How Much Do Spotify Playlist Curators Make?

Nobody publishes a reliable figure, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What a curator earns swings hugely with the genre, how real the playlist's listening is, and how much work they take on, and for most curators it's side income. What you can work out is your own number, per month and per hour, and which levers move it.

Where the money comes from

Spotify pays a playlist owner nothing, however many people listen. Stream money goes to the rights holders behind the music, so every dollar a curator earns comes from artists, brands, or products of their own. Does Spotify pay playlist curators explains why.

For most curators, that means artists paying for marketing around a track, such as a feature or a promotional post. Spotify's User Guidelines ban taking money to put a track on a playlist, and being paid just to consider one breaks the rules too, so neither is ever what you're paid for.

The levers that decide what you earn

1. Whether your listening is real. This one gates everything. Artists can see in Spotify for Artists exactly how many listeners a playlist sent them, so a padded follower count earns you no repeat business, and platforms that check playlists turn it away.
2. How clear your genre is. Artists pay to reach listeners who fit their track. "Indie folk" is an obvious fit for indie folk artists. "Good vibes" is an obvious fit for nobody, however big it is.
3. How much demand your genre has. Some genres have far more artists releasing and promoting music than others, and more artists means more campaigns that fit your playlist.
4. How many playlists you run. Two or three strong playlists in neighboring genres give artists more to choose from, and the second one takes a fraction of the effort the first did.
5. How quickly you respond. A campaign that sits unanswered moves on to the next fitting curator, so curators who listen within a day take on more campaigns.

Count your hours honestly

Your earnings only mean something next to the time they took. For one playlist run properly, a typical week looks like this:

• Listening to candidates: 60 to 120 minutes.
• Updating the playlist: about 15 minutes, moving new tracks to the top and retiring tracks from the bottom.
• Messaging artists you added: about 15 minutes.
• Posting about the update: 30 to 60 minutes, including making a short clip.
• Answering messages: about 15 minutes.

That's roughly three to four hours a week, or 13 to 17 hours a month, plus an hour for a monthly check of the whole playlist. Count the listening you do to find tracks as work. Listening for pleasure stays yours.

Work out your hourly rate

Take last month:

1. Add up what you were actually paid.
2. Add up the hours from the list above.
3. Divide the first by the second.

The first time, the number is usually low, and that's fine. It's a starting point, and the useful part is watching it move over the next six months. Here's what the shape of it tells you:

• Low rate, lots of hours: you're spending too long finding music. It's the most common shape, and the easiest to fix.
• Low rate, few hours: the playlist isn't there yet. Keep building real listening and check again in three months.
• A rate that climbs month by month: it's compounding. Better listening brings better artists, who bring better music.
• A rate that's flat for six months: something structural, usually a vague genre, listening that isn't real, or a routine you keep breaking.

Keep a note on your phone with four numbers each month: hours, campaigns, earnings, and followers on the first. Six entries show you the trend.

Where most of the hours go

For nearly every curator, finding music takes more time than everything else combined, and it's the one task that earns nothing directly.

The old way makes it worse. Submission platforms pay a few dollars per review, so you spend whole afternoons listening to tracks that mostly don't fit your playlist, and the rate barely covers the time. Being paid just to consider tracks also breaks Spotify's rules, which puts your playlist at risk. Hunting for music on your own is free, but it eats the same afternoons.

On Soundmango, tracks that already fit your playlist come to you, with the earnings shown before you listen. You take on the campaigns you want, and each one takes a few minutes: you rate the track and publish a post we've already drafted. One campaign earns you more than an afternoon of per-review listening. The hunting hours drop out of your week, and your hourly rate goes up without you touching anything else.

What to expect

For most curators this is side income: one good playlist, a handful of paid campaigns a month, and money for time they were spending anyway.

It becomes real money for curators who run several strong playlists in genres with plenty of artists, keep a fixed weekly routine, and have listening that stands up to being checked. That usually takes a year or more of steady work first. How to increase your earnings as a curator covers what to change once you're earning.

Frequently asked questions

Do Spotify playlist curators get paid by Spotify?

No. A user playlist earns its owner nothing from streams, at any size.

How many followers do I need before I can earn?

Fewer than most curators think, as long as the listening is real and the genre is clear. Artists would rather reach a focused few thousand than an idle hundred thousand.

Is curating a Spotify playlist a full-time job?

Rarely. A small number of people run many playlists as a business, and for almost everyone else it's side income.

How many hours a week does a playlist take?

Three to four for one playlist done properly. Under two and the quality slips, and above six you're almost certainly spending the extra on finding music.

What's a good hourly rate for a curator?

There's no benchmark worth quoting. Measure yourself against your own last six months, and treat a rising rate as the sign it's working.

Find out what your playlist can earn

Your taste and your listeners are the valuable part, and the hunting is the part that wastes your hours. On Soundmango, artists in your genre come to you, you're paid for the campaigns you take on, and your earnings arrive every month. See what your playlist could earn.