YouGrow Promo is a digital music marketing agency providing Spotify playlist services, YouTube ad services and TikTok / Instagram influencer services. In this post i’ll be reviewing their Spotify playlisting service specifically and showing you my results.
Spotify playlisting is one of the riskiest forms of music marketing because you have no idea how the user grew their playlists, or where the streams on that playlist are coming from. Even when you have the data from Spotify for Artists it can be hard to interpret and know if its legit or not. So is YouGrow Promo safe to use and legit?
Yes, from all the data i’ve seen in my test, YouGrow Promo’s Spotify playlist service is safe to use and completely legit.
While its technically impossible to know 100% for sure, I believe they’re a legit operation that provides exactly what they promise. In this post i’ll be showing you my data and analytics so you can make your own conclusions.
Learn more about YouGrow Promo here.
How This YouGrow Promo Review Happened
Funnily enough, this company hit me up via email a while ago and I dismissed them because I thought their name sounded sketchy. Eventually after talking to clients, friends and other Spotify playlist company owners I learned that they had a pretty good track record. So I hit them up.
I asked them for a free campaign on one of my songs and access to their affiliate program in exchange for a review. They have no editorial say over the content of my review, and they aren’t seeing the review until after its published.
Some people don’t trust people that use affiliate links, which I understand. However 90+% of my income comes from my own products and services, and less than 5% comes from affiliate revenue. As a result I would throw any company under the bus in a heartbeat to maintain the trust of my audience. If you still don’t believe me, don’t use my affiliate link.
If you’re looking for alternatives, there are also some others I can recommend:
Additionally, if you’re looking for a Facebook ads music marketing agency I own one called Forbid Media. Facebook ads are a much better long term investment into building your audience compared to playlist promotion.
Campaign Creation
Making a campaign with YouGrow is super easy. Right now they offer 4 Spotify packages:
- Starter – $77
- Rising Artist – $247
- Superstar – $617
- Megastar – $1097
Each package comes with a certain range of guaranteed streams. Which might make you wonder…
How can any company guarantee a certain number of streams?
I know several companies that do this and i’ve seen how it works behind the scenes. In a nutshell they know roughly how many streams each playlist gets in a certain period of time at certain locations on the playlist. The streaming volume on a playlist is constantly fluctuating so YouGrow doesn’t promise a specific number, they promise a range like ‘10,000 – 22,000‘ streams on their Rising Artist package.
If they can’t deliver enough streams for your song they either issue a partial or full refund.
Once you purchase your package you’re granted access to their dashboard. In here you’ll see your campaign manager, the status of your campaign and any playlists your song has been added to.
This Matthew guy hit me up 3 times through the campaign to let me know when it was started, and each playlist my song was added to. I gotta say their customer support seems to be pretty dialed in.
YouGrow Promo Spotify Campaign Results
The package YouGrow gave me was their Rising Artist 10,000 to 22,000 stream package, so this means they’re obligated to give me at least 10,000 streams but ideally more.
BTW I also made a video review of their service you can check out here:
In total they delivered 26,950 streams. Here is the breakdown of the two playlists they got my song on:
| Playlist | Followers | Streams | Listeners | Streams / Listener | List. / Follow. | Position |
| Workout Beast Mode | 139577 | 22602 | 14264 | 1.58 | 10.22% | 40 |
| Rocket League | 101900 | 4348 | 2926 | 1.49 | 2.87% | 36 |
| Total | Total | Total | Avg | Avg | Avg | |
| Total | 241477 | 26950 | 17190 | 1.57 | 7.12% | 38 |
| Cost | $247 | |||||
| Cost / Stream | $0.0092 | |||||
| Revenue | $88.94 | |||||
| Net | -$158.07 |
Keep in mind they did know ahead of time that I would be reviewing their service, so its possible they gave me a little bit extra knowing that. However from others i’ve talked to it sounds like they tend to deliver near the top end of the range they guarantee.
In this table I calculated the streams per listener and listeners per follow for each of the two playlists I was added to. The purpose of this is to gauge the activity of the playlists.
As is typical with Spotify playlisting, the results are very time-limited. When you get kicked off the playlists you’re back to pretty much where you started. Additionally, as is typical with Spotify playlisting the save rate is very low compared to ads.
With Facebook ads you tend to get a save rate greater than 50%, but with playlists you tend to get save rates of 5% or less.
In general this data was in line with my review of Indie Music Academy’s Spotify playlisting service, which you can reach more about here in my Indie Music Academy Spotify review.
YouGrow Promo Spotify Playlists
With Spotify playlisting services there are generally two types of companies out there:
- Those that own their own playlists
- Those that have a network of people who own playlists
YouGrow Promo seems to fall in the 2nd camp with a network of people who own playlists. This means you may see Spotify playlists you’ve been on from other playlist companies in the past.
One interesting fact… I was testing out another Spotify playlist company right after YouGrow Promo, and it turns out THAT company was utilizing YouGrow Promo. So it seems YouGrow Promo might actually white label their services to other companies.
Lets take a look at the specific playlists they got me on…
These are actually pretty great fits for this song. Its worth noting that I purposefully gave them a track that i’d consider to be slightly more difficult to place. The song is what I would call cyberpunk electronic rock – driving electronic synth lines and drums but with rock inspired vocals.
It totally makes sense that the song would show up in a workout playlist or various types of video game playlists. The other music in these playlists match up quite nicely for the most part.
YouGrow Promo Review Conclusions
Overall YouGrow Promo’s Spotify playlist service seems to be a legitimate option. If you’re looking for Spotify playlisting services I feel safe in recommending them. The data appears to be genuinely organic with no signs of bot activity or other fakery. While it’s technically impossible to know for sure, the diverse country / city spread, the reasonable engagement metrics for what is typical of playlisting imply that they’re playing fair.
I’ve recommended their service to friends and clients of mine already and I wouldn’t do that unless I felt it was legit. Just keep in mind it is still Spotify playlisting so it has all the pro’s and con’s of that, but you are getting what you pay for with YouGrow.
If you’d like to try YouGrow Promo yourself, consider using my affiliate link here.
Spotify Growth Machine
If you want to learn how to use Facebook ads to promote your music, a tool that i’ve used to generate over 100+ million Spotify streams for my clients then my course Spotify Growth Machine might be for you.
The exact methods I use in the course can also be applied to Apple Music and other streaming platforms if you wish. You can even use it to learn how to promote your own Spotify playlists!
