Top 12 Music Marketing Companies That Are Legit (2024)

Hey, I’m guessing you’re looking for music marketing help, so I’m going to get straight to it and give you my list of the top music marketing companies to work with (as of 2024):

1. Indie Music Academy
2. Playlist Push
3. YouGrow
4. Omari MC
5. Independent Music Promotions
6. Pressed PR
7. Cyber PR
8. Two Story Media
9. Tom Dupree III
10. simpl.
11. Venture
12. Groove Garden

A note before I get into the details: I’ve worked with seven of these companies personally, and the other four companies I’ve heard enough good things about to feel confident in recommending them. With that in mind, yes, some of the links here are affiliate links – because I truly think these guys are good.

Okay. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s address the elephant in the room: Music marketing is a super broad term.

And, practically, it means very different things to different people.

Personal example: I went to college for “Marketing”. Classes I took included Public Relations, Product Development, Market Research Methods, and Digital Marketing 101, all of which are wildly different sub-sectors of “marketing”. Then I went to work at a digital marketing agency and used exactly none of the skills that I’d been taught in school.

My point is that the word “marketing” can mean almost anything. So, I want to clarify what I’m using “music marketing” to mean here, and how that definition shapes the list of music marketing companies I’ve put together.

Let’s dive in…

What is music marketing?

Music marketing is the practice of bringing music to a market.

That definition is still really broad, I know. But a) it’s accurate, and b) defining the term this way ends up creating two questions that go a long way toward narrowing things down:

• To which market are you bringing music?
• How are you bringing the music to the market?

Answer these two questions, and you’ll know exactly what you’re doing.

And things get clearer fast from here – because, practically, most “music marketing” firms are geared toward helping you reach a market that would be interested in your music but hasn’t heard it yet. (There are some companies that help with marketing to existing fans, but, let’s be real, the core problem most musicians are trying to solve is, “How do I get more people to hear my music?”.)

The most common tactics for getting in front of new ears – the answers to “how are you bringing the music to the market?” – are the things I’m going to list below.

Most common music marketing tactics in 2024

1. Playlist promotion (usually on Spotify)
2. Influencer marketing (there’s overlap with this and playlist promo, but I’m talking Tik Tok and Instagram influencers with this)
3. Press promotion (getting your music covered in magazines, music blogs, and maybe podcasts)
4. Digital advertising (usually paid ads on Facebook Ads Manager, which serves to Instagram, or Google Ads, which serves to YouTube)
5. Sync licensing (placing music in commercials, TV shows, movies, video games, etc.)

Here’s where the rubber meets the road (and why I’ve taken so long on this somewhat rambling intro):

If you’re looking for music marketing in 2024, you’re almost definitely looking for firms that do one or more of the five things I’ve just listed above.

But there’s no firm that does all of these things well. Breaking things down this way will help you to evaluate which firm is the best fit for your needs.

With all of that said, it’s time to get into the list. Per the logic I’ve just laid out, you’ll see that I’ve grouped the 11 firms listed here according to the general categories of marketing they serve:

• Playlist / influencer marketing: Indie Music Academy, Playlist Push, YouGrow, Omari MC
• Press promotion (or PR): Independent Music Promotions, Pressed PR, Cyber PR, Two Story Media
• Digital advertising: Tom Dupree III, simpl., Venture
• Sync licensing: Groove Garden

The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t take the order of this list too seriously. I’m not necessarily saying that Indie Music Academy is ten spots better than Groove Garden; the companies do completely different work, and both are great at what they do.

If you want to work with a music marketing company, the key is to determine what music marketing you’re looking for, then identify the firm that you feel is the best fit.

Okay…

Here are the music marketing companies I recommend choosing from.

1. Indie Music Academy

These guys are my current top pick for Spotify playlist promotion – which, as of 2024, is probably the most common music marketing tactic being used by indie musicians. Spotify is just such a huge platform, and as a result, getting streams here is often the first thing artists think of when they think about growing their audience.

They’re my top pick because they’re great at getting artists legitimate, organic streams. (Read: streams from real people, not bots.)

And I’m not just blowing smoke, as you’ll see if you click through to their site. Indie Music Academy’s sales page does a great job of explaining their approach, and this incredibly thorough Google Doc that they’ve put together outlines their playlist screening process in more detail than I’ve seen from any other playlist promotion service.

When you market your music with Spotify playlist promotion, the quality of the playlists you get on is what matters most for your success – and Ryan Waczek (founder of Indie Music Academy, above-average hair) – is one of the people I trust the most to deliver quality placements.

Packages start at $297 for 10,000 guaranteed streams and go up from there. If you want to reach new ears on Spotify…

You can give Indie Music Academy’s Spotify promotion a try here.

