Getting your music on Spotify and all major streaming platforms has never been so easy and affordable! There is no excuse to not have your music on Spotify. Switching from Soundcloud to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer and all major streaming platforms is so gratifying! In this article, we will walk you through the Spotify For Artists platform, the benefits of Spotify For Artists, and how to create an artist profile on Spotify.
What Is Spotify For Artists?
Spotify For Artists is a free service/platform provided by Spotify that allows you to claim your Spotify artist profile, become verified, and access stats and tools to further your career! The platform is accessible to any artist with at least one song released on their platform.
If you haven’t signed up for Spotify Premium yet – what are you waiting for?! Sign up now to enjoy unlimited ad-free music, anywhere!
Benefits Of Spotify For Artists
First off, Spotify For Artists allows you to make changes to your Spotify artist profile to make it look more professional. This will help you attract more fans, curators, and other professionals in the industry.
It’s time to take a step further by paying close attention to your analytics and the amazing services Spotify for Artists has to offer. You will be able to find all of your analytics and be able to make calculated decisions on Playlisting, where are your tracks performing better, which song should be turned into a music video, and more.
More on the analytics later. Let’s have a look at the platform!
Spotify For Artists Home Page
The Spotify For Artists home page is a perfect recap of how your artist Spotify page is doing. You can see your top three songs, what playlist you are on, and a quick seven-day recap of your Streams, Listeners, and Followers… More information about the differences between Listeners, followers, and streams later on, but now let’s focus on the other benefits of the Home page.
Spotify Playlists For Artists
If you have an upcoming release, this is where Spotify will remind you to submit your song for Spotify Curated Playlists. These are the major playlist such as Rap Caviar (13 million followers), Hot Country (6 million followers), Viva Latino (10 million followers)… Some artists have launched their career thanks to one placement on one of Spotify’s curated playlist!
You have probably already done your research on how to get your music on playlists and it’s not easy. I often get asked how to get placed on Spotify’s curated playlists besides being discovered by a Spotify employee. You can pitch to these Spotify curated playlists, but they are accessible ONLY through the Spotify for Artist platform. Keep in mind you can only submit one release at a time and it is of the utmost importance to set a release date far enough in advance to even be considered.
At Мusic Gateway we work closely with you to get you placements on these curated playlists as well as other playlists that will grow your streams and fanbase. We’re here to help so get in touch with our music promotion team and let’s see what we can do!
Your Music
This is one of the most important pages on Spotify for Artists. Here is where you’ll access all of the information and analytics for all of your music. How many streams, what playlists each song is on, how many ‘Saves’ a song has etc…
Understanding this information is crucial for your career!
For example: You released an Album or EP and now you’re wondering which song you should make a video for.
You might think it’s “Track 2”, which is your favorite… But “Track 5” is getting the most streams and saves. There is your answer! Without Spotify for Artists you would never have known.
Spotify Wrapped For Artists
Spotify For Artists Wrapped is a yearly summary of an artist’s streaming activity on Spotify. It provides insights into their music’s performance, such as how many streams, followers, and fans they have gained over the course of a year. It also provides a personalized playlist of their top tracks and a timeline of their streaming activity.
How To Understand Your Analytics
What is the difference between Streams, Saves and Listeners? What should you pay attention to? How do they relate? Here we go:
Streams: This is how many times a song has been ‘streamed’. A stream counts as when someone has listened to your song for over 30 seconds. This will also give you an idea of your income. Use our streaming royalties calculator to determine how much you’ll earn from your number of streams. Or, find out more about how much Spotify pays for artists in comparison to other streaming services in this guide to music streaming services. But remember, depending on your distributor, you will get paid at least 3 months later. Keep that in mind.
Listeners: This is how many individual people have listened to your song. I can be a huge fan of your song and listen to it on repeat… generating hundreds of streams but I only count as one listener. This is a good metric to see how “catchy” a song is (high stream count / Low listener count = fans are playing your song over and over again!)
