June 24, 2025 • 27 mins
Wondering how to grow monthly listeners on Spotify as an independent artist, without gimmicks or burnout? In this episode, I break down my journey from 300 to nearly 3,000 Spotify listeners in just six months using real-world strategies.
Learn why reducing SubmitHub costs led to more playlist features, how extending Facebook ads to three weeks boosted algorithmic reach, and why static images outperformed videos on my socials. I also share the powerful impact of genre consistency in building curator trust and break down my waterfall release strategy across four singles.
You'll also hear about unexpected growth after pausing paid ads and how Amazing Radio’s free rotation helped sustain exposure. Plus, I unpack the truth behind playlist submission gates and whether new followers actually stick around.
If you’ve searched “how to grow your Spotify audience without spending a fortune” or “do playlist gates actually help Spotify follower engagement,” this episode is for you.
Whether you're a bedroom producer or an established artist, this is your roadmap to smarter growth, without sacrificing your creativity or sanity.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Presave 'Darklight' on Spotify
Listen to Marc Matthews on Spotify
Listen to Dystopian Progressive House
Listen to Synthpop & Synthwave Breakthrough
Episode sponsors:
Master your music with confidence - enrol in Pro Home Mastering before the doors close! *If you grab the course using my link, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Ways to connect with Marc:
Radio-ready mixes start here - get the FREE weekly tips
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Marc Matthews (00:00):
In just six months, I 10x'd my Spotify
monthly listeners with a steadyand consistent release schedule.
However, could I improve thisby intentionally building
relationships with radiostations through targeted
outreach?
You're listening to the Insidethe Mix podcast with your host,
mark Matthews.
Welcome to Inside the Mix, yourgo-to podcast for music
(00:22):
creation and production.
Whether you're crafting yourfirst track or refining your
mixing skills, join me each weekfor expert interviews,
practical tutorials and insightsto help you level up your music
and smash it in the musicindustry.
Let's dive in.
Hey folks, and welcome toInside the Mix.
This is part two of my journeyto 10,000 monthly Spotify
(00:46):
listeners.
So, if you haven't listened topart one, go and listen to
episode 85 and then come back tothis episode.
Alternatively, you could justlisten to this episode and then
go back to episode 185.
So, as I mentioned then, mygoal this year 2025, is to reach
10,000 monthly Spotifylisteners, and I started at
about 300.
(01:06):
So this episode is about whatwent well, what didn't go well,
what I've learned since myprevious release and releases,
and what I'm going to do goingforward.
Whether you're an indie artistor producer looking to grow your
audience, build momentum and,importantly, avoid burnout,
there are some key takeaways inthis episode for you and I
almost forgot to mention clickthe link in the episode
(01:29):
description and get free weeklytips to level up your music
production, direct to your inbox, and create that music that is
playlist worthy and radio ready.
So let's do a quick recap fromthe end of episode 185.
And this is what I committed toat the end of that episode.
So in my list here a six-weekrelease cadence, which I've
managed to keep up.
Analyze ad spend impact, whichI've done.
(01:51):
Maintain a waterfall releasestrategy, which I've done.
Expand radio outreach this isabout getting featured on radio
stations and I actually took myfoot off the gas with that if I
ever had my foot on the gas withthat to, to be honest, I
haven't really done a great dealof that.
Continue to submit hub testing,which I've done.
And improve my social mediastrategy, which I think I have
(02:11):
done.
So let's dive into how thatplayed out with my most recent
releases.
Okay, so let's start with mythird release, which is 4-Minute
Warning.
So that was released in March2025.
I've got my list here of notesfrom that.
So SubmitHub Investment so whatI've been doing is I've been
investing up to £50 in SubmitHubto get playlisted.
(02:34):
That's what we do on SubmitHub,right, and £50 got me some
moderate results.
It got me on.
What I'm noticing now is becauseI'm maintaining a particular
genre of music, so it's kind ofmelodic, progressive house with
some trance and old schoolelements in it.
I'm now able to.
(02:55):
I've curated a list ofSubmitHub curators that I can
submit music to, knowing thatthere's a good chance I'm going
to get on their playlist now,which is quite nice.
I've established thatrelationship with them and that
is meaning now I'm getting onsome bigger play playlists
through that consistency, whichis quite good.
The first song I released,waves I was.
It was a stab in the darkreally.
I was throwing mud at a walland seeing what sticks.
But now I'm on the welltechnically the fourth release
when we get to the end of thisepisode.
(03:15):
I've now curated that list ofsubmit hub curators that I can
reach out to, which has enabledme to spend less on my next
release, half-life, which we'llgo into in a minute.
So, in summary, with SubmitHubI'm noticing some success,
getting on some bigger playlistsbut also spending less at the
same time, because I've managedto create a small group of
(03:36):
playlists that I've got a goodchance that I'm going to get
featured by them, which ishelpful.
Then we have Facebook andInstagram ads.
So for my notes here, I ran fortwo weeks.
I ran this for two weeks and Iused a broad targeting.
So there was no targetingwhatsoever in this advert.
I was using the caption and thecopy basically of the ad as the
(04:02):
targeting, and what I find isit takes a bit of time but
gradually it will start goingout to the right people, and I
also switched it to landing pageviews for the objective.
Now that did mean in a lowerROI I was noticing that it was
costing more per click, butultimately what I found was,
over time, once I get beyond thefirst five to seven days, I was
starting to notice that I wasgetting more traction, more
(04:23):
engagement on the ads and alsomy radio plays were going up as
well, which could be linked.
So, yes, I was getting.
It was costing me more perclick, but I was noticing better
results from that.
And in the previous episode,episode 185, I had used targeted
.
If I remember rightly I'll haveto go back and listen to 185
(04:45):
targeted, or rather notretargeting.
I created a look-alike audience.
That's what I was going for andI, a B, compared it against
broad and I found that broad wasbetter.
So that's what I'm gonna rollwith going forward.
If you want to see what thatadvert looked like, I'll put it
on screen now on YouTube so youcan check it out.
But basically I used the.
I used the same format for allof these, albeit I record a
(05:07):
different video and it's just mesaying if you like this, this
and this, then you might likethis.
And then I play a bit of themusic and it's just me walking
in various situations.
I try and get somethinginteresting in the background,
but sometimes I don't.
