Case Studies

Real artists. Real numbers. What happens when the right listeners find your music.

Featured projects — we've worked with many more artists across genres.

Folk/Rock

Vian Izak

How a comic-book universe and precisely targeted listeners turned an indie folk project into 150M+ streams

The Artist

Vian Izak is a folk/rock artist who doesn’t just release music — he builds worlds. Every album exists inside a hand-drawn comic book universe where sci-fi meets folk storytelling.

The Challenge

Folk rock doesn’t have a natural home on social media. Traditional music ads targeting “folk music fans” produce expensive, low-quality clicks. The real challenge: introducing the right listeners so Spotify’s algorithm could learn who the audience actually is.

The Strategy

1
The real win wasn’t targeting — it was the creative. We built an entire cinematic universe around the music, using hand-drawn comic book artwork that made the project feel larger than life. The ads didn’t look like ads — they looked like a world worth stepping into.
2
A proprietary campaign system designed to find listeners who actually stream, save, and come back.
3
Algorithm seeding at scale — thousands of precisely-targeted listeners gave Spotify an overwhelming signal.

Before the Campaign

Monthly Listeners

~120,000

Algorithmic Profile

Minimal algorithmic traction, no major playlist placements

Campaign Results

People Reached

1.2M+

Listeners Sent to Spotify

27,464

Cost Per Listener

$0.31

the cost to get someone to actually reach your music, not just a link click

Streams on Promoted Releases

Where Do We End Up When Life Goes On?8.2M+

Northern Anthems41M+

Lifetime streams (all releases)150,000,000+ · across all releases & DSPs

After the Campaign

Peak Monthly Listeners~800,000

Current Monthly Listeners~300,000 (stable, real fans)

Editorial Playlists100+

Daily Streams (today)14,000+ — eight years after the first campaign

Viral ChartsSpotify Viral Charts (Canada)

What this means: The right listeners were introduced to the music. Spotify’s algorithm learned who the audience was and started recommending it to millions more. The 300K monthly listeners who remain aren’t algorithmic tourists. They’re real fans who stayed.

The campaigns ended. The streams didn’t. Because we didn’t just run ads — we built a world around the music. That’s what we do for every artist: we focus on building a universe for your music, not just an ad. Once Spotify had enough listener data, it started doing the work on its own. 150 million streams later, it’s still compounding.

Indie Pop

Juniper Vale

120 million streams. What happens when Spotify’s algorithm finally sees the right listeners.

The Artist

Juniper Vale is an indie pop project centered on one universal theme: the meaning of home. The music is warm, intimate, and deeply emotional — the kind of songs that make listeners feel like they’ve found something personal.

The Challenge

Indie pop is one of the most competitive spaces on Spotify. Standard ads deliver expensive clicks from listeners who stream once and disappear. The goal: algorithmic activation through perfectly matched listeners.

The Strategy

1
RIYL precision targeting — fans of specific comparable artists with the highest propensity to stream, save, and playlist.
2
A proprietary system that finds listeners who actually open Spotify and press play — not just click a link.
3
Market tiering for volume — flooding Spotify with high-intent listeners globally.

Before the Campaign

Monthly Listeners

~90,000

Algorithmic Profile

Mostly algorithmic — not a stable, owned audience. Shallow listener base.

Campaign Results

People Reached

2.0M+

Listeners Sent to Spotify

34,066

Cost Per Listener

$0.24

the cost to get someone to actually reach your music, not just a link click

Streams on Promoted Releases

Everything is Color (Deluxe Edition)51M+

Lifetime streams (all releases)120,000,000+ · across all releases & DSPs

After the Campaign

Peak Monthly Listeners~600,000

Current Monthly Listeners~150,000 (real fans who chose to stay)

Editorial Playlists100+

Viral ChartsCanada, Malta, and multiple other countries

Standout Tracks6 tracks over 2M · 3 over 8M · Fractions pushing 11M

What this means: The campaign replaced a shallow, algorithmically-driven 90K listener base with a deep, real audience. The 150K who remain are listeners who chose Juniper Vale — not listeners passively served a playlist track.

34,000+ precisely-targeted listeners taught Spotify who the real Juniper Vale audience is. With that many signals, Spotify had everything it needed. The campaigns built the seed audience. Spotify scaled it to 120 million streams.

Celtic/Fantasy

Ekaterina Shelehova

2.8 million streams in 3 months on a major original EP — crossing 1.2 million monthly listeners after a previous agency wrecked her algorithm with link clicks.

The Artist

Ekaterina Shelehova is a vocalist who draws from Celtic and fantasy traditions to create music that sounds like it belongs in another world. She’d built 600K monthly listeners largely through covers — but Fables, Act I was her first major push into original music.

The Challenge

Ekaterina Shelehova came to us after a previous agency ran link-click campaigns that wrecked her Spotify algorithm and flooded her 1 million-follower Instagram profile with bot accounts. While she had some originals out, 600K listeners were largely built on covers — Spotify’s algorithm had categorized her primarily as a covers artist. Releasing a full original EP meant retraining the algorithm, while repairing the damage from the previous agency’s approach.

The Strategy

1
Fantasy/Celtic fanbase targeting — fans of Celtic music, fantasy literature, RPG communities. Ad creatives leaned into the fantasy aesthetic.
2
Multi-track campaign architecture — simultaneous campaigns for 4 tracks across market tiers, giving Spotify a pattern, not just a signal.
3
Our proprietary system to find real listeners at scale — compressing months of algorithmic learning into weeks.

Before the Campaign

Monthly Listeners

~600,000

Algorithmic Profile

Largely built on covers — very limited original music audience. Algorithm categorized her primarily as a covers artist. Previous agency had damaged her algorithm with link-click campaigns.

Campaign Results

People Reached

778,378

Listeners Sent to Spotify

12,325

Cost Per Listener

€0.26

the cost to get someone to actually reach your music, not just a link click

Streams on Promoted Releases

Fables, Act I2.8M+

After the Campaign

Peak Monthly Listeners~1,200,000

Current Monthly Listeners~900,000 (held — originals audience stuck)

Breakout TrackArrival — #1 on artist profile, 1.4M streams

What this means: The algorithm no longer sees Ekaterina Shelehova primarily as a covers artist. 900K monthly listeners are now driven by original music. The campaign didn’t just promote an EP — it permanently shifted her Spotify identity and repaired the damage from her previous agency.

With 12,325 precisely-targeted listeners across four tracks, we gave Spotify an entirely new listener dataset that redefined who she is as an artist. Her first major original EP. 600K listeners largely from covers → 1.2M peak → 900K stable on originals.

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