How to get featured on a Spotify playlist: The Basics for music artists

Most artists really try to help themselves get more streams, exposure and a larger following by getting on to Spotify’s curated playlists. A lot of our members often ask me what the best techniques to get on to these are. Well here are some basic tips, to help those artists who are eyeing up some of these opportunities.

Why do music artists want to get on to playlists curated by Spotify?

One of the benefits of being featured on a Spotify playlist is put simply, the following and getting on to Release Radar. Spotify often showcases the best music that has come on to the platform, being in the mix of these great artists can have a good pay-off. The music industry watches a lot of these Spotify playlists, to see who is hot. In addition, most playlists have hundreds of thousands of followers to help with a good spike in your engagement levels.

What is the difference between Spotify curated playlists and others?

The biggest difference between a Spotify playlist and others is that Spotify curates and owns the playlists that are called editorial playlists. These are curated by Spotify editors, hence the name. Other playlists that are not curated by Spotify, are called third-party playlists. These are independent playlists, set up by anyone on the platform. These range from individuals to companies. A good example of a third-party platform is our independent artists only playlist Fresh Dose.

How do you get on to a Spotify curated playlist?

The quickest way to get onto a Spotify playlist is by pitching your music to Spotify under your ‘Spotify for Artists’ profile. Click here to login to your profile.

Once you are in you will have to write a pitch to the editors at Spotify and pitch your music. Please note you can only pitch unreleased music that has already been set up ready for distribution. It is often good to do this step after you have set up your song through distribution. Click the tab ‘Music’ and then ‘Upcoming’ and you should see a button to pitch your music to editors. Once you have put in your details and made a good pitch you will not have a choice if you get selected or not.

How do I make a good pitch to Spotify to increase my chances of getting featured?

The top piece of advice, make sure the music is well mixed, mastered and has a professional sound. A piece of music that is not well recorded just won’t get any airplay. The next thing is to be selective and we highly advise not to select every genre. This will not give you more of an edge. When it comes to pitching you will be asked to add a description of the song. This is your time to shine and make the most of it. This should read like a good artist’s biography with a reason behind the song. Make this compelling with examples of traction for you and your song. For example, you might already have radio play or pushing a large PR campaign. put these in the description to make sure you can demonstrate you are really on a good trajectory.

We hope that this acts as a good guide for those who are new to Spotify pitching. There are some great resources out there to generally improve the marketing of your song, and you can always get HyperTribe to drive more traffic by signing up to our HyperGROW programme.

Join HyperTribe to get these resources at your fingertips

If you want to take your music journey to the next level, join HyperTribe, an online global community of resources for musicians like you. With HyperTribe, you’ll have access to a vast collection of educational materials, mentors and a supportive community of fellow musicians. Start your free trial today and see how HyperTribe can help you unlock your musical potential. Good luck on your musical journey.

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