How To Get 1,000 Monthly Listeners on Spotify for FREE

[@AndrewSouthworth]

🚀 Spotify Growth Machine Course: geni.us/SpotifyGrowthMachine 🏆 Hire us to run your ads: geni.us/ForbidMedia 🌍 Best website / store / funnels for music artists: geni.us/MusicFunnels (get your 14-day FREE trial!) 👥 Fan Growth Machine: geni.us/FanGrowthMachine 🎬 KZbin Growth Machine: geni.us/KZbinGrowthMachine 🧑‍💻 Consultations: geni.us/GSConsulting 📰Join the FREE Music Marketing Monday newsletter here: geni.us/GSNewsletter ⌨ Chat in the community (FREE): geni.us/GSCommunity 🎤 Modern Music Marketing Podcast: geni.us/MMMPodcast

[@johndoe_1984]

The only DMs I get are marketing scammers

[@DRAMABOYTVX]

Im sure you can get them to listen to your tracks

[@johndoe_1984]

@@DRAMABOYTVXhaha yeah next time they say I’m awesome bro I’ll ask them which song they prefer 😂

[@guyrich]

Same here

[@AndrewSouthworth]

haha yeah unfortunately there are a lot of scams in DMs. It does take take before you start getting actual DMs but it does happen over time if you keep up with content and interacting with people. A long term client of mine has been playing with content and the $1.80 strategy for the past 8 months or so and he went from zero to 1,200 followers on IG for free. He now gets a healthy amount of DMs from listeners and other artists in his niche.

[@benny_bisquits]

Haha, I relate so hard. Apparently only beautiful half naked models really vibe to my alternative grunge project 😅

[@librationmusic]

Love your stuff! My biggest challenge is the effort it's taking to find my online niche/community - probably because I'm older (37) but like a new born baby on social media. I'm learning that will probably take more time and soul sucking energy than anything else advised in any music marketing video I've seen. There's so much noise to wade through, at least in this screaming into the void phase I'm in. (28 TikTok followers lets fucking go baby). It's taking me on a journey at least lol

[@Staykool777]

I've watched hundreds of videos on this topic. This is on the best.

[@djlokho]

Thank you for showing daily playlist! Also great you talked about performing locally. Currently in the process of trying to create my first show in my hometown.

[@junelovejoyofficial]

SUPER helpful video. Best I’ve watched about this topic so far!

[@Vilarezz]

Thank you very much for the tips. You have helped me a lot over these months. I'm an Angolan artist making music for 4 years, I'm trying to hit my first 1k on spotify.

[@mrumaleo]

Can you please help me ??

[@larrygiles8556]

Thanks for the info, Andrew. Have you discussed the new Spotify rules and Distributors trying to crack down on playlist bots?

[@trent.langley]

Just found your channel, I’m one of the millions of people looking to get started - I just wanted to say I appreciate your insight and content. Thank you

[@DrFish_original]

Hi Andrew, what's your take on genre consistency? Do you think the algorithm gets confused if I release different genres under one artist? Say techno and downbeat/ambient. As a listener, I don't want a techno track coming after a downbeat track because I listen to music based on my mood. Did you notice in your database of artists you promoted, that there is an advatnage for those who are consistent with their genres vs those who switch it up? Thank you

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I think techno and downbeat / ambient is probably too big of a difference, unless there is some other unifying factor like the same vocalist in all the songs. A pop artist doing an acoustic song followed by an EDM-pop song, and then an R&B song isn't that radical because its the same vocalist and it's all generally popular music. However it would be strange if that pop artist released a metal song or instrumental techno song. I have to imagine the algorithm wouldn't like that, because the listeners probably wouldn't like that. This is why I have my solo project, my alt metal band and my dubstep metal band as separate projects. I met an orchestral cinematic artist recently that had some hip-hop style songs they wanted to release. However they were able to do an amazing job infusing their orchestral cinematic style into these hip-hop fusion tracks in a way I thought would feel pretty natural. It felt like a natural extension of their sound. I felt they should test the waters with this music on their main profile before pivoting to put it somewhere else, because I think fans would still really enjoy it. Another layer to it is that you can change over time. Many artists gradually shift album over album, but their fans grow with them over time so it works out. The algorithms are just following listener behavior so if it would be weird for fans the algorithm won't like it, but if it would make sense for fans or fans will like it the algorithm should be fine with it. Definitely not a scientific firmly right or wrong answer here, but thats my 2 cents!

