Please Don’t Hire Fiverr Music Marketers

So you're probably aware of Fiverr, the super popular site that helps you find freelancers who are willing to make stuff for typically pretty cheap, right? Fiverr is great for a lot of things. But trying to give your music a boost by hiring some of these Fiverr music "marketers" is a really bad idea. 

Here's why.

Shady AF

In most cases, Fiverr doesn't need to verify the veracity of its freelancer's claims. While they have a rating system and obviously allow you to rate your experience, Fiverr music "marketers" can claim just about anything they want. 

So they can promise you "organic" and "real" growth. Or maybe they say they'll help you go "viral" with your music. Maybe some of them claim to use legitimate methods like social media ads or email marketing. 

But in just about every instance, you're the one responsible for verifying the legitimacy of these services, not Fiverr. And in a lot of cases, that's downright impossible for you to do. 

Sure, you can check your analytics dashboards to track growth, but unless you have a keen eye for spotting b.s. in analytics, it's hard to legitimately identify that these Fiverr music promo offers are really doing what they say.

Just dive into these offerings or have a conversation with some of the marketers and you'll immediately notice red flags of shady business practices. 

Bots, Bots, Bots

Pretty much every Fiverr music marketer offering options for playlist placements are utilizing playlists with garbage traffic. In other words, a lot of bots and fake listeners. Sometimes they even share screenshots of the playlists they'll put your music on. You can check them out for yourself.

This goes across all of the platforms — Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, Amazon Music etc. It's really easy for a user to send fake traffic to a song, ultimately yielding completely meaningless plays. 

But as you probably already know if you've read some other content in our Learn Stuff section, bot traffic going to your songs isn't just pointless. It's actively harmful.

That's because every streaming platform uses some form of algorithm and machine learning to determine what kinds of users are most likely to enjoy your song. If your songs get flooded by 10,000 "users" in a remote city, all that data does is completely confuse the algorithm and limit the likelihood it's going to send your song to other people who might enjoy it. 

A Draining Distraction

In the end, even if you're only shelling out $20 here and there on these services, it's a complete waste of money. And it's a distraction from the efforts you should actually be taking to get your music in front of people.

If you have any budget at all to put towards your music — including just $1 per day — you should be spending it on advertising your own music from your own platform. There are plenty of places to do this. Facebook and Instagram are arguably the best right now. YouTube is another great one where you can see meaningful traction for not a lot of money.

What you'll likely end up doing if you hire Fiverr music marketers is get really burned out and drain your funds little by little. It's not a repeatable, sustainable process that you can control. Which means even in the incredibly rare chance you find a legitimate music marketing opportunity on Fiverr, you'd have to rely on that person being able to replicate their services every time you put out a new release.

What Should You Use Fiverr For?

So just because Fiverr music marketers are garbage doesn't mean you can't get incredibly valuable stuff from freelancers. You can get high quality artwork, videos, digital assets, and even musical performances from folks on Fiverr.

For instance — have a great track that needs an amazing cellist to really add that something special? Fiverr has a wealth of talented musicians willing to add their parts to your music at great rates. 

Need help coming up with some cool illustrations of you for a comic book spin-off of your album? Yep, a Fiverr freelancer can knock it out of the park.

Basically, any time you can discuss the asset creation and have a healthy back and forth, Fiverr is a great option for people on a budget. Honestly, sometimes it's not even about the budget — there are legitimately incredible artists utilizing Fiverr who can do the work for 1/5 of what an agency might charge.

But, as with most situations where you're hiring help, it's on you to do your research and be as communicative as possible. 

One Last Note

It's no surprise that a lot of freelancers on Fiverr are based outside of the United States. That's a primary reason they're able to charge what we might perceive as a much cheaper rate — $5 goes further in certain countries than in the states.

It's small-scale replication of overseas manufacturing that so many American companies use to keep costs down.

However, all of these folks are still just trying to get by. When working with Fiverr freelancers, please be patient (especially if there's a language barrier) and tip them for a job well done if you're able to.