When it comes to music marketing, more money generally equals more opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win if you don’t have a load of spare cash lying around.
Even though spending more money to market your music can drastically improve the outcome of your campaigns, there are alternative ways to extend your reach as an artist.
So let’s break down a few different options to spread the word about your work if you only have a small amount of money (or even no money) to spend.
Run a limited ad campaign
Just because you don’t have much money doesn’t mean you can’t still run ads to promote your release.
You just have to be thoughtful about how you do it.
Yes, spending more on direct marketing will increase the effectiveness of a campaign, but even $50 or $100 spent in the right way can work wonders.
If I only had $100 to spend on a new release, here’s what I would do:
First, I would run a conversion campaign and target a global list of countries, likely prioritizing Brazil, Mexico, and Chile because I know there are tons of engaged music fans in these countries that I can access for a much lower rate than I can in, say, the US or the UK.
Next, I would keep my targeting open, all the way down to age 13 to capitalize on a lower CPM for my ads right out of the gate.
After that, I would create an artist playlist, something like “This Is Tom DuPree III” and place my new track right at the top of it.
Because I’m operating on a limited budget, I want to make sure there is some way to retain the listeners I find each time I spend money, and because I can’t automatically place my new track at the top of my artist profile, a playlist like this is the best option.
Sure, I could send people directly to the song, but once my budget has run out, I won’t have access to those people anymore because they are far less likely to follow me or my playlist from that destination than they would be had they landed on my profile or my playlist, respectively.
I also don’t have enough money to guarantee an algorithmic pop, so focusing on listener retention is my main priority here.
From there, I’d run my campaign at a set rate for a window of time, something like $10 per day for 10 days, and then set it to expire once it’s done.
If your budget is limited, you want to make every dollar count on a long-term basis, so be thoughtful about these elements to make sure your money pays dividends for you even after your initial budget has been used up.
Make short-form content
If you don’t have money to spend, then you’re going to need to take advantage of your time.
In addition to spending money on a limited ad campaign, if I were operating on a limited release budget, I would plan to make as much content about my song as is humanly possible.
Now, ideally, we should all be doing this anyway, but if you don’t have the capital, then spending time on organic content becomes even more important.
Create three short-form videos per day about your track. Post them to Reels, TikTok, Shorts, and even Snapchat.
Just this alone is 12 shots at the net every single day to promote your song.
Do this for an entire 28-day window while your track is eligible for Release Radar, and you’ve got 336 opportunities to showcase your work to a new audience.
If each video gets 1,000 impressions, that’s 336,000 opportunities to find new fans.
And this doesn’t even include sharing photos, tweets, community posts on YouTube, long-form videos, live streams, or anything else.
Put simply: if you don’t have much money to spend on ads, you’re going to have to spend your time.
Start saving for the next release
Even if you don’t have money to spend on ads, you can always find a few extra bucks for the future.
Without a doubt, I know every single one of us could find an extra $5 per day by cutting expenses somewhere.
Now, I’m not a financial expert, and I would never presume to tell anyone how to spend their money, but if you’re serious about using direct marketing to promote yourself as an artist, then you’ll do what you have to do to make it happen.
Even $5 per day can make a significant difference.
So look for areas to find $5 per day. Is it cutting out that cup of coffee? Canceling Netflix or some other subscription? Dining at home for lunch instead of eating out?
These may seem like small things, but they will quickly add up over time. For example, if you were to buy a small cup of black coffee from Starbucks every single day, you’d spend over $600 per year.
That’s a marketing budget, right there.
The reason this sort of budgeting makes sense is because marketing is far more effective when done at a set amount on a set schedule for an extended period of time rather than stopping and starting with each new release.
Momentum matters.
So find a bit of extra cash wherever you can and put it toward your continued growth as an artist.
Having a sizable marketing budget can certainly make life easier when it comes to promoting your music, but spending a lot of money on ads isn’t the only way to spread the word about your work.
If you don’t have a lot to spend, get creative, put in the time, save your money for the future, and you’ll watch your results continue to improve as you release song after song.
When it comes to music marketing, more money generally equals more opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win if you don’t have a load of spare cash lying around.
Even though spending more money to market your music can drastically improve the outcome of your campaigns, there are alternative ways to extend your reach as an artist.