[@DrFish_original]

Thanks, very interesting@@AndrewSouthworth. A weird thing I noticed is that under "Listeners also like" I see some of my other music projects which are totally different genres. I hope Spotify doesn't assume that only because it's the same spotify for artist account, there is some connection musically. Also I'm wondering how Spotify solves the following recommendation algorithm conflict. Lots of techno lovers also love ambient and chill out. So the collaborative filter is right in recommending ambient to techno lovers BUT the musical genome recommendation algorithm would be totally wrong because musically they are very different. The reason why it's so important to understand the diverse vs homogeneous release strategy is that: Growing two artists costs twice as much as growing just one artists. So releasing songs which are a bit different to the artist's typical genre, could still be better in the long run than creating another alias to release it.

[@OmerHermanOfficial]

Thank you so much for that video. Give a lot of thoughts still difficult to do all of it but thanks.

[@MeYou-Sick]

Great Advice Man. Sick.

[@aaronpeta]

Thanks for the summit! You and Rick and everyone were great. Mind-blowing... So much work to do now.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks so much! Stoked that you enjoyed the summit. It was our first time pulling something like this off and based on the response we're definitely going to continue doing more of them, perhaps every year.

[@The.2DM]

This will be pretty helpful ❤

[@HULTONmusic]

Andrew mate your a legend - when we slowly make it you will get credit 🎉

[@NVRLOSTT]

The content part overwhelms cause l just dont know what to post for content everyday. Should we have content on our page already before we release the song or start the content once the song is out everywhere?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

If you have nothing on there yet, i'd post some stuff ahead of time. However in general post most of your content after your song comes up. Some people talk about these grand elaborate pre-release roll-out strategies but in reality these don't make sense if you don't already have an existing fanbase. I'd stalk 10-20 artists in your niche, small, medium and large. See what they post, how fans interact etc. Pick some types of videos that you'd feel comfortable making and use those as a template to get started. Then over time try out more types of videos and take note of what works and what doesn't.

[@MichaelRyanMusic]

You’re a very appreciated human. I watch your stuff seems like every time I have a question. Would love to work with you in the future.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks so much man I appreciate that!

[@ossico]

I was really surprised to see my song pop up on your screen at 13:30 lol. Thanks for another helpful video!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

haha wow small world! I just opened up hot or not and you were the first song there.

[@basil_kewes]

Thanks hope it works

[@Synthpoptroubadour]

that was a GREAT video! Tons of good advice. Thank you Andrew!

[@PinkSlasherr]

This is so cool when i watch videos about all of this music promotion its all very stressful but this guy really makes me want to conquer the world fr lov u 💘

[@Foxarocious]

Man thanks so much for all this info You're always looking out for artists and producers when it comes to music marketing. It's much appreciated!!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks man I appreciate that!

[@the-ravened]

Just started watching you about to get on Spotify after a decade of performing and releasing very hopeful for the future. Thank you for your great content.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks dude glad you've found this helpful! Good luck with the releases.

[@elephantprog]

Hey Andrew! I'm trying to apply most of the methods you talked about in this video and in the past regarding social media. My question is, are there diminshing returns on posting daily on Instagram/tiktok? Ive been posting daily for about 2 months, and it seems like my reach is going down and not up. Should I keep going or take a break and come back to posting daily?

[@junitoboi6784]

Hey Andrew thanks for the great content. I wanted to know if API conversion actually reduce facebook ad costs ?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It will help Facebook capture more data but it doesn’t actually reduce conversions costs. It can help Facebook learn faster as well. Still work doing for sure, but it really just improves data tracking.

[@DavidAskerMusik]

A lot of great advice here presented in a chill and pleasant way :)

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@yeserguitar]

I’m so glad you know Periphery and Misha. When I watch you stuff it was always useful but I was thinking that it’s for some other genres that are popular. I’m a prog metal artist who shares his own story, and my style is not even close to be a favorite as one would think. But even by giving that example you give me a boost and perspective. Thank you for the info and I’ll apply top to bottom every single step, but with ads included. Cheers!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

There are definitely some difference between genres but i've never seen a genre that can't find a way to grow. Prog metal is a particularly interesting genre marketing wise because often social media isn't as well utilized, collaborations are rare and artists aren't playing the singles game as much. On one hand it might be because thats what prog metal fans want, however it might also be a massive opportunity to apply marketing methods from other genres in a genre that typically doesn't use it. I'd research what other prog artists are doing and see what you can replicate. Just be sure to check large, medium and small prog metal artists. What works for large artists often doesn't apply to small artists and vice versa. Sleep Token is a super interesting example, they got more streams in 2023 than Metallica. And they're a faceless, anonymous prog band that doesn't post on social media. I wouldn't copy what they do, but obviously whatever they did worked.

