Most artists have a common misconception that getting on playlists is the only driver for streaming success. In hindsight, the simple equation most artists follow is more streams equals more income, which could not be farther from the truth.

The valuable time spent on resources towards driving streams on Spotify through exhausted channels has left many artists struggling to make ends meet (hence the term “starving artist”).

What we will show you is a Spotify algorithm hack. In its essence, hacking is about manipulating adjacent or unpredictable tools to drive favorable results. Which is what we’re about to show you in the realm of music with a concrete game plan.

Before we start to go into the how and why of the growth hacks. We have to break down how Spotify’s algorithm actually functions.

How Spotify keeps the boat floating

When we speak of algorithms and AI, we tend to have the misconception of a very complicated system that functions way above human understanding, but it’s actually quite simple.

Spotify works on these 4 simple indicators to place your songs on the release radar and place your song on the “Fresh Finds” playlist.

The Indicators:

1- Number of times the song is saved in total and vs. play counts

2- Number of repeated listens

3- Number of followers gained

4- Search for release related content

And finally, you have 24 hours as of the release of the song to deliver comparably better results than other artists, to be selected to be one of 100 or so songs to go on the release radar.

Hitting these indicators is challenging, but not impossible.

No No to Playlist Placement!?

It might look all butterflies and sunshine when an artists’ song is placed in playlists, but in reality, this is a double-edged sword. Having songs in playlists does deliver streams, but the psychology and the consumer behavior habit of a music listener on playlists are of a passive state.

When music consumers are listening to playlists, they are passively listening and ignoring your song and profile, gently breezing off of it without saving your song or even following you. In return, the focus on playlists plays a damaging role in getting you exposed on the release radar.

It’s really crucial to look elsewhere for a parallel source to meet those Spotify indicators. But, wait – getting playlisted may also trigger the Spotify algorithm in favor…

Content Content Content!!

Spotify does not have a magic wand or a secret mix of sugar, spice, and everything nice that miraculously finds artists. On the contrary, it takes an algorithm and raw human power to scour the web to find artists. The use of blogs and publications has a detrimental effect on the decision of the feature of an artist’s song on the Spotify release radar. Therefore, make sure to expose your music to the media and get in front of playlist editors!

Data-Driven Growth??

Spotify promotions and landing on playlists do not allow or deliver the full spectrum of data that an artist may need to understand its audience.

This is where advertising comes into play. Facebook, for example, is one of many mediums that is able to deliver audience data, which helps artists better understand the full spectrum of where and who is the primary consumer of the musical content delivered.

Release Radar is a playlist of new releases that updates every Friday.

Listeners get new music from:

Artists they follow
Artists they listen to
Other artists we think they’ll like

Your followers get songs from your new release in their Release Radar. You don’t need to pitch a song to Spotify’s playlist editors, but if you do Spotify will include your pitched song in your followers’ Release Radar.

Things to keep in mind

Deliver your music at least 7 days before release to get your music on Release Radar in the first week
Spotify doesn’t include a song in a listener’s Release Radar if they’ve already listened to it
Spotify only includes songs where you’re a main or featured artist (not remixer)
Spotify doesn’t include songs by Various Artists
Spotify doesn’t include re-releases of songs already on Spotify
Each listener only gets one song per artist per week
They’ll include a song for up to 4 weeks if a listener hasn’t heard it