Sometimes it's just literallyif you like this, this and this,
then you might like this.
And when I say this, this andthis, is usually some
(05:27):
interesting description of thesong, so like a groovy bass line
or maybe somebody a bit moreinterested in that, to be honest
, or something along those lines, not just like if you like
house, progressive house andmelodic house, make it a bit
more interesting, and it seemsto work.
It does seem to work.
I find that you have to give ittwo or three weeks before to
really kick in, and I onlyinvest like five pounds a day in
that, but it does seem to help.
(05:49):
Then we have blog and radiooutreach and I did land on bbc
introducing in the southwestagain haven't quite made it to
bbc introducing the sort of toptier, but who knows but I did
next to no outreach to radiostations.
I don't know what it is.
I need to get on it because Ido have a small list of radio
stations, uh, in the uk,australia, the us and a few in
(06:11):
europe as well, um, that I reachout to or had reached out to
with previous releases, but it'sjust something that just I
don't know what it is.
I need to practice what Ipreach and just not wait for
motivation and just get on anddo it.
But that is something I need toimprove and get featured on
other stations because, yeah, Igot featured on bbc uh, which is
like on a thursday and asaturday, which is great, and
(06:31):
amazing radio as well.
I've got a free account withamazing radio.
So if you don't, if you haven'tgot amazing radio, do go get.
Do go sign up, because with afree account you can submit one
song and it will justcontinuously get playlisted.
I submitted separation.
When did I release that?
At the end of january and everyweek I get an update on when
(06:53):
it's being played and it's inregular circulation on various
shows on amazing radio.
So, um, top tip here, folks, ifyou, if you're not signed up to
amazing radio, get signed upand, at the very least, with the
free account, you can have onesong just on repeat, which is
useful.
You're not signed up to AmazingRadio, get signed up and, at
the very least, with the freeaccount, you can have one song
just on repeat, which is useful.
You're getting out to listenerswithout having to do anything.
I just uploaded it once andthen that was it.
You can then.
(07:14):
I'm not an expert on AmazingRadio by any stretch, but if you
sign up and pay a monthlymembership, you can upload more
music.
Basically, that's the idea andI haven't done that.
I'm just maintaining separationon there, which was my January
release in 2025, and that's justcontinuously churning away and
getting getting played each week.
(07:34):
So one to do now.
With the rest of it goingforward, I really need to pull
my finger out and do some blogradio station outreach.
Then we have social mediastrategy.
So, pre-release social mediastrategy I involved followers
via polls for the artwork.
I wanted to use the artwork forfour minute warning.
I'd already chosen the name,but certainly the artwork for it
(07:56):
, and that worked well.
I like using polls.
I've been using them more andmore specifically on my YouTube
channel as well, because I findit really does help with getting
a bit more engagement and sometraction.
So I was doing that.
In the lead up to it, I wasusing stories a lot, in
particular, with four minutewarning because of the title.
I was able to do like put ajacket potato in the in the
microwave four minute warning.
(08:18):
Or I'm going to preheat my airfryer four minute warning, or
something like that.
Or I'm going to fill mycafeteria with with coffee and
then I'm going to set a fourminute warning, or something
like that.
Or I'm going to um, fill mycafeteria with with coffee and
then I'm going to set a fourminute warning for when it's
ready.
And I was able to use that andand get some engagement via um
stories on on instagram.
It worked quite well in thebuild up to the release.
(08:38):
Then, post release uh, I've gota high volume, low return.
So what I was finding there isI was, I had a, a plan, if you
will, and I was releasing everyday, but I felt like I was just
ticking a box and I thought Ineed to put something out.
I need to put something out, Ineed to put something out.
And it didn't result in burnout, but I got pretty fed up with
it by the end of, because I gofor like a 30 day cycle 15 days
(09:00):
before the release and 50 daysafterwards, and specifically
when you're not seeing a greatdeal of engagement with the,
with the posts, and I'm going toput that down really to the
fact that I was just releasingstuff because I thought I had to
, rather than thinking, actually, this is decent and I should
put this out.
And I was getting disillusionedwith it and I quickly realized,
actually, you know what, nexttime, I'm going to use the
(09:21):
content calendar I've got and Iuse that to track what goes well
and what doesn't in terms ofviews, in terms of likes,
comments and shares and saves,and make a note of what content
works, and then I'm going todouble down on that next time
and get rid of the stuff thatdon't.
For example, going live reallydidn't work for me, probably
(09:42):
because I don't have a bigenough audience on instagram, so
I won't be doing that againanytime soon.
Then with the next release, I'mjust going to double down on
what works and release less interms, or rather post less but
post better in theory, andthat's why I learned a lot from
four minute warding I got.
I got fed up for one of abetter way, putting it to be
(10:03):
honest, with social media andposting.
So for the next release,half-life, which we'll get to in
a minute, I really did doubledown on what worked well rather
than just posting for the sakeof it.
Then we come to listener impact.
So my monthly listeners peakedat 1,300, which was less than
separation.
Now, that could be.
I think you've got to take intoaccount the song.
(10:25):
Maybe the song wasn't that'sgood.
Maybe it just didn't land aswell as separation, for example.
Or was it down to my shift insocial media and putting more
emphasis on that?
Or was it the ad that I ran onFacebook?
Not entirely sure.
Could it be related to thewaterfall release strategy?
Probably not.
I'm still determining whetheror not that is working or paying
(10:48):
dividends.
So if you're not sure what thewaterfall release strategy is, I
do have an episode on this,episode 189.
So go check out episode 189 ifyou want to learn more about the
waterfall release strategy andI use DistroKid for it, but you
can use any distributor.
So, really, the key takeawayfrom this particular release.
(11:08):
So this is four minute warning.
There is a link in the episodedescription if you want to give
it a spin.
Decent performance, but weaksocial media, weak blog, radio
station outreach.
I say weak social media, morealong the lines of burnout, to
be honest.
So it was time to shift focusand that's what I did with
Half-Life.
So let's dig into that one, myfourth release, half-life
(11:29):
dropped in May 2025.
So with that one, my fourthrelease, half-life, dropped in
May 2025.
So with that one SubmitHub, tobegin with, I only invested 20
quid this time and I landed onmore playlists, going back to
what I said right at thebeginning, because I only
reached out to those that I'vebeen successful with previously.
