Spotify represents a large portion of the online music streaming market as less and less people download music. Streaming is how the majority of people listen to music nowadays, whether they have a the free version of Spotify or are paying subscribers.

According to Spotify, 100K songs are released every day, but 25% of the tracks are never listened to! As music distribution has become more democratic, how to stand out among thousands of songs has become even more obscure. That’s why Groover is here to help you overcome this challenge: Groover’s role is to act as a bridge between artists and independent playlist curators, who play a key role in promoting music and accessing Spotify’s editorial playlists.

Spotify’s editorial playlists are all about music discovery and careful curation, providing an easy way for listeners to consume music and find new songs to listen to. So, let’s discuss how to snag a spot on one of Spotify’s coveted editorial playlists.

Want to get into playlists? 👇

1. What Are Editorial Playlists?

Editorial playlists are collections of songs put together by Spotify staff, which often have hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of followers. They all have cohesive themes and are primarily based on mood (cozy, hype, nostalgic), genre (rap, country, pop), or activity (singing in the shower, road trip, pre-game).

While there is a growing trend towards algorithmic (automatically generated) playlists, Spotify curated playlists still dominate the music discovery scene on Spotify, and are therefore pretty selective. They take into account the entirety of your project before including your pitched song in one of their playlists; they’ll look at your existing music catalog, how many Spotify followers you have, what genres you fall into, and ask how you plan on promoting your release.

2. Why Are Playlist Placements Important?

Editorial playlists have a huge impact on a song’s streams and discoverability because 1) Spotify values these playlists more than independent playlists (user-generated playlists), and 2) the hundreds of thousands of followers they often have regularly listen to new additions to the lists and trust that the curators will bring in fresh new finds. That song that you saw trending on social media? Maybe it was picked out of millions of songs to be at the top of a Spotify editorial playlist and blew up.

It also does wonders for your credibility as an artist. In future pitches to industry professionals are editorial teams, mentioning previous playlist placements will increase your chances of getting more editorial features.

3. How to Get Your Music Added

Pitch Through Spotify For Artists

Spotify for Artists is the dashboard used to pitch music to the platform’s editorial team, so create your profile if you don’t have one already. Once you’ve been approved on the platform, you’ll be able to see any unreleased tracks in your catalogue that you’ve submitted to your digital distributor. There may be some delays between uploading your song to your distributor and seeing on Spotify for Artists – don’t worry, this is normal!

Fill in the necessary information about your upcoming release and pitch your song directly to the editorial team. The “pitch” is the text you will write to introduce your music to them. If you want the curators to listen to and really understand your music, you have to write an attention-grabbing pitch.

Playlist Pitch Walkthrough

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to write a good pitch and increase your chances of getting into Spotify’s editorial playlists:

Verify Your Spotify Profile

It’s important that your Spotify profile is verified (has a blue check mark next to your name) in order to use all the tools in Spotify for Artists. Spotify allows all artists to be verified, you just have to claim it!

Submit Your Song to Distribution

If you’re signed, your label will take care of making your music available for the release date you’ve set. If you’re independent, you’ll need an account with a distributor like Distrokid or TuneCore to submit your work. You will not be able to pitch until it’s been submitted, so upload your track at least 3 weeks, if not 1 month before your scheduled drop day. Make sure that you are uploading a lossless file to get the best audio quality possible. As soon as your release is scheduled, you will be notified and can then pitch your song to the editorial playlists on Spotify.

Fill Out Information About your Music

When pitching time comes, head to “unreleased tracks” from your Spotify for Artists dashboard and begin the pitching process. You will be asked multiple choice questions about your song so the editorial team knows how to categorize it best. Make sure you can answer the following things about your song:

• Instruments used
• Type of recording: studio or live?
• Mood
• Style
• Culture (Latin, African, Celtic, etc.)
• Is it a cover, a remix or an instrumental piece?
• Location
• 3 Subgenres (for example, hip-hop, classical music, beats music)

It is essential to fill in this information carefully. It will direct your music to Spotify teams that are receptive to your kind of music. Therefore, giving them accurate information will make their job easier and increase your chances of being featured in Spotify’s editorial playlists as you’ll be associated with the best music similar to yours.

Write a Good Pitch!

Important: If your goal is to export your music internationally, consider writing your pitch in English.

Last but not least, write the description that Spotify staff is going to read before listening. The pitch must be no more than 500 characters, which means you need to be concise and to the point. What should they know about your track to best understand where to place it? Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Don’t write a bio! Focus on the music, not yourself as an artist
• Write in the language you want your main market to be (write in English if you’re not quite sure or want to thrive internationally)
• Tell a story: in one descriptive sentence, explain what the song is about and what inspired it
• Outline your promotion strategy: publicity on social networks, press, music videos, merchandising, gigs, etc.
• Include relevant accolades or statistics (streams, followers, awards, previous playlist placements, co-signs, etc.)
• Present your music project in the best light, but don’t exaggerate either

Finally, don’t forget that Spotify for Artists receives thousands of playlist requests per day. If you already have certain editorial playlists in mind that you think your song could be a good fit for, let them know.

4. Does Your Label/Distributor Have a Connect at Spotify?

A label or distributor that manages multiple artists usually has close contact with streaming platforms and some of their members of staff. While independent artists have more agency than ever before, there are still gatekeepers in the music business, and using your professional contacts can help. We recommend that you send your label or distributor your music, artwork, and all the info in advance so that they can get in touch with Spotify in the best way.

Keep in mind that nothing is guaranteed, even with a label or distributor. If you’ve distributed your own music independently with an online service, you can still pitch to editorial playlists on your own!

Don’t hesitate to talk to artists and labels/distributors who have had good experiences to find out how to increase your chances of getting into editorial playlists on Spotify. Ask around, take the time, be creative and send a draft to others before you send your pitch for a second opinion, as you can only pitch your song on Spotify for Artists once. Good luck 🙂

4. Editorial Playlists on Other Streaming Platforms

On top of Spotify editorial playlists, you can aim to being considered for placements by the editorial teams working at other streaming platforms such as Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon etc.

Amazon has recently opened the possibility to pitch directly to editorial teams through Amazon Music For Artists. Anghami accepts submissions directly through Groover. For other platforms, submissions going through distributors are still prioritized and the only way to reach them… but you never know what can happen!

💡 You can reach the biggest music streaming platform in the Middle East – Anghami – through Groover right here. They consider all the submissions they receive and share quite a significant portion of them in their playlists!

– Translated by Betty Gonzalez Gray –

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Next articles:

> How to submit music to playlists?
> How to use Spotify Canvas to add looping videos to your music?
> Spotify for Artists: The Ultimate Guide to Boost Your Streams
> How to grow your own playlist and gain followers?
> How much do artists get paid on Spotify?
> How to get on Spotify playlists?

To go further:

> 7 Tips to stand out from the crowd and get more streams on Spotify

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To get your music featured on editorial playlists, send your tracks to our playlist curators on Groover

L’article How to Get Featured on Spotify’s Editorial Playlists est apparu en premier sur Groover Blog.