Hello everyone! Excited to be here on the ground floor of something special. My name is Zach Stambuck, I’m a guitarist and songwriter based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I play in two metalcore bands: Spare the Dead and Burn Absolute. Chris is our producer and co-collaborator in StD (yes, I know 😅), and genuinely one of my favorite people in the world. I’m here to both learn and contribute, sharing what I’ve picked up so far while continuing to level up alongside everyone else. Over the past few years, my main areas of focus have been songwriting and music marketing, specifically advertising and playlist strategy. In the last two years, I’ve grown Spare the Dead into a consistent ~5,000 monthly listener act with listeners across the globe primarily in the U.S., Mexico, and South America. I’m also a playlist curator on SubmitHub. That playlist has grown from about 1,000 saves to nearly 4,000 saves in the past year, and it’s become a major part of our growth strategy. The biggest thing I can share is how I’ve combined advertising and playlisting into a self-sustaining streaming growth engine, one that not only pays for itself, but also puts our music (and name) in front of bands and listeners worldwide. Listening to thousands of songs over the past year has also sharpened my ear for what’s working in the scene right now and helped improve my songwriting in a very real way. My current weak point, and something I’m actively trying to solve, is converting daily listeners into deeper fans: merch buyers, social media engagers, and people who stick around beyond the stream. If you want to check out what we’ve been building, you can find everything here:👉 solo.to/sparethedead Looking forward to connecting and digging in. Let’s get to it.

I’ve been juggling a few mixes already this year for other bands, while recording/writing Phantom Limbs new record what’s everyone else working on so far in 2026? 🫡

I’ve been reminded of this 7 times this year already WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS. Something I’ve always avoided…until I heard this: There was a big study done on people who write down their goals Vs people who don’t. The ones who write them down were 40% MORE LIKELY to achieve their goals vs the ones who just THOUGHT their goals out. Idk about you, but I could use that extra 40% 😂 My goals are: ⭐️ Hit 100k monthly listeners ⭐️ 10k YouTube subs ⭐️ Develop Longform YouTube strategy for the band + for Lowland ⭐️ Grow this community to 2000 beautiful musicians If you’re here so far, you’ve been a part of the soft launch, and I thank you. That said, I want that 40% rule to be true for you: what are YOUR GOALS for 2026?