Spotify Playlists Guide: Spotify has nearly 50 million public playlists. Playlists, whether built by algorithms, Spotify’s curators, or listeners around the world, are the single most effective way to promote your music in front of millions of prospective fans.
From “Algotorial Playlists” to “Pinned Positions” and “Priority Tracks,” we’ll take a deep dive into the most up-to-date information on how to have your music noticed on all types of Spotify playlists in this guide!
The Foundation
Spotify’s Playlist ecology is vast. Unlike Apple Music and Amazon Music, Spotify allows all users to create public playlists and so become third-party tastemakers who may share their love of music.
In general, getting added to a playlist does not always result in an increase in the number of streams. Instead, there are a few key criteria that make some placements more valuable than others.
Position
Being added at the top of a playlist will always result in more plays than being added at the bottom.
The rationale is simple: nearly no one will listen to the same playlist for 150 tracks in a row. The rate at which consumers continue to listen to the same playlist decreases as they progress through it.
As a result, being in the top ranks will make a significant impact in turning a greater number of playlist followers into active listeners.
Followers
The number of followers a playlist has has a significant impact on how effective a placement might be. But it’s not just about the amount of followers; it’s also about the quality of those who follow.
Is the playlist genuinely popular, with engaged listeners, or are the followers inactive, and the playlist was inflated to appear more popular than it is?
To examine how many streams are generated by a specific playlist, go to ‘Spotify for Artists‘ and see which playlists generate the most plays and saves.
Type
Spotify categorizes playlists into several sorts based on who is curating them. All of the different types of playlists have distinct characteristics that set them apart and necessitate various techniques for efficient playlist advertising.
There are now five types of Spotify playlists:
- Editorial Playlists
- Algorithmic Playlists
- Personalized Playlists
- Listener Playlists
- Artist Playlists
Let’s take a look at all of the different types to see how they’re aggregated and what you can do to get recognized.
Editorial Playlists
“Editorial Playlists” are premium playlists prepared by Spotify’s in-house staff of “tastemakers.”
They are handmade to fit many moods, genres, lives, cultures, and issues from all over the world.
This includes “New Music Friday,” which includes the newest tunes by major artists from various areas, and “Housewerk,” which emphasizes the best in electronic music.
These playlists” are highly selective and have a large fan base.
To be considered for inclusion in any of these “tastemaker” playlists, you must submit your new release via Spotify for Artists. Pitching your music will provide Spotify’s editors and algorithm with more information about a song’s mood, instrumentation, culture, and backstory.
Only by sending these details will your release appear in Spotify’s internal dashboard, allowing their staff to discover you and your music.
Consistency is essential, and Spotify wants to know not only why you’re uploading your tune, but also how it was created and who helped.
Give extra context for what makes your release unique, and help people understand you as an artist by revealing some interesting details that will entice them to support you.
Remember that “editorial playlists” are chosen by individuals who listen to thousands of songs each week: stand out to fit in!
Algorithmic Playlists
“Algorithmic Playlists,” such as Discover “Weekly” and “Your Daily Drive,” are tailored to each listener’s preferences.
They are fully created by algorithms that closely examine the listening patterns of both the listeners and people with similar tastes.
These habits include activities such as plays, likes, shares, skips, and playlist additions, and they are computed to propose music that is best suited to listeners.
In contrast to editorial playlists, which often highlight brand-new releases and are refreshed every few weeks to promote other tracks, “algorithmic playlists” are highly optimized for listening time and can continue to recommend your tunes for months or even years.
“Seasonal playlists” like Wrapped and Summer Rewind keep listeners interested and allow you to accumulate streams over time.
In the end, “algorithmic playlists” are frequently the ones responsible for the most plays.
Many aspects must be considered in order to be picked up by the algorithm and featured. Make sure to submit your new music to Spotify at least one week before its release date for Artists to be placed in the Release Radar for all of your followers.
In general, the more popular your song is and the more followers you have, the more of these playlists you’ll end up on.
Spotify believes that even internet chats about your music will help affect the algorithm.
More information about how to share your music may be found in their Promotion guide.
Personalized Playlists
Personalized Playlists are a fascinating combination of editorial and algorithm playlists.
