Rise was built to help artists get more out of their marketing budgets. With that in mind, we always are looking to share what we’ve learned with artists so they can put themselves in the best position to succeed.
In this article we’re going to discuss best practices we’ve learned after running a high volume of Spotify Playlist Growth campaigns for labels, agencies and artists.
Best Practices
- Place a very popular song that captures the mood of the playlist in the first spot atop the playlist. This is the most important piece for just about any playlists. Avoid using a song with a long intro, and pick a song that gets right into the mood of the playlist to inform listeners about what they’re getting ready to enjoy.
- Curate the first 5 to 10 songs to have a great flow and use the best music available, even if it’s not yours. The rest of the playlist will benefit from having a strong start.
- Create and curate the playlist to meet a need and have a theme, mood, genre, or activity, such as “Guitar for Relaxation,” “New hip-Hop,” “Rock Workout,” or “Best New Country,” etc.
- Name the playlist something self-explanatory and accurate to the content of the playlist. If you call your playlist “90’s Nostalgia” and it’s all pop songs from the 2010s, you’re not going to convert an audience.
- Playlist artwork should fit the mood/theme. Often images of artists or scenery (palm trees, an office, etc) with the title of the playlist overlaid in text works well. You can reference the Tout Playlist graphics above. We’ve used these exact practices to grow our playlist followers to over 600K and growing daily.
- Stick to a single genre/mood consistently throughout your playlist. If you have a relaxation playlist make sure every song fits that vibe. If you have an R&B playlist, make sure every song is R&B, etc. If you make music for more than one genre it will be more difficult to fit a diverse group of songs into one playlist, you may need to make more than one or bury the songs that don’t fit as well further down in the playlist.
- Sometimes it works to combine an activity with your genre, but only when there’s enough of an overlap between both audiences such as “Gym Rock,” “Nothing But Net Hip-Hop,” etc. Other times it’s best not to alienate part of your audience by adding an activity if that makes your playlist too niche. This is where it’s up to you to decide what audience you want to target.
- Pop music audiences are less interested in music discovery through indie playlists. They tend to have shorter attention spans making retention and conversion rates lower. We recommend picking your secondary genre and branding the playlist as that genre. For example: Pop/R&B artists would be better off making an R&B playlist since that is more specific than just Pop which could cover all types of sub-genres.
- If your playlist is getting visitors, but not converting to followers or streams consider changing the curation of the playlist. There may be a better set of top-five songs that will capture an audience’s attention more.
- Have fun. This playlist should be something you personally enjoy, and are proud and excited to share with the world. With that in mind, focus on quality over quantity, and make this the best listening experience possible.
Ready to get started? Create your first Playlist Growth Campaign in under 5 minutes here: rise.la/create.