Home › Research · Updated October 24, 2026 · Snapshot of October 24, 2026, 07:59:23 UTC · Published by PlaylistMap, which sells access to curator contacts
The State of Independent Spotify Playlists 2026
A dated snapshot of 70,365 user-created Spotify playlists that PlaylistMap indexed in 2021–2022, because their curators had posted contact details publicly, and has re-crawled since. On October 24, 2026, 69.7% had a recorded track addition older than 365 days and 0.4% had no usable date; 17.0% had a track added within 90 days; the median playlist had 808 followers; and 80.0% of playlist records contained an email address. Each figure below states its denominator; the snapshot date applies to all of them, and the method and limits are in section 8.
Live catalog counters today (refreshed daily, separate from the snapshot): 70,365 playlists, 37,048 curator records, 80% of playlist records with an email address. The analysis below uses only the dated snapshot.
1. What this dataset is, and isn't
- A fixed cohort, not a sample of Spotify. 69,363 of the playlists were indexed in 2021 and 1,002 in 2022; none were added later. Playlists qualified by having a curator contact posted publicly in their description or being otherwise reachable, so the cohort skews towards contactable, user-created playlists. Nothing here estimates Spotify-wide totals.
- "Independent" means user-created, as intended. The cohort was assembled from playlists found through curator-posted contact details, which are user-created playlists in intent; ownership was not verified record by record. 179 records (0.3%) carry an owner display name that starts with "Spotify" (38 exactly "Spotify"); we did not verify whether any is operated by Spotify, and they are included in all counts.
- Records, not verified people. 37,048 distinct curator records (Spotify owner handles) stand behind the 70,365 playlists; one person can own several handles, and one handle can run many playlists.
- "Track added" is a recorded date. It is the date of the most recent track addition our crawler recorded for the playlist. It does not show whether the playlist is maintained in other ways, whether its curator reads submissions, or whether anyone would reply.
- No outcome data. PlaylistMap doesn't measure replies, placements or streams, so this report contains no response or success rates.
2. Recorded track additions, by recency
Of 70,365 playlists on October 24, 2026: 11,937 (17.0%) had a track added within the previous 90 days, 9,099 (12.9%) between 91 and 365 days earlier, 49,075 (69.7%) had an older recorded addition, and 254 (0.4%) had no usable date. Within 365 days: 21,036 (29.9%).
| Year of last recorded track addition | Playlists | Share of 70,365 |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 19,236 | 27.3% |
| 2025 | 7,670 | 10.9% |
| 2024 | 6,427 | 9.1% |
| 2023 | 6,304 | 9.0% |
| 2022 | 8,125 | 11.5% |
| 2021 | 12,632 | 18.0% |
| 2020 | 8,838 | 12.6% |
| 2019 | 868 | 1.2% |
| 2018 | 7 | 0.0% |
| 2017 | 4 | 0.0% |
| No usable date (epoch placeholder) | 254 | 0.4% |
3. Follower distribution in this cohort
The median of the 70,365 playlists had 808 followers on October 24, 2026. Summing followers across playlists (a person is counted once per playlist they follow) gives 380,675,941; the 3,518 largest playlists (5% of the cohort) accounted for 248,995,954 of them, 65.4%.
| Followers | Playlists | Share of 70,365 | Track added within 90 days | Track added within 365 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 500 | 26,436 | 37.6% | 10.6% (2,792) | 20.7% (5,460) |
| 500–999 | 12,330 | 17.5% | 15.0% (1,852) | 27.8% (3,432) |
| 1,000–4,999 | 20,521 | 29.2% | 20.2% (4,145) | 35.2% (7,223) |
| 5,000–19,999 | 7,927 | 11.3% | 24.9% (1,977) | 41.1% (3,259) |
| 20,000 or more | 3,151 | 4.5% | 37.2% (1,171) | 52.7% (1,662) |
In this cohort, recent recorded additions are more common among larger playlists: 10.6% of playlists under 500 followers had a track added within 90 days, against 37.2% of those with 20,000 or more. By activity segment, median followers were 1,568 (track added within 90 days, 11,937 playlists), 1,155 (91 to 365 days, 9,099) and 650 (older recorded addition, 49,075).
