How To Get Your Music On Spotify Playlists
As a musician, one of the main focuses for your release is to get it on plenty of Spotify Playlists whether that is Editorial Playlists or 3rd Party Playlists. Identity Music has written up a guide to help you know some of the most important factors of pitching your music to curators.
Why Are Spotify Playlist Placements Important To Musicians?
This is a very good question, if you are a musician and you ask yourself why should you work to get your music into playlists the answer is super simple.
The more your music gets into valuable playlists the wider your music will travel. This will increase your listeners which in turn, will gain you more fans and escalate the royalties you receive for your music, meaning you earn more.
The more 3rd party playlist placements your music lands the higher your popularity metric will be, this makes it easier for Spotify to notice you and select you for editorial playlist placements.
How Do I Get My Music On Spotify Playlists?
We can talk all day about what can help you get selected by the best curators and playlists but we have narrowed it down to 8 top tips that we would recommend to musicians. Our A&R team have also provided what they deem to be the most influential factors to getting placements.
How To Get Your Music Into Spotify Playlists – From Our A&R Team
Schedule Your Release Early
One of the most important factors to getting your music into playlists is your release plan.
This really can not be stressed enough, don’t upload your new track a week before you want it released to the world and think that you are doing the best thing for your new track.
You want to put the time and effort into your release plan like you did create your release.
If you are a client of Identity Music’s we have a Free Release Plan Guide that we encourage all of our artists to follow, this allows you time to hype your release and pitch your track.
Identity Music advice allowing as much time as possible but 6 -8 weeks has proven to be the best.
Algorithmic Playlists Count
What are Spotify Algorithmic Playlists? They are playlists that are automatically generated for each Spotify User by Spotify’s software algorithms. E.G; Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mix.
How can you get into these playlists?
* Have your fans follow you on Spotify so they can have your music automatically added to their respective playlists.
* Be vocal with your audience! To keep your music on everyone’s radar, your followers need to be saving, sharing, or liking your tracks.
* Remember your all-important Pre-save Link, yes, use it. The higher your pre-save rates are the higher your chances of getting into Spotify Algorithmic Playlists.
If you distribute your music with Identity Music, we can generate a Pre-save link for your upcoming release for FREE!
Avoid Fraudulent Playlists
If you have made it to this point in this article then let’s face it, you want your music in Spotify Playlists but you need to make sure that you are not falling for fraudulent playlists as they can damage your music career and stop you from getting your music into editorial playlists.
Make sure that you are doing some research into the curators and playlists before pitching your music to them.
Here is a link to our helpful guide on how to Spot Red Flags for Fraudulent playlists.
Sell Yourself In Your Pitch
Your Spotify Playlist Pitch is your gateway to editorial playlist placements.
You need to enter the genre, subgenres, moods and styles of the song, as well as indicating the language of the lyrics and the instruments played in the song. After this you will also need to choose a city that you identify with, this doesn’t have to be your location, it can be where your music audience is (You can find this in the Identity Music Dashboard).
Then you will be given the chance to describe your song, (Don’t hold back here) make sure you sell your music. Add anything interesting about the track that you’d like curators to know: from what inspired you to write it, to when you plan to play it live and always include the promotion that you are planning to help boost your release.
Identity Music is able to submit a pitch on your behalf, sometimes a pitch from a label or a distributor is favourable in comparison to an artist pitch. Identity Music offers this completely free to help our artists. Tip: Prepare the information before you pitch your release so that you are giving your music the best chance.
Make Your Spotify Profile Look Professional & Ready For Placements
Don’t underestimate the importance of setting up your Spotify Artist Page. This page is going to reflect you and your music so it must look professional. One thing above all is that your Spotify Profile Page represents the style of your music. When thinking about how to get your music onto Spotify Playlists remember, Spotify will be looking into you as a musician.
If you are a classical Pianist, you would have a different aesthetic to if you were a Lofi musician or if you were a Rock Band. Remember to embrace yourself and your style in the profile to attract that audience that suits you and your music.
Spotify Profile Image
The best way to make your Spotify Profile Page look professional is by uploading a high-quality image that represents you and your music brand. This could be a logo, a photo of you.
You have two options, either you can upload a profile image that can represent all of the work that you do. Otherwise, you can upload a profile image that incorporates your latest release.
If you choose to update your profile with each and every release, remember to stick to it otherwise your profile can look out of date very quickly!
Spotify Bio/ About Section
Always ensure that your Spotify Bio remains up to date. Include some background information on yourself as a musician. Highlight your key successes as well as any future plans.
Don’t forget to add your social media links to your Spotify Profile to help your fans find you on all of your artist profiles.
Spotify Artist Pick
Another piece of advice for keeping your Spotify Profile page looking up to date and professional is keeping your Artist Pick populated!
Not only is populating your Artist Pick great to thank a curator for putting you in their playlist but it also can help your fans see where else they are able to listen to your music.
It is really important to give back to the music community that supports you. You could use your Artist Pick to share what you are currently listening to.
Create An Artist EPK (Electronic Press Kit)
Electronic Press Kits for musicians are a great way to get all of your artist’s information in one place and ready to send to curators, managers, labels or whoever you want.
As a curator there is nothing worse than opening your emails to find the same generic “I have released TRACK NAME, please put it into your playlist”.
Invest time into pitching your track for Spotify Playlist Placements, put together an EPK with information about you as a musician, what track you are working on or releasing and why it would benefit the playlist to list it. Don’t forget to add links to your social media.
Community Matters – Don’t Neglect Us
Do you know those “friends” that only contact you when they want something? Yep, those annoying ones. Don’t treat your music community as a friend when you need them and then ignore everyone for months while you are prepping your next release.
Don’t wait for your next release to find other members of the music community e.g curators, producers, videographers. Take an interest in them all year round, share and comment on their projects so that when you have a release they will return the favour.
When you release your next release remember to tag everyone that you worked with for that extra boost and to credit them for their amazing work. This can be producers, artwork designers, collaborators, distributors, labels or even that friend that helped you get through the recording process. The more people you tag, the more they are able to share your work and gain a wider audience reach.
Pitch To Spotify Playlists That Suit You
Dont waste your time trying to get in all of the playlists that you find. Research every playlist you are pitching to, this will ensure that you are only spending the time taking to curtators that will be able to help you gain a wider audience. Make sure that the playlists that you are pitching to give off the same vibe as your music, this way you know that the listeners will be more likely to ensure your music and tranfer to being your fans.
If you look at the playlists above, you can see just based on the images and names of the playlist that they wouldn’t all suit the same types of music. The last thing that you want as an artist is for your Bedroom Pop track to end up in a Drill Music playlist.
At Identity Music we distribute, protect and promote your music worldwide. We offer innovative solutions for independent music artists and record labels to share their music with the world. Our industry leading music services enable you to sell your music without all the hassle and daunting upfront fees.
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If you would like any assistance or further guidance, contact Identity Music for more information.
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