So you made that killer Spotify playlist – the best one in the world. You’re so excited about your work that you want the world to see it. But day after day, besides a friend or two, you have no more followers than when you started. What’s the issue? You made the “perfect” Spotify playlist… so why isn’t anyone following?
To start, think about the playlists that you already follow and think about why you follow them. You want to hear new EDM music so you type in EDM and click the first 2/3 playlists which have the most followers, right? What about the 10,000 others that might be better? Well you will never know. Anyway, I’m going to give some tips from my personal experience to help you out.
Over the last year or so I’ve grown some playlists in the mid thousands range through pure organic growth, that are highly active as well. Here are some tips I found that really helped me out and that should also help you!
1. Choose a solid name and DON’T change it
I started SchniTunes a year ago when I noticed one day that my Spotify playlist Adderall had over 500 followers. I had never really told anyone about it. Occasionally a few of my friends would shoot me a message saying they saw me listening to this playlist and that they thought it was great. I’ve come to realize that “Adderall” as a music category is unique in its name. Plenty of people may have been searching this.
There are so many playlists out there with generic names. Pregame, Electronic, Old School Rap… create something different that stands out – I recommend naming a playlist with a current mood or feeling or even some sort of interesting idea. Let’s take a look at some of Spotify’s biggest playlists. For example: I enjoy “Creamy” and “Brain food” and “Most necessary.” You can’t quite tell what type of genre it is but at the same time you sort of can… Naming my playlist “Adderall” was certainly the initial reason I was able gain followers off of pure organic search. Finally, once you have a name, do not change it as this can screw up the search results.
2. Understand your target audience and what they want
Spotify gives you the opportunity to think about this however you want. You can create a target audience. Put yourself in your fans shoes and find what they are looking to listen to. If they are studying, going on a run, working out, pregaming – create this vibe for your audience. But don’t forget, you are unique so make playlists about how you would like them for yourself, NOT for other people. This will definitely work in your favor. If you make a playlist for studying, put yourself in the situation and see what you like when you are studying.
Also Pro tip! When people look up your Spotify playlist they listen to the first 3-5 songs before deciding if they want to subscribe. Make sure these are your absolute favorite ones in the playlist.
Create a vibe for your Spotify playlist
3. Reddit
I’ve posted my playlists on various threads in reddit. This has helped me with growth immensely. Not only that, I’ve met some super awesome artists who sent their tracks to me in a Reddit message. Reddit threads are possible my favorite tool for organic free promotion. Threads such as r/spotifyplaylists, r/chillstep, r/electronicmusic, r/playlists, r/chillmusic, there are so many. I even once posted in various college Reddit threads during finals week saying I had a “study resource” and it was my playlist. This helped me gain over 100 followers in a night once. Get creative with where you want to post your playlist and this goes back to crafting that idea or vibe around your playlist.
Read also : Reddit: How can I use it to Promote my Music ?
Reddit – Grow your own Spotify playlist
4. Spotify Playlist Picture and Bio
It’s the first thing you see. Look at all of the popular Spotify playlists. The images are super sleek and unique in what they stand for. One of my favorites is the playlist “Nasty Bits“. It has a black and white picture of a guy aggressively biting into a chicken wing staring at the camera. Sounds weird… 182k followers. I personally like to include the name in the picture as well. There’s a million pictures and websites to create or edit images so get real creative with it.
Make sure to write a playlist bio as well. “Nasty Bits” for example has the caption ‘Filthy electro and bass house’. This kind of makes sense and it’s unique. Enough so that anyone typing the word filthy with either bass or house will have this list coming up first in the search results. To take this even further with SEO, add around 10 artists names to the bio so that when people look up Artists, your playlist will show up in the playlist category.
Read also : How to write a good Biography ?
Associate your Spotify playlist with a few artists to fall into the search results – Example with Childish Gambino
5. Constantly update your Spotify playlist and don’t overdue it. Less is More
Keep your Spotify playlist fresh. Rotate songs in and out of your list. I never try to keep a track in my playlist for longer than 3 months and constantly try to update it once a month minimum. Going along with this, try not to have too many tracks from the same artist. (I try to keep no more than 3-4 songs by a same artist max) as apparently this can penalize your Spotify playlist when it comes to search results. Going along with this, keep your playlist tight and be picky. A good range is around 50-200 songs max. Be real with yourself, would you want to follow a playlist with 800 songs in it?
Most of the biggest Spotify playlists have EXACTLY 50 songs – this is for a reason and that reason is because IT WORKS. I personally like to keep around 125-180 as my personal range but there is no ideal number. Keep it anywhere within the 50-200 song range. Add all the songs that you feel correspond best to the mood of the playlist to your audience. There is not one size fits all. Just remember, a large Spotify playlist is a bit much for the average listener who isn’t looking to discover 200 new artists in a single day.
6. Get others to share your playlist
You can only share your Spotify playlist quite a few times. Have friends or artists become your playlist champions. Have artists and other curators share each other’s stuff on social channels, with friends and through word of mouth is overlooked sometimes and can really lead to solid growth. Everyone in this community is extremely friendly and happy to help.
If you add an indie artist to your list and have his/her contact info then it benefits both of you for the artist to share the playlist. You get more followers and ultimately that artist gets more listens and streams. Same situation if you know other curators. You can share each-others playlists to help one another out. Playlist growth is similar to compound interest in that sense. The more people are listening to it, the more people see that others are listening to that Spotify playlist and are enticed to click on it, leading to growth on top of growth.
Read also : How to manage your social media accounts as musicians ans stand out
7. Have fun
Seriously. Making playlists us fun and a great hobby. There is literally never a bad outcome from a good Spotify playlist. Think about the last time you played the music that you had curated during a road trip and you got complimented on your music. It brightens everyones mood in that car. Or anytime you had control over the music broadcast at a large get together or party. Making playlists is more rewarding than it sounds! Remember, to make a playlist that will be successful is to not do a genre but rather a “mood” or to say to yourself: what would I listen to in a “specific moment”? And BOOM you have your playlist name.
For more concrete advice on playlists, we recommend the guide for artists and playlist curators 👉 Work Hard Playlist Hard
To try to get into Spotify playlists it’s this way ⭐️