And also, importantly, I keep amental note and I should write
(11:49):
this down because I liketracking things of playlists
that I get some playlisted onwith SubmitHub that I actually
get a return on because thereare playlists.
I find that when you getplaylisted, you may get a
handful of plays right, butthere are some where you do get
a really good ROI in particular.
So I made a note of the onesthat I get a good ROI on and
(12:11):
also I've got a good potentialto get playlisted on.
So that's why I spent less withbetter results.
And I've only been able to dothat, really, because I'm now
four releases in and it'sthey're all the same genre,
whereas before I was releasingsynth pop, I released some some
really some r&b, some house, um,some sort of like synth rock,
(12:34):
all sorts of stuff.
But now I'm focusing on onegenre, ish.
I'm finding that I'm able to.
I'm carving out a space formyself, let's say with, with
these curators, quality overquantity.
With social media.
I posted less.
I still did my 30 days, but Ididn't post every day.
I use stories more now as well.
(12:56):
I like using stories becauseit's more sort of rough and
ready.
You have to think about it somuch, and I really do like
stories.
But what I found with, inparticular with mine, that I was
getting better engagement withpictures, images, than I was
with video.
So that's something that I diddouble down on with this
particular release and I'mprobably going to continue doing
for going forward as well.
(13:16):
So I probably posted almosthalf of what I did before and I
find that I probably had moreengagement.
My followers weren't up a bit.
I'm not.
I'm not bothered about massing,amassing a vast array of
followers, to be honest.
I just want people to be sortof engaging with what I'm
posting, rather than building ahuge bank of followers who don't
(13:37):
necessarily engage with whatI'm posting.
So I'm finding that images seemto be working best for me, and
also stories, so I'm gonna leaninto that even more with my next
release again.
Then we have Facebook ads well,instagram ads as well Facebook
Instagram and I spent fivepounds a day again, but I did it
(13:57):
over three weeks because I'dspent less with SubmitHub and
thought I'd reinvest that intoFacebook ads.
When I say Facebook ads, I meanInstagram as well, but I'll
continue saying Facebook adsjust for the purpose of this.
I didn't know it did notice Igot a lower engagement.
It might have been the videoitself.
To be honest, the video itselfwas just me pointing three times
.
There wasn't really anythingmuch interesting in the
(14:19):
background.
So I think I need to improvethe video quality going forward
and possibly the copy for theadvert.
But what I did notice isbecause previously I'd done two
weeks and now I've gone up tothree weeks.
I've experienced the most radioplays.
I'm approaching 1,000 radioplays per day, which is quite
(14:39):
interesting, and I think it wasover five songs, and the five
songs are going to be if Iremember rightly, it's Waves,
separation, 4 Minute Warning,half-life and Lost and Found,
which is from my EP in 2023.
So I'm seeing that I'm gettingmore and more radio plays each
day and I'm not saying I'mattributing that to doing a
three-week ad, but it could wellbe linked to that.
(15:01):
Now I did get on a pretty bigplaylist as well through
SubmitHub, which obviously isgoing to help, but I'm noticing
that leaving.
I'm going to do this again withthe next release.
I'm going to leave the Facebookad running for three weeks and
maybe even four next time, andjust to see if I see that boost
again with Spotify radio plays,we'll see Waterfall release
(15:21):
strategy, so I'm continuing withthat.
I noticed that there's a nice Iwant to say bump, but it's kind
of like a continued bump, ifyou will A high shelf, if you
will a high shelf, if you willuh, for four minute warning,
which continues to do nicely.
It's not getting as many playsas half-life, but it's
continuing to um get a niceamount of plays, as is
separation.
(15:41):
Waves less, and I might well bedue to the fact that waves is
six and a half minutes whereasthe other ones are sort of three
, three and a half minutes.
Possibly I'm not entirely sure,or it might just be that waves
isn't as good a song as theother three.
But again, continuing with this, I'm going to do the waterfall
strategy for at least one morerelease, probably two more.
At least one more with the nextone, which is going to be
(16:04):
called dark light.
Spoiler alert the next tune isgoing to be called dark light
and I'm working with a singerthat I've worked with in the
past, so keep an eye out forthat one that's going to be out.
I'm aiming for june, the, notthe 13th, june, the 20th or 21st
, whichever, whatever fridaythat is, it's the friday of that
week anyway, so keep an eye outfor that one there.
So that's going to be via therelease strategy, waterfall
(16:26):
release strategy again.
So, still continuing toexperiment with that Proactive
radio outreach.
Again, I did very little on this.
I don't think I did any, to behonest.
You know what.
I even created a press release.
I do this for every release Apress release, a long one, a
short one, a press release packand everything.
(16:46):
I have it all ready to go.
I just never use it.
I just get sidetracked.
I think I release it, I then doall the promote, promo stuff,
which radio outreach is part of,and then I move on to the next
one.
So I really do need to like,sort that out.
I just need to carve out spaceand think, well, I'm going to do
nothing else, but that got on.
Bbc, uh, introducing againwhich is great continuing the
(17:07):
amazing radio rotation ofseparation.
I might switch it out and tryone of the other songs.
I think I might do that as soonas I stop getting rotation on
Amazing Radio with Separation,but I'll continue as is so.
Really, with Radio Outreach, notmuch to speak of other than the
fact that I need to pull myfinger out and do more of it and
then see if that also has animpact on the amount of monthly
(17:28):
well, it's Spotify listeners.
That's what I'm aiming for,isn't it?
So see if that has an impact.
So again, in short, I need topull my finger out and do more
of it.
Now, this is an interesting oneand I should have done this
sooner, but I remember why Ididn't.
It's because I didn't want touse Spotify to log into the
website, but I bit the bulletand I did it, and that is daily
(17:53):
playlists.
So my good friend, r9 Tim Benson, told me, or said I need to get
on that because I have aplaylist of over 100 followers.
So I was like, ok, well, I'llupload it and then I'll use that
and then you have gates on it,basically submission gates, and
the submission gates are tofollow me on Spotify, follow the
playlist and also to save mymost recent release, which is
Half-Life.
Now, as a result of that, it'sshowing promising early results
(18:15):
and it's having a positiveknock-on effect.
So I've got more followers,more saves on Half-Life that
doesn't necessarily mean they'relistening to it, though and
also more followers on theplaylist, but again, doesn't
necessarily mean they're goingto listen to it.
