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Written by Ramsey Brown
With music streaming services on the rise, scams related to these services are quickly following behind. As an artist trying to grow on streaming platforms, you don't want to fall victim to any of these scams or false promises. Following our research and experience with music promotion, we've listed 5 red flags that you should look out for before hiring a music promo company.
It may be nice to have the comfort of knowing that a promotion service will accept your song. However, this is typically a telltale sign of a music promotion scam. Any legitimate promotion service knows that not all songs will be successful in a promotion campaign.
If a promotion service rejects a certain portion of songs that is submitted to them this is a pleasant sign. There has to be some kind of quality control regarding the songs that a promotion service accepts.
If you are a growing artist, don't let this discourage you from promoting your music. Use it as motivation to create the best music possible. Also, remember that legitimate promotion services typically accept a majority of the song submitted to them.
With the industry becoming so reliant on streaming platforms to access music, fake streams have become a growing concern in the independent music community. This quick fix to higher streaming numbers can be a manipulation to scam young artists out of money through illegitimate listeners.
If you come across a service like 'Real Tidal Streams Cheap', you should be wary. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Unfortunately, services with big claims like these are going to only get you fake plays. The reality is getting that many plays organically will take a lot of effort within the promotion campaign. It will also cost you more than the cheap amount listed.
If you are going to pay money for music promotion, you definitely don't want to be receiving fake plays. You may have a chance of getting away with it, but it will catch up with you in the long run. Streaming platforms like Spotify may take action against your account if you are racking up fake plays on your music. This could range from getting your songs taken down to even being suspended from the platform.
When promoting your music onto popular playlists, you need to be weary of which playlist you are promoting it on. You should be on the lookout for suspicious playlist names, such as 'My Amazing Playlist' or 'The Best Music'.
Another thing to look out for on these bad playlist is the amount of streams on each song. For example, if the playlist has something like 1,000 followers and thousands of streams per month, something is not right. This usually means the playlist is leveraging fake streams, so it seems like it is more popular than it is.
Remember that not every playlist follower will play every song on the playlist every single day. This isn't how legitimate playlists on Spotify work, or how people actually listen to their music.
An excellent skill to have is being able to analyze a playlist to determine whether it is getting legitimate streams. If the top songs on the playlist are getting the most streams, with lesser-known tracks getting fewer streams than the most popular songs, this is a pleasant sign. Also, songs that have been on the playlist for a longer time should obviously have more streams than songs that were just added.
If a video is getting unrealistic feedback on SoundCloud or YouTube, it is most likely the victim of a bad promotion. Organic traffic on either of these platforms will have a certain percentage of negative feedback and engagement within the likes and comments.
If a song has thousands of views and tons of likes with no dislikes, it has likely received fake views and fake likes to make it seem like the video is performing well. While fake views and likes may give the impression of a liked song, most listeners can distinguish a fake audience from a genuine one.
Paying for fake views and likes on YouTube specifically goes against the platforms terms of service policy. If YouTube suspects that you are leveraging fake promotion on your videos, it is only a matter of time before it catches up with your account. There are also much better ways to spend your resources to grow your reach.
To determine whether a promotion service is legitimate and a suitable option for your music, ask them some clarifying questions about their services. If it is hard to get any straightforward answers about that promotion service, it is likely that they are not going to be the right company for you.
A lot of the fake promotion services will use bots to communicate with customers rather than having a real human customer support line. If you have trouble reaching an actual human behind the promotion service, this is a red flag.
If you are looking for an authentic promotion service for your music, Omari MC can offer these services to you. We have promoted music for a wide range of unique artists with varying audiences, and we are confident that we can provide you with strong results for your music.
We promote all different genres of music, and we have worked with many unique genres already. Know that we do not accept every song that is submitted to us for promotion, and we typically refund about 3% of songs submitted to us.
By working with us to promote your music, it will leave you more time to focus on the creative side of your music. Leave all the marketing and promotion to the professionals, that way your music will get the exposure it deserves and you can keep on spending time producing it.
We have different promotion options available for different genres of music and different needs specific to artists. Our partners can buy real Tidal streams along with other popular streaming platforms. We are always available to talk about our promotion service details via live chat on our website, or if you prefer you can schedule a call to speak with us directly!
When your song is ready to go, it's time to start promoting it to potential fans! Omari has the best organic promotion services money can buy. With packages for Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, we will get your music the traffic and attention it deserves! Click below for more information.
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