If you’re an independent musician trying to monetize your work, you know that writing songs and producing them is only the first step toward turning music from just a hobby into something that brings revenue.

Uploading music to streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, might be more complicated than you think. Both of these services still require artists to sign up with a music distributor to work as a middleman. Even after finding the right distributor, there’s still no guarantee that you will start attracting listeners organically.

Even the biggest and most talented names in the industry have used different promoting strategies to get their music out there. So why shouldn’t you?

One way to get new listeners is to learn music marketing yourself. While it might be a fruitful investment in the long run, not all musicians have the time and energy to focus on familiarizing themselves with these methods. That’s where music promotion services come to help upcoming artists.

Out of the many marketing agencies out there, some names have grown a huge reputation for aiding numerous artists find their feet in the music industry. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best music promotion services in 2023.

Here’s a list of what I will go through in this post:

1. Omari’s Organic Promotion
2. ReverbNation
3. Indie Music Academy
4. YouGrow
5. PlaylistPush

1. Omari’s Organic Promotion

One of the best independent agencies you can work with as a musician is Omari’s Organic Promotion. One of the key factors that makes them one of the pioneers of this business is that they cover almost every major social media platform; from promotions on Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud to ad campaigns for TikTok, FaceBook, and Instagram.

Omari’s agency has been Google's top-ranked 'best music promo’ for years now, and the numbers support that claim. Since 2014, over 20,000 artists in different genres have promoted their songs using Omari’s services. Moreover, they have over 250 million playlist and channel followers across Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

Once you order a promotion from Omari’s Organic Promotion, a music supervisor first reviews your song. If needed, they’ll give you feedback on different parameters like mixing and mastering to make your song more commercially standard.

After that, depending on how much you’ve paid, your song will be pitched to a number of curators. Then, these curators place your songs in popular playlists, getting you exposure to more listeners.

The prices Omari MC offers for their services are fair. For instance, the “Silver Spotify” promotion program costs around $150 and claims it will place your song in 3-14 playlists, resulting in somewhere between 1,000 to 10,000 plays.

2. ReverbNation

ReverbNation is another excellent platform that has been in the business since 2006. The services they offer are much broader than what other agencies typically offer. First and foremost, ReverbNation is a digital distributor, but they provide a plethora of tools to help artists reach their goals.

It might be a bit confusing navigating through the different parts of their website. Anything from finding labels and promoting songs on streaming platforms to finding festival slots, ReverbNation has something to help you out.

ReverbNation services work as subscription-based programs. The free plan includes creating an artist profile and uploading songs, along with some basic branding parameters. However, if you want to take advantage of everything they offer, you’ll have to spend $19.95 per month.

3. Indie Music Academy

If your number-one priority is to get new streams and listeners on Spotify, Indie Music Academy should be under your radar. While the range of services they offer is not as broad as some of the competitors, their expertise in putting your songs in the right playlists makes them stand out.

Indie Music Academy focuses on finding real and organic human listeners. In this way, you can find regular monthly listeners at a much more efficient rate. You don’t have to worry about getting streams from bots or dealing with engagement schemes.

Once you start a campaign with Indie Music Academy, they’ll send your songs to ‘influencers’ with real, legitimate playlists. On the plus side, they have a 100% money-back guarantee if they can’t find an influencer to put your music in their playlist.

For ’10,000 guaranteed real streamers,’ they charge $297. That price can go up to almost $2,000 for 100,000 streams.

4. YouGrow

If Spotify coverage isn’t enough for you and you want YouTube promotions, too, YouGrow can offer you impressive services. Moreover, they can help you with TikTok and Instagram promotion as well.

Similar to Indie Music Academy, YouGrow claims to get engagement from real viewers and not use bots and streaming schemes.

One of the advantages of YouGrow is its fast and in-depth communication with artists. Reading the reviews, you’ll see a lot of customers praising this agency for their dedicated campaign managers helping them through each and every step.

They offer their promotion services through several packages on each platform. For Spotify, the ‘Starter’ package costs you $77 and will get you 2,000 to 6,000 streams. Their most popular package is the ‘Rising Artist’ which guarantees 10k to 20k organic streams and comes at $247.

Their most expensive pack, the ‘Megastar,’ offers 65,000 to 100,000 Spotify streams in exchange for $1,097.

All these packages come with a 100% refund guarantee in case YouGrow can’t get enough streams for your genre.

5. PlaylistPush

Another famous agency for Spotify and TikTok promotions is PlaylistPush. Similar to most other promoters out there, Playlist Push is in touch with hundreds of curators that can put your songs in popular Spotify playlists and get you organic streams. For TikTok, they work with over 3,300 TikTok influencers and creators and send your song to them to make use of them in their videos.

Their services start at around $300. While the starting price might be higher than some other agencies on this list, they are relatively affordable, considering what they offer.

Final Thoughts On Promoting Music

Using paid services is only one of the ways you can promote your music and get more streams on Spotify and Apple Music. Even if you can’t cut a budget for it and haven’t built a fanbase yet, there are plenty of ways to promote your music for free.

If you’re a producer, besides putting your music out there, there are plenty of ways to make money to support your work.