Get Heard on Playlists: A Musician’s Guide to Success
Image credit: benjamin lehman
A well placed playlist feature can kickstart your career, exposing you to millions of new fans – How can you get featured?
Playlists are like the holy grail for musicians, a gateway to reaching millions of potential fans. Playlists span across the world’s top streaming services and encompass hundreds of millions of listeners.
In many ways, playlists are the new radio: A curated source of new music that presents tracks to a huge audience, offering massive potential for discovery to artists. Some even claim that the playlist has replaced the album as the go-to for listeners.
But, with countless artists vying for the coveted spot within a popular playlist, how do you make your music stand out and get chosen? This is our guide to playlists and how you can increase your chances of landing that all-important placement.
The types of playlists available to artists
Not all playlists are made the same. There are thousands of significant playlists available out there and they are all managed slightly differently. Before trying to get your music placed onto a playlist, it’s good to know what sorts of playlists you can be featured in.
Official Playlists
Editorial playlists are a big part of music streaming services today. For example, Spotify has a huge in-house team of tastemakers who find the latest and greatest music every week and personally curate their playlists for millions of listeners.
Whilst most of the world’s most popular services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon offer their own selection of playlists, Spotify is the only one that artists can pitch their tracks to directly. For other platforms, curators will discover and select music that they find on their own credit.
Streaming services will normally highlight their own playlists on their platforms, so a feature on an in-house playlist has the potential to be massive for your career. Spotify’s biggest playlist ‘Today’s Top Hits‘ has 34.7 million followers!
Unofficial playlists
On most services, anyone can create a playlist. Whilst the average listener’s personal playlist may not be of much promotional appeal, there are many playlist curators who aren’t working for the platform but still have a huge appeal.
The top non-editorial playlists still gather millions of listeners. You can see the 10 most followed unofficial playlists here. Huge playlists like Lofi Fruits Music and Deep House are independent curated but offer massive discovery from their millions of regular listeners.
Personalised playlists
Some playlists aren’t curated by people at all, but by your tastes. Personalised playlists are automatically generated based on what you listen to and like. Playlists like Spotify’s Discover Weekly present you with music that they think you’ll like based on what other people with similar tastes listen to.
These playlists are huge as they tap directly into a person’s unique tastes. They have been hailed as a huge source of music discovery, helping connect listeners with the right artists for them. This is great for the listener, but it’s also great for artists who reach the right fans rather than an indiscriminate list of listeners.
These playlists are expanding with the power of AI. Spotify’s AI-powered DJ offers a non-stop personalised mix of music that listener’s love interlaced with new recommendations, all hosted by their friendly DJ bot.
How to get featured on playlists
There are a number of things you can do to get featured on playlists. It also depends on which type of playlist you want your music to land on. In this section we’ll cover how to get your music on streaming services, how to pitch your music to different playlists, and how to give your music the best chance of being chosen.
Distribution
To get your music featured on any playlists, you’ll first need your music to be live on those services. Thankfully, it’s both free and easy to upload your music to all of the world’s top streaming services.
With RouteNote, artists can upload unlimited music releases to services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, and many more. Artists can choose to upload for free to retain 85% of their revenues or pay a small premium to keep 100% of their revenues.
Here’s how you can upload your music to services for feature in playlists:
- Sign up to RouteNote and log in at www.routenote.com
- Click ‘Distribution’ then ‘Create new release’
- Upload your music, artwork, and fill in your release details
- Choose the services and stores that you want to release your music on
- Choose between Free and Premium
- Our team will send your release to your chosen stores after checking it’s all correct
How to pitch to playlists
Spotify are the number one for playlists. Thankfully, they also have a really easy way to pitch your music to their playlist curators.
To pitch your music to Spotify’s editorial playlists, you’ll first need to upload your music to Spotify and then claim your Spotify for Artists profile. With access to Spotify for Artists you can then pitch your music from the app in advance of your release date. Find out more here. You will need to pitch your music in advance of release date for Spotify.
Other streaming services don’t offer the option to pitch your tracks directly to them. Therefore, you can’t take any direct action to be considered for their playlists. Skip ahead to our section on how to increase your chances of getting discovered for more advice on being chosen for editorial playlists beyond Spotify.
