If you’ve been wondering about ToneDen’s plans and their prices, and most importantly, if it is worth paying for, I’ve researched this and wrote about it for you right here.
A ToneDen subscription costs between $50USD to $100USD per user each month to use. ToneDen also allows you to use ToneDen-branded website landing pages and tools for free that can be great for promoting your music.
ToneDen has 4 plans available: Free, Basic, Pro, and Elite.
The main difference between these plans is that the paid plans remove ToneDen branding on the growth tools and that the more expensive the plan, the more monthly ad budget that ToneDen will manage for the user.
To learn more about ToneDen’s pricing and plans, whether it is worth it or not, and what the best alternative to ToneDen is, simply keep on reading, my friend. 🙂
Review of ToneDen Pricing And Plans
ToneDen has 3 tiers of plans available: a “free” plan, paid plans, and a custom plan.
For all of these paid plans, all you essentially get are website landing pages and Facebook ads that are partially managed for you.
When comparing ToneDen’s plans, the main difference is that the paid plans remove ToneDen branding on the growth tools and that, in general, the more expensive the plan, the more monthly ad budget that ToneDen will manage for you.
Here is a breakdown of what you can get with ToneDen’s plans:
- The Free plan gives access to ToneDen-branded landing pages and growth tools
- The Basic plan ($50USD) removes the ToneDen branding and allows for $500USD of automated Facebook ads management
- The Pro plan ($100USD) is like the Basic plan but allows for $1,000USD of managed ad spend
- The Elite plan needs to be contacted for pricing, allows for unlimited managed ad spend, and provides onboarding and weekly office services
To make things even easier to view, I’ve put this information into a chart for you and have even included a comparison of ToneDen’s plans against the best alternative which is to do it yourself (more on that later in this article).
| Plan | Price | Branding | Ad Budget Limit | Web Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | $0 | Yes | $0 | Landing pages |
| Basic Plan | $50 | No | $500 | Landing pages |
| Pro Plan | $100 | No | $1,000 | Landing pages |
| Elite Plan | ??? | No | Unlimited | Landing pages |
| DIY Ads | $0 | No | Unlimited | N/A |
| DIY Website | $5 – $30 | No | N/A | Landing pages + full website |
When compared to a do-it-yourself approach, it is pretty clear that ToneDen is mostly charging for convenience.
It may be less flexible, but it is definitely easier to get up and running with ToneDen than to set up your own web pages and learn the Facebook ads manager yourself.
This makes ToneDen perfect for anyone that does not want to spend too much time learning and using Facebook ads for musicians.
With that said, you do ultimately have to pay for that convenience and there are some pretty clear limitations to what you can do with ToneDen.
…but what about the “free” option?
ToneDen’s FanLink music links are free to use and are my #1 recommended free music link at this time since they have solid customization options and give you everything you need to properly run Spotify conversion ads.
Compared to what almost every other offers with their “free” music links, ToneDen is one of the very few that don’t hold back on giving you the features needed to get the most out of your music links.
Sure – you’ll have to run your ads yourself and ToneDen will likely be applying some pressure to get you to upgrade, but you’ll be able to save money and have more flexible ad targeting options.
How Do You Use ToneDen?
The most popular way to use ToneDen is to create landing pages that promote new music by directing listeners to streaming services (FanLinks) and getting listeners to those landing pages using Facebook and Instagram advertising (Spotfy Growth Playbook).
This is essentially the same thing as building a basic landing page yourself and running Facebook ads yourself.
However, the really big appeal here is that ToneDen makes it simpler and more convenient (albeit more expensive) to get set up and start running campaigns.
As you may already be able to tell…
I’d highly recommend doing this yourself so that you save money, learn valuable skills, and have more flexibility when creating your campaigns (but we’ll touch more on the best alternative to ToneDen later on in this article).
The most popular ToneDen campaigns are:
- FanLinks (landing pages with buttons pointing to music streaming sites)
- Pre-save campaigns for Spotify and Apple Music
- Spotify Growth Playbook (Facebook and Instagram ads)
- StreamLinks (landing pages like FanLinks but for live streaming sites instead of music streaming sites)
ToneDen Free Trial
ToneDen does not have a free trial but does have a “Free plan” that can give you access to some website landing pages called FanLink pages that have ToneDen branding on them.
Is ToneDen FanLink Free?
ToneDen’s FanLink smart links are free to use but will have ToneDen branding on the landing pages and campaign. You need to upgrade to the Basic plan at $50 USD per user per month to remove the ToneDen branding.
In my review of free music links, ToneDen FanLinks stood apart as the only free option worth recommending.
ToneDen Alternative
The best ToneDen alternative for any artist or producer looking to find success on Spotify is to select a music link tool and to run ads directly with the Facebook Advertising platform all by themselves.
With that said, I would recommend ToneDen to anyone that does not want to spend too much time learning and using Facebook ads for musicians – it can be challenging and can take away a lot of precious music-making time!
I would also warn artists that any dollar that you spend on marketing tools and services is a dollar that you could’ve been spending on ads that actually bring new fans to your music and get you streams.
This doesn’t just apply to ToneDen and really applies to any music marketing tool or service.
The Do It Yourself approach is always cheaper and provides more flexibility and options – but does require more time, energy, and attention on your part.
When looking for the best ToneDen alternative, it is best to start by looking at the 2 main things that ToneDen does for artists:
- Create basic webpages (aka music links, smart links, etc)
- Automate the Facebook Ads platform
So, let’s take a look at how you can easily take on these 2 tasks…
1 – Choose A Music Link Tool
The first step can be done by learning about what the best free music links are and start saving some money by using a free option.
