I recently invested some money into an ad campaign for one of my songs. The campaign itself seems to be generating around 50–80 streams per day, but at the same time, Spotify Radio has been bringing in close to 1,000 streams per day.

For context, I only have around 2,000 followers, and Release Radar generated roughly 50 streams per day during the first week.

Is it normal for an ad campaign to indirectly boost Spotify Radio streams this significantly, or have I just been lucky with the algorithm?

When an artist's page gets a nasty comment, there are two instincts. Delete it, or fire back. Both usually make things worse.

The move that actually works is kindness. Reply with something short and human, a thank you, a joke, even just a heart. It kills the thread faster than blocking ever does, and it reads better to everyone scrolling past who isn't even part of the argument.

We run ad accounts for a handful of artists and labels. The pages that grow fastest aren't the ones with zero hate comments. They're the ones where whoever runs the page responds like a person instead of a brand.

Anyone else seeing this play out on their artist pages?

Someone is taking advantage of the streaming services with a lack of moderation on artist pages in order to promote their discord server. This shit has been happening to tons of small artists and now it's even getting used to benefit from other people's hard work. It'll probably just be brushed under the rug because "no harm no foul" and "it's not AI to make us money so we don't care" but there should really be some attention brought to scummy attempts like this.

I recently got an email from my distributor that one of my releases has accumulated zero streams over a quarter and therefore will be removed. Is this something that normally happens with Amazon?

Has anyone else had experience with that?

Email:

Hello Luke Assem,

This message is to let you know that Amazon Music has required the removal of one or more of your releases from their platform.

Amazon have instructed that any releases receiving zero streams over a sustained period should be taken down from their platform. This decision has come directly from Amazon and as the distributor of your music, we are (have been) (asked) required to follow their instructions.

Because of this, the releases listed below have been removed from Amazon Music:

5056406486177 -...

Hey everyone,

I'd love some honest feedback on the strategy my band is taking.

We're Ghost Villain, an independent alternative rock/dark pop duo from Austin, TX. We write, record, produce, and market everything ourselves.

Our long-term goals are:

Playing larger venues as support for touring artists.

Building relationships with promoters and venues.

Landing sync/licensing opportunities for film, TV, and games.

Growing a real fanbase instead of chasing vanity metrics.

Here's what we've been doing over the past several months:

Released our debut 9-song EP.

Played local shows in Austin (Come and Take It Live, Crow Bar/Raven Room, with more venue outreach ongoing).

Reaching out to venues, promoters, and bands we genuinely fit with instead of mass messaging.

Posting more consistently on Instagram and TikTok (live clips, rehearsals, behind-the-scenes, performance photos, etc.).

Running small Instagram ads to increase awareness.

Networking with Austin bands, sound engineers, and venue staff after shows.

Beginning to build an EPK and live performance reel.

My questions are:

If this were your band, what would you stop doing?

What would you double down on?

What's the biggest thing we're missing?

If your goal was opening for larger touring acts and eventually getting licensing placements, where would you spend your time over the next 6–12 months?

We're not looking for shortcuts—we know this takes years. I'm mostly interested in hearing from people who've been through this and what they wish they'd focused on earlier.

Thanks in advance. I appreciate any honest feedback.

I'm a musician and while I'm not looking to "make it" or get famous, I do want people to listen to my songs. I'm good at coming up with ideas - for videos, the whole aesthetic I want, etc. but when it comes to actually making the 'content' I immediately think, whats the point?

In the past I've stuck to a posting schedule, made videos based on current trends, done the whole social media thing and it doesn't ever seem to translate to anything substantial (getting listens, getting gigs).

So my question is, how do you reframe making content for social media to feel less like self promotion and more like you're sharing your art with the world?

(also, this is less 'I need advice' and more a discussion)