If you’re looking to promote your music and grow your Spotify streams by getting your song added to Spotify playlists, you may know that it can be expensive or time-consuming (and sometimes even both).
It can take countless hours to build up a database of playlists with contact information to reach out to and that database needs to be updated regularly to stay relevant.
Alternatively – you can pay a company to pitch your music to playlist curators for you, but the upfront cost is high and you may or may not get the details of what playlist you are getting added to and what the quality is.
This is why I normally wouldn’t recommend either as a way to promote your music on Spotify, however, my friend Ryan reached out to me with a potentially neat tool to check out that may solve this problem called “PlaylistSupply”.
What Is Playlist Supply & How Does It Work?
PlaylistSupply is a tool that lets you search through all of the playlists on Spotify to help you find the right playlists (and actual contact info of the playlist curator) so that you can reach out to them with your music.
PlaylistSupply uses an algorithmic AI to allow you to track down Spotify playlists that are highly specific or relevant to your music and only show the playlists that have contact information like an email address or social media profile available.
Using PlaylistSupply, you can discover Spotify playlists based on things like:
- Genre
- Associated artists
- Similar artists
- Location (ie: country, city, etc)
- Language
- Emotions (ie: chill, upbeat, etc)
- Activities (ie: workout, studying, etc)
Because PlaylistSupply uses an algorithmic AI to find playlists whenever you enter a search instead of a database that they manually update, the playlists and contact information you find are usually up-to-date which is nice.
To make sure the playlist you are looking at is worth getting on to, you can actually view when it was last updated in addition to its popularity (based on the Spotify Popularity Index), # of followers, and what tracks are currently playlisted.
Then once you have found the playlists that you are interested in you can either export the data by copying it to your clipboard or downloading a spreadsheet or PDF file so that you can organize and use it however you please.
If playlisting is part of your long-term strategy for growing your streams and monthly listeners, you can also save playlists to your PlaylistSupply backend so that you can keep track of any changes in followers, tracks, and contact information.
Once added to your own playlist directory in the PlaylistSupply backend, there is even an “Update” feature that allows you to refresh all of the data so that it is completely up-to-date, making it much easier to determine the quality of a playlist or if it is growing organically or not.
Once you have the contact information you need, it’s now up to you to reach out to the playlist curator and try to get them to add your music to their playlist.
PlaylistSupply Review: Is It Worth It?
PlaylistSupply costs $19.99 per month and can save you hours of your time finding the right Spotify playlists… but is it worth it?
PlaylistSupply is worth it because its database is always current since it auto-updates using an algorithmic AI, it has features that allow you to determine the quality of individual playlists, and it allows you to build up a direct relationship with each playlist curator.
Although you could definitely take the time to scan through Spotify on your own to find contact info and quality check playlists to build up your own database, the PlaylistSupply tool makes this process much quicker and makes sure your database is always up-to-date.
However, when deciding whether or not this tool is for you, there are 2 main things that you will want to keep in mind:
- You will still need to do the outreach yourself.
- Many playlist curators who leave their contact info in the playlist description may be seeking payment for playlist adds.
It can definitely be time-consuming sending out a bunch of emails and DMs but you can also get great results, build up long-lasting music industry relationships, and save money that you would’ve otherwise spent on Facebook Ads for musicians.
With that said, using email automation tools like “GMass” or “Woodpecker” can help speed up the process (although it may be a bit harder to make your outreach seem personalized).
Paying to get added to someone’s playlist is against Spotify’s terms and can result in really bad things happening – so just consider adjusting your outreach so that you provide them real value in ways other than money instead of just expecting a favor from the kindness of their heart.
Some ideas that you can explore to avoid paying for playlists include offering free tickets or guest list spots, sending out physical merch like shirts or vinyl, or promising to share your audience with them by giving them a shoutout on social media or your email list.
With all that said, if your plan for Spotify playlist promotion was to build out your own database and do the outreach yourself anyway, PlaylistSupply is a no-brainer since you will save hours of your time and have a higher quality database for a small fee.
PlaylistSupply vs SubmitHub & PlaylistPush
…so what’s the difference between Playlist Supply and something like SubmitHub or PlaylistPush then?
The main difference between PlaylistSupply and SubmitHub or PlaylistPush, is that instead of paying for the opportunity to have music considered for a Spotify playlist you get the playlist curator’s contact information so that you can reach out to them directly yourself whenever you want to.
This alternative to playlisting makes the most sense for any artist or artist managers that want to build up a relationship with the curator themselves instead of paying per submission or having a company doing the pitching for them.
However, it is again important to remember here that PlaylistSupply will only help you obtain the contact information for that playlist curator and after that, it is up to you to reach out to them to try to get them on their playlist.
When reaching out to playlist curators, there are several that may want you to pay money to get on their playlist which is something that you should avoid doing since it is against Spotify’s terms and can result in your Spotify streams going down (or worse).
