Interested by utilizing Partnered Initiatives and questioning in the event that they’re price it? I’ll provide the quick reply first:

Primarily based on my private expertise working a marketing campaign, Partnered Initiatives is a legit, efficient technique of driving streams and engagement on Spotify.

Our marketing campaign, which I acquired as a free trial price $189, drove about 10,275 streams from two extremely lively, wholesome playlists. At a cost-per-stream degree that comes out to round $0.02, which is about pretty much as good as you’ll be able to count on from a Spotify promotion (I’ve run dozens of them with a bunch of various firms). And once more, these have been streams from actual individuals, not bots.

Fairly spectacular.

After all, playlisting campaigns aren’t some magic bullet for constructing a fanbase and getting your music heard. Playlisting streams, generally, aren’t extremely focused or engaged, as a result of individuals typically use playlists as background music. However, to be sincere, Partnered Initiatives was in a position to drive higher-fit playlists and higher engagement than I’d anticipated.

I’m going to interrupt every part down beneath in additional element. For those who’re within the nuts and bolts, hold studying. If you wish to minimize to the chase and begin a marketing campaign…

You may give Partnered Initiatives a attempt right here.

Heads-up that that’s an affiliate hyperlink, as a result of, sure, I do suppose these guys are legit. And with all of that mentioned – let’s get into it.

The background on my marketing campaign with Partnered Initiatives

I’ve recounted this in a bunch of different locations, however the TL;DR model of the story is that, within the spring of 2023, I examined a bunch of various Spotify promotion companies. Partnered Initiatives was a part of that experiment, they usually stacked up actually favorably. You may learn my breakdown of the entire thing right here.

I really hadn’t heard of Partnered Initiatives till I had a dialog with Andrew Southworth; he talked about that he’d been working with the group to supply direct advert campaigns in tandem with their playlisting companies. (This, by the best way, is my really useful technique for Spotify promotion – working adverts and playlisting in tandem, since you get each cost-efficient streams and excessive engagement numbers. For those who’re involved in doing this your self, I’ve bought a course on each strategies right here.)

I’ve bought a really excessive opinion of Andrew, so I instantly added Partnered Initiatives to my listing of firms to check. After which, in April of 2023, I despatched them a observe to attempt a marketing campaign.

They didn’t take it.

The nerve!

In seriousness, I really actually like that they do that: They don’t take your cost till they’re certain that they’ll work along with your music. That’s a pleasant assure that you simply received’t be losing your spend, and it’s stability in opposition to the scams on the market that will take your cost after which will do nothing.

That mentioned, I used to be form of stunned that Partnered Initiatives couldn’t place the primary music I despatched them. It’s a well-produced, straightforward-pop observe that I’m sure practically each different promo firm I’ve labored with would have run with. I suppose it’s a sign that they (and presumably their curators) are selective.

I used to be really going to desert attempting the corporate in any respect, however a few week after my marketing campaign was declined, Dalton, the founding father of the corporate, reached out to me personally and requested me to ship one other observe over.

I ended up sending one other music from the identical artist, and Dalton was variety sufficient to supply me a free trial of what would’ve been a $189 marketing campaign guaranteeing 10-15k streams. He talked about that I may ship the observe by means of to him immediately, however I opted to buy the marketing campaign on the web site in order that I’d have the “regular” expertise.

And with that, we have been off.

The method of working with Partnered Initiatives

Right here’s the observe we ended up going with:

Once more, it’s a reasonably simple genre-wise pop music, with a bunch of power and relatable lyrics. Personally, I believe the manufacturing and vocals are top-tier, and I additionally suppose that this mainstream sort of music is the form of stuff that playlisting campaigns can do rather well with.

As soon as the observe was accepted, there actually wasn’t a lot for us to do; Partnered Initiatives set to pitching it and getting it positioned.

I bought an e mail instantly after the marketing campaign began, confirming that the music had been accepted:

And that was about it. I wasn’t particularly notified once we have been positioned on particular person playlists.

Relatedly, Partnered Initiatives has a portal the place you’ll be able to observe the progress of your marketing campaign, however for some cause once I submitted my order, my account wasn’t correctly created.

Dalton set me up manually with entry to the client portal, which, as he famous, was having some show points. Right here’s what my marketing campaign seemed like within the backend:

The bizarre factor was that the “Placement(s) Permitted” part, the place I’d hoped to have the ability to see the entire placements, solely confirmed one playlist, and the title of the playlist didn’t match the Spotify hyperlink.

I bought the gist of it, anyway; each the playlist known as “for the mirrorball girlies” and the Spotify linked playlist have been exhibiting up in our Spotify for Artists, so I knew the 2 lists have been the placements we’d gotten. However as you’ll be able to in all probability inform from the sentence I simply wrote, the expertise of figuring that out was slightly complicated.

On the brilliant aspect, whereas Dalton advised me to count on the marketing campaign to final three to 4 weeks, we ended up staying on these playlists for a few month and a half. That’s longer than most campaigns final, and it resulted in a formidable variety of streams.

With that mentioned, let’s get into the info subsequent.

The outcomes of the Spotify promotion

As I discussed on the prime of this text, I’d think about this to be a profitable, authentic Spotify promotion. The uncooked numbers are fairly good: For a price of $189, we have been positioned on two playlists that drove over 10,000 streams.

These two playlists have been:

Each are wholesome and engaged. Right here’s what their respective development curves seem like:

That’s precisely what you’d prefer to see from naturally-grown playlists – easy upward development curves with no sketchy spikes. And on the backend, issues seemed good, too. Right here’s what issues seemed like in Spotify for Artists:

The pink field represents the place the marketing campaign was lively.

