Luminate’s 2025 year-end report, released in January, noted that 106,000 new songs were uploaded to streaming platforms daily, bringing the total to over 253 million recordings. Of these, 88% were played less than 1,000 times last year, while 120.5 million were listened to ten times or fewer.
That’s the space an indie artist enters with a release schedule, a three-minute audio file and zero dollars to promote it. Their approach to that period represents a full-fledged music marketing strategy built out of limitations. Three tactics could apply just as effectively to a brand launch.
The campaign begins before the final product is ready
Because they lack an advertising budget, an artist can’t afford to do a “cold” release — the song’s drop doesn’t signal the start of the campaign, but the midpoint. Snippets of studio sessions, a single listen-through of a chorus recorded via smartphone, the progressive unveiling of cover art, a poll on which variation to keep — all of that happens weeks ahead of when listeners can actually hear the music. When the song finally becomes available, it already has fans.
Brand launches usually flip this process. Everything remains locked up until the official go-live moment, after which paid media handles the initial push. The musician’s method requires no cash, yet results in a group of fans that arrive with existing knowledge.
One piece, multiple variations
In a recent letter, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said YouTube Shorts reaches an average of 200 billion views per day. With that level of content consumption, the platform doesn’t suffer from low demand for new videos. It’s lacking quality videos to display.
Artists fill that void, knowing they need one song to carry them through a quarter. A track turns into vertical videos of its best 8-second hook, lyric visuals, a live clip, an acoustic rendition, behind-the-scenes footage on the song’s catchiest line. From one production cost, they get dozens of assets. Marketing departments often allocate the same budget to three finished videos and don’t produce anything further.
Paid promotion fixes a cold start; it doesn’t buy reach
This is where the musician mindset differs most from traditional media buying. Early engagement on a song matters to two groups: algorithmic feeds determining whether to expand distribution, and fans determining whether to click. Publicists check streams before booking radio spots. Playlist curators check followers before adding a track. If a song sits at 47 plays, the message is clear — nobody has listened. And that’s where 120.5 million songs sat last year.
So spending comes in early and in small amounts, towards traction rather than scale. That’s why there are music marketing agencies for indie artists that charge starting fees of a few hundred bucks, designed to help a release gain enough interest that algorithms and fans pick it up organically.
Critics have fair grounds to complain. There are bot networks selling metrics that disappear in a week, surges in streams that don’t match actual listening habits, and companies that request social media passwords unnecessarily. Hiring promotion is standard practice. The danger lies in the delivery method. Artist Push uses authentic accounts with real viewing records, spreads views evenly to avoid red flags, and only requires a playlist URL — no login credentials required.
The lesson isn’t that brands should replicate these tactics exactly. It’s that they should rethink what the initial set of views is intended to accomplish.