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In an ever-changing market, promoting your music online is essential. The trusty old radio station is out and online/streamed music is in. Free streaming has become the new pillar of recorded music and now represents more than 82% of music market revenue.

With Spotify at the top of the list (far ahead of Apple Music, Amazon Music and Youtube Music), it is now becoming necessary for every artist and songwriter to make their work available on the platform and get a significant number of streams to make a living and further their career. At the end of Q1 in 2024, it was announced that Spotify had reached over 615+ million users worldwide – a number that exceeded their forecasts. Spotify’s growth seems to have no limits.

So how is your music supposed to stand out from the millions of songs in the vast music collections these music streaming services host? Well, there’s no use in cheating by buying streams. Depending on the service you use, your distributor or Spotify may notice that you’ve purchased streams and penalize you by permanently disabling your artist account. That’s why it’s important to build up your visibility on the platform in a progressive and organic way. Fortunately, there are more and more powerful tools to help you do so.

Are you looking to get into Spotify playlists? ⬇️

Here are 7 tips for you to increase Spotify streams without cheating, and finally stand out from the crowd.

1. Analyze Your Streams Using Spotify For Artists

By creating a Spotify for Artists account, your artist page will be verified instantly, which only adds to your credibility. You’ll then have access to all sorts of great features like the ability to customize your page the way you want to present it, but more importantly streaming data that will tell you everything you need to know about the location, gender, and age of your listeners, and their streaming trends over time. Keep track of this data as much as possible and try to note patterns that may be useful in your promotion or marketing strategy. This feature is completely free and allows you not only to know who’s listening to your music, but also to get an overview of which songs are most popular with your listeners and to what extent.

| Also read: Spotify for Artists – The Ultimate Guide to Boost Your Streams

Spotify for Artists has also developed new paid advertising formats available in the “Campaigns” tab to artists who are really starting to build up their audience on Spotify in order for them to help them get more streams:

• “Marquee” takes the form of a pop-up/window that highlights your new release to your listeners and followers. Available from 5,000 listens in the last 28 days in a targeted country, and 1,000 followers on the profile.
• “Showcase” is a tool that will recommend your latest releases or catalog via a banner on Spotify’s mobile homepage. Available from 1000 listens over the last 28 days in a targeted country.
• “Discovery Mode”, not accessible to all artists & distributors, and only above 25,000 monthly listeners, enables a track released at least 30 days ago to be pushed more strongly in Spotify’s algorithmic playlists.

If you don’t have enough listens to benefit from these campaigns, don’t worry. There’s much more you can do to expand your streaming audience.

2. Create Your Own Playlists to Promote Your Music

Boosting your overall Spotify streams is a great way to get your music into editorial playlists (the ones made by Spotify with a ton of followers), but these require a formal pitch prior to release. If you want playlist adds a while after your last release, you can contact independent curators – they’re the ones running the show. You can use platforms such as Groover to contact indie playlist curators directly, but you can also create your own playlist.

Spotify doesn’t differentiate one playlist add from another, whether it’s your own account or not. This means that creating playlists that include your own music on Spotify informs the algorithm that your music is being saved by a user. This will improve your chances of showing up on algorithmic playlists, and will also tell the algorithm to associate you with the other artists in the playlists.

You can also create curated playlists based on a mood or specific themes, and include songs from bands and musicians that inspire you and have influenced your music. Don’t overdo it by inserting too many personal songs, because the challenge here is to stay authentic and share your music library with your fans and potential future listeners. Another trick is also to collaborate with other musicians on a playlist. When you do this, you expose your playlist (and your songs) to a larger audience, which means more fans and more Spotify streams.

Think about what your listeners, or you as a listener, would want from curated playlists. Put yourself in your fans’ shoes and figure out what context they’re listening to music in. 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.

It is essential to add tracks to these playlists on a regular basis because your followers will be notified each time you update them. This then leads your listeners to go to your profile, which contributes to an increasing number of visitors on your profile, and thus, more streams.

Also, Pro tip! When people look up your Spotify playlist they listen to the first 3-5 songs before deciding if they want to follow. Make sure these are your absolute favorite ones in the playlist.

Read also : How to create your own playlist on Spotify and gain followers ?

3. Be Active on Social Networks to Increase Spotify Streams

It cannot be overstated. It is of the utmost importance to maintain a communication channel with your fans and keep them updated on your music news.

Become a musical guru for your fans while promoting your own songs!

Promoting new tracks on your various social networks, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and the like is a great way to engage your community and drive traffic to your Spotify profile. The best way to attract new listeners through socials is by posting exclusive content (covers, BTS, live versions and more) that sparks curiosity and makes them want to listen to the final result. Include your Spotify artist page in your bio and make sure to include links whenever you’re promoting your music in your stories. Clicks are your friend!

| Read also: How to Gain New Followers on Instagram

4. Take Advantage of Spotify Ad Studio

Spotify Ad Studio is an advertising platform that allows users to easily create and manage Spotify audio advertising campaigns. You can create audio ads of 30 seconds or less that (non-paying) Spotify users will hear during commercial breaks between songs. Each ad also contains a clickable image linked to the URL of your choice.

