I recently discovered something I think every artist should know. First let me clarify: I'm not saying you shouldn't use Groover, as there are plenty of expert curators and influencers there who are passionate about music and offer high-value opportunities for your music. This post is simply to warn you against submitting to "Groover Obsessions" playlists / profiles.

Groover Obsessions playlists are created and managed by the platform itself, spanning almost every genre and vibe out there: Pop, Christian, Gospel, Rock,  Folk, Grunge, Funk, House, K-Pop, and more. 

What's the problem then? Groover places misleading badges on these playlists, such as "Top Curator/Pro" or "Very impactful" and charge 6€ per submission even though most of them provide less than 100 monthly listeners, with many ranging around 10-30. What makes this worse is that you find these playlists very often at the top of search results, which seems to suggest that the platform's algorithm favors its internal low-impact profiles rather than objectively highlighting profiles who actually move the needle for artists.

You can check it out for yourself. For example, search in Spotify a playlist called "Indie Therapy" by Groover Obsessions. If you run it through SubmitHub's playlist checker it shows it provides only 10 monthly listeners.  

This isn't just an isolated case. If you run other playlists under that same Spotify profile through any playlist analytical tool, you'll see there's a clear pattern here. 

The problem is that the only way to identify them is by opening their full profile page and looking at their description, where they disclose that it's a Groover Obsessions playlist. So my advice is to only submit to "Top Curators" on Groover if those profiles belong to independent curators, as indie curators are required to show proof of a real, engaged audience to earn those badges or have a similar earnings per submission. Avoid Groover Obsessions profiles at all costs.

Let me preface this by saying that the cold hard truth is that you HAVE to spend money if you want to be successful in the music industry, UNLESS you are successful on social media. I'm just not convinced otherwise. The real question is HOW do you spend your money? So let me go over how I did this and how I built an engine for growth on my Spotify.

First off let me say that there are three different strategies that people believe is effective in growing your music. Only two of them give long lasting results:

1) Social Media - Reels, TikToks, YTshorts

2) Meta Ads

3) Playlisting

Now I would highly encourage you to post social media content. Use Trial Reels, gather data, if it's unsuccessful, and repost till you find what works. I'll be honest, I am VERY UNSUCCESSFUL with my social media posts. Social Media had almost 0 impact on my music growth, despite having 6.5k followers. But if you blow up, you can create a snowballing viral account that can get your music known very quickly. So don't knock this. I wont' say much else because I am in no place to say how to do this and how effective it can be because all of my videos flop. Unfortunate.

Playlisting is what a lot of "experts" say is the most impactful way to grow your music. Let me just say this upfront, DO NOT do this. Before I get into this let me explain how Spotify works and why playlisting is the number one way to destroy your Spotify account.

Spotify NEEDS data to push your music. It wants to know what type of listener likes your music, which listeners stream it, stream it one week later, then ultimately add it to their library and stream it from their library. It wants to know listener and repeat listener behavior. So you want to find a way to attract cold listeners to your Spotify and see which ones out of the bunch like your music so Spotify can start pushing your music out to that group of people. What does this mean? This means that 1000 people who listen to your song ALL THE WAY THROUGH, save it, then replay it later, is WAY more impactful than 10,000 people who stream your song but never listen to it again. Also those 10k people may not even listen to your song all the way through. Thus playlisting, especially users who use bots, completely destroys your Spotify. The signal that it sends to Spotify is, "this user listened to your song for 30s then skipped it. This song is no good." This also negatively impacts your Track Popularity Score, which ultimately affects your Artist Popularity score. Your goal should be to get as many tracks to 30 popularity score as possible as this is when it starts receiving a strong algorithmic push from Spotify. You can actually see track #10 on my Popularity score screenshot that shows my song "Death of Me" with 80k streams and a 15 popularity score. This is a song from my last project that I used playlisting from Groover and Submithub to get it streams. This song gets very little streams now and has a popularity score of 15 because once it was removed from the playlist, streams and engagement stopped and now the track is pretty much dead. It will take a lot of work and money to recoup all of that. This is what you want to avoid. *Side note, I'm sad because that was actually one of the strongest songs on the project and one of my more successful Social Media vids. Oh well.

