In 2024, playlists are making the industry go round. Spotify’s army of playlist makers (who are just music lovers with a Spotify account) are stirring the music discovery pot by providing a place for listeners to go for a reliable opinion on today’s greatest finds. As an emerging artist, getting added to a big playlist can be a breakthrough moment in terms of streams and credibility. Here’s how to find good playlists to both listen to and potentially reach out to for placement.
Types of Spotify Playlists
There are 3 types of playlists that exist on Spotify:
Editorial Playlists
These playlists are made by Spotify’s editorial team, and music is sent to them through pitching via Spotify for Artists. These playlists typically have a large following and are updated regularly.
The most popular editorial playlists are “Today’s Top Hits” with 35.1 million saves, and “Top 50 – Global” with 17.1 million saves.
Algorithmic Playlists
These playlists are generated by Spotify’s algorithm based on user behavior and are updated daily or weekly depending on the playlist. They are highly personalized and different for everyone.
Two recognizable algorithmic playlists are “Discover Weekly” and “Daily Mix”.
Independent/User-Generated Playlists
These playlists are made by Spotify users, and it has now become commonplace for independent playlists to get a large number of saves, competing with editorial playlists. Users and curators create these playlists based off of genre, mood, or experiences and update them as they please.
Two very popular indie playlists are “Chill House 2024” by Electro Posé which stands at 1.3 million saves, and “Indie & Alternative […]” by Unity Records which boasts 404K saves.
Send your music directly to Electro Posé here and Unity Records here through Groover.
How to Find Good Playlists for You
Finding good playlists does require some research – you’ll have to do some digging in order to find the ones that not only match your music style, but will get you more streams. Here are some great places to start looking:
“Discovered On”
This is a very underrated means of playlist discovery, and music discovery in general. Visit the Spotify page of an artist you like and make similar music to, scroll down past “Discography”, “Featuring”, and “Appears On”, and you’ll find a section called “Discovered On”.
This section is a list of playlists the artist has been included on and listened to from. Given that your sound is similar, you now have a set of playlists that your music could fit into, and you may enjoy following.
The advantage of this strategy is that these are all real playlists, not fake “pay for placement” playlists that have a ghost or bot following. “Discovered On” allows you to look at the music selections of real users who genuinely enjoy the music and have chosen to come back to it again and again, and will likely enjoy your music as well.
Groover
It’s worth looking for playlist curators online who encourage submissions from independent artists. Many playlisters do so through established music services so the process is streamlined, communications are direct, and they can tell the public exactly what they’re looking for outright.
Groover is one of these services and is partnered with an extensive list of Spotify curators across the globe. A big incentive for doing playlist pitching through the platform is because of its feature which allows you to filter your searches by how impactful a playlist is, how many followers it has, and the curator’s response rate. That, and how affordable it is (from $2 a pitch).
It’s an overall time and energy saver knowing that your pitch/campaign is landing directly in the inbox of the person you’re looking to connect with. Groover’s policy is that if a curator doesn’t respond in 7 days or less, the artist gets their credits back.
Spotify for Artists
If you haven’t already claimed your Spotify for Artists profile, you really should, because it’ll give you access to tons of insight on how your music is performing. More importantly, it’ll show you what playlists your music has been added to, whether they be editorial, algorithmic, or independent.
Being able to source what playlists are raking in streams for you is a great way to familiarize yourself with certain curators and better understand which other artists your listeners are grouping you with.
Instagram and TikTok
Many of today’s independent Spotify curators promote their playlists on social media. A quick search will bring you to a number of accounts that have created videos about song recommendations, new releases, and the like. Look into these curators’ playlists to see of you like their taste and if you’d fit in the roster. If you think so, you already have a means of contacting them!
Don’t Pay for Plays
Like every platform, Spotify has bot users. These accounts are targeted and used by services who ask you to pay for playlist adds and streams, and this ultimately hurts your relationship with the algorithm tremendously.
If the algorithm flags unusual activity, it can halt any organic promotion of your music to real listeners. Fake playlists will never get you the engagement you’re looking for and will only cost you money, so might as well use it on a service that allows you to pitch your music yourself.
Now you’re ready to go! Remember to stay positive and keep your focus on discovery and maintaining good relationships – it’ll go a long way!
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Try to integrate a Spotify playlist using Groover 🧡