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Spotify stands out as the leading music streaming platform boasting an user base of, over 345 million active users across 178 countries with its largest following, in the United States and closely followed by Europe. Second to follow is Apple music with 88 million users.
Spotify playlist submission is essential in your music marketing plan.Artists submitting music to playlists on Spotify, can be a top notch tool to showcase their music and Is presently the most efficient method for artists to have their released tracks listened to.
Playlists on Spotify are the best way to grow your streams.They will help you get more exposure for your music and gain followers, likes, and saves. Placing your music on Spotify's popular playlists could be a game changer for the anonymous artist.
Spotify's editorial team curates tens of thousands of playlists, and users make millions more, ranging from hip-hop to rock classics, Music Friday, and power ballads. They can play a role, in discovering music and promoting artists on Spotify. They provide a platform for musicians to share their songs engage in playlist advertising and connect with listeners.
While there are methods to feature on playlists, the question remains; What is the effective approach to securing a playlist placment? And what kind of playlists are out there? the differences between them? Which ones can you add your song to? And how do you get your music on Spotify playlists?
These are the questions that every artist who releases new music is busy researching.
Well, we're here to help answer these questions, but just before we do, if you're into playlist submissions, make sure you've already released your music using digital music distribution and you have access to your artist page on the Spotify for artists dashboard.
There are three types of Spotify playlists; those curated by editors those generated by algorithms and those created by users.
User-Created Playlists
These are the playlists created by Spotify users, meaning independently curated playlists.a playlist curator can be a brand or a private person who's into music and has created his own playlist. Everyone can create their own playlist, and all users can choose whether to make their own curated playlists private or public.
Most users are regular users who create their own playlists for fun and sort them by music genre or theme. Some Spotify users create playlists for more professional use; for example, bars music, restaurants, music charts, exercise, different brands, etc.
The bigger the playlists in terms of followers, the more exposure your song can get when placed on one of them. The best playlists are managed by Spotify, but you can find a lot of great playlists that are user-generated playlists.
In the past years, these playlists have become in high demand for independent artists, so there's a whole ecosystem of Spotify playlisters and curators.
Some of them are organic and genuine, with real followers; others are based on fake or bot followers. It is important to figure out which one is who, and that's for a different article.
You can read further on how to identify fake Spotify playlists.
Examples of User-Created Playlists
Here are few examples of playlists created by users, by the way, you can submit your music to some of them using One Submit.
Country Hits 2024 - best country music of 2024 most popular trending today modern mix viral top 100 hottest contemporary country pop rock latest americana.
Afrobeat 2024 - Today's top Afro hits of the year 2024!
Indie Folk 2024 - Discover the Best and Latest indie folk, acoustic and singer-songwriter songs!
Country - Our top picks - These are our top picks from Country and Country adjacent hits. Featuring classics by Lyle Lovett, Hayes Carll, and more!
Piano Covers 2024 - Famous hits, peaceful songs & pop music in a peaceful mix of calming instrumental remakes for background, sleeping, dining, studying, working and more.
Tomorrowland 2024 - Best Tracks of Tomorrowland - Tomorrowland Soundtrack - EDM 2024 - Party Mix - Dance Anthems - Tomorrowland Winter - Tomorrowland Brasil - EDM Playlist - Eletrônicas As Melhores 🎪
So how do you get your music on these playlists?
There are two ways to get on user-generated playlists.
Research and submit music to curators yourself.
You can do your own research by browsing the web, extracting lists, and creating a list of playlists within your music genre. To submit songs directly to Spotify curators and get your song on a playlist you should first identify the contact person in charge of each playlist. Get in touch with them. Ensure that your song aligns, with the genre of the playlist you are aiming for. For example don't submit a hip hop track to a pop playlist.
Keep in mind that if a playlist is very popular it's less likely that the curators will respond to your request. A curator of a known playlist may receive hundreds of emails daily making it challenging for them to respond or listen to every artist.
Some of these curators will request a payment to place your song on their playlists. You should avoid these playlists at all costs; it is most likely they are fake and created using fake bots. If a playlist receives every artist who is willing to pay for a playlist placement, how do you think the playlist will sound? Most likely, no one would be interested in listening to these playlists.
