You want to grow your Spotify listeners and followers, right? Well the good news is, we’ve got a few ways you can achieve this. Think of Spotify as a social media platform. Not quite uploading photos of your cat in fun outfits, or your weekend out with friends. Instead, think of it as just as important to keep fresh and updated.
Create your own playlists
When it comes to growing your following, yes you want them to engage with your music, but you also need to show your personality. It’s a great idea to create your own playlists featuring other artists. The smaller they are, the bigger the chance they will return the favour. However, don’t make this your number one priority. Show your fans who inspired your journey, your favourite artists and who you listen to when you have some downtime.
It will help them relate to you. Perhaps someone who isn’t following your Spotify account will find your playlist and because you have a similar taste to them, they’ll decide to engage with your content too. After all, it’s likely you create music similar to what you listen to. Often artists believe that they have to only promote and share their own content to succeed. This isn’t the case. There’s no harm in sharing the love.
Focus on your artwork
The first thing someone will notice is your artwork, so if it doesn’t grab them, why should they stay? Your artwork needs to draw people in. It needs to be catchy. Do you have a story you’re trying to tell through your music? If so, why not tell that through image as well? It should all link up. After all, you can change your artwork as much as you like. People often think they need to pick a design and stick to it, but this isn’t true. If you’re updating your other social media accounts, then why are you not updating your Spotify?
Look at your previous artwork and ask yourself what direction you’re heading in next. Do you want to carry on with a similar theme? Is it important for you to have your artwork tell a story throughout? Perhaps you have a series of albums or singles, and you want the story to unravel over time. Or, it could be that you want bright, punchy colours so if you put all of your artwork next to each other, they all stand apart. Whatever you decide to go with, run it past your previous pieces first. If you have all images in black and white and then one random pop of colour, it might look a little out of place.
Create a Pre-save
Arguably the best time to bring attention to your release is before it hits the stores. This is because you can focus all your efforts on promotion. Get everyone excited in the lead up to release day. Once it drops, you’re guaranteed to have streams coming your way. By creating a Pre-save you’re encouraging everyone to interact with your music before they can hear it. It builds up a sense of excitement prior to the big day. Not only is this great for you, but it also helps with Spotify’s algorithm.
You’re organically gaining interest. Which in turn will boost your streams when your release is available on Spotify. This shows Spotify that people want to hear your tracks, and therefore it gets boosted in popularity and is more likely to be suggested to listeners. You can post your Pre-save link across all of your social media accounts to drum up interest ahead of schedule. PUSH offer Pre-saves for free, so make sure you head over to our website to check that out.
Get your fans to follow you on Spotify
Sure, this might seem obvious, but think about it – how many fans do you have that listen to your music but don’t follow your account? It probably isn’t intentional. Many people will create their own playlists and listen to their favourite artists without even thinking to follow them. To a listener, it’s no big deal. They’re still supporting the artist by streaming their tracks and for them, they have the content saved to their playlist for easy access. However, to the artist it really matters.
The more people following your Spotify account, the bigger chance you have of Spotify boosting your name. This means it’s more likely you’ll be featured on their playlists like Discover Weekly. Believe or not, there are many users out there who rely on these types of playlists to give them new content suggestions. That’s a huge chance for you to gain more followers and overall a larger audience.
Update Spotify just as often as social media
Spotify is essentially a social media platform for your music. Your fans can follow your page, share your music, and you can customise your account to fit in with your artist branding. Spotify for Artists allows you to add tour dates to your profile, create new banners and even has a home for your merch. So really, everything can be done within Spotify. That isn’t suggesting you don’t apply efforts to your other social media accounts. We’re always highlighting the importance of being present across all platforms.
However, make sure you’re keeping your Spotify updated. It might help to set aside some time each week to run through your social media accounts. You can schedule posts and update your bios as needed. This will ensure all of your accounts are updated to the same standard, and they all include the same information. There are so many artists who don’t update their Spotify page for years. They continue to release new music and just hope it will sell itself. It’s no good listing your new single in your bio if it’s going to stay there many years later.
A song has to be played on Spotify for 30 seconds before the stream will count. So, you want people to click on your account and stay. It might seem like no time at all but if you haven’t gripped someone then they’ll click off quicker than they clicked on. However, they’re far more likely to give your content time if they feel a connection with you as an artist. Your Spotify account requires just as much time and effort as the rest of your social media platforms. The more you put in, the more you will get out. So don’t overlook Spotify and think it will take care of itself. It unfortunately won’t.