So now the question is, how do you get Spotify the data that it needs? Well I used Meta Ads. Honestly it started with Andrew Southworth's videos on YouTube and even me paying for the course he offers (forgot what it's called). I'm sure a lot of you have done this or have heard of it. Very simple to do (watch the free video on YouTube to set it up), but very briefly I'll explain it: Get a landing page for your release, create an engagement campaign and optimize for conversions, create a video or multiple videos with your song playing (I just get stock videos from pexels), send them to your landing page. Now if someone watches your ad, they like the song, they click the link, it takes them to your landing page, then they click on the landing page to get to your song, they had to click through twice before ultimately listening to your song. This shows intent and interest. Then if they like your song, they save it and maybe stream your other stuff. This is the basic gist of it. But I leveled this up thanks to some advice from a good friend of mine who is pretty well established in the music industry. What's the secret sauce? Well let me move to the next paragraph to keep things clean.

Create a Playlist

So what I did is I created a playlist with a very easy to search for term and threw all of my music in there. I paid someone on Fiverr to create an eye catching cover art for the playlist, and I set THAT playlist as the landing page instead of my song. So now the idea is: someone sees my ad, they like the song. The click on the link. It takes them to my landing page. They click the link again. Now it takes them to my PLAYLIST with the song they heard at the number 1 position. They listen to the song. They like it. Now they don't have to look for me. They just either let it autoplay to the next song or they choose a song and listen to another song on my catalog. If they like multiple songs, they may click on my artist name and follow me, etc. Also your other songs get streams too, not just the song you're promoting. Now you are sending Spotify data. "This user likes 3 of this artist's songs. Okay let's find more listeners like him and show one of these 3 songs to that listener." Spotify then begins actively testing your music. You ever check your Spotify for Artists and see random plays from "Mixes" or just see unexplained algorithmic streams or see that you are on a bunch of playlists but you can't see them? Yeah that's Spotify "testing" your song by placing it in a mix or a Spotify generated playlist to see if the listener likes your song. If they do you get a converted listener. Spotify has so much data of listener's profiles, tastes, tendencies, etc. If this is happening, your popularity score will go up. This signal tells Spotify, "People like this song or artist. Let's test it some more." Another test, successful, score goes up, more testing, etc. THIS is how you build a LISTENER base, which is exactly what you want to do.

Now I took this another step. I was creating ad creatives for each release (the best strategy is still to just release a new single every 4-6 weeks). So for example, my first track was No Good At Love. I ran meta ads for 5 weeks and it got to 30 popularity score. Then my second song came out. I ran ads for that second song then put NGAL second on my playlist so that it would still get exposure even though I'm not directly promoting it. If people liked my second song, they would then stream NGAL. But my 4th release, In Another Life, I found was EXTEMELY successful in meta ads. I think my CPC for the other releases was around .7-.8 which is not too good. But for In Another Life it was .3-.4. Literally HALF, which meant DOUBLE the audience. I eventually found that In Another Life was my "WINNER." Now every new release, I do not directly promote it with meta ads. I leave In Another Life at #1 on my Playlist, then my new release is #2. I KNOW people like In Another Life. So I want people to listen to it, then if they like it, they will stream my new song and I found that this was the most effective way to compound my growth.

Now you can see the results. Over 60% of my streams come from the Spotify Algorithm. You can see that just from Radio, I am getting 67k streams a month. That is a 1240% more streams than the playlist that I'm sending people to discover my music (my Emotional Pop playlist). It took 9 months of compounding. In the beginning stage, the playlist will carry you. But as you get more listeners converted, the Spotify algorithm will take over and and do the rest. Also, added tip: If you have the budget, use showcase campaign on each new release to give Spotify some raw data. Target countries that have found your music appealing. For example: US, Brazil, and Germany are my highest % of active listeners. So when a new release drops, I use a showcase campaign to target those 3 countries. Just use the data and target what makes sense. Anyways, the post is getting long so let's end here. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer. Good luck guys!

I keep seeing artists at roughly my level with a board up for a single and I can't work out the mechanics. Every board seems to be owned by a different company, so I don't know if you find the owner of a specific one and email them or go through something that covers a lot at once. Lead time relative to a release date is the other unknown. What was the process for you?

Over the last few months, I had a budget set aside for launching my new EDM project. I very quickly decided that the best use of that money would be to learn the game from the top tier of the EDM industry.

We're not talking some producer with one big remix on Spotify, I've been working with guys directly in the circles of Armin, Garrix, Hardwell, deadmau5, labels like Drumcode, Insomniac, A&Rs that worked for Spinning, etc. For social media I talked to the guy who runs Diplo and The Chainsmoker's socials.

Best investment I could have made, it's like going to EDM Harvard lol.

Point is - if anyone has anyone questions, I'd love to share what I've learnt. Art is about sharing and I think there's so many talented artists that are just missing the right knowledge and direction.

