Because of this, we’ve seen artists actively pull all their music from Spotify, with many more wondering if they should do the same.

What actually happens if you remove your catalog from Spotify? Can you still sustain a career without your music on the biggest music streaming platform in the world?

The short answer is yes, but it’s not without consequences.

In this blog, I’ll cover what impact taking your music off Spotify can have on your career and what steps you should take if you decide to go through with it.

What You Actually Lose Without Spotify

1. Streaming Revenue From the Largest Platform

This one’s obvious. Spotify is the biggest streaming platform globally, so pulling your music means losing a nice chunk of your streaming revenue. There’s no exact percentage, as it will vary between artists, but you can expect to lose out on at least a third of your streaming royalties. This is a rough estimate based on how much market share Spotify has for the U.S., but it can be more depending on the country your listeners are in and what platforms they use.

For example, Spotify represents around 41% of the streaming royalties for one artist I work with. 62% of their fan base is in the U.S., while 38% account for the rest of the world, including top countries like the U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany and other European countries.

For some artists, this is not going to matter much. Streaming already pays so little that their real income comes from shows, merch, brand deals or direct fan support. In those cases, Spotify revenue feels more expendable.

For other artists, every dollar matters, especially those who are fully independent. There are some who need their streaming royalties to survive, feed their families and continue to create the art they’ve been fortunate to live off of.

Before making any decision, you need to take a good look at your numbers and know how much Spotify contributes to your monthly or yearly income. Everyone’s situation is different, so see if you can afford to live without Spotify.

2. Spotify’s Discovery Engine

One of the big benefits of Spotify is its discovery engine. Their algorithmic playlists, like Discover Weekly, Radio and Mixes, help introduce your music to new listeners.

There’s also Discovery Mode, where artists can opt in specific songs to let Spotify push certain tracks more heavily in exchange for a 30% cut of royalties on those streams. It’s controversial for being pay-to-play (payola), but for some artists, it helps to drive more streams.

That said, if you’re a newer or developing artist without much of an existing listenership and catalog, losing Spotify’s algorithm won’t really affect you.

The good news is you still have access to other powerful discovery engines on social media, like Instagram and TikTok. As long as you’re posting regularly and engaging with fans on social media, you’ll do fine.

3. Listener and Music Data

Spotify for Artists provides a lot of useful data about your listeners and your music releases. For example, you can learn what the top cities and countries your fans are listening in, age groups, gender, types of listeners, individual song performance and even the source of streams.

This type of information can be used to make important business decisions for artists. One of the most popular use cases is for routing tours and booking shows based on the number of listeners in each city.

If you leave Spotify, you’ll still have data from other DSPs and social platforms. However, since Spotify is the largest, you’re losing access to one of the biggest pools of listener data available for your business.

4. Spotify Followers To Notify About New Releases

When you drop new music on Spotify, your followers will find it on their Release Radar playlist. That’s a built-in way to share new music with your listeners and fans without doing anything extra.

If you pull out from Spotify, you lose your followers and the ability to push new releases to them.

This is not a big deal because Spotify followers are siloed. You have no way to see who your followers are or message them directly. Similarly with social media, you don’t actually own that relationship either. But at least you can see who follows you on platforms like Instagram and TikTok while having the ability to communicate with them through comments or direct messages.

If you already have an email list or you’re active on social media, losing Spotify followers isn’t the end of the world. You have plenty of other channels for updating fans on new releases.

5. Show Promotion (Bandsintown Integration)

Spotify’s Bandsintown integration is genuinely useful for touring artists. When you list shows on Bandsintown, it automatically appears on your Spotify profile.Spotify also sends emails and app notifications to followers when you’re playing a show in their city.

This helps to promote your upcoming shows to fans who may not be tracking you on Bandsintown, which is a big plus.

However, if you don’t play many shows or tour regularly, this feature won’t impact you much. And if your fans are already tracking you on Bandsintown, you’re still covered. Just make sure you have a link to your Bandsintown schedule in your link-in-bio page and on your website.

6. Shopify Merch Integration

If you use Shopify to sell merch on your website, Spotify lets you display your products directly on your artist profile< You can even link specific merch items to your releases so fans see them while listening.

In my experience, we’ll occasionally see merch orders come in from Spotify, but it’s nothing substantial. But of course, this will vary by artist.

If you don’t sell much merch or don’t use Shopify, this integration won’t matter for you. It’s a neat feature for artists who use Shopify, but not game-changing.

7. Editorial Playlist Pitching

Once you’re off Spotify and no longer push new releases to the platform, you lose the ability to pitch a new song to Spotify’s editorial team.

Getting a track on an editorial playlist can provide a nice bump in streams, discovery, and revenue, but it’s rarely something that makes or breaks a career. Not to mention,the odds of landing on an editorial Spotify playlist are already extremely low, considering over 100,000 songs are uploaded every day.

You can also pitch new releases for Amazon Music playlists, but it’s likely not going to have the same impact as on Spotify.

Pitching to Spotify editorial playlists is a nice feature, especially since it’s free, but it’s not essential for independent artists.

Should You Leave Spotify? Factors to Consider

The big question is, should you actually do it?

This is where things get personal. I fully understand that no amount of money or reach matters if it conflicts with your morals or ethics. At the same time, this is also a business decision. Streaming platforms may not pay well, but some independent artists rely on that income to get by. When a decision affects your livelihood, you owe it to yourself to be fully informed.

Ask yourself honestly:

• How financially dependent am I on Spotify?
• How strong is my direct-to-fan ecosystem?
• How loyal is my fanbase?
• What stage of my career am I in?
• What are my long-term goals?

Don’t let pressure from fans or other artists dictate your move. Some artists leave for moral reasons and to set an example. Others stay because they need the money to keep their business operating. There’s no judgment either way, so do only what makes sense for you and your family first.

If You Do Decide to Leave Spotify

Let’s say you decide to go through with it. What now? Here’s a list of steps and things to consider.

Contact Your Distributor

Spotify won’t remove your music directly, but your distributor can. You’ll likely need to contact your distributor’s support team to request removal.

The good news?You can always add your music back later.

Inform Your Fans

Never pull your music silently. That’s how you confuse and upset fans.

Give fans a heads up about your decision on socials and your email list. Briefly explain why, and let Spotify users know exactly how and where they can still access your music.

Suggest Another Streaming Platform

Most casual listeners won’t switch platforms for one artist, but loyal fans might. Do your research and only recommend platforms you actually feel good about supporting.

Offer Listening Alternatives

The fans impacted by this decision are going to be Spotify users, of course. Here are some alternative ways they can still listen to your music.

• Encourage digital downloads (Bandcamp): Bandcamp is hands down the best option here. Fans can buy and own your music and stream it through the Bandcamp app like they would on Spotify. The best part is that you get paid more for your music. I personally like Bandcamp because the platform and community there are very supportive of independent artists.

• Use YouTube as a free option: YouTube is universal, searchable, and free. You likely have your music distributed here in the form of art tracks when you uploaded your music for release. Almost everyone already uses it, so it’s a solid fallback for fans who won’t switch DSPs but still want access to your music.

• Sell USB flash drives with your music: USB or USB-C flash drives are a cool, collectible option. Fans get files they own forever, and it adds a tangible, meaningful layer to the fan relationship. If fans have a newer smartphone with a USB-C connection, they can just connect the flash drive to their phone and transfer the files over. The big drawback is that music files can take up quite amount of space and be a little more inconvenient to use.

• Sell physical music formats (Vinyl & CDs): Although this option can be the most profitable for you, it’s also the furthest away from what Spotify users are used to when listening to your music through a phone app. Still, this should be mentioned as an option as one of the best ways to support you and your music in this situation.

Consider a Middle-Ground Option

For a lot of artists, taking down their entire catalog from Spotify is not an easy financial choice. What some artists will do instead is leave their previous releases on Spotify, but no longer release new music there. This keeps some revenue and discovery flowing while funneling fans towards platforms, options and channels where artists can better monetize their music.

Reinforce Fan Communication Channels

When you lose the features and benefits of Spotify, you should strengthen other areas of your marketing and communications with your fan base.

Encourage fans to:

• Track you on Bandsintown
• Sign up for your email list
• Join your Instagram Broadcast Channel
• Favorite your Instagram account so your posts show up more often
• Follow you on Bandcamp

When you don’t own your fan relationships on Spotify or even social media, it’s always a good idea to have multiple ways to reach them.

Conclusion

Yes, artists can survive without Spotify. It may be the biggest music streaming platform, but it does not have a monopoly over your career. You still have other platforms and channels that can supplement what Spotify can offer.

This is not to say it won’t be inconvenient for you and your fans, but being able to adapt as an independent artist is a valuable skill to exercise. In an ever-changing technological landscape, this is likely not the last time you’ll have to learn to make adjustments to how you operate.

The post Can Artists Really Survive Without Their Music on Spotify? appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

Following in the footsteps of Spotify, Amazon Music has launched their own submission tool for artists to pitch a new song release for consideration on one of their editorial playlists and stations.

This is a brand new offering so I have yet to submit a song for any artists yet, but I wanted to put this on your radar. In this blog, I will go through how it works and why Amazon Music should be taken more seriously.
 

Why Care About Amazon Music

 
Before we get into submitting, I think it’s important to touch on where Amazon Music stands in the music landscape.

Although we commonly think of the Big 3 (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube) as the most popular platforms for people to listen to music, Amazon Music has the subscriber base to be up there with them with roughly over 60 million subscribers.

Back in 2019, they were touted as the fastest growing streaming service over Spotify and Apple Music. Aside from being the largest online retailer in the world, how did Amazon Music grow so fast? Their line of smart speakers, the Echo and the Dot.

The Amazon Echo, and their voice assistant Alexa, launched in 2014 and was a first of its kind. In the market of smart speakers, Amazon has had a commanding hold as the number one device. As of June 2021, they currently control 69% of the U.S. market share. To put their dominance into perspective, their next biggest competitor, Google, only has 25%. So If you were to ask Alexa to play music, of course it was going to be streamed through Amazon Music.

Just to clarify: Google’s YouTube Music is their music streaming service. YouTube is the most popular platform that people will find, discover and listen to music globally, but YouTube Music does not have the paid subscribers that the others have.

Amazon may not be the first platform you think of when you hear video and music streaming, but they are in the mix to compete. Don’t forget they also own the most popular live streaming platform Twitch, which is their gateway to a much younger demographic. Despite being known primarily for hosting live video gaming content, Twitch continues to increase their viewership in the music category.

With all this said, we should never discount the reach and influence Amazon has in music and content distribution. As independent artists, it’s important to take advantage of every avenue that makes sense, especially when it’s free.
 

Who Uses Amazon Music

 
Before submitting your music, you should understand the demographic of people who actually use Amazon Music and why it makes sense to submit your releases for their playlists.

In general, newer technology, like streaming, is more likely to be adopted by the youth. As the leading platform, Spotify skews to a younger crowd because that’s their target market.

The advantage that Amazon Music has is it reaches a wider age range but skews to middle-ages and older. “About 14% of subscribers to Amazon Music are aged 55 or older, compared with just 5% of Spotify’s customers,” said Steve Boom, the vice president of the Amazon Music Unlimited service. This is due to the success of their smart speakers and the convenience of having a music streaming platform easily accessible through these devices.

Do you know what streaming platform your fans use? If you’ve ever released music before in the past, you should know what streaming service/platform your audience prefers. Smart links are useful, but it would be good to know if a lot of your audience actually listens to your music on Amazon Music.
 

Get Access to Your Amazon Music for Artists Profile

 
Before you can submit your new release, you will need to claim your Amazon Music for Artists profile. It’s their version of Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists. As of this writing their artist portal isn’t as polished as Spotify for Artists, but it will surely get better overtime.

If you’ve never released any music yet through a music distributor, you will need to do that first so that your Amazon Music artist profile is created. If you don’t have a music distributor yet, I recommend you check out what I recommend as the best music distributor for independent artists.

Aside from submitting new releases, having access to your Amazon Music for Artists account will give you access to helpful tools and analytics including how many times your music was voice requested through Alexa.

How to Claim Your Profile: Originally, you had to download their app (iOS / Android) to claim your Amazon Music for Artist page, but you can now also do it on desktop by going here:

https://artists.amazon.com/select

It’ll ask you to log into your Amazon account. If you’ve ever purchased anything from Amazon, this is the account you would use. Otherwise, create a new Amazon account. You don’t need to be subscribed to their Amazon Prime subscription service.

Once that is complete, you’ll be taken to the ‘Claim an Artist’ page. Search your name and choose the correct artist profile from the list.

You’ll be asked to verify that you are the artist or represent the artist:

• Input the artist name and the role (artist, manager or label)
• Link any of the artist social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
• Connect your music distributor account. The only available options are: CD Baby, DistroKid and TuneCore.
• Add any additional information to show proof

Verification can take minutes or even several days depending on the information you submit. I find that connecting at least one artist social media platform and one of the three music distributors used (assuming you used one of those) will get your claim request approved more quickly.

However, if you’re a newer artist, it may take longer and require more proof. One thing you can try, if you’re having trouble getting approved, is adding the email address associated with your Amazon account to your social media profiles and website where it can be publicly seen. Instagram and Facebook allows you to add an email address that’s visible on your profiles/pages. You may even consider just temporarily adding your Amazon email address to your bio and point it out that both emails match up in the box where they ask you for more information.

If your claim is successful, you should get an email about it and you can move on to the next section below.
 

How to Submit Your Release to Amazon Music for Playlists

 
The process is going to be similar to submitting your song for Spotify editorial playlist consideration. One of the big differences is that you can actually submit a new song up to 14 days after it has been released. Spotify only accepts unreleased music for their playlist consideration.

First, upload your new song or release to your music distributor like you normally would.

Once you do that, your music distributor will send out your release, cover and metadata to the various stores/digital outlets. When Amazon Music receives it, it’ll show up in your Amazon Music for Artists account.

Desktop: From the ‘overview’ page in your profile, just look under ‘Artist Tools’ and click on ‘New Releases’. If you uploaded new music through your distributor, you should see it here.

Mobile App: From the ‘overview’ tab, tap on the bottom right icon of the person which will take you to ‘Profile & Tools’. Tap ‘New Releases’ up top to see new music you can pitch.

Unlike Spotify, you can pitch multiple songs as long as they are uploaded as separate releases and songs up to 14 days after its release date. This means you can pitch each of your songs uploaded as a single track, but you can only choose one song to pitch in a 10 song album uploaded for release.

There’s also a new feature called ‘Intros’ that allows you to record or upload a short audio recording up to 15 seconds that is played before your new release. As the name implies, Intros allows you to introduce your new song or release to your fans in a personable way. You should see it next to the name of your release next to the ‘pitch’ button.

A new feature on Amazon for Music Artists called Intros

The process to pitch your song is quite short and straightforward. Here’s a great infographic that Amazon Music provides that outlines the process for you:

Amazon Music Submission Questions

 
Why are you pitching this song? This is where you get to sell your song to Amazon Music’s curation team in 1,000 characters or less. You’ll want to focus on what makes this song special. It can be the story behind the song, how it came about, etc.

What genres best describe it? Choose up to three.

What version of the song is this?
– Original
– Remix
– Live
– Cover

Does this song have lyrics? Yes or no.

