How to Grow on Spotify: The Best Ways to Boost your Spotify Monthly Listeners

In today’s music industry, Spotify is the biggest global music streaming platform and over 600 million people use Spotify every single month. However, with such a huge listener audience also comes a very oversaturated market. With over 100,000 songs uploaded daily, how do you ensure your music gets discovered? Let’s get into proven methods that you can start implementing today to help grow your Spotify listeners.

Why Growing on Spotify Matters

• Boost visibility: Spotify’s algorithm promotes tracks with higher engagement and can really help your band take off.
• Earn more revenue: As you grow your band, you will also gain Spotify Royalties. Spotify pays about the same as Amazon Music per stream and significantly more than SoundCloud and Pandora. (Read how much each streaming platform pays)
• Attract industry attention: Festivals, labels, managers, and show promoters, will often look at your Spotify numbers first and then your social media followers to get an idea of how big your fanbase is. More opportunities come as you grow these metrics.

If you’re serious about growing your music career, maximizing your Spotify presence should be a top priority.

How To Grow your Spotify Monthly Listeners

1. Optimize Your Spotify Artist Profile

First things first, make sure your Spotify artist profile looks professional and stands out:

Add High-Quality Images

Your profile photo, header image, and album art should look professional. Consider hiring a designer or photographer to create eye-catching visuals. Think about the image or aesthetic you want to convey with your band and how listeners will perceive it.

Write a Compelling Spotify Bio

Spotify gives you a 1500-character limit—make sure to make the most of it. Your Spotify bio is the place to tell your band’s story, talk about your discography, and add some personal flair for your fans to connect with. You can also talk about your music style, influences, and biggest achievements.

Example:

“Known for their of hardcore and deathcore, Knocked Loose is taking extreme metal to mainstream audiences with their distinct brand of violent vocals and crushingly-heavy instrumentals. Starting in 2013 out of Kentucky, Knocked Loose is taking the reins of extreme metal and pushing through to some of the world’s biggest stages.

Add Links to Social Media and Merch

When a fan discovers you on Spotify, make it as easy as possible for them to connect with you on other platforms. Include links to your other social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and also consider adding your band website to the end of you bio, so fans can find you on other platforms easily.

Use Spotify Canvas

Add short looping videos to your tracks on Spotify. These videos grab attention when people listen to your songs and make your tracks more memorable. It’s always a social media best-practice to try to use every tool that is available since algorithms will often favor accounts that are using new features.

2. Release Music Consistently

Spotify’s algorithm loves active artists. Consistency shows the platform (and your listeners) that you’re serious about your music.

• Plan a release schedule: Aim to release a new track or EP 2-3 months
• Use Spotify for Artists to pitch songs: Every new release should be pitched to Spotify’s editors to increase playlisting opportunities. Regularly releasing songs means more opportunities to pitch to Spotify Editorial playlists.
• Release singles over albums: Singles keep your name in front of listeners more often, boosting your monthly streams. Many successful bands are opting to release 6-8 singles before releasing the full album, keeping a consistent release schedule leading up to the full LP release.

3. Leverage Spotify Playlists

Playlists are the lifeblood of Spotify. Getting your songs onto playlists—especially popular ones—can drive massive growth in monthly listeners.

Submit to Editorial Playlists

Through Spotify for Artists, you can pitch your unreleased tracks to Spotify’s editorial team. Be sure to:

• Write a strong pitch about your song’s mood, genre, and inspiration.
• Highlight any upcoming promotional plans to show you’re serious about promoting your music.

As you set up your song for release you can pitch to Spotify Editors with a 500-character limit. Here’s an example of a Spotify Pitch that landed on not 1 but 4 Spotify Editorial Playlists including: Top of the Rock, New Music Friday France, VOLUME FRANCE, and All New Rock.

"In the tradition of conscious rap, Storm Orchestra aims to create a new fashion: the conscious moshpit. The band chose a profound and audacious track to unveil their first album ironically called "What A Time To Be Alive". "Criminal" evokes the despair of witnessing the criminal madness that humans are both guilty and victim of. The languid verses give way to explosive, desperate choruses, before a declamatory finale that ends in an exhausted heartbeat."

Most successful Spotify pitches will describe the song with creative writing that conveys the emotion, mood, and aesthetic of your song. You can also consider talking about previous major band achievements or social media numbers to show your commitment to marketing your single. Pitching your song 3-4 weeks before release is typically reccommended.

More about creating the perfect pitch for Spotify, festivals, or blogs here.

Focus on Algorithmic Playlists

Spotify’s algorithm can place your songs in Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Radio playlists. To trigger these, you need consistent streams, saves, and listener engagement.

Pitch to User-Curated Playlists

Independent playlist curators are a goldmine for exposure. You can use tools like SubmitHub or PlaylistPush to find curators in your genre, and reach out with personalized pitches. You can also look for playlist curators through Spotify search and find playlists with social media or email contact info in the description.

Create Your Own Playlists

One of the most overlooked ways to increase your Spotify streams is through creating your own playlists. Think of trending genres or topics that your music fits in with and scatter your songs into a playlist on that topic. Post your playlist to social media and stream it a few times a week and eventually if Spotify sees your playlist is relevant it will start passively growing in saves and streams.

Playlists can be hit or miss whether they gain traction so don’t be afraid to experiment with different playlist ideas. It will sometimes take 10-20 playlists before one will start to take off, but once your playlist starts growing it will be a steady stream of new listeners for your music.

4. Promote Your Music on Social Media

Social media platforms are essential for driving traffic to your Spotify page. Spotify loves when you drive traffic from outside of Spotify (like on social media) directly to Spotify to listen to your music.

Create Shareable Content

Post snippets of your music, behind-the-scenes videos, or teasers of upcoming releases. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are the kings of short-form content like Reels and Shorts. Posting quick 30-second videos of your band performing live or even lip-syncing to the recorded track with a link of your music in the comments is a tried-and-true way of driving new listeners to Spotify.

Balance Paid Advertising

A lot of bands have utilized successful advertising campaigns through Meta Ads (a.k.a. Instagram/Facebook advertising) to significantly grow their Spotify listeners.

If you decide to go the paid advertising route, make sure to use an eye-catching video featuring one of your songs strongest hooks. Advertising with reels and stories is typically the best for music as that’s when most listeners will have their sound on. You can use a link service like ToneDen or SoundLink to include as the promoted link for your ad, so when users click the ad they are directed to a link that shows your latest song on every streaming platform.

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