Summary of "My streaming strategy worked and I didn't like it"

My Streaming Strategy Worked and I Didn’t Like It

Creator: Andrew Hong

Storyline / Overview

Andrew Hong shares his journey of deliberately trying various music promotion strategies on Spotify to grow his audience. Despite gaining hundreds of thousands of new listeners, he reflects on the mixed feelings about the effectiveness and meaningfulness of these tactics. He breaks down the strategies he tried, what worked, what didn’t, and his personal takeaways about music promotion in the streaming era.

Promotional Strategies Tried and Analyzed

Promoting More on Social Media
- Increased posts per release from a few to about 10.
- Focused on creative, non-spammy content like jokes, skits, and music production tips.
- Result: Small impact; only a tiny fraction of viewers clicked through to streams despite large reach.
Asking for Pre-Saves on Spotify
- Used Spotify’s pre-save feature to get listeners to save unreleased music.
- Result: No significant measurable impact on streams or audience growth.
Collaborating with Other Artists
- Joint releases expose each artist to the other’s audience.
- Result: Generally positive; notable success with a yearly collaborative album project with Rob Scallin, which brought a significant influx of listeners.
Contests / Giveaways
- Hosted giveaways of music gear used in recordings, entry via Google form with a question about favorite songs.
- Result: Temporary bump in streams during contest period; unexpectedly valuable for receiving meaningful listener feedback and emotional connection.
Using Spotify’s Pitching Feature
- Submitted tracks to Spotify curators via Spotify for Artists backend for playlist consideration.
- Result: Most effective strategy when successful, leading to hundreds of thousands of new listeners during playlist inclusion. However, playlist placements are unpredictable and temporary boosts don’t usually convert to long-term fans.
Releasing Music More Often
- Shifted to more frequent single releases instead of only albums.
- Result: Provided more opportunities to pitch and appear in release radar, but didn’t guarantee major growth or playlisting.
The Waterfall Technique
- Releasing singles sequentially where each new release includes previous singles, gradually building a larger discography.
- Result: Temporary stream increases on tracks when added to new releases; repeatable but modest impact.

Strategies Considered But Not Pursued

Paid Promotions (Marquees, Ads, etc.)
- Found the economics unfavorable; cost far outweighed streaming revenue.
- Not personally appealing despite potential for reach.
Maintaining Consistency in Genre or Style
- Acknowledged that consistent branding helps audience retention.
- However, Andrew prefers artistic freedom over strict genre consistency.
Changing Music to Be More Playlistable - Making music tailored to trends or specific playlists (e.g., hooks in first 10 seconds). - Not aligned with Andrew’s creative values, so he chose not to do this.

Key Takeaways / Reflections

Platforms Resist Redirecting Attention: Social media platforms like Instagram don’t favor posts that lead users off their app to stream music elsewhere, limiting promotional effectiveness.

Popularity Breeds Easier Promotion: Songs that are already popular require less promotional effort to gain streams; better songs naturally attract more listeners.

Streaming Platforms Are Chaotic and Passive: Growing a following on Spotify is harder than on social media; many listeners stream passively without engaging deeply or following artists.

Playlist Success is Mostly Luck: Getting on a popular playlist can bring a big, but temporary, boost in streams, often without converting casual listeners into fans.

Meaningful Listener Connection is Rare: Despite large streaming numbers, deep engagement with listeners is limited; contests provided rare meaningful feedback.

Promotion Efforts Yield Modest Returns: Most strategies gave small or short-lived boosts; consistent, low-effort promotion combined with making music you love is the sustainable path.

Summary of Results

Monthly listeners grew from approximately 80-100k to a peak of around 350k during active promotion.
Most growth came from playlist placements and collaborations.
Other strategies had small or temporary impacts.
After boosts faded, listener counts returned to baseline.

Final Approach Going Forward

Continue low-lift strategies: pitching to playlists, occasional waterfall releases, and some social media posts.
Focus on making music true to personal artistic vision rather than chasing trends or aggressive promotion.
Recognize that luck plays a large role in success on streaming platforms.