How Much Time Should You Spend on Music Marketing? My Plan for 10, 25 and 50 Hours a Month

Be honest with yourself for a second. How many hours a month do you spend on music marketing?

If you have kids, a full-time job, an album to record, or just not enough hours in the day, this one is for you. Here's what I'd do with 10, 25 or 50 hours a month.

10 hours a month

This works out to about 20 minutes a day, or one focused Saturday morning. At this level, I'd keep it simple and outsource where I can.

• Playlist promotion. I'd use Playlist Push, SoundCampaign, or SubmitHub's "Choose for me" option to send my song to curators automatically. The key is picking the right genre, so the song gets in front of the right people.
• Ads. Ads take time to create and manage. With only 10 hours a month, I'd hire someone to run them for me. That's exactly what I do for artists with Song Growth Using Ads.
• Content. I'd spend one hour finding ideas, one to two hours recording, and about 30 minutes editing and posting. After every post, I'd spend a few minutes replying to comments and putting up a story.

25 hours a month

This works out to about 50 minutes a day, or two focused weekend mornings. At this level, I'd take more of the work into my own hands.

• Playlist promotion. I'd focus on SubmitHub and spend more time picking the right curators. I'd listen to each playlist before submitting, to make sure my song fits.
• Ads. I'd set aside a few hours a week to learn how to run ads myself. I'd create the ads and test different audiences. The first few weeks will be rough, but the more you test, the better and easier it gets. I recorded my whole system as a course called Label Level Ads, if you want to skip some of the guessing.
• Content. I'd spend more time looking for trending ideas from musicians who make music similar to mine, then one to two hours a week recording and one to two hours editing. After posting, I'd reply to people for a few minutes. At the end of every week, I'd look at what performed and use that data for the next week.

50+ hours a month

At this level, there is enough time to scale like a label.

• Playlists. I'd focus on growing my own playlists. Vibe playlists like gym, chill or road trip bring the right listeners to your music, and they attract fans who stick around. I explain why in what record labels quietly do with playlists. I'd also join platforms that pay you to review other musicians' songs, and put that money back into my career.
• Ads. Beyond running ads for my own music and playlists, I'd build more complex campaigns. I'd retarget every person who engaged with my page, create lookalike audiences to find more fans, and build a full ad system that keeps running over time.
• Content. I'd spend a few hours a week on ideas, recording, editing and posting, and mix up the content types: behind the scenes, song promotion, intro posts, covers of popular songs and personal stories. I'd post every single day and keep pushing.

If you have even more time

Here's what else is worth doing:

• Improve your website.
• Run a community on Discord or in a fan group.
• Build an email list and send newsletters. I wrote an email list playbook for musicians about this.
• Stream on Instagram or TikTok once a month.
• Make vlog-style YouTube videos.
• Collaborate with other musicians on features and remixes.
• Pitch your music for sync placements in TV, film and ads.
• Sell merch like T-shirts, vinyl or signed items.
• Shoot official music videos for your songs.
• Reach out to radio stations, blogs and music press. Here's how to get your music on local radio.
• Run a Patreon or membership for your superfans.
• Go to music conferences and networking events in person.
• Check your analytics every week and adjust your strategy.

The core stays the same

No matter how much time you have, the core stays the same: playlists, ads and content every month. The more time you put in, the bigger the results, and every tier still moves things forward.

Pick the tier that fits your life right now. You can always scale up when life opens up.

A content idea to try: the beat switch

A lot of musicians post raw performance videos with almost no editing, and there's a much more engaging way to do it.

Film two performance videos of the same song. Then, every time the beat hits, switch between them. It looks like you change position or outfit on every beat.

It only takes a few minutes to edit in CapCut, and it makes the video feel way more dynamic.