In today’s era of streaming in the music industry, one of the biggest trends to surface has been marketing through Spotify playlists. While some independent curators charge for slots on their lists, others just curate their playlists for pure enjoyment. Although the process of pitching to curators and getting placed can often time seem like a drag, the results can be impeccable. The main problem I see with many managers and artists is that they shoot a thousand emails to a thousand different curators while missing some vital pieces of the pitching process.
Here are 5 tips to hopefully make the process a little less painful
Tip #1: Don’t send mass emails!
This is probably the worst mistake I have seen artists make. To avoid sending a thousand individual emails, some artists will simply just stack the same email with a number of different addresses. This is not a great way to do it at all. Curators can easily tell when you’ve sent a mass email and normally won’t even consider your track because of it.
Tip #2: Be specific!
One of the biggest mistakes I see artists and managers make while pitching to curators is being too general in the email. Something like “Hey, I came across your playlist on Spotify and thought my song would fit great” won’t cut it. One of the most helpful things you can do is be specific as to why your song would fit on the playlist. Maybe tell the curator how you came across his list, how you sound like an artist already on there, or something like that.
Tip #3: Give Compliments
This is a step almost 99 percent of artists and managers miss. I highly recommend giving the curator a compliment when submitting your song. This sets a nice tone and can easily win some brownie points. Don’t go overboard, just be kind.
Tip #4: Give Context!
I can’t stress the importance of giving context when pitching your song. Having a story behind your music brings it to life. It makes it real. By relaying your story to the curator you are opening a door for an emotional connection to the song. A lot of modern day decisions are based heavily on emotion.
Tip #5: Establish Relationship First
A key step to building your playlist volume up on Spotify is to become close with curators. If you can be friends with the curator take that opportunity. I’ve seen artists get on New Music Friday just from personally knowing a curator.
Final Thoughts
The process for building up a base of playlists on Spotify can be challenging, but the benefits are super important. When you stack up playlists you have a lot better shot of making Spotify’s own playlists and in-betweens like Discover Weekly. It’s all about the algorithm.