How Much Should You Spend on Music Promotion? The Guide for $0, $250, and $500+ Budgets

A lot of musicians ask me: "I have [this and that budget], what should I do?"

So let's break it down, budget by budget.

Whether you're broke, have some savings, or you're ready to invest seriously, there's a strategy that works for you.

Starting With $0 (Yes, It's Possible)

Playlists:

• Submit to Spotify editorial playlists through Spotify for Artists (free, but a low acceptance rate)
• Find independent curators on Is It a Good Playlist, a free tool to check playlist quality and find curators' contact info
• Browse my free Playlist Promotion directory of hand-picked curators, with the steps to submit to each one
• Search "[your genre] playlist submissions" on Google, Instagram or Spotify. A lot of curators accept free submissions.

Social media:

• Post 3-4 times a week, and edit your videos in CapCut (free)
• Write searchable captions and text on screen instead of relying on hashtags (here's how)
• Create eye-catching visuals with Canva (free version)

Community building:

• Reply to EVERY comment and DM (it costs nothing but time)
• Share your music in Reddit communities (follow the 9:1 rule and give value first)
• Join Discord servers and Facebook groups in your genre
• Collaborate with other artists at your level

The $0 strategy that works: Focus on ONE platform, post consistently, and build relationships with people. In theory, you can grow from 0 to 1,000 engaged fans without spending a cent. It just takes longer.

Working With $250 (The Smart Starter Budget)

This is where things get interesting. $250 can create momentum if you're strategic.

Playlist strategy ($50):

• Submit on SubmitHub
• Send your song to about 15 curators, at around $3 each
• What I'd expect: 5-10 playlist placements and 500-2,000 streams

Instagram ads ($150):

• Run Instagram ads through Meta Ads Manager
• Create a conversion campaign and target one audience in cheaper countries
• Focus on one song and one campaign
• What I'd expect: in my campaigns, each person who tapped the ad and landed on the song cost between 9 and 65 cents. So $150 brings somewhere between 230 and 1,600 people to your song, and 30 to 40% of the people who click usually save it. If enough of them save it, Spotify's algorithmic playlists can give you a small push too.

Tools ($50):

• PlaylistSupply for a month
• Use it to find contact info for playlist curators and bloggers

If you want to play with the numbers for your own budget, my free Meta Ads Budget Planner does the math for you.

Golden Tip: The Playlist Hack That 6X'd My Results

With a low budget, promote an artist playlist instead of a single song.

Why? Because the same ad spend brings about 6X more streams.

Proof from a recent campaign for "Burn":

• 102 listeners → 652 streams
• That's 6.3 streams per listener
• With a single-song campaign, the same 102 people would have brought about 102 streams

The math:

• Song campaign: every person the ad brings plays one song, maybe twice
• Playlist campaign: every person the ad brings plays around 6 songs

Plus, Spotify's algorithm rewards longer listening sessions.

Want a playlist like this working for your music? I build and grow the playlist for you, from the setup and the artwork to the ads.

Investing $500+ (The Growth Accelerator)

With $500 or more, you can run several strategies at the same time.

A professional playlist campaign ($400):

• Playlist Push
• It reaches vetted curators with human listeners
• What I'd expect: 25-50 playlist placements and 5,000-10,000+ streams

Instagram ads ($500):

• $250 of Instagram ads in tier-2 countries
• $250 of Instagram ads in tier-1 countries
• Test 4-8 different ad sets with 15-30 different ads
• What I'd expect: around 4,000 to 8,000 streams from the ads alone

Radio and PR push ($250):

• RadioPromo.io
• It targets internet radio stations around the world
• It builds credibility for future opportunities

And with $1,000 to $1,500 of ad spend, you can get serious traction, even on your first release. From the ads alone I'd expect around 13,000 to 22,000 streams from $1,000, and 24,000 to 35,000 from $1,500. Anything the algorithm adds on top of that is a bonus.

You can see what that looked like for first releases on my case studies page, like an electro house song that passed 135,000 streams from a $500 ad budget. And I broke down the cost of every campaign in what a stream cost me across 9 Meta ads campaigns.

Here's the order that works:

• Smart ads + a playlist campaign = algorithmic playlists
• Add press coverage = social proof
• Use that momentum = faster social media growth

The key is the order. Ads first, playlists second, press third, social last. Each step makes the next one stronger.

The truth about music promotion budgets:

• Money makes what's already working bigger. If your music isn't connecting at $0, throwing money at it won't fix it.
• Start small and test everything. I wasted thousands before I learned this.
• Write down every dollar you spend. Notion (free) is great for logging what works.
• Reinvest your wins. Made $100 from streams? Put it back into promotion.

Your Action Plan

No budget? Pick ONE free strategy and do it every day for 30 days.

$250? Split it between playlists and ads, and write down every result.

$500 or more? Run campaigns at the same time, but keep 20% for testing new strategies.

And if you'd rather have someone spend it for you, I run Meta ads for your song from start to finish.

What separates the artists who make it? Most of the time, the budget matters less than knowing exactly what to do with it.