This is all I see on Spotify too, big names only, almost no indie artists. I listen to a lot of Indie artist and are almost never suggested to me. It doesn’t matter if someone listens to you a hundreds time a day. Spotify still won’t suggest it over Sony, Warner, and other big labels, even if your music is better. Spotify doesn’t care at all

I work with music artists on content and ads for a living. One thing keeps coming up.

Artists film themselves from behind. Walking away from camera, back turned, hood up, face out of frame. It happens constantly.

I get why. Face on camera feels exposed. But it's costing you views.

People connect with faces, not backs. A face on screen builds trust faster than any caption. Viewers stop scrolling for a person, not a jacket.

You don't have to overexpose yourself either. Pick a signature look (a haircut, makeup, a mask, whatever fits the art) and stay consistent with it. That becomes your visual hook. People start recognizing you before they even hear the song.

Simple test: next time you post, count how many seconds your face is actually on screen. If it's close to zero, that's probably part of why the video isn't landing.

Curious if anyone here has tested face-on vs face-hidden and what the numbers looked like.

I've noticed on occasion posts in this group or others that will lead with something like "How I went from 0 to 60k listeners - the real truth!!" and it consistently includes AI - whether it be cover art, animations, content in general, or even the music itself.

It's easy to see those kinds of posts at face value and think, "Wow, this person has only been doing this for X amount of time, and they're where I've been struggling to get for years." I'll admit, I'm guilty of feeling that way when I come across these. It's hard not to.

We put blood, sweat, genuine tears, awkward open mics or gigs, and unhealthily late nights into the art of bearing our raw soul in front of the world, only to be confronted by the idea that maybe the music just isn't good, or maybe nobody cares. Then there's Johnny-GPT throwing out cookie-cutter prompt-pop, farming algorithmic radio plays, and bragging about how they're a self-taught marketing genius.

I don't mean to tangent; I wanted to address my progress - the highs and lows in my ~3 years of taking this seriously.

I've been producing music for 9 years now. I started not knowing anything about composition, production, mixing and mastering, or even playing an instrument. Long story short, I learned Wonderwall and joined a band.

After a while, the band peacefully fell apart, and I continued on because I found an intense, genuine love for making music and connecting with people through it.

Late 2023, I released my first song that I felt comfortable calling a "song", if that makes sense. A truly finished, polished, proud-of-it song.

At that same time, I happened to be making unrelated short-form videos on YouTube poking fun at how bad I am at guitar, which gained significant traction very quickly. This translated to people clicking on my links on my channel or watching the lyric video for this song. That, in turn, translated to monthly listeners and engagement on streaming platforms.

Unfortunately, I quickly fell victim to a botted playlist.

One of my worst songs from my still-learning days got put on one of those. I saw the numbers blow up overnight, and not knowing anything about botted playlists, I was beyond stoked. I felt like this was the break I needed to make something of this.

Then I found out what happened, contacted Spotify to be removed ASAP from that playlist, then watched the numbers plummet.

During the time on the botted playlist, my followers jumped from 6 to 97, listeners from ~20 to over 1,000. Afterwards, it all dropped back to exactly where it was.

I felt better knowing what actually happened, but also like I was cheated against my will and put back further behind the goalpost.

I took an objective look at my effort, what I felt I was doing right versus wrong, then tried again.

I amped up my social media presence - consistently posting at least twice a day on Instagram, at least one video daily on YouTube, and at least one new release to streaming platforms every single month.

Constant engagement with anyone who showed any interest, commented, or DM'd me, eventually led to climbing those numbers - slowly but honestly.

I began researching and testing ads through Meta, and eventually finally found a format that worked for me (detailed at the bottom the post). I brought my followers back up to ~100, and monthly listeners peaked around the same amount. Some months would be higher depending on what content I released, but it didn't often dip below 100.

Then, as it does, life got in the way and I no longer had leftover disposable income to put towards running any sort of paid campaigns.

I released my first album, then slowly over time my numbers started declining. I felt the burnout, so I slowed down my release schedule. That also caused my numbers to decline, which admittedly led me to feel inadequate and like I was letting down the few people who showed genuine interest in my art.

I started slacking on social media, became scared to post videos on YouTube anymore out of an inexplicable feeling of shame, and felt like I was back to where I started.

The thing is, I know if I go back to being steady and consistent, maintaining a social presence, then I would slowly make progress again.

I know if I started back up posting the same stupid videos on YouTube, I would welcome back the people who kept coming back the first time.

That's where I'm at now. That's what I need to do.

Not pour my paychecks into ads - I need to interact with people. Play open mics, beg for gigs, connect with the scene, and keep making music.