Select the primary language of this song? Search and select the languages that apply.

What artists have a similar sound? Select up to 3 artists that share a similar sound to you and the song you’re pitching. This is a question that the Spotify pitch tool does not ask you.

Where are most of your listeners today? Search and select the countries that apply. You should be able to get this data in your Amazon Music for Artists page, Spotify for Artist page, Facebook or Instagram Insights.

Song Mood? Select up to 3 that apply for your song.
– Angry
– Cool
– Dark
– Fast
– Happy Mood
– Heavy
– Intense
– Light
– Mellow
– Motivational
– Relaxing
– Romantic
– Sad
– Sexy
– Soft
– Upbeat

Song Category? Select up to 3 that apply for your song.
– Chilling Out & Lounging
– Happy & Upbeat
– Hard & Heavy
– Relaxed & Laid Back
– Work, Study & Reading

Review your answers then hit submit when you’re done.
 

Conclusion

 
That is how you submit your new song release to Amazon Music for playlist consideration. If you’ve done this for Spotify, it’s basically the same process with similar questions.

I highly recommend taking advantage of this free tool for every new release. There are no guarantees, but it’s worth a shot.

The post How to Submit Your New Release for Amazon Music Playlists and Stations appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

Many musicians may not realize this, but there’s a lot of music royalties floating out there waiting to be claimed by their rightful owners. Over 424 million dollars in mechanical royalties generated from digital service providers (DSPs) were left unclaimed due to the lack of data or having the incorrect information to match and pay out the rightful copyright owners.

Thankfully for artists, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) officially launched in January of 2021 to help address this issue. How does the MLC help exactly?

In this blog, I’ll go over what the MLC is and what you need to do to make sure you’re getting properly paid when DSPs stream your music.

In case you’re not familiar with music royalties and some of the basic lingo, I recommend checking out this blog first to cover all the basics. It’s a complicated and confusing topic that all musicians need to know.
 

What is the MLC?

 
The MLC is a nonprofit created as a result of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) that was signed into law in October 2018. As the name entails, this legislation helped “modernize” copyright laws in the United States for the streaming era so that songwriters and publishers are properly paid.

The problem in the past was that songwriters and music publishers had not been paid accurately and fully by digital streaming services due to poor matching and reporting practices.

Simply put, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) helps songwriters, music publishers and rights holders get paid whenever their musical works are streamed online or downloaded on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

If you distribute your music through aggregators like DistroKid and CD Baby, you may have noticed you’ve received mechanical royalties directly from them. This is for the use of your sound recording, but not the mechanical royalties for the musical composition that the sound recording is based on. The MLC specifically collects and distributes mechanical royalties whenever a musical composition is reproduced digitally.
 

How does the MLC work?

There are 3 general things the MLC does that musicians should know.

Blanket Licensing

The MLC helps to streamline the music-licensing process by providing a blanket license for streaming services to legally stream songs or sell downloads for their customers on the platform. This blanket license covers mechanical rights in any songs not covered by a DSP’s direct deals with music publishers.

Prior to the launch of the MLC, the licensing process in the United States was not efficient and was done on a song-by-song basis under a compulsory license. Unfortunately, this meant DSPs were not being held accountable to properly pay out songwriters and publishers.

The MLC is allowed to issue blanket licenses to DSPs and it is their job to make sure the right people are paid based on usage reports they receive from DSPs.

Matching Usage Reports

Every month, the DSPs provide the MLC with usage reports of the sound recordings streamed or downloaded on their platform and the mechanical royalties to go with it. The MLC’s job is to match up that data in their database to pay the copyright holders of the musical compositions in those sound recordings accurately.

If MLC does not find a match, it will be put into an unmatched usage database where you can search and claim if it is yours.

Publicly Accessible Databases

The MLC has two publicly accessible databases so you can search. One allows you to see who has copyright ownership of musical compositions.

The other allows you to see unmatched musical works that never got paid out due to the lack of correct data.
 

What doesn’t the MLC handle?

 
The MLC focuses on tracking and distributing mechanical royalties when musical works are reproduced under their digital audio blanket license. They work with DSPs to make sure songwriters, publishers and right holders are paid out accurately.

Here’s a list of what the MLC does NOT cover:

• Physical Goods: The mechanical licensing or royalties associated with physical goods like CDs, vinyl, cassette tapes.
• Ringtones
• Cover Songs: The MLC does not handle the mechanical licenses required to do covers. The Harry Fox Agency (HFA) does.
• Audio Visual Media: Musical works used in audiovisual media, like video, are not handled by the MLC. They only track, collect and distribute royalties associated with audio-only digital usage. This means any audio-visual usage on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram is not covered by the mechanical blanket license.
• Usage Outside the United States: The MLC does not collect royalties from streams and downloads of musical works outside the U.S.

How is it different from a PRO?

 
A performing rights organization (PRO), like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, is similar to the MLC in that they both serve songwriters and publishers (the copyright holders of musical compositions). The main difference is that PROs focus only on public performance royalties while the MLC focuses on mechanical royalties.

For example, when a song is streamed on Spotify, there are two royalties that are paid out to songwriters and publishers. One is the performance royalty, which goes to a PRO to handle and payout rights holders. The other is the mechanical royalty, which the MLC is responsible for doing the same.

Both organizations issue and manage blanket licenses to make it easier for business entities to use copyrighted music without having to get individual licenses for every song they play in public or stream/download on a platform.

To be clear, the MLC does not replace PROs or SoundExchange.
 

What do I need to do to get paid from the MLC?

 
If you use a publishing administrator like SongTrust, you don’t need to become a member of the MLC as they will take care of all of it. When you register with them, they will send your data to the MLC and work with them to make sure you receive your mechanical royalties.

If you work with a music publisher, they will be the ones to register with the MLC to become a member so you don’t need to do anything in this instance either.

If you are a self-administrated songwriter, you will need to become a member of the MLC. This means you don’t work with a publishing administrator or music publisher.

The MLC only collects mechanical royalties generated with the United States, but you don’t have to live in the U.S. or be an American citizen to collect that money. If you live outside the U.S. and you release music that gets distributed to DSPs like Apple Music, the MLC will still collect that money for you. You will need to be registered with an Ex-US Collective Management Organizations (CMO) or register with the MLC directly to collect.

Now, it’s possible that you have a publishing administrator or music publisher, but you have songs that are not registered with them. If this is the case, you can register with MLC for the works not covered by them. Make sure all of your work is in the MLC’s database so you’re collecting all the royalties owed to you.

For example, you use CD Baby Pro service to put out a single. They will automatically register your work with a publishing admin to collect all the songwriting royalties associated with that song. The publishing admin CD Baby uses (SongTrust) will collect mechanical royalties directly from the MLC on your behalf.

If you decide to use a service like DistroKid to distribute your next single, that song will not automatically be registered with the MLC because they will not register your song with a publishing admin to collect those royalties. In this case, you would then have to register that song to MLC as a self-administered songwriter.

If you’re ever unsure about what songs are registered, use the MLC’s public search database. The MLC is fully transparent so you can log into their portal to see all of their data. It is free, but you do need to become a member.
 

Additional Resources

 
https://blog.songtrust.com/what-is-the-music-modernization-act

https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/

https://www.themlc.com/faqs/categories/mlc

The post Does Spotify and Apple Music Owe You Money? What Songwriters Need to Know About the MLC appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

One of the ways to reach new fans is through Spotify playlists.

Spotify playlists can potentially put you in front of the right people who are more likely to be into your music and turn into proper fans.

As an independent artist, it’s important to understand how Spotify works and how its playlist system can bridge the gap between you and potential fans.

However, the climate for streaming platforms like Spotify has become highly competitive, so just uploading your song will not be enough. Keep in mind that over 100,000 new songs are added to Spotify each day!

In this blog, I will go over the different types of Spotify playlists as a discovery tool to help you get more exposure for your music.
 

Why Spotify Playlists?

 
Spotify is the dominant music streaming platform with 602 million active users worldwide reported in 2023. As of April 2024, 236 million are subscribed to Spotify Premium.

Its main competitor, Apple Music, has only 92 million paid subscribers in 2024.

I’m solely focusing on Spotify in this blog because the playlist system they created gives you more opportunities for placement and exposure, which is what we are looking for.

There are thousands of playlists on Spotify that can be right for you and can help your song perform better on the platform.

Disclaimer: The Problem With Playlisting

 
Some may have this misconception that getting on the right playlist is all you need to be successful. At the moment, developing a profitable business model based primarily on streaming/playlisting is not possible for most. According to Spotify’s Loud & Clear report in 2023, 50,000 artists (out of over 10 million) generated at least $16.5K from Spotify.

I want to remind you that playlists are vehicles for exposure and discovery. It’s rare for even a major label artist to make a sustainable living off streaming alone.

As most people are aware of by now, streaming services don’t pay artists well. 1,000 streams pay you roughly $4 – $6 depending on the platform.

For a musician in the United States, this means that a stream is worth about $0.006 per song stream. To earn $12,000, which would be considered on the lower end of a decent income, you would need 3,000,000 streams a year.

With these low payout rates, you have to look at a Spotify playlisting strategy as a long term investment. If you spend $300 on social media ads to push a song on Spotify or you pay $500 for a playlist pitching service, don’t expect to make that money back in the short term. Most of the time, these paid efforts will result in a loss and you won’t see a return on investment.

These playlisting tactics may pay itself out down the line with a thought out plan, but don’t think of spending money towards Spotify playlisting as a way to profit off your music. In other words, even if you’re losing money, it’s not a total loss. You need to understand the specific benefits of investing in these Spotify tactics and how it fits within your overall goals and marketing plan.

With Spotify being the biggest revenue generator for the music industry, it is undeniable that they are a huge component of an artist’s career. With that being said, I will do my best to show you how to make the most out of with their playlist system.
 

Why Get On Playlists?

 
Getting on a playlist with a lot of activity and followers can help you be discovered by more people who have never heard of your music. It’s an opportunity to get more exposure, raise your brand awareness and build momentum for your career.

More specifically, getting on playlists will help your song’s performance in their algorithm and can lead to more exposure within Spotify in a way you may not be thinking about. Getting playlisted is an important signal for Spotify. They examine your song in relation to other songs on a playlist to better understand who may like your music. When people listen to the songs on the playlist, it collects this data to help make recommendations to other Spotify users.

Your main goal is to get more people to listen to your music, right? Spotify also uses listening behavior and engagement metrics in their algorithms to suggest songs to other listeners who have shown to like the same type of music. One of these metrics is the save-to-listener rate.
 

Different Types of Spotify Playlists

 
Understanding the different types of playlists on Spotify, how they work and how to be included in each of them will help your music get more exposure.

There are a total of 4 different types of playlists on Spotify:

• Algorithmic: Playlists created for a listener based on listening habits.
• Editorial: Hand-curated playlists from Spotify staff and associates.
• Personalized: Hybrid between editorial and algorithmic playlists.
• Listener (User Generated): Playlists made by Spotify listeners.

Getting your music on these different types of playlists requires a different method, which I will discuss below.
 

Algorithmic Playlists

 
Algorithmic playlists are created through a machine-learning process that Spotify created and is unique to every individual account. These playlists are the ones that will have the most impact based on the performance of your song.

There are several Algorithmic playlists out there, but the two most important ones are Release Radar and Discover Weekly.

Release Radar

Release Radar is a uniquely generated playlist of new releases, usually from artists that a Spotify user follows. It is updated every Friday and is one of the very few instances Spotify will notify followers about the new release through email.

Essentially, Release Radar is designed to give listeners new music they will most likely enjoy. This is the playlist where your Spotify followers will find your new releases, but your songs can also pop up in the Release Radar playlist from people who don’t follow you. It all depends on your song’s attributes and performance metrics within their algorithms. One of these metrics is Spotify’s ‘popularity index’. It is said you need at least a score of 20 out of 100 to get your songs into non-follower playlists.

It is important to note that songs on Release Radar are relatively new songs. Even though it pushes older releases down your playlist every Friday, you won’t find something released a long time ago in Release Radar.

If you are releasing an EP or album, Spotify will use the song you pitched for their editorial playlist consideration in Release Radar. Otherwise, they will randomly choose one song. If the user has already heard the song, another song from the release may be included. From my personal experience, it’s also possible to have multiple songs from a new album release be added to a follower’s Release Radar.

Discover Weekly

As the name of the playlist suggests, Discover Weekly helps Spotify listeners find new artists to check out based on their listening preferences. It is a uniquely generated playlist that is updated every Monday.

However, one of the key features of Discover Weekly is that it only suggests songs that the user has never streamed before. This is the ideal algorithmic playlist to get exposure for new potential fans.

A great thing about Discover Weekly is that the age of a song is not important and does not factor how popular you are as an artist. Although in order for a song to be recommended in a Discovery Weekly playlist, the song needs a popular index score of at least 30 out of 100.

What About Daily Mix?

Daily Mix is another Algorithmic playlist that is found on every Spotify user account. Every day, it generates up to 6 new playlists around the music you listen to. The songs Spotify usually recommends here are either songs you already have listened to a lot in the past or different songs from the same artists or very closely related artists.

For emerging artists, your music is not likely to show up on Daily Mix playlists as the recommendations are more contained. I wouldn’t focus on this algorithmic playlist.
 

Editorial / Curated Playlists

 
Editorial playlists are curated and created by Spotify’s staff and associates. Placements in these playlists are the most sought after since they tend to have larger followings and are more prominently visible on their platform.

There are thousands of them with different types of genres, moods, themes, sounds, events, situations, locations and activities. Although Spotify won’t acknowledge it, the big 3 major labels basically control the top playlists that have a lot of followers so the average independent artist has zero chance of getting on them.

Popular playlists such as “Rap Caviar”, “Hot Country”, “Are & Be”, and “Rock This” are playlists you should not focus on at all. (If any company tries to sell you guaranteed placement on these types of playlists, you know it is a scam.)

However, there are smaller editorial playlists that are more niched and specific. This is ideally where you want your song to be.
 

Personalized Playlists

 
Personalized playlists are basically editorial playlists, but with an algorithmic component to help “personalize” some of the songs around your music tastes. In other words, we can both view personalized editorial playlists (for example this) in our own accounts but see different songs that were algorithmically selected based on our previous listening habits.

Based on their data, Spotify finds that this new system helps to get certain songs to listeners that would be more likely to enjoy it.

However, it is important to know that if your song is added to one of these playlists, it doesn’t guarantee that your song will show up on everyone’s version of their playlist.
 

Listener/User-Generated Playlists

 
User-generated playlists (Spotify calls them Listener) can be created by any Spotify account user and shared with the world. A user can create as many playlists as they like.

Most listener playlists aren’t going to be of interest to you because they’re created for personal use. Some music fans do make them public and grow followers from making their playlists searchable on the platform.

On the other hand, some of these playlists are created by influencers, tastemakers, or curators that have their own followings. These playlists are what you should be looking for.

Unfortunately, this gave birth to the modern payola or “pay-to-play” dynamic. A lot of the successful playlists that could benefit you will still most likely be “pay-to-place”, which is actually against Spotify terms.

Although you shouldn’t pay to get on a playlist, there are ways to pitch your songs for these types of playlists.