I mean I always listen to myplaylist.
I listen to it every day, um,because I've curated it and it's
music that I like, so I listento it every day, which kind of
(18:36):
makes sense if you're creating aplaylist, right.
What I'm interesting to see isnow that I've got more followers
probably over 100 morefollowers.
To be honest, I've only beendoing about two, possibly three
at this point of recording thison the 1st of June is, with
those extra followers, will Iget more initial plays when the
(18:59):
next single drops?
Because in theory, will I be inmore release radars?
I imagine I will be More radioplays.
So we'll see In my next partthree, the trilogy of my review
and reflection, we'll look atthat and see if it's made any
difference.
But daily playlist really good,really good, I'm finding again,
(19:21):
doesn't necessarily mean peopleare going to listen to the song
that's been saved or they'regoing to listen to my playlist.
But I'm intrigued to see whathappens with regards to having
more followers.
But are they engaged followers,is the question.
So we'll leave that hanging andsee what happens in part three
when we look at the next review.
So here's the biggie growth.
So with half-life at the timeof recording this.
(19:43):
So this is june, the first.
Now I did say right at thebeginning I 10x and I pretty
much have 10x'd.
To be honest, I've gone for 300to just under 3,000 monthly
listeners since the turn of theyear.
So I'm hoping that sort ofcontinues and then I 10x'd again
, which would be nice that putme up to 30,000 by the end of
the year, which would be quitepleasant, but I'll take 10,000.
(20:04):
This is all about me justtrialing what goes well, what
doesn't go well, so I can shareit with you folks listening,
watching this if you're watchingthis on YouTube, and then you
can try something similar orsimilar approaches yourself also
.
Alternatively, going off on abit of a tangent here, it's just
quite good to do likereflection, record it because
getting it down in video or innotes I've got video and notes
(20:25):
here because I'm reading from mynotes it's just quite good to
reflect, so you're notcontinuing to do the stuff that
doesn't work, which I am guiltyof a lot of the time, to be
honest.
So that's why I really likedoing these particular episodes.
But anyway, I digress.
So I got up to just under 3,000monthly listeners at the time
of recording this, which isgreat it has.
(20:45):
I haven't hit the 5,000 targetI wanted for June, so I'm 2,000
short, which is quite a lotreally, but it's significantly
better than the 300 I had at theturn of the year and I'm hoping
that it will continue.
So with my next release, whichis coming out on the.
As I mentioned, there is theweek.
It's either the 20th or the21st of June.
I'm hoping that this I thinkit's the 20th I'm hoping to
(21:10):
continue that steadied growth.
When I look at my listenergrowth or listener performance
over 12 months on Spotify, everytime I have a release you have
that bump, if you will, on thatgraph and I'm seeing that the
volume, the length of time andthe amount of listeners is going
up every time, which is reallyreally cool, which is great to
(21:32):
see.
So what I'm doing appears to beworking.
Now, obviously, you are at themercy of the songs that you
create as well.
So I like to think that this ismy first sort of foray not
first, but it's my first, Iguess.
Yeah, first real in-depth forayand stickability mainstay in
(21:53):
sort of house, melodic house,progressive house and that sort
of sphere of music which I'mreally enjoying.
So I'm going to continue doingthat.
But, in short, biggest Spotifybump came with this particular
release and interestingly, I'vegot my notes here.
I forgot to mention this Inoticed that I had more radio
plays and I had more listenersafter I paused the ad as well.
(22:20):
So around the app for threeweeks and then in the preceding,
um, the proceeding week, rathernot preceding preceding week, I
think that's the right word.
I noticed more listeners, sointeresting.
I've got here my notes,possibly due to the algorithm,
the rebalancing I have no ideawhat I meant by that, but worth
experimenting with further.
(22:40):
I'd like maybe I'll do onerelease where I don't run any
ads and see what happens, andmaybe that time I've spent
refining the ad, creating,creating the ad.
I'll do more on radio outreachbut either way, I haven't quite
hit my goal of 5,000.
In six months I'm up to 3,000,but it's significantly well.
It's 10 times more than what Ihad at the beginning of the year
(23:01):
.
A quick recap so I've got thistitled air quotes results.
So we went from I say we I wentfrom 300 to just under 3,000
monthly listeners.
Now in six months, or justunder six months, I've
maintained a consistent releaseschedule to build momentum
Strategic ad spend possibly, Ithink, influenced Spotify radio
(23:25):
algorithm, quality, focusedcontent, improved engagement.
So I doubled down on what workedand got rid of what didn't work
.
When it came to posting onsocials, waterfall release
strategy model contributed stead, contributed to steady growth.
Juries out on that one, but Iam seeing that the previous
releases are continuouslycontinuing rather to get streams
(23:47):
and listeners and saves, anddirect radio outreach needs to
be improved for exposure andcredibility.
I've got here on my notes.
So basically I just need tohave some form of plan for
targeted outreach.
So when it comes to the thirdreview and reflection episode,
(24:09):
I'm aiming to have something toto report on, something positive
when it comes to radio and blogoutreach.
So while we're on that topic,next steps.
I'm going to explore the timingeffect of pausing ads because
remember, remember I said aboutthat bump that I had in
half-life after pausing the uh,the Strengthen radio station
(24:31):
relationships with consistentoutreach, as I mentioned just
now.
I need to do that.
I need to double down onquality first, social media.
So I'm going to double downreally on I really like stories,
I love stories on social, soI'm going to double down on that
as well.
In particular, reinvest inSubmitHub.
So I say reinvest in SubmitHub.
I'm probably going to continuewith what I've been doing so far
, which is like the 20 pounds,so I'm probably going to invest
(24:54):
less, so maybe I need to removethe word reinvest, but I'm going
to continue to invest in submithub.
I also want to build outanother playlist as well.
So I'm going to build anotherplaylist specifically for sort
of dystopian house music.
So if you do have any musicthat you want to feature on this
playlist, ping me a message oninstagram at inside the mix
(25:15):
podcast and with a link to thatsong, and I'll add it to that
playlist and I'll put a link tothe playlist below as well.
So there we go, folks.
That closes the chapter on parttwo of my journey to 10 000
spotify monthly listeners.
Hopefully it's been of some useto you.
I'd love to know your thoughtstoo.
