If you want to grow, boost, or increase the number of streams you get on Spotify, there is actually a way you can use the Spotify algorithm to get free streams.
To get free Spotify streams in 2023, artists need to trigger the Spotify algorithm to start getting placed in algorithmic playlists such as Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and Radio. If the algorithm notices a song is gaining popularity by getting repeat listens and saves at a high rate, Spotify will push that song out to similar listeners for free.
In addition to algorithmic playlists, Spotify will reward artists by giving them the opportunity to get free streams from Spotify’s editorial playlists.
Getting your song placed on one of these playlists means your song will get shown to thousands of new listeners who are similar to your current listeners.
..so how can you learn how to leverage the algorithm to get free streams yourself?
Simply keep on reading to find out, my friend. 🙂
How To Increase Spotify Streams With Free Streams
The Spotify algorithm’s main purpose is to always try to recommend songs that people want to listen to so that people spend more time inside the Spotify app.
Essentially, the more time a user spends inside the Spotify app, the more opportunities Spotify, as a company, has to make more money.
So, if the Spotify algorithm notices that any song is being listened to more than normal, is actually being saved by its listeners and these listeners are then following the artist then it is in Spotify’s best interests to push that song out to similar people.
You can benefit from these free streams by learning how to consistently send people to your Spotify profile who are likely to:
- Save that song at a high rate (40% of listeners or higher)
- Listen to that song repeatedly (1.8x on average or higher)
- Add that song to one of their own playlists
Spotify’s algorithm monitors millions of data points like this to make connections and assumptions to find out what song to recommend to each Spotify user and when.
However, it is important to understand that the Spotify algorithm does this by collecting data on and off of their service.
Free Streams = The Key To Getting 1,000,000 Spotify Streams
If you want to get 1,000,000 streams on Spotify, you will need all the help you can get – and that definitely includes learning how to get free streams.
Whether you get the help of a course or not, you will need to take these steps to reach your goal:
- Understand how you can use the Spotify algorithm to increase your streams, royalties, and fans
- Craft a Social Media Plan you can be proud of that is both effective and laid back to implement
- Simplify the content creation process for social media posts and marketing promotion campaigns
- Create Smart Link website landing pages that will actually grow your streams
- Prepare your first release to go live on Spotify
- Successfully pitch your song to the Spotify editors
- Easily create the assets for your first campaign
- Schedule ads and social media posts for your first release campaign
- Run your first release campaign with no stress
- Analyze and optimize your release’s results to increase your streams, fans, and listeners with each song you release
Finding success on Spotify is more than just increasing stream counts.
It’s also about branding, social media, web presence, building momentum (or “buzz”), and most importantly – having an active and growing fanbase of real, genuine music lovers that actually care about you and what you do.
So, let’s take a closer look at how you can actually attract listeners to your Spotify profile.
How To Get More Spotify Listeners & Streams
You need to drive people to your Spotify profile so that they can see and stream your latest release and easily follow your profile.
Here are a few ways you can do this:
- Get on other Spotify playlists.
- Create your own Spotify playlists.
- Run ads using Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, etc.
- Use social media.
In my experience in getting 1,000,000 Spotify streams 2.5 times, an integral tactic that I am able to control and see positive key metrics on new releases is by running Facebook and Instagram ads.
However, you can use any tactic you’d like as long as you can make sure that your song is hitting the key metrics.
For every new release, the Spotify algorithm is looking for a few key metrics in addition to the number of streams your song is getting, including:
Save Rate – How many of your listeners are actually saving your song.
Listen Rate – How many times (on average) your listeners are listening to your song.
Playlist Adds – How many people are adding your songs to their own playlists.
New Followers – How many people follow your Spotify artist profile during the release of your song.
In addition to this, you can keep track of your Spotify Popularity Index and aim to get between 20% and 30% or higher.
Although Facebook ads alone can’t get you to 1,000,000 Spotify streams – learning the fundamental components of creating a thriving and active fanbase is also a requirement – they can be extremely effective for growing your Spotify listeners and streams.
Facebook Ads For Spotify Streams & Followers
Facebook ads are an effective tool for growing Spotify streams and followers because Facebook provides in-depth targeting options, flexible budgeting, and has an algorithm that can optimize itself to get the most results possible for the lowest cost possible.
More specifically, Facebook and Instagram ads for musicians have a very powerful feature called Custom and Lookalike audiences that you can use to get even more results for lower costs.
This is a basic explanation of how it works:
- Facebook allows you to place people that engage with you into “Custom Audiences”
- You can then “Retarget” them with ads at a lower cost than it took to reach them in the first place
- You can then leverage the Facebook algorithm to create “Lookalike Audiences” which are 1+ million people that are similar to the people that are in your Custom Audiences
All this means that you have the power to send highly targeted listeners over to your Spotify profile and then leverage the Facebook algorithm to find more of those people for less over time so that you increase your chances of tripping the Spotify algorithm to find you even more of those people for free.
This is why Facebook ads are so popular for artists, musicians, and producers looking to grow on Spotify: you can use the Facebook algorithm to trigger the Spotify algorithm to get free streams and listeners.
If you would learn exactly how to do this yourself, check out this new video that reveals how to get 1,000,000 Spotify streams in 28 days.
How To Make Something (Finally) Happen With Your Music
If you’ve been putting in any amount of time and money into your music, you probably want something to happen with your music and for all that hard work and effort to actually pay off.
To make something finally happen with your music, there are a few skills that you need to learn.
