4.6 rating from 157 reviews
Robert H
Rating: 5/5
I have tried three playlist services and Indie Music Academy has been clearly the best. They are well on their way to the goal number of streams with lots of streams in the USA. My only criticism is that they are slow to get started, so clients should be aware of that.
Keith H
Rating: 5/5
You guys always deliver, that's why lm repeat customer several times over
Shane S
Rating: 4/5
Only issue we can see is that after the song was placed the updates stopped showing on the artist page. We would like to see were the popularity and all are at after the streams have started rollling in.
Doug H
Rating: 5/5
This is the best playlist service I have encountered and used. Many of these services end up getting your song or album removed from Spotify due to Bot activity. Indie does not do that. They instead work to place your music with appropriate and legit playlists. Its fantastic and the result are easy to see using Spotify for artists.
Brian M
Rating: 5/5
I have no complaints. So far working as advertised. I will promote another song in the near future. Thank you.
kre T
Rating: 5/5
I submitted my song “That’s All” to Indie Music Academy in June. The campaign took longer than I initially expected, but during the process they explained that it could take time and that they were still working on the campaign. Now the song has been placed on a playlist and I can see real results. The placement is generating streams and has noticeably increased my monthly listeners on Spotify. For an independent band, it can be difficult to get our music heard, so I appreciate that they continued working on the campaign instead of rushing the process. The waiting time was quite long, but I’m happy to finally see the campaign producing results. Overall, my experience has been positive so far, and I appreciate their effort and continued work on my release.
Dean J
Rating: 5/5
Thank you Indie Music Academy(IMA)! I am still in a current campaign for a recent song that is edging into the 10,000 stream mark. There seems to be very consistent increases in my current numbers on a daily basis. I decided to entrust IMA with a new song release scheduled in about a week that I expect will be just as successful. Thank You Again IMA:)
Akiva C
Rating: 5/5
Steve Leslie’s course is wonderful. Very thorough, and clearly explains the fundamentals and beyond. I highly recommend it.
Tanisha M
Rating: 5/5
I love the fact that Indie Music Academy helps me promote my music and spread the Good Word!
Billy S
Rating: 5/5
Indie Music Academy has delivered!! It has placed me on one playlist, but that playlist has garnered me more streams than I expected. Hopefully I have acquired some new listeners that has opened more doors to my music. Thank you Ryan!
Joshua K
Rating: 5/5
Very pleased with my work with Indie Music Academy so far! Ryan's been incredibly knowledgeable and helpful through one of the workshops I took earlier this summer, and am planning to work with IMA over the next year as a tiny DIY band hoping to ditch some of the DIY-ness and use his team's expertise to get some initial traction. More than anything, working with Ryan feels genuine. At several points in the workshop I was surprised at how realistic his advice was, and it was refreshing to hear a different (and truer) approach to many of the challenges an independent musician faces today. Would highly recommend IMA to anyone who's serious about a career in music and is tired of DIY or falling for many of the gimmicks/lies out there that promise shortcuts to success.
Randy M
Rating: 5/5
Great response to questions and concerns
Benjamin W
Rating: 4/5
I’m fairly new to this. But my initial assessment is Indie MA is better than most similar promotional services in delivering what’s promised or overviewed.
Thaddeus Z
Rating: 4/5
Thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate Kyle following up. I do see that my song is still waiting for curators? Thanks Thad
Roger H
Rating: 4/5
Great partner for indie artists, with just a little room for growth! As an independent musician and songwriter, finding reliable Spotify promotion can be a minefield. I’ve been using the Indie Music Academy to help grow my exposure, plays, and followers, and overall, I have been very happy with the service. It’s clear they genuinely care about supporting the indie community. Music promotion is never a one-size-fits-all equation. I've noticed that some of my tracks are slower to take off than others, which realistically comes down to how curators receive the music itself. However, I did have a couple of tracks promoted with a target of 20,000+ plays that unfortunately fell short of the mark. My only real recommendation for improvement is around communication and data. I would love it if the Indie Music Academy actively monitored track play growth during a campaign and reported those updates back to the artists. If they are already tracking this internally, sharing those insights with us would add massive value and peace of mind. That minor critique aside, I truly appreciate everything they do for creators like me. I will absolutely continue using their service for my upcoming releases!
