What can £15 actually do for an independent band’s music promotion?
For 1:1 Soul, a targeted £15 YouTube promotion for musicians helped their latest single “Golden Age” reach 10,000 views, putting the band in front of a much wider audience of prog-rock fans.
But the £15 isn’t really the whole story.
Since joining LMSUK, 1:1 Soul have been working closely with their Account Specialist, Cheryl, to develop their release strategy, test content ideas and work out how to take the strong identity they’ve already built on stage and translate it to a growing online audience. “Golden Age” gave us the opportunity to take everything we’d learned so far and step things up.
Meet 1:1 Soul
1:1 Soul are a progressive rock band with a big nod to the sounds, attitude and energy of 70s and 80s rock. They’ve already built a strong reputation across their local live music scene and around Nashville, including a performance at Jon Bon Jovi’s rooftop bar, JBJ’s Nashville. Now they’re keen to take that momentum further and introduce 1:1 Soul to audiences beyond the venues and communities that already know them.
There is a strong identity to work with too. Their music has that larger-than-life prog and classic rock feel, with big riffs, vintage influences and songs made to feel like proper rock anthems. Visually, they’re equally recognisable.
Waistcoats (or vests, for our friends in the US), smart shirts and a sharp stage appearance have become part of the band’s live image. It fits the music and gives people something recognisably 1:1 Soul when they see them on stage, in a video or scrolling through social media.
For Cheryl, the job wasn’t to reinvent the band. It was about working with them to take what was already there and find ways to make it work harder across their releases, content and promotion.
Starting small and learning together
Aside from their Christmas single last year, 1:1 Soul have only really started releasing new music properly in 2026. Their first single of the year, “Doesn’t Have to Be Love”, became a useful starting point for Cheryl and the band. There wasn’t a full music video. The YouTube release used a static image, so the campaign was kept relatively simple while we tested different social content, hooks and promotional angles.
It gave us room to experiment.
- What content suited the band’s personality?
- What could we do with the assets available?
- Which ideas felt natural for 1:1 Soul?
- What could we change or improve when the next single came around?
That’s one of the advantages of working together month-to-month. There isn’t the same pressure to try and cram everything into the few weeks around release day. We can test something, see how it performs and take what we learn into the next campaign. By the time “Golden Age” arrived, Cheryl and 1:1 Soul weren’t starting again from scratch.
Saving their LMSUK ad budget
Advertising was another part of the longer-term plan. 1:1 Soul have an advertising budget as part of their LMSUK support, but that doesn’t mean it has to be spent as soon as it’s available. Some artists choose to use their available budget regularly, giving content smaller boosts throughout the month.
1:1 Soul decided on a different approach: Bank it for the releases.
Rather than putting small amounts behind everyday posts, they allowed their advertising budget to build up so there was more available when a new single arrived. Working with Cheryl, we could then be more deliberate about where that money went, what we wanted to achieve with it and which pieces of content were worth giving that extra push.
Stepping things up for “Golden Age”
By the time we got to “Golden Age”, there was much more to play with. The song itself has a strong identity, pulling from the rebellion, nostalgia and energy of 70s and 80s rock and wrapping it into 1:1 Soul’s own prog-rock anthem style.
Cheryl worked with the band on developing content and promotional ideas that played into that rather than treating it like another generic new single out now campaign.
A retro TV broadcast and announcement angle became part of the creative direction, fitting naturally with both the nostalgic feel of “Golden Age” and 1:1 Soul’s established image. This time, we also had a full music video featuring the band performing the song alongside additional visuals and creative elements.
That gave us much more to build the campaign around:
- A full music video for YouTube
- Live performance footage showing the band at their best
- A strong and recognisable visual identity
- Shorter clips for social media
- Different hooks and angles around the meaning and feel of “Golden Age”
- More opportunities to introduce the personalities behind the band
Instead of trying to create a brand around the release, we could build the campaign around the identity 1:1 Soul already had.
Finding the prog-rock audience on YouTube
Once the video was ready, the next question was: who do we actually want watching it?
Promotion isn’t simply about boosting everything and hoping something sticks. We wanted to put the music in front of people who were more likely to genuinely enjoy it. For YouTube, that meant leaning into the band’s genre.