Saves: This is how many times your song has been saved by a Spotify user. Meaning either they hit the “heart” button or they simply added your song to their private playlist.
What’s important to know is your “Save / Stream ratio”. This is how Spotify’s Algorithm knows if a song is ‘good’ or not.
Algorithmic Placements
As you may know, Spotify also generates “Algorithmic Playlists” based on what you like as a user. You’ll see this translate into your Daily Mix, Discover Weekly, etc.
Spotify’s algorithm specifically looks at your Save / Stream ratio. This must not be under 10% if you want your song to be picked up by an algorithmic playlist. It also helps Spotify prevent artists paying for streams or using bots to get their streaming numbers up.
Getting on those algorithmic playlists isn’t about how big you are. You could have 500 000 streams, but if your ratio is under 10%, you will never make it on those playlists. As strange as it sounds, an artist with only 100 streams and 10 saves is better off than you in that case as they will make it on those playlists and you won’t.
So in other words, DON’T BUY FAKE STREAMS! It will only hurt you in the long run…. It doesn’t just hurt your chances of getting on algorithmic playlists, it can be very damaging to your music overall. Learn more about the perils of paying for streams in this guide on payola and other music industry scams.
Free Music Distribution With Мusic Gateway!
You read that right! We are one of Spotify’s approved distribution partners!
Our incredible music distribution service gets your music onto all major platforms such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, and of course Spotify! What’s more, you keep 100% of your sales and we don’t get a penny from you.
We also master your music for free to make sure that you sound the best you can before your release. With a free account, you get 2 free songs to start with and you get more based on your plan.
In addition, we offer exclusive sync licensing opportunities and free sync representation. As well as free press, blog and music promotion.
Hopefully, you’ll love what we can do for your career and will want to use some of these other amazing services!
The Secrets Of Playlists
Playlists are a great way to start building your “network”… We all know how important it is to get your songs playlisted! It is a well-known strategy to get your music discovered and have a regular stream of income!
This is an area that Spotify for Artist excels! You have three types of playlists:
Algorithmic: these are “Computer” generated playlists, based on the Spotify user’s taste! “Release Radar”, “Discover weekly”, “Radio”, Your Daily Mix”…
Editorial: these are the famous Spotify Curated Playlist! These playlists are accessible only by submitting your songs through Spotify for Artist or directly by a Spotify employee!
Listener: these are playlist curated by Spotify listeners.
Hunting down playlist curators and submitting your songs is one way to do it, but what about contacting the playlist you are already on?
Spotify for Artist allows you to access the playlist you are already on and contact the individual that curated the playlist! Build your network! Reach out and thank them for their support! You will also be able to contact them directly for future releases!
You can directly click on the playlist and you will be taken to the playlist profile on Spotify. From there you can research the curator and with a little luck get in contact with them!
You will also be able to see how many of your songs are on that playlist and how many streams are being generated. These stats are directly correlated with your “Audience” Page…
Who Is Your Audience?
Remember the difference between Listeners and Streams? This page allows you to have a detailed view on how your Spotify profile is doing over time! You will be able to view your growth, how many streams you’re getting a day and if they are dropping or growing! The same goes for your listeners and followers.
Followers… yes don’t forget about them! You might think your monthly streams is the most important data, but don’t neglect your followers! Building a career as an artist is a long term project! You need patience, patience and more patience… Your followers are directly related to your streams! Especially when you are releasing new music…
Why Are Spotify Followers Important?
Think about it like this:
Your previous song was placed on hundreds of playlists! You are getting a great number of streams, your career is launched! You’re averaging about 10 000 monthly listeners without any promotion thanks to those playlists! Your expectations are high for your next release! But nothing… you only get 2 streams on your release date. Why?? It’s probably because you have no followers!
Followers are extremely important for your career! That’s the issue with playlists… You might get a great number of streams, but if those listeners are not converting to followers… you’re stuck.
