Keep your hands off fake streams!
In Germany there is a very insightful documentary about a rapper who buys fake streams and achieves success this way. We’ve been in the game for a while now and can say that appearance is not equal to what you actually are. We know that, at first sight, 1.000.000 streams of a release look much more impressive to a potential listener amongst your audience, than 1000 streams, but please do yourself the favor as an artist and don’t buy fake streams to promote yourself better. Actually, to use such a procedure is even forbidden on Spotify! It could even happen that your song is recognized by the algorithmic analysis tools and gets banned from the platform! Also, you’ll most likely exclude yourself from being placed in a Spotify playlist based on song suggestions, such as Spotify’s “Discover Weekly”. Your streams should always be in a comprehensible relation to your monthly listeners, downloads and followers. A curator will also immediately notice that your streaming numbers are manipulated if, for example you as a German rapper receive 95% of your streams from Kyrgyzstan. This in turn reduces your chances of getting a placement in other playlists. We strongly advise you not to consider such a service even with one grey cell in your brain.
Marketing is at least as important as your product!
Of course, the quality of your song plays a very big role in the promotion of your music. But the main role is given to marketing. You can upload the greatest world hit on your Spotify profile and still, it probably won’t reach the streaming numbers you hope for without the right marketing. Music consumption is nothing more than the consumption of music and consumption is usually stimulated by advertising. For example, you could place ads on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. It’s important that you choose target group settings that match your music. This means: “Don’t spend a lot of money so that your ad really reaches everyone”. It’s better to use your financial resources efficiently, especially as a new artist. Figuratively speaking, we don’t need a barker who offers the product to everyone and everything, but rather a person who skillfully distributes flyers to consumers who might like your music at first sight. In addition to pitching yourself into an editorial playlist from Spotify, you might consider booking a playlist pitching service as well. In this case, your song will be pitched to a network of selected curators who are suitable for your release.
Involve your fans in your Spotify promotion!
As mentioned before, it’s much more important for a natural growth of listeners, followers and streaming numbers and that there’s regular activity on your Spotify profile. You can achieve this by publishing and to promote singles instead of albums. This way there will be no unwanted breaks and you’ll have the opportunity to reach peaks more often. But how do you involve your fans as artists on Spotify? First of all, you should maintain your social media channels before, during and after the release. You should make sure that your content fits you and your music. A few weeks before the release of your song on Spotify, you could, for example, set the mood among your users and followers and create excitement for the next release with previews. You can also ask the listeners amongst your target audience to save your song, share it or listen to it in full length after the release. As a token of appreciation, you could share the support of your fans, for example, in your Instagram story. All of this increases the likelihood of your song landing in playlists such as “Discover Weekly”. In short: actively engage your fans in your promotional campaign to increase your popularity. Your active follower is your friend and helper!
Treat yourself to the blue hook!
At Spotify for Artists you can easily verify your profile. This makes a more professional impression on curators, listeners, followers and Spotify users. But what’s the catch? There’s no catch! On the contrary, once you verify your artist profile, you have the opportunity to spruce up your account with a biography, an image gallery, or a merchandise shop. So, don’t think twice and go to https://artists.spotify.com/guide/spotify-for-artists to verify your profile.
From artist to brand?
This sentence may sound a bit strange to you at first, but if your music is your own product you’re the brand that brings out the product. Make sure during the preparatory work (music production etc.) that your product fits your brand already during the creative process. It’s also important to have a consistent line in your postings and promotion. A coherent overall impression leads to increased feeling of authenticity among followers, listeners and curators. This in turn leads to increased streaming numbers and greater popularity.
What about own playlists on Spotify?
You could easily create your own playlists on Spotify. But what exactly would that do for you? It would make it easier for potential listeners to classify you and your music. You could also place your own songs in your playlists and use this to attract the attention of new followers. It’s important that you maintain your playlists regularly and provide them with matching titles. You could, for example, respond to certain genres, topics or a certain mood. The titles of your playlists should also be appealing and arouse the listener’s interest.
Go to Spotify’s editorial playlists!
On Spotify for Artists you have the possibility to use the services of Spotify for Artists to pitch your release into the in-house editorial playlists two to three weeks before the release date to achieve a higher reach. This means playlists like “Deutschrap Brandneu”, “RapCaviar”, “Dance Party”, “Pop International” or similar. This service is completely free of charge and very suitable to help increase popularity and streaming numbers of your next single.
In summary, marketing may be more important than the actual product. Of course, the quality of your song has to be right to please the listeners, but as mentioned before, the biggest world hit on your Spotify profile is useless if hardly anyone listens to it. You can promote your music in different ways. It’s important to work specifically to your target group and to find out the listening habits of your potential followers. You’re the brand and your music is your product. Try to create a consistent overall impression, starting with the profile name and, if possible, without breaks. Keep your hands off dubious providers who will increase your streaming numbers in the first moment, because in the end it’s not you who benefits. Use the possibility to pitch your song at Spotify for Artists, place ads or book a playlist pitching service that fits you and your music. Talking about Playlist Pitching Service… At https://www.beforeeight.de/#contact you can send us your new song completely free of charge and without obligation. Our staff will listen to every single track and come back to you, usually within 24 hours on working days. If your song passes our “quality control”, where we assess the possible chances of success of a cooperation, you’ll receive an individual recommendation. In simple terms, we propose the services of a promotion campaign. If you like the offer, we’ll start the campaign together with you. At the start of the promotion we’ll pitch your release to our network of curators, which we’ve built up over the years through hard work and experience. Approximately ten days after the start of your campaign, you’ll receive a final and transparent report, which will give you the opportunity to get an insight into what we’re doing for you. But don’t worry, the campaign is not over at this point. We’ve an agreement with all of our curators that each track will remain in the Spotify Playlists for at least four weeks. But often, the curators will leave your song in their playlists for five or six weeks. If you like the advantages of our Playlist Pitching Service, you can contact us here: https://www.beforeeight.de/#contact. We’re always open for questions and we hope that the blog entry could give you a small overview about the promotion possibilities of your music on Spotify.
Next time we’ll dive more into the topic of playlist pitching in detail. We’ll help with the knowledge on how to increase your streaming numbers and your popularity through targeted playlist pitching on Spotify and how to find and contact the right curators for you and your music. We address criteria such as listening behavior, analysis tools, listening habits and requirements such as song length.
We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you back as a reader next time.
Until then,
good luck with your upcoming releases
Your Before Eight Team
