In 2023, Spotify is the most-used platform for music fans who want to discover new artists. So as an up-and-coming musician, it’s vital to get your music on Spotify editorial playlists and in front of legions of potential fans, but how do new artists get featured?
The only way to land on the biggest Spotify playlists is by putting your music in front of curators and making an impact. Once you get your music on Spotify, 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 2023.
How to get your music on Spotify Editorial Playlists in 2023:
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!
Similar to Amazon Music for Artists, 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.
The service can be accessed via both the Spotify for Artists app, as well as from your desktop. There are 2 ways you can pitch your music for playlisting via the service in 2023:
Once you’re signed up and logged in, just head to the ‘Home’ tab at the top of your Spotify for Artists dashboard and choose ‘Pitch a song to our editors’.
The other way to start pitching is to navigate to the ‘Music’ tab from the top of your Spotify for Artists dashboard and choose ‘Upcoming’ and then ‘Pitch a song’.
From here, you’ll be able to choose the specific track that you’d like to pitch.
Spotify will then ask you to fill out some info about the release you’re pitching. Make sure to fill this in fully & accurately, to better your chances of getting it placed!
They’ll ask for details about where you’re from… As well as important metadata information that’s specific to your song.
Be as specific as possible to help curators understand the creative influences behind your release…
Make sure you do a once-over to make sure everything’s correct and then click ‘submit.’
Once you’ve submitted it, Spotify will send an email to the address registered to your Spotify for Artists account to let you know if your placement has been accepted.
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 your music distributor and it’s been accepted by Spotify (this can take a few days), it’ll be available in your Spotify for Artists' upcoming releases.
You can’t pitch compilation songs or songs where you’re a featured artist. Currently, Spotify only allows you to choose tracks where you’re the lead artist. So bear this in mind too.
It’s best to upload to your music distributor 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 before 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.
Also, you can only submit one track per release. This is to limit the number of artists pitching their music at any one given time, so Spotify’s editorial team can give every artist a chance. 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 itself) 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 even more 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 CROSSROCK Music Spotify playlist 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 use of AI-generated 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 in 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:
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.
Drive traffic to Spotify from off-platform
Ultimately, the most crucial 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 the platform, so share your Spotify links everywhere! Post them across your socials, your website, and any other channels.
This will work in your favor as Spotify’s algorithms will recognize that you’re bringing in listeners from across the web and driving users to their 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.
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, including:
- An artist bio
- Social media links
- Upcoming tour dates and more
And don’t forget to get verified on Spotify as an official Spotify artist.
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 alongside any other music you’re into.
Send us an email at federico@crossrockcase.com