Get paid $20 – $750 for every campaign

How much do Spotify playlist curators make?

If you run a Spotify playlist with a real audience, you've probably wondered what it's worth. Playlist curators, playlist owners, playlisters, and independent tastemakers put hours into finding music, and most of them have never been paid a cent for it.

On Soundmango, curators earn $20 – $750 per marketing campaign. Where you land in that range depends on the audience you've built and your playlist quality score.

Does Spotify pay playlist curators?

No. Spotify pays streaming royalties to the people who own the music: artists, labels, publishers, and distributors. The person who made the playlist gets nothing from the streams it drives, whether it has 500 followers or 500,000. Any money a curator earns comes from work around the playlist, such as rating music and promoting artists.

The common ways curators earn money

• Pay-per-submission platforms. Artists pay to send a track to a list of curators, and each curator gets a few dollars for every track they listen to, most of which never fit the playlist.
• Marketing campaigns. You rate a track for the artist and publish a promotional post about it. One campaign pays far more than a single review. This is how curators earn on Soundmango.
• Direct promotion work. Some curators work with labels, managers, or brands on promotion projects of their own. You find the clients, set the terms, and chase every invoice yourself.

What a marketing campaign involves

Every campaign on Soundmango promotes one released track. You rate the track from 1 to 5 on a few parameters, and the artist gets your ratings. Then you publish a short post about the track, which we draft for you, under your name on our partner site. Every post is clearly marked as paid content.

The whole campaign takes you a few minutes. You see what it pays before you accept it, every campaign is optional, and what goes on your playlist is always your own decision.

What sets your earnings per campaign

Your audience. The followers you've built are your reach as a promoter. The bigger that reach, the more your promotion is worth to an artist, and the more each campaign pays you.

Your playlist quality score. We score each of your playlists on its own, from real listening, healthy growth, campaigns delivered on time, artist feedback, and more. The higher it climbs, the more each campaign pays you. Read how the playlist quality score works.

The campaign itself. The campaign and demand from artists move the figure too, which is why every price on this page is indicative.

Follower requirements for curators

You can apply with any playlist that has at least 400 followers. We vet each playlist on its own, so if you run several, you apply with each one.

• 400 – 999 followers: your playlist joins our Playlist Growth Program for free. It doesn't earn from campaigns yet, and we help it grow with tracks that fit and advice on what to change.
• 1,000 followers and up: your playlist can take on paid campaigns at $20 – $750 per campaign.

Why real followers matter for your earnings

Bought followers, bot streams, and follow-for-follow schemes inflate a follower count without adding a single real listener. Every playlist on Soundmango is vetted for real activity before it's approved, and keeps a playlist quality score that decides whether it stays listed. A smaller playlist with engaged listeners can earn more per campaign than a bigger one full of empty follows, because its score is higher.

Earnings per hour of curating

On pay-per-submission platforms, you listen to dozens of tracks to earn a few dollars each. On Soundmango, every campaign opportunity is for a track matched to your playlist's sound, and a campaign takes a few minutes, so you earn more for every hour you put in.

How curator payouts work

Your earnings from a campaign are yours once it's complete: your ratings are in and your post is published. Earnings are in US dollars and paid out automatically every month. You never send invoices to artists or chase payments yourself.

Terms you'll meet as a curator

• Playlist curator: anyone who chooses and looks after the tracks on a playlist. Also called a playlist owner, playlist maker, playlister, or tastemaker.
• Independent playlists: playlists made by listeners and curators on Spotify, also called user-generated or third-party playlists. Every playlist on Soundmango is one of them.
• Editorial playlists: playlists made by Spotify's own editors, such as New Music Friday.
• Algorithmic playlists: playlists Spotify builds for each listener, such as Discover Weekly and Release Radar.
• Submission fee: what an artist pays to send a track to curators on a pay-per-submission platform.
• Marketing campaign: paid promotional work for one track. On Soundmango, that's your ratings of the track and a promotional post about it.
• Bot streams and fake followers: artificial activity that inflates a playlist's numbers. It breaks Spotify's rules and keeps a playlist off Soundmango.
• Payout: the monthly transfer of your earnings to you.

Find out what your playlists can earn

Email us at hello@soundmango.com with your name and links to your playlists. We'll reply within 24 hours with indicative campaign prices for each of them. Ready to start? Apply with your playlist, or read more about how to earn money as a Spotify playlist curator.