When it comes to non-editorial playlists, each one will be slightly different. Many independent curators will not take pitches. However, there are plenty of playlist operators who will offer some way of getting in touch to be considered for a feature. You should do your research for playlists you think your music would be a good match for and see if there are opportunities to pitch your songs.
Bonus:
If you distribute your music through RouteNote, you can pitch your music to RouteNote’s official playlists. Our in-house playlists offer a range of genres featuring the latest hit songs from RouteNote users. Get your songs in front of thousands of new listeners with the RouteNote playlists.
Pitch your music to RouteNote playlists here.
How to improve your chances of getting chosen for playlists
Whilst the most important thing you can do to get chosen for playlists is to make great music, there is more you can do to increase your chance of getting picked. Follow this advice to enhance your artist profile and make it more likely that listeners and curators pick up on your tracks.
Optimise your artist profile
Think of your artist page almost like your musical equivalent of a CV for a job. If a playlist curator is exploring new artists to feature in their playlist, they’re likely to look at your artist profile.
If an editor finds an empty artists profile they’re likely to be turned off. Ensure you have up to date artist images which catch the eye and represent you as an artist. Likewise, you should add an artist bio that tells the story of who you are. All of these details build the image and world of you as an artist, making you more enticing not just to curators but to new listeners as well.
Links to your website and social media will also help curators to investigate your online presence and whether you’re gaining traction. They may even drop a link to your pages when they feature your tracks if they can easily find your socials.
Enhance your social media presence
Speaking of social media, you want to make sure your pages are up to date and filled with quality content. This bolsters your artist profile online, which improves your position in search results when people search your artist name. That enhanced visibility makes you more likely to be noticed by industry figures including playlist curators.
Optimising your social profiles with up to date, appealing images and high quality, regularly uploaded content will appeal to visitors much more. Uploading great content also expands your chances of growing your fanbase with posts that capture the attention of audiences on social profiles. That natural growth then enhances the chances of playlist curators finding you – you see, each step works together to maximise your potential!
Network within the industry
Building relationships with music journalists, bloggers, and tastemakers can open doors to playlist opportunities. Connect with them online via social media, forums, websites, and emails or find connections in person at industry events or your local gig circuit.
There are many places that you can network from the comfort of your own home. Reddit is a great example of an easily accessible website full of artists in the same boat as you who are able to offer advice and suggestions. Find communities that suit your music and join the conversation to find the playlists that suit you best and how to get discovered by them.
These sorts of discussion boards will often be trawled by curators looking to discover the next underground stars of their niche.
Don’t underestimate the power of pre-saves
Engage with listeners and editors before your tracks are even released. Add a release date ahead of your tracks release so that you can build hype for it and grab the attention of playlist curators who might want to grab your hype for your big release day.
This is especially poignant for Spotify, which requires that you pitch your track at least a week before it’s released in Spotify for Artists for consideration in their editorial playlists.
Build extra hype for your release with Pre-Saves. This tool allows you make your songs available on certain streaming services before release so that it can be saved to libraries and added to playlists. This means that curators can pre-empt your release day and get your song added to playlists to be part of the queue the second it drops.
Consider third-party playlist submissions
Whilst not a substitute for hard work or making quality content, playlist submission services can be a valuable tool. Explore reputable services that connect you with independent curators.
These services work for both artists and curators. They allow artists to connect with the managers of playlists. For editors, they provide a chance to cut through the noise in the overabundance of content online and discover genuinely fresh, underground artists.
Prioritize quality over quantity and focus on services that align with your genre and target audience. Remember, these services help you get in front of playlist editors but if you still need to care about your music and create quality content to get picked.
Don’t fall for fraud or bots
Many services will claim to offer more plays, more likes, and more engagement on your social media or music. Be careful and avoid paying for plays. You want to develop your career naturally from real people and may be punished if you fall for schemes that utilise artificial streaming and engagement.
Whilst there are services that can help you connect with playlist curators that may enhance your exposure, there are no legitimate services that boost plays. In fact, these services provide artificial plays and can be picked up by services. This may lead to fines and can even result in your entire music catalogue being taken down.
Spotify in particular have begun taking artificial streaming much more seriously. You can read how RouteNote are working with Spotify to prevent and action against fraud streaming here.