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Over the previous few years, playlisting has change into the music advertising and marketing technique everybody within the impartial music scene talks about. It was overvalued as one of many golden keys to Spotify.
The momentum behind playlist advertising and marketing created a complete economic system round playlisting. Curators who as soon as made playlists for enjoyable started turning them into aspect hustles (or full-blown companies).
Some took the excessive highway: operating advertisements, constructing actual communities round their playlists, and genuinely supporting indie artists. Others? Not a lot. Bot farms, shady practices, and pretend streams began creeping in beneath the radar. Some playlists with lots of of hundreds of followers have been ghost cities, inflated by bots that will drive low-quality visitors from cities the place followers didn’t exist.
At this level, many artists have been burned by shady playlists or intermediary companies charging per submission. They paid for placements, bought sketchy outcomes, and ended up with inflated numbers that didn’t convert into actual followers. This may even end in artists having their music faraway from Spotify fully. The basic recommendation? Don’t pay to be added to a playlist. Period.
But that doesn’t imply playlisting is lifeless, removed from it.
Like most issues in music, the distinction lies in the way you strategy it and understanding the nuance.
The damaged mannequin: what went mistaken
The playlisting gold rush taught everybody a lesson. Artists began seeing playlists as a get-rich-quick scheme. Pay $50 right here, $100 there, and count on hundreds of streams to roll in in a single day. But actual followers don’t present up once you deal with advertising and marketing like a merchandising machine. Real followers come from real connections with listeners and the folks serving to share your music.
The actuality is, a lot of the points folks face with playlisting occur as a result of they approached it transactionally. “How many streams can I buy for $100?” is the mistaken query.
The higher questions are: “Who curates music my fans would love?” and “How can I build a real relationship with them?”. The objective ought to all the time be to construct a devoted fan base, not simply rising streaming numbers.
How to consider playlisting in 2025
If you deal with playlisting as a advertising and marketing trick, it’s lifeless. If you deal with playlisting as a relationship-building device, it’s extra alive than ever.
While chilly emails can work, it requires composing outreach that stands other than the everyday “Add me to your playlist…”. What is far more efficient is reaching out through social media as an alternative. Comment on their posts. Send a considerate DM. Ask questions. Share pleasure about their playlist. Show up like an actual fan earlier than you ever ask for something. Curators receiving DMs additionally get an opportunity to stalk your social media profile and be taught a bit about your creative journey, which might help rather a lot in reframing the everyday “transactional” strategy. Once you get a placement? Don’t cease there.
Here’s what you ought to be doing:
- Offer to advertise their playlist in your socials – tag them, thank them publicly, and present help the identical manner you wish to obtain it!
- Send them unique, unreleased tracks – make them really feel like they’re in your interior circle and spotlight that their style is necessary to you exterior of simply discovering new followers.
- Ask for his or her opinion – everybody likes to be seen as an skilled.
- Guestlist them at your reveals – in the event that they’re native, invite them out.
- Offer to listing their playlist in your Spotify Artist Profile beneath “Artists Pick”.
This is the way you construct an actual group round your music, beginning with curators. Not simply streams however actual relationships that may develop your profession long-term.
DIY Playlisting Strategy (That Actually Works)
If you’re doing this DIY, a device like PlaylistSupply is usually a complete game-changer.
Here’s a easy plan you may comply with:
- Use PlaylistSupply’s Organic Search and seek for artists just like you. Look on the playlists they seem on. These Discovered On playlists are gold as a result of they’re algorithmically related to fan discovery.
- Filter by Health Score so that you don’t waste time on junk playlists with faux numbers. Focus on playlists that present robust natural visitors.
- Check the Follower History Chart! This helps you see how a playlist’s follower depend has modified over time. A wholesome curve indicators actual development; sudden spikes or drops is perhaps a pink flag.
- Build a listing of round 100 playlist contacts. This offers you sufficient quantity with out being overwhelming.
- Reach out personally as an alternative of utilizing a typical copy-paste “Hi playlist curator” template. Make it private. Show that you just hearken to their playlist and that your music is related to it!
- Aim to safe 10-15 placements! If you may lock in even 10 high quality placements, you’ll have a powerful basis for brand new listeners and algorithmic momentum.
- Track your outcomes! Monitor your stats in Spotify for Artists and verify your Discovered-On part (open.spotify.com/artist/yourartistID/discovered-on). See which playlists drive actual visitors and concentrate on constructing deeper relationships with these curators.
Some Extra Tips:
- Prioritize style and temper suits. Just as a result of a playlist has 10k followers doesn’t imply they’re your 10k subsequent followers. Niche genres and extremely specialised playlists may have the very best outcomes!
- Look for lively playlists. Check when the final tune was added. Does the curator add tracks solely chronologically, or do they change out the primary tracks throughout the playlist recurrently?
- Don’t chase follower counts blindly! A playlist with 2,000 lively listeners is healthier than 20,000 bots.
So… is playlisting lifeless?
No. Bad playlisting is lifeless.
Shady playlisting. Transactional playlisting. Pay-to-play playlisting. Those fashions are dying out – and truthfully, good riddance.
What’s thriving is genuine, relationship-driven playlisting. Where you and a curator work collectively to construct one thing actual. Where getting added to a playlist is the start of a partnership, not the tip of a transaction.
If you shift your mindset, concentrate on actual connections, and deal with curators like collaborators and never merchandising machines, playlisting can nonetheless be probably the most highly effective instruments in your development as an artist.
Final Thought:
Building a music profession has by no means been about shortcuts. It’s about constructing a group and discovering devoted followers. Playlisting, when carried out proper, may be an extension of that community-building and get your music to the appropriate folks.
Tools like PlaylistSupply assist make that potential – supplying you with the information and perception to search out curators who can truly transfer the needle for you.
Use them properly. Treat folks proper. And maintain making nice music!
Your future followers are on the market – ready to find you.