How can you build a great playlist on Spotify? One that will attract more followers, introduce them to your world of music, and become the go-to for listeners?
Today, playlist curators are the gatekeepers of Spotify. That means you, as a curator, have the potential to influence what music people hear, and which artists get their big break.
This article is based on a Facebook post by Liad Abraham, a successful artist with over 120k monthly listeners, and a playlist curator with thousands of followers to his playlists. In his post, Liad shares some of his most important tips for Spotify playlist curators to help them take their playlists to the next level.
Thank you, Liad, for letting us share your post and knowledge!
6 tips to take your playlist to the next level from Liad Abraham
Listen carefully, because those are going to be the best tips you’ll ever hear. No, I’m not exaggerating, the advice I’m going to give you is worth gold and will determine your success on Spotify as a curator.
Here we go.
1. Name your playlist correctly
When you create a playlist, think carefully about the name you give it. I see weird, super poetic names that definitely miss the target.
You want your playlist to appear on organic search. This, and only this, is your goal. And that’s why a playlist called “How fun it is to have a cup of hot coffee in the middle of the night” will never succeed. No one will ever search for it, and no one will ever find it.
2. Create attractive cover art
For god’s sake, spend a couple of minutes on your cover art. It looks horrible and unprofessional to have the four-artwork-default that playlists with no artwork have.
There are awesome places out there like Pixabay or Pexels with thousands of free-to-use photos and artworks, then you can use Canva or Photoshop to write a headline and that’s it. Five minutes of work, maybe.
3. Update your playlist
Make sure to update your playlist once a week on average. A playlist that never gets updated loses its listeners, that’s a fact.
Update, but don’t just continue to add songs indiscriminately. It isn’t a bottomless pit and you don’t want to have too many songs in there. Five hours is a great length for most playlists.
Take inspiration from editorial playlists. They are always a good example—both in terms of playlist length and in terms of frequency of updates.
4. Don’t ask people to follow your playlist
Stop sharing your playlist with friends and artists and asking them to follow it. Instead, please take note: every follower you get who doesn’t interact with your content harms you through the algorithm.
A playlist with 15 organic, real listeners, is better than one with 500 followers who never listen to it. The higher number won’t help the playlist rank higher in the results because Spotify isn’t dumb. It knows the amount of real engagement every playlist has, and the first results in a search will be the ones with a high engagement rate.
5. Don’t ask for money and don’t buy listeners
Never ask artists to pay you for placements on your playlist. It is illegal, and Spotify can delete your playlist and maybe even suspend your account. In addition, artists will hate you, and that’s not nice. Be kind and professional, that’ll pay off.
Buying listeners, followers, or streams is also illegal. Spotify can detect those violations and punish you, or just delete these followers, that’d be bad for you and for the artists you feature as well.
6. Use everything Spotify offers you
People really like to complain about Spotify, but at the end of the day, no other platform offers its users what Spotify does.
You can create, customize and curate your own playlists, edit them and even use them as a tool to grow your fanbase (if you are an influencer or artist). Explore the features and options and use them to reach your goals.
If my tips helped you, I’d be happy to hear from you at [email protected]. I hope I gave you some food for thought.
Have a magical and productive day, Liad.
Grow your reach and repertoire with PlaylistMap
Stay tuned, friends. PlaylistMap will soon be releasing its curator solution, which will simplify the process of receiving pitches and updating your playlists from end to end.
With our next release, you will finally have a solution that ensures you only receive super relevant pitches—songs that match the genre, mood, and energy level of your playlists.
By eliminating spammy pitches that waste your time, you will gain a more engaging, fun, and efficient experience that makes curating effortless. Not only that, but you’ll also get paid for providing feedback to artists. Plus, we’ll provide you a whole dashboard of analytics that share deep insights about your playlist followers, so you’ll know exactly what they want to hear and how to boost their engagement.