The hardest thing I've ever done was bring my music in front of a crowd, and I avoided that for as long as I could until I realized that was the only thing I hadn't tried.

I played one open mic a few weeks ago, and as bad as I feel it went, I have never felt truly proud of myself until that moment.

If you're hoping you can make it as a digital artist and hoping you'll never have to play in front of a crowd of strangers, please, please just do it.

You need to take that leap.

-------

I'm sorry for the life-story type post. Here's the actual useful info:

Social Media:

I followed a ton of people who followed similar artists or genres to what I did, and that quickly proved beneficial. I got consistent engagement, "wow this sounds like X artist" comments, and people eventually showing genuine interest. I posted consistently at least twice a day, which led to people being invested in my story and music. I kept that up as much as possible and it continued showing promise. Eventually I fell off, as detailed in the above post, and the progress declined. ,

Ads:

I tested different kinds of ads for a while - Instagram paid ads, YouTube, Meta. I tried visually appealing lyric videos, visualisers, things like that. None of it truly worked that well for me until I tried a different method I was avoiding: putting myself in the videos. I literally just set up some simple lighting: a white screen on my computer monitor, RGB bulbs in my 'studio', and set my phone on my desk and recorded myself singing different parts of this song. I did some minor color grading in the free version of DaVinci Resolve, so it was vibrant and deep, then put some simple text over it, like "SONG NAME - ARTIST /// OUT NOW" or something. For some reason, those videos showed significant engagement. That was also unfortunately the last time I could financially comfortably campaign, so I haven't been able to test it further.

Ici radio associative en place depuis plus de 8 ans, et média sur Groover depuis 2020.

On constate que beaucoup d'artiste veulent notre avis sur leur musique, mais assez peu sont prêt à entendre des remarques négatives du type :

- l'enregistrement n' est pas bon

- la voix mérite un travail supplémentaire

- le titre est brouillon

Du coup, pourquoi demander notre avis si vous ne pouvez/voulez pas entendre ce qu'on a à dire ? 😊

Hi,

I run an account for my local band, and lastly I've unlocked trial reels feature. I've uploaded five so far, and they don't go really well (140 views max) but that's not the issue.

I posted a reel when I am just playing one of my songs, with a bit of introduction to the song etc etc. Usual format. With the "if you liked it, save a reel and share it" CTA.

And this reel somehow gained 18 shares, without any other interactions. 0 likes, 0 comments, 0 saves.

It's nice, but I am confused. What type of person shares the reel, assuming they liked the content, but without any other interactions?

Has anyone ever had something similar? And, what does it mean and what does it says about these reels?

Our band’s account has been posting trial reels 3-5x a day for a week, and we have been getting 300-3000 views for each of the reels, never went viral. But on average every 100 views translate to one new follower, so we get around 80-100 new followers a day. It just happened this week and we don’t know if the new followers are bots.

We have been trying to grow organically for a while it had been really hard. Previously we get maybe 1-2 followers per 1000 view.

Now we basically just post the same 3 videos every day changing a text hook and it still works. We are surprised and don’t know if the new followers are bots. Is there a way to tell if the new followers are bots?

Hi! I’m getting ready to release my first song and I want it to reach people. I want to advertise it for two months before the release so people can presave it. Do you have any courses or books you recommend for music marketing? I want to learn as much as I can so I can promote my music right! And also I want to learn more about personal branding/marketing as a singer of course. I want to learn how I can differentiate myself from other pop singers. Thank youu! <3

I love being able to schedule the videos and have them automatically posted on a certain day, at a certain time. It really helps me to stay more consistent especially with my ADHD being in a way.

However, each time I do it I'm afraid that somehow SM platforms deprioritize the videos I've posted this way. I don't have enough bandwidth to run an experiment on what is going to work better, that's why I'm asking this sub.

Have you guys had any good/bad luck with scheduling on apps like buffer, etc, and does it affect the discovery/performance?

Also, other tips on social media music game now are appreciated!

Best of luck to everyone on their music journey.

Curious about real experiences either hiring an agency to support with all around marketing or targeted campaigns with ads, playlists, social media, etc and what made those experiences great. Extra curious if any marketing professional ever declined to work or asked for better quality production, mix, or matter to start with. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’m Jain Yagi. I’m building a tool for artists’ music marketing campaigns, currently calling it FMH until I reveal the full name.

I’m looking for one finished original song to feature on the homepage and in product demo videos. Something with memorable vocals and a few standout moments. Human-written and performed music only, no AI-generated songs.

