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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

I’d create three short-form videos per day about my track and post them to Reels, TikTok, Shorts, and even Snapchat. 

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. 

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. 

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel. 

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