SongLab Deep Cuts Vol. 25: The Stream Trap

There is a number that has become almost dangerously important to independent artists.

STREAMS.

You release a song.

You open Spotify for Artists.

You watch the number climb.

500.

2,000.

10,000.

100,000.

And somewhere along the way, it becomes easy to start believing that the number itself is the goal.

It's not.

The goal is people.

Real people.

People who hear your song and save it.

People who follow you.

People who share it.

People who come to your shows.

People who buy a shirt.

People who send your song to a friend.

People who come back six months later because they still remember how your music made them feel.

That's a fanbase.

And that's worth far more than an inflated streaming number.

THE STREAMING NUMBER CAN LIE

This is where things get dangerous.

There are companies and services that promise artists a certain number of streams, playlist placements, followers, or "guaranteed exposure" in exchange for money.

Spotify is extremely clear about this:

Guaranteed streams and guaranteed playlist placement are red flags.

Spotify says third-party services that guarantee streams or playlist placement in exchange for payment violate its rules. It also warns that some of these services use artificial streams, including automated processes and bots, to inflate numbers.

And here's the part many artists don't realize:

You may not even know it's happening!

You might think you hired a marketing company to promote your song.

You may have no idea what happens after you hand them the track.

Maybe they submit it to playlists.

Maybe those playlists have real listeners.

Maybe they don't.

Maybe the service is using legitimate advertising.

Maybe it's using questionable networks.

Maybe the company itself doesn't fully understand what its downstream partners are doing.

But if artificial activity is ultimately associated with your release, your song is the one attached to the activity.

Spotify says that artificial streams can result in withheld royalties, adjusted public stream counts, removal from playlists, and action against the distributor. In serious cases, the music itself can be removed from Spotify.

DistroKid gives artists the same warning, specifically noting that fraudulent activity can originate from promotional services an artist hired without realizing what those services were actually doing.

That's a pretty expensive lesson to learn after the fact.

BE CAREFUL WITH THE MAGIC NUMBER

If somebody tells you:

"Give us $500, and we'll get you 50,000 streams."

STOP!

If someone says:

"We guarantee playlist placement."

STOP!

If someone says:

"We have a special relationship with Spotify's editorial team and can get you on their playlists."

STOP!

Spotify says artists cannot pay to get onto its official editorial playlists. The legitimate path is pitching through Spotify for Artists, where editors consider unreleased music. Pitching does not guarantee placement.

Apple Music has a similar formal pitching system through Apple Music Connect, where labels and distributors can submit releases to Apple's editorial teams for consideration.

That distinction matters.

There are legitimate ways to spend money to promote music.

There are legitimate advertising campaigns.

There are legitimate publicists.

There are legitimate playlist pitching services that don't guarantee placement.

There are legitimate Spotify promotional tools.

For example, Spotify's Discovery Mode is an official promotional product that can increase the likelihood of selected songs appearing in certain personalized recommendation contexts. It isn't free in the traditional sense: Spotify takes a commission from recording royalties generated in those specific contexts.

That's marketing.

Buying a guaranteed number of streams is something else entirely.

WHAT SHOULD A REAL MARKETING COMPANY BE ABLE TO TELL YOU?

Ask questions.

A lot of them.

Where is my music being promoted?

What are you actually doing with my budget?

Are you running advertising?

Where?

What audiences are you targeting?

Are you pitching to publications?

Which ones?

Are you pitching to independent playlist curators?

Who?

Are placements guaranteed?

What happens if nobody picks up the song?

What percentage of my budget is actually being spent on advertising?

Can I see the campaign results?

What happens after the campaign ends?

And perhaps the most important question:

Are you guaranteeing streams?

If the answer is yes, your antenna should be up.

A reputable marketing company should be able to explain the method, not just promise the result.

Because nobody can honestly guarantee that people are going to fall in love with your song.

THE FANBASE IS THE ASSET

Here's what we think artists should be paying more attention to.

Imagine you have:

7,500 monthly listeners.

But you also have:

5,000 Instagram followers who actually engage with you.

3,000 TikTok followers who regularly interact with your videos.

300 people who come to your shows.

200 people on your email list.

A few hundred people who consistently save and share your music.

People who know your name.

People who know your story.

People who care when you release something new.

That can be far more valuable than having 100,000 monthly listeners who disappear the moment a playlist stops playing your song.

Streaming is a measurement of listening.

It isn't necessarily a measurement of fandom.

And the two are not the same thing.