These skills include:
- Learning how to gain, fans, listeners, and streams on your Spotify artist profile
- How to make the Spotify algorithm work for you
- How to grow a real and loyal fanbase for your music
The key here really is fans, and you actually don’t have to do this alone.
It is possible to “hack” Spotify’s algorithm to put your music in front of fans who listen to similar artists, songs, and genres to you.
Although these are essentially free streams from Spotify, it does take work and effort to actually trigger the Spotify algorithm so that it starts recommending your music.
You also want to do it in a very specific way so that Spotify recommends the right fans over to your music. This means:
- No paying for streams
- No paying to get on playlists
- No tricking people into streaming your music
If you aren’t excited about creating a real, valuable, long-term career in music, then Spotify Success really isn’t for you.
How I Personally Got To 1 Million Streams On Spotify
It’s taken a long time. A very, very long time. But.. it’s been extremely worth it.
17 years ago I got my very first guitar, a sick Squier Stratocaster in sunburst (that I’d later bust-up quite a bit in my Nirvana phase) that started my life as a musician.
This lead to countless bands, live shows to usually 5 people (aka our parents and girlfriends), recording sessions, G.A.S. attacks, MySpace pages, and failed projects.
It took 17 whole years but I finally got what I always wanted since I was a 13-year-old kid….
A simple sliver of proof that I wasn’t crazy to be so obsessed with music and that I could actually make my passion for music my life.
Fast forward to today:
- Over 3.5 million streams
- 15+ official Spotify editorial placements
- Support from big-time artists like Martin Garrix and Foals
- Real, living, and breathing human beings reaching out saying that they dig my music
I’ve learned so much along the way, made too many mistakes, and probably spent too much money and too much time.
…And if you’re reading this right now, I’m happy to have the chance to be able to share all of those years of knowledge with you so you don’t need to go through the same struggles that I did.
But, enough about me…
“Is it possible for me to hit 1,000,000 Spotify streams as well?
It takes quite a bit of determination and focus, but honestly, if I can do it then anyone can do it.
Here are a few questions that I get quite frequently about finding success on Spotify.
What if I don’t have an fanbase or audience?
Having some kind of fanbase or audience can definitely be helpful and make things much easier, but this course is designed to show you how you can start seeing success on Spotify even if you don’t have an audience of your own yet.
I got to where I am today without an audience. In fact, I didn’t even tell friends or family that I started my musical project.
Do I need any experience or connections?
Not at all!
I assume you know nothing about digital marketing, advertising, or even Spotify in this course.
I got to where I am with no connections (as an introvert I still barely have any tbh) and I assume the same is the case for you (the no connections part at least).
What if I don’t have enough (or “good enough”) music to release?
Most music marketers will say something along the lines of “obviously the first step is to make sure you have great music” and leave it at that.
In this course, I actually provide dedicated lessons and exercises to make your music “good enough” and to make sure you have plenty of music to release.
What if I don’t have any new music to release?
Although you can use music that’s already been released, promoting music within its first 28 days of release is the best way to get on Spotify’s algorithmic playlists to get free streams and fans sent to your music.
This is why I actually provide dedicated lessons and exercises to make sure you have plenty of music to release.
Does this strategy really work… how do I even know I can trust you?
I’m not a marketing guru or business expert – I’m a musician that knows a lot about marketing.
I’ve spent the better part of my whole life dedicated to music and trying to make something happen in music.
The strategies I teach in this course are the very same that I’ve used myself to get over 3,500,000 streams on Spotify.
After helping a handful of friends across different genres in my music scene achieve amazing results, I decided to put everything I know into 1 single result-focused course to help as many dedicated music creators as possible do the same.
The proof is in the pudding as they say.
How To Upload To Spotify As An Artist (& Get Paid)?
Want to upgrade from just making music to actually get your own music on Spotify and becoming an official Spotify artist?
To upload to Spotify as an artist, you need to sign up with one of Spotify’s preferred music distributors and submit your music, artwork, and artist information through that distributor.
Thankfully it’s easy for anyone to upload music to Spotify because a company called DistroKid came along and started offering unlimited song uploads for a small annual fee without taking a percentage of any of your earnings away.
Before DistroKid, it was too expensive and complicated (..you had to pay PER song EVERY year).
To learn more about DistroKid, check out my big fat DistroKid review for everything you will ever need to know about them. There is even a handy How To Choose A Distributor Guide and some info on the nice DistroKid discount.
If you are wondering want to know more details about how to do this yourself, how exactly you can claim your artist profile, and actually make some money by uploading music to Spotify, check out my article called How To Upload To Spotify As An Artist (& Get Paid)
How To Get More Streams With Custom Smart Links
The best alternative to the endless amount of smart links, landing pages, and link-in-bio style pages out there is to simply build your own custom smart links by using WordPress.
I do this myself with my very own WordPress-based website (aka the one you are on right now) and find it to be way more flexible and effective, particularly if you want to do the Spotify algorithm hack by running Facebook and Instagram ads to your smart link pages.
The reasons I’d recommend doing this over using any smart link creator is because:
- Without paying for these services, you can create smart links that are exactly in the style of Hypeddit, Linktree, Toneden, HyperFollow, etc.
- Get more streams to your music by using my highly tested and conversion-optimized smart link template
- Look more professional and credible by having a custom domain and no other company’s branding on them
- Get your brand and identity across by perfectly customizing your smart links to look exactly how you want them to
On top of this, you’d actually have a legit and professional full-blown website and not just some smart links for promoting your music.
For a free step-by-step course on how to get started with this, check out my free course on smart links for music.
