UPDATED 5/16/24
Service Rating | 2/5
At Unseen Plays, our mission is to support emerging artists like you. Part of this mission involves testing various services to determine their legitimacy and value for money. Today, we’ll delve into our experience with Musicvertising—a name you’ve probably come across in your Instagram or Facebook Ads feed. According to their website, Musicvertising promises “real and targeted Spotify promotion,” offering a specified number of streams and followers in exchange for enrollment in one of their plans. While their cheapest plan starts at $49, we had the opportunity to test them out for just $10, thanks to an Instagram advertisement. But are they truly worth it? And, more importantly, are they legitimate? Let’s find out!
*Pricing & plans have changed since we published this article back in 2022, new screenshot has been added to show you that. As you can see reach has gone up and pricing has sky rocketed.
When it came to followers…
Just a heads-up, our campaign with them only lasted for a month under their “Starter Campaign.” This plan guarantees up to 5000 streams and 500 followers. For confidentiality reasons, we’ll refrain from disclosing the artist involved in the campaign.
Regarding followers, we did observe an initial increase of 366 within the first week. However, by the end of the campaign, we fell short of the promised 500 followers. What raised eyebrows was the unexpected decline in followers as we entered the second week. By the end of the month (Week 4), our follower count dwindled to a mere 40. Feel free to check out the GIF above for visual evidence.
When it came to Streams…
When it came to streams, the promised 5000 never materialized. Instead, we only reached a little over 2000 streams, as indicated in the screenshot above. However, our primary concern wasn’t merely the quantity of streams, but rather their authenticity. We patiently waited for several weeks to see if the purported “playlists” they placed us on would surface under the Music > Playlists section in our Spotify Artists account. To our dismay, there was no activity whatsoever indicating our inclusion in any playlists. This begs the question: how can we be accruing streams without any tangible playlist placements?
Furthermore, it’s essential to exercise caution when dealing with music promotion companies or agencies that are reluctant to share crucial information. In the case of Musicadvertisement, they fail to disclose the playlists they claim to have added us to or the advertisements they purportedly utilized. This lack of transparency is concerning and undermines their credibility as a reputable agency. We believe that if an agency is representing artists, they should be transparent about their methods and provide evidence of their work in some capacity.
Our Conclusion about Musicvertising
At first glance, Musicvertising appears to be a reputable website with substantial credibility. However, upon closer inspection, our experience left us skeptical. There’s a lingering sense of artificiality, and we suspect the use of bots in their operations. This suspicion was particularly fueled by the suspicious behavior of the followers, coupled with the absence of any playlist placements. Regarding the streams, their legitimacy remains uncertain, especially given the company’s reluctance to disclose the ads used for our music.
Fortunately, our investment was limited to just $10 for their starter plan—a modest price that allowed us to test the waters. Sadly, it seems this was not enough to convince us of their authenticity.
We’re relieved we didn’t shell out the full $49 for this service and cannot in good conscience recommend it to fellow artists or bands seeking playlist placement. While our artist page may suffer from skewed analytical data for a while, we deemed it worthwhile to share our experience with you.
If you’re currently engaged with a music promotion company or agency similar to Musicvertising, we strongly advise setting up your Spotify Artist page to gain a visual understanding of what you’re paying for. Always scrutinize the work being done—we cannot stress this enough.