Yes, MusicMinutes is legit. It's a real, paid-subscription tool for independent artists, founded and run in the UK by Paul Nicholls, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and independent artist with over 1 million streams on Spotify alone. If a promo service has burned you before, here's what it does and doesn't do. It doesn't sell streams, followers or playlist placements, the kind of paid promo Spotify's rules ban. This page was updated in October 2026 with our data to date, so you can check the claims instead of taking them on trust.

Checking matters right now. On 20 October 2026, Spotify said it had pulled more than 50 million "AI-generated slop and spam" tracks out of its recommendations so far this year, and that the tactics it monitors include "spammy playlist networks" [1]. That follows the music spam filter Spotify announced in September 2025, when it said it had removed over 75 million spammy tracks in the previous 12 months [2]. If a promo tool puts your song inside one of those networks, you're the one who pays for it.

Who runs MusicMinutes?

MusicMinutes is an independent UK business founded and run by Paul Nicholls, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer (CEng MIMechE) with an MEng in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and 11 years' experience in aerospace engineering. Chartered is the UK's highest professional engineering registration, held on a public register by the Engineering Council [3]. For the last 3 years Paul has also worked as a full-stack software engineer, building MusicMinutes. His own words on the about page: "I solo developed MusicMinutes."

He's been a musician for over 20 years. He plays guitar and drums, sings, and has spent around 15 years producing EDM, pop and metal in Logic Pro, with a long obsession with microphones and studio hardware. As an independent pop artist from Rotherham, England, he has over 1 million streams on Spotify alone, and his single "Falling" passed 300,000 by itself. He's always treated his own releases as data: years before MusicMinutes, he was working out the real return on his Meta ads by combining his Spotify streaming data, his distributor's data and his ad results.

MusicMinutes was in development for over a year before it opened in May 2025, designed around what small artists actually need and built for reliability and data security from the start. Its first code, including the playlist search and the bot checker, was written entirely by hand, and Paul has worked hands-on with the Spotify API for over 3 years. Since then, AI coding tools have become standard practice across software engineering, from small teams to the biggest companies. Paul was a late adopter, and he uses them the way an engineer uses any tool: he designs the system, directs the work and checks the result.

It isn't a white-label template or a quick clone with a new logo. The checks run every day, not once: each playlist's quality score is recalculated daily, the database is backed up every night to a second provider, and payments go through Stripe, so MusicMinutes never sees your card details.

There's a real person behind it who answers questions: every paid plan includes 1-2-1 advice from Paul inside the app, on Meta ads, playlists and releases. More than 400 artists have signed up since MusicMinutes opened in May 2025.

Some comparison pages describe MusicMinutes as an AI-built app. That's wrong: it was designed and hand-coded by a Chartered Engineer, and AI came later as a productivity tool, as it has across the software industry. You might also come across a page describing a "hum to track" AI composition product called MusicMinutes. That product doesn't exist, and MusicMinutes has never made an AI music generator.

What does MusicMinutes actually do?

It's one subscription with five tools in it:

  • Clips is the main video tool. It makes a batch of short-form videos for one song in one sitting. You upload the song, paste the lyrics and pick the moment. Cuts land on the beat, and the videos loop. Use your own footage, curated collections, free stock footage or visualiser-only videos, sized for TikTok, Reels, Shorts and Spotify Canvas among others. A scheduler reminds you when to post and copies a caption with 3 hashtags, but it never posts for you.
  • Playlist Search lists about 24,000 bot-checked Spotify playlists from around 10,000 curators, with verified contacts (email, Instagram or a submission link). You do the pitching yourself, off MusicMinutes.
  • Submit pitches your track to MusicMinutes' own playlists. A person reviews every one. Paid plans include 3 Premium submissions a month.
  • Clarity gives you feedback on a TikTok or Reels video in about 30 seconds.
  • Inspo is a feed of real musician videos, each shown with its Clarity breakdown.

What it won't do is just as useful to know. MusicMinutes doesn't sell streams or followers, doesn't promise playlist placements and isn't a distributor. It doesn't make AI-generated video footage and won't auto-post to your socials. The short film at the top of the MusicMinutes homepage shows the app in action, including real Clips output.

Does MusicMinutes use AI?

Yes, as a productivity tool, the way most modern software does: to save you time and to give you features that weren't possible a few years ago. It's never the product. Nothing in a finished Clips video is AI-generated footage, images, voices or music. Every shot is real footage, and the song is yours.

Can you use Clips videos commercially?

Yes, for organic posts and paid ads alike. The footage in the Clips library and curated packs comes only from sources cleared for commercial use: stock footage under licences that allow commercial use, and the founder's own phone recordings. So you can post your videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, and run them as Meta or TikTok ads, without paying anyone a licence fee.

The Terms of Use say this in writing. What you bring in yourself is your responsibility: you need the rights to your song and to any footage you upload or grab from YouTube or elsewhere. Library footage is licensed for use inside your videos, not for downloading and reselling on its own, and the stock licences have a few common-sense limits, such as not suggesting that a person in the footage endorses you.

Is MusicMinutes safe for your Spotify account?

Start with Spotify's own rules. It defines an artificial stream as one that "doesn't reflect genuine user listening intent", and it says it "strictly prohibits using any third party service that promises streams or playlist placement in exchange for money" [4]. Detected artificial streams "do not earn royalties", and penalties can go as far as "Removal of the track from Spotify altogether" [4]. Spotify's support pages put it just as plainly: "Paid 3rd-party services that guarantee streams aren't legitimate" [5].

