Marquee, Spotify's latest personalized advertising, has proven to be an upcoming essential marketing tool to promote eligible new releases. But for independent artists, the cost of exposure is getting more about investments, rather than direct income from their streams. Some may find it worth the splurge some may not but let’s see what are the pros and cons about it. If you’re also curious about other Spotify tools, check out our review on Spotify Ads. The Pros Non-intrusive to listeners Unlike advertising on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, where you have to compete amongst other clutters that are not just music. Spotify Marquee ads are concise “pop-ups'' that are relevant to your chosen audience who have shown interest in your music already on the platform. With a simple click and no complicated app-switching, listeners engage with your music right away. An exposure investment Marquee is an effective tool when it comes to the first weeks of your latest release, leading to a growing fanbase, and has long-term upward effects on growing streams to your entire discography. To learn more about this, check out our music release guide. You should think of it as a music marketing investment rather than concretely help you climb charts like getting editorial playlisted. The goal of Marquee is to raise awareness of your music and have the potential to maintain existing engagement. Boost streams for your entire body of work Not only does it drive traffic to the track itself, but it also has proven the chances that your listeners will go through your entire discography. Spotify has shown that each listener didn’t just stream the advertised release, but also an additional 17 tracks in their artist’s body of work, much more effective than getting playlisted where it's isolated to one song. The Cons Cater to big labels If you’re a small and upcoming artist, this tool is not for you. Smaller independent musicians who might be having trouble supporting themselves through their music are excluded from the feature because of the fixed fee. Not only do smaller artists have smaller budgets but also less exposure. As a result, only the large label and big-budget musicians can fully utilize it. Marquee, like other advertising technologies, is unable to guarantee that it will increase the number of long-term listeners unless all recipients of pop-up recommendations become immediate fans. Require prior digital marketing knowledge The data & statistics that Marquee campaigns have shown can be tempting to artists to rush to the feature, but this is limited to experienced digital marketing analysis, as cases vary and you should seek the correct form of advertising for your current release. To learn more, check out our extensive guide on music promotion. Many articles have stated that the tool is proven to be more efficient than advertising on social media and even conflicts with previous tools the platform offered, which can do more harm than good if misunderstood as Marquee is the only tool you have to invest in. Inflexible budget Many beta users report that Spotify is actually taking $0.50 per click. Even though that doesn’t seem much, the problem here is that the price is a flat fee, $250 per campaign. Hence, you are obligated to have at least 150 streams to get back the money you invest. With other platforms such as Base for Music, you have a range of budgets that you can pick while Spotify Marquee only has a fixed fee of $250. As a result, it will be difficult for upcoming artists to decide whether to invest or not as no one wants to drop $250 without knowing whether it will work. The Verdict If you’re already an established artist with a big budget and only need to alert your new release, Marquee can be worthy of investment. If not, we would suggest going for another platform such as Base for Music to help you gain streams and fans. Base for Music can simplify the process of running ads with a few clicks. Through Base for Music - generating sponsored campaigns across popular social networks such as Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, and Spotify. Sign up for your free account today!
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