Millions of music fans use Spotify to discover new artists. So as an up-and-coming musician, it’s vital to get your music on Spotify playlists and in front of legions of potential fans. But how do new artists get featured?
How I Published My Original Music on Spotify for FREE Step 1: Treasure Hunt on Spotify.com. I went to Spotify's website and looked up what it would take to get my music there. Step 2: Finding a Distributor. I went through the whole list and did some research. Most of them charged around $10 per.
The only way to land on the biggest Spotify playlists is by putting your music in front of curators and making an impact. It’s hard to understate the boost a great playlist placement can give your music, so we’ve laid out this essential advice to help you grab those major playlist features in 2020.
How to get playlisted on Spotify in 2020
Pitch directly to Spotify via Spotify for Artists
Ok, this is a big one. If you've got music on Spotify, you NEED to be using Spotify for Artists.
If you haven't already, go sign up and link your Spotify artist profile to Spotify for Artists right now!
Spotify for Artists has loads of great tools to help you understand and adapt your approach to promoting music on Spotify, but perhaps the most powerful part of the service is direct playlist pitching.
Just head to the Music tab of your Spotify for Artists dashboard and choose 'Upcoming'. From here you can select the release you'd like to submit for playlisting.
Here are a couple of key things to remember when pitching for playlists through Spotify for Artists..
You can only pitch music that hasn't been released yet. Once you've uploaded your music to Ditto and it's been accepted by Spotify (this can take a few days), it'll be available in your Spotify for Artists upcoming releases.
It’s best to upload to Ditto with plenty of time to spare and pitch early. The very latest you should be pitching is 7 days before your release date, but ideally you want to be uploading & submitting your tracks to playlists weeks in advance of your release date.
Spotify’s curators have to go through thousands and thousands of playlist submissions every day, so the earlier you pitch, the better your chance of getting heard.
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- Things you can do on free: Things you can’t do on free: Things you can only do on Premium. Skip and select songs on Pick and Play playlists. This includes a selection of 15 playlists chosen by Spotify based on your.
Also, you can only submit one track per release. So if you're releasing an album or EP, have a good think about which track is most likely to get picked up by playlists.
We’ve only covered the basics here, but we’ve got a whole other article on submitting music for playlists to Spotify directly here. So go check that out.
Pitch music to independent curators
When it comes to pitching your music to independently curated playlists (that’s any playlist on Spotify that isn’t built by Spotify themselves) you’ll need to start hunting down curators.
There are thousands of popular independent Spotify playlists out there created by all sorts of curators - from blogs, media outlets and industry folk to just your average Spotify users.
Spend a few hours searching through Spotify to find playlists that would suit your sound, make a note of who owns the playlist and head to Google.
A bit of Google searching can throw up the contact details you need to start submitting to the playlists you’ve chosen as targets. It’ll usually be an email address or maybe a submission form on their website.
You could keep things organized by making a spreadsheet of all your potential playlist contacts.
Once you’ve found the right contacts, it’s time to reach out.
Make sure to keep your email short, polite and informative with prominent links to your music on Spotify. Make it as easy as possible for them to quickly find out who you are and listen to your music.
TIP: If you’re wondering where to start, you can actually submit your music to the Ditto Music Spotify playlists right now!
Our playlists cover loads of different genres including indie, electronic, hip-hop, rock and more. SEND US YOUR MUSIC HERE.
Get on Discover Weekly & Release Radar
Spotify’s Discover Weekly & Release Radar playlists are unique to every user on the platform. Rather than being curated by Spotify’s staff, they’re created by the platform’s algorithms.
Getting onto a listener’s Release Radar playlist is simple. Just get them to follow you on Spotify.
Whenever you release new music, it’ll appear the Release Radar playlist of everyone who follows you.
Spotify UK’s director of artists and management has previously stated that Release Radar alone generates more streams than any of Spotify’s self-curated playlists. So it’s kind of a big deal.
Discover Weekly’s algorithm however, is a little more complicated.
Every Spotify user gets their own individual Discover Weekly playlist every Monday morning.
The playlist is based entirely on that specific user's music tastes. It uses an algorithm that analyses unique listening habits and spits out similar songs that a certain user may not have heard before.
Here’s an interesting quote from a Spotify executive explaining how it works:
'We look at what you've been listening to. And what are the songs playing around these songs that you've been jamming on, but that we know you haven’t heard yet on Spotify.'
'Let's say you've been playing a song by The Killers and a song by Bruce Springsteen a lot. Algorithms look for how those songs are played and ordered in other Spotify users' playlists. If it turns out that, when people play those songs together in their playlists, there’s another song sandwiched between them that someone has never heard before, that song will show up in your Discover Weekly.'
'Let's say you've been playing a song by The Killers and a song by Bruce Springsteen a lot. Algorithms look for how those songs are played and ordered in other Spotify users' playlists. If it turns out that, when people play those songs together in their playlists, there’s another song sandwiched between them that someone has never heard before, that song will show up in your Discover Weekly.'
There are a few ways to boost your chances of landing on Discover Weekly, including getting added to other playlists and increasing your engagement with listeners. You can read more about getting music into Discover Weekly here.
So now you know how to pitch your music to Spotify playlists. But that’s only half the battle!
Simply submitting your music for playlists often isn’t enough. You need to give yourself the best chance of getting picked up.
Here’s how.
Drive traffic to Spotify from ‘off-platform’
Ultimately, the most important thing from Spotify's point-of-view is getting more people to listen to music on their platform.
They love it when artists bring listeners to Spotify from “off platform”, so share your Spotify links everywhere! Post them across your socials, your website and any other channels.
