For decades, musicians have dreamed of gracing the pages of major music magazines. While that dream still holds true for some, for many others, today’s top prize is having a track featured on one of Spotify’s most-prominent editorial playlists where it has the potential to be heard by millions.
More than 4 billion playlists are currently available to stream on the Spotify platform. Many are user-generated, created by fans, record labels, independent playlist curators, companies, brands, and other musicians. These are known as non-editorial playlists, and while many have sizable audiences that make them particularly valuable to independent musicians, the most popular playlists are all Spotify-owned. Placement on one of Spotify’s top playlists is considered the holy grail for any artist hoping to reach the Billboard charts. Of the top 20 playlists, 70% are composed of new music, making them the hottest place for people to discover your music.
Getting Spotify to feature your music on one of its editorial playlists may sound like a tall task. However, we have good news: you can pitch your upcoming, unreleased tracks directly to Spotify’s playlist editors from your Spotify for Artists profile. Keep reading, because below we’ll walk you through the Spotify playlist submission process and explain how to increase your chances of getting noticed by Spotify’s editorial team.
Who creates the editorial playlists on Spotify?
Algorithms do create some playlists, including Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Spotify Radio. On the flip side, a team of editorial curators is behind many of Spotify’s most popular playlists, such as Today’s Top Hits, RapCaviar, ¡Viva Latino!, and Beast Mode. That’s right: real people with real human feelings curate playlists, so impressing them with your music should be front of mind if you hope to be featured. Playlist editors will also consider your previous streaming data, but note that any attempt to falsely inflate your streaming numbers through practices such as artificial streaming will almost always fail. Read more about artificial streaming and why it isn’t worth it.
As well as relying on their expert ears, editorial curators use data to assist their decision-making. This is why getting your metadata right from the very beginning is an essential step in the music distribution process. Descriptive metadata helps people discover your music, so it should always accurately reflect your sound and style.
How to submit your music to Spotify playlists
Submitting your music to Spotify's editorial team is actually relatively easy. However, before you begin, you first need to claim your Spotify for Artists profile. You can only do this after your first track is available to stream online. If you haven't done this yet go ahead and do it right away. Activating your Spotify for Artists profile is relatively simple. You can learn how to claim and set up your Spotify artist profile here. The Spotify team takes approximately three days to review and approve new requests, so you will need to be a little patient. Once approved, a blue checkmark will appear next to your profile. Then you'll be able to start pitching your music. Additional features such as Spotify Canvas and enhanced audience data will also become accessible to you.
The downside to this is that you cannot pitch your first track, as you can only pitch upcoming and unreleased songs to Spotify's editorial team. Still, there's no need to sweat. There will be plenty of opportunities to pitch your next release after you have built up your profile and racked up streams on your first track.
