Music Marketing & Spotify Promotion Specialist for New Artist EP Launch

Music Marketing & Spotify Promotion Specialist for New Artist EP Launch I am looking for an experienced music marketing specialist to develop and execute the launch campaign for a new independent country music project. The initial engagement will cover the release of a 3-song EP on September 21, 2026, followed by two additional singles released one week apart. If the relationship works well, there is an opportunity for substantial ongoing work. I currently have more than 20 release-ready songs and expect to continue releasing new music regularly. This is a new artist/project with essentially no existing audience, so I am not looking for someone simply to manage an established fan base. I want someone who has experience building an audience for independent music from the ground up. The primary goal is to introduce the music to people who are genuinely likely to enjoy it and convert those people into Spotify listeners, saves, followers, repeat listeners, playlist adds, website visitors and eventually fans. I am much more interested in building a legitimate audience than generating impressive-looking but meaningless stream counts. The music is primarily contemporary/traditional country, country rock and singer-songwriter material, with some beach/coastal-country songs as well. What I need I am looking for someone who can take ownership of the marketing strategy and execution surrounding these first releases. Depending on your expertise, that may include: * Developing an overall launch strategy for the EP and subsequent singles. * Planning and managing Meta/Instagram/Facebook advertising campaigns designed specifically to generate qualified music listeners. * Determining the appropriate audiences, targeting strategy, geographic markets and campaign objectives. * Setting up and managing appropriate smart-link/landing-page funnels to Spotify and other streaming platforms. * Creating a testing strategy for different songs, video creatives, hooks, audiences and ad copy. * Monitoring campaigns and reallocating spending toward the songs, creatives and audiences that are actually performing. * Developing an appropriate Spotify strategy, including Spotify for Artists, editorial pitching, Release Radar considerations and legitimate independent-playlist opportunities. * Advising on TikTok, YouTube/Shorts and other channels where they make sense. * Developing retargeting campaigns for people who engage with the music or advertising. * Helping determine which metrics actually matter and providing understandable reporting on campaign performance. * Advising me on what promotional assets should be created for each release. I am already creating the underlying visual identity and artwork for the songs. I also have lyric videos for each song consisting of lyrics over a static image related to each song. I do need this person to be able to create short-form video assets using the song artwork, typically 15-second animated clips in vertical and horizontal formats. I am looking for someone who knows what makes music advertising creative effective and can tell me what we should test. The project The concept is somewhat different from a traditional artist. I write the songs, including the lyrics and underlying song concepts, and use AI-assisted tools as part of the music production process. The project may therefore use different vocalists/voices from song to song rather than presenting one individual singer as the artist. I am not trying to conceal the use of AI. At the same time, I don’t want the marketing campaign to revolve around AI. I want the songs to succeed or fail primarily based on whether people connect with the writing and music. It must be emphasized that I write the lyrics on my own and sing an initial version of each song to establish melody and rhythm. Because of this, experience marketing a music project/brand rather than an individual performer’s personality would be particularly valuable. The music is or will be distributed to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and the other major streaming services. I also have a dedicated artist website that will serve as a central home for the project and individual songs. What I am NOT looking for This is important. I am not interested in buying streams, bots, artificial engagement, guaranteed playlist placements, questionable playlist networks or anything that could violate Spotify’s terms or jeopardize the artist account. Please do not apply if your primary strategy is selling a package promising a certain number of streams or playlist placements. I am looking for real marketing to real potential listeners. I am also not looking for someone whose experience consists primarily of general social-media management for restaurants, real estate agents, ecommerce companies, etc. General digital-marketing experience is useful, but I specifically want someone who understands how music discovery and streaming conversion work. Ideal candidate You should have demonstrated experience promoting releases for independent musicians, preferably in country, Americana, singer-songwriter, rock or related genres. Strong candidates will have experience with: * Meta Ads Manager * Instagram/Facebook advertising * Spotify marketing and Spotify for Artists * Music-specific conversion campaigns * Smart links/landing pages * Audience and creative testing * Retargeting * Spotify and streaming analytics * YouTube and/or TikTok music promotion * Building an audience for an artist who starts with few or no followers Experience with platforms/services such as Feature.fm, Hypeddit, Linkfire, SubmitHub, Groover or similar music-marketing tools is useful, but I am not committed to any particular platform. I want recommendations based on what is most likely to work. What I’d like from you When applying, please don’t send me a generic marketing proposal. Instead, briefly tell me: 1. About 2–3 independent artists or releases you have personally marketed, preferably starting from a relatively small audience. 2. What you actually did for those campaigns. 3. Approximately what advertising budget was used and what results were achieved. 4. Your experience specifically with Meta advertising that sends listeners to Spotify. 5. How you measure whether a music campaign is succeeding beyond simply counting streams. 6. How you would approach launching an artist that currently has essentially no audience or social-media following. 7. Whether you see any particular opportunities or challenges in marketing a project like Ivy Hill Project, where the songs are human-written but the recordings use AI-assisted production and may feature different voices. 8. What you would recommend doing during the 2–4 weeks before the September 21 release, on release day, and during the weeks immediately afterward. 9. Whether you would personally execute the advertising campaigns or whether any portion of the work would be outsourced to someone else. 10. Your proposed fee for managing the initial campaign, separate from the advertising/media budget. Please include links or screenshots showing actual campaign results where possible. I am particularly interested in seeing conversion costs, listener growth, saves, followers or other meaningful results, rather than simply total impressions or views. Initial scope and potential ongoing work The initial project is the September 21 three-song launch plus the next two releases. However, this is not intended to be a one-off release. I currently have approximately 22 songs that I believe are ready for release, and I expect to write approximately one additional release-worthy song per month. My tentative release strategy is to build the catalog relatively quickly following the initial launch and then maintain a regular release schedule. Therefore, if we work well together and the campaigns demonstrate that they are reaching legitimate listeners efficiently, this can develop into an ongoing relationship covering future releases throughout 2026 and 2027. I am willing to spend real money to give the project a legitimate opportunity, but I want to spend it intelligently. I am looking for someone who will treat the advertising budget as if it were their own—testing first, analyzing the results, and scaling what works rather than simply spending the allotted amount. Ultimately, I’m looking for a music-marketing partner who understands both the creative side and the numbers and can help me figure out how to turn good songs from an unknown project into songs that find the people most likely to appreciate them.