This will work in your favour as Spotify’s algorithms will recognise that you’re bringing in listeners from across the web and driving users to the platform.
Grow your following on Spotify
Put simply, the more followers you have, the more likely it is that playlist curators will take you seriously.
How To Put Songs On Spotify
Get all your fans to hit the follow button on your profile
Make sure all of your friends, family and fans are following you on Spotify, share your tracks across social media and promote your Spotify account wherever and whenever possible to build up your followers.
And remember, any new music you release will go directly to your followers via their Release Radar playlist.
Share any playlists you're featured on
If your music ends up being included on any Spotify playlist, no matter how small, share it as much as possible to start racking up more and more streams.
It’s always a good idea to tag the playlist curator in your posts too, to show them you’re invested in their playlist and build your relationship with them.
Complete your Spotify profile
A complete and detailed Spotify profile gives you a more legitimate face on the platform and in turn makes it more likely for playlist curators to take you seriously and consider you for features.
You can complete your profile info in Spotify for Artists. Add a bio, social media links, upcoming tour dates and more.
Add a bio, social links and tour dates to your Spotify profile
Build your own playlists
This is an easy way to give your music a boost on Spotify. Start creating your own public playlists, filled with great music and include your own tracks too.
With a bit (ok, a lot) of work, you could build your playlist to have thousands or even millions of followers over time.
But even if your playlist only has a few followers, it’ll still help your chance of landing on other, bigger playlists.
Remember, the Discover Weekly algorithm takes EVERY playlist placement into account, no matter how small. So you have nothing to lose in creating a playlist featuring your own music.
Remember, if you don't land big playlist features straight away - don't worry! Keep your head up and keep trying.
Have you had success using any of the playlisting tips here? Or have you any more advice to share with your fellow artists? Let us know in the comments below.
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services among people, especially the youth. It is available for the most modern devices such as Windows, macOS and Linux computers as well as iOS, Windows Phone and Android smartphones and tablets. Besides, it provides music, podcast and video streaming service and users can create, edit, and share playlists and tracks on social media. As Spotify users, you can find many tutorials about how to play Spotify Music on multiple devices or add Spotify Music to PowerPoint presentation, but some of them wonder how to publish songs on Spotify. Well, though you are not a professional singer, you can also publish your music on Spotify for sharing with others. Then do you know how to be an artist on Spotify?
Don't Miss:How to Download Music from Spotify without Premium
Part 1. What Can You do with 'Spotify for Artists'
As Spotify offers 'Spotify for Artists' for users who want to publish songs on Spotify, therefore I'd like to introduce you this function at first. It's designed for those who love music and want to share their music. What can you do with access to Spotify for Artists?
A. Get your profile new-release ready. You are allowed to update your bio, share your playlists, promote your music and control how listener comment you on Spotify.
Get Your Song On Spotify Playlist Free
B. Follow your release as it grows, all in real time. You can see who's tuning in and getting live updates on your new release, no matter where you are.
C. Learn about your listeners. Also understand who's listening and where to book gigs-whether you are playing a few shows or planning a full tour.
To publish your songs on Spotify, you need to have a Spotify artist account at first.
Part 2. How to Set Up a Spotify Artist Account
In fact it's easy to set up a Spotify artist account, just follow the ultimate guide as below.
Step 1. First of all, make sure that you have downloaded Spotify on your Mac or PC. Then open the desktop version of Spotify.
Step 2. Then you can start to sign up for a Spotify account, which is free by the way. We don't suggest you sign up by using Facebook though as it will link your artist account to your personal Facebook account. Something you may not want to bother for reasons of privacy and management.
Step 3. After signing up, you need to verify your account as an artist, which is different from the regular account verification. Verification helps not only boost your profile as an artist but also gets you noticed by Spotify algorithm and content curators.
After that, now you can log in your Spotify account and get started to publish songs on Spotify.
Part 3. How to Publish Songs on Spotify
Now that you have a Spotify account, you can start to publish songs on Spotify.
Step 1. Make sure you have completed the recording of an original song that you want to publish on Spotify. As you want to earn money from it, you can only publish original music written by yourself.
Step 2. Then log in Spotify and find any unreleased music at the top of the 'Home' tab, or in your discography in the 'Profile' tab.
Step 3. Next select 'GET STARTED' next to the release you want to submit. Or, in 'Profile', right-click any unreleased music, and select 'Submit a Song'.
Step 4. Finally just select a song from the release to submit. Then fill out as much information about the song as possible, because the more information you provided, the better chance it has.
Part 4. Tips for Publishing Songs on Spotify
In case you may haven't published songs on Spotify before, I hereby give you some tips:
#1. Submitting a song doesn't mean that Spotify guarantee a place on an editorial playlist, but you will get the best chance.
#2. You are allowed to submit only one song per artist profile at a time even if you have more than one scheduled release.
#3. When your track is chosen, it is impossible to remove yourself from a playlist. There's no set amount of time it will stay on the playlist which depends on how well it resonates with listeners.
#4. Those who have access to your profile on Spotify for Artists can see and edit the submission. Any changes are displayed for all members.
#5. It's totally free to use Spotify for Artists. It's not possible to pay to increase your changes, nor can any external parties influence editors.
Now just try to publish your original songs on Spotify. What's more, you can even give your fans an inside look at the music you love and the songs that inspire you by featuring playlists on your artist profile. But sometimes if you find your Spotify Web Player not working, then you can try to download Spotify music for listening offline with TuneFab Spotify Music Converter which is a professional Spotify DRM removal and download tool.