We've worked with over 100 different Spotify curators to provide Spotify promotion, and it's allowed us to see how to grow a Spotify playlist, in a legit, organic way.
Promoting your own Spotify playlist can be tough, especially if you've never done it before, but luckily we're here to help you out.
Check out Boost Collective's free Spotify promotion here - our free-to-use platform is a must-join for all independent artists:
The music industry revolves around how many monthly listeners you can capture.
Having a playlist is a great way to keep your fans streaming your music to keep up your engagement.
With that being said, let's get right into what you want to hear.
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There are plenty of ways to grow organic followers on your playlist.
The first method that is worth a shot is to see if you can get the algorithm to work for you.
Spotify is all about discovering new music.
If you're a music artist you can submit to Spotify playlists for free!
Want to get your music on active & relevant playlists that actually get results?
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So if you can get the algorithm to suggest your playlists to new listeners searching for music, you can rake in a ton of followers.
Have you ever searched up a genre, or some of your favorite tracks and seen a playlist come up that looks like the album cover to that song you're trying to find?
Many playlist curators create lists and name them after upcoming releases so that when fans search for the song name, they'll see your playlist come up.
Take a look at the example above.
The Migos are planning to launch their upcoming album "Culture 3" soon, and this curator has taken advantage of the algorithm to gain new followers.
This method is definitely amazing when it works, as it doesn't take much work to get users to search and engage with your playlist.
However, it is not reliable and can be frustrating when no new followers show up to the party.
Make sure you use a High-Quality Spotify Logo in the playlist cover for success!
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Pros
Cons
Overall, if you can be the first to make a playlist before anyone else, it's a good strategy that may go viral.
BONUS ADVICE:
Look up upcoming music festivals and try to make playlists with the name and image of the festival.
(Example: Ultra Music Festival 2021).
Lots of fans are going to search for Ultra, and in turn, maybe a great way to get promotion for your playlist.
Want a guaranteed way to get users to discover your playlist? Using platforms that allow you to run ads is your way to go.
Running ads is one of those ways to get people to see your playlists.
By channeling your inner marketing mind, you can make posts and stories that have a call to action that gets users to tap your link and give your list a follow.
This method is a great way to get followers and is amongst the most reliable.
Skills needed for effective Facebook and Instagram ads
Okay, let's get into it!
First, you want to want to create your playlist.
You should have a good idea of what genre and mood you're looking to go for.
Then, you're going to need to think of a catchy title that targets the genre and mood of the playlist. Spotify is going to index this!
Then you'll want to write a description.
This is not very important but can help if it's a good description.
We've found that being funny in the description can help people decide if they want to follow when they first see your list on Spotify.
Next, you'll need to create a playlist cover.
If you want to get the best chances of getting new playlist followers and plays, creating a quality playlist cover can make all of the difference.
Above is an example of a good vs a bad Spotify playlist.
Most curators use Photoshop to create a quality cover, however, you can use Canva for free, or Photopea to create your playlist cover!
Alternatively, if you're looking for some cover art, we've got you covered!
How to make a good Spotify playlist cover
Remember, people are going to be seeing this cover on social media when you're promoting through ads.
Every time a user goes to play through your playlist, they're going to see it. So it's pretty important!
You can also try to put relevant artists or bands into your covers.
The users on Instagram will know what kind of music they can expect if that's the right kind of music that they actually list.
Remember, you want to do everything possible to get people following your Spotify playlists.
Add the cover to your playlist on Spotify, and you'll be good to go!
Next up, you'll want to get acquainted with the Facebook ad manager.
We'd recommend checking out the video below if you're serious about getting ads set up.
You'll need to set up a Facebook pixel to track the people who land on your playlists.
You can use a platform like Toneden to create a great-looking landing link "smart link" for your playlist.
You can also put your pixel onto the page to track users that land on the page!
Bonus: Check out Boost Collective's free Spotify promotion here - our free-to-use platform is a must-join for all independent artists:
Next up, is the ad itself. You will need to create an ad that will share your playlist with people on Instagram and Facebook.
We have grown playlists with both static images (in some cases just the cover of the playlists), and videos.
It really depends on what the audience is going to respond best with. It may be worth trying both!
How to run a successful Spotify playlist ad campaign
Ahhh spending that fat cash...
Okay... finally, you'll need to figure out your budget.
Usually, it can take either a lot or a little, depending on where you're targeting the world.
If you're looking to get strictly United States-based streams, you're going to be in for a massive weekly price tag on your ad cost.
Getting streams from other countries is not a bad idea at all.
It's a great idea to get a solid mix from different countries, especially if your budget is smaller.
But hey... you probably just want to hear the numbers, and we're here to give you tips!
If you're looking to get streams from the strictly United States, we've found it can cost upwards of $30 a day to get 10-20 followers a day on your playlist. Yeah... it was expensive.
If you're looking to get streams on your playlists from South America, it can cost upwards of $10 for 10-20 followers per day.