[@yeserguitar]

@@AndrewSouthworth really great tips here Andrew, thank you! I'll do my research on bands and people online, but I have the biggest question before I do it. Bands. They have a unique name, representing a collective musical(or not) idea and people attach to them easily. I used my own name for the last 3 years for my music, my work and branding. And I have huge doubts that I should continue with this. Do you think it makes any sense to stop branding as a person and create a 1 man band, after pushing the my name 3 years as an artist? Because to regular people Periphery is a band that created "Djent", Dream Theater is a collective virtuoso band and Sleep Token is a rising star band who has the best marketing and ideals. I cannot create that "mystery" because I'm a genuine guy giving a sonic message to the world. People mostly look at me as a guitarist guy tries to share some riffs. I hope I managed to present my reasoning for the question here. And as always, thanks for your time and attention to this topic

[@NavCom209]

What's the best daw for vocals, I've got about 50 great songs cause they just won't stop coming MPC SOFTWARE, Now I want to go back and put words to them and release.... Soulful jazz and gospel?

[@kpec3]

One thing I do sometimes, which is kind of funny but not recommended, is when you see a post, my comment always goes back to a plug. It could be about nuclear war, and I'm like, "that's interesting, and it reminds me of ___" which is one of my songs that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic....😊

[@anythingspossiblemusic]

We are both very similar in that you do youtube videos to help others and I do free playlist pitching and have over 5000 followers but your point on the DM side of things is interesting. I have people constantly begging me to add their tracks to a playlist but they then dont seem to want to help be back by listening to the playlist. I promote the 'teamwork makes the dreamwork' attitude but a lot of people dont want to do that. Do you have similar issues with people not following your facebook ad strategy etc.

[@xlpaskidda1633]

What’s your ig can I get added to your playlist?

[@lindviper8693]

do you think it is better to release singles instead of ep/albums?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

The short answer is yes, the long answer is this video - Should You Release Albums or Singles? kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIu0mY2OpZ2Bgtk

[@iMac802]

This is a really helpful video! This information pertains to my project, as I only have a few listeners right now. Thank you.😊

[@kamdenmcleanmusicc]

Hey Andrew, how long should I wait to see streams show up from a campaign? I have a campaign going right now that on paper looks really good (today my hypeddit conversions are averaging out at like 0.06 a conversion) I only started this campaign 3 days ago, and I’ve spent $60. These results seem too good to be true. The other part is that I’ve only seen 35 streams come in so far. Hypeddit has tracked about 200 clicks. Most of them are from yesterday and today Is this all normal?

[@Bashanvibe]

I’m going to have to follow up on this strategy!!! Tomorrow my band is working on a jazzy Neo Soul remake for Valentines Day!!!

[@rikyrik4638]

The only way works for me is to release EVERY FRIDAY , 300 % growth in 1 year...

[@raspberryarizona]

Yo Andrew off topic here, I enjoy my music a lot and the stuff I make. But mastering, LUFS and whats industry standard is where I get lost. My music is never loud enough when compared to similar artists. Do you do your own mastering? I've thought about online like Landr/emastered.

[@rockfeler.]

Man, that was Gold! Thanks for advices.

[@SFSFartist]

Thank you Andrew, that was very instructive.

[@BigBlueBazooka]

I feel like this is your best free marketing strategies video. Very good stuff

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thank you!

[@johnmajormusic]

Thanks man I've reached 8,000 monthly listeners. I appreciate you

[@savagegreenmusic]

In relation to the content creation, does it have to be a whole song of mine? I made a duet recently and it’s had the best reception of anything I’ve ever posted, so I wanna expand on it, but I’m not sure if it’s the best place to invest my time,

[@LeoKozsanLeoKozsan]

I find it so hard to get people to find my music, thanks for your help❤

[@Edelsaved]

thanks for sharing this

[@LokiBeckonswow]

great video dude, great tips, great resources, many thx

[@BigPFD]

pleeeaaasssee let these tips work lol. It's crushing me to be told my music is fire, but not be able to find an audience or any virality

[@yggdrasilmusic6423]

Thanks for you thoughts, very informative, thumbs up!

[@brendrunkk]

Great video!

[@Lenoire79]

Advice on getting playlist engagement would be great

[@HiFiJi]

Love your educational content and tips Andrew!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thank you!!

