In my own inbox, I receive dozens of e-mails from music promotion curators as I know many of you do as well. Sometimes they skip the e-mail and jump right into my DM’s on Instagram or otherwise. For the most part, I tend to ignore these messages because I’m always certain that they’re just trying to lure me into their paid promotion service that may or may not have any impact on how many listeners are reaching my music.

But I, like you, am human, and sometimes it’s not quite so easy to spot the red flags. So let’s talk about them.

Today I’m going to take you through a hypothetical and along the way I’m going to ask you if you opt in or opt out of the opportunity.

By the end of the scenario, I’m going to ask you if you believe this promotion opportunity is legitimate.

Here’s the situation.

The Lure

You open your e-mail to find an unopened message. It appears to be from Spotify. It says Spotify For Artists in big bold letters which you, as an independent artist on Spotify know to be Spotify’s artist management platform.

The subject line says something like, “Your music has been drafted!”

Inside the body of the e-mail, which is a newsletter type e-mail complete with a big image of the curators Spotify playlist showing its extensive listener base it says something like, “Your song has been scouted for a placement.” And goes on to say something like, “Your fine music has gotten on our minds and has been selected by the team for the fine playlists with a reach of 50K+ engagement.”

There’s a button to DM them which will take you outside of the e-mail and into Instagram or another platform where you’ll be amazed to see that they have a huge following and appear to work with a lot of great artists.

Do you opt-in and send them a DM?

For the purpose of the hypothetical I’m going to assume you do.

The DM’s

You reach out, but you’re going to try and do your due diligence here. After all, they said your music was scouted which should mean that they have a sense of what you do, what you sound like and a reason for why they think your music is a great fit for their playlist, right? They were so enamoured with your sound that they wanted to help you out because ultimately, they want to be part of your team – you’re going places, baby! They don’t want to be left behind, so they’re going to be willing to engage with you about these important questions.

So you start with a logical question and icebreaker message and then you’ll see how it plays out from there.

You: Hey. Got an e-mail from you guys. What’s the scoop on the playlist I’ve apparently been scouted for? Can I get more info? Thanks”

Short. To the point. We’re not here to waste their time because their service is so valuable to us.

Them: Hey wassup fam “Congrats you got SCOUTED (Fire Emoji)” and we just had a look on your music and really enjoyed the vibe plus we gotta get it playlisted in our premium curator platlists (strong arm emoji) Lmk if you are down for that (salute emoji). And it’d be much appreciated if you gave us a follow back!

You heart emoji the message so they know you read it and are still interested.

You: Would love to learn more, how do you get on the playlist? Like do I have to send you a link or something or did you guys already pick a track

For all they know, this is your first time being scouted to the big Spotify leagues. Let them teach you.

The following message comes back in two large chunks and in rapid succession, suggesting these are pre-written scripts they have copy and pasted from a previously developed document.

Them: Let me tell you a bit about your company fam!We are known for our Spotify campaigns, they are out most popular service. We have access high grade curatorial playlists + we run advanced targeting softwares and Facebook ads that capture an audience and bring them to your music. 100% organic traffic.

Them: We have access to over 15-20 different curator playlists with different genres in which your track will be playlisted according to the vibe of it. But basically your tracks should be playlsited in atleast 2-3 of the curator playlists by the end of the month. (Green check mark emoji)
And each of our playlists is doing 70-90k monthly listeners so you can expect 100% organic and legit grwoth plus we’ll be sharing the progress report as well at the end of your campaign fosho (Strong arm emoji. Rocketship emoji)

You: I’m sure there is more?

They heart emoji your message. You are so close to getting a playlist, fam!

They reply directly to your previous message.

Them: We’ll just need a small budget to fund the FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM ads for your campaign and also to pay the PLACEMENTS fee (Salute emoji)

Also know that the budget is really a small fee but the return will be huge and you’re gonna get the insane ROI as well (Hand creating a heart emoji. Rocketship emoji)

Let’s talk brass tax, fam.

You: And what’s the fee?

