In this blog post, I’ll give some tips on how to get streams on Spotify. I have been releasing my own songs since 2019 and reached over 100.000 streams in total. I want to share some methods with you that have been working out for me.
Tip 1: Promote your song before its release through your social media channels
Create some hype. Let your family, friends, and your already existing fanbase know about what’s coming up. Don’t do this too early that the hype dies out, but also not too late. Start at least a week in advance and remind people several times in between.
Tip 2: Submit the song in time so it gets featured in Spotify’s Release Radar playlist
Don’t upload your song on the day of its release, but plan this ahead. I usually prepare this 4 weeks in advance. This will make sure that the song you’ll release will be featured in the Release Radar playlist of all your followers. Some people will even receive an e-mail about your release.
Tip 3: Create a snowball effect on the day of its release
Remind your fanbase on the day of its release, and enthusiast them to share it on their social media pages as well. Have the people around you who are already excited about your music share it with their followers and friends, and most likely you will reach new listeners.
Tip 4: Send a press release to blogs
Prepare press pictures and write a press release, or have someone do it for you, and send it out to blogs, or have people send it out for you. A little information about your song or project will give people that don’t know you more interest in checking you out. Get featured on blogs with a matching audience and create some buzz around your music.
Tip 5: Make sure your profile looks professional
When people find your profile, make sure everything looks professional so they want to see more. You want people to take you seriously, stick around, and be excited about what you’ll do up next. Make sure you got a quality profile picture, some nice album art for your song, and even better a Canvas video loop, and add a description to your artist bio with pictures and links to your social media channels. This will not only help you how to get streams on Spotify, but also drive traffic to your external pages.
Tip 6: Collaborate with other artists and promote it together
You don’t have to do it all alone. When you’re collaborating with other music artists, make sure they help promote your song to their audience as well. Plan and discuss what you can expect from each other. Bundle your powers and budget to promote the song on a bigger scale.
Tip 7: Submit your song to playlists via Submithub
Submithub is a platform that allows you to get in touch with Spotify curators, bloggers, influencers, for example. You can filter on language, location, music genre, and more. This platform got me featured on some nice playlists and gained new audiences. However, please take into account that the curators can be quite picky, and therefore spending credits and money doesn’t guarantee you to get on playlists. If you want to try this out, please make sure to sign up via my referral link and I’ll get some free credits: https://www.submithub.com/by/cruzumusic
Tip 8: Reach out to Spotify playlist curators for placements
Getting featured on playlists is a great way how to get streams on Spotify. Find Spotify playlists that fit your song by browsing on Spotify and contact the curators for a feature, or use platforms like SoundCampaign to do it for you. I haven’t used this website in particular because it’s quite expensive, so I prefer doing it myself. Please keep in mind that you’re most likely to pay some fee for placements. You can also try checking out Fiverr for some people to do this for you, but I haven’t found any success in this yet. I tried a few, but the results were dead plays. Not bots perse but definitely non-engaging listeners which is not what you want.
Tip 9: Social media advertising
Direct people to your Spotify link by using social media advertising. You can start running advertisements on social media with a small budget. You can target people who already visited or engaged with your social media page, or target new people with similar interests. I’ve had more success with the first one. Also, it really helps if you have some kind of video visual to go with it because that made my advertisements way more successful than just a static image or the cover art for example.
Tip 10: Engage with local communities and artists
Get to know cultural or musical communities in your city for example and fellow music artists near you, network and showcase your music to them and they’d most likely be happy to help you promote it to their audience as well. Of course, this goes both ways so be willing to support their projects as well.
These are some of the methods that have been working for me, but I’m also still exploring each day and learning so if you have any recommendations or questions let me know in the comments as well. I hope these tips can help you in thinking of ways how to get streams on Spotify. If you want to start uploading your music to Spotify etc. I could recommend using Distrokid. It only costs about 30 dollars per year and you earn all the royalties from your streams. I am using this as well, and if you want to start make sure to use my affiliate link and you’ll get a discount: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/1198475
