Spotify Marketing Strategy: A Step By Step Guide For Artists And Managers

Do you want your music to get more plays on Spotify and get included in the biggest playlists? In this post we outline our entire Spotify marketing strategy that helps our artists get featured on all the big Spotify playlists, such as: Mint, Today’s Top Hits, New Music Friday and many more. To help buoy musicians’ careers—and in turn make itself a more valuable resource to the industry—Spotify has been building out its artist-facing tools and teams, using everything from data analytics and targeted concert ticket sales to playlist placement to serve artists and assuage their anxieties about the future. It’s still early—Spotify for Artists, its analytics dashboard, just came out of beta a few weeks ago—so it’s not always clear to artists how to make the most of this new all-you-can-stream ecosystem. Here’s a primer.

 

1. Claim Your Artist Profile on Spotify

Before doing anything else, the first step is to claim your artist profile on Spotify.

Learn more about what this is: https://artists.spotify.com/guide/spotify-for-artists

When I requested access to some of the artists I work with, it required me to verify through the artist’s Twitter account so keep that in mind that you may need to have that on hand.

Taking this step is not necessary to get more followers, but it’s still an important data resource that every artists should have access to. Tools that reveal more details about your audience, songs and playlists that your songs are on are very valuable so take advantage. Best of all, you get a blue check mark on your profile that shows everyone you’re official!

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2. Creating a Kick-ass Playlist (a.k.a. Remarkable Content)

For almost all content, the title continues to be the hook that attracts leads to your pages. But if the user begins reading or listening to the on-page content before converting, and it doesn’t resonate with the title, or seems outdated, then your visitors will surely leave.

The bottom line is the content you’re publishing needs to be remarkable and align with the keywords (or title) you are ranking for. The same principles needed to be applied to this playlist if I want it to succeed.

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3. Get Your Music Everywhere Else

Spotify may be the biggest music streaming service, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only place to focus on. Many experts agree that the key to getting heard these days is to spread one’s music as far and wide as possible. That includes free services like SoundCloud and YouTube (which are easily embedded by music writers, should you be so fortunate). But it also includes having a meaningful social presence on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, releasing music videos, considering licensing music for TV and games (“sync” in industry parlance) and, above all else, regularly playing live in the real world.

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4. Submit your music to hundreds of music blogs and influencers

Music blogs and other curated music channels, especially on SoundCloud or Youtube (think Trap Nation) can turn talented underground artists into mainstage stars. They are incredibly powerful. That means getting your music in front of these curators and influencers is a must for every artist promoting his own music.

Now, the chances of getting featured by one of the more powerful music curators and blogs is very small. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go for it.

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5. Listen to Your Playlist

This may sound odd, but it’s the absolute best way to get a new playlist off the ground. After almost seven years and thousands of hours spent experimenting with dozens of different playlists, I can promise you this works.

Listen to your own playlist. Often.

Playlists with high engagement become more visible within Spotify than those with fewer active listeners. When you make a new playlist, that engagement is entirely up to you. If you make a new list and never listen to it, it will sit at 0 followers for the rest of time. If you make a list and listen to it almost every day for several weeks, you’ll see your follower count climb upward.

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6. Add an Attractive Cover Art

Sometimes an image can be more powerful than a playlist’s title or content, and an attractive piece of cover art will get people clicking on your list to see what’s inside. Music genres almost always have their own visual aesthetic, so look at some of your favorite album covers for inspiration.

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Conclusion

Spotify is pretty opaque about the best methods for creating a successful playlist on its platform, though the approaches I’ve described are ones I’ve tested and used successfully on multiple lists, and they should be helpful for anyone starting out.

Establish a focus for what you’re doing, be original, be picky, and listen to your playlist often. Chances are your mix won’t blow up overnight, but stick with it and you have a great shot at making your Spotify playlist a popular one.