Getting followers on Spotify is key to boosting your streams and getting more visibility for your musical project. Most independent musicians focus on how to get more followers on social media platforms and often overlook gaining a following on streaming services. In the digital era where streaming dominates the music industry, it is now more important than ever to increase followers and thus increase streams on Spotify. Music streaming services can be a key way to grow your credibility as an artist and get more fans. Often artists that have gained a lot of popularity have done so through Spotify; when a single goes viral or is added to a popular playlist, the artist’s following increases. Here is how to get followers on Spotify organically to boost your music career to the next level.
1. Make good music
The first step in gaining a following on Spotify is to make good music. The best thing you can do as an artist is consistently put out high-quality songs for your friends and followers. With the rise of the home studio, everyone has access to the right tools to produce music nowadays. This can be empowering for independent artists but can also lead to some rushed and unprofessional work. Take your time in the recording process and don’t get caught up in putting out a new single super fast. Focus on creating the best music that speaks to your artistic universe. It’s easy to go viral with the rise of social media, but think about making quality music that lasts in the long run. This encompasses everything from composition to recording and production.
As artists, we sometimes want to be able to do it all. Some of us can! But most of us rely on other professionals to bring our musical project to the next level. This includes finding the right people to mix and master the music, for example. Mixing and mastering are separate professions from songwriting and only up until recently have artists taken on this part of the process themselves. Be smart about what is best for your project and what resources you have. Call upon professionals to bring their expertise to your work. Show your demos to friends and people in the industry to get their opinion. The worst thing you can do is rush a project and release it before it is properly finished. Overall, if you put in the time and energy, the music will speak for itself!
2. Build your project, work on your storytelling
After you’ve taken the time to make good music, it’s time to build your project and work on your storytelling. At the end of the day, listeners don’t get attached to singles, they get attached to an artist. Potential followers want to get to know the personality of the artist and their musical universe. Good storytelling goes beyond just defining your musical genre. It takes elements from your origins, culture, and influences to shape an overall image that will speak to people. What is unique about your universe that sets you apart from the rest? Have fun with it and let the listener into your world.
When it comes to storytelling, social media is your friend. Social networks like Instagram and TikTok provide the perfect platform to share visuals of your musical universe and attract new fans. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be an influencer to build your project and craft good storytelling! You just need to get creative and think of ways to share aspects of your personality that go beyond your music. Think of it as creating bonus features or behind the scenes content. I love seeing my favorite artists share content from their personal lives or backstage footage on tour. Doing this creates an intimacy with your audience that makes them feel as if you really know them. When fans feel like they know an artist, they are more invested in the project. To learn more about how to build your project, check out our article all about storytelling here.
3. Get into Spotify playlists
Now that you’ve gotten the music and storytelling down, the question remains: how to get followers on Spotify? One good way to do this is getting your music into Spotify playlists. We’ve all seen artists land a single in an editorial Spotify playlist and in turn, their followers increase dramatically. Spotify playlists are the perfect place for music discovery and can be a catalyst for emerging artists to get noticed. You can pitch directly to Spotify editorial playlists through your Spotify for Artists profile before releasing a song. The editorial playlists curated by Spotify have lots of likes, so landing a song in one of those playlists is one of the fastest growing ways to gain more followers.
In addition to the Spotify editorial playlists, there are also tons of playlists curated by influencers that can help boost your visibility. These are often easier to get your music into and are a great way to get more followers on Spotify. How do I get my own music into these curated playlists? The solution is Groover: an innovative platform that allows artists to send their music directly to medias, influencers, and labels with guaranteed feedback. This includes playlists on Spotify! The concept is simple: for 2 Grooviz, the equivalent of 2 euros, an artist can send their songs to anyone of their choosing and that person has 7 days to respond with feedback. If they don’t, the artist gets their Grooviz back to send to another influencer. Check out the top music playlist curators on Groover!
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Want to contact Spotify playlists? ⬇️
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4. Update your artist profile thanks to Spotify for Artists
Keeping your artist profile up to date using Spotify for Artists can help in attracting new listeners and thus, subscribers. This means updating your Spotify profile or banner photo or adding new images to your About section. Update your biography and add an Artist Pick at the top of your Spotify profile to promote your latest single or upcoming concert dates. Link your concert dates to your Spotify page by using Songkick. These may seem like small details, but they can really make a difference! If someone stumbles upon your music on a playlist and lands on your Spotify profile, turn them into a new follower. Keeping your Spotify profile up to date and interesting is an incentive to be followed quickly.
