Only relying on playlists

When I began my journey, I lacked the know-how to effectively promote my music. Like many others, I simply submitted tracks to various playlists, hoping for inclusion and a chance to gain exposure.

Playlists don’t get you real fans or returning listeners

While playlists can provide immediate streams for your music, these listeners are often not actively engaged. The playlist might simply be playing in the background while someone is working or studying. This is evident in the engagement statistics, where only a small percentage of playlist listeners save your song or follow your artist profile. Consequently, once your music is removed from playlists, your streams tend to decline rapidly.

In the image above, you can observe that your streams rise when you launch your playlist campaign but quickly decline once the campaign ends or when the curator removes your song from the playlists. After the campaign, your streams and listeners nearly return to their initial levels. This indicates that the money spent on playlist submissions does not necessarily build a growing fan base, serving more as a temporary boost. However, landing on quality playlists can offer other benefits and potentially increase algorithmic traffic from Spotify. While playlists can be effective for promotion, relying solely on them might not achieve your desired outcomes.

Combine playlist promotion with other activities

Integrating your playlist promotion efforts with additional strategies, like advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Google, can effectively attract genuine fans who listen to your music. This approach also increases exposure to relevant playlists, enhancing your presence on algorithm-based Spotify features such as Release Radar and Discover Weekly.