Keep in mind that these audio ads are by nature interrupting the listener’s experience. Imagine you are in your home listening to music online through an Echo, Alexa or Sonos … the last thing you would want is an ad to disrupt your playlist. Be clever about your audio ad and make it enjoyable for the listener. Make sure to stand out and give a new potential listener a positive first impression. Don’t be the reason why someone pays for a music subscription and chooses to go ad-free! Keep in mind that Spotify Premium users do not have audio ads served to them on the streaming music service.

This new feature allows you to accurately track the flow and growth of your streams and target new listeners by location, demographic, and listening trends. Targeted ads are designed to increase Spotify streams by connecting artists with listeners who are likely to genuinely enjoy their genre, thereby increasing the probability of more organic Spotify plays.

Furthermore, Spotify Ad Studio provides analytics and feedback, enabling you to understand their audience better. This insight is crucial in helping you refine your strategy to boost Spotify plays continuously. As you adjust your campaigns based on real data, you’re more likely to attract organic Spotify plays, creating a loyal listener base.

| Check out: How to find an audience for your music: 7 Tips to boost your visibility

5. Use a Spotify Code

A Spotify code is a kind of QR code that you can add to any form of promotion imaginable that, when scanned, will direct users to a landing page of your choice. It’s possible to create Spotify codes for artist profiles, playlists, albums and songs – or anything that has a Spotify URL Use it on social media, websites, or even printed materials to put around your local area. Your fans can then scan the code using the Spotify app’s built-in scanner.

The point of Spotify codes is to make it easier for listeners to find and play your music with just a quick scan. This convenience removes barriers for potential listeners, encouraging immediate engagement with your tracks. Furthermore, these plays are more likely to be organic Spotify plays, as they come from listeners who have actively chosen to engage with your music.

Another key benefit is the potential for your music to be shared, which will make your Spotify streams grow exponentially. If a fan enjoys your music, they can send your Spotify code to their own network, increasing your reach. This word-of-mouth promotion is invaluable, often translating into Spotify plays from new listeners who trust their friends’ recommendations.

There’s also a new feature on Spotify for Artists that allows you to share your music directly from the platform with Promo Cards.

6. Integrate Spotify Plugins & Pre-Save Links in All Your Media

Spotify plugins/players and the use of the ‘follow’ button allows fans to access and listen to your music directly through your website. When a user clicks the subscribe button on your Spotify account, they instantly follow all your activity on the platform and notified when something new happens, such as when you post new tracks or play gigs near a user’s location. It works with any HTML-enabled website, and it’s easy to embed. Non-Spotify subscribers will be able to enjoy a 30-second preview of your track, and it’s an easy way to get more exposure and increase Spotify streams.

Another great strategy is to use pre-save links in the weeks leading to a new music release. When listeners pre-save your track on Spotify, they automatically start following your profile and the track shows up in their library on drop day. They’ll also find your release on their Release Radar algorithmic playlist.

7. Get Heard by Playlisters

In order to do this, it is imperative that you know what audience you are addressing – make sure you know where you music stands. As an emerging artist, the best way to get more streams is to appear on playlists managed by music influencers and indie playlisters. These curators usually specialize in a niche and have the potential to share your music with your future biggest fans. The more you appear in user-generated playlists, the more likely you are to get into Spotify algorithmic and editorial playlists.

So the question is, how do you get into user-generated playlists? Here are the two strategies we recommend:

• Use Groover, get your music listened to, and get placements by playlist curators

Contacting the editorial teams of radio stations, podcasts, bloggers or labels/record labels directly is often tedious and almost never fruitful. With Groover, you can contact the best independent playlists (including BIRP.fm, Electro Posé, XEN, Disco Naïveté, College Music & more) and be assured that you’ll be listened to, get feedback on your music, and make connections with the influencers who will share your music with their following. To make it easy for you, we’ve set up a special category to help you find them in the filters from the media selection page:

• User-generated playlists, also known as independent playlists

1. On your Spotify desktop app (only place it’s available!), check out profiles of artists who have between 1,000 and 50,000 listeners per month – including the ones in your “Similar Artists” tab
2. Go to “Overview” ⇒ “Fans also like”
3. In “About” → “Discovered On”…
4. Once you see the playlists that bring them the most streams, aim for the ones that are not created by Spotify and you might have a chance to get added, too

This is basically how Groover invites the top playlists to join their curator community! You may save a lot of time while being guaranteed that your music is going to get listened to by choosing the most relevant independent playlists for you through Groover.

| Check out: How to use Groover to promote your music with success

| To go further : How to get on Spotify Playlists ?

User-generated playlists help you to boost Spotify plays by creating a sense of community and connection with your audience. Listeners often trust the curator’s taste, and by extension, any new artist featured in the playlist. This trust can boost Spotify plays.

Another key aspect is the potential for organic Spotify plays. Being featured in a playlist means that the song is likely to be played repeatedly, not just by one listener, but by many who follow or stumble upon the playlist. The algorithm favors this authentic success, and you’ll be suggested to more listeners, winning you even more genuine Spotify plays.

Another underrated aspect of playlists is that they can boost Spotify plays over a long period. Once a song is included in a playlist, it can continue to be listened to by new audiences discovering the playlist.

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To get in touch with the best independent playlist curators for your music, get your music listened to and optimize your chances to get it placed, try Groover today 🤘