Just a few issues to level out right here.

First, the Streams / Listener ratio over the course of the promotion was actually strong for a playlisting marketing campaign. As I mentioned on the prime of this evaluation, playlisting streams are typically much less engaged; often, you’ll see a Streams / Listener ratio between one and two. Throughout the marketing campaign, we have been above two streams per listener, which signifies that the typical listener was streaming the observe a number of instances.

That’s nice.

Additionally, you’ll be aware that there have been 315 playlist provides over the course of this interval (nearly all of which got here in the course of the marketing campaign’s exercise). That, too, is fairly strong. It’s made even higher by the truth that lots of the playlists to which the observe was added drew a good variety of streams themselves.

Listed below are the highest playlists over the previous 28 days:

That Pop Hits listing in fifth place really drove about 1,000 streams for the observe – it’s not considered one of Partnered Undertaking’s placements, though it does have over 1,200 followers. There are just a few different playlists that carried out equally, however the two for which our marketing campaign claimed credit score drove essentially the most streams by far.

Additionally price noting is that the highest location for all of these streams was america. In itself, that reality isn’t an indication that the streams have been legit (I’ve seen bot farms that mimic US streams). However on condition that every part else seems wholesome, it’s a pleasant bonus that the listens have been coming from the artist’s dwelling nation.

Up up to now, I’d rely every part I’ve shared as a constructive. Don’t suppose that I’m being selective or attempting to overhype issues – actually, this marketing campaign was very constructive. There’s actually just one space the place I used to be dissatisfied within the information: The Supply of streams aspect of issues.

Mainly, regardless of the strong engagement metrics, we’ve gotten little or no algorithmic traction with the music to this point.

As that picture makes clear, the huge majority of the music’s streams are coming from these independently operated playlists. Only one% of streams are coming from algorithmic playlists (and people are nearly fully resulting from radio). This distribution signifies that, when our music is taken off of the third-party playlists, the streaming numbers are nearly actually going to dip means again down.

To be honest, this isn’t one thing that Partnered Initiatives can immediately impression. The music we promoted has been out for a number of years, and it’s completely attainable {that a}) the earlier information has skewed issues or b) Spotify simply isn’t as involved in unearthing an older observe for customers. But additionally, I’ve nearly at all times seen greater than 29 Radio streams in a month after getting 10,000+ streams from playlists. Backside line is that the algorithmic share is low, so I needed to notice it.

An general evaluation of Partnered Initiatives

Now that you simply’ve seen the info (or now that you simply’ve skimmed all the way down to this little bit of the article – which, if that’s the case, I completely respect), I’ll do my finest to summarize what I see as the professionals and cons of Partnered Initiatives.

Let’s begin with the great things.

The professionals of Partnered Initiatives

• They provide reasonably priced entry-level pricing. Granted, I bought a free trial, however the truth that they’ve packages beginning at round $50 is interesting should you’re an up-and-coming artist who isn’t rolling in money. (For comparability, Indie Music Academy begins round $300.)
• They appear to do very effectively at a cost-per-stream degree. Their marketing campaign drove the second-most-efficient outcomes out of each firm I’ve examined.
• They don’t take your cash if they’ll’t work along with your music. I’m a giant fan of this; it helps you keep away from sending cash into the black gap of the web.
• They’ve extremely lively, wholesome playlists. As I’ve recounted above, the numbers for each the playlists we have been positioned on look nice.
• Their placements have been what I’d think about to be respectable matches for the model and style of our music. This was in all probability made simpler by the truth that the music was a pop music – however nonetheless.
• Relatedly, our engagement metrics all through the marketing campaign have been very strong.
• Their crew has a bunch of expertise. Partnered Initiatives is definitely a sister firm of Members Media, which runs campaigns for label acts. Dalton confirmed me a number of the bigger campaigns he was working (they have been spectacular) and defined that Partnered Initiatives is their providing for indies. It’s good to have that form of expertise behind a promotion.

The cons of Partnered Initiatives

• It’s in all probability not honest to say it is a con with the corporate, however once more, I used to be dissatisfied by the low algorithmic exercise throughout and after the promotion. It’s seemingly resulting from exterior elements, for the reason that engagement charges seemed good, however I additionally really feel like 1% of streams coming from algorithmic lists needs to be a con.
• They’re fairly selective. General that is in all probability factor, nevertheless it’s a con on your probabilities of working with them. It’s additionally price noting that you might have a tougher time getting accepted should you aren’t in a mainstream-leaning style.
• Their consumer expertise wasn’t nice. That is really the largest factor I believe they may stand to enhance. Submitting was simple sufficient, however as soon as the music went by means of I had glitches moving into the portal. Then I had glitches seeing my placements. If I hadn’t been in a position to get fast responses from Dalton, I in all probability would’ve discovered this irritating.

The general verdict on Partnered Initiatives

Playlisting isn’t a magic bullet, however general, Partnered Initiatives does it very effectively. They provide reasonably priced entry-level costs, nice cost-per-stream outcomes, and strong engagement metrics from wholesome lists. For those who’re in a mainstream-ish style and want to develop your Spotify presence, they’re price taking a look at. Personally, I’d rank them within the prime tier of firms on this area.

For those who’re involved in attempting a marketing campaign with Partnered Undertaking, right here’s the hyperlink to provide it a shot.

Whether or not you attempt playlisting or not, I hope this text was useful as you suppose by means of your choices – and I hope that, whether or not your subsequent launch will get 10 streams or 10 million, you’re employed with the data that your music issues.

Right here’s wishing you good luck.