Europe is similar in cost to the US but less expensive, and Canada is similar to Europe.
One thing that you should know!
Of all the tips this is extremely important!
Make sure you're keeping your playlist freshly curated so that your playlist followers don't unfollow or stop engaging.
It would suck to lose all that money due to these common mistakes.
Here are the pros and of cons using Instagram and Facebook Ads to gain followers on Spotify playlists.
Benefits to using Instagram ads to grow your Spotify playlist
Dangers of using Instagram ads to grow your Spotify playlist
Reddit is built on community.
There's a large community that is all about finding new music. so if you can take advantage of that aspect, you might find some success on Reddit!
If you want to promote your playlist, it usually involves making a post or a comment in a relevant subreddit.
3 best subreddits to promote your Spotify playlists
We personally have not found much success on Reddit.
It can take a lot of time to get integrated into the community.
Sometimes if users ask for music suggestions on niche-style Spotify playlists, and you have what they'd like, you can luck out with some really strongly engaged listeners for free.
Once again you just need that perfect mood to make it happen!
Reddit might not be the best place to mass promote your playlists, instead is more of a personal way to engage with users on the various platforms.
Benefits of using Reddit to grow your Spotify playlist
Dangers of using Reddit to grow your Spotify playlist
Snapchat is an interesting social platform.
It's definitely not community-based.
But, it's very popular in the West! When it comes to playlisting, and especially how to get Spotify playlist followers for a great price.
Snapchat ads can be relatively inexpensive, as their ad costs are usually a little lower than the other platforms.
So it might just be the right choice to use.
The best part about this is that you can reuse your old assets from your previous ads if you're looking to use both platforms.
Playlisting and running advertisements across multiple places can help sway users' decisions.
Snapchat might just be the place you find the audience for your playlist. Some audiences react better to different songs in different places.
If you're an artist you'd know that the experience is different on Spotify vs Apple Music vs the way it is on SoundCloud. It's the same for the users of these social outlets.
Benefits of using Snapchat ads to grow your Spotify followers
Dangers of using Snapchat ads to grow your Spotify followers
Bonus: Check out Boost Collective's free Spotify promotion here - our free-to-use platform is a must-join for all independent artists:
There are so many active users on Pinterest every single week.
From potential listeners of niche songs to artists themselves, Pinterest can be for everyone. We were quite surprised.
We tried running some Pinterest ads for a fellow curator and the results were similar to Snapchat.
It can be difficult to keep track of all the ads you're running across every social media.
Our advice would be not to run ads to the same playlists across each social media.
You won't know which one is getting you the best results.
One of the cool things about Pinterest is that the posts that you make stay up.
You can place tags on the videos and static images you upload.
So if you upload the playlist cover, you can tag the genres that best resample the playlist.
Remember, you might need a decent call to action on your playlist cover for Pinterest to get people to tap/click to listen further to your playlist.
Benefits of using Pinterest ads to grow on Spotify
Dangers of using Pinterest ads to grow on Spotify
Here are some bonus tips from us!
If you're a music artist you can submit to Spotify playlists for free!
You should make sure that your best picks are sitting right at the top of the playlists you curate.
New listeners on Spotify are going to want to listen to the best of the best right away.
This separates good curators from not-so-good curators.
It's totally cool to have a massive playlist, and it's also great to have a small well-targeted playlist.
Engagement is what matters the most.
We have seen massive playlists give totally lackluster streams to newly added music.
Small playlists that are kept fresh perform well!
But... having a big playlist can help new listeners get drawn in to listen and become followers.
After you've freshly curated your playlist, take a listen through it.
Have your friends go through it as well!
See what the response is. It might not sound as great as you thought.
Just like a great DJ set, the positioning and style of the songs you put in your playlist can make a big impact.
Try to have music that works well together.
You wouldn't want to add music that doesn't flow together.
It'd be like having a song end really abruptly and then go into a heavy loud mess.
Overall just not pleasant for the followers.
You've got plenty of friends and people you know online right?
See what they think about your playlist.
And perhaps you'll have your very first followers, along with some insight.
If you're an artist yourself, you know the importance of the advice nonartists can give you.
After all, you are the one sitting behind the speakers hearing the same loop over and over.
Having some tips and advice from friends can be a game changer when you're looking to perfect your curating skills as well.
As time goes on, you may gain some genuine fans on your playlist.
The last thing you should do is swap the name of your playlist.
It can get rid of the progress you've spent so much time working towards.
No one likes change when it comes to finding new songs haha!
You certainly can! You can put your own music inside the lists.
Imagine the streams you can get if you were able to circulate through 10 of your own songs.
How many streams would those songs get as time goes by?
Anyway, if you enjoyed the article/, you might find our blog on how to grow your Spotify streams very helpful!
Best of luck curating!
I hope you now know how to get followers on your Spotify playlists!
It’s time you get your exposure and listeners up - playlisting by Boost Collective has been trusted by 50,000+ artists worldwide.
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