Getting your music played on Spotify is a goal for many musicians and we are here today to describe the best way possible to ensure that your music is included in those playlists! What are the steps you need to take so that people listen to your music and why is this streaming platform a good place to start in terms of digital distribution? Read on to find out more.
Spotify Music Submission
At Music Gateway, our music artist submissions showcase the very best artists from our community. We will promote your music so as many people will hear you as possible. Learning how to submit music to Spotify couldn’t be easier with help from our publishing team at Music Gateway.
If you haven’t signed up for Spotify Premium yet – what are you waiting for?! Sign up now to enjoy unlimited ad-free music, anywhere!
How To Submit To Spotify Playlists
When you get your music onto Spotify playlists, you have the potential to grow your fanbase exponentially. But how do new artists get their music onto Spotify playlists? Let’s take a look at the steps for Spotify playlist submission.
Pitch Directly To Spotify On Spotify For Artists
Here we will look at a method for free Spotify playlist submission. You can submit directly to Spotify. Below are the steps for Spotify playlist song submission;
- Firstly, you will need to log in or sign up to Spotify For Artists using a desktop computer. You will be able to find all your unreleased music under the ‘Music’ section on your artist dashboard.
- Secondly, choose the unreleased track you wish to submit from this part of your dashboard. If it’s an album or an EP, you will need to choose only one track for submission.
- Then, you must fill out the Spotify playlist submission form. It is vital that you fill out as much information about the track as possible. This will increase your chances of getting your music on the playlist.
- You will need to submit your single for distribution at least 2 weeks before your release date. This is because you must submit your single for playlist consideration at least 7 days before your release date.
Spotify For Artists Account
If you have music being released, you need to ensure that you have a Spotify For Artists account. All you need to do is link your Spotify artist profile to Spotify for Artists.
You will then be able to pitch your music directly onto playlists on Spotify.
You can do this by either going to the ‘Home’ tab at the top of your Spotify for Artists dashboard and choose ‘Pitch a song to our editors’ or secondly find the ‘Music’ tab at the top of your Spotify for Artists dashboard and choose ‘Upcoming’ and then ‘Pitch a song’.
You will then be able to choose which track you would like to submit, and you need to fill in some artist info, such as; where you are from, genres of the song, the title, when it will be released etc. These are all pretty standard questions to be asked.
Once you have submitted your music, Spotify sends a confirmation email to the address associated with your account to say that your placement has been accepted. Remember, you can only pitch music that hasn’t been released yet. You need to give yourself enough time between pitching and releasing a track. So in essence, you want to be uploading & submitting your tracks to playlists weeks in advance of your release date.
Spotify Profile
Keep this artist profile up to date, with all your artist info, such as; a bio, tour dates and links to your socials & website. The more present this artist profile is, the more playlist curators will take you seriously and it is a very easy process to keep up to date, when you have all the basics filled out. You also need to be verified as an artist on Spotify.
Submit Your Music To Independent Curators
It is not just about submitting your music to the big leagues like Spotify and Apple music. There are plenty of smaller, more independent sites that will play your music and if you can get your music playlisted on their platform, this is just as much of a win in our books.
You need to find playlists that match the style of your music. Again, this sounds obvious, but put the time into researching the style, tone etc. of a playlist and see if your music could be included.
You should be able to find the contact information for the curator by which to get in touch with them. Once you have a name and an email address, then you can pitch them your music to include in their playlist. Make sure you create a professional pitch and focus on the reasons why your music should be added to their playlist.
There should be a link to the track which is easy to access so the curator can decide whether or not they will include your songs on the playlist.
Grow Your Online Presence
By being visible people find you online and you bring them right to you. This can happen in a number of ways and especially in terms of online music marketing – which if I’m honest is where most of it will take place, you can engage with people on various platforms. Music influencer marketing is the best way to showcase your talent and so your music is undoubtedly going to be listened to. It is even more important for you to showcase who you are as a brand and as a person.
Currently, audiences are online much more and want to engage with others on social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube etc.. So you have to make your mark by being as visible as you can on these, as this way you can increase followers and then build your fanbase. You can’t just expect people to know about you, you have to lead them towards you and fully engage with them, so they listen to your music. In terms of social media, marketing your music is key to being successful in this industry as an artist. Music Gateway can take you through a social media music marketing strategy. This way you can grow in terms of artist development.
If you want to sustain a music industry marketing campaign, then you could also try writing blogs or producing a podcast as it is just another way to reach your audience.
Discover Weekly & Release Radar
These are the top Spotify playlists and have the biggest audiences by far, so if you want to get your music playlisted, then listen up.
They are curated by algorithms, and they will be curated independently to every Spotify listener – clever right? They generate the largest streams on the platform, even more than self-curated playlists, so if you want to grow your online audience, this is the avenue you need to go down.
Remember to release new music regularly. The more music you have on Spotify, then the better the chance of the algorithm choosing your music to add to the playlists. But remember performing live, social media presence and email marketing still need to have considerable value in terms of your career at the same time.
Discover Weekly – this will be generated every Monday morning for every Spotify user based on the algorithm. It will be based on a tastemap, which offers songs that they haven’t listened to before, but these are based on the type of music they usually like to listen to. Make sure you are added to other playlists and I have suggested before, this can either be done using a distributor or by reaching out yourself to the curator directly. If you think about it, the more exposure you receive, the more your music is played and the larger fan base you will then expand upon.
Discover Weekly uses data from every playlist that exists on the platform, so you need to ensure that your music is featured on the DSP. Even if it is a playlist that doesn’t have as many followers, the Spotify algorithm will pick it up, because it will match the genre of music for one listener. For instance, if you listen to two different songs that are in a similar genre, the algorithm will suggest a song that will compliment both and it will be one that you haven’t heard of. It is an extremely intelligent way of suggesting music for Spotify listeners.
You need to be aware in terms of your audience, of streaming numbers, listen times, skip rates, track saves, whether they add it to their own playlists or if they share your music to socials. They do play an integral role in the Discover Weekly playlists.
Release Radar – the format of this is slightly different, as it shows the listener up to 2 hours of new releases from artists that they have already listened to. Do you see the subtle difference here? Therefore, you need fans on Spotify, and you can only get those fans by creating an online presence and making sure that people know who you are. As an emerging artist, it can take time, but with a large social media presence and also nailing those live performances, this will all help you generate a larger audience on the DSPs as well.
Your music will only appear on Release Radar on those people’s accounts who follow you, so you can do this by asking people to follow you on social media, at gigs etc, and then your music will pop up on their release radar when they have engaged with you on the platform.
Closing Thoughts
You are now a pro at how to master Spotify Playlist Submission and we expect to hear your new music on Spotify soon! Remember the more exposure you can have on a DSP like this one, the more listeners and fans you will have. It is all about the hustle, and maintaining a visible presence online and of course performing live, so just keep going!
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