Not to be too clickbaity, but the best free option will surprise you (spoiler: it is actually ToneDen’s FanLinks).
Alternatively, if you want to spend a bit of money on your music links, I’ve also created a guide that will show you the best premium and budget options called Music Links: The Best Smart Link Tools To Promote Your Music. 🙂
Once you have chosen a music link tool, you will want to make sure it is optimized to get the most streams by learning about music landing pages and how you can apply tried and tested marketing tactics to improve your music links.
Or – you can just check out this free course that I made to help you learn the strategy behind music links and how to use and optimize your music links (regardless of what option you choose).
2 – Learn How To Run Facebook Ads Yourself
I won’t lie to you – Facebook Ads can be really tough to figure out and this is exactly why paying for ToneDen can be so great.
With that said, I think that learning Facebook Ads is such an important thing for modern music artists to learn that I’ve put out a free course on this topic that you can check out here: Free Facebook Ads For Musicians Course.
Plus – there is much more flexibility and many more crazy detailed targeting options inside of the Facebook Ads platform when you do it yourself.
Ultimately though, it is just much, much cheaper to build out your own website landing pages and run your own ads (I can’t stress that enough hehe).
If any of this sounds like too much for you, then my recommendation would be to give ToneDen a try for a few months – after giving it a go for a bit you can simply decide if you’d like to keep going or try setting up similar ad campaigns yourself. 🙂
ToneDen vs DIY Facebook Ads
ToneDen uses the Facebook Ads platform to run Instagram story ads to fans of artists that may be similar to you.
In comparison, using the Facebook Ads manager directly, allows you to run similar Instagram story ads as with ToneDen but also gives you access to all of Facebook and Instagram’s advertising tools.
With the Facebook Ads Manager, you can target all the same artists and genres that you can with ToneDen (plus way more).
In fact, all ToneDen is doing is automating the use of the Facebook Ads Manager for you – which can be really, really great if you do not want to learn Facebook Ads.
Essentially, ToneDen has a monthly subscription cost to use (in addition to the ad costs for your campaign) but is easier to get started using, while Facebook Ads is cheaper and more flexible but has a learning curve.
Pros of using ToneDen:
- ToneDen is quick to get setup and running
- ToneDen will create a basic landing page and ad for you
Pros of using Facebook Ads:
- There is no cost to use the Facebook Ads Manager (you only pay for the ads you serve)
- Facebook Ads Manager gives you many more targeting options (ie: artists, companies, demographics, etc)
- Facebook Ads Manager allows you to run ads to both Facebook and Instagram, and to more than just Story ad placements
- Facebook Ads Manager allows you to “retarget” ads to anyone who engages with your Facebook or Instagram profile or website, anyone who saw your previous ad campaign, and even people who say 25% – 95% of a specific video or ad (and more)
- Facebook Ads Manager allows you to leverage their machine learning and algorithms to create “Lookalike” audiences which are people similar to custom audience groups such as anyone who engaged with you before, took a particular action, or watched a specific video (and more)
ToneDen FanLink Pages: How To Make Your Own
If you already have your own website, then you can actually do this for free.
If not, then don’t worry it’s cheap, easy, and will end up saving you some serious cash. Plus, there are a lot more things you can do with a fully functioning website.
Instead of just a few landing pages (aka music links) for your releases, you can build out a full-blown website with contact info, biography, blog posts, and absolutely any creative web pages you can think up.
These include:
- Build your own website with a homepage, contact page, about me page, etc
- Add in a Store page where you can start selling merch
- Start your own blog
- Create fully customizable ToneDen-style FanLink pages
The two ways to create your own ToneDen-style FanLink pages are by creating a Squarespace-based website or a WordPress-based website.
They are both great options, but I personally use and would recommend WordPress.
Here is why:
- There are no (or very low) monthly fees
- More customization and flexibility because of the endless amount of plugins available
- The option to use pre-made templates already in the style of Linktree, Toneden, Hypeddit, etc.
For a free step-by-step course on how to get started with this, check out my free course on smart links for music.
To get started with your own custom website, you just need to follow these steps:
- Install WordPress: All you need to do is use a web hosting service like Bluehost that gives you web hosting, a website domain, and then instantly sets up WordPress on it for you.
- Install a premium theme (I recommend Thrive Architect to create beautiful web pages by dragging and dropping instead of coding) or just get started with completely free WordPress themes.
- Use a ToneDen template to get started ASAP or create your very own fully customized landing page and web pages to suit your needs.
P.S. The free course on smart links for music that I’ve mentioned actually includes templates that I’ve made that look like ToneDens and ones that I’ve used to get over 4 million Spotify streams.
How Do I Cancel My ToneDen Subscription?
There are 2 ways to cancel a ToneDen subscription, by canceling inside of the Account settings tab or by emailing them directly at support@toneden.io.
Of these 2 options, the quickest way would be to visit your account settings and click on the ‘Delete Account’ button.
ToneDen Competitors To Check Out
Companies that are similar to ToneDen include LinkTree, LinkFire, and Hypeedit.
Here is a list of companies like ToneDen that are worth learning more about:
- Hypeddit
- LinkTree
- LinkFire
- Feature.Fm
- SmartLinks
- DistroKid Hyperfollow
ToneDen Not Working? Do This.
If ToneDen is not working for you, the best thing to do is contact their support, take part in the free ToneDen Academy to learn the best practices, or start looking for an alternative to ToneDen.
Although most of their offerings are automated and set up so that you should see success as easily as possible, it is very possible that you may run into technical issues or simply not see the results you were hoping to see.
To learn more about what to do if ToneDen is not quite working out for you, check out my article that explores what to do when ToneDen is not working.