4. Track counts and playlists per curator record
The median of the 70,365 playlists held 85 tracks on October 24, 2026; 13.8% had fewer than 30 and 3.7% had 500 or more.
| Tracks per playlist | Playlists | Share of 70,365 |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 tracks | 9,704 | 13.8% |
| 30–99 | 29,590 | 42.1% |
| 100–499 | 28,498 | 40.5% |
| 500 or more | 2,573 | 3.7% |
| Playlists per curator record | Curator records | Share of 37,048 |
|---|---|---|
| One playlist | 28,473 | 76.9% |
| 2–4 playlists | 6,239 | 16.8% |
| 5–19 playlists | 2,095 | 5.7% |
| 20 or more playlists | 241 | 0.7% |
5. Email availability by recorded addition date
56,320 of 70,365 playlist records (80.0%) contained an email address in their stored public contact details on October 24, 2026. By activity segment:
| Segment (by most recent recorded track addition) | Playlists | With an email address | Median followers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track added within 90 days (on or after July 26, 2026) | 11,937 | 77.3% (9,223) | 1,568 |
| Track added more than 90 and up to 365 days ago (October 24, 2025 to July 25, 2026) | 9,099 | 81.3% (7,394) | 1,155 |
| Older recorded addition (before October 24, 2025) | 49,075 | 80.6% (39,530) | 650 |
| No usable date | 254 | 68.1% (173) | not computed |
The email share varies little between segments with recent and older recorded additions (77.3% against 80.6%). An email match in stored contact details is a pattern match on text the curator posted at some point; it says nothing about whether the address is still read.
6. By genre (our directory pages)
Per-genre figures come from PlaylistMap's directory pages, recounted on October 24, 2026 at 03:20 UTC, a separate read from the snapshot above. A playlist can carry several genres, so rows overlap and do not sum to the cohort total. The twelve largest genre pages:
| Genre page | Playlists | Median followers | Track added within 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pop | 48,877 | 802 | 17.1% (8,357) |
| Rock | 24,769 | 726 | 15.5% (3,837) |
| Rap | 23,173 | 852 | 16.4% (3,810) |
| Dance | 22,021 | 856 | 17.6% (3,874) |
| Hip-hop | 21,496 | 860 | 18.0% (3,874) |
| Indie | 18,099 | 705 | 16.2% (2,927) |
| Dance-pop | 17,661 | 837 | 16.5% (2,910) |
| Trap | 17,234 | 901 | 18.5% (3,188) |
| Alternative | 13,654 | 752 | 16.9% (2,314) |
| House | 13,605 | 951 | 21.3% (2,893) |
| Pop-rap | 13,137 | 884 | 16.0% (2,099) |
| R&B | 11,792 | 817 | 16.8% (1,978) |
158 genre pages met our publication thresholds on October 24, 2026; the full list is at /playlists, each with live counts.
7. Context from other sources
Third-party figures, quoted as published and dated. PlaylistMap did not verify them and draws no causal link between them and the cohort above.
- Spotify states that any service claiming to offer guaranteed playlist placement for money violates its terms and that such services should not be used (Spotify for Artists support, read October 23, 2026).
- SubmitHub announced that from September 9, 2026 tracks its detector rates 85% or more likely AI-generated can no longer be sent to curators, bought as a package or sold through SubmitHub Direct, and reported that roughly 11% of tracks uploaded during the preceding month had scored at least 85% in its detector (self-reported detector result; SubmitHub, September 7, 2026).
- Semrush website-overview estimates, read October 13, 2026: submithub.com estimated at 3.25M visits in August 2026 and 2.9M in September 2026 (−10.8%) (Semrush, submithub.com); groover.co estimated at 789.22K in August and 590.29K in September 2026 (−25.2%) (Semrush, groover.co). These are third-party traffic estimates, not measurements.
8. How we counted
Source and time. One read of PlaylistMap's production catalog table into a temporary snapshot at 07:59:23 UTC on October 24, 2026 (database time zone UTC); every cohort figure on this page comes from that single snapshot. Per-genre figures come from the directory recount of October 24, 2026 03:20 UTC. The live counters near the top refresh daily and will differ.
