Arist, engineer, manager—no matter how you fit in the music industry, figuring out how to get more followers on Spotify is probably high up there on your list of goals. It is for Jake Vicious, the engineer-turned-manager who’s worked on tracks for everyone from Ty Dolla $ign to Post Malone. 

“I enjoyed a few years making truly amazing albums,” Vicious tells ToneDen, “with some of the industry's best artists … and working on music for brands like HBO, Showtime, REVOLT, Abercrombie and Fitch, and BET.”

Vicious brings that know-how to the latest phase in his music-industry odyssey. As CMO of Vision Management/Blaze Unlimited, he’s guiding artists and entrepreneurs, helping “their creativity reach farther then they can imagine.”

Farther is synonymous with followers, which is why Vicious relies extensively on ToneDen for his creative marketing and campaign rollouts. “I actually stumbled across ToneDen while looking for a way to better run SmartLinks for my artists,” he admits. “Little did I know ToneDen would cover a lot more.”

ToneDen Twitch Delivers an AHA Moment 

Vicious’s career began in 2010, when he interned at D.C.-based House Studio. He soon found himself head engineer in sessions with R&B and Hip-Hop megastars like Faith Evans and BOB.

That behind-the-scenes experience has been invaluable at Vision Management, where he works with artists ranging from alt-pop, Americana-influenced Emma Remelle to hip-hop, R&B-inspired Louie Bagz.

Vicious likens his pre-ToneDen marketing efforts to “trying to fight a forest fire with a garden hose.” With the platform, though, he suddenly found himself staying on top of Facebook and Instagram ads. 

“Little did I know ToneDen would cover a lot more.”

Then he heard about the Spotify Growth Playbook, which helps managers like Vicious run campaigns to grow their artists’ Spotify followers and get their tracks playlisted. 

“I watched one of the Twitch videos when ToneDen was just rolling out the Spotify playbook,” Vicious says. “I realized how valuable being able to track that second conversion is.”

Vicious’s Spotify Growth Playbook Experience: Massive Results (with Minimal Budgets) 

Vicious took us behind the scenes to discuss the music marketing process from a manager’s perspective:

“It starts with a bit of research and a pre-launch meeting where I will walk the artist through a mock-setup of a campaign. Once we establish a baseline (budget, basic artist comps), then I usually have the artist and their team make their own ads/creative. But since stumbling into the ToneDen universe, I have become quite handy with in-video as well. Once we have two options for creative we love, ToneDen does the rest!”

Vicious used the Spotify Growth Playbook in conjunction with the title single on pop artist Matt Thompson’s debut album “No Shame.” A breakout hit, “No Shame” has racked up more than 1 million streams; the album has gotten more than 2.2 million streams—and attracted listeners around the world. 

Spotify Growth Campaign Insights

Vicious counts ToneDen as a factor in that success. He spent roughly $350 on a Matt Thompson Spotify Growth campaign that ran for four weeks (i.e., ~ $90 per week). With the campaign, Vicious ran an Instagram Stories ad featuring an evocative image of Matt Thompson and a simple swipe-up directive that sent fans to Thompson’s artist profile on Spotify. From there, they could listen to the track, explore Thompson’s album, and, of course, follow him.

Over the course of the campaign, Matt Thompson added more than 4,100 new Spotify Followers—at just $0.09 per follower. Vicious was blown away. “Seeing results like this on micro budgets encourages the artists to take more control of their digital marketing, and ultimately, their careers.”

Spotify Growth Audience Targeting

“More Trackable, More Achievable” 

ToneDen has been a game-changer for Vicious, his artists, and his management firms. He would recommend the Spotify Growth Playbook to “most serious creatives or businesses that want to have a wake in the digital advertising space.”

For Vicious, the key is in the data. Being able to track the efficiency of his advertising helps him be sure his artists’ creativity lands with the right listeners and sees commensurate results on Spotify. 

Vicious is hooked. “ToneDen gives specific structure to our marketing plans now that makes our success more trackable, and therefore more achievable.”

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