Spotify is one the biggest players in the current music industry. So, having a large fanbase on the platform can really help your success as an indie artist. However, the world of Spotify is still shrouded in mystery and many artists struggle figuring out how to get more plays and build an audience.
Unfortunately, there’s no secret hack that will give you instant success on Spotify overnight. But, there are a number of tactics you can utilize to ensure your music reaches as many people as possible.
In this guide, we’re going to break down what those tactics are and how you can utilize them to find success in your genre.
Here are our top 15 tips on how to get more Spotify plays in 2020:
- Write Great Songs
- Make Your Music Is As Good (or Better) Than Everything Out There
- Get Your Music On Spotify
- Claim Your Profile on Spotify For Artists
- Promote With Social Media
- Include It On Your Website
- Release Consistent Content
- Utilize Pre-Saving
- Submit To Spotify Curated Playlists
- Approach Independent Playlist Curators
- Make Your Own Playlists
- Utilize Spotify Ad Studio
- Make Sure You’re On Shazam
- Promote Your Music In Other Avenues
- Be Patient
1. Write Great Songs
Just like any other medium, whether it’s radio, TV, physical sales or live shows, the music you’re putting out there plays the biggest role in its success.
This is especially true when it comes to streaming services. The industry is so saturated with music that you need something which will grab the listeners attention as soon as it comes on.
Believe it or not, there are actually formulas people follow when writing a song to ensure its success rate. Check out our article on The Hit Songwriting Formula for more on this. Regardless of whether you’re trying to write a pop song or not, many of these rules apply to all genres.
If you haven’t written many songs before and are just starting out, check out our guide on 13 Steps to Writing a Song.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to spend time on the writing process. If you don’t and all the music you released on Spotify is subpar, you’ll have a difficult time trying to get more plays.
2. Make Your Music Is As Good (or Better) Than Everything Out There
Once you have a well-written song, the next step is to make sure it’s properly recorded. Once again, there’s so much music on Spotify, so having a professional sounding recording can only increase your chances of getting more plays.
Label artists have big budgets which allow them to go into expensive studios and record their songs. Independent artists don’t have that kind of funding but that doesn’t make it impossible to get commercial grade recordings of your songs.
The rise of online recording studios has brought high end recordings to the indie artist at an affordable rate. At Sundown Sessions Studio, we pair artists up with Grammy and JUNO winning musicians and engineers from around the world. Check out our pricing and packages page for more information.
Our guide on How and Where To Record a Song is also full of advice on what the recording process entails.
3. Get Your Music On Spotify
So, you’ve written a great song and you have an awesome recording of it, what’s next? This next step may seem like a no brainer but many artists don’t know how to go about making their music available on Spotify.
The secret to releasing your music on any streaming service is what’s known as a digital distributor. They act as the middle-man connecting artists to platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
Two of the biggest digital distributors out there are DistroKid and CD Baby. However, there are plenty of other distributors out there as well, each with their own unique features and benefits.
After you’ve got your music on Spotify, the real work can begin in building a fanbase and getting plays.
4. Claim Your Profile on Spotify For Artists
Claiming your Spotify profile through Spotify For Artists is extremely important if you want to make the most of this platform.
Doing so allows you to customize your artist page on Spotify with things like photos, a bio and upcoming concerts.
It also gives you access to a whole range of tools that you wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. This includes the ability to submit to playlists or access analytic tools that show you just how many plays you’ve been getting on Spotify, where they’re coming from, and much more.
It also gives your account a blue “Verified Artist” checkmark, which adds an extra touch of legitimacy to your Spotify profile.
Check out the video below for a more in depth look into how to claim your profile with Spotify For Artists.
Spotify and social media go hand in hand when it comes to building a fanbase. Letting your social media followers know where they can find your music on Spotify has a huge impact when it comes to getting more plays.
Thankfully, Spotify has plenty of tools that make it easy for artists and fans to share their music on their social platforms. Possibly the best of these is the “Share To Instagram Stories” feature.
This allows you to create a story with the cover art from your music or playlist on Instagram. Fans can tap the artwork to be taken directly to it on Spotify. The video below has some great tips on how to utilize this tool to its full extent.
There are similar features available for Snapchat and Facebook Stories, as well as the ability to share links on sites such as Twitter or Facebook.
6. Include It On Your Website
In addition to social media tools, Spotify also offers a number of tools you can utilize to get more plays from your website.
The first worth noting is the ability to embed a song, album or playlist into your site. This allows users who are subscribed to Spotify to stream your music directly from your website. If they don’t use Spotify, it will still allow them to play a thirty second demo of the track and give them the option to sign up and listen to the whole thing.
The video below shows how to find the HTML code on Spotify and easily embed it in your website.
You can also use the Spotify Play Button Generator to give you more flexibility over the design of things.
Similarly, Spotify also offers a Follow Button Generator, to create a button for your website that will easily allow fans to follow your Spotify account.
If you aren’t going to embed a play button, it’s advised that you at least include a follow button or some other obvious link to your Spotify profile on your website. Otherwise, fans won’t know where to listen to your music and you’ll be missing out on potential streams.
7. Release Consistent Content
Content is king in the current music industry and one of the keys to getting more plays on Spotify. People can get bored and easily forget about an artist without new music to keep them invested.
Because of this, you’re better off releasing a number of singles over several months, rather than an entire album all at once.
Not only does this give fans a reason to keep checking you out, it can also play into your chances of getting on playlists and allow you to create PR campaigns around each release.
8. Utilize Pre-Saving
Pre-saving is Spotify’s version of pre-ordering music and although it may seem irrelevant at first, it plays a big role in helping you get more streams.