How to Get Your Song on Listener Playlists

If you are looking to get your music on other people’s playlists, here’s how you should go about it.

Step 1: Start by searching in Spotify for certain playlists based on genre, mood, theme, activity, emotion, etc. You can even do a Google search.

You can use tools to find specific playlists like playlists.net and Reddit.

Ideally, you’re looking for playlists that have active listeners and followers that don’t have too many songs because you may not get a stream. A playlist with a few hundred songs may be pushing it.

Step 2: Follow the playlist you are pitching. Make sure it’s the right playlist with the right associated acts, not just because it has big numbers. Trust me, it is detrimental to the algorithm to be associated with acts that are not of your same vibe.

Step 3: Figure out how to contact the playlist owner. This will require some detective work. The only information Spotify provides is their username so search it on Google and other social media outlets until you can find a way to directly email or message them.

Luckily, there is a free tool you can use that will share the contact information of Spotify playlisters based on any genre or keywords you provide. It’s called Playlister by DistroKid. It’s currently in beta as of this writing, so you’ll need to enter the password “gravy” to use it. Hopefully, this tool sticks around as it makes the pitching process much easier.

Step 4: Pitch them. Start with a compliment. Keep it short and to the point. Include a Spotify link to the song. Be authentic.

You have to remember that the reason most users create playlists is to share their favorite music. It is part of their identity and is a blessing that they wish to share new artists with the world at no personal gain.

Even if your goal is to ultimately get their followers to see you, you have to be as authentic as possible in your intentions and figure out ways you can also help them.

Ultimately, if they like your music, they will want to help. But the way you approach them will take them to decide if you are for real or just trying to get something from them.

Step 5: Once you get placed, make sure to send an email thanking your curator, as well as sharing on social media. Developing a good relationship with the people who support you is always a good idea.

For DistroKid users, here’s a fun Spotify playlist called “Wheel of Playlist” where you can add your songs to by spinning a wheel. Log into your DistroKid account and click the link. Choose a song and click ‘connect to Spotify’ to start. You get to spin 3 times for the playlist position of your song. It will be added immediately, but you can only spin once every 24 hours. Even though there are over 50k followers, it’s not something to take too seriously since the playlist contains over 1,000 songs and you’ll be lucky to stay on there for a couple of days.

To get on more popular listener playlists, you will need to have an audience and following of your own. This takes time, but with a consistent plan that enables you to release music regularly and promote songs with social media ads, your numbers will surely grow.

Using Playlist Pitching Services

You may find that pitching individual playlists is a tedious process. If that is the case, you can hire a playlisting service to do the work for you.

Playlist pitching services often have built a large network of vetted playlisters. They’ve done all the dirty work upfront and you can pay them to reach out to them on your behalf. The money is not to pay the individual playlist owner’s themselves. Remember it is against Spotify terms to do that so be aware of that.

There are legitimate playlisting services out there, but even more shady people looking to take advantage of naive musicians. You have to be really careful and do your research. It’s easy to get scammed or taken advantage of in the world of music promotion.

Do diligent research because anything like testimonials and clients can be faked. Investigate which genres they focus on, their different deals and prices. Chances are you will have to invest somewhere over $500 if you truly want a noticeable, advantageous impact rather than just boosting your numbers.

Some other pointers:

• Be careful about people saying they can guarantee placement on.
• Editorial playlists. They can’t guarantee that.
• Beware of bots and click farms that boost your numbers overnight.
• If Spotify detects any unusual behaviors or finds out you’re trying to game their platform, you may risk getting your music removed.
• Find out which countries are most listeners coming from in a playlist. Listeners from countries like Saudi Arabia, Haiti, or Argentina are more likely to end up being click farmers.
• Never purchase those “10,000 follows for $10” deals. They are a scam and will hurt your algorithm.

How To Track Playlist Performance (Playlist Tools)

Spotify for Artists

If you haven’t already, sign up for Spotify for Artists to claim control of your artist profile. You don’t need it to get added to playlists, but it gives you access to certain tools and playlist data.

You can see who added your songs to their playlists in your Spotify for Artist profile under ‘Music’ – ‘Playlists’.

You can see what playlists currently have your song in them, the date it was added, how many listeners for the playlist, and how many streams are coming from there. It is categorized by playlist type: Algorithmic, Editorial, and Listener.

You can also view all the playlists your song is placed on. From the ‘Songs’ tab, click on a specific song and there should be a ‘Playlist’ tab next to the ‘Stats’ tab.

Advanced Playlist Tools (Paid)

Looking for my data and tools to help you with playlisting? Here are some other powerful tools that can help you:

• Monitor all the playlists your songs are on
• See what playlists other similar artists are on
• Find new potential playlists to pitch your songs to
• Access more relevant playlist and curator data to help you make better decisions

SpotOnTrack – They only offer a 14-day trial. Otherwise, you have to pay a pro or business plan to use.

PlaylistSupply – They charge $19.99 a month.

Chartmetric – You get a 7 day trial of a premium plan for signing up. They do offer a free basic plan with limited functionality.
 

Keep Expectations In Check

 
Getting your music on playlists can have a positive impact on your music career, but don’t expect miracles.

One of the biggest issues I’ve found with emerging artists is that desire to “make it” can easily be shadowed by impatience. This can lead to bad investment decisions around time and money. Expecting playlists will lead you to overnight success is going to actually lead to more disappointment.

There have been some stories over the years of how one song gets added to a popular playlist changed a musician’s life. Although it can happen, it’s very unlikely.

Don’t pay insane amounts of money for “successful” playlists just to be featured. In the long run, there is not much retribution for that.

Be aware that there are a lot of playlist factors to account for even if you do get placement:

What type of music or theme does the playlist curate? You don’t want to just throw your songs on any type of playlist. The other songs in the playlist matter and can affect your song’s performance on Spotify. Although the responsibility is on the playlister, adding a song that is out of place within the vibe of the playlist may lead to higher skip rates.

Are the playlist followers active? Is the playlist live with activity? If the playlist doesn’t have people listening to it or full of fake followers, placement is going to do anything for you.

How often does the playlist update? This is a sign of an active playlister which means the followers are more likely to be active and engaged.

How many songs are on the playlist? You may get added to a playlist with a bunch of followers, but if there are hundreds of songs and you’re at the bottom, you can’t expect action much from it.

Do you do background music? If you do a lot more instrumental/background music (i.e. study music), you might get streams but people rarely engage or investigate the artist for utility-based music.

Lastly, make sure to optimize your Spotify artist profile. If you have something special on a playlist, people will naturally stop to see who you are and want to learn more about you. To further build that fan relationship, make sure you make a good impression when they click on your profile.
 

New Spotify Features for Improving Discoverability (In Beta)

As of early 2023, Spotify is currently testing a new feature with select users called “Discovery Mode.” It’s a new marketing tool that helps artists gain new listeners, playlist adds and followers on Spotify at no upfront cost.

The way it works is you select a song from your catalog to create a Discovery Mode campaign and set a campaign length. During this campaign period, the Spotify algorithms will push your track to areas on Spotify that listeners are most open to discovery, which is currently Radio & Autoplay. According to Spotify, their statistical modeling shows that artists see on average +50% in saves, +44% in user playlist adds and +37% in follows during the first month of using Discovery Mode.

An artist I work with received early access to Discovery Mode

Instead of having to pay out of pocket, Spotify charges a 30% commission on the recording royalties generated from all streams in Radio and Autoplay of the song you selected. All other streams of the song in areas outside of Radio and Autoplay will be commission-free.

Although this feature is still in beta testing, it’s a nice feature to have if you’re looking for new fans and you don’t have a budget.
 

Conclusion

 
Spotify playlists provide many different discovery opportunities for you to get more exposure and new fans for your music. The different types of playlists on Spotify make it a more attractive streaming platform for musicians than its competitors.

Your best bet is to focus your energy on how to influence algorithmic playlists to push your songs to relevant listeners. Remember to leverage the save-to-listener rate and other engagement factors to help your song’s performance in Spotify’s algorithms. And of course, you should definitely take advantage of Spotify’s editorial playlist submissions since it’s free.

If you’re just starting out, your safest bet considering the time and cost is using a service like SubmitHub or Groover to get your songs on Spotify playlists.

Playlisting has its benefits as a discovery tool, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you use in your marketing/promotional efforts. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a playlist pitching service, I feel you can do way more with that money on Facebook or Instagram ads.

My Recommendation

If you have a few hundred to spend for promotion, create your own listener playlist and place your single on top. You can fill the other songs on the playlist with your own music and songs from other similar-sounding artists. Ideally, you want to choose songs from more popular artists who are more likely to share the same fans like you.

You can then drive traffic to this playlist through your ads to get people listening to these specific songs. This will do two things for you:

First, it will help you get followers for you and your playlist to establish a connection point for future releases.

Second, by placing your songs in playlists with other music similar to yours, Spotify uses this data to draw connections and better assess who would like your music. It is more likely that Spotify would recommend your music in their algorithmic playlists when a listener is a fan of these other similar artists.

Don’t forget to pin this playlist to the top of your artist profile with Artist’s Pick so it’s more visible. You can do this in Spotify for Artists by clicking on the ‘Profile’ tab.

Other Spotify Tips

• Getting to the chorus earlier or placing it at the beginning of the song since it’s what tends to hook listeners.
• Avoid uploading and pitching songs with very long intros. Consider breaking up the long intro into a separate track.
• Shorter songs are more optimal in today’s streaming world because a 2-minute song pays out the same as a 5-minute song. A stream is counted if a song is listened to for 30 seconds or more. This is not to say you should compromise artistry to intentionally make shorter songs either.
• Nothing wrong with explicit lyrics (make sure to properly label it when uploading to your distributor), but understand it can limit the playlist potential of your song.
• Don’t try to game the system by having people listen to one song on repeat as they will penalize.

The post Spotify Playlist Guide: How to Improve Discoverability for Your Music appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

Want your music to show up more on Spotify’s Discovery Weekly and Release Radar to get discovered by new potential fans?

Discover Weekly playlists have been streamed for over 2.3 billion hours between July 2015 and June 25, 2020. With over 600 million active users, you can imagine it being significantly higher in 2024. Getting on algorithmic playlists, like Discover Weekly, can be a powerful tool to get more exposure for your songs within the Spotify ecosystem.

Spotify’s goal is to make the best song recommendations for their users based on individual listening behaviors, habits and music preferences. They use several metrics to evaluate what songs get included in their algorithmic playlists for a particular listener. No one knows for sure what all the metrics are since Spotify doesn’t share that information publicly.

However, there’s strong reason to believe playlist adds, saves and popularity index are strong signals for Spotify. Generally, a lot of emphasis is on getting more streams and new listeners, but that’s only part of it.

In this blog, I will break down the save-to-listener rate, popularity index and other key factors you need to know about. Working on these metrics will improve your chances of getting on Spotify’s algorithmic playlists and get more exposure for your music.

Please Note: Because Spotify’s algorithm is continuously changing, it’s important to point out that the information I’m sharing does not guarantee everlasting success on Spotify. What is discussed in this blog is theoretical with some speculation based on the limited information Spotify has shared. I will be sure to keep this page updated with any new findings.
 

What is the Save-to-Listener Rate?

Before getting into what this rate is, we should break down the two key metrics. It is suspected that one of the core metrics Spotify evaluates when tracking the success of a song is the number of saves/likes. This makes sense, especially since they provide that information in the Spotify for Artist’s dashboard.

A Spotify save is when a listener adds a song to their music library. This is done by adding a song to their ‘Liked Songs’ playlist by pressing ‘+’ while the song is playing or any other playlists they created. A save is also counted if the user downloads the song for offline listening.

The other part is the number of listeners. In case you don’t know, a stream is counted when a song is listened to for 30 seconds or more. For our purposes, we only count ‘listeners’ and not the number of listens/streams because a single listener can stream a song multiple times. It would be more accurate to calculate the save-to-listener rate rather than the save-to-stream rate.

So the Save-to-Listener rate is basically what it looks like. It is the percentage of listeners saving your songs to their library. The higher the percentage, the more likely Spotify will deem your song “good” and give it more exposure to new people.

The Save-to-Listener rate can play a big role in Spotify’s algorithm. It can help determine not only how often it should recommend your song, but where and to whom.
 

How to Calculate the Save-to-Listener Rate?

 
First, you need to log in to Spotify for Artist and go into your music dashboard. From here, you can see your song titles and 3 columns of data: stream, listeners and saves.

For each song you want to calculate, take the total number of listeners for the song and the number of saves.

Save-to-Listener Rate = (Saves / Listeners) x 100

In the chart above, the song “Walk With Me” has 9,800 listeners and 1,700 saves.

Save-to-Listener Rate = (1,700 / 9,800) x 100 = 17%

I will say the performance for “Walk With Me” is higher than average. This was one of the best performing songs with Spotify’s algorithmic playlists out of all of the different artist data I have access to on Spotify.

Although what is shown below is definitely not reflective of what most will see (even with a higher save-to-listener rate), I wanted to share what it would look like.

Looking at the sources of streams, 48% of the song’s streams came from Spotify’s algorithmic playlists.

Of the 29k total streams the song has received since it was released two months ago, 8.1k streams came directly from Discover Weekly.
 

What is a Good Save-to-Listener Rate?

 
At this point, it isn’t known what is considered a “good” rate. This is not an official number Spotify talks about and no one has publicly investigated it yet.

I would say anything over 10% is a good percentage to aim for. This means that for every 100 listeners of your song, you’d want at least 10 of them to save it.

When looking at other songs that performed similarly to “Walk With Me” with about half the streams coming from algorithmic playlists, the save-to-listener rate was between 15% to 18%.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a hard metric where the song with the highest stream-to-save rate is going to be your best performing song in Spotify algorithms. There were plenty of other songs I calculated that had a rate as high as 40% but no love in the algorithms.

My reasoning is that volume of streams and the number of listeners should be important as well. A save-to-listener rate of 80% because you have 8 saves out of the 10 listeners isn’t going to hold much weight compared to someone with a 20% rate but with a hundred thousand listeners and streams.
 

Spotify’s Popularity Index Score

What many people may not know is that every song on Spotify has a popularity index score. What is it exactly? It is a hidden score from 0 to 100 that Spotify uses to determine how popular a song is. According to Spotify, the popularity of a song is calculated by their algorithm and is based, in the most part, on the total number of streams the track has had and how recent those streams are. This means a song’s popularity index score can change daily as it is measured relative to other songs on Spotify.

There are certainly other factors and signals that goes into calculating a song’s popularity index score, but we can only speculate. Things like the number of saves, skip rates, playlist adds and listening percentages would make sense.

Why does this score matter? It is believed that having a certain score increases your song’s chance to be included in Spotify’s algorithmic playlists. People have speculated that your track needs a score of at least 30 for Discover Weekly and 20 to show up on Release Radar from those not following you.

I did a simple experiment and looked up all popularity index score for all the songs in my Discover Weekly playlist. There were a couple of songs with scores below 20 and as low as 13. This is not to say popularity index isn’t impactful, but at least we know it isn’t the only factor. To be fair, the average popularity score of all the other songs were around 40.
 

