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Pros & Cons Of Guaranteed Playlist Pitching Services: An Honest Review

guaranteed playlist pitching services

Written by Omari

This article is not a slam on any other company, but a deep dive into which platform and service is actually best for your specific goals as a musician.

We at Omari have promoted music for over 13,500 artists and had countless consultation calls, emails, and social media messages with a myriad of questions from artists looking to get set on the right path.

A big difference between us and other companies is we actually advise artists on which PLATFORM in and of itself is best optimized to reach their end goal. 

Here’s what I mean...

Why Artists Believe They Should Be Pitching To Playlists

Many times artists are searching for Spotify playlist placement services simply because that’s what they believe they’re supposed to do.

But once you analyze what the artist is trying to get out of the service, you sometimes find that either Instagram or YouTube is a better suited platform. 

While it is important to have some activity on Spotify, at the moment it is not the best direct to consumer platform. 

As an independent artist, many times you want to have interaction with your fans (comments, direct messages, and followers). Spotify does not have a comments section or any messages between the artist and audience without paying for audio ads.

And if you’re not a seasoned marketer, audio ads are a struggle to achieve a ROI on.

Spotify vs. YouTube vs. IG & Facebook vs. SoundCloud

We made this video that runs you through the pros and cons of each platform.

When To Use Playlist Pitching

Playlist pitching is good as long as your expectations are logical. You’ll mostly experience a rise in streams, listeners and saves during the time of pitching, but will not see as many followers as you would doing an Instagram ads promotion or YouTube campaign. 

Omari vs. Playlist Push vs. Submithub Chart


Keeps working toward guaranteed minimum amount of Spotify playlist placements if song is accepted

Organic Apple Music promotion

YouTube promotion

Website design & optimization for artists

Sales funnel creation for products & services like merch, songwriting, etc.

Facebook & IG ads management & optimization

YouTube Subscriber Optimization

Marketing courses and education INCLUDED when you purchase music promotion

Live chat for support & sales questions

Direct phone number available on site for support & sales questions

Accepts explicit content


Keeps working toward guaranteed minimum amount of Spotify playlist placements if song is accepted

Organic Apple Music promotion

YouTube promotion

Website design & optimization for artists

Sales funnel creation for products & services like merch, songwriting, etc.

Facebook & IG ads management & optimization

YouTube Subscriber Optimization

Marketing courses and education INCLUDED when you purchase music promotion

Live chat for support & sales questions

Direct phone number available on site for support & sales questions

Accepts explicit content


Keeps working toward guaranteed minimum amount of Spotify playlist placements if song is accepted

Organic Apple Music promotion

YouTube promotion

Website design & optimization for artists

Sales funnel creation for products & services like merch, songwriting, etc.

Facebook & IG ads management & optimization

YouTube Subscriber Optimization

Marketing courses and education INCLUDED when you purchase music promotion

Live chat for support & sales questions

Direct phone number available on site for support & sales questions

Accepts explicit content

Submithub Pros & Cons

Submithub is the most hands off of all the services. You will find a list of different curators and influencers for Spotify, YouTube, & Instagram with notes and quick facts about some highs and lows. However, there is not much consultation about which path an artist should allocate their ad spend dollars in the first place. Also, the process can be tedious to submit to each curator and influencer individually.

Additionally, while they have low cost pricing for submissions, this leads to a much lower acceptance rate for playlist placement. 

To be fair, this could also be due to artists submitting to playlists they shouldn’t be submitting to in the first place, which is why the other two services act as a liaison between artists and curators to help the efficiency of the process.

Playlist Push Pros & Cons

Playlist Push is more hands on where you can select different pricing packages and submit to a pool of curators with one click. 

While it is more expensive to submit this way, the acceptance rate tends to be higher than Submithub. They also compensate their curators more generously than Submithub does, which in turn would naturally lead to happier and more generous curators (one would think). 

However, Playlist Push is just that, a playlist pushing service and not as much a one stop shop for the proper advice and consultation that many artists don’t realize they need until after they’ve already paid a substantial amount in promotion dollars.

Omari (Us) Service Comparison

Omari (us) provides the widest array of services for artists including Spotify playlist pitching, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook ad management and optimization, Instagram influencer promotion, Apple Music playlist pitching, YouTube Subscriber Optimization & Website Design & Management services.

For Spotify, we’re different because we have a guaranteed minimum number of playlists we’re trying to reach for each campaign level and will continue pitching your song until it’s completed. 

We also have a phone number available where you can call and talk to a real human being (shocker, we know).

We do this because we know the ins and outs of each platform and which of them is best suited for your specific goals, so we have email, live chat, text, DMs and calls available so you can reach us. 

While we love a good playlist pitch (and have placed thousands and thousands of songs across just about every genre you can think of on playlists), what we love even more is making sure that where you’re putting your music marketing dollars will stretch it the furthest possible.

Let’s take a look at the breakdown of where your ad spend should typically go depending on different marketing objectives.

Artist Campaign Objective #1: Followers

If you’re looking for followers, Instagram ads are your best bet. People are more generous hitting the follow button on IG than any other platform, and we’ve spent well over $200,000 in ad spend on Facebook & Instagram to know this. 

YouTube would be the second best option because you can still add additional messaging to your videos such as pinned comments, end screens, descriptions, video cards, and intros and outros to influence listeners into hitting the subscribe button on your channel. 