Cheryl used £15 of 1:1 Soul’s banked advertising budget to promote the “Golden Age” music video, focusing the targeting around prog-rock fans and audiences interested in similar music.
Since release, the video has reached: 10,000 YouTube views.
For an independent band still growing its online audience, that’s a significant amount of additional exposure from a very small spend. More importantly, it has helped put 1:1 Soul in front of people outside their existing following who already have an interest in the type of music they make.
The band already know they can connect with audiences when they’re standing in front of them on a stage. Now we’re working on getting more of those people to discover them online too.
One release doesn’t mean one type of content
While YouTube gave us the opportunity to target prog-rock listeners with the full song, Cheryl and the band took a different approach to Facebook and Instagram. One of the strongest social ideas from the “Golden Age” campaign came from a very simple question: “What are you bringing to the next Golden Age?”
Rather than another direct listen to our new single post, it took the theme of “Golden Age” and turned it into something fun that people could respond to and get involved with. We then put £10 behind the Reel on Facebook and another £10 on Instagram, where the content performed strongly with the additional paid reach. It was the same release, but we weren’t asking the same piece of content to do everything.
YouTube had the full music video aimed at prog-rock audiences. Facebook and Instagram had a quick, engaging hook designed to stop the scroll and introduce more people to the single.
Same campaign. Different platforms. Different jobs.
£35 spent with a purpose
Across the paid activity highlighted in the “Golden Age” campaign, 1:1 Soul used just £35 of their banked LMSUK advertising budget:
- £15 promoting the “Golden Age” music video on YouTube
- £10 boosting the “What are you bringing?” Reel on Facebook
- £10 boosting the Reel on Instagram
The standout result has been 10K YouTube views from the £15 YouTube campaign, but we’re not suggesting that every artist can simply spend £15 and expect exactly the same result. That’s not what made this campaign work. It was everything leading up to it.
Cheryl had already been working with 1:1 Soul through their previous release. We’d tested content ideas, got to know the band’s identity and started understanding how we wanted to present them online. The band had saved their advertising budget rather than spending it for the sake of it. Then “Golden Age” arrived with a stronger bank of content, a full music video, a clear campaign identity and an obvious audience to target.
The advertising gave it a boost. The groundwork came first.
Building the audience for what comes next
“Golden Age” isn’t the finish line for 1:1 Soul either. They have another single, “Devil Child” coming in October, with a Christmas release also on the horizon, so the work we’re doing now isn’t only about this one song.
Every new person who discovers the band through “Golden Age” is another potential listener for the next release. And everything we learn from this campaign can feed into the next one too.
“Doesn’t Have to Be Love” gave us a starting point.
“Golden Age” allowed us to step things up.
Now Cheryl and the band can look at what worked, what audiences responded to and what we want to try next.
That’s artist development. It doesn’t happen in the few days around release day. It builds over time.
Why ongoing support matters
This is exactly why LMSUK is built around ongoing monthly artist support, rather than simply dipping in and out for one-off services whenever you have a release coming up.
When we work with you month-to-month, we get to know your music. We get to know your artist branding, your audience, your personality and what feels right for you. We see what works, what doesn’t quite land and what we can try differently next time.
Your Account Specialist isn’t meeting your band for the first time a few weeks before release day. They’ve already been working alongside you. And those quieter months between releases aren’t wasted either. So when it comes to running YouTube promotion for musicians, knowing the musician – helps, alot.
We can use that time to:
- Develop and strengthen your artist brand
- Plan ahead for upcoming releases
- Work together on content ideas
- Build up a bank of photos, videos and promotional material
- Test different hooks and formats
- Review what’s working across your platforms
- Prepare campaigns before release week arrives
- Save and plan advertising budget for the moments where it can have more impact
Then, when you do have new music ready to go, we’re not starting from zero.
With 1:1 Soul, Cheryl already knew the band, their music and their visual identity. We’d worked together on their previous release, tested different ideas and learned from them. By the time “Golden Age” arrived, we could take everything we’d already learned and step things up. And we’re doing exactly the same again as we head towards their next single and Christmas release.
That’s the value of ongoing support. Each month builds on the last, and each release gives us something to take into the next one.
We’re not just here for release day. We’re here every step of the way.
Get in touch or book a free discovery call to find out how we can help you build your artist brand.