How to Check Your Song’s Popularity Index

 
Even though Spotify doesn’t share a track’s popularity index publicly, you can use specific tools and apps to retrieve the score for your songs. For example, MusicStax is a free tool you can use to look up popularity scores for any track on Spotify. You can also see the history of popularity scores over time as well.

A music data tool like Chartmetric will also show your the popularity scores for individual tracks.
 

Other Engagement Factors to Consider

 
Like with any algorithm, there are going to be multiple factors we need to account for like the number of playlists your song lands on, the number of followers you have, how many times your song has been shared and conversations about your music across the internet. Spotify has pointed out that these are all important signals they use.

They went on to even say “the more followers you have, the more of these playlists you’ll get on.” Here’s a blog I wrote about how to get more Spotify followers.

It’s also possible the successes of your previous releases play a role. For the song “Walk With Me,” the same artists put out a song in the past that hit 758k streams with 30% (or 230.9k) of those streams coming from Discover Weekly.

Now there are other engagement-related metrics that matter, but Spotify does not share this data.

For example, I assume that the average listening duration (how often a user listens to a song the whole way through) and total listening time can be used to determine how good a song is to them.

Similarly, negative metrics like your skip rate (how often does a listener skip away from your song) are a big factor as well. Spotify has mentioned this is a factor, but they don’t provide these numbers for us. This is why you don’t want your song on playlists that are not a good fit for your genre.

Although the save-to-listener rate and popularity index isn’t the complete picture, it’s the best guideline we have to work with based on what is given to us.
 

How to Boost Your Song’s Performance (Listeners, Streams and Saves)

 
How can you improve your save-to-listener rate, popularity score and potentially other engagement signals to help your song show up in Spotify’s algorithmic playlists? Here is a list of things to try and incorporate into your music promotion efforts.

Make good music where listeners will naturally want to listen to and save.

It sounds obvious but this point cannot be overstated. If a song isn’t that great, Spotify will see it in the engagement stats (skip rates and average listening time) that you can’t see. Naturally, this would mean saves and how many times the song is playlisted would be lower as well.

Get on the right Spotify playlists.

Getting on Spotify playlists will increase the chances you will find proper fans and improve your song’s performance in the algorithm. Look for playlists that have songs from artists who share a similar sound and audience to you. We know that Spotify pulls data from playlists that your songs are on to help better understand who would like your music. It examines the other songs on the playlist, the order they get played and individual listening habits to figure out potential songs to suggest in their algorithmic playlists. Avoid having your song added to random playlists that don’t make sense for your music so be very selective.

Curate your own Spotify playlist.

Create your own playlist. It can contain only your music or a mix of other similar songs including some of your own tracks. Decide on a concept or theme for the playlist and brand it with custom cover art. Share it on social media and encourage fans to suggest songs to make it a collaborative playlist. To make the playlist more visible on your Spotify, pin it to the top of your artist profile using ‘Artist’s Pick’. You can do this in Spotify for Artists by clicking on the ‘Profile’ tab.

Run targeted social media ads to drive traffic to your Spotify release

Just make sure you’re targeting people who use Spotify! Instead of driving traffic to a single song on Spotify, create a playlist with your song on top. You can include some of your other songs, but it should mostly be focused on songs from other bigger name artists. These other songs from other artists need to share similarities of style, topic, theme, vibe or mood to your own music. For example, don’t include a traditional country or heavy metal song in a party hip hop playlist. Be aware that running ad campaigns can be expensive. The big problem is that when you’re running ads to gain streams, you’ll always be at a loss because streams don’t pay enough. This means you’ll need a bigger budget to move the needle and make this strategy effective.

Launch a pre-save campaign for an upcoming release.

Your music distributor will create a pivot page (DistroKid calls them HyperFollow pages) with links to various stores where your release will be available on. Spotify is often on the top of this list so it makes it easier for pre-saves. Asking your fans to pre-save may not be enough incentive because they don’t actually gain anything for doing that. Offer something of value in exchange for a pre-save. DistroKid will actually share the email addresses of those who pre-save so you can follow up with a reward.

Release music consistently.

The more good quality music you share, the more your audience will grow, thus your overall Spotify performance. The best to do this is through a singles release strategy. This will create more opportunities for fans to follow you on Spotify and get your new releases in their Release Radar playlist.

Keep your Spotify page up-to-date with a clean aesthetic.

This includes an updated bio, quality photos, social media links, etc. This way, if someone discovers you for the first time from listening to your song on a playlist, you’ll make a strong first impression when they look you up. This can help secure a follow and lead to a new fan. Brand presentation matters!

Encourage Spotify engagement from your current fans.

Once a song or project is released, be sure to promote it on other social media platforms to drive traffic and engagement from your current fans. Share it on Instagram Stories and your Broadcast channel. Asks fans to add the song to their playlists. Do this multiple times within the first few weeks.

Getting press and features in blogs with audiences in the right genre for your music.

This will also improve the metadata of your song and help Spotify target better where your song should be. A lot of bloggers also curate playlists so I put together a list of 44 music blogs you can submit your songs to.

Use Spotify’s Paid Campaigns

Spotify now has 3 paid options to boost streams and improve discovery for your music. Check out each one and see which one makes sense for you to try.

• Marquee
• Showcase
• Discover Mode

Discover Mode is something you should always be using whenever possible.

The post How to Improve Your Song’s Performance in Spotify’s Algorithmic Playlists appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

Looking to get your songs in places like Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play and Amazon Music? You should, because as of 2020, music streaming now makes up 83 percent of the U.S. music industry’s revenue.

The good news is, getting your music into digital music stores and streaming services as an independent artist couldn’t be any easier. Finding the right company that makes sense for you can be a challenge. There are a bunch of music distribution companies you can go with to make your music accessible all around the world, but there are pros and cons with each of them.

In this blog, I will go into detail of 3 popular options to help you decide which one may be best for you as an independent artist.

We’ll look at the following points:

• Distribution / Release Fees
• Additional Costs
• Commissions
• Distribution Networks
• Publishing Admin Services
• Sync Licensing Services
• Cover Song Licensing
• Payouts
• YouTube Monetization
• Payment Splitting
• Marketing Tools
• Physical Music Support
• Customer Service Response Time

Before Diving In…

 
I just want to address a couple of quick points.

None of these companies are record labels, so they don’t take ownership of any of your releases. Music distribution companies work directly with these various digital outlets so they can get your music into stores and streaming services. Some of them will take a commission from your revenues, but you still retain 100% ownership of your music.

The amount of time it takes for your release to be received by these digital outlets and register into their system should vary the same, regardless of which distribution company you go with.

I do talk about music royalties in this blog so if you’re not sure what mechanical licenses or songwriter royalties are, you can read my music royalties simplified blog. Understanding the contents of this post should help you make a more informed choice in which digital distribution company to use.
 

CD Baby

 
Founded in 1998, CD Baby originally started as an online CD store. The founder, Derek Sivers was a musician himself who created the website to sell his own CDs and later the music of local bands and friends. In 2008, Sivers sold CD Baby to Disc Makers because he wanted to focus on new ventures to benefit musicians. As of 2019, CD Baby is under the ownership of AVL Digital Group.

CD Baby is considered pioneers of the independent music revolution and has become the largest global digital distributor of independent music. Because they have been around for so long, they’ve become a very reputable and trusted company that is committed to helping independent musicians thrive.

One of the great things about CD Baby is, they offer a wide range of services that musicians would need all in one place. They really try to streamline everything to become a one-stop shop. The bad news is that this is what makes them also somewhat pricier upfront compared to their competitors. (It’ll make more sense once you see the side by side cost comparisons below.)

– Fees: A big selling point for them is no annual fees, unlike TuneCore and DistroKid. You pay a one-time fee (varies for type of release and distribution package) for each release, and your music stays in digital outlets forever. A single costs $9.95 US for Standard, or $29.95 US for Pro. An album costs $29 US Standard or $69 US for Pro. Occasionally, they’ll have deals too for less.

You can find more on their fees here.

The Standard release option means they will only collect mechanical royalties for downloads and streams as the performing artist of a master recording. So if you wrote or composed the music being released, they will not collect the publishing royalties for it with this option.

The Pro option means they will collect mechanical and performance royalties worldwide for you including those related to publishing and songwriting through SongTrust. They are also partnered with SoundExchange to collect digital performance royalties from sound recordings if you choose to opt-in during the upload process.

Otherwise, you need to register with SongTrust and SoundExchange separately to help collect those royalties. CD Baby makes this process more seamless and convenient for you.

Pro makes more sense if you’re a songwriter who owns rights to the songs you release because you get all the publishing royalties worldwide. PROs like ASCAP and BMI only collect publishing from performance royalties. Note that CD Baby will take a 15% commission if you have them collect publishing royalties on your behalf.

– Digital Distribution Commission: CD Baby keeps 9% of your digital distribution revenue that you earn from download sales and streams. Their reason for taking this much is to “incentivize them to keep finding opportunities for ALL your music, not just your newest single.” TuneCore and DistroKid don’t do this, but they charge annual fees.

– Additional Costs: You also need to have a UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode for your digital release so add another $5 for each single and $20 for each album. Read more about what the UPC is for and why it is required.

Other than the fees, UPC and commissions discussed already, there are no other add-on feature costs like TuneCore and DistroKid has.

– Distribution Network: 150+ digital outlets like Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon. They will also distribute to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. No extra charges for adding your music into new digital outlets.

– Publishing Admin Service: They are partnered with SongTrust and SoundExchange to make it easier for you to collect all your royalties from your music. They take 15% commission from the publishing royalties you earn, which is the same percentage SongTrust charges.

However, if you are both the performer and rights owner of the release, you will still need to register with SoundExchange as a Performer separately. This is because they only sign you up as a rights owner of the sound recording.

– Schedule Release: Yes, you can schedule a release for a future date at no extra cost. However, to ensure that your release is available in all outlets on time, it’s best practice to schedule the release at least 4 weeks in advance.

– Payouts: Payouts are weekly (every Monday), but understand the schedules that different digital outlets operate under can range from weeks to months. This means it can take some time for your money to get to CD Baby before it is distributed to you. You also required to set a minimum threshold that needs to be met before funds are automatically distributed to you. The amount ranges from $10 to $10,000.

– Sync Licensing Service: Yes. One of the free perks with releasing music through CD Baby is that they help to promote your releases to music supervisors and licensing professionals for things like TV, films, commercials and games. The drawback is that it will take 40% commission if they do get a placement for your song.

– Cover Song Licensing: They no longer secure the mechanical licensing needed for you to distribute cover songs you are releasing. You will have to do it separately.

– YouTube Monetization: Yes, this service is included for all releases at no extra cost. They help to collect ad revenue generated from any video that contains your music, but they take a 30% commission.

– Payment Splitting: No, they don’t split the royalties and payout revenues for songs when you collaborate with other artists. However, they did say they are working on adding this in the near future.

– Marketing Tools: Show.co is a marketing tool that is offered to help with things like pre-save campaigns, growing Spotify followers and building an email list.

– Physical Music Support: Yes, they partnered with Alliance Entertainment, Super D and Amazon to help get your physical releases in over 15,000 record stores worldwide. One of the big strengths of CD Baby is the physical music distribution.

– Customer Service Response Time: You can submit a ticket to get a response within 5 business days if you can’t find your answer in their Help Center. They do have a live-chat support option for certain hours each day of the week.
 

TuneCore

 
TuneCore is a New York-based independent digital music distribution, publishing, and licensing service founded in 2005. The co-founder and former CEO of TuneCore Jeff Price is known as an outspoken, some may say aggressive, advocate for protecting artist rights and helping them get paid. Price was fired from his position and ousted the board in 2012.

In 2016, TuneCore was acquired by a competitor, the France-based digital distribution company for independent artists, Believe Digital. They know tout themselves as the world’s leading digital distributor of independent music.

They’ve distinguished themselves from competitors like CD Baby by not taking any commission from your royalties (you keep 100% that you earn). Additionally, they have a money advance program called Direct Advance where TuneCore advances you money for future releases if you are qualified based on revenue from past releases. This is only relevant for more established artists with a proven track record

– Fees: TuneCore’s previous per-release pricing structure was not ideal for new or emerging artists. However in 2022, they finally added an unlimited release option, which is a similar model to DistroKid and Ditto Music. Starting at $14.99 a year (Rising Artist Plan), you can release as much music as you want to all of their digital stores.

It looks like you can still pay per release, but it doesn’t make sense why you would so I will leave it out of this blog.

Unlike the other distributors, TuneCore offers a new free plan called the ‘New Artist’ that allows you to release all the music you want to social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) but they will take 20% of your earnings you generate. This is their strategy to onboard newer artists into their system.

You can find more on their fees here.

– Digital Distribution Commission: Unlike CD Baby, TuneCore does not take a commission on your download and streaming royalties. You keep 100% of the money you earn from your releases.

– Additional Costs: No

– Distribution Network: 150+ digital outlets like Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon. They will also distribute to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

To add your music to new retail partners, TuneCore has a feature called the ‘Store Automator’ where they charge a flat $10 per release to automatically add to all new distribution outlets going forward. However, any stores missing prior to activating this feature will not be added and you will have to pay to add them.

DistroKid also has a similar fee, but CD Baby does not do this. If you pay for the ‘Breakout Artist’ plan ($29.99/year) or ‘Professional’ plan ($49.99/year), ‘Store Automator’ is included free for all releases.

– Publishing Admin Service: Yes, TuneCore Publishing will collect songwriter royalties on your behalf with a 15% commission just like CD Baby / SongTrust. A one-time setup fee is $75, which covers all current and future single / album releases.

– Schedule Release: Yes, you can schedule a release for a future date with any paid plan. However, you can’t schedule releases to go live at a future date with ‘New Artist’ free plan.

– Payouts: TuneCore deposits royalties 45 days following the end of each calendar quarter. There are no automatic withdrawals, but you can take out any amount of money from your TuneCore account via PayPal only.

– Sync Licensing Service: Yes. They require exclusive synchronization rights over your compositions. This means you can’t work with other sync licensing agencies or accept other placement opportunities for your releases through TuneCore. They will take 20% commission from sync placements.

– Cover Song Licensing: They are partnered with Royalty Solutions so you can request the proper mechanical license through TuneCore to properly distribute cover songs. For artists who intend to sell less than 500 digital downloads, a limited license costs $15. For artists who intend to sell more than 500 digital downloads, standard license costs $59.

– YouTube Monetization: Yes. YouTube monetization to collect money from the sound recording is free so no annual fees, but they take a 20% commission from YouTube revenue.

– Payment Splitting: Yes, TuneCore now has the ability for you to set up and accept royalty payment splits. This feature is included free with an unlimited distribution plan starting at $14.99/year.

– Marketing Tools: They offer a set of free social media tools called TuneCore Social, but it is underwhelming. If you want to use their smart link tool linkShare to easily share links to each digital outlet for your releases, you need to be a TuneCore Social Pro subscriber. It costs $7.99 a month or $85.99 a year.

– Physical Music Support: No physical music distribution. They only do CD and DVD pressing.

– Customer Service Response Time: Their guaranteed response times will decrease with the higher plans. At their base paid plan of $14.99, it’s within 3 business days and 1 business day for their most expensive plan. They make it easier to contact them and submit a request, but they still want you to go through their Help Center first.

