Every startup has an origin story with a garage in it. Ours has a casino. Not a real one — the metaphorical one that music promotion had turned into: bots sold as fans, 'viral packages' with mystery contents, curators who vanished after payment, prices that changed depending on how desperate you sounded. Everyone was losing. Except the house. This is the story of why AutoHype exists: the DM that broke us, the decision to write everything down, the four rules we can't break, and the one promise we make instead of the one everybody wants to hear. If you're new here — start here.
The world we found: a casino with a music theme
When we started paying attention to how independent artists buy promotion, the pattern was unmistakable — and it was a casino floor. Nothing had a posted price: you asked, and the quote arrived after the seller had sized up how much you wanted it. Nothing had a delivery date. Nothing had a refund. The whole market ran on hope, urgency, and the polite fiction that this time would be different.
The inventory matched the architecture. Bots sold as 'real fans'. Playlist placements on lists built of other bots. 'Viral packages' whose contents were never itemized because they didn't exist. And everywhere, the same customer: an artist with a small budget and a big hope — the exact person a casino is designed to keep playing.
Everyone lost. Except the house.
One DM too many
You know the DM. '100K streams guaranteed. $50. Limited spots 🚀.' You've received it — everyone who has ever uploaded a song has received it. That's precisely why we tell this story as one story: it's the same one, every time. An artist saves up for months. Pays. Nothing arrives. Nobody answers. There's no version where it ends differently, because the product never existed.
One detail makes the scam especially neat: the thing most of those DMs claim to sell cannot be bought by anyone, at any price. Editorial playlist placement isn't for sale — not to you, not to labels, not to whoever is behind that rocket emoji. Anyone selling it is lying by definition.
At some point, hearing versions of that story stops being sad and becomes a to-do list. Ours had one item on it.
So we wrote everything down
That was the founding act. Not a pitch deck, not a logo (you've seen the logo — three minutes, an eight-year-old, candy on delivery). A decision: everything in writing, before anyone pays a cent. The price. The delivery date. What's included. What happens if it isn't delivered.
Radical stuff, we know. In any functioning market this is called 'a receipt' and nobody applauds it. In music promotion circa our founding, it was genuinely contrarian — because every one of those written lines kills a way the casino makes money. A posted price can't drift with your desperation. A delivery date can't ghost. A refund clause can't shrug.
It turns out you can build an entire company on the absence of shrugging.
Hire a verified music creator, curator, DJ or blogger to promote your song. Clear prices, from $10.
The four rules of the house
Rule one: real people only. Every seller on the marketplace is checked and verified — TikTok creators, playlist curators, bloggers, YouTubers, studio engineers with names and faces. No bots, no anonymous 'promo networks', no rocket emojis.
Rule two: every price is public before you talk. No 'DM for rates', no quote roulette, no desperation pricing. The number you see is the number everyone sees.
Rule three: the money is held until the work is delivered. Escrow, not trust. Your payment sits in the middle, the seller delivers, then they're paid. Late or missing delivery means the money comes back to you — no negotiation required.
Rule four: reviews are written in public, forever. Sellers live with their track record where everyone can read it. We made these rules for you; it turns out they also keep us honest. That's the nice thing about rules you can't break — they discipline the house too.
What we'll never be
The anti-manifesto, for the record: no bots. No 'guaranteed streams'. No 'DM for rates'. No miracle sellers. Not now, not at scale, not if the numbers get tempting — the moment any of that appears on AutoHype, this article becomes the evidence against us, which is rather the point of publishing it.
If what you actually want is a big fake number tonight, we can't help you — the internet is full of people happy to rob you, and they have excellent response times.
This page doubles as our answer to a question we get a lot: 'what do you guarantee?' Scroll up. Everything we promise is a thing we can put in writing and be held to. Which brings us to the promise itself.
Delivery, not fame
Here is the entire promise, and it fits in one line: we guarantee delivery, not results. The video gets posted. The pitch gets heard. The article gets written. On time, as described — or your money back.
What we don't promise: streams, followers, virality, fame. Results depend on your song — that part was always yours, and anyone who claims otherwise is selling you the DM from earlier in this story. We'd rather make a modest promise and keep it than make a thrilling one and join the casino.
It's not a sexy promise. It's a kept one.
Where that leaves us today
Today AutoHype is a marketplace of real humans: TikTok creators, playlist curators, bloggers, YouTubers, studio engineers — names, faces, public ratings, and written prices starting at $10 for playlist pitching, $20 for TikTok and Instagram videos, $20 for press features, $10 for YouTube and X promotion. Seventeen services sit under $20 (floors set by the sellers themselves, verified July 2026). Late delivery means a refund, without you having to argue for it.
And yes — we still yell about bots on Instagram, roughly weekly, with stick figures. Because the casino didn't close when we opened; it's still next door, still sliding into inboxes with rocket emojis. Someone has to stand outside with a hand-drawn sign. It might as well be the company whose whole business model is the opposite.
That's it. That's the product: everything in writing, real people, and the money held until the work is done. Now you know us.
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Hire a verified music creator, curator, DJ or blogger to promote your song. Clear prices, delivery times shown, from $10.
Browse creators from $10 →Frequently asked questions
What exactly is AutoHype?
A pay-per-order marketplace for music promotion: you compare verified sellers — TikTok creators, playlist curators, bloggers, YouTubers, studio engineers — with public prices and reviews, order a specific service, and your money is held in escrow until it's delivered. If delivery doesn't happen, you're refunded.
Did the 'one DM too many' story really happen?
It's told as one story because it's the story we heard over and over: the same guaranteed-streams DM, the same payment, the same silence. Treat it as the archetype it is — every element of it is something artists report constantly, starting with the DM you've almost certainly received yourself.
Why won't you promise streams or followers?
Because nobody honest can. Outcomes depend on the song and the audience it meets — and 'guaranteed streams' is the signature phrase of the scam economy we were built against, usually delivered by bots if it's delivered at all. We guarantee delivery, not results: the work you ordered happens, on time, or your money comes back.
How does the escrow actually work?
You pay when you order, but the seller doesn't receive the money — it's held by the platform. When the seller delivers what the listing describes, they're paid. If the order is late or never delivered, the money comes back to you. It removes the trust-me step that the old promo casino was built on.