They are essentially “personalized editorial playlists” with different tracks for different listeners, but they are still curated and influenced by Spotify’s editorial team.
That’s why Spotify refers to them as “Algotorial Playlists” internally!
The notion of these playlists is somewhat new, but it has shown to be quite beneficial in terms of keeping listeners interested and their retention rate high.
“Algotorial Playlists,” as the name implies, are both editorial and part algorithmic, combining the best of both worlds.
This fusion can be perplexing because positions differ for each listener, but it appears that certain tracks are frequently featured at the top of a playlist for all users.
We conducted significant study and code digging to learn more about how these playlists are formed, and we discovered some fascinating findings:
1- “Spotify’s editorial team” curates a foundational selection of tunes for these playlists.
This is the list of tracks that anyone who opens the playlist “unpersonalized” in an incognito/private browser would see.
2- Once logged in, Spotify begins to shuffle tracks around, and what was once at the top of the playlist is now completely different — but hold on.
Pinned Positions have appeared for all logged-in users. Tracks that, despite the fact that the playlist is now personalized, are at the same place regardless of which listener opens the playlist.
These pinned locations are determined by “Spotify’s editorial team” and feature timestamps that indicate the range of days during which a given music is pinned to a specific position.
Typically, between 20 and 40 tracks from a personalized playlist are pinned to their position for around a week. So, if a track is pinned at position #3, anyone who is logged in and opens the playlist will discover the same song there.
3- Now that we know that certain music remains in the same positions, in addition to the playlist being otherwise personalized by the algorithm, there is another intriguing phenomenon.
Spotify selects Priority Tracks, which are always at the top of the playlist when mixed.
Typically, there are 10 priority tracks that will appear at the top of the playlist regardless of who opens it, and only the tracks following that are customised based on the users’ listening habits.
These findings astounded us since they indicate that Spotify actively selects the tunes to be highlighted in the most prominent playlists in their ecosystem.
Their editorial team has the ability to pin a song to the top of the playlist and can influence the playlist to play some songs considerably more frequently than others.
At Songstats, we’re currently developing a brand-new method to track and alert you if your song is one of the Priority Tracks in these Personalized Playlists, as well as if you’ve secured one of the coveted Pinned Positions.
Meanwhile, if you are featured on one of these playlists but are not pinned or prioritized, you can share it using a unique link.
This ensures that anybody hits it will see your track at the top of the playlist for the next 24 hours, thus giving you editorial control.
Listener Playlists
Spotify is fantastic! They enable all of their listeners to create public playlists and, in effect, become third-party “tastemakers” who can share their favorite tracks.
Spotify has almost 50 million Listener Playlists. From festivals promoting their headlining acts to labels promoting their latest albums to gym goers sharing their workout playlists, there is something for everyone.
Spotify’s environment is highly adaptable, which is one of the reasons they have led the industry for so long.
The sheer number of Listener Playlists is mind-boggling, and connecting with fans can directly lead to more of their friends and followers discovering your songs via their playlists.
To get your music on some of the most popular Listener Playlists, you’ll need to make personal connections with the folks curating them.
Personal contacts with playlist owners can go a long way toward securing continuous placements, but they are time demanding.
If the grind becomes too severe, certain public relations firms will distribute your fresh releases with influencers and curators.
Personal experience has shown me that they can be hit or miss and can end up costing a lot of money. Some promotional networks are even attempting to sell placements, which is a violation of Spotify’s terms of service, and Spotify has previously shut down playlist marketplaces such as SpotLister.
Instead, you may look into SubmitHub.
They’ve simplified the process of pitching your release to playlist owners, bloggers, YouTubers, and radio stations, and they’ve made it simple to contact various influencers about including your music.
Artist Playlists
While we’re on the subject of listener playlists, why not create your own public playlist? Artist Playlists are a terrific way to interact with other artists, showcase your favorite music, and share your hidden gems with your audience.
Artist Playlists are all of the playlists that are directly featured on an Artist page, according to Songstats. Through Spotify for Artists, you may pin your own playlist to your artist profile and use Songstats to be notified when another artist playlists one of your songs.
Develop sure to seek out and make personal connections with other artists in order to be on their radar; who knows, maybe your next collaboration is just one playlist add away!