How PlaylistSupply Can Fit Into Your Spotify Promotion
PlaylistSupply fits into your Spotify promotion strategy by helping you get your music on third-party “curated” Spotify playlists.
As opposed to Spotify’s algorithmic, user, or editorial playlists, curated playlists are usually created by people that have built up a playlist to try to grow it as large as possible but sometimes are just made by people who like recommending music they like.
There are 3 different ways you can get your music on a third-party “curated” playlists:
- Directly reaching out to the playlist curator by getting their contact info
- Using a tool like SubmitHub or PlaylistPush
- Paying for a company to get your music on these types of playlists for you
A tool like PlaylistSupply allows you to get your music on these playlists by streamlining and speeding up the process of finding a playlist curator’s contact info.
Regardless of which way you go about this, it’s important that you do your research since the quality of each playlist can vary greatly from playlist to playlist.
A great playlist will grow your streams while also showing the Spotify algorithm the perfect music fans to further recommend your music to on Spotify’s algorithmic playlists.
A bad, spammy or irrelevant playlist may give you a temporary boost in streams but will likely give your music very low engagement rates as well as a significant drop-off in streams as soon as your song is removed.
Getting on a playlist with music that isn’t similar to yours or that has low engagement rates can also have a really negative effect on the Spotify algorithm.
In addition to this, you need to watch out for scams or playlist curators there use bots and click farms to artificially increase stream counts when looking to use this type of Spotify promotion.
Keeping track of a playlist’s followers and the actual songs that they have playlisted over time is a great way to make sure you avoid the pitfalls that I just mentioned above.
The Best Release Strategy To Maximize Your Spotify Playlist Adds
To maximize the amount of playlist adds your music can get, you should maximize the amount of music that you are releasing.
Remember that at the end of the day, playlist curators technically have 1 “job” and that is to keep their music updated with fresh music as regularly as possible.
Not all of your songs will be perfect fits for every playlist, so having a constant stream of new music to send to playlist curators will increase your chances of submitting a song that is that perfect fit.
This is why I’d recommend that you take the time to map out a 6 – 12 month release strategy and commit to carrying it out.
In particular, I would recommend that you plan on releasing a new song every 28 days so that you can maximize your exposure on Spotify’s algorithm playlists like Release Radar.
By following this release strategy, you can greatly increase your chances of landing algorithmic, editorial, and curated Spotify playlist adds since you are showing up each and every month with new music.
Playlists and playlist curators aside, Spotify in general presents some real opportunities to get your music heard built into the platform thanks to their algorithm, official playlists, and internal Spotify editor pitching process.
Use A Single Release Plan Template To Stay On Track & Grow Your Streams
Once you have mapped out 6 – 12 months’ worth of releases and a solid idea of what types of Spotify playlist promotion you want to focus on, it is now time to get ready to actually carry out the strategy.
Because you will be repeating this process constantly, my recommendation is to focus on just a few very specific tasks.
By focusing only on a select few steps that are going to actually move the needle, you’ll feel less overwhelmed and be able to easily repeat these steps for every single release you do.
This is why the very first thing I’d recommend any artist do is to check out is my free “7 Step Release Checklist” that you can get here: https://bestfriendsclub.ca/release-checklist
This checklist will be your “single release plan template” and is my little “secret” to simply “copy and paste” a few simple steps each time I am releasing a new song.
By following this checklist, you spend as little time promoting your music as possible and focus on creating more music instead (and these are the same 7 steps I follow to this day as I continue to release music each month).
When done properly, these 7 steps are massively effective, and most importantly, easy for any artist to “rinse and repeat” when it comes time to release new music.
You see: the simpler your music promotion, the easier it is for you to release music often and promote it properly without burning out or sacrificing every other aspect of your life.
So to get started, I’d strongly recommend grabbing this free 7-step release checklist and going over it a few times.
The downloadable version not only has the same 7 steps that I mentioned earlier, but is actually an interactive checklist with many secrets, tips, and tricks for you to uncover.
For example, each step can be expanded to show you why it’s important and how you can go about doing that step in the best way possible.
…and for some of the steps, I even link out to completely free courses that I’ve created for you to help you ditch the “struggling artist” lifestyle too. 🙂
Growing Streams With Your Own Spotify Playlists
Another one of my favorite types of Spotify playlist promotion is actually creating your own playlist and growing it to have a healthy number of engaged followers.
In addition to growing your own music’s streams, you can also become a “playlist curator” exactly like the ones that you would discover using a tool like PlaylistSupply or Submithub.
Having your own Spotify playlist is an incredible asset since you can stuff it with your own songs, add your latest release to it, increase your own credibility as a curator and even make money from Spotify playlists!
However, there is a big catch…
In order to make the most out of this type of Spotify promotion, you will absolutely need to know how to promote your Spotify playlist.
Be warned:
In my experience, the best way to promote Spotify playlists has been with Facebook and Instagram ads – so you will likely need to pony up some cash to grow your playlist into a useful asset.