MusicMinutes doesn't promise streams or placements, on any plan. Playlist Search gives you contacts, and the curator decides. Submit sends your track to a person who checks the genre, style and quality fit. We can't promise you any result, and honestly, be wary of anyone who does.

How we check playlists for bots

Every playlist in Playlist Search is bot-checked and has a quality score that's recalculated daily. Botted and payola playlists are hidden automatically and reviewed constantly. Here's what that looks like from June 2025 to 23 October 2026:

  • 20,765 playlists rejected as botted.
  • 1,579 removed for reasons other than bots or payola.
  • 25 rejected for payola.
  • 23,775 live, bot-checked playlists left in Playlist Search.

That's about 46,000 playlists assessed in total. About 45% of them, nearly half, were rejected as botted. It's a figure for the playlists that came through our checks, not for Spotify as a whole, but it shows why it's worth checking a playlist before you pitch it.

How our own playlists are grown

The playlists Submit pitches to are grown with Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram, plus organic posting and SEO. No bots, no bought followers or streams. You don't have to believe that: open Meta's Ad Library for the MusicMinutes Page [6] and you'll see ads for genre playlists like Sad Songs Pop and New Metalcore.

Do our playlists actually bring artists listeners?

You can check this in public. Every artist's Spotify profile has a "Discovered On" section listing the playlists where listeners found their music. Spotify picks them from real listening, and curators can't buy their way in. When Paul checked a sample of artists on our playlists with under 5,000 monthly listeners, our playlists showed up in their Discovered On sections again and again, sometimes in the number 1 slot. Some of those artists grew their monthly listeners while one of our playlists sat at or near the top of that list.

That isn't a promise. Results depend on the song, and no honest service can guarantee them. But it shows real people listen to these playlists, and you can look it up yourself on artists in our playlists.

Every track submitted to our playlists is also checked for AI-generated music with detection from SH Labs, the technology division of SubmitHub [7]. That protects the listeners our playlists have built, and the real artists already on them.

What does MusicMinutes cost, and can you cancel?

Prices in pounds, as of 23 October 2026:

  • Free, no card needed: 1 Standard playlist submission and 3 Clarity analyses a month. A Standard submission isn't a Premium one. It doesn't guarantee a reply and has a much lower chance of approval, but if it's approved it's a real boost, because all our playlists are grown with Meta ads.
  • Artist: £10 a month, or £72 a year (£6 a month). You get 30 Clips videos a month with Spotify Canvas, Playlist Search with curator contacts, 3 Premium submissions a month (each one guarantees a reply and has a higher chance of approval), 10 Clarity analyses, Inspo and 1-2-1 advice.
  • Artist Pro: £20 a month, or £180 a year (£15 a month). Everything in Artist, plus 100 Clips videos a month with every editing feature and 30 Clarity analyses.

Limits run over a rolling 30 days. If you join, you keep your price, even if you cancel and come back later. The full MusicMinutes pricing breakdown is on the pricing page.

Cancelling is done from Billing in your account, and you keep everything until the end of the period you've paid for. Payments are taken by Stripe. To be plain about refunds: there are no automatic refunds when you cancel. The Terms of Use say so, and they also ask you to get in touch if you have any issues. Curator contacts you've found in Playlist Search stay yours after you cancel.

Is MusicMinutes legit? How to check us yourself

You shouldn't have to take a company's word about itself. Here's how to test this page:

  • Paste any playlist link into the free Playlist Checker. No account needed. It shows the playlist's bot, payola and removal status from the same network Playlist Search uses.
  • Look up Paul Nicholls on the Engineering Council's public register with RegCheck to confirm his Chartered Engineer status [3].
  • Look through the Meta Ad Library link above to see exactly how our playlists are promoted.
  • Try the Free plan before paying. There's no card required, and you can run Clarity and send a submission.
  • Ask a question directly at [email protected], or on Instagram, r/musicminutes or YouTube.
  • Look us up on Trustpilot. Our profile is claimed but has no reviews yet. If you've used MusicMinutes, an honest MusicMinutes review, good or bad, helps the next artist decide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MusicMinutes a scam?

No. It's a paid subscription from an independent UK business founded and run by Paul Nicholls, a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and artist with over 1 million Spotify streams, with public prices and no promises of streams or placements.

Does MusicMinutes use bots?

No. Its own playlists are grown with public Meta ads, organic posting and SEO, and Playlist Search hides the botted playlists it finds.

Can I use Clips videos commercially, in ads and organic posts?

Yes. Library footage is all licensed for commercial use (stock footage licences or the founder's own recordings), and nothing in a Clips video is AI-generated. As long as you hold the rights to your song and to any footage you add yourself, including anything taken from YouTube, you can post the videos and run them as ads.

Can I get a refund?

There are no automatic refunds when you cancel, but you keep access until the end of the paid period. If something has gone wrong, email [email protected].

Does MusicMinutes guarantee streams or playlist placements?

No, and no honest service should. Spotify prohibits third-party services that promise streams or playlist placement in exchange for money [4]. MusicMinutes gives you the contacts and the feedback. What happens next depends on your song and what you do with them.

References