Whether you are a budding artist or have already established yourself as a brand, you cannot ignore Spotify as a component of your marketing plan. Considering that this popular music streaming platform has millions of active users and subscribers across the globe, it offers humongous promotional opportunities that you cannot afford to miss. Establishing your presence on this channel means that you get exposure to a huge audience and take your career on the path of success.
While being there is crucial, following the right strategy for releasing your music on Spotify needs a good deal of work in the form of careful pre-production and planning to get effective results. Having a professional promotion partner looking after the job is the best idea because they know what needs to be done for getting your music placed in the most popular playlists. Still, you must also have a fair idea about executing the strategy effectively. Here is all that needs to be done to popularize your music on Spotify.
Start by getting your profile verified
As Spotify is a social platform for musicians, some fake artists may try using it unscrupulously by creating accounts and declaring themselves musicians. The best approach, therefore, would be to get your profile verified so that you are recognized as a genuine artist. Signified by the blue tick, verification gets the followers notified about an account is genuine. It enables you to come ahead as a credible and legitimate connection for your fans and followers.
Even though the verification badge is rare, Spotify allows it to be verified automatically when you sign up to Spotify for Artists. Once your account gets verification, your music is picked up and suggested to the users through Spotify's playlists and algorithms, without you having to make any extra promotional efforts. Additionally, there are chances that the playlist curators on the platform will include you in their playlists.
Work on increasing your following
Having a good fan following is the key to success for your music on Spotify. Unless you have a big audience and acquire an optimal number of monthly listeners for your music playlist curators will not be really keen to add it to their playlists. Garnering a huge number of followers, on the other hand, will be a motivating factor for them. Additionally, it is proof of relevance that you are loved and appreciated by the discerning listeners.
Work on getting a bigger fan following because it will make you a credible image as an artist and increase the count even more. While you can increase the fan base on Spotify itself, leveraging other social media channels to keep the audience informed about your latest releases on Spotify is a great idea. A smart strategy that extends beyond a single social platform and combines diverse platforms, works like magic.
Be active by uploading music consistently
Another tactic that you should follow to gain popularity on Spotify is to stay active and upload music on a consistent basis. The music industry is ever-evolving and not being visible means that your popularity will gradually ebb no matter how big your following has been at one point in time. The best approach is to maintain a regular schedule for releasing new music so that you always have something to offer to your following.
At the same time, it is vital to have great music for them rather than catering mediocre content just for the sake of being consistent with your releases. As a part of measuring the consistency of music artists on the platform, Spotify keeps track of your activity through their algorithms and also notices how engaging the music actually is. So you need to excel on both fronts to gain the popularity you deserve.
Promote with Spotify playlists
Playlists play a key role when it comes to the growth of music on social streaming channels such as Spotify. Securing a place on the best playlists in your music niche can give you the exposure to the right audience, which brings the opportunity to add millions to your following. Leveraging playlists requires a proper strategy as you need to ensure that your music gets picked up by the apt ones. This requires the identification of the ones which best fit your release and pitching to the curators to get your music on board.
Kendra Blalock from AMW Group explains that artists using Spotify to promote their music should focus on getting their music to the top of smaller playlists first, rather than trying to be immediately placed on big playlists. You can gradually try exploring the bigger ones after establishing hold over the smaller ones. The idea is to get all quarters covered and improve your chances of getting discovered by the maximum number of listeners.
Collaborate with other artists
Another good idea to promote your music on Spotify more effectively is by collaborating with other artists. The association is usually symbiotic, with the benefits extending to both the artists. While you can help them by creating a playlist with the other musicians as the featured artist, they can do the same for you in return. This strategy doubles the exposure for both as they get access to each other's audience without investing any extra promotional efforts.
This is a win-win strategy for you and the other artist as both get the opportunity to be featured on multiple playlists by curators as well. The benefit can be immense, whether you collaborate with someone in the same niche or try something unconventional by tying up with an artist from a different niche. Whichever way you choose, the ultimate objective is to extend your reach which you can do successfully with this tactic.
Leverage Spotify Ads to promote your music
Spotify offers a self-service advertising platform Ad Studio, which enables artists to create and manage audio ad campaigns directly. By creating such campaigns from scratch, you get the chance to reach out to the audience through audio ads of 30 seconds or less. A campaign can be created in just a few minutes and you can create ads as well as track and manage the campaign reporting on your own.
Those already having a pre-produced voiceover just need to upload it to the Ad Studio and the campaign is all set. Furthermore, Ad Studio provides useful insight such as the campaign summary, targeting summary, the number of clicks for the ad, reach, frequency and click-through rate. You can use these insights to optimize your campaign for better performance.
Use Facebook ads for promotion
Beyond Spotify ads, you can also empower your promotional strategy with Facebook ads. The best thing about Facebook Ads is that these are more targeted as they enable you to reach the listeners based on personalized parameters such as age, location, gender, and interest. You also get the option to select desktop, mobile or both the channels to get your ads seen and heard in the right context. The ever-growing number of Facebook users is another reason that makes using these ads a great idea.
As Facebook users typically access their news feed several times a day, your ads get repeated exposure to the targeted audience. This can make a huge impact on the popularity of your music as you can reach a wider audience within a shorter span of time. The impact extends beyond Facebook and covers other channels, including Spotify, as well.
Now that you know all about the right tactics for making your music popular on Spotify, you will be able to use this channel to your advantage. Following the right plan can unlock massive growth opportunities and make you a huge brand within practically no time.