Content (S Tier)

This is the absolute backbone. In the video, this was even moved up from A to S Tier because, along with ads, it's one of the cheapest and most essential strategies [00:29:36].

• Ungatekept: Every artist can start with content, regardless of budget. No one can stop you from making and posting [00:03:10].
• The Foundation: Half the other strategies on this list (ads, seeding, influencers, clipping) cannot even begin if you don't have good content to fuel them [00:04:13].
• Own Your Channel: Owning your own distribution channel (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram) gives you control and longevity. You aren't at the mercy of a playlist curator or a radio plugger.
• Cost: Costs can vary—DIY vs. hiring videographers and editors—but the barrier to entry is effectively zero.

Fan Pages (S Tier)

A strategy used heavily by labels, this is about creating your own fan pages (or guiding community-run ones) to act as a "content dump" [00:40:15].

• Post What You Can't: Used to post content the artist would never post on their main account—behind-the-scenes, memes, low-fi clips, funny interactions. It protects the artist's "main feed" aesthetic [00:40:19].
• Multiple Distribution Channels: This gives you multiple shots on goal. You can post a clip 5 different ways across your main account and your fan pages, reaching different audiences.
• Test Content: Great for testing new content formats, tones, or narratives before pushing them to your main audience.
• The "Other" Angle: Fan pages can "say things you could never say from your main account," allowing for different framing or jokes [00:42:10]. As you grow, you can even have a real fan manage it for you [00:42:38].

Paid Ads (S Tier)

Highly predictable, scalable, and the easiest way for any artist to get started [00:04:58]. Labels use them for everyone, from Big Sean to a brand-new signee, for a reason [00:05:14].

• The Only Predictable Strategy: This is the only strategy where you can forecast results. If you know $1 gets you 10 clicks, you know $100 gets you 1,000. You can't say that about any other item on this list [00:06:47].
• Versatile: Works across platforms: Meta (IG/FB), TikTok, and YouTube are the "big three" [00:05:40]. But it can work anywhere. The video mentions a real-world example of an artist popping off using Pinterest ads because their fanbase was 80% women [00:05:57].
• Budget-Friendly Entry: You can get started and see results with $100, which is not true for influencers or PR.
• Requires Good Content: Ads are an amplifier. They won't save a bad song or bad creative. They make good content go further, faster.

Collaborations (A Tier)

Great for expanding reach and showing personality. This means collabing with another influencer, artist, or creator to make a piece of content [00:35:14].

• More Than a Post: More authentic than a standard influencer post because fans "see y'all together," which builds a stronger bond and trust [00:35:40].
• Show Your Personality: Allows you to reveal new sides of your brand. A serious rapper could link with a comedy influencer like Juski and show they're hilarious [00:36:13].
• You Keep the Asset: This is the key. Even if the post flops on the influencer's page, you still have the hard piece of content. You can reuse it for ads, seeding, and reactions. The ROI is high [00:36:39].

Guerilla Marketing (A Tier)

This strategy was missing from the original blog. Guerilla marketing is about creating "unorthodox" real-world experiences and activations [00:48:21].

• Example: The video cites Summer Walker's album rollout, where she placed a phone booth in public and let fans smash it to hear the album [00:48:35].
• Community Building: This ties directly into community building by providing unique experiences that fans can participate in and talk about [00:49:10].
• Creates Content: A good guerilla activation becomes viral content. You can then use the footage for ads, seeding, and PR, creating a network effect [00:50:04].
• Cost: Can be expensive, but a creative idea can work at any stage. People want to see artists outside in the real world again [00:50:24].

Platform Performances (A Tier)

High-quality content with a built-in audience. Think: On the Radar, 4 Shooters Only, or any unique performance series [00:37:51].

• Get the Production: The biggest benefit. You get a high-quality, visually interesting video without having to rent the camera, find the space, or pay for the set design yourself [00:39:19].
• You Keep the Asset: Like collabs, you get a polished asset you can use in all your other marketing (ads, seeding, reactions) [00:38:55].
• Cost Varies: Some are very expensive (thousands), but many local or niche platforms have great production for just a few hundred dollars [00:38:33].

Influencers (B Tier)

Powerful but tricky. This is paying an influencer to post about your song in their own style. (Note: The video separates this from "Seeding").

• Algorithm Risk: The biggest risk. Influencers are "susceptible to the algorithm" just like you [00:08:59]. You might pay thousands for a post, and it just happens to be the one that flops. You have no control.
• Very Expensive: The cost-per-result is hard to justify at an early stage. $100 might get you one or two micro-influencers, while $100 in ads can go much further [00:10:01].
• Use in 2nd/3rd Wave: The video strongly advises using this as a scaling strategy, not a kickoff. Use it after you have organic traction or ad data that proves the song is working [00:10:27].
• Why? If the song is already working, and the influencer post flops, you know it was the post, not the song. If you start here and it fails, you don't know what went wrong [00:10:46].

Seeding (B Tier)

This is "new age PR" [00:11:54]. Seeding is when you pay another account (like a blog, meme page, or curator account like Say Cheese) to repost your content, like your music video clip [00:11:31].

• Same Risks as Influencers: It's expensive, and the results are unpredictable. The video gives an example of one $2k campaign going viral, and another at $4k getting 40% of the results [00:12:50].
• High Risk: Can be a "terrible strategy if you're trying to force something uphill" [00:12:26]. Also high risk of scams (accounts with fake followers) [00:13:41].
• When to Use: Best used to scale a campaign that is already showing strong signs of life.