The more fans who play your music or save it to their library as soon as it’s released, the better the song does in Spotify’s algorithms. When a fan pre-saves a song to their library it automatically adds it to their library once it’s out, encouraging them to stream it right away.
This really helps your music’s chances of getting featured in playlists or radio stations. The tricky part is getting fans to pre-save your music before it’s out. The best way to go about this is to start building a campaign around it long before it’s release day.
If you can give fans some kind of a reward for pre-saving the song, such as an entry in a contest, that’s even better. There are several platforms out there such as Show.co which make setting this up easier.
9. Submit To Spotify Curated Playlists
Playlists are a big player in increasing the number of streams your music gets on Spotify. There are three main ways to utilize playlists to your advantage that we’re going to delve into in the next three steps.
The first of these is to get your music placed on one of Spotify’s official curated playlists. You can submit songs for consideration through the Spotify for Artists platform if you do so seven days before a song’s release.
The best place to learn more about this process is from Spotify themselves. This article they’ve published on the topic is an excellent resource.
One thing to keep in mind when submitting your music is that you are up against hundreds of thousands of other songs. So, it may be very difficult to get your music placed on playlists of this level.
That being said, if you don’t submit at all there’s zero chance you’ll get it placed. So, it’s better to submit and hope for the best than to do nothing at all.
10. Approach Independent Playlist Curators
The next best thing to getting your music on an official Spotify playlist is having it featured in an independent playlist with a lot of followers. Anyone can create playlists on Spotify, meaning there are literally thousands of independent curators looking for new music everyday.
There are services out there such as SubmitHub, Daily Playlists or Playlist Push that act as a middleman, connecting artists to curators. However, an even more effective method is to find out who notable curators are in your genre, how they like to be approached and to do just that.
Although it’s time consuming and can take a lot of work to get placed in a playlist, once you do it can be well worth it. Because of this, approaching independent playlist curators is probably one of the most effective ways to get more plays on Spotify.
11. Make Your Own Playlists
The one way to guarantee your music makes it into playlists is to make the playlists yourself. Although you may not amass a ton of streams at first, you could slowly build up a following for your playlists over time.
Creating playlists is also a great way to interact with current fans and give them something to share with their friends. You can make playlists of music that relate to your style, songs you like or tracks that are inspiring your upcoming project. Be sure to find a way to work in your own music so that it gets streamed every time someone listens to your playlist.
12. Utilize Spotify Ad Studio
The Spotify Ad Studio is relatively new to the music scene but it could prove to be a useful tool in helping artists build a fanbase and get more plays.
It allows individuals and businesses to create the audio advertisements that play in between songs on users with free subscriptions. This is an awesome way to directly reach your target demographic in a place they can easily access your music.
If you want to learn more about their Ad Studio, Spotify has a number of resources available that go in depth on making the most out of the tools they offer.
The downside to this tool is that it can be a fairly big investment to get started as their minimum budget for an advertisement campaign is currently $250. However, if you have some money to invest in advertisements, this could be the perfect place to do so.
13. Make Sure You’re On Shazam
Shazam is a tool that allows users to find out the name of a song they hear on the radio, in a TV show or anywhere else. It listens to the song and presents the user with info on the song and a link to where they can stream it.
It’s become an integral aspect of music marketing and if you want fans to be able to find you on Spotify or Apple Music easily, it’s a good idea to make sure your song is in the Shazam database.
The easiest way to do this is through a music distributor. Most major music distributors give artists the option to add their music to the Shazam database. If this is a tool you intend to utilize, be sure your distributor offers it before releasing music with them.
14. Promote Your Music In Other Avenues
Try not to box yourself in when it comes to thinking of ways to get more plays on Spotify. Pretty much any promotional tactic can be used to increase your listener base.
When performing live be sure to ask people to follow you on Spotify, approach blogs and PR outlets to promote your releases, get your songs on the radio and tell your friends in person. For more tips in this regard check out our guide to music marketing and song promotion.
15. Be Patient
As we’ve already mentioned, there’s no secret that will guarantee you get more plays on Spotify, Apple Music or any other streaming service. As with any other aspect of the music industry, the most you can do is take the best approach possible and wait to see what happens.
Building a fanbase on any platform doesn’t happen overnight. However, if you’re consistent and committed with what you release and follow the steps laid out in this guide, you’ll slowly start to see a positive impact.
The important thing is just to be patient and not get discouraged in the early days of your music career.
Conclusion: How To Get More Spotify Plays In 2020
Promoting your music and trying to get more plays on Spotify, isn’t much different than marketing your music on any other medium. The most important factor is that you’re consistent in both your content and getting the word out there.
Spotify has a lot of tools you can take advantage of, such as Spotify For Artists, social media sharing tools, embeddable players, pre-saving opportunities and Ad Studio.
Playlists are another powerful avenue for increasing your streams, whether they’re official Spotify curated playlists, independent playlists or ones that you make yourself.
Of course, all of this is only useful if the content you’re releasing is of high quality. So, spend time writing good songs and invest in high quality recordings. Doing this will ensure that people listen to what you have to say once they discover you.
To recap, here are our top 15 tips on how to get more Spotify plays in 2020:
- Write Great Songs
- Make Your Music Is As Good (or Better) Than Everything Out There
- Get Your Music On Spotify
- Claim Your Profile on Spotify For Artists
- Promote With Social Media
- Include It On Your Website
- Release Consistent Content
- Utilize Pre-Saving
- Submit To Spotify Curated Playlists
- Approach Independent Playlist Curators
- Make Your Own Playlists
- Utilize Spotify Ad Studio
- Make Sure You’re On Shazam
- Promote Your Music In Other Avenues
- Be Patient
If you enjoyed the tips in this guide, be sure to check out the rest of the Sundown Sessions Studio Blog for more tips on music business, songwriting and home recording.