Sounds Of The Future

For almost an entire year, my Spotify listeners and streams declined, but something happened in July of 2022 and things started to trend back up.

And not only did my Spotify listeners and streams start to grow, but I started to see more consistent pushes on Discover Weekly as well.

I have tested a lot of different strategies to grow on Spotify, but this year I really cracked the code.

Here is the best Spotify growth strategy I found in 2022.

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.

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We all know it’s tough to make money on Spotify.

Streaming royalties are notoriously low across the board, and Spotify doesn’t even claim the top spot on that list.

But despite the low payouts, earning money from streaming is still a goal worth pursuing (not the only goal, mind you, but a goal nonetheless), so let’s examine three scenarios to find out what it takes to achieve financial success on Spotify.

Time for some math. 🤓

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.

Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!

If you want to be a great artist, you have to be a great communicator.

To achieve this, here are three fundamental skills I believe every artist should work to perfect that will transcend genre, age, and audience.

1. Learn to write.

Everything starts with writing.

Putting ideas down on the page helps me to clarify my thinking and crystalize ideas worth sharing—tweets, captions, song lyrics—all of it moves the needle.

If you’re not writing every day, I highly recommend you start. Write poetry, keep a journal, write lyrics—write any and everything you can think of.

A strong writing habit is foundational.

2. Learn to tell a great story.

Stories are a fundamental expression of humanity. We are drawn to them.

Your music tells a story. Your lyrics tell a story. Your content tells a story. Everything you do is an opportunity to tell a compelling story about yourself, your work, or the world around you.

Whatever the format, a good story will always win.

3. Get good a short-form video.

If the internet is a castle, short-form is king.

We live in a world dominated by content. Great writing leads to great storytelling, and TikToks, Reels, and Shorts are where crystal-clear writing and great storytelling converge.

Master the first two, then put them in video format.

Great art is communication that transcends time and place.

If you can cut through the noise with great writing, great storytelling, and strong short-form video skills, the sky is the limit.

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.

Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!

A great idea is worth sharing, and a great piece of content that communicates that idea well can pull someone into your world and create a fan for life.

But sometimes even good ideas fall flat if not seen by the right person, at the right time, in the right place.

That’s why I always use my content more than once—I repurpose it.

There are four primary types of content that people consume online: audio, video, text, and images.

I do my best to post a combination of all four, but not every idea is conveyed equally across all media, which is why it’s important to me to communicate that same message on as many platforms as I can.

And the best way I’ve found to do that is to start with one.

My content generally starts as text. I am constantly taking notes and writing down ideas in the Notes app on my phone, and since I always have my phone on me, this little system works great.

Once I’ve decided I want to share an idea online (and because text is my initial weapon of choice), I will usually go to Twitter to share that thought with my audience there, and based on the response, I will decide whether or not to pursue it further.

If a tweet gets any sort of decent engagement, I know I’ve got a concept worth exploring.

Let the repurposing begin.

A simple tweet is a great foundation for repurposing my content—it’s short, to the point, and easy to adjust for other platforms.

There are two reasons I repurpose my content:

1) I don’t know what medium or what platform is going to see that idea resonate with my audience the most, and

2) It just makes my life a whole lot easier.

By reusing the same idea on multiple platforms, I only have to come up with one thing instead of 10, 15, or 20.

By vetting an idea on platform after platform, I am able to rely on my audience for real-time feedback about what’s helpful and what’s not, thereby improving my content and the value I am able to deliver.

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.

Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!

Establishing strong vanity metrics on Spotify is really not that difficult, especially if you don’t care how you do it.

Fake followers, massive bot-driven playlist ads, and even legitimate streams from countries that don’t serve your long-term growth as an artist can make your artist profile look quite impressive to the untrained eye.

But if you’re like me, and you want to share your music with real people who truly enjoy the work you put out into the world, you’re going to want to do your best to avoid those pitfalls.

Here are the three biggest red flags I look for:

1. Which countries are listening?

I am always watching where my traffic is coming from on Spotify, especially as a result of my ads.

These days, I am primarily advertising in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but regardless of where my ads are being shown, whether in a select few countries or on a global scale, I am looking at the relationship between those countries on Meta’s ad platform and on Spotify for Artists.

To that end, one of the biggest red flags a look for is whether or not those countries match up to any degree.

For example, if a country is getting a lot of traffic on Meta but minimal action on Spotify, this is a clear indication to me that something is off and I need to make a change.

2. Top cities are important too.

Beyond the countries where I’m seeing love on Spotify, I am also paying strict attention to the cities where my music is being consumed as well. The primary red flags I am looking for here are cities I know have big data centers in them.

Wait, what?

That’s right. Many cities worldwide, and specifically within the United States, house massive Amazon (and other) data centers. These data centers are often used to set up bot farms to generate fake playlist plays, fake followers, and fake streams for artists.

3. And lastly, bad playlists.

As most of you likely know, I’m not a big fan of playlisting to promote my music on Spotify, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still get added to them from time to time.

When a song begins to get traction on Spotify, achieving a popularity score in the 30s or 40s, it is often the case that it will begin to appear on more popular playlists as a result, regardless of whether or not the song has been pitched to that service.

Whenever I see a song has been added to a playlist with a significant following, I immediately want to do my due diligence on it to make sure it’s legit.

It’s easy to grow on Spotify by faking the numbers, and with a small amount of money and a little bit of know-how, anyone can do it.

But I want my growth to be legitimate, and I want real people enjoying my music, even if it’s only a fraction of what the vanity numbers potentially could be.

Watch the original video on my YouTube channel.

Like this episode? Hit me up on Instagram (@tomdupreeiii) and let me know what you thought!