Clipping (C Tier)

Repurposing long-form content (from streams, interviews) into short viral clips. This was popularized by streamers like Kai Cenat [00:30:35] and adopted by artists like Drake [00:31:09].

• The Risk: "Bot Sniping": This is the huge problem. Shady clippers will "bot snipe" [00:32:34]. They'll post a clip, get normal views (e.g., 1,800), wait for you to approve it for payment, and then bot it with 280,000 fake views to get a bigger payout.
• Payment Model: Some platforms are good and allow a CPM-style payout (pay per thousand views), which is similar to ads [00:31:50].
• Best Practice: The safest way is to build your own internal clipping team or a trusted network in a private Discord [00:33:55].

Curators & Reactioners (C Tier)

These are people who react to music (like streamers) or curate it (like playlist channels). They used to be "cheat code content" from 2022-2024 [00:15:00].

• Format Fatigue: The format itself is declining in reach. Algorithms seem to be "punishing the format a little bit," and even top curators see lower views [00:15:38].
• Adds Trust: The main benefit is adding authority. It's like a friend's recommendation vs. a stranger's. It "breaks the barrier of trust" for new fans [00:16:51].
• High Cost: Carries all the same risks as influencer campaigns (high cost, algorithm-dependent). Best used as a late-stage step, not a kickoff [00:17:22].

Playlisting (C Tier)

Risky and gatekept. For indie artists, it's a "50/50 game on if you're going to get in a real playlist or not" [00:02:10].

• Botted vs. Organic: It's incredibly hard to tell botted playlists from real ones, and there are no universal verification tools [00:01:31].
• Gatekept: Editorial playlists (the ones that matter) are heavily gatekept and unpredictable [00:02:26].
• Why C-Tier? At its worst (botted lists), it's F-Tier and can damage your account. At its very best (good editorial placement), it's maybe a "low B-Tier" boost. So it averages out to a C [00:02:50].

Traditional PR (C Tier)

This is hiring a publicist to get you in magazines, blogs, interviews, etc. It's "very weak" for discovery [00:18:39].

• Weak for Discovery: As the video asks, "When's the last time you discovered a song because of a blog?" [00:18:46].
• Strong for Credibility & SEO: This is what it's really for. It helps you control your Google search results and builds industry credibility [00:19:06].
• Expensive & Effort-Based: A good publicist costs (e.g., $5k+), and you are paying for their effort, not for guaranteed results. They could pitch you to 10 outlets and only two might reply. That's the game [00:20:32].
• Waste of Money (If Early): The video warns this is one of the "biggest waste of money" if you pull the trigger too early in your career [00:21:31].

DJ Pools & Radio (D Tier)

This is a D-Tier strategy for most artists, but with a huge exception.

• The A-Tier Exception: DJ pools are A-Tier for a specific type of artist: Trap, street hip-hop, electronic music, or party music [00:23:26]. For those genres, it's essential.
• For Everyone Else: For other genres, it's not versatile and not where your audience is.
• Radio: Radio is also D-Tier for most, only making sense for "mainstream or superstar" artists [00:26:22].
• Cost & Time: A radio campaign needs 3-6 months to be effective. A regional campaign can cost $100k-$250k. Anything less is "damn near a waste of their time" [00:27:07].

Bots (F Tier)

This strategy was missing from the original blog. This is buying fake views, fake streams, or fake followers. It's F-Tier [00:42:48].

• It's Cheating: Let's get this out of the way. It's cheating [00:42:54].
• Messes Up Your Data: The video speaker notes he has fired clients for using bots because it makes it impossible to read the real data and see what's working [00:44:32].
• It's Obvious: For 99% of artists, it's incredibly obvious to fans and industry pros. Example: "Ain't no way bro got 2 million streams on this song and only got 1100 monthly listeners" [00:45:41].
• Fans Are Smarter Now: Fans are more aware of botting (thanks to high-profile beefs) and are "way more likely to call it out" [00:46:03]. The stain on your character isn't worth it.

Spamming Comments (F Tier)

The "OG marketing strategy" from the MySpace days [00:46:31]. This is dropping your link in unrelated comment sections.

• Lazy & Disrespectful: It comes off as "very lazy" and "low vibrational" [00:48:03]. It's disrespectful to the original creator whose comments you are hijacking.
• It Doesn't Work: You will not spam your way to a blowup. The video notes you might "spam your way to some connections" but never to a real career [00:47:17].
• There Are Better Ways: As this list proves, there are a dozen other things you could be doing with your time.

Conclusion: How to Use This List

The final, most important takeaway from the video [00:50:39]. Marketing isn't about picking the flashiest strategy. It's about picking the strategy that works for you and where you are.

Use this list as a checklist [00:51:11]. Here is a smart way to build your infrastructure:

1. Start with S-Tier: Your entire foundation should be built on Content and Paid Ads. They are cheap, scalable, and you control them.
2. Add A-Tier Assets: Use Collaborations and Platform Performances to generate high-quality assets that you can then fuel back into your S-Tier Content and Paid Ads strategies.
3. Scale with B & C-Tiers: Once your foundation is working and you have data, use Influencers, Seeding, and Curators as a second or third wave to scale what's already proven.
4. Avoid F-Tier: Never use Bots or Spamming. It will cost you more in the long run.