Music Career: How To Get Your Music Featured On Spotify Playlists

Last Updated on December 11, 2023 by Josh McKenzie

In 2022, your music has to be featured on Spotify. It is not the only maker of success, but it plays a hugely influential role. But how do you get on it? How to get on Spotify playlists? We know, and because we’re so nice, we’ll share it with you

With over 160 million users, Spotify is the world’s largest musical streaming service. That means it’s the perfect place to submit and showcase your music – and we can show you how!

On Spotify, not all playlists are created equally. In fact, the most popular playlists are often highly competitive and curated by Spotify itself, or a major record label. Therefore, to get onto these lucrative compilations, you will have to work your way up the musical ladder.

However, that does not mean you cannot get onto a playlist without major backing. The more realistic playlists to target are ‘Discover Weekly’ and ‘Release Radar’, both of which can be accessed through a mix of timing, user engagement and fan interactions. However, this can’t be really explained quickly – so to see the full guide on how to get your music featured on Spotify, scroll down!

What are Spotify playlists?

Spotify Playlist is essentially a compilation of music based around a certain theme or premise created by playlist curators. For example, ‘Sing-along hits’ would be a playlist of famously easy to sing to songs

Spotify is the largest streaming service in the world – totalling just over 160 million users worldwide! Inevitably, this means that Spotify has a significant influence on current musical trends. However, this influence is not decided by a group of tastemakers. In reality, the musical world of Spotify is curated by a mix of both algorithmic and human-chosen playlists – all with the intent of encouraging you toward a certain taste.

However, the majority of Spotify’s playlists are genre specific. This means they can create a playlist from, potentially, decade’s worth of music from that genre. Therefore, statistically, it is very unlikely that you will get put into this playlist.

The best method of getting your music onto a Spotify Playlist is targeting the ‘Discover Weekly’ or ‘Release Rader’ playlists.

How can I get music onto Spotify playlists?

Although there are no full-proof methods of getting your music onto a Spotify playlist, we have found a clever workaround using the ‘Release Radar’ collection. This is a compiled list of songs that have been newly released by artists you follow.

To see how to do it, follow these steps:

Create a Spotify for Artists account and upload your music to Spotify.
Once your artist page is verified and ‘live’ (present on Spotify), get your fans to ‘follow’ your page. This is the most important part! This can be done however you like, but making sure your fans are following the page is how you will get onto a Spotify playlist
Upload new tracks to your Spotify account
On Monday morning, when the ‘Release Radar’ is delivered to users, they will then receive two hours of previously unheard music. For fans who follow your page, they will then be sent your newly released music as part of this playlist!

According to Spotify UK’s Director of Artists and Management, “Release Radar alone generates more streams than any of Spotify’s self-curated playlists”. That means it is well worth your time targeting this playlist and securing a place in its influential tracklist.

How do I get onto ‘Discover Weekly’?

As with the ‘Release Radar’ playlist, ‘Discover Weekly’ is sent to each Spotify user every Monday. This new playlist is entirely tailored to the unique user, created from a mix of Spotify algorithms and Spotify’s ‘taste map’ (based on your musical history). Essentially, Spotify takes what you have been listening to before, and recommends you similar songs that you have not heard.

So how do you beat the algorithm and get added to this playlist? Here is some advice:

Get on Spotify playlists! This does not mean you have to get added to every playlist on the app, rather, get added to as many as possible. And remember, this includes both private and public playlists. So if you are just starting out, encourage your friends, family, and even fleetingly met people in the street, to add your song to their playlists – it drives attention toward your account and increases the chances of the algorithm added you into the ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist.
Avoid high skip rates and low listener interactions. In simple terms, this means encouraging your listeners to really listen to the music. If your music has a high number of skip rates, but with a high number of listens, it may not be added to ‘Discover Weekly’. Therefore, encouraging your listeners to listen all the way through to your piece can make all the difference!

How should I use Spotify?

Spotify is the world’s largest musical streaming service, so like it or not, it has influence. And as a musician, you have to respect and understand that influence. Once you have done that, you can begin to make it work for you. Although we don’t have the space to cover every tactic, here are some of our favourite tips and tricks to maximise your usage of the streaming giant:

Release music regularly – aside from rewarding your fans for their engagement with regularly music, frequent releases keep the Spotify algorithms working in your favour. As a quick reminder, ensure your fans ‘follow’ your page on Spotify. This will allow any new musical release by you to go straight into their ‘Release Radar’ playlist (which comes out each Monday)
Quality over quantity – Yes, it is important to secure a place in the ‘Release Radar’, but it is a short-term tactic. Spotify dislikes negative date (in relation to songs). In simple terms, if your music is often skipped, Spotify will begin to suggest it less and less. To overcome this, create engaging music with depth and complexity to ensure repeat plays and a reduced number of skips
Don’t focus entirely on Spotify – in the world of commercial music production, Spotify is quite new. For years artists found fame and success without the app, so you can too. Keep working hard on digital press kits, fan retention, live gigs, social media, and writing high quality music. Spotify is not the only route to success; it is just the newest route.
Improve your profile page on Spotify – if you want fans to follow your page, it has to be attractive to them. That means you can’t have 30 songs uploaded to your page, but not have any photos. Present yourself as a rounded, confident musician who any user can access. You have to widen your appeal as much as possible
Drive users to Spotify – this is known as positive date, which Spotify loves. If you can get fans going to your songs from elsewhere (for example, your band’s social media page), this will turn the algorithms in your favour. So include Spotify links wherever you can, submit your music as often as you can and your popularity on the app will increase!