Listen, it's tough getting streams whether you're starting out or just trying to grow your following. Your music can't speak for itself if hardly anyone gets to hear it in the first place. As you probably know, streams won't garner you any significant royalties at the beginning, so the name of the game is exposure. Specifically, exposure to the right type of listeners. It's important that your music appeals to some, but not all. Having music that warrants a strong reaction will make it way easier to market and amass fans as you get the ball rolling.
With the right strategy and tools, independent artists can get more Spotify streams and grow their following. Let's take a look at a comprehensive guide on how to get more streams as an independent artist. We'll cover these points, and I'll share a bit about how one of my songs passed the 1,000,000 stream mark using social media.
Optimize Your Spotify Profile
Create Engaging Playlists
Promote Your Music on Social Media
Collaborate with Other Artists
Reach Out to Playlist Curators
Run Spotify Ad Campaigns
Make Your Music Sound Pro
The "DO NOT DO" List
Optimize Your Spotify Profile
Your Spotify profile is the first thing that potential listeners will see when they come across your music. Therefore, it's crucial to make sure that your profile is optimized to attract and engage your audience. If you haven't already claimed your Spotify for Artists profile, head to artists.spotify.com to begin the process.
Here are some tips for optimizing your Spotify profile:
Use high-quality images that reflect your brand, style, and vibe.
Write a compelling bio that tells your story and showcases your personality.
Add links to your website, social media profiles, and upcoming shows.
Create and curate playlists that showcase your music and personality.
Create Engaging Playlists:
Creating engaging playlists is a great way to get more exposure for your music on Spotify. Here are a few tips to help you create playlists that will attract listeners:
Create playlists around a specific theme or mood that aligns with your music.
Collaborate with other artists or curators to create joint playlists that can help you reach new audiences.
Update your playlists regularly to keep them fresh and engaging.
Keep a good ratio of other artists' songs in the playlist, don't overload it with your own
Share your playlists on Social Media and highlight them on your Spotify profile using the Spotify for Artists app.
Promote Your Music on Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool for promoting your music and engaging with your fans. By using social media, you can reach a wider audience, build your brand, and connect with other musicians and industry professionals. Here are some tips for promoting your music on social media:
Use eye-catching visuals and engaging captions to showcase your music.
Collaborate with other artists and influencers to reach new audiences.
Follow trends to capitalize on relevance
Engage with your followers by responding to comments and direct messages.
Approach content based on what people engage with, not an action you'd like them to take
If you're running low on ideas for content or your current content isn't getting the engagement you'd like, consider shooting a live video of you performing in a unique environment.
Content strategy for Tik Tok, Reels, & YouTube shorts make it so that you need an immediate hook point to draw in the viewer. A typical performance video won't do that as easily as one shot in an interesting location. Consider filming full songs, posting to YouTube, and then repurposing the footage to use as short clips for social media. If your lyrics are a hook point, generate captions and jump right to the best part of the song.
Create lots of variations, analyze the results, and double down on the content that performs the best.
Consistently doing this will grow your following and drive fans to listen to you on Spotify. The effects of large influxes of streams from social media can have a snowball effect, triggering Spotify to put your songs on Discover Weekly and other algorithmic playlists.
For example, here is a song I produced, take a look at what social media-driven streams did for it:
In January of 2022, I had posted a few Reels and Tik Toks that used this song as a "sound" on these platforms. Eventually other posters began using the sound for their own Reels, and a few actually got over a million views. That led to an increase in streams, but only a few hundred per day. But what happened after that was way more important: the influx of streams from people searching the song after hearing it on social media told Spotify that people liked this song and wanted to hear it.
This led to the algorithm putting it on Discover Weekly for some listeners. That's the little spike in mid February. When the song performed well on DW, every Monday it would spike as Spotify was placing it on more and more listeners' playlists. That climaxed with the Monday in March you see above, where it got 17k streams in one day.
Even 2 years after its initial release as a single, the song gets well over 1k streams every day and gets put on Discover Weekly each week. All those streams were not the result of a pricey PR campaign or paid ads, just social media and submitting to independent playlisters on SubmitHub. We'll get to that part later on in this article.
Collaborate with Other Artists
Collaborating with other artists is an excellent way to get your music heard by a new audience. By working with other musicians, you can tap into their fanbase and gain exposure to new listeners. Here are some tips for collaborating with other artists:
Reach out to artists in your genre and pitch collaboration ideas.
Use platforms like SoundBetter and Splice to find and connect with other musicians.
Host collaborative live performances and events to showcase your music.
Promote your collaborations on social media and other platforms.
Reach Out to Playlist Curators
Playlists are one of the most powerful tools for getting your music heard on Spotify. By getting your music added to popular playlists, you can reach a wider audience and increase your streams. Here are some tips for reaching out to playlist curators:
Research popular playlists in your genre and pitch your music to the curators.
Use services like SubmitHub and PlaylistPush to connect with playlist curators.
Build relationships with playlist curators by engaging with their content and sharing their playlists.
Create your own playlists and add other artists' music to increase your visibility.
ALWAYS thank a curator on Social Media if they do add you to their playlist
When using SubmitHub, it's important to actually research the playlists that you're submitting to and be honest if your song is a good fit for it or not. New to SubmitHub is also the ability to submit your songs to social media influencers. Think your tune might be a good fit to start a new dance trend? Submitting to an influencer might be the jumpstart it needs. Again, do your homework on an influencer before you submit. If their audience isn't the kind that would like your music then there's no point.
Submitting to playlists on SubmitHub usually costs $1-3 per submission, with a free option as well. Getting a guaranteed share from an influencer has a much wider price range, but it's hard to beat such immediate exposure of your music. For more tips on submitting to SubmitHub, check out this video.
Run Spotify Ad Campaigns
Spotify offers various advertising options that can help you reach a wider audience and increase your streams. By running ad campaigns, you can target specific demographics and locations and promote your music to potential listeners. Here are some tips for running Spotify ad campaigns:
Define your target audience and set clear goals for your campaign.
Use engaging visuals and a compelling call-to-action to encourage listeners to stream your music.
Test different ad formats and placements to find what works best for your campaign.
Monitor your results and adjust your campaign as needed to optimize your performance.
Make Your Music Sound Pro
If someone comes upon your song while listening to a playlist on Spotify, one of the quickest ways to make them skip is if your song has a flat or uninteresting mix. Discover Weekly is full of amazing-sounding music and if yours doesn't stack up, it will stick out and perform poorly.
It can be fairly easy to find a cheap mixing engineer on sites like SoundBetter or Fiverr, but the results can be widely varied and you likely still won't have a sound on-par with the songs your competing with. It's usually worth the investment to hire a dedicated pro mix engineer who specializes in your genre to get the most out of your songs. (If you're an alternative or indie artist, check out Echo Mixing!)
The "DO NOT DO" List
Here are some things to stay away from:
Buying fake streams
Spamming your social media followers with the "Listen to my new song right now"
Using an automated mastering service
Mixing songs yourself if you don't have lots of experience
To conclude, obviously the most important ingredient to growing your following and gaining more streams is to have good music in the first place. It's crucial to always be putting effort towards improving your craft. Not every song you write will be a hit, and in fact, even for the pros it's sometimes a numbers game. A well-balanced approach between making great music and great content to support growth is the best solution. Great music doesn't necessarily sell itself, it just makes marketing a whole lot easier and gives a better shot at success if you can get the ball rolling.