Send me a message on Instagramat InsideTheMixPodcast.
Alternatively, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, just
(25:37):
leave a comment what you thinkwent well, possibly where I need
to improve or what I couldimprove.
Or maybe you've got tips onwhat I'm doing well and how I
could improve that even further,or maybe tools and techniques
that I should consider as well.
And obviously, if you put it onthe comments on YouTube and
everyone else is going to see it, if you message me on Instagram
, I'll share that as well infuture episodes.
(26:00):
And, of course as well, doclick the link in the episode
description and get those weeklytips direct to your inbox to
level up your music productionas well, folks, and until next
time, stay inspired, keepcreating and don't be afraid to
experiment inside the mix.
In just six months, I 10x'd my Spotify
monthly listeners with a steadyand consistent release schedule.
However, could I improve thisby intentionally building
relationships with radiostations through targeted
outreach?
You're listening to the Insidethe Mix podcast with your host,
mark Matthews.
Welcome to Inside the Mix, yourgo-to podcast for music
(00:22):
creation and production.
Whether you're crafting yourfirst track or refining your
mixing skills, join me each weekfor expert interviews,
practical tutorials and insightsto help you level up your music
and smash it in the musicindustry.
Let's dive in.
Hey folks, and welcome toInside the Mix.
This is part two of my journeyto 10,000 monthly Spotify
(00:46):
listeners.
So, if you haven't listened topart one, go and listen to
episode 85 and then come back tothis episode.
Alternatively, you could justlisten to this episode and then
go back to episode 185.
So, as I mentioned then, mygoal this year 2025, is to reach
10,000 monthly Spotifylisteners, and I started at
about 300.
(01:06):
So this episode is about whatwent well, what didn't go well,
what I've learned since myprevious release and releases,
and what I'm going to do goingforward.
Whether you're an indie artistor producer looking to grow your
audience, build momentum and,importantly, avoid burnout,
there are some key takeaways inthis episode for you and I
almost forgot to mention clickthe link in the episode
(01:29):
description and get free weeklytips to level up your music
production, direct to your inbox, and create that music that is
playlist worthy and radio ready.
So let's do a quick recap fromthe end of episode 185.
And this is what I committed toat the end of that episode.
So in my list here a six-weekrelease cadence, which I've
managed to keep up.
Analyze ad spend impact, whichI've done.
(01:51):
Maintain a waterfall releasestrategy, which I've done.
Expand radio outreach this isabout getting featured on radio
stations and I actually took myfoot off the gas with that if I
ever had my foot on the gas withthat to, to be honest, I
haven't really done a great dealof that.
Continue to submit hub testing,which I've done.
And improve my social mediastrategy, which I think I have
(02:11):
done.
So let's dive into how thatplayed out with my most recent
releases.
Okay, so let's start with mythird release, which is 4-Minute
Warning.
So that was released in March2025.
I've got my list here of notesfrom that.
So SubmitHub Investment so whatI've been doing is I've been
investing up to £50 in SubmitHubto get playlisted.
(02:34):
That's what we do on SubmitHub,right, and £50 got me some
moderate results.
It got me on.
What I'm noticing now is becauseI'm maintaining a particular
genre of music, so it's kind ofmelodic, progressive house with
some trance and old schoolelements in it.
I'm now able to.
(02:55):
I've curated a list ofSubmitHub curators that I can
submit music to, knowing thatthere's a good chance I'm going
to get on their playlist now,which is quite nice.
I've established thatrelationship with them and that
is meaning now I'm getting onsome bigger play playlists
through that consistency, whichis quite good.
The first song I released,waves I was.
It was a stab in the darkreally.
I was throwing mud at a walland seeing what sticks.
But now I'm on the welltechnically the fourth release
when we get to the end of thisepisode.
(03:15):
I've now curated that list ofsubmit hub curators that I can
reach out to, which has enabledme to spend less on my next
release, half-life, which we'llgo into in a minute.
So, in summary, with SubmitHubI'm noticing some success,
getting on some bigger playlistsbut also spending less at the
same time, because I've managedto create a small group of
(03:36):
playlists that I've got a goodchance that I'm going to get
featured by them, which ishelpful.
Then we have Facebook andInstagram ads.
So for my notes here, I ran fortwo weeks.
I ran this for two weeks and Iused a broad targeting.
So there was no targetingwhatsoever in this advert.
I was using the caption and thecopy basically of the ad as the
(04:02):
targeting, and what I find isit takes a bit of time but
gradually it will start goingout to the right people, and I
also switched it to landing pageviews for the objective.
Now that did mean in a lowerROI I was noticing that it was
costing more per click, butultimately what I found was,
over time, once I get beyond thefirst five to seven days, I was
starting to notice that I wasgetting more traction, more
(04:23):
engagement on the ads and alsomy radio plays were going up as
well, which could be linked.
So, yes, I was getting.
It was costing me more perclick, but I was noticing better
results from that.
And in the previous episode,episode 185, I had used targeted
.
If I remember rightly I'll haveto go back and listen to 185
(04:45):
targeted, or rather notretargeting.
I created a look-alike audience.
That's what I was going for andI, a B, compared it against
broad and I found that broad wasbetter.
So that's what I'm gonna rollwith going forward.
If you want to see what thatadvert looked like, I'll put it
on screen now on YouTube so youcan check it out.
But basically I used the.
I used the same format for allof these, albeit I record a
(05:07):
different video and it's just mesaying if you like this, this
and this, then you might likethis.
And then I play a bit of themusic and it's just me walking
in various situations.
I try and get somethinginteresting in the background,
but sometimes I don't.
Sometimes it's just literallyif you like this, this and this,
then you might like this.
And when I say this, this andthis, is usually some
(05:27):
interesting description of thesong, so like a groovy bass line
or maybe somebody a bit moreinterested in that, to be honest
, or something along those lines, not just like if you like
house, progressive house andmelodic house, make it a bit
more interesting, and it seemsto work.
It does seem to work.
I find that you have to give ittwo or three weeks before to
really kick in, and I onlyinvest like five pounds a day in
that, but it does seem to help.
(05:49):
Then we have blog and radiooutreach and I did land on bbc
introducing in the southwestagain haven't quite made it to
bbc introducing the sort of toptier, but who knows but I did
next to no outreach to radiostations.
