Horrible Shady Promotion
In March I received an email from ISC telling me about a new startup called Ghost Rocket. I assumed this gave them some sort of credibility. So I decided to try their shortest term, lowest priced tier, which was 3 months for $435, to see if they were legit. The agreement was for 1 song promotion on Spotify running from April - June, and they would also receive a $9 commission for every 10,000 streams reached, dangling their carrot of big time results. They also promised a dollar for dollar match, but in the end provided no proof or transparency for this. I should have initially aborted hiring them after seeing numerous grammatical errors in their email, but against my better judgement, I curiously pressed on.
In the first week, the song was placed on a gym workout playlist with a pro wrestling/heavy metal thumbnail which in no way matched the sound or sentiment of my heartfelt Indie track. Then they placed it on 1 or 2 more workout playlists that generated very few streams. Over the course of the next 3 months, the song was placed on what appeared to be dummy playlists generating no streams or interaction according to the statistics, and appeared on virtually no algorithmic playlists.
During this time I was playlisting the song concurrently and independently of their campaign, averaging 150-175 streams per week. According to the Spotify for Artists statistics which they also had access to thru the end of July, their efforts for the entire 3 month campaign generated around 7,300 streams.
In August, after nearly 2 months, I received an email stating that I owe them $9, even though they were more than 2,600 streams short of their 'milestone' in June. When I stopped playlisting the track a few weeks ago, it has been averaging 15-20 streams per week, making this so called 'milestone' a mathematical impossibility. And, they could not provide me with any statistical proof or data to back up their baseless claim when I requested it. So now, after a very unpleasant experience and well below average promotion, they're trying to extort $9 more for their scammy service and threatening me if I don't pay. Please go away. Far, far away.