Promote your Spotify on social media by using links that make it easy for people to become a follower. You can include the link to your Spotify artist page directly in your Instagram profile biography. How do you get your followers on Instagram to listen to your new music? The easiest way to do this is to share the direct Spotify link in your stories. Spotify has now made it easy to share a song or an album directly through Instagram stories on their mobile app. Click on the three little dots next to the song you want to share, click Share and you’ll be able to directly post it to Instagram stories. When followers see your story on Instagram, they will be able to click directly to Spotify. You can also share the link to your Spotify artist page in the same way.
Want to share your musical influences with your followers? Create your own Spotify playlists that appear on your Artist page. Making playlists is a great way to attract new followers to your profile. Share the links to these playlists through social media in the same way you would share your own music. Not only does this promote traffic to your Artist page, but it also contributes to your storytelling. Sharing your influences through a playlist can give context to your artistic universe.
6. Be consistent in your musical releases on Spotify
Releasing music often is key in how to get followers on Spotify. Some artists use tactics like releasing one single per month to create a snowball effect that sparks a consistent buzz and attracts new listeners. Think of it as just giving your fans a taste of your sound so that they will want to hear more. Being consistent in your musical releases also helps to get you noticed by the Spotify algorithm. The algorithm tends to favor songs that get attention quickly; people listening, sharing, and adding it to Spotify playlists. The more attention a song gets, the more the algorithm boosts it. Therefore, an artist who releases songs often will be more likely to get their songs in playlists and build their following. Just like inertia, a song in motion stays in motion!
Consider releasing music as an opportunity to work on your storytelling. There are so many creative ways to release music nowadays and if you do it right, you can build enough momentum to maximize your chances of being heard. The goal is to keep your audience engaged. Here are examples of tactics that artists have used when releasing new music:
- Men I Trust: Released 8 singles over a period of 3 years before releasing a their 24 track album Oncle Jazz
- Beach House: Used a “waterfall strategy” of breaking their 18 track album Once Twice Melody into four chapters released once a month
- Oscar Anton: Released a single recorded in a different country every month
- Blowsom: Released an album 1901 in two parts as separate EPs a year apart with most of the songs having already been released as singles before the full project came out
Use these examples to help you when planning your own release strategy for your musical project!
7. Ask fans to follow you on Spotify
Do you already have a substantial following on a social network? Use this to your advantage to ask your followers to subscribe to you on Spotify. You don’t need to find people because they are already there! You can make a post or share a story inciting people to follow you on Spotify to stay up to date with your current releases.
Don’t hesitate to go beyond your fans on social media and go back to basics: reach out to family and friends. Reach out to your most devoted fans with a personal message to remind them to follow you on Spotify if they aren’t already. Playing a concert soon? Tell the crowd at the end of your set where they can listen to your music to stay up to date with your project. If they follow you on Spotify, they’ll have your new releases automatically in their Release Radar playlist!
8. Contact media outlets and radios to promote your music
Want to know how to get followers on Spotify through press coverage? Contact media outlets and radios to promote your music and your following will certainly increase. Most press coverage will include links to a music streaming service where people can listen to your project and become a follower. The more people are talking about your music, the more likely you are to get more followers on Spotify.
The best way to contact media outlets and radios directly is by using Groover! You can filter media and radios by genre to determine which are the best suited to your musical project. Often, radios will have Spotify accounts where they create playlists highlighting the best songs of the month or new discoveries. Getting into these playlists is key to growing your followers on Spotify.
9. Don’t buy Spotify followers
Last but not least, don’t buy Spotify followers. There are so many ways get followers organically who will actually be interested in your music. Buying Spotify followers may seem like a quick and easy way to boost your streams and your credibility, but in the long run, this technique doesn’t hold up. Instead of having real fans listening to your project, your Spotify streams could be coming from a bunch of bots. What’s the point in growing your following if the following is fake? Build a strong foundation and get real listeners. How to get followers on Spotify? Stick to the tactics listed above to grow your audience organically!
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Next articles:
> How to get on Spotify playlists?
> 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 do I get featured on Spotify’s editorial playlists?
> How to grow your own playlist and gain followers?
> How much do artists get paid on Spotify?
To go further:
> 7 Tips to stand out from the crowd and get more streams on Spotify
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