I don't know what it is.
I need to get on it because Ido have a small list of radio
stations, uh, in the uk,australia, the us and a few in
(06:11):
europe as well, um, that I reachout to or had reached out to
with previous releases, but it'sjust something that just I
don't know what it is.
I need to practice what Ipreach and just not wait for
motivation and just get on anddo it.
But that is something I need toimprove and get featured on
other stations because, yeah, Igot featured on bbc uh, which is
like on a thursday and asaturday, which is great, and
(06:31):
amazing radio as well.
I've got a free account withamazing radio.
So if you don't, if you haven'tgot amazing radio, do go get.
Do go sign up, because with afree account you can submit one
song and it will justcontinuously get playlisted.
I submitted separation.
When did I release that?
At the end of january and everyweek I get an update on when
(06:53):
it's being played and it's inregular circulation on various
shows on amazing radio.
So, um, top tip here, folks, ifyou, if you're not signed up to
amazing radio, get signed upand, at the very least, with the
free account, you can have onesong just on repeat, which is
useful.
You're not signed up to AmazingRadio, get signed up and, at
the very least, with the freeaccount, you can have one song
just on repeat, which is useful.
You're getting out to listenerswithout having to do anything.
I just uploaded it once andthen that was it.
You can then.
(07:14):
I'm not an expert on AmazingRadio by any stretch, but if you
sign up and pay a monthlymembership, you can upload more
music.
Basically, that's the idea andI haven't done that.
I'm just maintaining separationon there, which was my January
release in 2025, and that's justcontinuously churning away and
getting getting played each week.
(07:34):
So one to do now.
With the rest of it goingforward, I really need to pull
my finger out and do some blogradio station outreach.
Then we have social mediastrategy.
So, pre-release social mediastrategy I involved followers
via polls for the artwork.
I wanted to use the artwork forfour minute warning.
I'd already chosen the name,but certainly the artwork for it
(07:56):
, and that worked well.
I like using polls.
I've been using them more andmore specifically on my YouTube
channel as well, because I findit really does help with getting
a bit more engagement and sometraction.
So I was doing that.
In the lead up to it, I wasusing stories a lot, in
particular, with four minutewarning because of the title.
I was able to do like put ajacket potato in the in the
microwave four minute warning.
(08:18):
Or I'm going to preheat my airfryer four minute warning, or
something like that.
Or I'm going to fill mycafeteria with with coffee and
then I'm going to set a fourminute warning, or something
like that.
Or I'm going to um, fill mycafeteria with with coffee and
then I'm going to set a fourminute warning for when it's
ready.
And I was able to use that andand get some engagement via um
stories on on instagram.
It worked quite well in thebuild up to the release.
(08:38):
Then, post release uh, I've gota high volume, low return.
So what I was finding there isI was, I had a, a plan, if you
will, and I was releasing everyday, but I felt like I was just
ticking a box and I thought Ineed to put something out.
I need to put something out, Ineed to put something out.
And it didn't result in burnout, but I got pretty fed up with
it by the end of, because I gofor like a 30 day cycle 15 days
(09:00):
before the release and 50 daysafterwards, and specifically
when you're not seeing a greatdeal of engagement with the,
with the posts, and I'm going toput that down really to the
fact that I was just releasingstuff because I thought I had to
, rather than thinking, actually, this is decent and I should
put this out.
And I was getting disillusionedwith it and I quickly realized,
actually, you know what, nexttime, I'm going to use the
(09:21):
content calendar I've got and Iuse that to track what goes well
and what doesn't in terms ofviews, in terms of likes,
comments and shares and saves,and make a note of what content
works, and then I'm going todouble down on that next time
and get rid of the stuff thatdon't.
For example, going live reallydidn't work for me, probably
(09:42):
because I don't have a bigenough audience on instagram, so
I won't be doing that againanytime soon.
Then with the next release, I'mjust going to double down on
what works and release less interms, or rather post less but
post better in theory, andthat's why I learned a lot from
four minute warding I got.
I got fed up for one of abetter way, putting it to be
(10:03):
honest, with social media andposting.
So for the next release,half-life, which we'll get to in
a minute, I really did doubledown on what worked well rather
than just posting for the sakeof it.
Then we come to listener impact.
So my monthly listeners peakedat 1,300, which was less than
separation.
Now, that could be.
I think you've got to take intoaccount the song.
(10:25):
Maybe the song wasn't that'sgood.
Maybe it just didn't land aswell as separation, for example.
Or was it down to my shift insocial media and putting more
emphasis on that?
Or was it the ad that I ran onFacebook?
Not entirely sure.
Could it be related to thewaterfall release strategy?
Probably not.
I'm still determining whetheror not that is working or paying
(10:48):
dividends.
So if you're not sure what thewaterfall release strategy is, I
do have an episode on this,episode 189.
So go check out episode 189 ifyou want to learn more about the
waterfall release strategy andI use DistroKid for it, but you
can use any distributor.
So, really, the key takeawayfrom this particular release.
(11:08):
So this is four minute warning.
There is a link in the episodedescription if you want to give
it a spin.
Decent performance, but weaksocial media, weak blog, radio
station outreach.
I say weak social media, morealong the lines of burnout, to
be honest.
So it was time to shift focusand that's what I did with
Half-Life.
So let's dig into that one, myfourth release, half-life
(11:29):
dropped in May 2025.
So with that one, my fourthrelease, half-life, dropped in
May 2025.
So with that one SubmitHub, tobegin with, I only invested 20
quid this time and I landed onmore playlists, going back to
what I said right at thebeginning, because I only
reached out to those that I'vebeen successful with previously.
And also, importantly, I keep amental note and I should write
(11:49):
this down because I liketracking things of playlists
that I get some playlisted onwith SubmitHub that I actually
get a return on because thereare playlists.
I find that when you getplaylisted, you may get a
handful of plays right, butthere are some where you do get
a really good ROI in particular.
So I made a note of the onesthat I get a good ROI on and
(12:11):
also I've got a good potentialto get playlisted on.
So that's why I spent less withbetter results.
And I've only been able to dothat, really, because I'm now
four releases in and it'sthey're all the same genre,
whereas before I was releasingsynth pop, I released some some
really some r&b, some house, um,some sort of like synth rock,
(12:34):
all sorts of stuff.