In exchange, I’m offering $200 to $300 plus lifetime FMH access, with the exact amount agreed upfront. I’ll also credit you and link to your full song on Spotify from the homepage.

An existing release is welcome. You keep ownership, and we’ll agree in writing on how the song can be used, including short clips in demos, before anything goes live. You should own both the song and recording, or be able to get permission from everyone involved.

For some background, I also built PitchPlus for indie artists, which serves over 1,000 monthly users and gets 10k+ monthly visitors.

Interested? DM me a listening link and a little about your song!

Independent artist needs to build them a team. Not just a whole bunch of people around them, causing distractions everybody around you should have a role

Hi! I’m an EDM, Dark Pop and experimental bass music producer and DJ. I’ve been in the game a while (about 7 years) and I’ve just recently started pushing my visibility more.

I’ve performed some gigs and come into some money (R1500/ $95/ 80 Euros) and I wanna make sure all my earnings get reinvested into my music. I’m unsure where to put this money to ensure I’m actually making a difference and pushing my career forward non-destructively.

My guess is instagram ads or meta ads but I feel like something like label radar or any tool that can get my music heard by people who can push it forward might be good too.

Thanks!

Serious question tho, is it important? Me and my band make some good music (and covers, mostly covers) and it's pretty famous on the internet also but when it comes to concerts and gig, my band says yes but I go with no cuz idk how these work and I don't have the courage and confidence to perform in front of people, so I'm wondering can a band gey famous without any concerts or gigs?

Edit: I have listened to everyone and I realized that how dumb I am,Now I also have agreed to play with my band to play at some random bar on 12 sept and I guess hope everything goes well, finger crossed 🤞

I used Hypeddit years ago purely for ada and I found it really convenient. Money got tight so I ended up cancelling and making my own ada straight from meta. I’m at a busy point in my life where I feel like it would be helpful to take some of the legwork out of running ads again.

Are you a seasoned, experienced professional in the music industry ?

Publishing / label / producer / engineer / promotion

Tell us about yourself this weekend, enlighten us all to your existence ;-)

I took a break from music for a few weeks after facing over a year of constant grueling deadlines and indulged in my hobby of live music photography. It occurred to me that some bands clearly knew what they were doing when playing live and it resulted in great pics that helped hype them up on social media while other performers...not so much. Having good pics of your events is an important tool for marketing and self-promotion, so here are some things to think about. It may seem obvious, but a lot of this is stuff I personally hadn't thought of when I performed live more often, and are things I'd personally keep in mind moving forward.
 
Disclaimer: No, this isn't a stealth ad. I pay for tickets to shows and then shoot bands for free when I need to take a break from music making which is my actual job. I take and edit pictures for fun. I'm not a professional photographer aspiring or otherwise (though I do enjoy "leveling up" my skills and am always trying to learn more). This is literally just stuff I realized might be helpful to those who play live.
 
1) A performance is a performance. I'm personally 100% guilty of being the "music is the most important thing" guy, and dislike the idea of having to be "extra" on stage, but if you stand still the entire time while playing your instrument looking down at your hands or something, don't be surprised when your fans get exactly 1 photo from the entire set. When I'm photographing, I'm constantly snapping in rapid succession and trying to find good angles...generally you shoot hundreds of photos to get like 7 good ones, but if the performer never ever moves or changes facial expressions, you'll have hundreds of the same exact photo. You don't necessarily have to do backflips off an amplifier or something (although if that's what you're about, go for it), but staying frozen in place isn't great for a performance either. Try to find a way to stay true to yourself while finding a happy medium. People came to SEE you, so give them something to see.
 
2) Know where the light is. If you're playing a huge venue, it's much less of an issue since everything is lit up like a film set. Most of us, however, are playing smaller venues which may not have anyone working lights which means where they are is where they'll stay your entire set. If you stand in the shadows, it's incredibly hard to get good shots. Know where the light is, and try to position yourself in it...or at least step into it from time to time. A lot of live music photographers don't shoot with a flash (or it's forbidden by the venue), so being well lit will help you have better shots to repost afterwards. I've been to a tiny venue that only has like 2 lights aimed towards the stage and 1 behind it. When the bass player is the only one standing in the light and everyone else is huddled in the shadows, guess who I'm going to get the most shots of?
 