2. Playlist Push

Based on my personal experience, Playlist Push is another top-tier option for Spotify promotion.

Unlike Indie Music Academy, Playlist Push uses an automated system to pitch your music; you won’t really get personal contact when you use their service. But the platform they’ve built is really slick, and, importantly, the playlists that they pitch to are solid.

I recently ran a campaign with them for around $325 that generated 40,000 streams – and, more importantly, a longer-term algorithmic boost. (You can read the in-depth review of that experience here.) Those numbers are great, but they weren’t guaranteed; unlike most of the other services listed here, Playlist Push doesn’t promise any results. They simply pitch your music to their network and see what happens.

This makes them a bit of a risk. But I’ve found that with strong, mostly-mainstream songs, they’re often one of the most cost-efficient options.

You can give Playlist Push’s Spotify promotion a try here.

(Worth noting that they also offer Tik Tok influencer promotion, but I haven’t tried that service yet.)

3. YouGrow

YouGrow is another solid option for Spotify playlist promotion. I ran a mid-level campaign with them (currently priced at $217, which is really good) and got around 10,000 streams. That’s on the low end of what they guarantee on their sales page, but it’s still pretty good, and from what we saw in the backend, the numbers were real-person, non-bot organic.

The one drawback was that we got a couple of weird placements, including a spot on a playlist called 2000s Throwbacks. Our track was released in 2021 and wasn’t a throwback at all, so that was a strange context. But Matt (who works on their Spotify team) was very communicative and open about the nature of the placements; he gave us the option to remove any listing we wanted to.

We kept everything, and it worked out okay – most of the placements were great, and from what we saw, all of the streams were legit.

Bottom line, these guys do legitimate promo and communicate really professionally.

Like Playlist Push, they also offer Tik Tok influencer promotion – and they offer YouTube ads. I haven’t tried them for either of those offerings, but based on my experience working with them on Spotify, I’d say that if you’re searching for an agency that offers a wide suite of services, these guys are worth a look.

Try YouGrow here.

4. Omari MC

Ah, Omari MC – the OG. If you’ve googled “music marketing” (or anything remotely related to music, it feels like), you’ve probably stumbled across these guys.

It’s for good reason – they know what they’re doing.

I’ve run a number of campaigns with Omari over the past few years, and I can testify that they do deliver real results. Here’s an in-depth breakdown / review we put together from the last time we used their Spotify service. TL;DR – the results weren’t spectacular, but they were very solid. I’ve spoken personally with Omari multiple times over the years, and I can attest that a) he’s a good guy and b) he knows a ton about music marketing.

I think the two biggest selling points for Omari are:

Efficiency. These guys have promoted an absurd amount of music, and as a result, their processes are very streamlined. They’re not the most personal, but they might be the most efficient.

Breadth of services. Omari does pretty much every kind of music marketing except for sync licensing. That includes Spotify promotion, influencer marketing, Facebook and Instagram ads, Google ads, and hiring those sign-spinning guys you see on street corners. (Kidding on that last one.) The benefit of this is that you can get a lot of what you need done in one place.

Click here to give Omari MC a try.

5. Independent Music Promotions

Okay, the previous four companies on the list are best known for their Spotify playlist promotions. Now, we’re moving into a different branch of music marketing: press promotion, or, as its affectionately known in acronym form, music PR.

I’ve listed Independent Music Promotions here because they’re one of the best companies I’ve seen in getting press coverage for meaningful music – what they term “music with depth.”

If you’re making generic pop music, you should steer clear. But if you’re in kind of a niche genre (and, most importantly, if you’re putting a ton of heart into your music), these guys are an outstanding option.

Independent Music Promotions is founded by James Moore, who I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing (and who’s been kind enough to interview me). He’s good at what he does.

Press packages start at $795 and come with 10 guaranteed press placements, which is really solid. They also do some targeted advertising for most of their campaigns, so you’re getting promo in a few different categories when you work with them.

Give Independent Music Promotions a try here.

Oh, and bonus: If you mention code “TWOSTORY” when you reach out, you’ll get a 5% discount. Every little bit helps, right?

6. Pressed PR

The aptly-named Pressed PR is another great option for press coverage. The agency was founded by Dawn Jones, who is an expert at PR and also literally the first person I talked to about press promotion when I was working on founding my own firm.

Dawn is great.

Pressed PR is marketed toward the “independent creative,” so if you’re an indie musician, they’re worth a look. Click through to their homepage, and you’ll see that their clients have been featured in places like American Songwriter, Billboard, Huff Post, Forbes, Earmilk, and a ton of other awesome outlets – any of which are huge wins for indies. And, in addition to straight PR, they also offer branding services, including imagery and live photo work.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for indie PR, add this firm to your list.