But now I'm focusing on onegenre, ish.
I'm finding that I'm able to.
I'm carving out a space formyself, let's say with, with
these curators, quality overquantity.
With social media.
I posted less.
I still did my 30 days, but Ididn't post every day.
I use stories more now as well.
(12:56):
I like using stories becauseit's more sort of rough and
ready.
You have to think about it somuch, and I really do like
stories.
But what I found with, inparticular with mine, that I was
getting better engagement withpictures, images, than I was
with video.
So that's something that I diddouble down on with this
particular release and I'mprobably going to continue doing
for going forward as well.
(13:16):
So I probably posted almosthalf of what I did before and I
find that I probably had moreengagement.
My followers weren't up a bit.
I'm not.
I'm not bothered about massing,amassing a vast array of
followers, to be honest.
I just want people to be sortof engaging with what I'm
posting, rather than building ahuge bank of followers who don't
(13:37):
necessarily engage with whatI'm posting.
So I'm finding that images seemto be working best for me, and
also stories, so I'm gonna leaninto that even more with my next
release again.
Then we have Facebook ads well,instagram ads as well Facebook
Instagram and I spent fivepounds a day again, but I did it
(13:57):
over three weeks because I'dspent less with SubmitHub and
thought I'd reinvest that intoFacebook ads.
When I say Facebook ads, I meanInstagram as well, but I'll
continue saying Facebook adsjust for the purpose of this.
I didn't know it did notice Igot a lower engagement.
It might have been the videoitself.
To be honest, the video itselfwas just me pointing three times
.
There wasn't really anythingmuch interesting in the
(14:19):
background.
So I think I need to improvethe video quality going forward
and possibly the copy for theadvert.
But what I did notice isbecause previously I'd done two
weeks and now I've gone up tothree weeks.
I've experienced the most radioplays.
I'm approaching 1,000 radioplays per day, which is quite
(14:39):
interesting, and I think it wasover five songs, and the five
songs are going to be if Iremember rightly, it's Waves,
separation, 4 Minute Warning,half-life and Lost and Found,
which is from my EP in 2023.
So I'm seeing that I'm gettingmore and more radio plays each
day and I'm not saying I'mattributing that to doing a
three-week ad, but it could wellbe linked to that.
(15:01):
Now I did get on a pretty bigplaylist as well through
SubmitHub, which obviously isgoing to help, but I'm noticing
that leaving.
I'm going to do this again withthe next release.
I'm going to leave the Facebookad running for three weeks and
maybe even four next time, andjust to see if I see that boost
again with Spotify radio plays,we'll see Waterfall release
(15:21):
strategy, so I'm continuing withthat.
I noticed that there's a nice Iwant to say bump, but it's kind
of like a continued bump, ifyou will A high shelf, if you
will a high shelf, if you willuh, for four minute warning,
which continues to do nicely.
It's not getting as many playsas half-life, but it's
continuing to um get a niceamount of plays, as is
separation.
(15:41):
Waves less, and I might well bedue to the fact that waves is
six and a half minutes whereasthe other ones are sort of three
, three and a half minutes.
Possibly I'm not entirely sure,or it might just be that waves
isn't as good a song as theother three.
But again, continuing with this, I'm going to do the waterfall
strategy for at least one morerelease, probably two more.
At least one more with the nextone, which is going to be
(16:04):
called dark light.
Spoiler alert the next tune isgoing to be called dark light
and I'm working with a singerthat I've worked with in the
past, so keep an eye out forthat one that's going to be out.
I'm aiming for june, the, notthe 13th, june, the 20th or 21st
, whichever, whatever fridaythat is, it's the friday of that
week anyway, so keep an eye outfor that one there.
So that's going to be via therelease strategy, waterfall
(16:26):
release strategy again.
So, still continuing toexperiment with that Proactive
radio outreach.
Again, I did very little on this.
I don't think I did any, to behonest.
You know what.
I even created a press release.
I do this for every release Apress release, a long one, a
short one, a press release packand everything.
(16:46):
I have it all ready to go.
I just never use it.
I just get sidetracked.
I think I release it, I then doall the promote, promo stuff,
which radio outreach is part of,and then I move on to the next
one.
So I really do need to like,sort that out.
I just need to carve out spaceand think, well, I'm going to do
nothing else, but that got on.
Bbc, uh, introducing againwhich is great continuing the
(17:07):
amazing radio rotation ofseparation.
I might switch it out and tryone of the other songs.
I think I might do that as soonas I stop getting rotation on
Amazing Radio with Separation,but I'll continue as is so.
Really, with Radio Outreach, notmuch to speak of other than the
fact that I need to pull myfinger out and do more of it and
then see if that also has animpact on the amount of monthly
(17:28):
well, it's Spotify listeners.
That's what I'm aiming for,isn't it?
So see if that has an impact.
So again, in short, I need topull my finger out and do more
of it.
Now, this is an interesting oneand I should have done this
sooner, but I remember why Ididn't.
It's because I didn't want touse Spotify to log into the
website, but I bit the bulletand I did it, and that is daily
(17:53):
playlists.
So my good friend, r9 Tim Benson, told me, or said I need to get
on that because I have aplaylist of over 100 followers.
So I was like, ok, well, I'llupload it and then I'll use that
and then you have gates on it,basically submission gates, and
the submission gates are tofollow me on Spotify, follow the
playlist and also to save mymost recent release, which is
Half-Life.
Now, as a result of that, it'sshowing promising early results
(18:15):
and it's having a positiveknock-on effect.
So I've got more followers,more saves on Half-Life that
doesn't necessarily mean they'relistening to it, though and
also more followers on theplaylist, but again, doesn't
necessarily mean they're goingto listen to it.
I mean I always listen to myplaylist.
I listen to it every day, um,because I've curated it and it's
music that I like, so I listento it every day, which kind of
(18:36):
makes sense if you're creating aplaylist, right.
What I'm interesting to see isnow that I've got more followers
probably over 100 morefollowers.
To be honest, I've only beendoing about two, possibly three
at this point of recording thison the 1st of June is, with
those extra followers, will Iget more initial plays when the
(18:59):
next single drops?
Because in theory, will I be inmore release radars?
I imagine I will be More radioplays.
So we'll see In my next partthree, the trilogy of my review
and reflection, we'll look atthat and see if it's made any
difference.