3) Take a few steps back or to the side when not actively using a mic stand. The bane of live music photographers is having a mic stand in the singer's face for an entire set. This one was less obvious to me as a performer, but the more shows I shot, the more obvious it was who the PR savvy seasoned veterans were. You could actively see guitarists take like 2-3 steps back or to the side (or forward in front of the stand) when they weren't singing and maybe "jam out" a little more (making a face, moving around, doing something that is visually interesting). Even non-instrument-playing singers did this and maybe danced around a little or walked over to their guitarist and grooved with them. Whenever they did that, every photographer snapped away because those were the money shots. Those also tended to be the shots the bands would repost after the show because they looked great. There wasn't a bunch of crap in the way. People really want to be able to see your face.
 
4) Be aware of where the cameras are. This isn't necessarily for everyone, and I'm not saying to play to cameras specifically and ignore the rest of the audience. Not everyone wants to ham a performance up and that's fine, but if someone with a press pass and a nice camera is trying to get nice shots of you, helping them out by positioning yourself well for them will ultimately help you out with your PR when those shots of you looking cool are circulating online.
Edit: See comment below regarding "opening up", as I go more into detail about this.
 
5) Outfits matter. Again, this is something I'm guilty of overlooking. I hated the idea of a "costume", but you don't need to wear some sort of crazy jumpsuit or a dinosaur mask (although, again, if that fits your vibe, go for it). Even if the general look of your act is jeans/t-shirt casual, some thought should be put into what you wear on stage and the general aesthetic of your group should be coordinated to some extent. It should feel at least a little more special than what you'd wear to run errands or go to an office job. Again, that doesn't necessarily mean matching clothing (though it can), but whether your group is all playing towards the same general aesthetic or your all specifically trying to have your own stage identity, thinking about that sort of stuff will make a difference in how your band looks on stage and how they photograph. It's the difference between looking like you're playing a real show as opposed to an open jam night people show up to after work. The bands who are more coordinated visually tend to look cooler and more professional in photos. Feel free to disagree...I'm just going by what I've noticed when I go back over a night worth of shots.
 
Bonus stuff - make sure to credit the photographer if you repost shots and if you want to use it for something else (your own post or a poster or album cover or whatever), make sure to clear it with them first. Just because you're in the photo doesn't mean you own it. The photo to them is like the music is to you. Treating photographers well will encourage them to come to future shows and take more photos which will flood social media with more of your "brand". Also, as always, promoting other people (photographers, other bands) will in turn encourage them to help promote you. Publicly thank the groups you play with and hype them up. And if people post photos of you, don't be too cool to engage. Like, comment, repost, and be appreciative. Think about the experience you'd want if you made a cover track of a song you loved. If the artist took the time to comment, repost, name drop you and link your socials (and maybe even follow you back), and generally made you feel special for taking the time to make something, you'd be a fan for life. Be that person.

I am 100% against ai making music but I find the art side of things a grey area in my head. I did create the art from scratch and just want ai to remove certain things from it so I can do what I described above. In your opinion what do you think?

Question for those with experience, if you hired a marketing firm to help promote your release for 3-6 months, was it worth it? We have talked to two firms pricing between $3-5k for a 6 month campaign with the goal of getting from 50 monthly listeners to 10k. It’s a big investment but if it actually worked that would open a lot of doors. Does anyone have experience with hiring a firm?

Introduction: The 20-Year Hiatus

I studied music technology in college 20 years ago. I made a 7 tracks EP for my final year project, managed to get it consigned in local record stores, and even set up a primitive online shop using manual PayPal buttons. It was a completely DIY CD-R release.

After graduation, life took over. I worked in a major chain record store, in live sound engineering, in music copyrights, in audio/video editing, and in IT/Tech support. I always wanted to keep making music, but once you enter the workforce, finding the time and creative space feels nearly impossible.

When my last employment contract ended, I decided to stop waiting. I dedicated my full focus to finally making music again.

My long-term vision is to establish my own independent record label, using various aliases to release music across completely different genres.

Over the last 10 months, I have been producing tracks and releasing them on streaming platforms. I started with a few re-arrangements of traditional music just to warm up, get back into Logic Pro, and learn its modern functions. I bought a domain, built my website, found a digital distributor. Once the infrastructure was settled, I set out to make a full album, first for streaming, followed by a physical cassette run.

I used to be a physical media collector, and working in a record store developed my habit of buying music I had never heard of, usually just based purely on the cover art or the label. When streaming arrived, it expanded my horizons even further, which was also a core part of my daily workflow when I worked in music copyrights.

Today, due to storage limits, I buy fewer physical products. When I do buy, it is out of gratitude to support independent artists. While hunting for music on Bandcamp, I noticed a thriving cassette scene. I started collecting them, and now it's the chance to release my own music on tape.

Just like I did back in college, I have documented this entire journey as a project report.

