Streaming services now offer a number of features to help new listeners discover your music. And the best bit: most of these features don’t cost you anything to take advantage of.
An important feature is playlisting. This includes user-generated playlists, editorial playlists and more recently, algorithmic playlists, which spot patterns in the habits of individual listeners and suggest new music that matches their tastes. Getting on a playlist can potentially expose your music to millions of new listeners.
To increase your chances of getting playlisted, you should submit your music for consideration by playlisters in a number of ways:
Contact playlisters directly (can require some mild internet-based stalking investigative work to find the curators' email addresses/social media accounts)
Use 3rd party pitching sites like SubmitHub (free and paid options) and Playlist Push (very paid!) to get your music in front of playlisters and bloggers.
Submit tracks directly to editorial teams at streaming services like Spotify for free.
Being on a playlist is usually temporary, so make sure you get more than just streams out of it! Playlist followers discovering your sound need somewhere to find out more information about you. This could be your website or your social media accounts, but they're most likely to click on your profile on Spotify or Apple Music (or whatever platform they're listening on). Make sure you've claimed your artist profiles and filled in your bio and other info. Some streaming sites provide free tools to help artists communicate with their fans, and keep them up to date with the latest releases and shows.
Claim your Spotify for Artists Account
Claim your YouTube for Artists Account
Claim your Apple Music for Artists Account
Spotify URI Codes
If you don't have any music on Spotify yet, but you've submitted your first release to us, you can ask us for your 'Artist URI' code. This will allow you to claim your Spotify for Artists page before your music goes live. Please note we can't provide this until your release has been successfully delivered to Spotify, which can take up to 10 days after you submit your release.