Streaming has made music more accessible than ever before without hitting a payment barrier or having to burn and store your own CD compilations. In addition, streaming services allow independent artists to have more control over their career.
Spotify is a great place to grow your audience and many artists are building their careers through the properly orchestrated use of everything Spotify has to offer.
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7 Spotify Best Practices For Artists
In today’s market It’s more important than ever for an artist to have a handle on how to maximize the benefits of a streaming platform like Spotify.
If you’re planning on dropping a track, EP or album, make sure you’re employing the following 7 Spotify best practices for artists to capitalize on everything the platform has to offer.
Spotify for Artists
The first step to ensure you’re getting the most out of Spotify is to have a Spotify for Artists account.
Spotify for Artists will provide you with audience statistics and tools for promoting your music and managing your artist profile on Spotify.
You also become a verified artist, so your profile on Spotify gets a blue verification check mark. For more info on Spotify for Artists click here.
Have Unique and Compelling Artwork
People listen to music with their eyes and cover art is the visual gateway to your music. Visuals will often grab someone’s attention before they listen to your music. Make sure to catch their eye with compelling and professional artwork.
Cover art is also the image listeners will associate with your music and is an essential part of music promotion and music distribution. The design you use to present your music is another way of branding and representing yourself.
For some tips on how to create stand out artwork click here.
Another great tip is to incorporate Spotify logos where appropriate.
Visit Spotify’s Branding Guidelines to find out how to use their logo, icon, colours, fonts, messaging, widgets, and more.
Click here for Spotify’s logo, wordmark and font.
Spotify Built-In Benefits
Spotify has some great built-in tools to help artists successfully promote their releases and grow their careers. Be sure you’re using the following features to your advantage:
Pre-Saves
Spotify’s Pre-Save feature allows your fans to save the song or album to their queue so they’ll hear it as soon as it becomes available on Spotify. This is helpful because you can incentivize your audience to take action during that promotional period leading up to the release.
Having the pre-save available will also give you a call-to-action for whatever interviews or press releases you end up doing. There’s ways to set it up, so that when someone pre-saves your music, they can also follow you at the same time.
I highly recommend setting up the pre-save or pre-order on your own website. This will give you direct access to statistics on how the pre-order is going, who is viewing and playing tracks from the pre-order, and a collection of the email addresses of people who do pre-order.
For instructions on how to create a pre-save click here.
Concerts
Spotify lets you integrate Ticketmaster, Songkick, Eventbrite, and AXS. Any gig you have will show up on your Spotify artist profile. Spotify will even notify your fans via email about your show schedule.
For more info on how to set up a concert on your Spotify profile click here.
Merchandise
Spotify for Artists allows you to sell your merch through a connection with Merchbar directly within the Spotify app. You can list and sell your tees, vinyl, CDs, etc – right on your profile!
Spotify Ad Studio
Spotify has its own advertising platform called Spotify Ad Studio that allows artists to reach listeners on Spotify’s ad-supported experience while they’re listening to music. Spotify Ad Studio is an important part of any streaming plan.
For more tips on how to get started with Spotify Ad Studio click here.
Follow Button
Embedding a Spotify follow button in your website makes it easier for your fans to find and follow you instantly. You can embed the button just by copying and pasting a short piece of code. For instructions click here.
Play Button
The Play Button is like a mini player that lets your fans simply click to start streaming Spotify content anywhere online. Play Button transfers Spotify content to your website or social page. If they’re not logged into Spotify the Play Button will play a 30-second preview, then prompt the user to log in or sign up. For a how to on adding a Play Button click here.
Spotify Codes
Spotify Codes provide music lovers with a new way to discover and share music. Fans can scan a Spotify Code really easily. Similar to scanning a QR code, by simply taking a picture on your phone, you can share any track, artist, album, or playlist available on Spotify.
To access Spotify Codes, simply tap on the “…” context menu and you will see a Spotify Code appended to the bottom of the artwork.
To scan a Spotify Code, click on the camera icon located to the right of the Search bar, scan the artwork, and be directed immediately to that piece of content.
By uploading your Spotify code to your social media channels, fans can take a screenshot allowing them to link directly to your music. Be sure to display your Spotify code at your live performances as well, for example, a print-out at the merch stall.
Artist Pick
Artist’s Pick is a simple feature which is unlocked on Spotify through Spotify for Artists. It allows you to feature a track, album or playlist, as well as concerts, and the reason why you’re sharing it. You can also add a variety of images to the post. Artist Pick is a great opportunity to share your friend’s music and tap into each other’s audiences so be sure to regularly update your Artist Pick!
Playlisting
When utilised properly playlists can be hugely beneficial to developing a fanbase on Spotify and growing your career. Spotify playlists fall into three basic types: personalized, editorial, and listener playlists.
Why are playlists important?
- Being added to a playlist allows you to reach a large and new demographic of listeners.
- Being featured on a large playlist with nationally known artists gives you validity.
- There’s greater potential for monetization
- Being added to large playlists can help increase your social media following and fanbase
>>> Related Reading: 6 Different Types of Spotify Playlists and How to Get on Them
>>> Related Reading: 14 Ways to Find The Contact Information of Spotify Playlist Curators
Sharing – Credit Your Collaborators
If you’ve collaborated on a track Spotify makes it possible for you to credit everyone. If you have a featuring artist, or a remix on your release the track will show on your artist page as well as your collaborator’s page. This allows you to reach more followers and cross promote.
Social Media
These days It’s easy to share your music on social channels. Here are some key social media tips and tricks specifically for Spotify:
- Add your Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and website links to the “About” section on your Spotify artist profile.
- Encourage fans to save music in their own playlists and share it around. You could offer various incentives for sharing such as prizes etc.
- Copy and paste one of your Spotify links into the Twitter search bar to find Spotify listeners who’ve shared your music, then like / reply to their tweets.
- Share playlists that feature your music
- Use Spotify codes on visual media
- Make sure your YouTube descriptions contain links to your Spotify.
- Both Facebook and Twitter let you schedule posts in advance, take advantage and set a social media schedule for consistent posting.
- Use popular hashtags across Instagram, Twitter & Facebook e.g. #NewMusicFriday #MondayMotivation #ThrowbackThursday #FridayFeeling etc.
For more ideas check out Spotify’s The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media.
Understand metadata
Music metadata is the collection of information that pertains to a song file, such as Artist Name, Producer, Writer, Song Title, Release Date, Genre or Track Duration, to name a few. If any of it is incorrect, your team won’t get the credit (and income) they deserve. Read more about what metadata is, why it matters, and how to fact-check it here.
Spotify Best Practices – Key Take Aways
Lastly, be sure to be creating quality music. None of the promotional power in the world will sell a poor quality song or recording. Be sure to follow and share the work of other artists as well, you never know where the relationship could lead.
Kevin is the founder of Music With Flavor, which joined Whipped Cream Sounds in 2023. He is a seasoned musician turned industry expert. His passion for music goes beyond melodies; he delves deep into the intricate world of music marketing, striving to unearth the most effective strategies for indie musicians. However, Music With Flavor isn’t just about Kevin’s knowledge; it’s a network of industry experts handpicked to provide the most trusted advice. Kevin’s role is to pose the right questions, not just answer them, as he and his team tirelessly research trends, connect with artists, and gather valuable insights.