Them: Lemme explain

Yeah that’s what we’re here for.

Them: The curator’s fee is around 12$ a day but since you’re a scouted artist you get a discount of 20% so it’s comes out to 8$ a day for u (Hang ten emoji)

Let’s get it started and the growth is guaranteed. Plus we do not need any cut from your royalties (Rocketship emoji. Strong arm emoji)

Them: Our standard plan starts with 30 days and expected growth is 50k+ streams + Engagement (Rocketship emoji)

Premium & Pro plan starts with 45-60 days expected growth is 70k-150k organic streams + Engagement (Rocketship emoji, Rocketship emoji)

Minimum you can go with 10-12 days campaign expected growth is 8k-12k streams.

Can we all take a moment to reflect on how the English is getting progressively lazier the longer you speak with this curator?

You: Ok I think I understand

You: But as far as like how I was scouted like how does that happen, did you just come up on my Spotify page or did that happen over Instagram?

Them: We have links with many inhouse curators on Spotify

Them, replying to your ‘I think I understand message directly’: Choose your plan and let’s get started

You, replying to their ‘We have links with many inhouse curators on Spotify’ message directly: That doesn’t answer my question?

You: Just trying to understand the process before I jump into it all.

Maintain innocence.

They heart emoji both your messages. They understand completely.

Them, repying to your ‘That doesn’t answer my question?’ message directly: Bro we have links with many curators and distributors as well

Them: And through out them you have been scouted and one of our team members checked your music and saw potential in you

Them: Let’s get it and make some big moves (Rocket ship emoji)

Them: We usually run Advanced organic targeting campaigns. 1st thing that we do, is target your audience. Thats the main ingredient in the whole recipe . We have our own insights and strategies that we use to pull your targeted audience (rocket ship emoji). We see what kind of people are listening to your songs ,what’s the average gender ,what’s their ethnic background , their age , their location and everything . We collect all the small data and we use that to optimise your campaign.

You, replying directly to their message about being scouted again: I’d just like to know how they found my music

Them: After visiting your socials

You: Like this one right here that I’m messaging from?

They heart emoji your message. Of course bro.

Them: Yeah absolutely

You: And they went through and liked the songs I post here?

You: Have you seen my page?

You may have guessed already but in face when I say “You” I mean me and when I say things like ‘Have you seen my page’ it’s because something isn’t quite adding up here and I’m waiting to see if they’re able to figure it out.

Let’s reflect for a moment on the information we’ve been given so far. Based on what you were told today, would you opt in or opt out of this Spotify playlist? Did you do the math on those campaigns or were you so eager to get started and reach the next tier of success that you just agreed to it before seeing how expensive that 30 day term would be?

They reply directly to your previous message: Yessirr

They keep calling me bro or fam or sir, why is this also so common among these Spotify For Artists curators?

You/Me: Cool so you know I don’t have any original music through this page then right?

You/Me: You know that I run a music website that features other artists and posts about interactions like this one right?

Silence.

You carry about your evening waiting for their response before reaching out again. Surely by now they know you’re not interested, but you want to know more.

You: Would you say that your messages to me have been at the very least disingenuous?

You: Would you say that perhaps you are acting in bad faith by suggesting my music was scouted given that I don’t have any music on platforms under this moniker?

You: Some might read these messages and believe youa re scamming independent artists? Do you have any comment?

Them: Nah bro

Them: A shell of what could be got scouted from one of our team members

What the hell does that mean?

Them: We have team of 8 guys

Them: And we based in UK and USA

Is this supposed to make me feel better? Also, I’m not sure I believe it based on the messages.

Them: And we’re not here from scam an upcoming artist like you

An upcoming artist like a music website? Are they even reading my messages?

Them: Really apologies if something went wrong

Them: We can work with your artist and help to achieve their goals

What do we think? Sincere? Do we opt-in or opt-out?

We opt-out.

You/Me: That makes zero sense

It’s at this point I really need to highlight the fact that the initial e-mail, the one that brought us to this conversation, is not tied to any of my original music. So what was scouted and how still remains a mystery because it simply would never happen in that way.

