Spotify is a massive music platform and it feels natural to include an article on how to promote music on Spotify in my music marketing series. These are my top tips and learnings for getting heard on there. Don’t miss out on the other music promotion articles, like how to market your music on Facebook, Bandcamp and SoundCloud.
My top Spotify tips in short:
- Timing
- Playlists
- Collaborations and influencers
- Links from other music platforms
- Overlooked basics
Timing
It’s not necessary to release your album or all the songs at once. Make unique propositions on different music platforms to get the maximum promotion value from your material. Releasing pre-album songs one unique streams on platforms is a great way to get listeners.
Another highly recommended method (regardless of platform) is to secure exclusive streams on magazines with good reach.
Hypebot recommends posting your album on Spotify two weeks after its release date.
Promoting music through Spotify playlists
YouTube playlists is one of the most successful ways I’ve marketed my music. Spotify’s own playlists dominate the landscape, but it’s still possible to make good ones of your own. Genre, geography or mood playlists are all good options. Make sure to not cram it full of only your own songs. Mix it up in a manner that makes it a nice listening experience.
Don’t forget that it’s possible to reach out to owners of popular Spotify playlists. It’s a nice influencer promotion strategy. If they like your music, they will likely put it in their playlist. If not, you’ve at least made a valuable connection for the future.
If you want your playlist to take off, also promote it on other social media like Facebook and Twitter. It can pick up, especially among the fans of your band if they know you made it.
Spotify and other digital music platforms
If you want to up your listening statistics on Spotify specifically, make sure to drop the link a lot on other platforms. It’s hard to create buzz when you’re only active in one place. There are things to consider, though. Many people only use on or two music platforms. Make sure to include embeds and links for all of the big ones if you’re doing something like a profile page for an album.
Ironically, considering this article, I’m not using Spotify. I never listen when I get hit with a Spotify link. The same might happen when you only send a link to Bandcamp or SoundCloud. Make sure to post content that allows all listeners to spin it immediately, regardless of their favorite music platform.
Don’t forget the basics like images and metadata
This should be obvious, but it’s still so important that it needs to be adressed. Make sure you have high quality images for all your releases. Don’t forget to check the album and song titles as well. If you’re posting an artist description, make it correct and relevant. These things do matter. It’s often the first impression of potential fans.
Is Spotify a better promotion platform than YouTube, Bandcamp and SoundCloud?
Based on my personal experiences, the answer is no. Making a few relevant playlists could be interesting. Other than that I just recommend keeping the images and metadata neat and perhaps contacting some playlist owners.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an important platform. It’s just that the options of affecting your listening statistics and finding new fans are creatively limited. YouTube is a stronger platform for finding new fans in this way, just as Bandcamp is a stronger platform for making money off your music.
My content marketing platform strategy is something like this for music: I use YouTube, my homepage and Bandcamp actively to get new fans and sales. Spotify and SoundCloud are complimentary, simply based on that a lot of people use them to find new music. However, the options to influence your results there are marginal.
Other important music tips
Don’t forget to also have a presence on sites like
last.fm, Discogs, Allmusic and Rateyourmusic. And most importantly, don’t forget to link between the different platforms.
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