Spotify followers and how to gain them is the question everyone with an artist profile is after. What is more, Spotify became hugely important for the music industry, too. In Germany alone, digital streaming has overtaken physical sales with a staggering 70% share.
Not only can organic Spotify promotion bring you more followers but it can also improve your overall streaming numbers. This is crazy, in order to get your music on Spotify you need to submit it via a distributor.
Music is delivered either by a record label or a distributor. If you’re signed to a label, they’ll take care of getting your music to Spotify. If you’re independent, you’ll have to arrange distribution yourself.
*source: Spotify
In other words, you can choose to use a distribution platform like CD Baby, for example. Then, you can upload your new release to their system. After that, they will take over the digital distribution to all streaming platforms, including Spotify.
However, what they won’t do for you is dedicated pitching of your songs to any Spotify editors. The sheer mass of music that is delivered to such distribution platforms is simply to big.
Important to realise, if you really want to have a distributor who is doing this job for you, you would need to pitch your release to a more selektive distributor.
If you are more interested in the work of distributors, then please have a read, here:
Music Distribution. The One Thing Every Musician Needs To Think About.
Always aim at getting ‘real’ Spotify followers
There are so many Spotify promotion services out there that promise you the moon and back in terms of gaining and growing your Spotify followers.
However, they mostly do this with rather shady practices. That is to say that Spotify has enacted new parole of deleting all ‘fake’ followers. By all means, this would mean that the hard earn cash that you’ve paid for this Spotify promotion service is gone with the wind.
Getting real followers on Spotify needs patience
Before we dive into ways of getting more ‘real’ Spotify followers, let me first tell you one secret. Be patient!
Rome wasn’t built in a day and so isn’t any algorithm running. And yes, as much as other platforms like Facebook or Instagram are running on algorithms, Spotify uses this too.
There are however also human editors working in the backstage area of the streaming platform. This mixture is giving the Spotify platform its unique feel and look.
First of all, you need to start working on the basics. This is crazy, so many people have a Spotify account and now want it to take off.
However, being successful on Spotify needs nearly as much planning as flying to the moon! Firstly, you need to gather all valuable resources, like the funding of the project (how much can you spend on advertisement?) or even the needed gasoline to launch the rocket as far as the moon.
Of course, in order to launch your rocket to land on the moon, you first need to build it. After that, you need a good team to support you. Finally, you can launch your moon mission.
Perhaps this example seems a bit too exaggerated. On the other hand side, it shows you that it is not that straight forward. As anything is online, to be fair.
What you need are solid planning and strategy. Once you have this in place, organic Spotify promotion will become your second nature.
Top Tips on how to increase Spotify followers
Again, the strategy is key. Do you want to gain more overall Spotify followers or are aiming at getting onto more playlists?
Then you are looking at playlist marketing. This is the art of getting your tracks on more playlists. Of course, this could be one step in your overall strategy to gain more Spotify followers.
However, if you want to have more Spotify followers, your work is not done with simple playlist marketing. This is crazy, only about half of your overall plays will come from a playlist. (In case you make it onto a lot of them)
One of the most underutilised places in Spotify is the music collection of listeners. Every time you save a song on Spotify, it gets a place in the music collection. This is called ‘Your Music’. Important to realise, all music you save in here will be featured in playlists like ‘Your Daily Mix’.
People hardly every delete any songs from here. That means, once your music has made it into the ‘Your Music’ area you are one step closer to gaining more Spotify followers. Why? Because if someone loves your music enough to save it they will likely be ready to hit the follow button.
What is more, they probably will also share it with their friends. Because ultimately we want to listen to music that our friends listen too.
Spotify is basically a social media platform, powered by music
In fact, Spotify is known for being a streaming platform for music. Nevertheless, it has undergone a transformation.
The trend in 2020 is for Spotify to become more or less a social media platform. The difference to Instagram, that is clearly powered by strong images, is that Spotify is powered by strong music.
Once you have understood this key development, it will be so much easier to do proper Spotify management. Because the fundamental basics of all social media platforms are that they run on engagement. Everything that you share and that your fans share will benefit the algorithm in your favour.
Spotify itself has written quite the in-depth guide on how to share things from Spotify on other social media platforms.
For example, you can use Instagram Stories in order to share new tracks or anything you are adding to your ‘Artist Pick‘ playlist.
To do so, head to any track, album, playlist, or artist profile in the Spotify app; open the Share menu (again, by tapping the “…” button); and click Instagram Stories. This will create a new Story featuring your content’s artwork as a “sticker.” Here, you can embellish it with doodles, captions, or any other attention-grabbing add-ons, then post your story. Once it’s live, viewers will see an option to “Play on Spotify” on the upper left corner of their screen. With this link, fans and followers are more likely to engage with you both on IG and Spotify, while getting immediate access to your music.
*source: Spotify
Use the sharing option and run fan competitions!
Your options don’t simply end with sharing your tracks on your other social media like Facebook or Instagram.
Take it a notch further and start a fan-competition! Ask your fans to share your track with their friends for the chance of attending a private YouTube live stream, for example.
Or offer a SuperPhone call for anyone who ads you to their playlist. The list of goodies you can offer your fans is endless.
At the end of the day, it’s just important to encourage them to interact with your music on Spotify and offer them something really valuable.
Also, use traditional methods of Spotify promotion
Sometimes, when new features are rolled out like the Spotify Canvas, for example, we seem to forget that there are old school methods to Spotify promotion. In reality, that doesn’t always mean that they are not working anymore.
Take Spotify embeds as an example. It’s super easy to embed a Spotify playlist or profile into your website. However, it is one of the old tricks that still work.
Those plays will count towards your overall play-count. What is more, it gives the website viewer the opportunity to listen to your music without leaving the site.
Another old school trick is to make your newsletter work. Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. Moreover, a well looked after newsletter can help you sell your music. Why?
Because getting into peoples mail program is a key part of starting a close communication with your fans. Use this to promote your Spotify profile and encourage your fans to save your tracks and to share them.
There are many ways of making Spotify promotion work for you and to get more followers. The key thing to remember is to take it seriously and to have a strategy in place.
The Spotify algorithm likes frequency as much as engagement. Make sure to look after your profile often and to encourage fans to engage with your music regularly.
Even if you haven’t got a new release coming up. If you want to gain more followers on Spotify you always need to agile and active!