You/Me: If you really scouted a single damn thing then you’d be able to tell me a song and artist name.

At bare minimum.

You/Me: Instead you tried to lie about it.

You/Me: Shameful honestly.

I’m smdh.

You/Me: You’d be all “Wassup fam! I LOVED your album The Clearing available on all streaming services especially your song CAMP and we want to feature you on a playlist!”

You/Me: Which is also just generally not how this business works, fam

Them: Alright fam

You/Me: Also I don’t know why nobody has told you this but using a bunch of little emojis on your sad pitch doesn’t make me trust you more

Them: Alright fam

You/Me: I’ll be posting about you publicly and sharing this conversation so people can judge for themselves if they think you’re running a legitimate business. Have a blessed day fam

Them: Alright

Guess we’re not fam anymore. (Sad face with single tear drop emoji)

So, you’ve done your best due diligence. Do you think this Spotify For Artists curator is running a legitimate business?

What are some key considerations that we didn’t even look into yet in this totally hypothetical scenario?

Considerations

A) We already spoke about how the person sending the initial e-mail lists their name as “Spotify For Artists”, but their e-mail comes from a very vague marketing agency e-mail. Something like theteam @ the quantum marketing agency . com.

B) The playlist itself has a vague title, something like Kingston Hits run by some user called spicy chill or mild heat. It’s full of songs by popular artists like Machine Gun Kelly and Taylor Swift. Over 37,000 people apparently like this playlist.

When you search for it on Spotify, it doesn’t come up in the same way its viewed in the e-mail.

Instead you see multiple playlists with the same name by different users and… wait what’s that?

Here’s a sample of what comes up when you search for Kingston Hits:

kingston hits by Mea Hill, Kingston Hits by Byron Johnson, Kingston’s Hits by Lindsay Yarnold, Spicy Chill by becstevenson, Kingstons hits by daveijordan-us, Kingston hits by Sawyerdill, Kingston’s Hits by elijah.york32

No Kingston Hits by spicy chill.

C) They used a lot of buzz words to try and sell their expertise but used them in such a way that I as someone even with a fairly limited experience running ads know is just to try and give themselves credibility and is basically meaningless. Organic, Engagement, Explaining the parameters of running an ad, and so on.

D) When questioned, they couldn’t point to what music led them to scout me in the first place. When pressed further, they explained they wouldn’t know because they have a team of 8 people doing this. A whole 8. Surely there is some sort of group chat where they’d be able to ask their team who is the one that sent me the pitch?

E) They also made the claim that they work directly with members of Spotify’s curator team. Do we think these messages are how Spotify find artists to feature? Seems unlikely.

They also made the claim that they’re based in the USA and UK without my asking which generally is to lend some sort of credibility. I’m willing to bet they’re not based in either.

F) The website that they send the e-mail from is listed as being created for free using Wix. Now, I’m not here to shame Wix but there is something to be said about how many of these types of e-mails or promotion services utilize free website services like Wix to host their services. The thing about Wix is it’s very easy to set up and very easy to take down if you need to jump to a new web address for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on at the moment.

G) Legitimate marketing agencies DO exist and do require fees for their services, but you’re unlikely to find them cold-messaging artists or potential clients in this way. It’s just not generally how it goes down.

E) The e-mail directed you to Instagram instead of offering a phone number or an e-mail to speak with the team who scouted you. Anytime anyone reaching out to you tries to redirect you out of the platform they messaged you on, it’s a big red flag. It makes it more challenging to keep a paper trail and any legitimate business knows those paper trails are important.

I could go on, but what do you think?

If you saw a similar e-mail like this, what stands out to you? What makes you think it’s legitimate or illegitimate?

If legitimate, what do you think I missed or misunderstood?

If you fell into the camp that believes this is an illegitimate opportunity, how can we best combat music promotion companies that are preying on artists in this way?

What other types of scams do you find prevalent in the indie music community?

Let us know in the comments.