How to Promote Music on Spotify - Reach New Audiences : Blog

If you want to succeed as a musician nowadays, music promotion is your best friend. You can have a good song and a consistent style, but if you don’t promote yourself and your band, no one is going to notice you and your numbers on Spotify won’t grow. In this article, you’ll learn how to promote your music on Spotify and optimize the reach of your releases on the platform. In 2023, Spotify had over 517.69 million users worldwide. It's a well known fact that the streaming platform created by the swedes Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon changed the music industry in high levels. After Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Tidal emerged with a similar proposal. In a way, Spotify made the music industry more accessible since anyone can easily upload a song on the platform. At the same time, we had the decline of music piracy which helped a lot of artists too. Nowadays the advantages of Spotify are the curated playlists with different genres and moods, even. These playlists help a lot of new artists to get discovered by the listeners. There are also mini videos of the artists, the organization of an artist’s discography in one playlist and many other advantages. But, on the other hand, with so much content, new artists have to work twice as hard to get noticed in the industry. That’s why music promotion is essential for indie musicians to grow.

How Spotify for Artists can Help Promote Your Music

After releasing at least one song on the platform, your band can sign up on Spotify For Artists. This service is provided by Spotify itself and it allows you to become verified on the platform, see stats about your work and offer a lot of tools to help you promote your music. All of that for free.

Analytics of your Songs

One of the best things about Spotify For Artists is the data they offer about the people listening to your music such as age, gender and what other artists they’re also into. This tool is very useful to get to know who your public is and guide your promotion strategies accordingly. When creating a marketing campaign strategy, you can use these stats to better understand what kind of content will bring the attention of new listeners. If more Gen Z listen to your music, you know you have to grow your presence on social media like TikTok and Instagram. If the same people like, for example, the songs from Fall Out Boy, you can try to interact with their fans or do covers of their songs.

Get Into Curated Playlists

Another awesome thing on Spotify that helps to promote your songs are the curated playlists. These playlists have thousands of followers and usually relate to a mood, occasion or theme. A team of editors from Spotify is responsible for curating the music. Entering one of the editorial playlists is a way to boost up your career up to the top. To enter a curated playlist, an artist needs to submit their music along with a small text explaining why this song specifically should be in that specific seletion. Before pitching your music, it’s important to select your best song with high quality. Afterall, you are going to compete with label artists that have a whole team of marketing working for them. Be sure to find one playlist that matches your style. Spotify has a big variety of playlists with specific genres, such as “Rock ‘n’ Run” and “Electronic Rising”. If your song is a rock music with a lot of drum beats, you won’t pitch for the latter playlist. The first one makes a lot more sense.

When writing your pitch to an official playlist, make a compelling case that sells your music. Try to enlighten the features that match with the playlist. For example, your rock song has beats that make people want to jump from the ground. The editors will see this as a good feature to enter the playlist.

Create a Playlist of Your Own

If you don’t get in any playlist at first try, don’t give up. You can also create your own playlist. Some of the most popular playlists on Spotify are from users that had no intention to go viral. Put some songs that inspired you or are similar to your style together with your music and spread the link. Don’t forget to create a fun and creative name.

Pre-save Your Music on Spotify

Another way Spotify helps artists is with the pre-save feature for new songs and albums about to be released. If someone pre-saves a release, the new music will automatically be added to the library the moment it’s released. That's a great tool to rise the audience's expectations. This feature helps to give a “heads-up” for your fans that your song is out. Spotify will notify them when it’s close to the release date and will keep your fans on edge of their seats.

Make Music Videos

Music videos are always worth investing in. It doesn’t need to be something with a big production, a lyric video with some images or a live music video are a great way to start. Of course, you’ve got to maintain your own style. As mentioned before, Spotify has the possibility of adding a short video to accompany music. You can upload a piece of your music video and enhance your impact on Spotify.

Maintain Social Media Presence

None of the tips earlier mentioned here will work if you don’t maintain a presence on the main social medi platforms. Music promotion requires a lot of hard work. Big artists have a large team doing marketing for them. When you’re an indie artist, it’s possible that at the beginning you will have to do all of it by yourself. In your band’s accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others put the link to your Spotify profile. When releasing something it’s a great idea to include the links in your bio or pin a releasing post so it will be the first thing someone sees. On Instagram, it’s better to use a LinkTree, since the platform doesn't accept a lot of links in the bio. Also: establish an online presence and an artistic identity. Try to post every week and engage a lot with your fans. Use the stats on Spotify to learn about them and create content that will catch their attention. Don’t forget to always answer the comments, even the simplest ones. It’s a way to show to the public that you care. Branding is basically the image of your band the world sees. It's very important, because it’s the first impression the public will have of you when they access your website and come in contact with your press kit, so it has to be something that dialogues your music. It's also a way to promote your music and can impact your profile on Spotify.

The internet offers the possibility of creating your own branding, but if you’re looking for something authentic, paying a designer to do that is a better idea.

Create a Website to Promote Your Music on Spotify

Your website is where all information about your band will be such as tour dates, new releases, exclusive content and merchandise will be found. Also, incorporate the links of all your social media and streaming platforms so your fans can reach up to you everywhere. Website builders allow you to create an online store, so you can sell your music online and the merchandise of your band such as t-shirts, water bottles, bottoms and vinyl discos.

Build an EPK

EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit. It’s basically a package of information about a band or a musician. The EPK is a way to sell your band. Venues and event bookers ask for them to assess the worth of the artist. What essential items has to be in your EPK :

A short bio about the band or the artist, nothing too long
Where to find your music online on stores and streaming platforms
Photos for promotion
The links to your social media, such as Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
Contact information
Your branding
Compilation of articles and reviews about your songs

The EPK is really important not only to send your music to radio stations or event bookers, but you can send them to bloggers, journalists and influencers to promote your music. Normally, blogs always link up the Spotify profile when promoting them, so an effective EPK has an impact on your numbers on Spotify.

Conclusion

Music promotion can be exhausting, but in the music industry, to be successful your music should be treated as a business and not only as a hobby. If you’re here, you’re already on the right path. Keep up and good luck with the hard work! Put in the right amount of effort and do so in a smart way. Chances are it will all pay off at the end. SIGN UP!

How to Promote Music on Spotify – Reach New Audiences