Instagram influencer promotion may lead to some followers, but it is more volatile than running IG ads. 

All in all, here’s a standard recommended budget spend if followers are your main goal:

  • 50% of budget towards IG ads spend
  • 25% of budget towards YouTube promotion
  • 10-15% of budget towards Spotify promotion (this is done to help influence your audience, while Spotify playlist promotion yields much more saves than followers, having your numbers up on Spotify does influence how people perceive your music and the likelihood that they take you seriously as an artist)
  • 10-15% of budget towards IG influencer promotion or SoundCloud (for electronic genres) for testing purposes. If one of them starts to work better than another platform, then ad spend should be increased.

Artist Campaign Objective #2: Getting Signed

Getting signed is a complicated ordeal and there is no one set path that happens with it. However, there are things you can do to best help your chances. 

Having sales will trump having followers, so we recommend having a well functioning sales funnel where you can consistently sell show tickets, merchandise, and develop leverage for sponsorships and sync licensing deals. 

That being said, here’s what we advise:

  • 30% of budget towards IG/FB ads spend (IG is best for getting more followers, while Facebook can be better for closing sales with merchandise and tickets, but both should be tested)
  • 30% of budget towards Spotify (labels tend to check Spotify stats a little more than they should to be honest, so having your numbers up on Spotify will be important)
  • 20-25% of budget towards YouTube
  • 10-20% of budget towards IG influencer, TikTok or SoundCloud promotion for testing purposes

Artist Campaign Objective #3: Touring & Merchandise Sales

Selling show tickets & merch can be the bread and butter of revenue for indie artists. 

However, they are also a tough objective to achieve and require more relationship from the fan to the artist. 

  • 60% of budget towards IG/FB ads spend (need a working & advanced knowledge of sales funnels and marketing strategy to profitably do this. It’s highly advised to consult a professional service if interested in fully developing this strategy)
  • 25% of budget towards YouTube promotion
  • 10-15% of budget towards Spotify promotion (this is done to help influence your audience, while Spotify playlist promotion yields much more saves than followers, having your numbers up on Spotify does influence how people perceive your music and the likelihood that they take you seriously as an artist)
  • 5-10% of budget towards IG influencer promotion, TikTok or SoundCloud (for electronic genres) for testing purposes. If one of them starts to work better than another platform, then ad spend should be increased.

Artist Campaign Objective #4: Unique

At the end of the day, every artist and goal is unique, so feel free to ask questions in our live chat, send us an email (omarimc.com/contact) or schedule a call (omarimc.com/call) and we’ll advise on the best path for your specific goals. 


When your song is ready to go, it's time to start promoting it to potential fans! Omari has the best organic promotion services money can buy. With packages for Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, we will get your music the traffic and attention it deserves! Click below for more information.  


How This INDIE Artist Got Over 67,598,275 Streams On ONE Song

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RECENT ARTICLES

SPOTIFY CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES

*Here are some small samples of the playlists in our network. Obviously, we aren't able to share every single list for confidentiality reasons, but these are a handful of examples out of the hundreds of playlists we have in our network.*


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Contemporary Christian Music (33K Followers)

Louvores - Gospel (62K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Clean Rap & RNB (25K Followers)

Top Hits From New Artists (20K Followers)

Chill Music (38K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Today's Pop Hits (38K Followers)

Gaming Playlist & Workout Radio (23K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Forest Gump Soundtrack (50K Followers)

Stagecoach (15K Followers)

Best of Country Hits (2K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Acoustics For Relaxing (48K Followers)

Chill Music (9K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Hard Rock Workout (70K Followers)

Rock Hits (5K Followers)


Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Funky Songs Playlist (190K Followers)

Clean Rap & RNB (10K Followers)


[EDM/Future Bass] Melvin - Luv Again

Playlists This Song Was Featured In

Top Hits From New Artists (20K Followers)

Electro-mania (6K Followers)

Best Workout Playlist (14K Followers)


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SMALL CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES

MEDIUM CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES

[Hip Hop] K-Rich - We Workin  

LARGE CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES

[Hip Hop] Surve - Found My Way  


*Note: Songs may have ordered promotion from other sources as well. Small, medium, and large only denote the amount of promotion that was ordered from our service.  

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KID TRAVIS (R&B, POP)

With an already buzzing YouTube audience of over 400K+ subscribers, Kid Travis wanted his Instagram profile to start gaining some of that same traction.

While you can get some spill over audience from YouTube, Kid Travis knew that Instagram ad campaigns could boost his presence on IG even further!

He discovered that trying to run Instagram ads yourself vs. having us add our years of experience and expertise to them made a huge difference!

His main goal was to achieve new followers who are seriously interested in his journey as an artist.

Kid Travis already had amazing talent but needed to combine his music genius with some marketing expertise to get the best of both worlds.

We were able to bring out the heart of his music through paid ads by editing & optimizing his existing videos and properly researching and structuring his ad campaigns.

The end results: We were able to consistently and predictably gain followers averaging between $0.25-$0.35 per follower (including a bulk of the promotion being done in high cost English speaking countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Australia, & Canada) resulting in around 4,000 new, engaged followers/month on Instagram.

Kid Travis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidtravis/

Kid Travis YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kidtravisofficial


*Note: Previous campaigns are not a guarantee for results in future campaigns. However, we do our best to ensure each client gets the best results possible.  

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