Meet Boost Collective, the Company Helping 100K Artists Through Anti-Bot Music Marketing

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The music promotion business has a bot problem, and Boost has been combatting it with ad-driven campaigns that promise genuine streams instead of inflated vanity metrics.

Between fake streams, bot farms and pay-to-play playlist schemes, independent music promotion has become a minefield in the streaming era. Boost Collective, a Canada-based music marketing and distribution company, is betting that transparency can actually be a differentiator in an industry built on smoke and mirrors.

The startup recently announced that more than 100,000 independent artists have now used its platform, which eschews the typical playbook of guaranteed playlist placements and artificial inflation in favor of targeted ad campaigns and organic growth strategies.

Co-founders Ronan Mullins and Damian Barbu, both former musicians, started Boost after watching too many artists burn money on services that delivered impressive-looking numbers with zero actual fans attached. Their solution: invest artist budgets into strategic social media advertising that drives traffic to curated playlists and individual music releases.

The model is straightforward but notably different from competitors, as producers can’t pay their way onto a playlist and placement is based purely on fit and quality. Inclusion isn’t guaranteed, and it definitely isn’t for sale. Meanwhile, the ad campaigns themselves are handled by Boost’s team of creative strategists, video editors and media buyers.

The company recently launched Direct-to-Song, a new service that connects ad campaigns directly to specific tracks rather than routing listeners through playlists first. It’s essentially white-glove digital advertising for artists who don’t have the budget or expertise to run Meta campaigns themselves.

The firm also took an unusual approach to distribution. While most competitors launched distribution first and bolted on marketing later, Boost did the reverse, building trust through campaigns before expanding into getting music onto streaming platforms.

“Trust is non-negotiable,” said Mullins. “We started off as musicians ourselves, and we know how damaging fake numbers are. Our model is designed to deliver real engagement and real fans.”

The results seem to be working. Hip-hop recording artist Matt Corman pulled 1.4 million streams from a playlist-and-ads campaign while rapper Parker Jack’s track “Cry” has surpassed 100 million streams across platforms after working with Boost.

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Boost now plans to expand into label services, handling marketing and campaign management for independent label rosters. Because apparently, it’s not just solo artists who need saving from the bots.