How To Get On Official Spotify Curated Playlists As An Indie Artist

At least 20,000 tracks are added to Spotify every day, that’s about 1 million every 6 weeks.

Let that sink in for a second…

The days of thinking your music is going to outshine everyone else’s just because it’s good are over.

There are thousands of great songs coming out every week.

You can have your opinion on which ones you think are great (like most of us snobby music lovers do), but regardless of what you think, somebody likes it.

These days, if you don’t have a marketing budget, you’re going to get crushed. Plain and simple.

Sure, you can try to go viral, but that’s putting all your hopes and dreams in the hands of shear luck.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to build my music career or business on luck.

Here is what Spotify says on their official website: “With Spotify for Artists, you can submit one song from any scheduled release for our team to discover and consider for editorial playlists. We’ll also include it on your followers’ Release Radar playlists.

Tip: If this is your first release and you don’t yet have access to Spotify for Artists, check out “How do I claim my artist profile before my first release?”.

1. Log in to Spotify for Artists on desktop.
2. Use either of these ways to find and submit unreleased music:
   • At the top of the Home tab, select SUBMIT A SONG next to the release you want to submit.
   • In the Music tab, under UPCOMING, select SUBMIT A SONG next to the release you want to submit.Note: The option to submit a song only displays if you have unreleased music.
3. Choose a song and fill out as much info about the song as possible. The more info we get, the better chance it has!

Some things to keep in mind:

The earlier you submit your music, the better. We recommend at least 7 days before its release date. (This is also required to have your submission included on Release Radar). You can work with your distributor to make sure it’s delivered to us ahead of this time.

• Submitting a song doesn’t guarantee a place on an editorial playlist, but does give it the best chance.
• It’s only possible to submit one song per artist profile at a time (even if you have more than one scheduled release).
• You need to be listed as the main artist on the release to submit. The option is not available for featured artists or compilations.
• Our editors reserve the right to creative control for their selections. This means they may choose to feature a different song from the release on their playlist.
• It’s not possible to remove yourself from a playlist if your track is chosen for it. There’s no set amount of time it will stay on the playlist - it depends how well it resonates with listeners.
• Anyone else with access to your profile on Spotify for Artists (e.g. managers), or the release on Spotify Analytics (e.g. label reps), can see and edit the submission. Any changes are displayed for all members.
• It’s totally free to use, and it’s not possible to pay to increase your chances, nor can any external parties influence our editors.”

First of all, it’s definitely cool that Spotify could possibly give you a free feature on their playlists. Props to them for that.

However, I’ve had more than a couple artists get our help with Spotify promotion even AFTER being placed.

Spotify decides how long they want to keep you on their lists. That could mean 3 days, 3 weeks, or 3 months. Not to mention the lists they add you to could be quite small.

Also, I’ve rarely (if ever) seen them add a smaller indie artist to one of their large (1 million followers or more) lists.

You may get lucky and get on one with more than 100,000 followers, but this cannot be your entire promotion strategy.

Definitely keep submitting your new releases to the editorial team, but if you want to actually make a wave for your career, you’ll need to pair it with some independent promotion from influencer curated playlists too.

There are a number of ways to do that, but the easiest way that causes the least headaches is to go with a trustworthy company that already has a network of quality curators who love getting indie artists more legitimate exposure.

Shameless plug, that service would be us. You can click the button below and set up your campaign today