– Other Notes: TuneCore only sends a notification once everything is fully uploaded. Unlike DistroKid, they don’t provide updates as your release goes live in various digital outlets.
 

DistroKid

 
DistroKid is an independent digital music distribution service founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Philip J. “Pud” Kaplan. They are the newer company of the bunch, but they’ve managed to make a name for themselves by being the first music distribution company to offer unlimited music releases. Rather than charge per release like CD Baby, you pay an annual subscription fee to upload as much music as you want.

The interesting twist is that the founders of CD Baby and TuneCore (they no longer work for the companies they founded) both recommend DistroKid.

“This is amazing. I’ll be sending everyone I know to DistroKid now.”
– Derek Sivers, Founder of CD Baby

As the founder of TuneCore I hate to say it but #distrokid is the single best music distribution company in the world. Light years ahead of CD Baby and TuneCore and far less expensive. https://t.co/ShlKxzAY9G

— Jeff Price (@TuneCoreJeff) January 9, 2018

It is interesting to note that Spotify has financially invested in DistroKid so they have a small stake in their company. There is no known advantage of releasing music to Spotify through DistroKid, but it may be a possibility in the future.

– Fees: DistroKid is a subscription model that you pay annually to upload your music and to keep them in stores. The best part is that you can upload as much music as you want without the per-release charge that CD Baby does.

The basic Musician plan costs $22.99 a year for unlimited single and album releases. The major drawback with the basic plan is you can’t schedule releases for a future date. This also means there are no pre-save or pre-order features in this plan.

The next plan up is Musician Plus at $39.99 a year, which includes extra features like allowing you to schedule a release on a future date and do pre-save campaigns. This means that if you want to submit your song for Spotify’s playlist consideration, you need to subscribe to this plan. Plus, you can release unlimited music for 2 artists / bands.

You can find more on their fees here.

– Digital Distribution Commission: Like TuneCore, DistroKid does not take a commission. You also get to keep 100% of the royalties your music earn through streams and downloads, unlike CD Baby who takes a percentage.

– Additional Costs: No, but there are other optional features that you may want to consider paying for.

Similar to TuneCore, you have to keep paying the annual subscription fee to keep your music up. If you miss an annual payment or are unable to pay, all your music will be taken down until it’s paid. DistroKid does have an option when uploading called “Leave a Legacy” that keeps your releases in stores and streaming services forever, regardless if you pay the annual subscription fee. It costs a one-time $29 for a single and $49 for an album.

Another service you can opt-in for is Shazam & iPhone Siri. It costs $0.99 a year for each song to allow your music to be identified on Shazam (owned by Apple now) or with Siri on iPhones. This is normally free on other music distribution companies, but DistroKid charges for it.

– Distribution Network: 150+ digital outlets like Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon. They will also distribute to YouTube, Facebook Instagram and TikTok. For $7.95 a year, the Store Maximizer option will automatically deliver your releases to new online stores and streaming services as they become available.

– Publishing Admin Service: DistroKid does not currently have a publishing admin system in place, nor are they partnered with any admin publishing company. If you want to collect your publishing / songwriter royalties, you would need to sign up with a service like SongTrust, which is what DistroKid recommends. This is the same company that CD Baby partners with. They take a 15% commission as a fee for their service.

– Schedule Release: You can only schedule a release for a future date with the Musician Plus plan ($35.99) or Label plan ($79.99). You can’t with the basic Musician plan ($19.99).

– Payouts: Money can take up to 2 weeks to be sent out once a withdrawal request has been made. Just make sure you verify your physical address and provide the requested information for taxes on their bank page.

– Sync Licensing Service: No

– Cover Song Licensing: Yes, Harry Fox Agency handles their cover song licensing. You need to make sure to select “Another artist wrote it (it’s a cover song)” in the Songwriter section when uploading your new release. Even if you obtained the mechanical license to distribute the cover song elsewhere, you will still need to opt in this cover song service. DistroKid charges a fee of $12 per year, renewed annually, to manage each cover song for you. You can read more about it here.

– YouTube Monetization: It costs $4.95 a year and they take 20% of YouTube ad revenue from matches they detect.

– Payment Splitting: DistroKid can split earnings from any song or album and automatically send those earnings to your collaborators. A DistroKid account is required for any collaborators to receive any splits. Good thing is if they don’t have one, Distrokid offers a 50% discount so it will only cost $10 dollars a year for them.

– Marketing Tools: For all releases, DistroKid creates a Hyperfollow page for you to use for pre-saves and pre-orders. It’s basically a link that lists the different stores and outlets where your release is available. The cool thing is it helps you to get more Spotify followers, collects emails to build your list and provides additional analytics. Read more about how it works here.

– Physical Music Support: No

– Customer Service Response Time: DistroKid claims they respond to inquires within 1 or 2 business days but I feel like it’s more like 3 to 4 days the few times I’ve had to reach out. Like with many companies, they want you to go through their Help Center or FAQ database first before you interact with a human because the answer to your problem is often there. When you submit a request for contact, you’ll likely be going through their chatbot Dave first. You can also send them a tweet on Twitter if you have an issue. The one time I had to do this, they responded within 3 hours.

– Other Notes: Unlike TuneCore, you will get an email notification of your music each step of the process, and when your release is live on a particular platform.

DistroKid stores all the songs you’ve uploaded to them as backup in their vault and allows you to download them whenever you need.

Lastly, they support lyrics. Unlike the other music distributors, DistroKid allows you to upload lyrics with your release to be distributed to places like Apple Music. You can now get your lyrics on Instagram Stories easily through their platform through their partnership with Musixmatch. I show you how to do it manually in this Instagram for musicians blog.
 

Summary

Costs Comparison

 
Here’s a breakdown of the total costs if you were to release one album and one single in one year. This will include any features to maximize royalties as songwriters and performers, like a publishing admin service and YouTube Monetization.

Notes:
– I will not factor cover songs or sync placements into this example.
– Since DistroKid doesn’t offer publishing admin, I will include the costs of SongTrust, which has a $100 setup fee. The set up fee publishing admin with TuneCore is $75.
– I didn’t include fees to add to new outlets on TuneCore or DistroKid because I don’t think it’s necessary. This penalizes CD Baby in this comparison because they offer it for free. Add $10 to TuneCore and $7.95 to DistroKid if that is something that you want to factor.
– DistroKid’s and TuneCore’s big value is in unlimited releases so any additional releases in this example is when you see the costs you are saving from their service.

CD Baby

 
Upfront Costs: $29.95 + $69 + $20 +$5 = $123.95
Recurring Costs (Annual): $0
Variable Costs:
– 9% of digital distribution
– 15% of publishing
– 40% of YouTube
 

TuneCore

 
Upfront Costs: $14.99 + $75.00 = $89.99
Recurring Costs (Annual): $14.99 = $14.99
Variable Costs:
– 15% of publishing
– 20% of YouTube

DistroKid

 
Upfront Costs: $39.99 + $4.95 + $100 = $144.94
Recurring Costs (Annual): $39.99 + $4.95 = $44.94
Variable Costs:
– 15% of publishing (sign up separately)
– 20% of YouTube

Which one is best for you?

 
If you don’t plan to release music too often or you don’t want to pay any recurring fees out of pocket, CD Baby may work best for you. It is pricier initially each time you upload your release, but their service is structured so you don’t pay out of pocket for anything else after, such as an annual fee. They only get a small commission if you’re bringing in revenue through your releases. You also may find peace of mind of just having all your music and royalty collections under one account.

As for TuneCore, their new unlimited release pricing structure makes things a lot more interesting with their competitive rates. For the very basic functions you would need (unlimited releases to all stores and scheduled release dates), it would cost you $39.99 a year with DistroKid but only $14.99 a year is with TuneCore.

For newer independent artists, I would completely avoid TuneCore’s pay per release model. I feel this old pricing structure was specifically catered for bigger named artists who can bring way more revenue in from royalties to cover the high annual fees per release. Even though TuneCore doesn’t take any commission from digital distribution revenue, releasing a lot of music on TuneCore puts a large recurring cost in the form of annual subscription fees that the average independent musician can’t cover in royalties alone. From a cost standpoint, 9% of your digital distribution revenue (what CD Baby takes) needs to exceed the total annual fees for all your releases with TuneCore to make sense as a company to consider.

If you plan to release music consistently, as you should in my opinion, it would make sense for newer independent artists to go with either DistroKid or maybe give TuneCore a try.

DistroKid is currently the most popular music distribution option for independent artists and I would use and recommend them despite TuneCore being cheaper. Why? I’ve been a fan of DistroKid’s simplicity and constant push to be innovative with their free bonuses and features (even if they’re not all useful). Not to mention, most of my experience with music distribution has been with DistroKid since a majority of the artists I work with use it. So far, no negative experiences.

At face value, TuneCore seems to be the better value at nearly have the price of DistroKid for the same base functionality. Plus, TuneCore’s free plan for social platform distribution only is a good risk free way for new artists to test out releases outside of free music platforms SoundCloud or AudioMack.

The one essential tool/feature that DistroKid offers for free as a part of their subscription that TuneCore charges $7.99 a month or $85.99 a year is the ability to generate a smart link for your releases. (Click here for an example!) Paying that much for TuneCore’s Social Pro subscription comes with other perks like social media analytics and reporting, but in my opinion it’s not worth the cost.

Of course, there are workarounds to creating smart links as I’ve discussed in a previous blog so you can save money that way too.

On the other hand, the only other music distribution company I currently use is ONErpm and I would not recommend them over any of the three I cover in this blog.

Since this unlimited pricing structure for is still new for TuneCore, we’ll have to see how the market responds. At the moment, there’s nothing that I’ve seen yet from TuneCore that would inspire me to move everything over from DistroKid to save $20 a year and go through the hassle of taking everything down and reuploading it.

My Personal Recommendation

 
Most people who read my blog are going to be emerging independent artists or musicians just starting out, so this is what my recommendation is based on. There are different paths and goals in music, but the business model I advocate for is Streaming / Accessibility Model. This works best if you can release new music on a consistent basis, like one single a month. It only makes sense that the music distribution company I recommend supports that business model.

Personally, what I would recommend for most independent musicians is DistroKid. More specifically, the Musician Plus plan $39.99 so you can schedule releases for a future date. To save money, I would not do Store Maximizer ($7.95 a year) and Shazam & iPhone Siri ($0.99 per song a year). I would hold off on YouTube Money ($4.95 a year) earlier on, but opt-in as soon as you can afford it.

If you are also a songwriter, you will still need to sign up for a publishing admin company like SongTrust (who DistroKid recommends) to collect publishing royalties. This puts an additional upfront cost to songwriters with DistroKid and can be more expensive initially compared to CD Baby.

As long as you release 3 to 4 singles or an album plus a single within the first year, you’ve already saved money using DistroKid in the long run. Releasing 4 singles a year with CD Baby would cost roughly $140. With DistroKid, it would be $144 the first year, but about $44 a year after that. If you don’t anticipate releasing at least 1 single or album every year, then CD Baby may be more ideal.

Other Music Distribution Alternatives

 
CDBaby, TuneCore and DistroKid aren’t the only music distribution companies out there. There are tons of them. Here are some others you may want to consider:

Ditto Music

iMusician

LANDR

Octiive

Record Union

Reverbnation

Symphonic

The post What’s the Best Music Distribution Service To Release Your Music in 2023 – CD Baby, TuneCore or DistroKid? appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

Looking for free exposure for your music? Getting on a Spotify editorial playlist could be a good way to get one of your songs out to a new audience. Editorial playlists are curated by Spotify’s team.

In late 2018, Spotify has allowed artists the ability to submit a song to be considered in their editorial playlists. It’s completely free! Although there are no guarantees you’ll get added, there’s no harm in trying.

If you prefer to watch a video, I created a full walk-through where I go through the process from the beginning of uploading a song to your distributor to being accepted onto a playlist. It is outdated but it should still cover the basic process for you.

You can watch that to see the process visually or just follow the directions below.
 

Getting Started

 

The first thing is you need a Spotify for Artist account and claim your artist profile.

If you’ve released music before on Spotify through a music aggregator / distributor (like DistroKid, CD Baby or TuneCore) but haven’t claimed your artist profile yet, here’s how:

https://artists.spotify.com/faq/promotion#how-do-i-claim-my-artist-profile-before-my-first-release-goes-live
 

Step 1: Upload Your Music

 

You need to upload your new song(s) to your music distributor (like CDBaby, TuneCore or DistroKid) and make sure Spotify is selected as an outlet.

DistroKid Users: You must have the Musician Plus or Label plan to schedule releases for a future date in order to submit to Spotify. If you have the basic Musician plan ($22.99/year), then you cannot submit your release for Spotify playlist consideration. The only way around is to upgrade your DistroKid plan or use another distributor.

Once you’ve received an email or notification that Spotify has received your music in their system and is scheduled for release, then you can proceed to the next step.

IMPORTANT

 
You have to have something new that is unreleased. You can’t submit a song that has been already released and live.

You need to submit the song to be considered at least 7 days in advance of the release date. I would do at least 10 days because it can take several days for Spotify to get your new music into their system from the distributor. However, for the best chances, I would give yourself 2 – 4 weeks before the planned release date to upload your music to your distributor.

It is possible to still get your track on a Spotify Editorial playlist if you pitch a week before release, but it is not recommended.

A song I pitched a week before the release was added to Spotify’s Editorial Playlist.

Step 2: Log into ‘Spotify for Artist’ account

 

Log in to your Spotify for Artist account on Desktop. You can only do this on desktop and not the Spotify for Artist app.

From the Home screen, go to the ‘Music’ tab and select ‘Upcoming’. Your songs should be listed here. It can take several days before it shows up. For one release, it took us about 2 days to get an email from Spotify that it was ready to go out on release day. On another release, it took about a week.
 

Step 3: Select a Song to Submit

 

From the home screen or the ‘Upcoming’ tab in Music, choose a song and click ‘Submit a Song.’

Couple Notes:

• You are only allowed to select one song per artist profile to be considered in each release. So if you are releasing a 6 track EP, you can only choose 1 song.
• If you have multiple releases scheduled, you have to wait one of the songs you submitted goes live first before you can submit the other song.
• So if you want to maximize your chances, you’ll want to release singles but make sure to schedule the releases far apart enough so you have enough time to submit. 2 weeks between scheduled releases should work.
• You also have to be the main artist so you can’t select a song you’re featured in.
• Spotify editors have the right to choose a different song from your release than the one you submit. Assuming you’re releasing an EP or album, they may choose another song that they feel fits better creatively for a playlist.

Step 4: Fill Out Form

 
Fill out all the details as completely and accurately as you can. This increases your chances of being selected.

Location – Confirm where the artist is from

Add song details

Add a description

 
For your convenience, I included all of the questions so you can see them ahead of time and prepare. Keep in mind, the questions could change, but I’ll do my best to make sure it’s up to date.

Step 5: Submit the Song

 

The last page will be a review of your responses. If everything looks good, hit ‘submit.’ You can always go back and make edits if you need. Not sure if it affects the process, so I wouldn’t do it too much, just in case.

If you change your mind, you can delete your submission and select another song.

If you have been added, you’ll get an email letting you know you’ve been selected, the playlist your song is on and how many followers are on the playlist. An artist I worked with back in 2019 got the email 5 days after the song was released, which was on a Monday. Spotify let us know it was added on Saturday morning. I imagine it will vary by artist.

