Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned.
Most artists default to social media.
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Let’s dive into today’s topic:
Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned.
The PESO model is one of the first things every artist should understand about marketing.
Why it matters
Most emerging artists discover marketing through social media. It’s visible, creative, free to start, and everyone around them is doing it. It’s absolutely not a bad choice. The problem is that it’s often the only choice.
How it works
The PESO model (Dietrich, 2014) divides marketing channels into four types: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned.
It’s a classical framework in communications strategy, and arguably one of the first things worth understanding when you start thinking seriously about how to reach people.
Paid: Reach you pay for. Ads on Meta, TikTok, or YouTube. Sponsored content. Paid placements. You control the message and targeting, but you’re renting attention rather than building it.
Earned: Reach that others give you because your work is worth it. Press coverage, playlist features, blog reviews, podcast appearances, word of mouth. A gatekeeper amplifies you, spilling-over credibility precisely because you didn’t pay for it.
Shared: Content distributed across social platforms via community sharing and user-generated content. High visibility and relatively low direct cost, but you don’t own the platform, and reach is algorithmic.
Owned: Channels you control completely. Your website, your newsletter. No algorithm decides who sees it. The audience you build here belongs to you.
Most emerging artists are:
Heavily invested in Shared.
Lightly invested in Owned.
Occasionally active in Earned.
Too early in Paid.
The model makes it clear what you’re already doing and what you haven’t looked at yet. From there, the question becomes straightforward: which channels fit your brand, your career stage, and your available time, energy, and money?
An artist with a strong visual identity and a compelling story might find Earned media a better investment than paid advertising.
An artist who is still developing their sound might prioritise Owned first: build a newsletter, develop a website, and create a direct line to their audience before worrying about social volume.
An artist with an already-engaged community might find that a small investment in Paid amplifies what’s already working, rather than buying cold attention.
Yes, but..
PESO was originally designed as a PR framework for communications professionals, not for solo artists managing their own marketing with limited resources. Some channels, particularly Earned, require established relationships, market value, and strong press materials before they are accessible. An artist without industry contacts or a track record will find it difficult to secure meaningful editorial coverage, regardless of how strong the music is.
Take action now
Write down every marketing activity from the past three months and place each in a quadrant: Paid, Earned, Shared, or Owned. Where is most of the time and money going? Which quadrants are empty?
Your thoughts
Further reading
Paid, earned, shared, and owned media: fully operational, fully integrated (Spin Sucks)
Dietrich, G. (2014). Spin Sucks: Communication and Reputation Management in the Digital Age. Que Publishing.
The problem with newsletters (The Fanbase Builder)
Why artists should select their platforms with care (The Fanbase Builder)
Don’t run ads: Better ways to spend a hundred euros (The Fanbase Builder)
The anti-content strategy (The Fanbase Builder)