[@marvomd]

So now i know that you have a cyberpunk playlist, can i send you one of my tracks?😂😂😂 However really good video and advices

[@MrMorenoMusik]

Thks for sharing all the info time by time. I has been learning a lot from you ….. Thks for all broo 😎🙏🏼🔥

[@MuV_Music]

Do u offer promo for artists

[@5ynkoh]

andrew i have a playlist called indie gems with indie artists i have 1.4k likes on it from ads would it be bad to add big artists and change the name or is it to late and focus on the indie talent its songs of mine and my artists along with other local talent

[@mishi3271]

how do you create 30-50 pieces of content from one song, per month?? so many questions?

[@dceb10]

let's say you have a feature track with a bigger collaborator, and you re-release that track as part of a waterfall release where the old featured track is less than 50% of the new waterfall release. is it true that will trigger the release radar of the fans of the older tracks featured artist?

[@holdenoaks]

Great Tips!

[@TheArmyCompany]

how do you get a known artis thats only getting events in his local area to have more events outside the local area

[@Tinsleymusic]

Thank you!

[@IsabelleGeorgesParis]

Merci

[@tonetweakers]

(like button smashed)

[@Dylantime]

Periphery is my favorite

[@kma997]

I know this is a video about free strategies, but what is the least amount of budget you can invest in Facebook ads for Spotify and still see sum results?

[@kpec3]

Just manually post your music link in comments. Try to do 5-10/day.

[@6xnjaabuisness]

Daily Playist cost something now?

[@ZarisVideo]

I dont know what happened with Facebook ads.. I was using them in 2021 and got many streams and now I cant get Over 100 listeners anymore

[@Thoracius]

It's all just bots clicking ads

[@AndrewSouthworth]

A lot has changed since 2021. Make sure you're using a conversion campaign with a landing page and pixel, and don't target every country in the world, and stick with IG placements. Campaigns can still perform just as good as they did back then, my top 10 campaigns i've run have all been run in the past 12 months. But it seems there is just more than can go wrong nowadays.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

If you do it wrong, it will all just be bots clicking ads.

[@randalmontgomery4595]

When you say "landing page" do you mean your Spotify playlist or your website? PS Very informative vid, thanks so much.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks! By landing page I mean a page you create on sites like Hypeddit, ToneDen, FeatureFM etc.

[@timohara5271]

In your experience, what platforms are good to find communities of bigger artists similar to your style? Facebook or Reddit?

[@djaspor702]

1-Your videos are great for helping new artists, truly, HOWEVER 2-you leave out SO much information (i.e.-when you have done this for a while, you already have x amount of listeners which will help GREATLY the numbers on any new song), that is is stomach turning how much you mislead new artists (who are hoping for tips to help them ) for a few more likes on your you tube channel.....

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m not leaving out anything. This is a video on how to go from zero to 1,000 monthly listeners for free. I have hundreds of other videos covering other topics, and it’s impossible to put everything in every single video. Not sure what the complaint is here?

[@djaspor702]

Sorry for the delayed response. 1-I do thank you for Facebooks ads>playlists pitching, it has helped me for sure, 2-i don't blame you for running a you tube page to make money (i get it), 3-the issue i have, the disserve you are doing to new artists is showing them your numbers without explaining that you have done this for years. Yes, decent/good music and Facebook ads will (IMHO) get almost everyone onto release radar (which is great, truly) BUT you also lead them to believe (or at least do not disclose that it will not) get them onto discover weekly pretty quickly. To do that you need that first few days mass numbers which you need to grow your followers to achieve (that extra 5-10% who will listen to your new song right away is what gets you onto DW). Will Facebook ads/release radar help you grow your followers (yes, again thank you) but until you get that "free" 5-10% on a substantial amount of followers listening (or ask about 100 real life buddies to listen on day 1), the stats you are posting are disingenuous. If i was cynical, i would believe you purposefully admit that info for more views on Facebook. Again, you teaching the value of Facebook ads; will help new artists. You leading them to believe the results are quicker than they actually will be; that can break some people. @@AndrewSouthworth

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I think you're misinterpreting things here. In my video catalog I release specific videos to go over case studies of different sizes and show how not everything always goes as planned. This is because I purposefully try and make it clear that not every campaign will be amazing. The problem is I can't cover every aspect of marketing in every video, because on KZbin I need to optimize for watch time if I want anyone to actually watch my videos. If I didn't focus on clickthrough rate and watch time, you may have never seen any of my videos and may have never learned how to run ads. Overall that early 5-10% of followers listening is great, but not a requirement. Last month I released a video showing a campaign of an artist with less than 100 monthly listeners and less than 100 followers. I also have several side projects i've covered that don't have the benefit that my solo project does with the followers. I think the issue is just that its impossible to cover all of this nuance in every video. If I did the videos would all be 30 minutes long with the same information repeated in each one.

