How Much Time to Spend on Promo vs Making Music
Published · updated · by Loopin
Neither extreme works: all promotion with nothing to promote, or a catalogue nobody knows exists. Here is a split that survives contact with reality.
The default: 70 making, 30 promoting
Of the hours you have for music, roughly seven in ten on writing, recording and finishing, three in ten on everything else. That ratio holds for most artists below a few thousand listeners.
It is deliberately weighted toward making, because the thing being promoted is the constraint. Promotion multiplies whatever exists; it cannot substitute for it.
It flips for two weeks per release
In the fortnight around a release, invert it. That is when promotional effort has leverage it does not have at any other time, and the work you do then compounds through the algorithmic response.
Then flip it back deliberately. The most common failure is a release week that never ends and a year with two songs in it.
The two hours that do most of the work
One hour batching content for the fortnight. One hour of replies, messages and being present in your three communities. That is most of the 30% and it produces more than the rest of it combined.
Everything beyond those two hours — redesigning your profile, researching tools, reading about strategy — is usually displacement. It feels productive and it moves nothing.
The trap at each end
All-making: a catalogue of forty songs and eleven listeners, and no information about which of the forty was worth anything. Making without feedback is not iteration, it is repetition.
All-promoting: a well-run account with nothing behind it. The promotion runs out of material, the posting becomes about posting, and the thing that would have made it work never got written.
Protect the making time first
Promotion expands to fill whatever it is given, because it is never finished and there is always one more thing to check. Making has a natural end and no urgency, so it loses every scheduling conflict.
Book the writing time first, in a calendar, and treat promotional work as what fills the gaps. That single ordering decision is what separates artists who release four times a year from artists who mean to.
Frequently asked questions
How much time should musicians spend on promotion?
Roughly 30% of your music hours, rising to most of them for the fortnight around a release, then back down. Promotion multiplies what exists; it cannot substitute for it.
What promotional work actually matters?
Two hours a week: one batching content for the fortnight, one on replies, messages and being present in your communities. Beyond those, most of it is displacement activity.
Why do I never have time to write?
Promotion is never finished and always feels urgent, so it wins every scheduling conflict. Book writing time in a calendar first and let promotional work fill the gaps.