Spotify promotion is on the top of mind of most musicians. It lets you showcase your music in a very convenient way. What is more, you can release as much music as you want. No matter if you have a new single coming every day for a week or one album every two years.
Actually, it’s not a secret how to get your music into Spotify. For once, you need a distributor to deliver the content to the DSPs (Digital Service Providers) ie. streaming platforms.
Also, how to get your header picture right isn’t a hard thing to do. Likewise, writing up an SEO proof biography isn’t rocket science.
Here’s the deal: setting up the basics of the Spotify profile isn’t hard at all. However, in my digital consulting work I get one question frequently: I’ve got everything up in Spotify. And now, what do I do now?
What to do once you’ve got the Spotify essentials right
Important to realise, Spotify promotion and in fact all streaming platforms is nothing that you do once and then you are done. On the contrary, digital marketing and especially streaming management is an ongoing process.
No matter if you need to fill in your Artists Pick playlist every week. Or if you update your pictures frequently. There’s always something you can do.
What is more, constant work and engagement on your Spotify profile is a key factor for success. The best way is to write yourself a script that you can follow once or twice a week when it is time for streaming management.
That way you can achieve stringency in your streaming performance. Another super important success factor. It takes some time before the algorithm takes on, and it only will keep going if you feed it.
Your to-do list for Spotify promotion
- Check into Spotify For Artists:
I hear this all the time, when I ask if someone has Spotify For Artist they say: yeah, sure! And then I go: ‘do you actually use it?’
What do I mean with this? There are many features in Spotify For Artist that take some time to really wrap your head around. For once, you can see what other bands or musicians your fans have listened to. Great, but have you really used this in an Excel sheet to do a proper competition analysis? Have you really stalked their fans to see if you have overlapping possibilities? Have you actually written to those other musicians and tried to get them onto a featuring song or shared YouTube video? Equally important, have you started a conversation with everyone that put you onto a playlist? At the end of the day, Spotify For Artist is first and foremost your data hub. This means you can see what songs are streaming most and what playlist performs best, for example. There are so many things you can use Spotify For Artists for, make the most of it!
Interact with your fanbase and start a meaningful conversation
- Engage your fanbase:
Utilise your other social media platforms to really get Spotify promotion going. You probably wonder why I say your ‘other’ social media platforms. Well, that is because Spotify itself becomes more and more like a social media platform. What does that mean? It means that you really have to take care of things that work on other platforms like Instagram. And that is engagement. Important to realise, the more your fans share, comment and like your content the better the algorithm will pick up. This also goes for Spotify promotion. Here’s the deal: sharing your songs over Instagram Stories can be a great way to highlight them to your fans, for example. However, don’t stop just there. Ask your fans for their favourite music (besides yours of course 😉 ). Make sure to include those fan-favourites into your Artist Pick playlist and let them know. That way you can even start a conversation with your fans. In a world crowded with Internet noise, meaningful conversations can really make the difference for fans to interact with you rather than the other 1000 musician fighting for their attention.
Make your website work for some Spotify promotion!
- Make your website work!
This is crazy, nowadays you actually don’t really need a website anymore. You can totally use your Facebook page for displaying all important information and together with YouTube and Instagram have enough possibilities for engaging with your fans. However, there are also arguments for a traditional website. For once, all the data on there is really yours. What is more, you can style it any way you like it. With being restricted to only the place that Facebook and co. will give you for text a website can be a great alternative to really display the SEO optimised biography. What is more, you can also build in a sweet little download corner where journalists and bloggers can easily download your EPK and press photos. Here’s the kicker: you can also use your website for Spotify. How? You can embed a follow button to your Spotify profile. Also, you can embed whole playlists! This is great, mix it with a little body of text explaining why each song is on that playlist. For example, for the Artists Pick playlist, you can write about the first times you’ve heard those songs. Or if you feature a playlist with your own songs you can write about the recording process or what inspired you to write that song in the first place.
Do your business homework as well as Spotify promotion!
- Do some business work!
This is super important: if you got your music on Spotify that means that you are kind of selling it digitally. That comes (hopefully) with some royalty earning for you. And with that, you need to do some bookkeeping. No matter what business entity you are with your band or as a solo artist. The numbers need to match up. This is crazy, the billing and accounting of generated income from Spotify come with some hefty time delay. What does that mean for you? It means that you need to budget this into your business planning. In effect, it means that the generated income will not be available immediately. The time it takes for it to come around to you needs to be bridged.
What is more, you really need to have an eye on the streaming royalties or your distribution statement. The statements are mostly generated automatically. Make sure that all your data is stated correctly and that the numbers match up. Worst case scenario your meta-data is meddled up and your money ends up in a sandbox! I know, it can be quite a hassle but at the end of the day it is your money and you need to look after it. Also, make sure you have all income statements ready for tax season. Spotify income needs to be taxed as much as any other income stream you might have as a musician!
Spotify can only be the start of your digital strategy!
This is crazy, the work certainly doesn’t end once you have your music delivered to Spotify. On the contrary, your digital strategy only gets going on from there. It’s merely the starting point to be fair. However, don’t be scared. The clearer you mark out your plan the easier it will become. Make sure you totally understand where your goal is and what you want to reach in what amount of time. After this, managing Spotify on a regular basis will become second nature for you!