The digital transformation of the music industry resulted in a decline in the sales of physical music formats. Streaming services offered an alternative option for music consumption. The music stream services create playlists to introduce new releases and other tracks to their users. Users can discover new music and enjoy their favorite songs on these platforms.
Getting placement on playlists gives tracks the much-needed exposure for successful music promotion. Spotify users can also curate independent playlists featuring songs from their favorite artists. However, not all playlists are beneficial to artists. Here are tips that will help you choose the best playlist for their music productions.
Official editorial playlists
Streaming services curate playlists. Each of the platforms has its means of featuring artists on playlists. If you are on Spotify, you can pitch your new songs to the playlist editors before the release date. Submit your latest music project through your Spotify for artist profile. Placement on the platform’s playlists guarantees more exposure for your tracks and boosts their streams.
The platform’s algorithm can also select your music for playlist placements based on Spotify users’ streaming behavior and fan engagement. However, not all algorithm-generated playlists are beneficial to artists.
Independently curated playlists
Indie playlists that drive thousands of streams and fan engagement can make your music popular and earn you money. Here is an ideal approach to getting your songs featured on Spotify’s user-generated playlists.
Choose artists
Search for artists on Spotify who produced a similar style of music like yours. Select about six of them. Then, make a list of their profiles and visit each of them. Click on the “About tab” on the profile and go to the “discover it-on” column on the right-hand side. You will see a list of Spotify playlists on which the profile owner was featured. Scroll down the list and look for independently curated playlists.
Analyze the playlists
Alongside each featured song are the number of streams the playlist drove for the artists that owned the track. Select indie playlists that caused at least 500,000 streams for the artist’s song. Such playlists are worth pitching to for placements. Don’t waste your time trying to get your music on a playlist that will yield just a few streams.
Before you decide on the playlists to get placement, check the position of the artist’s featured song on the playlist. The playlist is valuable if the track is down the list, say 15th, and it drove 500,000 streams. It won’t be beneficial if it is at the topmost position and has fewer than a hundred streams.
Locate playlist curators
Make a list of valuable playlists you discovered. Then, select the songs that you want to pitch to their curators. You will find a curator’s Spotify profile on the top of the playlist. Click on it, and if lucky, you may get the person’s actual name and image. These details can make it easy to locate the curator on social media.
The search would be easier if the person used the same profile image on social media. Suppose the curator used a pseudo name search for references to the playlist on social media. Some curators share their works on these platforms.
When you reach out to independent playlist curators, keep it casual and be polite. Interact with them on the social media platform. If any of them rejects your proposal, move on to the next curator.