Articles · Scam or Not
Playlist Push Wants $285 to "Consider" Your Song. Nobody Tells You That's the Whole Deal.
The Set Newsroom · Thu Sep 17 2026
It's not a bot scam, but paying doesn't buy you a placement. It buys you a shot, and the results people report are all over the map.
Playlist Push wants $285 minimum to put your song in front of real Spotify curators. What it doesn't put on the homepage is that you're not paying for a placement. You're paying for a chance at one, and the results people actually report are all over the map.
What You're Actually Buying
Playlist Push markets itself as "Real Music Promotion Service, No Bots," and on that specific claim, the evidence backs it up. Curators are real people who log into a dashboard, listen to submitted tracks, and leave written feedback before deciding whether to add a song to their own playlist. (source)
That's the key difference between this and an actual scam. A fake playlist promotion scheme inflates a playlist's follower count with bots, then charges you for a spot nobody real will ever hear. Playlist Push isn't doing that. But the pitch still glosses over one thing: paying $285 doesn't buy you a guaranteed spot. It buys you a review, and reviews can say no.
The Trustpilot Numbers, Honestly
Playlist Push holds a 4.1 out of 5 rating across more than 1,400 Trustpilot reviews, with 54% five-star and just 6% one-star. (source)
One reviewer called it "incredibly helpful," saying "it just takes one amazing playlist placement to really push your song in the right direction." Another disagreed completely: "All their playlists are dead and barely generate streams. You're better off doing meta ads at this point." Both of those are real, current reviews on the same service. That split is the whole story.
What Artists Actually Got For Their Money
Reddit threads and independent reviews turn up wildly different outcomes for similar spending:
- One artist spent $300 to $500 and got back only 200 to 300 listens, calling it "a poor investment"
- Another artist with 30,000 existing followers reported roughly 5,000 listens from a similar-priced campaign
- A different artist landed a placement that brought nearly 2,000 listens over two months
- One track reached over 200,000 people through the service and led to real booking opportunities afterward
The pattern isn't random. Results depend almost entirely on whether your specific song fits the specific curators reviewing it that week, not on how much you spend or how good the song is in a vacuum.
Is Playlist Push a Scam?
No, based on the evidence. It's a legitimate marketplace with real curators, real feedback, and no bot-inflated playlists. Press coverage from outlets like Rolling Stone and Wired backs that up. But calling it "not a scam" isn't the same as calling it a safe bet. You're paying $285 or more for a chance, not a result, and the service is upfront about that in its own terms even if the marketing around it leans optimistic.
Compare that to an actual scam model: a seller builds a playlist, uses bots to inflate it to 50,000 or 500,000 fake followers, then charges $50 to $500 for a spot nobody real will ever hear. Spotify's own artificial streaming policy exists specifically to catch and penalize that pattern, and it can get a track's royalties zeroed out entirely if flagged. (source) Playlist Push's curator-review model is a completely different animal from that, even though the price tags can look similar on the surface.
Playlist Push also warns artists directly about scammers who impersonate the company itself over WhatsApp, promising fake "curator salaries" of $1,000 a month. If anyone reaches out claiming to be Playlist Push outside an @playlistpush.com email, that's the actual scam. (source)
How to Decide If It's Worth It For You
Before you pay for any playlist pitching service, check the math on the playlists you'd actually be reviewed for:
- Look up the playlist's follower count next to its average streams per track
- A playlist with 100,000 followers but only 5 to 10 monthly listener adds per song is dead weight
- Ask what genre and curator pool your submission fee actually targets
- Treat the fee as buying feedback and a chance, never a guaranteed outcome
If your song and genre match well with their curator pool, artists report real upside. If it doesn't match, you're paying $285 to learn that, which is an expensive way to find out.
Where It Fits Next to Other Options
Playlist Push isn't the only pay-to-be-considered service out there. The Set already broke down whether SubmitHub is worth it, and the same rule applies across both: you're buying a shot at a real listener, priced per submission, never a guarantee. If you're going to spend money getting heard, spread a small budget across a couple of these instead of dumping it all into one campaign, and track which curator pool actually converts into saves and follows, not just raw streams.
A Cheaper First Move
Before spending on any pay-to-be-considered service, make sure the song itself can hold up under a curator's ear. A mix that sounds thin next to what's already on a curated playlist gets passed over fast, no matter how good the songwriting is. The Set's mixing and mastering service gets a track sounding competitive before you spend a dollar trying to get it heard, and the marketing services can help you build direct fan reach that doesn't depend on any single curator saying yes.
The Takeaway
Playlist Push isn't a scam. It's a real service with real curators and genuinely mixed results, and the difference between a win and a waste comes down to fit, not budget. Spend on it only after your song is ready to compete, and go in knowing you're buying a chance, not a placement.
Questions
Is Playlist Push legit or a scam?
It's legit. Playlist Push uses real curators who listen and leave feedback, not bot-inflated playlists. But paying doesn't guarantee a placement, only a review, so results vary a lot by song and genre fit.
How much does Playlist Push cost?
Campaigns start around $285 minimum, with pricing rising based on how many curators you want to reach. There's no guaranteed outcome included at any price point.
How do I know if a playlist promotion service is a scam?
Check the playlist's follower count against its actual streams per track. A playlist with huge followers but almost no real listener growth per song is a bot-inflated scam, not a real promotion service.