This is another reason why you should never pay to be on playlists. You won’t be able to trust your analytics anymore. Your paid track will perform better than the others, but this doesn’t mean your true fans are enjoying it! This means you might invest in a music video for it, you might use it to pitch to labels when actually it’s a totally different track to your hit single! Not to mention labels can easily recognize paid playlisting. It’s no better than paying for streams…
Growing your Spotify fanbase or your followers is an important step for an artist’s career. So keep a very close eye on your follower growth!
Spotify Stats For Artists
You will also find detailed information on your listeners! Where they are from, how old are they, what other artist are they listening to?
You might think these are just minor details… but no! This is vital information in helping you grow your fanbase, plan tours, collaborations and more.
To be a successful independent artist you need to see yourself as a “Business”. Your fans are your customers, they are streaming your music, purchasing concert tickets, buying merch etc. So getting as much information as you can about your customers is the first step in any business (after having a great product, which in this case is your music!).
You can then, for example, use this information to create Facebook ads to promote your latest music video! Here is an example:
I see my fans are mostly men between the age of 18 to 35. So what does this mean? I am going to tell Facebook to show my ads only to these people!
If you are not familiar with Facebook ads, well… It’s time to learn! Facebook allows you to target a very detailed audience that will see your ads. Spotify for Artists shows you directly who to target with your Facebook ads: age, gender, country, what music they like…
Worldwide Statistics
Let’s go a little deeper. Imagine you’re planning a tour… No actually, let’s imagine you are planning to go on vacation! You have two weeks off work and want to travel.
You will find a list of countries that are streaming your music! So why not plan a vacation to Argentina and Brazil? I could easily book a few shows just by showing these stats to the venue!
But Argentina and Brazil are huge! What city should I go to?
I see I have 74 listeners in Buenos Aires, Argentina! Great, I will contact a few bars in Buenos Aires that match my music style and book a show! If they are hesitant I will just show these stats! Out of the 74 listeners maybe 20 will show up! The same goes for Sao Paulo, Brazil! Let me contact a few venues there!
Oh wait… I also see Santiago in Chile has 227 listeners! I have always wanted to go to Chile!
Now I have my two-week South America trip all planned out!
You have all the information a Major Record Label has when they plan these worldwide tours, so use it! You can even make a reference about your top city in your future release! How do you feel when one of your favourite artists makes a reference to where you live?
How To Collaborate
Spotify for Artists also gives you a list of other artists that your fans like! This is a great opportunity to either make a cover of one of those artists or even collaborate! Why should you make collaborations? Well, this will help you get new fans obviously! What better way to get discovered than placing your music in front of people that already like your genre? Your collaborators’ fans will be able to hear you and vice versa! Learn more about the benefits and how-to of music collaboration.
Take your time and go through every artist and find someone you like and who is reachable! Obviously, if Madonna is on the list, it will be pretty hard to collaborate! But most of the time, you will be able to find some artists with a similar-sized fanbase. Download the Spotify for Artists app right now to take advantage of their offers.
The Internet makes everything so much easier! Just send out an email or find them on social media!
How To Claim Your Spotify For Artists Profile
The first step you need to do is to go on Spotify for Artists login to claim your artist page. This will allow Spotify to know that YOU will be the one in charge of your Artist profile (cover picture, bio, concerts, profile picture…). Artists can claim their Spotify profiles by creating a Spotify For Artist login, then login to the Spotify For Artists platform and claim your profile! Yes, it’s really that simple. If you need more guidance on how to create a Spotify account for artists, help is available on this page.
Spotify for Artists is an amazing tool for any artists out there. Claim your profile as soon as you can! Spotify has always prioritized artists and this free tool is a must-have! Take the time to go through some of their articles and take advantage of this platform, as well as others such as Apple Music For Artists, YouTube For Artists and Amazon Music For Artists. Creating a pre-save campaign is also an important step – so don’t forget to think about this before you schedule your releases!
Most importantly though, don’t forget our FREE music distribution service here at Мusic Gateway!
If you’d like a helping hand to optimize your Spotify profile and make it the very best it can be, we can help. Our music promotion team will work with you toward your goals to amplify your music and grow your career.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