Check out Pressed PR here.

7. Cyber PR

Okay, so I don’t actually know Ariel Hyatt (the founder and president of Cyber PR), but her written work has been a huge help for me as I’ve navigated the PR game myself. In fact, if you’re on the fence about paying someone and are looking to do PR yourself, I’d recommend two things: 1) Take my free mini-course called How to Get Covered in Music Blogs, and 2) get Ariel’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity.

I’m slightly biased, but I think both are absolutely worth your time.

In addition to straight press promotion, Cyber PR also offers what they call “Musician’s Total Tuneups“, which are “personalized artist development” plans. I love this, because it goes a long way toward making the investment in PR actually count; it’s easy to spend money on press without a plan to translate the results into career growth.

Long-story-short, these guys are good for indie artists, as their case studies attest.

Check out Cyber PR here.

8. Two Story Media

Ah, you caught me; yes, I’m adding my own marketing company to this list of the top music marketing companies.

But hey, I made the list, so here we are.

Anyway, as I’ve already admitted, I am slightly biased, but I think we do good work. Our focus is on working closely with a a handful of clients (i.e., we’re a boutique firm). This means that we don’t have a ton of spots available, but it also means that our relationships are hands-on and meaningful.

We do a little bit of everything, but our focus tends to be on digital strategy, social, and Spotify promotion.

What else? Well, we’re affordably priced, and also, I think are materials are phenomenally written, and also, I think we’re pretty enjoyable to work with.

But, one more time, I’m biased.

You can check out our packages here.

9. Tom Dupree III

Okay, with Tom we’re moving on from PR and into the realm of paid advertising. And Tom Dupree II is very good at paid advertising.

I first found Tom on YouTube, where I followed a bunch of his advice / tutorials to adjust my own ad campaigns. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him and connecting in more detail, which only confirmed my original impression: He knows his stuff.

Tom’s primarily focused on Spotify growth using Facebook ads, most often in conversion campaigns. You can check out his modes of work here. He has a limited capacity (especially compared to some of the bigger agencies on this list), but one more time: He’s very good.

10. simpl.

Paid social ads are what simpl. does best.

For transparency’s sake, I haven’t worked with these guys personally, but I’ve run PR for artists that have, and I’ve heard good things. Here’s the basic offering: They create Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube ads to boost streams and social followers. And their ads work well, according to the case studies on the homepage.

This marketing tactic – paid advertising – is like the original marketing tactic. These days, with everything measured on digital platforms, it’s easier than ever to track your ROAS (return on ad spend), but it’s still dang complicated to get efficient results. Google Ads and Facebook Ads Manager are deceptively difficult platforms to use, and running things incorrectly can result in a lot of wasted money.

Working with simpl. is one way to make sure things go right.

You can check out simpl. here.

11. Venture

Venture is another company I’ve heard good things about when it comes to running paid ad campaigns. Now, paid ads aren’t all they do – actually, they do pretty much everything except sync, including Spotify playlist promo, tour promotion, email marketing, and radio campaigns. But I’m grouping them here because, from what I’ve heard / can tell, their focus is on digital strategy, which tends to heavily feature paid ads.

All of that said, they appear to be real good at it.

Their client list is certainly impressive; they’ve worked with a wide range of artists, including Larkin Poe, Meg Myers, and Moon Taxi. It’s worth noting that they’re based in Nashville, which is awesome for building indie music industry connections. But they do seem to work with artists from anywhere.

Check out Venture here.

12. Groove Garden

All right, I’m ending this list with my go-to recommendation for sync licensing: Groove Garden.

As I mentioned at the outset, I’m not listing this firm last because they’re the worst firm on this list; they’re just doing sync licensing, which is completely different from the other marketing tactics listed here. (Sync licensing is the practice of getting music placed in TV shows, movies, commercials, etc.)

And from what I’ve seen, they’re doing it well.

I first heard of this firm when they placed one of my friends in Marvel’s show The Punisher. It was a super sweet placement, and since then I’ve connected with Melissa (who’s the founder of the company) and been impressed with their approach. Cool thing: They don’t charge anything until you get a song placed, so there’s literally no risk to working with them.

But they are pretty selective with what they take on.

If you want to see if you’d be a good fit…

Check out their site here.

Final thoughts on music marketing

We’ve covered my top firms for music marketing in 2024. I hope you find this list helpful – and while choosing the right fit depends on your needs, I’m confident that any of these companies will be able to serve you well.

I want to end with this: Marketing can be a grind, but ultimately, it can lead to real connection with real people who appreciate your music.

And that’s worth it.

Good luck!

Oh, and let me know in the comments if you’ve had experiences with any of the firms listed here – I’m always looking to keep this up-to-date.