Gregor B
Rating: 4/5
In the last week of May 2026 I published my first track "Horse d'Oeuvre"(self composed, mixed and mastered). In the second week of July 2026 I published my second track "Turtle's Quest". Pitching was entirely new for me, so I tried different companies. Horse d'Oeuvre was also pitched through two other companies and it already had more listeners than I ever anticipated for. I never expected much of it, but wanted to experience the entire process of releasing a track. One of those companies has strange behavior when it reaches the end of pitching time, all of a sudden the track gets curated to completely non-fitting music styles. For me that was a sign to not pitch through them again. The second company, I still use, has a very pleasant way of communicating. Curators can share their email adress to communicate with. Despite of a lot of rejections (Both tracks mentioned before), there's mostly very good and detailed information about the reasons. That's what I personally really like. This makes it possible for me to improve. My second track "Turtle's Quest" was the first track I tried with I.M.A.. I read that chances were/are pretty slim to get placed, but when you get placed it often turns out the positive way. For this track I'm in the 6th week of being placed in about 20 playlists. The growth isn't very speedy, but solid. The most striking thing is that in percentage terms the "playlist adds" and "savings" by listeners is pretty high. So I'm curious how this will go on. The "popularity rate" for this track is at 14 at the moment. Since I'm all new to this, I'm certainly pleased with that (although I know what it means in terms of "success"). Because of this increase I decided to give my first track "Horse d'Oeuvre" a chance as well. This track is now approximately 4 weeks active through I.M.A. on 3 playlists. Again I was surprised it got selected, so that's what made me a little hesitant in the low acceptance rate I read about in different places. But what happened with this track (and still is happening) exceeded every expectation. It has already passed 8.000 streams and the popularity rate is 30%. On the other side, 2 of those playlists have pretty high skip rates (approximately 50% each). But the 3rd one has only a skip rate about 30%. And high skip rates can have different reasons. In this case I think that the introduction is too long (which is intendedly done), so I "blame" this on myself. I know that overall qualities comes from both ways to get tracks spread: Quality tracks and pitchers who now what to do. What I miss a little is the opportunity to thank the playlist curators for placing a track. Personally I love to e-mail curators and I like to hear what could be improved or not. On the other side I can understand that this takes too much time. My final conclusion at the moment is: Indie Music Academy will get my third track when finished. And I can only hope this will be play-listed like the other two tracks. But for now to the entire team: Thank you! Gregor Buciarski The Netherlands
Seth C
Rating: 5/5
I loved the 5 days I had with your class. I learned a lot and I am getting ready ot try out placing a meta ad. I really wish I could have afforded your year program. I think you have a good heart and I am sure your year program is very valuable.
Charles B
Rating: 4/5
You deliver on your promises, I’m happy with the results, your support is very attentive and I’ll continue to use your service. Full disclosure, I use AI to assist with workflow and to outsource elements that I am unable to find collaborators to assist with. It seems that a disclosure of AI automatically brands the song in some way as tainted or second rate and restricts the number/ quality of playlists that are available. My music involves a considerable amount of time, effort and creative input and I take great pride in what I have created. It is not a “push a button and there’s a song” type of deal. None of the songs that I have campaigned through IMA has landed in a playlist that I consider genre appropriate. My songs are pop (recently transitioning to melodic house), yet they’ve been listed, for example, on fairytale vibes, foreign language and various sporting playlists. It seems curators have a prejudice and negative sentiment toward any song that even hints of containing AI content and I find that disappointing and it limits my songs from reaching their full potential.
Tom S
Rating: 4/5
The most recent campaign is more rewarding for us. It is also a campaign to reach 10'000 listeners - but we are on playlists that generate moderate listenings - i.e. the song will be on these playlists for 3-4 months instead of few weeks. This is much more interesting for us who are looking for consistency rather than short spikes.
Ronald K
Rating: 4/5
Hello, I'm a big fan of Indie Music Academy and will continue to use your services. The only reason I gave you a Good rating as opposed to a Great rating is that I have had to reach out to you on many of my Spotify Playlist Campaigns that my song was dropped from the playlists before meeting the total stream guarantee. You always respond quickly when I reach out, and my song eventually gets added again, but I really don't have the time to be following up on this. If I pay for a 50,000 stream package, I don't want to have to be keeping tabs on this to make sure the agreed upon streams are reached. Not sure how you can fix this, but it seems like the playlist promoters need to have a better sense of the metrics. Hope this helps--and again, I am a big fan of the work you do!