So let’s break down a few different options to spread the word about your work if you only have a small amount of money (or even no money) to spend.
Run a limited ad campaign
Just because you don’t have much money doesn’t mean you can’t still run ads to promote your release.
You just have to be thoughtful about how you do it.
Yes, spending more on direct marketing will increase the effectiveness of a campaign, but even $50 or $100 spent in the right way can work wonders.
If I only had $100 to spend on a new release, here’s what I would do:
First, I would run a conversion campaign and target a global list of countries, likely prioritizing Brazil, Mexico, and Chile because I know there are tons of engaged music fans in these countries that I can access for a much lower rate than I can in, say, the US or the UK.
Next, I would keep my targeting open, all the way down to age 13 to capitalize on a lower CPM for my ads right out of the gate.
After that, I would create an artist playlist, something like “This Is Tom DuPree III” and place my new track right at the top of it.
Because I’m operating on a limited budget, I want to make sure there is some way to retain the listeners I find each time I spend money, and because I can’t automatically place my new track at the top of my artist profile, a playlist like this is the best option.
Sure, I could send people directly to the song, but once my budget has run out, I won’t have access to those people anymore because they are far less likely to follow me or my playlist from that destination than they would be had they landed on my profile or my playlist, respectively.
I also don’t have enough money to guarantee an algorithmic pop, so focusing on listener retention is my main priority here.
From there, I’d run my campaign at a set rate for a window of time, something like $10 per day for 10 days, and then set it to expire once it’s done.
If your budget is limited, you want to make every dollar count on a long-term basis, so be thoughtful about these elements to make sure your money pays dividends for you even after your initial budget has been used up.
Make short-form content
If you don’t have money to spend, then you’re going to need to take advantage of your time.
In addition to spending money on a limited ad campaign, if I were operating on a limited release budget, I would plan to make as much content about my song as is humanly possible.
Now, ideally, we should all be doing this anyway, but if you don’t have the capital, then spending time on organic content becomes even more important.
Create three short-form videos per day about your track. Post them to Reels, TikTok, Shorts, and even Snapchat.
Just this alone is 12 shots at the net every single day to promote your song.
Do this for an entire 28-day window while your track is eligible for Release Radar, and you’ve got 336 opportunities to showcase your work to a new audience.
If each video gets 1,000 impressions, that’s 336,000 opportunities to find new fans.
And this doesn’t even include sharing photos, tweets, community posts on YouTube, long-form videos, live streams, or anything else.
Put simply: if you don’t have much money to spend on ads, you’re going to have to spend your time.
Start saving for the next release
Even if you don’t have money to spend on ads, you can always find a few extra bucks for the future.
Without a doubt, I know every single one of us could find an extra $5 per day by cutting expenses somewhere.
Now, I’m not a financial expert, and I would never presume to tell anyone how to spend their money, but if you’re serious about using direct marketing to promote yourself as an artist, then you’ll do what you have to do to make it happen.
Even $5 per day can make a significant difference.
So look for areas to find $5 per day. Is it cutting out that cup of coffee? Canceling Netflix or some other subscription? Dining at home for lunch instead of eating out?
These may seem like small things, but they will quickly add up over time. For example, if you were to buy a small cup of black coffee from Starbucks every single day, you’d spend over $600 per year.
That’s a marketing budget, right there.
The reason this sort of budgeting makes sense is because marketing is far more effective when done at a set amount on a set schedule for an extended period of time rather than stopping and starting with each new release.
Momentum matters.
So find a bit of extra cash wherever you can and put it toward your continued growth as an artist.
Having a sizable marketing budget can certainly make life easier when it comes to promoting your music, but spending a lot of money on ads isn’t the only way to spread the word about your work.
If you don’t have a lot to spend, get creative, put in the time, save your money for the future, and you’ll watch your results continue to improve as you release song after song.
When it comes to music marketing, more money generally equals more opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t win if you don’t have a load of spare cash lying around.
Even though spending more money to market your music can drastically improve the outcome of your campaigns, there are alternative ways to extend your reach as an artist.
So let’s break down a few different options to spread the word about your work if you only have a small amount of money (or even no money) to spend.
Run a limited ad campaign
Just because you don’t have much money doesn’t mean you can’t still run ads to promote your release.