In 2024, another artist that I submitted for got an email saying they were added to Spotify’s editorial playlist 2 days after the song was first released.

If you didn’t get added this time, don’t give up. You can keep doing this for each new release.
 

You’ve Been Selected, What Next?

 

Congrats! The next thing you want to do is to maximize this opportunity. There’s no set time that you’ll be on the playlist, so make the most out of it while you are on it. According to Spotify, how long you stay on the playlist depends on how it resonates with listeners, meaning based on their data and analytics.

Once your song has been selected for an editorial playlist, you can’t remove yourself from it or request a different playlist.

Here’s what you should do:

• Share the playlist and let people know you’ve been added to a Spotify Editorial Playlist.
• Build on the momentum by letting people know to listen to the song, share it, save it and even add the song to their playlists. These are important signals that Spotify’s algorithm monitors to determine how well a song is engaging with listeners on the playlist. Who knows, if it does well, they may add it to some other playlists.
• Keep releasing music. Chances are you’re going to get some new people who will like your song and possibly follow you on Spotify.

Conclusion

 
That is how you submit your song to be considered for a Spotify editorial playlist. As you can see, it’s a fairly simple and straightforward process. If you want to see a video walk-through, you can watch this.

Lastly, it’s important to keep expectations in check. Although it’s great to be added, it’s most likely not going to make you the next Lil Nas X or Post Malone. However, it will give you more exposure to people who would never have come across your music. Just make sure you’re promoting your music in other ways as well.

I know a relatively new artist who had 3 of his singles added to Spotify’s editorial playlists in a row. He now has over 60k listeners a month, with his top song receiving 149k streams because of this. For the average independent artist, getting 1,000 streams on a song is not easy. I’m sure there have been crazier stories of what being added to an editorial playlist could do to one’s career, but it’s still impressive.

Looking for more about Spotify?

How to Get More Spotify Followers (Tips for Musicians)

Spotify Playlist Guide: How To Improve Discoverability For Your Music

Amazon Music has also launched their own free playlist submission tool for their curated playlists. The process is very similar to Spotify.

The post How to Submit Your Song for Spotify Playlist Consideration appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

The music industry can be overwhelming. Just like running your own business (because that’s what it is!), there are a lot of things to think when it comes to managing your enterprise. When you’re working solo and can’t afford to build a team yet, it helps to have a solid overview or plan on how you should go about making a living from your music.

As an independent artist, you have 4 general business models you can adopt to mold and build your music career around. These aren’t “official” models, but it should provide some clarity about which approach is best for you.

Although I will talk about them distinctly in their purest form, their characteristics aren’t mutually exclusive. This means you can technically incorporate different aspects of all four models at once. Certain characteristics will overlap so there’s not a black and white distinction between each model. In time, more business models for music will certainly emerge as the industry and technology are constantly evolving. For example, the rise of blockchain technology and NFTs in Web3 will certain reshape how the music industry operates in the near future.

Also, this is not a discussion about musician income streams, but more of a big picture view of how to manage and grow your business.

Please Note: This blog was written more for singer-songwriters, rappers and performing artist types in mind, but it can still be applicable to producers, DJs, beatmakers, music composers or even music teachers.
 

What are the types of business models in music?

 
The distinguishing factors between these models are how you:

• Approach monetization for your music
• Get discovered (growing your audience)
• Manage and distribute content

Here’s a brief overview of each model with a focus on how content is managed and distributed first. This will be followed by a breakdown of how the models approach monetization and discoverability.

Streaming / Accessibility Model

 
The music streaming model is the most popular business model we see out there for music. You can look at it as an evolved version of the old school major label model, so it could also be dubbed the “new” mainstream model. This is generally what more established artists do and what most emerging artists strive towards.

In this model, you favor making your music as accessible and available as possible on all digital and streaming platforms to remove any barriers to music discovery. A big component to get exposure for songs are playlists and leveraging social media platforms to push out free content (music, videos). Fan bases are built around social media platforms and email marketing lists, which are used to engage fans.

This model is a response to the fact that buying physical music has been on the decline over the past decade, so other income streams have become more of a priority for musicians such as live performances, merch sales and brand deals. For artists still trying to make a name for themselves, a standard day job is often needed to fund their music side hustle.

The drawback of this model is that you are in direct competition with a majority of musicians, including major label stars, on social media platforms. This highly saturated and competitive climate makes it harder for you to garner attention and build momentum.

Sales-Driven / Direct-to-Fan Model

 
In this approach, the main income stream is through direct-to-fan music and merchandise sales by limiting or restricting your music distribution to maximize the income potential. This could be done either by windowing it, making it only available through direct purchase from the artist (digital and physical).

This can be done using a platform like Bandcamp where the number of times you can stream a song can be limited so people can get a sample of the music. You can make songs or albums accessible on more streaming platforms at a later time. Or, you can decide to not make it available on any streaming platforms.

A sales-driven approach is more closed off where accessibility of your music is a threat to your ability to maximize profit. However, some musicians feel they don’t have a choice because of the unethical practices and unfair pay outs of major streaming services (like Spotify).

Online music marketing expert John Oszajca from Music Marketing Manifesto is a big advocate for this model. The intention is for artists to make a living relatively quicker, at least in theory. However, it is much more dependent on a planned out online marketing strategy and training/expertise to execute.

Part of the allure of this model is there’s less dependence on performing live in front of a physical audience, but you can still do it if you’re able to.

John is someone who falls deeper on this model, where you’re still able to raise awareness and create interest through social media ads. But you’re theoretically maximizing the ability to profit at the expense of discoverability.

Membership / Subscription Model

 
Another variation of the direct-to-fan model are membership platforms, like Patreon, where fans can become members of your private community, get more access to you as an artist and subscribe to get your exclusive content. Fans can directly support you financially by pledging a certain amount on a monthly basis, often with different pricing and tiered rewards.

Although Patreon has been around since 2013, it is a model that has not been largely adopted by musicians for a number of reasons, which I will get into later. It is the most popular membership platform, but it also encompasses a wide range of categories where music ranks as the 4th most popular category with over 14,000 music-related creators.

Even before Patreon, the idea of memberships for music has existed in the form of fan clubs that started offline. For example, Pearl Jam’s Ten Club started in 1990 and is still going strong. They offer an analog and digital version of their annual membership for their fans. Many of the rewards and perks of becoming a member are similar to what you would see in Patreon.

For simplicity, I grouped membership and subscription together. You often see them paired with each other, but there are differences between the models. One is based more around community while the other is more of a transactional relationship. For example, Spotify and Netflix is a subscription-based service that gives access to content for a recurring payment.

Patreon is community-driven, but you can set up your membership to have a transactional component where a fan/member pays a set amount each month to receive new content. This is not to be confused with crowdfunding campaigns like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, although they are similar in some ways.

For those who use WordPress as their website platform, you also have the option of using Memberful to host your membership / subscription feature on your very own website. Patreon and Memberful (owned by Patreon) basically do the same thing, except Patreon is kept separate from your website and lives on Patreon.com. You can read more about the two here.

For example, Carrie Underwood hosts her online fan club membership on her website through Sparkart.

In response to the shortcomings of Patreon, new music-centric platforms that can host a membership / subscription model have popped up. They are still in the earlier stages, but you can check them out:

• Currents
• Ampled

Another platform a membership model can be hosted on is Facebook Groups. I’ve never seen a musician use it to host a membership with it, but it’s possible. You can learn more about it here.

You can technically facilitate a subscription model with OnlyFans. Although the platform tends to be more associated with adult content, musicians were on there briefly when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

A PG-13 alternative to OnlyFans is FanHouse. Their platform helps creators grow and monetize their fans through paid subscriptions. The featured creator on the platform is The Chainsmokers.

Lastly, you have Bandcamp that offers a subscription function as a way of getting monetarily compensated for the release of consistent content. A subscription based model can be viewed as an extension of a sales-driven / direct-to-fan model.
 

Livestreaming / Subscription Model

 
This is a newer model for musicians that is still evolving. A livestreaming model is where an artist uses a broadcast platform as the foundation of how content is distributed and monetized. With your own broadcast channel, you’re in control over the content and programming you want to share with fans.

The defining characteristic of this model is that fan engagement primarily happens on livestream, which influences other aspects of a music career. What helps with audience growth is the fact that the model is largely community-driven.

Livestreaming capabilities on social media platforms have been around for years like Instagram Live, Facebook Live, YouTube Live and Periscope (Twitter), but the lack of monetization sources early on made it challenging to make a sustainable business model. I have heard of musicians making a living off donations and tips from Facebook Live, but it’s rare.

As a result, livestreaming is treated more like a side hustle or marketing tool.

In 2015, a broadcasting platform called YouNow popped up to allow livestreamers to earn money. Musicians like Emma McGann were able to thrive there.

However, things have changed in the past few years. Making a living off livestreaming has become more feasible because of the monetization opportunities available. Platforms like Twitch have led the way to make this model more sustainable for creators. Raquel Lily and JVNA, musicians on Twitch that I follow, are good examples of this.

Even though a livestreaming model is more common for video game streamers, I feel there’s a lot of opportunities for musicians to build here. Twitch is associated more with video games, but their music community continues to grow and provides an opportunity for independent artists.

Twitch is the most popular livestreaming platform, but other major platforms are catching on and implementing similar monetization features to stay competitive.

For example, YouTube also can support a livestreaming model as they have introduced membership / subscription features similar to Twitch like custom emojis (emotes as they’re called on Twitch). They also have their version of Twitch’s virtual currency ‘bits’ and cheers called Superchat and Super Stickers. YouTube’s Channel Membership now feels like a cross between Twitch and Patreon.

Facebook looks like they are slowly rolling out with more monetization options for livestreamers and video creators with fan subscriptions and stars.

In order to qualify for these exclusive livestreaming revenue sources, there are certain requirements you must meet on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook.

Even TikTok has the ability to go live and creators can earn donations (called coins).

I will focus on Twitch when discussing this livestreaming model because it’s currently the standard that other platforms are imitating.
 

Monetization

 
As mentioned earlier, what differentiates these music business models is what you’re focusing on or building upon to make money.

Before jumping in, I want to touch on a commonality all these models have. It is less about profiting off the music itself and more about monetizing the brand.

Many of us are so used to the concept of music being the product that it may be hard to let go. Although you can get paid from your songs (i.e. licensing), it’s role and utility has evolved in today’s society.

Your art is a marketing tool to build brand loyalty so you can push other brand-centric products like tickets to live performances, merch, livestream subscriptions and sponsorships. The idea is to drive brand awareness and fandom through your content to the point where people are devoted and willing to financially support artists in more profitable ways than music streaming.

Your objective is to get people to invest in who you are as an artist and not just in your music alone.

In its purest form, a sales-driven model treats the music more like a product, but you are leveraging branding to build that relationship.

Music Streaming / Accessibility Model

 
In a music streaming model, independents are often at a disadvantage when competing against bigger name artists and major-label megastars. It doesn’t help that major labels have a strong influence on what songs are included in popular, curated playlists so their artists get more exposure, and ultimately a larger share of streaming royalties. This makes it difficult for independent artists to depend on music stream royalties and payouts from streaming services.

The bigger issue is that these services don’t pay out enough per stream with the payout system they use.

Generally speaking, platforms like Spotify and Apple Music calculate payouts based on total revenue they get from monthly subscriptions divided by the total number of all streams. Depending on how many streams your songs generated, or stream shares, as Spotify calls it, you get a percentage of that total revenue after the platform takes their cut.

So let’s say Spotify brings in $1,000,000 of revenue and takes 30%. This leaves $700,000 to split for all artists on the platform. If you generated 1% of all the songs streamed, you will get roughly $7,000.

Even though one of your fans may exclusively listen to your music on Spotify, their $10 monthly payment is still split among everyone else, with big-name artists getting a larger share of the pie. Definitely not fair. This means that monetizing your music on streaming is a non-factor as a good majority of independent artists will not get anything substantial to live off of as an income source.

Of course, each streaming platform pays differently and it will fluctuate. Every 1,000 streams on Spotify could pay you roughly about $4.37. For Apple Music, it’s $7.35 for every 1,000. With over a billion users, Youtube is counted as a streaming platform for music as well. The downside is for every 1,000 streams on Youtube, you would only net $0.69.

Most artists I know would be lucky to get 10,000 streams, let alone 1,000,000.

I should note that none of these music business models have music royalties as the main focus. It serves as a nice source of passive income that can grow over time with a deeper back catalog, especially if you’re a songwriter who owns rights to all your music and sound recordings.

If a music streaming model is shown to not be financially lucrative for independents, why would anyone continue to play along? By forgoing the short term income for improved music discovery, you can set yourself for potential long-term success. Music streaming is about maximizing discoverability and raising brand awareness to grow an audience. The focus isn’t on generating income initially, so it’s important to incorporate a sales-driven component as you build your brand equity.

Russ is a good example of this model, releasing all his music for free through SoundCloud. In theory, you are sacrificing short-term profits by making your music easily accessible everywhere online for a potential increased long-term success. The songs are used to build a fanbase while offering small invitations to your brand.

In other words, you’re not making money directly from the music because it’s being offered for free. You’re removing any barriers to music discovery to make it easier to grow your audience. The music serves as a tool to attract potential monetization opportunities in the future.

In most cases, you may still sell physical music because fans will want to support you in other ways. However, artists adopting this model make money with a day job, side hustles, doing live shows or selling merchandise, rather than making money directly from music sales or royalties.

It’s about using your music and content, whether it’s on Spotify or Instagram, as a vehicle for fans to consume your brand. Your songs are not the product. The goal isn’t to get people to make money off the music, it’s to make money off your brand. Your songs bridge that gap so fans get to know you on a deeper level, which is why understanding branding is so important.

However, not everyone wants to work a day job or is willing to play the long game, which leads to the next model.

Sales-Driven / Direct-to-Fan Model

 
As the name entails in this model, you let music sales directly drive your relationship with fans.

In a sales-driven model, you are maximizing your earning potential by limiting or restricting access to your music. After all, the logic behind it is that there’s less incentive to pay for music or support an artist if you can access it for free through streaming.

The reason why many artists and record labels have been heavily impacted by this shift towards music downloads, and now streaming, over the years is that selling physical music has a higher profit margin. In addition, music sales were driven by scarcity since tapes, CDs and vinyl records were the only way to listen and discover music outside of the radio.

It wasn’t too long ago you could make at least $9 on each CD sold by charging $10 to $15 dollars for a CD that costs about $1 to press. If you compare, selling one $10 CD makes more money than getting one song streamed 1,000 times on Spotify or even Apple Music. It will also cost artists much more than $1 to generate over 1,000 streams to see the same type of return a CD would bring.

Of course, even with this model, it’s not all profit because you’ll most likely have expenses from making the music itself and marketing it to your fans/new customers.

In a sales-driven approach, you are leveraging Facebook Ads, landing pages (or squeeze pages) and email marketing to attract and nurture a loyal following to monetize directly. You can sell your music to fans with platforms like Squarespace, Shopify and Bandcamp to keep most of that money as profit.

The fact is there are true fans who will support you financially out there, so this approach is really about seeking out those people through various marketing strategies.