THE LABEL DOESN'T NEED YOU TO BE FINISHED

This is something artists sometimes misunderstand about record deals.

A label doesn't necessarily need to discover someone who already has millions of streams.

They may be looking for an artist who has something they believe can become much bigger with the right resources behind it.

That's where development matters.

Elah Hale is one example.

She built a devoted online following around her music and was signed to Interscope in 2019. At the time, the story wasn't about having millions of monthly listeners. It was about the fact that people were already responding to what she was creating.

And we've seen this principle play out repeatedly.

Sometimes the artist is early.

Sometimes the numbers are small.

Sometimes the social following is stronger than the streaming numbers.

Sometimes it's the live show.

Sometimes it's the songwriting.

Sometimes it's the visual identity.

Sometimes it's simply the feeling that something is happening.

A label can put fuel on something that's already burning.

But it can't manufacture genuine connection quite as easily.

DON'T CONFUSE REACH WITH IMPACT

This is probably the biggest distinction we can make.

Reach is how many people saw something.

Impact is what happened after they saw it.

Did they remember you?

Did they follow you?

Did they listen again?

Did they share it?

Did they come to the show?

Did they buy something?

Did they tell someone else?

Did they come back for the next release?

That's the beginning of a career.

Not just a stream.

AND YES, THE INDUSTRY IS EXPENSIVE

There is another uncomfortable reality.

Major labels can spend serious money.

They have teams.

Marketing departments.

Publicists.

Radio promotion.

Digital marketing.

Creative departments.

Tour support.

Brand partnerships.

Advertising.

Content.

Playlist pitching.

Relationships.

And access to infrastructure that an independent artist simply doesn't have.

That doesn't mean a label can simply purchase a spot on Spotify's official editorial playlists. It can't. Spotify explicitly says that editorial placement cannot be bought.

But a major campaign can create enormous legitimate momentum around a release.

More people hear about the artist.

More people see the content.

More people encounter the song.

More people attend the shows.

More press gets generated.

More opportunities appear.

And suddenly the artist looks like they're everywhere.

That's the machine.

Independent artists are competing with that machine every day.

So don't beat yourself up because you can't replicate a major label campaign with $1,500.

You probably shouldn't try.

Instead, figure out what you can build.

BUILD SOMETHING THAT CAN'T BE BOUGHT

Your Instagram presence matters.

Your TikTok matters.

Your live show matters.

Your visuals matter.

Your website matters.

Your email list matters.

Your relationships matter.

Your collaborations matter.

Your ability to tell your story matters.

Your ability to create consistently matters.

Your music matters.

And most importantly:

Your relationship with the people who actually care about what you're doing matters.

We've watched artists build audiences for years.

Sometimes it takes five years.

Sometimes ten.

Sometimes longer.

The overnight success story is usually only overnight from the outside.

There was often a lot happening before anybody was paying attention.

And when something really does seem to happen overnight, there's usually a story behind the story.

A viral moment.

A major collaboration.

A large marketing budget.

A preexisting audience.

A sync.

A label machine.

A powerful cosign.

Or some combination of all of it.

That's not meant to discourage you.

It's actually the opposite.

It means you don't need to panic.

THE LONG GAME IS STILL THE GAME

You don't need 100,000 streams tomorrow.

You need the next person to care.

Then another.

Then another.

You need someone to hear your song and think:

"Who is this?"

Then they follow you.

Then they listen again.

Then they send the song to someone else.

Then they come to the show.

Then they bring a friend.

That's how a career starts becoming real.

Not with a number on a dashboard.

With people.

FINAL MUSINGS...

There is nothing wrong with wanting streams.

Streams matter.

Playlisting matters.

Algorithms matter.

Numbers matter.

But don't let the number become the thing you're building.

Build the artist.

Build the world around the artist.

Build the relationship with the audience.

Build the live show.

Build the story.

Build the catalog.

Build the community.

And then use legitimate marketing to help more people discover it.

If someone promises you a shortcut, slow down.

Ask questions.

Ask where the streams are coming from.

Ask what they're actually doing.

Ask for transparency.

Ask what happens if the campaign doesn't work.

And if the answer sounds too good to be true...

Trust your gut.

Because the goal isn't to look like you have a fanbase.

It's to actually have one.

The streams can come.

The playlists can come.

The algorithm can come.

But the thing you should be building first is the one thing nobody can manufacture for you:

People who genuinely care about your music.

Keep creating.

Keep showing up.

Keep learning.

And play the long game.

- SongLab