Cohort. 70,365 playlists first indexed in 2021 (69,363) and 2022 (1,002); none added since; re-crawled on a rolling schedule, so a playlist's recorded addition date and follower count are as of its last successful crawl, not simultaneous. A failed or delayed crawl leaves a record stale.
Cutoffs. "Within 90 days" = recorded addition on or after July 26, 2026; "within 365 days" = on or after October 24, 2025; "91 to 365 days" = October 24, 2025 through July 25, 2026, inclusive; "older" = before October 24, 2025; "no usable date" = missing or the Unix-epoch placeholder (254 records), reported separately and never counted as old.
Definitions. "Track added" = the date of the most recent track addition our crawler recorded. "Email" = the stored public contact details match an email-address pattern (the same test as the site-wide counter). "Curator record" = a distinct Spotify owner handle. "Independent" = user-created playlists in intent, ownership not verified record by record (see section 1). Medians are the middle playlist by follower or track count within the stated group. Follower sums count a person once per playlist followed.
Limits. Coverage bias towards playlists with public contact details; a fixed cohort, so playlists created after 2022 are absent; genre rows overlap; follower counts and dates can be stale between crawls; no reply, placement or stream data exists in this dataset.
Refresh. The snapshot is recomputed quarterly; each refresh is dated and listed in the changelog below.
9. Citing this report
Figures may be quoted with attribution and a link, keeping the denominator and the snapshot date and identifying them as PlaylistMap's cohort. Suggested form:
PlaylistMap, "The State of Independent Spotify Playlists 2026", snapshot of October 24, 2026 (cohort of 70,365 playlists indexed 2021–22), https://playlistmap.com/research/state-of-independent-spotify-playlists-2026
This report publishes aggregates only: no CSV, no per-playlist records, and no curator names, handles or contact details accompany it. PlaylistMap's product, separately, sells access to the contact details curators post publicly. Spot an error? Email support@playlistmap.com; corrections are made on this page and noted in the changelog.
10. Questions
How many of the playlists had a track added recently?
In PlaylistMap's cohort of 70,365 user-created Spotify playlists indexed in 2021–2022, 11,937 (17.0%) had a track added within the 90 days up to October 24, 2026, and 21,036 (29.9%) within 365 days. 49,075 (69.7%) had an older recorded addition and 254 (0.4%) had no usable date. These figures describe PlaylistMap's cohort only, not Spotify as a whole, and a recorded addition date says nothing about whether a curator reads submissions.
How many followers does a typical playlist in the cohort have?
The median of the 70,365 playlists had 808 followers on October 24, 2026. 37.6% had under 500 followers and 4.5% had 20,000 or more. Summing followers across playlists (which counts a person once per playlist they follow), the 3,518 largest playlists (5%) accounted for 65.4% of the total.
Is recent activity more common among larger playlists in this cohort?
Yes, within this cohort: the share with a track added within 90 days of October 24, 2026 rises from 10.6% of playlists under 500 followers (2,792 of 26,436) to 37.2% of playlists with 20,000 or more (1,171 of 3,151). The 11,937 recently updated playlists have a median of 1,568 followers; the 49,075 with an older recorded addition have a median of 650.
How many playlist records include an email address?
56,320 of 70,365 playlist records (80.0%) contained an email address in their stored public contact details on October 24, 2026. The share is similar across activity segments: 77.3% of records with a track added within 90 days (9,223 of 11,937), 81.3% of those updated between 91 and 365 days earlier (7,394 of 9,099), and 80.6% of those with an older recorded addition (39,530 of 49,075).
Can I reuse these figures?
Yes, with attribution and a link to this page, keeping the denominators and the snapshot date (October 24, 2026) and identifying the figures as PlaylistMap's cohort. This report publishes aggregates only: it provides no CSV, no per-playlist records, and no curator names, handles or contact details. Corrections: support@playlistmap.com.
Changelog
- October 24, 2026: first publication, snapshot of the same day (07:59:23 UTC).
PlaylistMap is a curator-contact database and pitch tool run by PlaylistMap LLC (named in our terms); this report describes our own catalog, and we have a commercial interest in curator contact data. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB; PlaylistMap is not affiliated with Spotify.