Country artists and labels, especially in earlier stages of development, have a tendency of focusing their entire promotion efforts on the U.S. market. There is a lot of merit to this logic, given that the U.S. is, by far, the largest consumer of Country & Folk music, and of all music in general. However, indie acts need to think outside the box, and investing in geographies outside the U.S. can be a great hack to catapult their music to the next level. 

Reason 1: Plenty of demand outside

25% of Country Music consumption happens OUTSIDE the U.S., particularly in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. 

Country / Folk Music 

Global Streams (April 26 to July 18,2024)

Source: Luminate Data

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Reason 2: Listeners & fans are cheaper to acquire outside the U.S.

It is much cheaper to acquire listeners outside of the U.S. Cost-per-click, or CPC, is 

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As you can see from the 2023 Infographic by WordStream, in Canada the Cost-per-Click, or CPC is on average 40% lower than the U.S.! For Australia and the UK, that number is 20% lower! If you want to max out the number of fans you acquire in your ads campaign, while minimizing the amount spent, you need to set your campaign settings to these countries today! 

In SongFly, Songtools’ ad automation tool, it’s easy to customize the countries, and even the cities, where you want to target your campaign and test out the theory for yourself in just a few minutes. 

‍Reason 3: Country music has a higher blend of Premium Listeners than other genres

Analyzing the infographic below from Luminate, we can see that for the U.S. market, Country streams are more valuable than other genres. Extrapolating to other markets, we can assume a similar behavior, which means that accelerating overall acquisition of a Country track inside or outside of the U.S. will generate more momentum within the Spotify algorithm. Your job is to maximize high-quality streams and fans!

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By no means should Country artists and labels stop promoting their tracks in the United States. However, are you leaving money and fans on the table by not exploring international markets and the potential growth hacks that they might provide?