These processes could take a lot of valuable time and might not deliver the results you are expecting.Also, if unreleased music is not on streaming services yet, use a digital distribution service to get it on streaming services. Read more on the Top Digital DistributionServices
Using a music submission service
The second way to send your music to Spotify playlists is, by using a music submission platform like ours, known as One Submit.
Our focus is on connecting artists, with Spotify playlist creators, YouTube music channels, TikTok influencers, music bloggers, radio stations and record labels.
One Submit offers a service where you can submit your music for consideration. Your music will be. Listened to by Spotify playlist curators. We ensure that all playlists are authentic and have followers.
After submitting your music and launching a campaign the curators will evaluate your music. Decide whether to accept or reject it. If they approve your song they will include it in their playlist or channel giving your music a boost.
Either way, the curator is obligated to provide a written review for your song, and in most cases, that's valuable feedback for any artist.Here are some examples of artists who managed to secure placement and streams using our service: Hello Sister - Things You Never Said
Added to 22 Spotify Playlists
Anthony Vega - Clear Thoughts
Added to 14 Spotify Playlists and generated 212K streamsCEO Fully Loaded - Slick Slick
Added to 34 Spotify Playlists
The Still Wonder - Evergreen
Added to 21 Spotify Playlists and music Blogs
Dan Miraldi - After Midnight
Added to - 15 Spotify Playlists
In The Distance - Nevala
Added to 14 Spotify Playlists
Algorithmic Playlists
Whenever you show love, for a song play it on repeat support an artist or bookmark a track Spotifys system takes note. After reviewing this data, Spotify creates a playlist that matches your music tastes and assists artists in building relationships, with their followers.Spotifys playlists created through algorithms function by examining data points linked to how users listen, their preferences and interactions, on the platform.
Here's a simple breakdown of how it operates:
Data Collection:
Spotify gathers a wealth of details about each users listening patterns, including the songs they play the artists they follow track skipping frequency, duration of song plays and even the times when they tune in.
User Preferences:
Spotify considers feedback from users like thumbs down and saving playlists. Users can also follow artists and genres to help Spotify understand their music preferences
Collaborative Filtering; A key method used is filtering, which studies users behaviors to offer recommendations. If two users share listening habits and one discovers an artist or track Spotify may suggest that find to the other user.
Content Based Filtering:
Spotify also assesses song characteristics such, as genre, tempo, mood and instrumentation. This enables it to propose songs based on attributes.
Machine Learning:
Spotify utilizes a variety of machine learning models to process and analyze user data continuously improving recommendation accuracy over time.
Personalized playlists, like Discover Weekly, Release Radar and Daily Mixes are curated based on insights from these models tailored to preferences and listening habits. The algorithmic playlists are regularly updated to reflect evolving tastes, such as Discover Weekly refreshing every Monday with recommendations. By combining user data machine learning methods and content analysis Spotify delivers personalized music suggestions, to an audience.
Spotify provides users with 6 algorithm driven playlists: Daily Mix, Release Radar, Discover Weekly, On Repeat, Time Capsule and Radio station.
Daily Mix
Different kinds of music genres can be featured on Daily Mix, which is updated daily. The more you listen to Daily Mixes, the more frequently they are updated.
Release Radar
Different kinds of music genres can be featured on Daily Mix, which is updated daily. The more you listen to Daily Mixes, the more frequently they are updated.
Discover Weekly
presents you with artists that match your music taste and other people like you with the same music preferences. It is updated every Monday and is a great way for artists to gain music exposure.
There are a few more types of algorithmic playlists on Spotify, but these are the main ones.
On Repeat:
This section includes playlists like "On Repeat" and "Repeat Rewind," which feature songs you've been playing frequently or in the past.
Time Capsule:
This playlist compiles tracks from your past, aiming to evoke nostalgia by featuring songs you enjoyed during specific periods in your life.
Radio Stations:
These are playlists generated from a single track, artist, or genre, and Spotify curates a mix of similar music.
How can you get your songs featured on these algorithm based playlists?
