How to better your chances of getting featured on Spotify playlists

For artists looking to get their music shared with listeners on a global scale, getting featured on Spotify playlists is a great way to get there. Whether you’re interested in landing on unofficial or official playlists, these tips can help your chances by a long shot. Here’s what you can do to maximize your chances of getting featured on Spotify playlists…

A guest post by Randi Zimmerman of SymphonicBlog.

Get Verified

Making sure your profile is verified on Spotify is not only super important, but very easy to do. It ensures that your profile is really you and solidifies your commitment to the platform and your artistry. To get verified, all you have to do is claim your profile on Spotify For Artists. To do this, follow these steps:

• Head over to https://artists.spotify.com
• Click Get Access. (Located in the top right corner of the page.)
• Then, you’ll be redirected to a page that will give you the option to either paste your URL or search for your profile.
• Once your request is accepted, your profile gets the blue verified checkmark.

Simple as that.

Focus On Your Songs With The Highest Potential

We know you love every song on your album, but not all of them can make it onto the playlist you desire. Shift your focus onto the song with the highest potential for acceptance. — The best way to get to the bottom of this is to check out whatever analyticsyou have access to for your songs.

With this data, you can see a clear favorite among your fans. Choose wisely!

Don’t Forget About Metadata

Metadata is the foundation of the modern digital music industry. More specifically, it’s that set of data that you need to submit whenever you upload and register an album with us.

Releasing music without accurate metadata is like writing a book report and not signing your name. Without it, you miss out on getting the proper credit and revenue you deserve for your work. Spotify has said many times themselves that when submitting a song for consideration, “the more info we get, the better chance it has.”

Getting this right makes sure your song links to your profile, gets you more streams, and ensures you get paid. If you want to make sure you do it right, check out “How To Submit Accurate Metadata” to learn more.

Complete Marketing Drivers

The underlying forces that compel you to buy or pay for certain products and services are called marketing drivers. As an artist, these are the key details you want to be shared with DSP’s like Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, YouTube, Soundcloud, Pandora, etc. to help you stand out.

With these unique details, our team can help your music catch the attention of the tastemakers in the industry. The more details that you can provide, the better your chances.

(“What Are Marketing Drivers And Why Do I Need Them?” breaks it down even further and gives you everything you need to know to get this right.)

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Sharpen your skills…

6 Marketing Strategies To Land On Playlists

Types of Algorithmic Spotify Playlists and How to Get on Them

How Independent Labels Can Benefit from Spotify For Artists

How To See Your Spotify Playlist Placements in the SymphonicMS

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Help User-Curated Playlists Find You

If you didn’t know, there are tastemakers who aren’t among Spotify’s in-house playlisting team who create curated playlists. These are the people out there making playlists independently, who have a lot of followers, and who the DSP’s trust as a respectable source for new music. — Check out some examples of these here: Best 3rd Party Playlisting Services.

The more of these you can get accepted to, the more likely the official playlists will accept you too. The first thing you should do is reach out to them by following them on Spotify. Then, you can go ahead and share your track with them. Include a note asking them to consider adding your song to one of their playlists. Whether or not they decide to add your track is largely influenced by your social presence. If you’ve got a lot of followers, this could be the thing that convinces them to give you a shot and close the deal.

Promote Your Release with Spotify

There are a bunch of ways to promote your release with Spotify. With Spotify Codes, you can share any track, album, playlist, or artist profile with the click of a button. If you’ve got a Spotify URI for it, you can generate a Spotify Code.

Since it can sometimes be difficult to link followers to external URLs on socials, you can share a picture of your Spotify Code instead. Ask fans to take a screenshot, and they can link right to your music with it. These are also perfect to use on visual media such as posters, flyers, merch, and also on Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

• To find a Spotify Code, click on the ellipsis (“…”) next to the artist, song, album, or playlist you want to share. Then, you’ll see the code on the bottom of the artwork.
• Click on the artwork with the code, then save the image to your camera roll by clicking, “Save to Photos”.

In addition, you can also set up an advertising campaign on Spotify. Spotify’s ad format has proven itself to be more engaging and successful than traditional display ads. With an average of 4,000–10,000 ads being seen every day, audio is steadily climbing the charts. Not to mention, audio ads drive an 81% lift in ad recall and a 26% lift in brand awareness in comparison to its traditional display ad counterparts.

The foundation for building your campaign starts with Spotify Ad Studio. This tool is where you’ll build and manage your ad campaigns for your releases. Spotify’s platform makes it easy for anyone to create and manage audio ads.

To learn more about advertising on Spotify, check out this post.

Focus On Fan Engagement

Engagement extends outside of just streams and followers. You need to be nurturing your social presence and connecting with your fans as much as you can. Nobody does this thing alone. You need support to really go the distance.

There are so many ways to learn more about your fanbase, and this is vitally important for knowing what your fans want to see. Look on all your social media and streaming platforms (as well as hashtags) to get to know your fanbase. Then, go ahead and create a fan profile based on your fanbase demographics. (You can find these insights through social media and Spotify analytics.)

Ask yourself these questions to create your average fan profile:

• What is your fan’s average age and gender?
• What are your fan’s interests?
• What other artists does this fan listen to?
• Where does this fan live? (country, state, city)
• Where online does this fan spend the most time?
• Where in person does this fan spend the most time?

By creating this fan profile, you’ll be able to consistently show your fans content they really want to see while also growing your fanbase and increasing engagement with existing fans.

Advertise Meaningfully

Meaningful advertising is a big part of any successful marketing plan. When it comes to ad spending, sit down and ask yourself the following questions first:

• What platforms do I want my ads to appear on? (FB, IG, YouTube, etc.) // It’s best to stick to platforms you are actually active on.
• How much budget do I have to spend in total? // This could limit your placements depending on platform minimums.
• Do I have more than one release in my strategy? // If you have more than one, you will need to allocate accordingly based on priority.
• What is the end goal? // Do you want more streams, more views, more fans, playlist placements, etc. If you have a limited budget, it’s best to focus on one and go from there.

(Check out, “How To Determine Your Marketing Budget As An Independent Artist” to learn how to streamline your budgeting skills.)

In Conclusion…

Although there’s no perfect method or process to get you featured, these steps will definitely increase your chances. With a little luck and a great strategy, all your hard work will pay off.

Good luck!

Randi Zimmerman Content Writing Ninja & Music Addict @symphonicdistro