The Music: "Oriental Study Beats"

The core concept was to produce an instrumental "Study Beats" album. Instead of relying on the standard hip-hop loops and lo-fi sound. I put oriental software instruments over hip-hop beats.

Study beats are traditionally loop-based and structurally simple. During production, my biggest internal battle was restraining myself. My natural instinct was to add more arrangement layers and expand the compositions. Sometimes I successfully held back; sometimes I gave up and let the musical ideas run themselves.

Because of this hybrid blend, the final result is unusual, it defies clean categorisation. The SubmitHub Genre Checker flagged it as Jazz-Hop, Dub, and even Reggae.

Album Specs:

• Tracklist: 12 titles / 36 minutes total runtime.
• Inspiration: To match the "Study" theme, I drew lyrical and conceptual inspiration from traditional Chinese proverbs, poems, and phrases regarding learning and scholarship.
• Mastering: I mastered a streaming version, and a slightly different version for cassette. I am not a professional mastering engineer; my sole focus was balancing the overall album levels without altering the original mixes.

(Note on identity: Whenever I introduce this project, people instinctively refer to me as a "producer." I still don't know if that feels like the right word. Usually, I just tell people: I make music.)

The Graphics: 3D Modeling & Print Pitfalls

The visual theme features an ancient oriental studying boy, complete with a retro game-style dialogue box at the bottom. I wanted an animatable character so I could easily adjust his postures and shoot scenes from various angles.

[VRoid Studio] ➔ [Blender] ➔ [Canva] ➔ [Digital and Print Layout]

1. Character Modeling (VRoidStudio)

I used VRoidStudio to construct the character. It is entirely free and highly accessible, but it has distinct limitations, specifically, clothing physics can be tricky to make look natural. I sourced custom garments and assets from their official user marketplace, BOOTH.

2. Scene Composition (Blender)

To make posing and environmental control easier, I migrated the character into Blender. I sourced 3D furniture assets online, configured custom multi-point light sources, and captured the final static renders for my digital album and single covers on streaming platforms. I then realised that by utilising VRoid Hub and the AR features on its mobile app, the VRoid character has significant potential promotional value.

3. Digital and Print Layout (Canva)

I used Canva to translate my digital renders into physical print assets (packaging, posters, and display cards). I like Canva as it has a large library, making it perfect for quick digital graphics. However, I was frustrated when using it for physical print preparation:

• Precision: Canva struggles with sub-millimeter layout precision.
• Interface: Once a document accumulates extensive layers, vector shapes, and groups, I spent more time dragging layers around, grouping/ungrouping, and trying to make the right selection than actually designing.

Packaging Decisions & A Layout Mistake:

• The J-Card: I selected a 1-panel J-card design. The front cover, basic album info sits on the inside layout, and the tracklist occupies the spine flap.
• The Design Mistake: I made a layout error on the cassette sticker labels, the printed Chinese text does not vertically align with the song titles on the J-card flap.
• Download Codes: Every cassette includes a unique Bandcamp download code printed on an insert card. I expected the process to mimic a standard Microsoft Excel/Word mail merge, but executing it via Google Sheets and Google Docs proved completely different. I eventually found the right plugin to automate the code merging.
• The Obi Strip: The Obi strip was a late addition. When handling my early handmade paper prototypes, the packaging felt flat. The Obi strip added an immediate premium "collector" feel and gave me dedicated real estate for a short album blurb. The downside: it noticeably increased the manufacturing cost.
• Promotional Assets: I printed a strut card, A3/A4 posters, two types of cassette separators (horizontal and vertical), and a CD separator (for stores that display cassettes on CD shelves). All of them included QR codes linking to streaming services and my website, in the hope that people might give them a try. My early draft featured the studying boy in a different posture. Because of the inherent advantages of a 3D character model, it was fun to experiment with alternatives, but I ultimately used the core album cover art instead. It establishes a consistent impression and provides a direct relationship to the album.

The Budget & Financial Breakdown

It is a limited run of 100 physical copies, selling for approximately US$17 on Bandcamp and in local retail stores.

Approx Expense Allocation:

• Manufacturing: 50%
• Web/Online Services: 30%
• Digital Distribution: 8%
• Software Subscriptions: 10%
• Paid Promotion: 2%

Promotion, Bandcamp, & The Consignment Grind

1. The Digital "Waterfall" Strategy

For the digital release, I used a waterfall strategy across streaming platforms. I manufactured continuous video content—reels and shorts—before and after every single drop. The organic reach was brutally low; almost exclusively close friends and family gave it a listen.