To get your music featured on playlists your song should aim to reach a minimum of 5,000 to 10,000 streams, in the two weeks after its release. It is not promised that you will get on algorithmic playlists if you manage to gain these streams, since there are more factors such as song likes, streams per user, artist followers, and more.
Spotify does not disclose their algorithm, so this is based on artist research.
Editorial Playlists
Spotifys editorial team curates playlists, which are considered the top tier playlists due, to their follower base. The most popular playlists appear as the first choice when you are searching for a playlist because Spotify placed them there. That's why users listening habits tend to stream these playlists. The majority of the tunes featured in these playlists consist of songs, known tracks and recent releases, from artists, like Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar Tove Lo and Michael Jackson.
Here are some examples of editorial playlists:
Today’s Top Hits:34 Million FollowersOne of the biggest editorial playlists on Spotify, you can find here:
Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Sza, Teddy Swims and more.
Top 50 Global - has 17 million followers.
Hits from around the globe. You can find here many famous artists you never heard of. Mixed genre playlist. Artists from south America, Africa, Middle east and more.
Viva Latino - 14Million Followers
Today's top Latin hits, elevando nuestra música. Artists on this playlists: Tini, Xavi, Mike Towers, Young Miko and more.
Coffee Table Jazz: 2.3 million followers
Relax to the sound of gentle Jazz. Instrumental tracks brought to you by Spotify editorial team.
Funky Heavy Bluesy:800,000 followersBlues, but funky. Or funk, but bluesy. Artists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Philip Sayce, Shanice Green, The Gulls and more. Great playlist for the blues lovers.
Hot Country: 6.7 million followers
Today's top country hits. Great Americana and country tracks, with artists such as: Tucker Wetmore, Nate Smith, Ashly Cooke, Dylan Scott and more. Fantastic playlist for the country music lovers.
These playlists can make a massive difference for an artist who manages to get his song placed on one of them; it can dramatically change his or her music career.
How do you get your song onto a Spotify editorial playlist?
There are a few ways to do this:
Using user-generated playlists and algorithmic playlists
You will need to get your song onto a user-created playlist and start generating plays for your track, as well as saves and likes for your song. The bigger the playlist, the better. The more playlists you land on, the more plays you get, therefore increasing your chances of getting noticed by Spotify algorithmic playlists. Once your song is on algorithmic ones, it is up to your song to gain attention from different listeners. If your song is catchy and has hit potential, Spotify editorial teams will notice it and add it to the editorials on Spotify.
Submit for editorial consideration.
There’s another way to submit unreleased tracks to Spotify editorial playlists for consideration. It involves a different process of submission for your Spotify artist profile. Theoretically, you can pitch
music directly to Spotify's playlist consideration. You can only submit singles, not an album.
After your song is distributed to Spotify (not live yet), you will be able to submit it to Spotify editorial playlists. Your song needs to be on your "Spotify upcoming songs list at least one week before your chosen release date. This will require some sort of time management for your single release. Please note that you can pitch only unreleased tracks to the editorial playlist editors under your Spotify for Artists account.An unreleased song in this case means your track needs to be distributed using digital distribution with a later release date.
On your artist dashboard, you will see it under the "upcoming" tab. Your song will disappear from this tab once your release date has arrived, and then it will go public on Spotify. We recommend using desktop computer for all of these actions.
To have your song considered for a playlist it's crucial to note that it must not have been released yet. You can only send in one song on Spotify at a time, so you'll need to wait until that one's out, before submitting another.
Check out our blog on How to Get on Spotify Editorial Playlists.
To be honest, we haven't heard about an artist who managed to get his unreleased track on the editorial playlist using these methods, but since it's a free process, there's nothing to lose, and it's worth a try.
Final words:
Success comes like a marathon, not a sprint. The key is to produce music that stands out and resonates with listeners. You should consider playlist submission as one of your promotional methods, there are many music promotion technics that need to be marketed simultaneously, such as social music promotion using ads, organic social promotion, live shows, TikTok music promotion and more.
These are great times to be an artist in today's music industry. All the tools to be a successful independent artist are available to you; some are free and others are paid, but success is available to every artist who is willing to put in the hard work in the process.
Good luck
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Music Marketing Strategiesfor independent artists.
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