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551 million. That is the number of people who use Spotify each month. 220 million of those people are subscribers and have tailor made playlists at their fingertips each day. Through the new DJ feature, Discover Weekly playlists or Algorithm curated mixes, 551 million people are able to discover new music every single day. Gosh, isn't is great to be living in this day and age? Well, perhaps, just when it comes to streaming.
Spotify playlists are a vehicle of discovery. New fans discover your music, A&R folks find your tracks, DJ's find your tunes to remix... the list goes on. Playlisting is the process of getting your songs on the daily soundtracks of those plugged into those playlists. And it's important. Playlisting improves the discoverability of your songs a million times over and is crucial in the promotion of your music and you as an artist.
The Almighty Algorithm... Use It Your Advantage
BUT, let's get one thing clear. Spotify isn't made up of loads of music fanatics listening through hours of music a day and picking the best stuff. It is, of course, operation on an algorithm. I mean, what nowadays isn't? Securing a place on playlists help build your presence within that algorithm and will lead to more exposure on the platform. The Spotify algorithm will examine your music in relation to those playlists and can better understand who will want to listen to it. And, therefore, will recommend it to those people. Boom. More fans.
One Size Does Not Fit All: Types Of Playlists
Spotify has many different types of playlists that it pushes to its users. Playlisting will look different for the different kinds. Understanding what they are and how they work is important to successful Spotify playlist promotion. So, the different types to look out for are:
Algorithmic: as mentioned before, these types of playlists are based off of users listening habits and how Spotify associates your music to other artists. Think of Release Radar, Daily Mix, Discover Weekly or Spotify's new DJ Feature, they're all AI generated.
Listener: probably the polar opposite of the one above, this type of playlist is entirely man-made. These playlists are curated by users.
Editorial: The best playlist pitching services will get you on these ones. These are the playlists curated by Spotify taste-makers.
Which Spotify Playlists Can You Get On?
It goes without saying that the dream playlisting goal is to get on an editorial playlist. They will literally launch your songs into the limelight and dramatically increase your discoverability. Most of the time, you can pitch your songs to these tastemakers through your chosen distributor. But, like everything in life, it helps if you know someone. Getting the best playlist pitching services can immensely increase your chances of getting on one of these.
However, thinking locally is a great way to ensure some exposure when it comes to playlisting. Going for local radio stations is always a great idea. They have a lot of loyal listeners, and listeners who will already be into your kind of style, too. While you're at it, you can do some radio plugging and try get on the rotation (link to radio plugging article when published).
Start Small, Get Big
A great way to get the playlisting ball rolling is to start small. If you don't want to employ playlist promotion services and DIY the whole thing, then starting small is the best way to go. Here's how:
Step 1: Find smaller, user-generated playlists that have a good following. There are listener-curated playlists out there with thousands of followers and listeners, so don't think you'll just be found by a few mates of the original creator. But make sure to be genre-specific. Trust us, make sure you fit the vibe. There's nothing more confusing to algorithm when you're starting out than being associated with completely contrasting music.
Step 2: Contact the playlist curator... by any means possible. We're kidding, obviously, but only mostly. We've all had a good internet stalk once of twice in our life and this is the most justifiable time to do so. Using the information Spotify provides (which isn't much, just their username), go full detective mode and search that username on any platform possible.
Step 3: Pitch to them! Yes, go for it. Be kind, be respectful, be professional. But, go for it. Often, these curators will be big music heads, so finding new music will be part of their playlisting process.
Once you're on there, make sure to thank the playlist maker and watch as fans of that playlist find your sound. Your stream count will thank you, the new fans will thank you, and so will the algorithm. It now has more data to better understand where to put you. Everyone's a winner.
Get Big, Stay Big
One way to bypass that first step on the ladder is employing playlist promotion services. Playlisting is a long, complex and long-winded beast. And if you want to just focus on the music, not on how to get the music to satisfy the algorithm all day long, we totally get you. The best playlist pitching services on the planet can't guarantee you a spot on Spotify editorial playlists... and they shouldn't. But they have a better chance of getting you to a good level of exposure and increasing your discoverability than if you're going for it on your own. Utilising the experience of the best playlist pitching services will also help you avoid those pesky bots. Bots pop up everywhere in playlisting as they make it look like your music has had mad exposure overnight, but not one single fan has been made. Beware. Using playlisting services can guarantee this won't be the case and your hard work and amazing music is actually being heard by people. Well... ours does anyways. We can't speak for everyone. Check out our successfully bot-free playlisting services here.