But daily playlist really good,really good, I'm finding again,
(19:21):
doesn't necessarily mean peopleare going to listen to the song
that's been saved or they'regoing to listen to my playlist.
But I'm intrigued to see whathappens with regards to having
more followers.
But are they engaged followers,is the question.
So we'll leave that hanging andsee what happens in part three
when we look at the next review.
So here's the biggie growth.
So with half-life at the timeof recording this.
(19:43):
So this is june, the first.
Now I did say right at thebeginning I 10x and I pretty
much have 10x'd.
To be honest, I've gone for 300to just under 3,000 monthly
listeners since the turn of theyear.
So I'm hoping that sort ofcontinues and then I 10x'd again
, which would be nice that putme up to 30,000 by the end of
the year, which would be quitepleasant, but I'll take 10,000.
(20:04):
This is all about me justtrialing what goes well, what
doesn't go well, so I can shareit with you folks listening,
watching this if you're watchingthis on YouTube, and then you
can try something similar orsimilar approaches yourself also
.
Alternatively, going off on abit of a tangent here, it's just
quite good to do likereflection, record it because
getting it down in video or innotes I've got video and notes
(20:25):
here because I'm reading from mynotes it's just quite good to
reflect, so you're notcontinuing to do the stuff that
doesn't work, which I am guiltyof a lot of the time, to be
honest.
So that's why I really likedoing these particular episodes.
But anyway, I digress.
So I got up to just under 3,000monthly listeners at the time
of recording this, which isgreat it has.
(20:45):
I haven't hit the 5,000 targetI wanted for June, so I'm 2,000
short, which is quite a lotreally, but it's significantly
better than the 300 I had at theturn of the year and I'm hoping
that it will continue.
So with my next release, whichis coming out on the.
As I mentioned, there is theweek.
It's either the 20th or the21st of June.
I'm hoping that this I thinkit's the 20th I'm hoping to
(21:10):
continue that steadied growth.
When I look at my listenergrowth or listener performance
over 12 months on Spotify, everytime I have a release you have
that bump, if you will, on thatgraph and I'm seeing that the
volume, the length of time andthe amount of listeners is going
up every time, which is reallyreally cool, which is great to
(21:32):
see.
So what I'm doing appears to beworking.
Now, obviously, you are at themercy of the songs that you
create as well.
So I like to think that this ismy first sort of foray not
first, but it's my first, Iguess.
Yeah, first real in-depth forayand stickability mainstay in
(21:53):
sort of house, melodic house,progressive house and that sort
of sphere of music which I'mreally enjoying.
So I'm going to continue doingthat.
But, in short, biggest Spotifybump came with this particular
release and interestingly, I'vegot my notes here.
I forgot to mention this Inoticed that I had more radio
plays and I had more listenersafter I paused the ad as well.
(22:20):
So around the app for threeweeks and then in the preceding,
um, the proceeding week, rathernot preceding preceding week, I
think that's the right word.
I noticed more listeners, sointeresting.
I've got here my notes,possibly due to the algorithm,
the rebalancing I have no ideawhat I meant by that, but worth
experimenting with further.
(22:40):
I'd like maybe I'll do onerelease where I don't run any
ads and see what happens, andmaybe that time I've spent
refining the ad, creating,creating the ad.
I'll do more on radio outreachbut either way, I haven't quite
hit my goal of 5,000.
In six months I'm up to 3,000,but it's significantly well.
It's 10 times more than what Ihad at the beginning of the year
(23:01):
.
A quick recap so I've got thistitled air quotes results.
So we went from I say we I wentfrom 300 to just under 3,000
monthly listeners.
Now in six months, or justunder six months, I've
maintained a consistent releaseschedule to build momentum
Strategic ad spend possibly, Ithink, influenced Spotify radio
(23:25):
algorithm, quality, focusedcontent, improved engagement.
So I doubled down on what workedand got rid of what didn't work
.
When it came to posting onsocials, waterfall release
strategy model contributed stead, contributed to steady growth.
Juries out on that one, but Iam seeing that the previous
releases are continuouslycontinuing rather to get streams
(23:47):
and listeners and saves, anddirect radio outreach needs to
be improved for exposure andcredibility.
I've got here on my notes.
So basically I just need tohave some form of plan for
targeted outreach.
So when it comes to the thirdreview and reflection episode,
(24:09):
I'm aiming to have something toto report on, something positive
when it comes to radio and blogoutreach.
So while we're on that topic,next steps.
I'm going to explore the timingeffect of pausing ads because
remember, remember I said aboutthat bump that I had in
half-life after pausing the uh,the Strengthen radio station
(24:31):
relationships with consistentoutreach, as I mentioned just
now.
I need to do that.
I need to double down onquality first, social media.
So I'm going to double downreally on I really like stories,
I love stories on social, soI'm going to double down on that
as well.
In particular, reinvest inSubmitHub.
So I say reinvest in SubmitHub.
I'm probably going to continuewith what I've been doing so far
, which is like the 20 pounds,so I'm probably going to invest
(24:54):
less, so maybe I need to removethe word reinvest, but I'm going
to continue to invest in submithub.
I also want to build outanother playlist as well.
So I'm going to build anotherplaylist specifically for sort
of dystopian house music.
So if you do have any musicthat you want to feature on this
playlist, ping me a message oninstagram at inside the mix
(25:15):
podcast and with a link to thatsong, and I'll add it to that
playlist and I'll put a link tothe playlist below as well.
So there we go, folks.
That closes the chapter on parttwo of my journey to 10 000
spotify monthly listeners.
Hopefully it's been of some useto you.
I'd love to know your thoughtstoo.
Send me a message on Instagramat InsideTheMixPodcast.
Alternatively, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, just
(25:37):
leave a comment what you thinkwent well, possibly where I need
to improve or what I couldimprove.
Or maybe you've got tips onwhat I'm doing well and how I
could improve that even further,or maybe tools and techniques
that I should consider as well.
And obviously, if you put it onthe comments on YouTube and
everyone else is going to see it, if you message me on Instagram
, I'll share that as well infuture episodes.
(26:00):
And, of course as well, doclick the link in the episode
description and get those weeklytips direct to your inbox to
level up your music productionas well, folks, and until next
time, stay inspired, keepcreating and don't be afraid to
experiment inside the mix.
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