There’s less need to perform live so it’s great for people who have issues with travel restrictions. But remember, live performances are currently the most important income source for full-time musicians, barring any global pandemic like COVID-19, of course.

The obvious downside with this approach is you’re putting financial barriers on content that people in society are accustomed to getting for free. Also, this windowed approach to music releases is that it can hinder your potential to reach a larger audience because it’s more limited.

Membership / Subscription Model

 
In the membership model, fans pay you a monthly amount or pledge to become members of your community to receive various benefits. The highlight of this model is in the recurring, predictable income directly from your supporters that allows you to build a sustainable career.

The average amount fans or subscribers pay (patrons as they’re called on Patreon) is $6.70. Getting 1,000 people to pay you $5 a month should allow most artists to live comfortably from this income alone.

Just like in a sales-driven model, there may be some level of restricting accessibility to content like you would see in a subscription model. In that case, you may want to create content exclusively for Patreon like what Eligh does for his channel. The difference is you’re actually getting paid a set amount directly each month for your work.

In some cases, you will have to figure out what kind of extra value you can provide in Patreon that people can’t get anywhere else.

When it comes to direct-to-fan monetization, I feel a membership/subscription is the best case. The problem is it’s not easy to do as I will address in the next section.

Livestreaming / Subscription Model

 
When it comes to monetization, a livestreaming model often incorporates income sources found in all the other models. However, there are some revenue sources that are exclusive to the livestreaming platform.

There are three income sources Twitch offers their creators – ad revenue, subscriptions and bits (virtual currency).

Twitch allows anyone to tune in and watch any channel for free so there’s no paywall or barriers to access live content. But a 30-second ad will often display before you can see the steam. As a creator, you can get a piece of that ad revenue as an affiliate or partner. You can also press a button to show an ad to all your viewers, which you can get paid for as well.

Viewers of your livestream channel can pay a subscription fee each month to receive a set of benefits or perks. There are 3 subscription tiers at $4.99, $9.99 and $24.99. Twitch gets 50% of this money and you get the rest. If you’re a top-tier creator, you get 70% of this revenue.

Bits is a form of virtual currency that fans can use to tip livestreamers during their broadcast. The cost of bits will vary depending on how much you buy. There is a discount when you buy a larger amount. At the base level, it costs $1.40 to buy 100 bits. Streamers make about 1 cent per bit.

On top of this, livestreaming can help with driving demand for music streaming, touring, merch and sponsorships.

It’s important to note that you have to meet certain requirements before you are eligible to earn livestream monetization. This does mean you have to become more invested and established on one platform to see the full benefits.

As mentioned earlier, other platforms like YouTube and Facebook are competing with Twitch in this space so you’ll see the same monetization opportunities but possibly different pay splits.

Discoverability / Growing a Fan Base

 
To have a successful music career, you will need devoted fans and paying customers. It’s important to understand how growing a fan base is approached in each model. There are various ways to get discovered and each of these models focuses on slightly different aspects.

Membership / Subscription Model

 
As amazing as it sounds, platforms like Patreon have a major drawback.

A membership model heavily depends on you having an established audience or fan base somewhere else in order to be successful. You would need to attract your fans from other platforms like Instagram or Facebook to financially support you on a regular basis.

However, this is not for everyone. Even with a large following, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be successful as it requires a different way of operating.

From my research, I discovered that if you execute a membership model properly, about 1% of your social media following will likely become paying members. This is a best-case scenario so a majority will see less than 1% convert.

The key distinction is that discoverability on Patreon is non-existent. It’s entirely up to you to convert your following from other platforms into patrons. To achieve this, you have to get fans emotionally invested in you as an artist and brand first, before they are willing to consider committing to a membership.

In other words, a membership model is not suitable for new or emerging artists looking for a quick payoff. It’s not going to happen. A business model that offers a recurring monthly income is very lucrative, but it will require a long time investment to build up to that point.

A surprising statistic I learned in my research is that around 70% of musicians on Patreon have less than 10 paying members. This means that a lot of artists are launching campaigns without building a sizable following first.

One big challenge is that the concept of being a member of an artist’s community and paying a subscription to a music artist is still foreign. Because of this, it can be difficult to convert people over to a membership model no matter how well known you are.

I’ve seen a number of independent artists with a large following try Patreon, only to fail and completely abandon it months later. I was involved once with such an artist.

On the other hand, I have also seen a membership model executed successfully. I helped Eligh launch and manage his Patreon page for over 2 years now, which has been quite successful so far with over 600 patrons. He is ranked in the top 100 in the music category, but I can tell you it’s not easy to get there.

Social media ads could be used to grow subscribers. For Eligh, we use Facebook and Instagram ads every month to promote new exclusive content to bring his fans on other social media channels into his Patreon funnel.

There’s one tactic that was used for him to grow over 600 patrons. You can learn what it is and much more in my Patreon for Musicians eBook.

Livestreaming / Subscription Model

 
When talking about a livestreaming model on Twitch, it will help to have some following on other platforms. Creating an account and going live isn’t going to do much for you just like starting a Patreon isn’t going to mean you’ll get members flocking to you.

The good news is, unlike Patreon, Twitch does have discoverability features built-in. These are algorithms that will recommend viewers some channels that they feel are similar to what they already watch.

Twitch users can also browse categories. As of this writing, all music is lumped into one category so it’s not organized by genre or anything. Because their music and performings arts category is still growing, there’s plenty of opportunities to build here while it’s still not heavily saturated.

Because livestreaming is very community-driven, networking and building relationships with other musicians and creators on the platform can help.

At the moment, a livestreaming model is best used as a side project while you use other tools and platforms to build your following. Just like with Patreon, it’s not the best idea to start livestreaming on Twitch if you’re starting your career from scratch.

Sales-Driven / Direct-to-Fan Model

 
In a sales-driven model, you will be heavily dependent on using Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads and email marketing to grow a fan base. Part of this model is to enable you to make money from your music/products without having to tour and do live performances, which I like to think of as important avenues for exposure and quality face to face engagement.

In general, the way it works is you use Facebook Ads targeted towards certain types of people who are likely to enjoy your music based on certain demographics, locations and interests. The most effective media to do this is with a video and leveraging video views custom audiences for retargeting.

The goal is to get people to click on your ad so they are taken to a squeeze page where you entice them to give you their email address in exchange for content such as a free download of your music. Once you have their email, you would take them through a series of automated emails that can help to nurture your relationship with them, which eventually leads them to buy music or merch directly from you.

This model depends more on technical online skills, understanding branding and writing effective ad copy as well. Not to mention, you need consistent money for an ad budget.

Streaming / Accessibility Model

 
When it comes to discoverability in a streaming model, you’re often focusing on social media sharing (word of mouth), YouTube and playlists on streaming platforms. For example with Spotify, you want to take advantage of their playlist system and the opportunities available for discovery.

There are also automated playlists like Spotify’s Release Radar that show your new music in the playlists of those who follow you. One type of playlist that can help push your music to new potential fans is Discover Weekly, which is algorithm-based.

You can also submit a song to Spotify to be considered for one of their editorial playlists.

In my opinion, the biggest mistake that musicians make with a music streaming model is limiting themselves to only organic social media posting and playlisting.

Like with a sales-driven model, you want to utilize social media ads, email marketing and understand online marketing to get more exposure, but you would also want to do live performances as much as possible. It’s not scalable and can be slower trying to get fans one by one, but I just feel there’s nothing more authentic than recruiting fans through real life.
 

Which model is the best for me?

 
There are a number of things you will need to evaluate so you can decide which model is best for you and your goals. What works for one artist, may not work for you.

Here are some factors to consider:

What are your career goals? If you’re mainly looking to sustain financially as soon as possible without having to “blow up” or “make it big”, then a sales-driven model makes more sense. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a larger audience potential and influence, then a music streaming model should be your focus.

Where are you in your career? If you’re a relatively new artist, a membership model may not be where you want to start. This is not to say it’s impossible, but I see it more like a next step once you’ve built an audience and become more established.

Are you a solo artist or in a band? Being in a band makes it a bit challenging because you have more mouths to feed. A streaming model where you can eventually incorporate a lot of paid gigs would be ideal. Solo artists often find more success through livestreaming so that’s something to consider.

What skills or talents do you have? Are you good at improvisation and talking to people? Can you do looping and make beats on the spot or do freestyle raps? Are you able to perform a lot of cover songs? If yes, then a livestreaming model may work for you. Or maybe you’re an instrumentalist or beat maker who doesn’t want to put yourself in the spotlight, a music streaming and sales-driven model is for you.

What type of music do you create? Certain genres can reveal fan listening habits. If it’s Hip Hop, R&B, Latin Pop or Metal, then it may make more sense to focus on a music streaming model.

What’s the demographic of your audience? Your audience or target market may be a generation from the “old school” who still prefer physical music over downloads. If that’s the case, a music streaming, membership or livestreaming model may not be ideal.

How soon do you want to make money from music? I think it’s safe to say most musicians want to make money from their music as soon as possible. Theoretically, an accessibility/streaming model would take longer for you to make a living while a sales-driven could help you get there faster. The downside is that a sales-driven model requires more specific training in online marketing and ad budget to make the most of this approach.

Do you like to perform live and interact with fans? A big source of income for an independent artist is live performance. If it’s something you’re good at, then a music streaming can eventually work out for you. However, if you can’t perform live (disability, family, living situation, etc), then a sales-driven model or livestreaming model may be for you.

Are you comfortable being transparent and accessible? From a fan’s perspective, one of the major attractions of a livestream or membership site is being able to get to know an artist and interact with them. Whether sharing your music-making process or revealing details of your personal life, fans like to connect and engage with their favorite artists this way. If this is what you’re comfortable with, a livestreaming and membership model is ideal.

These are some things you’ll want to think about in deciding on a business model. There is no right or wrong model, but each has its strengths and weaknesses and are suited for different types of artists. You can technically incorporate elements of 4 models at once, or some hybrid combination of a couple.
 

Conclusion

 
I know the music streaming model gets the most attention, but hopefully, this blog helps to show that there are alternatives and the different variations that can come about.

I’m not fond of a sales-driven model in its purest form. This was what initially triggered me to write about music business models in the first place. I understand there are some artists who feel music streaming isn’t right for them and there should be other options. But romanticizing music as the product and focusing on direct music sales is holding on to a reality that is slowly fading.

There’s no doubt that there’s always going to be people willing to support the musicians they like by buying their music, but the trend is showing that it’s an uphill battle.

I’ve met a couple of people who have used a sales-driven approach they learned from the Music Marketing Manifesto with some success. The big problem is that even music downloads are slowly becoming irrelevant, so it’s hard to monetize music, let alone capture someone’s email address.

However, the online marketing skills learned from a sales-driven approach is still very valuable and applicable to other models. In reality, most musicians are going to operate with some combination of elements from the different models. After all, you need to incorporate as many income streams as you possibly can to be financially successful in music as an independent.

Personally, what I use and advocate with the artists I work with is a hybrid between a music streaming and sales-driven model. My big focus is on sustainability for artists and I feel it would be best to eventually transition into something a membership/subscription model. However, Patreon is something you need to be ready for, which is why I feel there are 6 key factors you should evaluate beore jumping in. The two platforms I’m really high on to help facilitate that are Patreon and Twitch, which is why I wrote eBooks on them.

Hopefully, this blog helped you figure out what’s the best route for you. At the end of the day, your number priority is producing quality content and building an audience first. The money will follow once you can show you can develop a strong brand and fanbase.

The post Choosing the Independent Music Business Model That Works For You appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

One of the biggest benefits of having Spotify followers is that fans receive email notifications when you put new music on Spotify or announce new shows (if you use Songkick.com). Your songs also show up in their Release Radar playlist and possibly other algorithmic playlists from Spotify.

Important Note: Before jumping into doing these things, I think it’s important to think about your fans funnels and where Spotify fits into your music marketing. For some artists, it may make more sense to build up your Instagram followers, YouTube subscribers or even SoundCloud numbers (assuming they stick around much longer). Yes, music streaming is the future and it is not going anywhere. But, I’m just putting this out there so you’re not blindly investing in Spotify because it’s the trend, but then later realizing it was a waste of time and money for your overall marketing strategy.
 

Claim Your Artist Profile on Spotify

 
Before doing anything else, the first step is to claim your artist profile on Spotify.

Learn more about what this is: https://artists.spotify.com/guide/spotify-for-artists

When I requested access to some of the artists I work with, it required me to verify through the artist’s Twitter account so keep that in mind that you may need to have that on hand.

Taking this step is not necessary to get more followers, but it’s still an important data resource that every artist should have access to. Tools that reveal more details about your audience, songs and playlists that your songs are on are very valuable so take advantage. Best of all, you get a blue checkmark on your profile that shows everyone you’re official!

Despite accusations of unfair royalty practices and payouts, Spotify has said they are committed to bringing artists values in other ways through data and tools like this.

Also, some of the tips mentioned below require tools or functions only available for those who request access to their Spotify artist profiles.

After you have been granted access and control over your Spotify profile, download the Spotify for Artists app (iOs).

Check out some of the tips below on how you can increase your followers on Spotify.
 

Add a ‘Follow’ Button on your Website

 
If you log in to Spotify for Artists, click on ‘Tools’ to access the Follow button widget. Placing this code on your website will create a button that makes it easy for visitors to follow you on Spotify with a click of a button.

You can also embed a playlist to your website next to your follow button. Create a playlist with all of your music, your best songs or maybe the latest releases on top. This gives visitors a clue that you’re on Spotify so they may be more likely to follow you. The only drawback with using Spotify as your website music player is they need a Spotify account to listen to. Ideally for your website, you want to use an audio player like Bandcamp or SoundCloud so visitors can easily listen to your music.

Ask on Social Media

 
One of the first things you should do is ask your fans on social media to follow you on Spotify. Just saying, “hey follow me on Spotify” may not be the best way so try to be a little creative. At the very least, you should explain why following you benefits them and helps you as well. The main benefit to them is that they can get notifications when you have new music on Spotify, so they can be the first in the know or not miss out on your new releases.

Lastly, don’t forget to ask your friends and family too.
 

Send an Email to your Mailing List

 
Assuming you’ve been building an email list on an online platform like Mailchimp, send an email out to ask your fans to follow you on Spotify. Again, just asking may come off a bit boring so be creative. You can tie in an incentive like, “if I get x amount of followers, I will release a new song or video for you.”
 

Ask at Your Live Show

 
At some part of your set, maybe in the middle or towards the end, let fans know that they can follow you on Spotify if they like what they’re hearing. You can incentivize them with a discount of your merch if they show you that they followed you on Spotify.
 

Keep Creating Music

 
If you’re constantly putting new music on Spotify, you can condition people to just follow you naturally to keep up with your releases. It gives more reason and benefit for fans to do so. After all, harping on fans to follow you on Spotify when you’ve only posted 5 songs for the past couple of years isn’t the most convincing or worthy of their time.
 

Playlisting

 
Create playlists around a theme where your own songs can be included in. Promote this playlist on social media and even your Spotify profile. Obviously, don’t fill it up with a bunch of your own songs, you want it to be a good mix that fits the theme. Share these playlists on social media and even tag some of the other artists you’ve included. The idea is to get others to like and share your playlists so it can give you some exposure to new audiences and ultimately some follows.

