15 Years of Music Marketing Taught Me This
Photo: Aaron A. Alpert
Why most services fail artists, and what industry pros need to understand about building genuine traction.
Most marketing services sold to indie artists are empty carbs.
That’s not a dig. It’s a pattern I’ve seen repeatedly over the years. Templates, playlists-for-hire, and vague “growth systems” dominate this space. But marketing isn’t about visibility or stream inflation. It’s about building trust and emotional connection with the right people, over time.
Simple rule: avoid any service that you add to a cart and pay for without speaking to a person. These are almost always generic template systems for inflating numbers, not building a tribe. Method matters.
Every campaign, artist, and goal is unique, so each strategy should be too. It takes time to build strong relationships, and the same applies to fan loyalty.
Why Genuine Fans Still Matter More Than Reach
You don’t build loyalty with passive impressions. You build it the same way you do in real life, through consistent emotional resonance.
Viral moments might spike visibility, but they rarely translate to durable connection. Repeat engagement is what moves the needle: 50%+ view time, comments, shares, saves, and direct messages, not just likes and follows.
The growth-hack crowd avoids this truth because it doesn’t scale fast. But long-term commercial success depends on it.
What actually builds momentum? Trust, not traffic. Artists convert when fans believe, and that only happens through intentional storytelling, dialogue, and presence. This is why choosing the right social media manager is clutch.
Don’t Play the Wrong Game
Most artists are told to chase mass appeal. But mass appeal is a trap.
Real growth starts with a Minimum Viable Audience: a small, obsessed group of listeners who engage, support, and spread your work.
Seth Godin says, “People like us do things like this.” If you don’t know who your “people like us” are, the artist isn’t ready for marketing. They’re ready for audience definition.
The right strategy isn’t about hacking attention. It’s about choosing the right game to play, the right attention from the right people...where the artist’s uniqueness provides asymmetric leverage.
Practical Strategy That Works
Artists, agents, and managers have to think less about scale and more about deepening connection with an artist's listeners.
Here’s what actually moves the needle:
Customized systems that align with the artist’s strengths, story, and sonic identity, not just a generic playbook.
Data-informed ad campaigns that are train AI targeting, retargets warm audiences, and convert curiosity into fandom.
Strategic content sequencing that builds a story arc, not just a feed of random posts. If should feel more like a channel than a bulletin board filled with a bunch of calls to action.
Performing live with intention in markets where you can deepen existing traction, not just “touring to tour”. Indies need to hit cities several times a year, not once every few years.
When working with ad buyers or agencies:
Make sure they use or create the artist’s Meta or Google Ad account, not their own. The agency should only be added as an admin.
Demand transparent data access. If they won’t share, walk away.
Insist on one-on-one consultation so the strategy reflects the artist’s brand, not some template they use for all artists with ads of this type.
Avoid any service you pay for by adding to a cart on their website. These are almost always just generic template systems.
Industry professionals should be cautious about agencies that operate through their own ad accounts or restrict access to performance data. These setups often serve the agency, not the artist. They harvest pixel data, obscure ineffective practices, and inflate pricing under the assumption that clients "don't need to know".
Data should stay with the artist. Transparency isn’t optional. This is their business, and you’re here to help them build it the right way.
Tactics That Don’t Go as Far as You Think
Social media isn’t generous with organic reach, even to people already following. However it is free after all. That’s why paid ads that retarget warm engagement are critical to getting seen.
Even reputable playlists rarely convert listeners into fans. They boost streams, but that momentum is often shallow.
PR isn’t what it used to be. For indie artists, it’s rarely worth the cost. Social media and streaming platforms are now the discovery hubs, not blogs and magazines. As ad dollars shifted to platforms like Meta and YouTube, most blogs pivoted to “pay for press” models. These aren’t editorial features, they’re rented space on low-traffic sites. That said, PR still plays a role for larger artists with momentum. But for most indies, it’s not the highest return on spend.
Online courses often package superficial advice as scalable solutions. Some have value, but most can’t differentiate between strategic fundamentals and surface-level tactics. DIY is misleading. Expertise, experience, and delegation of task matter for quality assurance and mental health. No one does it all themselves.
Touring takes effort, but it’s still one of the most effective ways to deepen connection and move product. Repeating markets, not just hitting them once, is how relationships grow.
Work With the River, Not Against It
Music marketing isn’t about brute force. It’s about flow.
Think of the landscape like a river. You can try to build a dam, force something viral, manipulate growth, inflate streams. But dams eventually break.
The better strategy is to dig a channel that nudges the river where it’s already headed. When you work with platform systems, their signals, incentives, and logic, the current does the heavy lifting.
Spotify rewards repeat plays, average stream length, and saves, not just front-loaded spikes.
Meta rewards consistent interaction and average time spent on content, not one-off boosts. Platforms are systems. When you work with them, marketing becomes momentum, not resistance.
Their business models are centered around ads delivery. The longer people are on a platform the more ads they can show. If your artist's content garners this kind of attention consistently, the organic algorithm will reward them.
Ads that perform poorly or lack otherwise professional and customized setup, will be more expensive. This is why choosing the right ads manager is so important.
The Real Difference Between Artists Who “Make It” and Those Who Don’t
It’s not the music.
It’s not the talent.
It’s not even the luck.
It’s the strategy.
How they position their brand
How they engage their audience
How they earn trust before calls to action
How they build systems that grow their ecosystem over time
The 4 Revenue Streams:
The majority of income will come from fans...not followers. And fans require care, consistency, and connection. No fans? No ticket sales. No merch. No crowdfunding.
Live Shows
Merch (sold at live shows, not online)
Crowdfunding
Sync Licensing
Three out of four require strong relationships. Not algorithms. Not playlists. People.
It’s easy to feel pressure to “do something fast,” especially when you’re juggling multiple artists or managing tight timelines. But urgency without clarity almost always leads to wasted spend. Shortcuts are expensive. Strategic patience and a purpose to deliver the most to a niche pays off.
If ya want to talk shop or need help, leave a comment below. I’m always happy to help fellow artists!
Keep rockin’ out!
