How to Build a Spotify Promotion Strategy as an Independent Artist

A Spotify promotion strategy is one written plan you run for every release: a goal for the release, a job for each channel you use, a six week schedule, and a record of what happened. You keep the plan the same each time and change one thing, so after a few releases you know what works for your music. Here's how to build each part, with a schedule you can copy.

Decide which track gets promoted

Promotion starts before the plan, with the track. Put every finished track through three checks before you spend anything on it:

• It holds up when you play it straight after a released track by an artist one step ahead of you in the same genre, at the same volume.
• You can name its genre in three words, like "warm indie folk".
• The first few seconds give a listener a reason to stay.

A track that fails a check still comes out on its release date, and your followers still hear it. You just keep your money for the next track that passes all three. How to decide which tracks are worth promoting goes through each check in detail.

Set one goal for the release

Write down, in one sentence, what this release is for. The goal decides where your time goes.

• If you're early on, the goal is usually discovery: getting the track in front of listeners who like your genre and have never heard of you. Playlists and short video carry most of the weight.
• If you already have listeners, the goal might be bringing them back on release day and reaching the people next to them. Messaging your fans and posting where they already follow you matter more.

Anything that doesn't serve the goal gets left out of this release, however good it looks.

Give each channel a job

Each channel does one thing well. Pick two or three, give each one a job, and run them properly:

• The Spotify for Artists pitch is free and puts the track in front of Spotify's editors. Done in time, it also puts the track in your followers' Release Radar.
• Independent playlists put the track in front of listeners who already play your genre, in the middle of music they chose.
• Short video makes people familiar with you and gives them a reason to go looking for the track.
• Messages to your fans, by email or on the accounts where they follow you, bring the first listens on release day from people who already care.
• Ads and press buy reach or add a story. They're optional, and they work best once the other three are running.

Independent playlists are where the old way eats the most hours. Pitching them yourself means finding playlists in your exact genre, checking they have real listeners, tracking down each curator, writing each pitch, and waiting, often for silence or a generic decline. Pitching platforms trade those hours for a fee per curator, with no promise of anything in return. That model isn't compliant with Spotify's rules either: they don't allow charging for placements, or even for considering a track for placement, and it's the artist who carries the risk.

On Soundmango that whole job is one step. You start a campaign, set the genres and minimum follower count you want, see the price, and pay once. Your track only goes to curators whose playlists fit, and when one passes, it goes to the next until one takes on your campaign. Approved tracks have an estimated 99% chance of landing on at least one playlist, and if no curator takes it on, you get every cent back.

The six week schedule

Write this out once with your own dates, and reuse it every release.

Six weeks out: decide

Run the three checks, write the genre in three words, and write the one-sentence goal. Everything after this uses them.

Four weeks out: get everything ready

Finish the master and artwork, and send the release to your distributor with the date set, so it reaches Spotify well before the pitch deadline. Write your genre in three words, since it goes into both the Spotify pitch and your campaign, and shoot two or three short video clips.

Two weeks out: pitch Spotify for Artists

Pitch the track to Spotify's editors from Spotify for Artists. Spotify's rules, from its guide to pitching music to playlist editors:

• Pitch at least 7 days before release, and the track goes into your followers' Release Radar.
• You can pitch one track at a time.
• Pitching doesn't guarantee a spot on an editorial playlist, so fill in the details properly and describe the track plainly.

Two weeks gives you a safe margin on the seven days.

Release week: everything at once

Your track is new this week, and you're posting about it anyway, so everything goes out together:

• Your Soundmango campaign, started the day the track is out, so curators in your genre hear it while it's new.
• Two or three short videos, and a post on every account.
• A message to your fans with the link.
• Your Soundmango campaign, if you're using one.

Weeks two to four: keep going

Keep posting video. Then open Spotify for Artists and look at where your listens came from. Under Segmentation, then Source of Streams, it splits them into sources such as other listeners' playlists, editorial playlists, and algorithmic features like Release Radar and Discover Weekly, according to Spotify's guide to source of streams.

Week six: write it down

Fill in one row of your record. It takes ten minutes, and it's the step that makes the next release better.

Keep a record, and change one thing per release

Keep one row per release, with the same columns every time:

• Date and track.
• What you spent, and on what.
• Playlist placements, and which playlists.
• Saves four weeks after release.
• Followers gained.
• Cost per save.
• The one thing you changed, and whether you'd keep it.

Change one thing per release: the genres or minimum follower count in your campaign, the clips you post, where you post them, or the release day. Change three at once and the row can't tell you which one worked. How to measure Spotify playlist promotion results explains each column, and From Random Promotion to a Professional Music Marketing Strategy has a worked cost-per-save example.

Make each release start from the last

The plan pays off when each release starts with more than the one before:

• The genres and playlist sizes that worked last time go straight into your next campaign.
• Everyone who followed you gets the new track in Release Radar, as long as you pitch it in time.
• The playlists that brought real listeners go to the top of your list.
• The one change that worked stays in the plan.

There's more on this in how to build momentum from one release to the next.

Keep fake growth out of the plan

Bought streams and bot-driven playlists wreck the one thing this plan depends on: numbers you can trust. Spotify can withhold royalties, correct your stream counts, and pull your track from playlists when it finds artificial streaming, according to its guide to artificial streaming and paid services. Any service that promises a number of streams or a guaranteed playlist spot for money is one to skip. How to tell if a playlist has real listeners shows you what to check.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should I plan a release?

Six weeks. That leaves time to finish the track, get it to your distributor, pitch Spotify for Artists at least 7 days before release, and have your video and campaign ready without rushing.

How often should I release?

As often as you can give each release the full plan. For many independent artists that's a single every six to eight weeks, which keeps your followers hearing from you in Release Radar without cutting corners on each release.

How much should I spend on each release?

An amount you could spend again on the next one. Most of this plan is free, so the money usually goes on one or two paid steps. Keeping the spend steady also keeps your record comparable from one release to the next.

Should playlist promotion be my whole strategy?

No. Playlists are one channel. They work best alongside video, your own fans, and the Spotify for Artists pitch, each doing its own job.

What should I do if a release underperforms?

Keep the plan and change the one thing your record points at. A pattern across two or three releases tells you far more than a single release does.

Put the plan on repeat

The plan works because you run it every release, and the playlist part is where most of the hours go. Pay once, and your track goes to curators who run real playlists in your genre until one takes on your campaign, with an estimated 99% chance of landing on a playlist. Promote your next release on Soundmango.