To build an initial footprint, I shared free download codes in the r/Bandcamp community. This successfully generated some downloads and new followers. While it was highly encouraging, none of those free digital downloads converted into physical cassette sales later on.

2. Walking the Pavement: Retail Consignment

Before the physical tapes even arrived from the factory, I printed out a professional physical Press Kit and visited local independent record stores.

Most record stores in my city cater almost exclusively to vinyl collectors. Despite this, the shop owners were incredibly encouraging and supportive. I set the retail price at roughly US$17. Some stores take a standard 20% to 30% consignment cut; incredibly, a few stores agreed to stock it without taking any cut at all.

Conversely, I attempted to reach out to several local artsy boutiques and indie concept stores via their socials. I received no feedback at all.

3. The Summer Rollout & Content Creation

When the factory pallet finally arrived, I filmed an unboxing reel and hit the streets to distribute inventory. Delivering cassettes across the city during a brutally hot, rainy summer was physically exhausting. If I forgot to take photos of the display and storefront, I had to walk all the way back. These images were essential for creating video promotions on Instagram and YouTube.

Having never used Instagram previously, learning the platform mechanics was a steep learning curve. I pushed myself to create dedicated video assets for the release: Reels for Instagram/Facebook and Shorts for YouTube. I made at least one video for each physical store, an unboxing clip, and even a video celebrating my very first physical Bandcamp order.

4. The Meta Ads Experiment

Before reaching out to the record stores to complete this report, I decided to test a brief digital marketing push. I spent roughly US$38 on Meta Ads over a single weekend (Friday, August 15 to Sunday, August 17). I used my cassette unboxing reel as the creative asset and linked it directly to a DIY Linktree-like page.

According to Meta Ads Manager, the campaign achieved the following metrics: * Total Reach: 5,051 users (4,932 on Facebook + 119 on Instagram) * Total Link Clicks: 236 clicks * Cost Per Click (CPC): US$0.16 average

The ROI Post-Mortem

While the cost-per-click was highly efficient and generated strong raw traffic to my landing page, the conversion rate was incredibly low. The campaign resulted in 1 new Bandcamp follower, a few scattered clicks through to my streaming channels, and zero direct sales.

Conclusion: The Final Sales Post-Mortem & Reflections

It has now been 2 months since the cassettes went live on shelves. I recently conducted a follow-up campaign to check in with the store owners on my consignment sales.

The Real-World Sales Ledger:

• Bandcamp Sales: 2 copies sold total (1 to a personal friend, 1 to a completely random local cassette collector).
• Physical Retail Consignment: Out of the stores that replied to my messages, reporting sales ranged between 0 to 2 copies sold per store. Several shops have not replied yet.
• Total Sales: Across all channels, I have moved about 10 copies so far.

The local shop owners have been surprisingly kind and supportive—especially the foreign shop owners, since English is not my native language and given that I am not always great at communication.

Lessons Learned

• The Genre Identity Dilemma: One realisation I cannot get out of my mind involves the album's genre. I am not blaming the audience at all, but the reality is that listeners naturally gravitate toward what they already know and are familiar with. Without a clear genre identity, it becomes significantly harder to pitch and sell to casual listeners.
• The Trend Vibe: Some record store owners directly asked me why I chose cassettes over CDs, expressing a feeling that a CD would sell better and that the trend is kind of gone.
• The "Unwrap and Play" Dilemma: Unlike CDs or vinyl, record stores can't easily unwrap a sealed cassette tape to play it over the shop speakers and then cleanly repackage it for retail sale.
• The QR Code Gap: Even though I included QR codes on all my display materials, it doesn’t mean customers or staff will actually bother to scan and play the music in-store. Moving forward, I am considering gifting each store a free promotional copy specifically for in-store play.
• Shelf Real Estate: Not all indie shops have a dedicated cassette section. Their primary footprint and source of income is almost exclusively vinyl, leaving tapes as a tiny niche on the side.

Playing Live & Redefining "The Dream"

I also realise that playing live would be the absolute best way to move physical cassette stock. When I attend performances as a fan, buying physical media directly from the merchandise table is exactly how I choose to thank and show my gratitude to the artists.

I have been exploring a live performance setup using Loopy Pro on my iPad, and perhaps a hardware controller, but progress has slowed down a bit since I accepted an IT-related part-time job two months ago. Let's see how it goes.

One record store owner asked me if releasing this music was a lifelong dream of mine. I wasn't entirely sure how to answer him.

To me, it would only be a "dream" if I could completely sustain my life on it financially. Releasing or making music is something much more basic and natural. I simply do it because I love doing it. It makes me feel content.