How to Find Better Music for Your Spotify Playlist

The best music for your playlist is the music nobody else has found yet, and it turns up in a handful of reliable places: the artists already on your playlist, Spotify's related artists, small labels, Bandcamp and genre communities, live shows, and other curators' playlists. Here they are, roughly in order of how much good music each returns per hour, plus a rotation that keeps any one of them from going stale.

Artists already on your playlist

The cheapest source, and the one most curators forget. Every artist you've added has a back catalog, a label, a producer, and collaborators, all making music in your genre.

When a track works, spend ten minutes on the artist: their other releases, who they thank in the credits, who they've featured with. One good find usually leads to three more.

Spotify's related artists and Release Radar

Open an artist you love and look at the "Fans also like" list. Then do it again from the artists you find there. Three levels down is where the small acts sit.

Release Radar brings you new releases from artists you follow and listen to, so following your finds turns it into a weekly feed of their next tracks. Ten minutes on a Friday covers most of it.

Small labels in your genre

Small labels are run by people doing exactly what you do. Find the three or four that serve your niche, follow them, and check their releases every month.

A label whose last five signings would all suit your playlist is worth more than any recommendation feed, because somebody with taste has already filtered for you.

Bandcamp and the corners of the internet

Bandcamp is where unsigned artists in most genres put music first. Tag pages, genre feeds, and the collections of people who like what you like all turn up music that hasn't reached playlists yet.

Genre blogs, radio shows, YouTube channels covering your scene, and small music forums work the same way. They're slow, and the hit rate is high, because people did the filtering.

Live music

The best source most curators skip. A local gig in your genre gives you two or three artists an evening, and something no feed can give you: you've met them, and they'll remember you when you add them.

Support slots are where the finds are. The opening act at a small venue is usually the artist nobody has written about yet.

Other curators' playlists

Playlists in your exact niche are lists of artists working in your genre, already filtered by someone with taste. Take the names and go exploring.

Do this for the artists you'd never have found yourself, and skip anything already on twenty other playlists.

Communities where people argue about the genre

Subreddits, Discord servers, and forum threads where people recommend music to each other. Weekly recommendation threads are a free, filtered feed, and the people posting are your future listeners.

Open submissions: the old way

Once your playlist has a reputation, artists start sending you tracks: by email, in DMs, through submission platforms. It looks like the easiest source, and it's the slowest per good find. Most of what arrives doesn't fit, and on submission platforms you're paid a few dollars per review to sit through the pile anyway. Those platforms charge artists just to have their track considered, which Spotify's rules don't allow.

Soundmango flips that. A track only reaches you when it already fits your playlist, you see what you'd earn before you listen, and you choose which campaigns to take on. One campaign earns you more than an afternoon of per-review listening. Whether the track goes on your playlist is your call, and it pays nothing either way. It's the one source on this list that finds you and pays you. See how it works for curators.

Build a rotation across sources

Any source goes stale when it's the only one you use, and curators whose playlists get boring are usually running on one feed. A rotation that works:

• Weekly: Release Radar, your labels, and your Soundmango queue.
• Monthly: two hours on Bandcamp or a blog crawl, plus other curators' playlists.
• Quarterly: a gig, and a proper dig into the collaborators of your best finds.

Keep everything you find in one private shortlist playlist, and decide from it on your listening day.

Frequently asked questions

Where do playlist curators find new music?

Mostly from artists already on their playlist, from small labels and Release Radar, from Bandcamp and genre communities, from live music, and from other curators. The mix matters more than any single source.

How do I find unsigned artists?

Bandcamp, support slots at small venues, and three levels deep in Spotify's related artists. Anything with a few hundred monthly listeners and a finished-sounding recording is worth a listen.

Should I add tracks from artists who sent them to me?

Yes, when they fit and clear your bar, exactly like any other source. Where a track came from tells you nothing about whether it's good.

How much new music should I listen to each week?

Enough to add three to five tracks at your quality bar, which for most curators means auditioning ten to twenty. How to evaluate tracks for your Spotify playlist shows how to get through them quickly.

The source that pays you back

Every source here costs you hours, and one of them brings the music to you. Join Soundmango as a curator and tracks that already fit your playlist reach your queue, you get paid for the campaigns you take on, and every decision about your playlist stays yours.