In addition to getting Spotify followers, you want listeners to save/like your song and add it to their playlists. These metrics help improve your chances of Spotify recommending your songs to new potential fans through algorithmic playlists (Discover Weekly and Release Radar), which can give you additional exposure. I wrote a guide about Spotify playlists where you can learn more.

You can also submit your song to Spotify to be considered on one of their Editorial playlists. This is a great way to get more exposure and potentially more Spotify followers for FREE!
 

Use Follow-gates

Here’s an example of what a follow gate looks like with Show.co

There are various tools out there that allow you to exchange a song download for a follow on Spotify. The value of a free download isn’t what it used to be in the current music streaming climate, so it’s really important to make the download enticing or special. If it’s a really good song or remix that people want, make it exclusive so that the only way they can download it is by either following you on Spotify or giving their email address.

Here are some tools to look into that can help you:

• Show.co
• followgate.com
• toneden.io
• click.dj
• hypeddit.com

If you use DistroKid to distribute your music, you can use their free tool Hyperfollow to get Spotify followers. For every new release that you upload to their service, DistroKid creates a HyperFollow page that contains links to various stores or digital outlets your music is going to be available. If someone clicks the Spotify button to pre-save or listen to your new release, they will automatically follow you.

Use Spotify’s Ad Platform (currently in beta)

 
Yes, Spotify has a self-serve ad platform that you can pay to get more exposure to your artist profile, playlist or album and hopefully get more followers from it. Their ad platform is still in beta as of this writing, but it looks like anyone with a Spotify for Artists account can use it. The minimum budget to push an ad used to be $250, but now it’s down to $25. I’m still new to it, but it’s relatively straightforward to use. I’ll eventually cover how to use it in a future blog.

Learn more here: https://adstudio.spotify.com
 

Pay for Social Media Ads

 
This is a more advanced way of getting followers that requires a bit more work. You have to be really careful doing it this way because it does require you to have a budget and invest money into buying ads. Your best bet for results is to spend it on Facebook and Instagram ads.

In order to do this effectively, you have to plan and be strategic. I will write a more detailed blog on how artists can use social media ads in the future. But for this segment, I will do my best to explain and go over some guidelines so you’re not pouring money down the drain with nothing to show for it.

I think the best way to approach buying social media ads for building your Spotify followers is to understand the three general types of audiences. You have cold, warm and hot.

Cold audiences are generally people who have never heard of you or your music.

Warm audiences are people who have heard or seen your name and maybe listened to a few songs.

Hot audiences are very familiar with who you are and are likely fans of your music. (I actually never hear anyone talking about “hot” audiences, but I’m just doing it to complete the scale of temperatures.)

Depending on the type of audience, you’ll want to approach buying ads differently.

Targeting cold audiences right off the bat is probably not a very cost-effective way of getting Spotify followers. Normally, this would be done by just targeting people with interests in similar artists to yourself.

To be effective, you’ll want to know what other artists your fans are listening to so you can target those artists with your ads. Having access to artist data on Spotify will actually give you some suggestions on what other artists your fans listen to. You can also click on an artist’s Spotify profile and see related artists as well. The only problem is you can’t target fans of less known artists with ads if the names don’t show up in the interest box.

A better strategy then this would be to push ads to convert cold audiences into a warm one by pushing them to an offer like a free download, showing a music video or sending them to a Spotify playlist of your music. The main goal here is to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website so you can build a custom audience with a Facebook Pixel and then push ads to them about following you Spotify.

For those not familiar with the Facebook Pixel, it’s a piece of code that you put on your website that tags your visitors and allows you to add them into an audience you create in Facebook Ad Manager. Then, you can target this specific group later to show ads. If you’re not tech-savvy, it’s a bit of a process to nail down but you can learn more about it here:

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/651294705016616

Now with warm audiences like website visitors, you should be more effective in asking them to follow you on Spotify with ads. If you don’t get a lot of web traffic on your own, having an offer like free downloads to cold audiences is one way you can drive traffic to your website. You don’t need to do any gating or requiring emails as long as you have the Facebook Pixel in place.

Lastly, a hot audience would be like your social media followers and fans. For this audience, you can get away with posting something on Facebook and boosting the post through Facebook’s Ad Manager.

There’s obviously more to consider when using social media ads to build your Spotify followers, like what marketing objective to use, how to organize the campaigns and what to say in the ad copy. I won’t cover that in this blog, but this bit on targeting and audiences helps to get the ball rolling.
 

Experiment with Spotify Codes

 
Spotify Codes is a relatively new feature that makes it easier for people to find your music. It’s basically like a QR code graphic that you can download and use so people can scan it in their Spotify app. It won’t directly get you more Spotify followers, but it may help.

This is something I’m still experimenting with myself. It’s not exactly a widely adopted feature yet, but I figure it has potential uses for marketing.

• Print the code on a flyer, business card or somewhere on the physical release (maybe the back cover or inside liner notes).
• Use in social media either as an actual post, a cover photo or Instagram Story. You can screenshot the Spotify Code and scan it later in the Spotify app.

Try scanning the two Spotify Codes below:

Here’s what I designed for Zion I to promote his mixtape/playlist specifically for reaching new fans while on tour with Rebelution. He got them printed out on 3.5 x 2 business cards and it worked when it was scanned in Spotify.

 
This is the artist Spotify code you would use to get people to your Spotify profile so they can follow you.

You can use Spotify codes to take people to specific albums, singles or playlists:

How to Scan a Spotify Code

The scanner is found in the ‘Search’ tab on the upper right-hand corner. Click on the camera icon to pull up the scanner.

How to Create a Spotify Code

You can create a Spotify Code for your artist profile, album or playlist directly in the Spotify app. Click on the ‘…” in the upper right-hand corner.

The next screen should show you the Spotify Code. Click on it and it will take you to another screen where you have the option to save the graphic to your phone.

The post How to Get More Spotify Followers (Tips for Musicians) appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

“I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music,” she told Yahoo. “And I just don’t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free.“

Likewise, Aloe Blacc stated that “…a system that allows digital streaming services to enjoy enormous profits while music creators struggle is imbalanced and broken.”

Even though these artists are clearly more popular than your average musician, the question is what does it really mean for smaller, independent artists?

It really depends on your perception as music streaming services are not solely positive or negative for independent artists. This new way of music consumption brings a more convenient way for fans to access and enjoy music. This shift will continue to grow as music streaming services battle for the rights to music stream exclusives and market share. Even Amazon has recently entered the arena with its own music streaming service called Amazon Music Unlimited.

Unfortunately, music streaming does not bring in much in the way of cash unless you get the volume of streams. In particular, the royalties paid out from music streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, are minimal. The most lucrative method of selling music for independent artists is still CDs, but the change in consumer behavior has decreased the demand for a physical product.

In this blog, I want to provide some context on the music streaming industry and offer a perspective on how you should adapt to the growing trend of music streaming services.
 

The Meteoric Rise of Music Streaming

 
Music and technology have coincided and transformed the ways we share and listen to music throughout the years. Thanks to the internet, music has been made more accessible and transferable to audiences that otherwise would not have had the privilege of readily available music.

The current shift in technology has caused us to toss our cassettes, discs and downloads to the side. In this digital age, streaming music has become the method of choice for most listeners. Streaming audio has increased by 97% from 2015 to 2016. Almost 209 billion on-demand music streams were played in 2016 – and we aren’t even at the end of the year yet!

As a savvy early adapting millennial, you probably already know the nuances between streaming and downloading music, but just in case you need clarification:

Music streaming is a way of delivering sound without the need to download audio files. Music services (more to come later in the article on this subject) use this method to provide songs that can be enjoyed on all types of different devices. Streaming is used by music superstars and rising stars, like you.

While doing research on this topic, I assumed streaming and downloading were comparable with how much they were used. I was so wrong. In fact, recent data shows quite a one-sided distribution.

In 2015, over 317 billion audio and video files were streamed, while only 1 billion songs and albums were downloaded. This chart clearly indicates that listeners prefer to stream a song rather than purchase one. Streaming is a double-edged sword, especially for indie artists. This is because streaming has the benefit of attracting new fans, but it also results in less money paid out.
 

Residual Streaming Affects

 
The revenue artists receive from listeners streaming their songs is much less than if these same songs were purchased and downloaded. Likewise, even though you have to pay the costs of creating CDs (materials and related business expenses), each CD sale would net you a higher profit per song than a streaming service would.

Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done. Technology dictates how listeners want to hear their music, and they have unanimously chosen to stream. This is why it’s so important that you get your music on streaming services; to increase your music’s accessibility and discovery.
 

Music Streaming Monopolies

 
There are 6 key players in the music streaming business, but Spotify is clearly blowing past all the competitors. Spotify is doubling its second-closest competitor, Apple Music, in subscribers and has more subscribers than the 5 leading industry businesses combined.

It’s important to note that Pandora is a little different than the other providers. Pandora is comprised of radio stations and does not let users choose the specific songs they want to listen to. Pandora classifies songs through what they call their Music Genome Project. Each song is analyzed by a trained music analyst using up to 450 distinct musical characteristics. Pandora uses these characteristics to tailor radio stations based on the listener’s preferred taste in music and listening habits. The benefit of this method is it allows for more discovery of new artists that may be of interest to the listener.

Conversely, Spotify, Apple Music, Rhapsody, Tidal, and Deezer allow subscribers to choose exactly what they want to hear. As the two largest music streaming services, Spotify and Apple get to call most of the shots in terms of how much they want to pay artists and the cost of subscriptions.

If you’re wondering why YouTube and SoundCloud are not mentioned it’s because these sites do not offer paid subscriptions. (Actually, Soundcloud does now have their own subscription-based streaming service – SoundCloud Go.) While these are technically streaming providers, the information in this article focuses on subscription music streaming.
 

Music Streaming Royalties (or Lack Thereof)

 
Platforms that stream music for a monthly subscription claim to be putting the money back into the artist’s pocket, by converting pirates into monetized users; however, they are giving artists only fractions of a penny per streamed song. Each platform also takes a certain percentage of the revenue from each streamed song. For instance, Spotify retains 30% of the revenue. The remaining 70% is split between labels, publishers, distributors, digital distributors and… then finally the artists. That’s a lot of divvying up and explains why it takes almost 14,000 steams before you make $100. On the other hand, if you are an independent that is not signed to a label and own the full publishing rights to your music, you may see a more sizable chunk.

Some music streaming platforms don’t pay royalties per song. Instead, they calculate payouts based on many variables, such as the country in which people are streaming an artist’s music and the number of paid subscribers. You can use this formula to come up with a rate per streamed song. This helps to compare the royalty amount you can expect to receive based on the music streaming platform. The below chart depicts the approximate royalty rate for leading streaming providers.
 

The Future of Streaming

 
As more customers continue to choose steaming over purchasing specific songs, the disparity between paid downloads and streaming will continue to intensify. 2015 data has given us these takeaways for downloaded music:
• ‘Download Single’ sales dropped 14.9%
• ‘Download Album’ sales dropped 7%

While this seems like a lot of doom and gloom, there is some hope that royalty payouts will increase. The awareness of low payouts from many big name artists helped to change the royalty rate from Apple. And as more people stream through a paid membership, revenue for the streaming companies will rise, which will increase the pot of money they pay out to artists, so it doesn’t hurt to encourage your fans and followers to become subscribers.
 

Not all Doom and Gloom

 
Even with the lower than desired royalties streaming services payout, there have been some indie artists that have been able to earn sizable income and gain national exposure from music streaming services. Perrin Lamb is one such success story. He had been active on the local scene for more than 10 years when Spotify added one of his songs to a playlist. That’s what kick-started his success, and his song was streamed 13 million times, netting him approximately $56k.

It’s not all downhill for independent artists. The opportunity is definitely there to leverage music streaming services, but do you have the strategy and luck to capitalize on it?
 

What Should Independent Artists Do?

 
The key is to adapt. The music industry and technology are constantly changing so you have to know when and how to adjust. Making a living as a musician is always a concern when your sources of income are being threatened, but here are 3 actions to help you adapt to the rise of music streaming:
 

Put your songs on music streaming services

 
The changes in technology and consumer behavior show the importance for independent artists to adapt to the changing ways people listen to their music. If more and more people are turning to streaming subscriptions for their music needs, they will expect you to be there as well. Not having your music in places like Spotify or Apple Music could actually have a negative impact as you would be an inconvenience to your fans, which does not provide a good fan experience.

The fact is we are more dependent on word of mouth and streaming services to discover new music. As an independent artist, you need all the exposure you can get and make your music more accessible on streaming services will increase your ability to reach new fans with the right strategies in place.

While it’s unfortunate that streaming royalties are not as high as we’d all like, in my opinion, the effects of music streaming are actually not all that bad. Yes, it’s true that the growth of music streaming services has contributed to the decline in CD sales, but so has digital downloads for over the past decade. As society and technology become more integrated, this shift shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Knowing your audience is key. If your fan base tends to be older (over 45?) and does not stream music, a lot of this may not even apply. I still don’t think it hurts you to make your music more accessible on music streaming, but you should do what makes the most sense to how your fans consume music.

Be creative with how you sell and promote merch

 
At a recent show, I overheard someone talk about how they wanted to buy a CD, but they didn’t even have a CD player in their car to play it. I’m sure this sentiment is slowly becoming the norm. More and more new laptops and cars don’t have a CD drive, hinting at a decline in demand. From a practical standpoint, the demand for physical music is being replaced by the convenience and accessibility of music streaming. However, this doesn’t mean you should stop selling CDs or physical copies of your music. If your target market is willing to purchase CDs, then there is no reason to stop selling them!

If you think about CDs as merch, something that fans buy as a memento of the night or a way of showing support, then there should always be some demand it for, especially at live shows. You just have to be more creative and thoughtful about how you approach it.

Here are some starter ideas to get you thinking creatively:

• Do merch bundles to increase value
• 2 CDs for the price of 1 deals: It encourages people to share it with someone
• Offer CDs for donations: Sometimes you can make more this way than having a set price
• Announce during your live set that the best way to support you is to buy merch, like a CD. Even if they can’t use it, they can give it to someone who can.
• Offer to sign the CD and take a picture with the customer

Despite the decline in album sales, I truly believe that your real fans will support you and buy your records or branded products via one platform or another.
 

Improve your live shows

 
The fact is, the one thing that technology cannot replace or replicate is the live experience. This bodes well for music artists because the main source of income for most independent artists has always been live shows and tours. In order to make a living off music, live performance is the most practical method and will be so for the foreseeable future. Any musician looking to sustain a career in music knows that this is the technology-proof strategy, so invest in improving your live performances.

In other words, the strategy for making a living off music should be to really focus on branding and growing an audience to drive demand for people to pay to see you live and buy your merch. Music streaming should be viewed as a platform to make your music more accessible and not an obstacle because of the low royalty rates.
 

Conclusion

In my opinion, adapting to an ever-evolving industry is the key to success. That’s a constant theme you’ll see throughout my blog.

However, there are musicians who will refuse to adopt to music streaming based on principle. That’s fine too. It’s important to understand that you have options when it comes to finding the best music business model that works for you.

The post Does the Rise in Music Streaming Services Spell Doom for Independent Artists? appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.