you not get add fatigue with only a targeting audience of 3 milliin🤔

[@libbyssubs6938]

Is it possible to have a successful campaign with a budget of like 300

[@kwekupizzargh]

Is it normal to not get any conversions but to be charged a couple cents in the first few hours?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah totally, sometimes you might even have several dollars of ad spend before you get a single conversion. You aren't being charged per conversion. You're being billed every single time your ad shows on someone's screen, whether they watch it, click on it or skip right by it in a fraction of a second. The cost per conversion is just a calculation of how much you've spent so far divided by the number of conversions. When you publish a campaign I wouldn't touch it for 48 hours, just let it run and learn.

[@kwekupizzargh]

@@AndrewSouthworth I’ve had only 5 conversions in about two days with 10,000 reach Is that a bad campaign?

[@cflbillions]

yeah that’s tutf 🔥🔥

[@okko9708]

what’s the minimum budget your agency works with?

[@BOF303]

meta ads 2000$

[@okko9708]

@@BOF303 how do you know?

[@BOF303]

@@okko9708 cuz I'm using them

[@scottmcdaniel4890]

I am new to this- what app is he looking at here?

[@armycastle6245]

Facebook ads manager. Bro

[@orendjohnsonjr]

Do you do mixing and mastering too? I'm an engineer but I don't have much time on my schedule and music quality has a lot to do with music marketing performances.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I do my own mixing and mastering, but I don't provide that as a service. Honestly going forward i'm likely going to start outsourcing the mixing and mastering because I don't have the time to do it all anymore, and songwriting / production is my favorite aspect.

[@orendjohnsonjr]

@@AndrewSouthworth Alright and I appreciate your response.

[@hambonetunes1988]

Based on the math, you should have still made back your money + quite a bit of profit?

[@ill.anatomy]

The song is now at over 20 million streams. Thats $70,000.00

[@KenKuninmusic]

Great work. The million dollar question is roughly what would 12 or 24 million streams equate to in income on that spend?

[@adriendelasalle8981]

12 million streams would probably make around 36K USD. Besides, all the top countries are high paying countries - thanks to Radio - so that might be even higher! That campaign is largely profitable.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

About $36,000. For these countries i'd assume $3,300 or so per 1 million streams. So a super profitable campaign, especially considering the song will double or triple in the next year.

[@KenKuninmusic]

@@AndrewSouthworth That is actually very encouraging. My guess is a little harder had it not been a Adelle cover but still, even if you half that number and in time it keeps growing, that is a hell of a ROI. I would do that non-stop if that was the end result. I'd be curious if the act had a good uptick in merch and touring proceeds if that was something they offered.

[@karlosmartos4646]

​@@KenKuninmusicif you can output one banger after another, you could do this all the time. Thats the problem though, if you next song isnt quite that good, you may end up loosing a few 1000$...

[@ralphquaglia5637]

@AndrewSouthworth yes but it is a cover song. How much does that equate to?

[@scunny]

Has choosing placements menu changed? Im on today and it doesn't look the same

[@AndrewSouthworth]

For some people yeah. They made it super annoying. I don’t have the new placements thing in my ad accounts but some client ones I have access to changed this week.

[@scunny]

@AndrewSouthworth nice one Andrew. I can see you've already uploaded a video on changes, too. You're a machine 😂

[@scunny]

@AndrewSouthworth also my ads finally triggered the Discover Weekly algo: Sunny Achille - 8.5k monthly listeners now 🤝. Highest its ever been.

[@NORBZMUSIC]

Ey I appreciate you being fully transparent with the numbers and budget, most wouldn't dream of it - "I got these organically cause I'm awesome, here's how you can toooo".. :")

[@Hashtommusic]

Just a silly question... ¿You don't like México?

[@karlosmartos4646]

ofc he does. he ran tons of campaigns to mexico in the past. But Mexico is tier 2, meaning spotify isnt paying great for streams there