[@djaspor702]

I am not gong to respond again, because this is your channel and I am not trying to hijack it :) With that said, I thought i responded (once) to your last comment (with what my issue is), but am unable to see my response. @@AndrewSouthworth

[@SASQUATCHBROTHERS]

Please take a listen to Sasquatch Sisters

[@Synthpoptroubadour]

nick d releases once a week. he gets a million streams a day

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Sometimes this strategy makes sense, but he doesn’t get a million streams a day BECAUSE he releases every week. He also hasn’t always released once a week his entire journey. He collaborates with other artists, makes amazing content and also releases a lot of music.

[@StargateMax]

Being social is a massive deal breaker for me. :(((

[@christopherharv]

“Just be like a human.” - Andrew Southworth

[@Underworldf636]

Bro at least I don’t have marketing scammers i get a collab 1 per month as producer

[@PreciseDiff]

Nice bro

[@onairrecordings]

👍🏻

[@Tricion]

started like this, and rn at 113k monthly listeners. all done without a single dollar spent on marketing

[@YvngB33fP4tty]

To the person reading this, I pray you become successful

[@UB.S]

How on earth do you create content every day? I barely have ideas for a couple times a month...

[@AndrewSouthworth]

For the most part, there is a lot of repetition. Same video types with multiple songs and parts of songs and hooks. Then you batch create those once a week or a few times a month.

[@UB.S]

@@AndrewSouthworth thanks a lot, Andrew! But I just can't imagine doing 20 pieces of content per song.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I would check out artists in your space and see what they're doing. Find a few formats you feel comfortable making, and then create them in bulk.

[@metalxmetalxmetalxmetalx]

I think this guy is paid by Spotify to promote they’re trash platform which rips of artists .

[@metalxmetalxmetalxmetalx]

Not hating but Spotify is the worse platform .

[@AndrewSouthworth]

This is such a crazy take imo. Why would Spotify, the largest music DSP on the planet, pay me to promote their platform to artists? Are they paying me for all my content or just the videos talking about Spotify? What about the ones where I’m talking bad about Spotify? Spotify isn’t even a profitable company, they’re not secretly bribing content creators to break the law by not disclosing sponsorships. 😂 The reality is that the reason why marketers talk the most about Spotify is they have a 35% market share compared to Apples 15%, Amazons 15% and KZbin musics 10%. Most artists make more from Spotify than any other DSP. It’s that simple.

[@OkaieSaiper369]

​@AndrewSouthworth spotify is the best platform in the world, for me, even if spotify didn't pay me a Penny I would still recommend it course, It delivers grate services for me as an independent artist

[@vxd]

None of this works

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Everything in this video works if you do it right and for long enough. For each of these steps I’ve met at least 10 artists who have used them to grow past 1,000 and in some cases tens or hundreds of thousands. In just one example I know an artist who grew from zero to 200k on Spotify just from the content aspect alone. Then he branched into other things and was able to headline a tour. He does music full time now. In another example I know a band who have done the live show path and it grew enough where it became their full time job. It all works, but it all takes time and a lot of hard work.

[@theheadlessway6739]

So basically you have to lie

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Lie about what?

[@theheadlessway6739]

caring about other artists in order to get ahead

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Definitely not. The interacting with people on socials is only one part of this, but you should genuinely care about what people in your sub-genre are doing - artists and fans. If you don't care about your sub-genre at all, why are you making music in that space? You can of course skip this part and do everything else though if it doesn't sound fun to you. There are a million paths out there and no journey looks like the same for each artist.

[@theheadlessway6739]

​@@AndrewSouthworth I don't make music to fit into any space. Sounds ass backwards to me

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You may not make music specifically to fit in any space, but you almost definitely do fit into a space. It's very unlikely that anyone's music is so unique that it doesn't align with some existing sub-genre or culture. I make the music I want to make. But it naturally falls into alignment with certain existing artists. This is because as artists we're inspired by what musical and life experiences we've already had and we tend to reflect that in our creative outputs.

[@bugsbunny5960]

what a joke, all talk content

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I've worked with well over 2,000 artists 1-on-1, and i've seen this stuff work hundreds of times. My area of expertise is typically ads but i've still had plenty of experience with a lot of this free stuff.

[@LekiddoLobsterLord]

Thanks Andrew, good tips again as ever #PinchyPinchykisskiss 👌🏾👌🏾💋💋 LEKIDDO - Lord of The Lobsters!