You just have to be thoughtful about how you do it.
Yes, spending more on direct marketing will increase the effectiveness of a campaign, but even $50 or $100 spent in the right way can work wonders.
If I only had $100 to spend on a new release, here’s what I would do:
First, I would run a conversion campaign and target a global list of countries, likely prioritizing Brazil, Mexico, and Chile because I know there are tons of engaged music fans in these countries that I can access for a much lower rate than I can in, say, the US or the UK.
Next, I would keep my targeting open, all the way down to age 13 to capitalize on a lower CPM for my ads right out of the gate.
After that, I would create an artist playlist, something like “This Is Tom DuPree III” and place my new track right at the top of it.
Because I’m operating on a limited budget, I want to make sure there is some way to retain the listeners I find each time I spend money, and because I can’t automatically place my new track at the top of my artist profile, a playlist like this is the best option.
Sure, I could send people directly to the song, but once my budget has run out, I won’t have access to those people anymore because they are far less likely to follow me or my playlist from that destination than they would be had they landed on my profile or my playlist, respectively.
I also don’t have enough money to guarantee an algorithmic pop, so focusing on listener retention is my main priority here.
From there, I’d run my campaign at a set rate for a window of time, something like $10 per day for 10 days, and then set it to expire once it’s done.
If your budget is limited, you want to make every dollar count on a long-term basis, so be thoughtful about these elements to make sure your money pays dividends for you even after your initial budget has been used up.
Make short-form content
If you don’t have money to spend, then you’re going to need to take advantage of your time.
In addition to spending money on a limited ad campaign, if I were operating on a limited release budget, I would plan to make as much content about my song as is humanly possible.
Now, ideally, we should all be doing this anyway, but if you don’t have the capital, then spending time on organic content becomes even more important.
Create three short-form videos per day about your track. Post them to Reels, TikTok, Shorts, and even Snapchat.
Just this alone is 12 shots at the net every single day to promote your song.
Do this for an entire 28-day window while your track is eligible for Release Radar, and you’ve got 336 opportunities to showcase your work to a new audience.
If each video gets 1,000 impressions, that’s 336,000 opportunities to find new fans.
And this doesn’t even include sharing photos, tweets, community posts on YouTube, long-form videos, live streams, or anything else.
Put simply: if you don’t have much money to spend on ads, you’re going to have to spend your time.
Start saving for the next release
Even if you don’t have money to spend on ads, you can always find a few extra bucks for the future.
Without a doubt, I know every single one of us could find an extra $5 per day by cutting expenses somewhere.
Now, I’m not a financial expert, and I would never presume to tell anyone how to spend their money, but if you’re serious about using direct marketing to promote yourself as an artist, then you’ll do what you have to do to make it happen.
Even $5 per day can make a significant difference.
So look for areas to find $5 per day. Is it cutting out that cup of coffee? Canceling Netflix or some other subscription? Dining at home for lunch instead of eating out?
These may seem like small things, but they will quickly add up over time. For example, if you were to buy a small cup of black coffee from Starbucks every single day, you’d spend over $600 per year.
That’s a marketing budget, right there.
The reason this sort of budgeting makes sense is because marketing is far more effective when done at a set amount on a set schedule for an extended period of time rather than stopping and starting with each new release.
Momentum matters.
So find a bit of extra cash wherever you can and put it toward your continued growth as an artist.
Having a sizable marketing budget can certainly make life easier when it comes to promoting your music, but spending a lot of money on ads isn’t the only way to spread the word about your work.
If you don’t have a lot to spend, get creative, put in the time, save your money for the future, and you’ll watch your results continue to improve as you release song after song.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.
Whenever you're ready, there are four ways I can help you:
Subscribe to the Newsletter: Join our growing network of artists, creators, and entrepreneurs by receiving The One Thing directly to your inbox every week.
Book a Consultation: Schedule a one-on-one call with me to improve your marketing across paid advertising, social media, and more.
The Spotify Traffic Accelerator: Join the hundreds of artists who have successfully learned to automate their growth on Spotify using paid ads on Instagram.
Become a DuPree X Artist: Hire our team to manage your marketing across streaming platforms and social media so you can focus on what matters most—making music.