Spotify Promotion Detailed Explanation (How Our Campaigns Work)

Our Spotify playlisting network is comprised of hundreds of playlists and millions of followers (and this grows weekly). These playlists typically fall into 5 categories.

1. Genre-based playlists (Ex. Best New Rock Music 2023). These are typically what newer artists will expect every list will look like, but in reality people listen to music on MANY other types of lists.

2. Mood-based playlists (Ex. Sad Songs That Make You Cry). These lists have the capacity to feature multiple genres of music. That is why your Rock song may be on lists with a Hip Hop song.

3. Tastemaker & Soundtrack playlists (Ex. Love Is Blind Season 4 Soundtrack). These lists can also feature multiple genres and have the propensity to rise up the fastest in traffic due to the seasonality of tv shows and movies. These playlists will almost always clearly say in the description that they feature songs that are in the movie/show, but also songs that are similar that may not have been in the show.

4. Artist-based playlists (Ex. Ed Sheeran Best Songs Radio) These are slightly more limited on genre, but can also have a viral effect if an artist has a new or highly anticipated release.

5. Seasonal playlists (Ex. Best Cozy Fall Music) Last but not least, seasonal playlists add variety and depth to our network (especially around Christmas time!)

Common misconceptions:

1. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes artists have a pre-conceived notion that one style of playlist is inherently superior to another. There is nothing in the data that tells us this is the case.

Whether someone hears your new Pop song in the Love is Blind tastemaker list or the New Pop Music list, the data does not say they are more inclined to like the song on either of these. If someone likes your song, they like it.

2. Another misconception is that these lists have a different effect on the Spotify algorithm. The algorithm primarily works off these metrics: plays, unique listeners, avg. time a song is played, saves, how quickly a song gains popularity after release. 

The name of the playlist has little to nothing to do with your song in the algorithm. 

Playlists in our network get traffic from two primary sources: paid ads and Spotify search engine optimization (SEO). 

Paid ads are good for getting lists quick, consistent traffic. However, the downside is that some genres and moods are much easier to run ads for than others. If we wanted to run ads for niche audiences, they become more expensive.

SEO is great for getting traffic on all the niche audiences and does not have to cost money; however, some terms can be hard to get traffic from if competition is high.

This is why we use both to continue to grow our network and get clients from all genres the best results possible.

The primary factor we look at to determine if a song has been properly placed on accurate lists is the listener-to-save ratio. (The number of saves for a song/the number of unique listeners). This number should fall anywhere from 2% to 10%. 

Please note that this range cannot be changed by us. We do our absolute best to get songs into the best lists possible in our network, but at a certain point the song does have to do its own work. 

If our curators and staff did genuinely place a song on a list where it doesn't belong, we will do our best to get the song on additional lists.

However, through access to stats across hundreds of artists and thousands of songs, we can say confidently that no list type is inherently superior to the other. 

We have a robust statistical analysis system that allows us to keep accurate information on which lists are more/less active. 

The short answer is no due to everything we stated in this article. Our staff and curators do their very best to match songs to their proper list, but if we do see a song is on an inappropriate list for its genre, we will certainly rectify the situation.

Reach out to us here and we'll get back to you!