Music business and lockdown—has the industry gone digital?
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For many of us, Spotify has become part of our everyday lives. There we can find many of our favorite artists and listen to their music. But Spotify is also omnipresent for the other side: Many musicians depend on Spotify. But only very few know how to use the platform efficiently and effectively for their distribution. With well over 300 million active users worldwide, there is no other music platform that brings with it as much reach. But how exactly can you market yourself effectively as a musician on Spotify? What should you pay attention to? You'll find the answers in this article.
The importance of Spotify for musicians
As already mentioned, Spotify has an enormous reach, with around 356 million active users in 2020 alone. The pop genre and current charts are particularly popular with listeners. However, niche genres and new, exciting music styles are also gaining in popularity. Since the single click is hardly remunerated at only around 0.0044 US dollars, the model pays off for you as a musician through the mass of clicks.
More important than the payment is the reach you can achieve by publishing your music on Spotify. This is how users become aware of you as an artist and your music - and thus potential concert visitors or track buyers.
How to optimize your marketing around Spotify
Even if Spotify doesn't directly refinance your advertising expenses, you can still draw attention to yourself independently of the platform with the help of a few simple steps. To get started, use primarily inexpensive marketing tools that you can manage and control yourself. Online marketing is more important than ever in the music industry at this point, since you have control over your content on social networks or on your web presence.
Many careers start with sharing tracks on Instagram with your fans and friends. Or that you become active in your already existing networks. The more you share and the better your music is received on social media, the more you'll grow on Spotify. There you can access all the albums that have already been released, so that fans can engage more intensively with your music. Interaction is an important keyword here. This not only gives you more reach, but also allows you to build an almost personal connection with your fans.
Playlists as the most important tool on Spotify
Once the social media marketing is going well, you can start paying more attention to Spotify itself. One of the most important factors for your success are the playlists on Spotify. Only very few users find you directly via the musician search, which is why you should make it into recommended playlists. These are different sections in which your music appears due to its similarity to previous tracks of your target group. This way, over time, you will also generate views without being actively searched for or already being present among your listeners.
Various Spotify playlists with suitable music
Even within the playlists on Spotify, there are some differences that you should know in advance. Both users themselves can create a playlist on Spotify and the artificial algorithm of the platform. The following functions play an important role for you and your music:
Manually selected playlists
To appear in a manual playlist, it depends primarily on your popularity. It is important that your music resonates with the listeners and can be recognized. Another chance to make it into the individually compiled playlists is the placement in algorithmic lists. In this way, users will become aware of you again more quickly.
Algorithmically created playlists
The algorithmically created playlists are much more important, especially for newcomers. You automatically get into these playlists if your music fits the user selection based on its style and genre and has a certain relevance and quality. Algorithmic playlists include Spotify Radio, Discover Weekly, On Repeat, Release Radar, and Your Daily Mix. Overall, the number of algorithmic streams is usually significantly higher than all manual playlists. Therefore, for good marketing, bring the algorithm to your site.
Mixed forms of both playlist types
For a few years now, Spotify has also been offering so-called mixed forms in addition to the two types of playlists presented here. Here, there is also room for songs that did not make it into the algorithms' prestigious lists. There are now many playlists that promote newcomers while at the same time integrating well-known music and are based on the musical wishes of the users.
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These are playlists like Feel Good Acoustic, Happy Folk, Deutschpop and many more, which are created and maintained by the Spotify team itself. By a large margin, these playlists are among the highest-clicking on the platform. Unfortunately, however, it is very difficult for newcomers to be discovered by the Spotify curator team.
Successful strategies to influence the Spotfy algorithm
To increase the number of your views and streams, the algorithm is the most important thing. For this, statistical data plays the main role. This includes the number of streams, listeners, views and saves, as well as a lot of calculable data such as the save rate. So before you start with a new album, you should advertise as widely and intensively as possible and increase the most important key figures with your release. This way, you also increase the chance that you will benefit from possible recommendations of the Spotify algorithm and appear in new playlists.
In addition to the active user values, the number of your songs and albums as well as the continuity of your releases also influence the result on Spotify. While artists with few songs often have a hard time, the algorithm automatically creates references for multiple songs and can include you in the artist-oriented playlists. Also, over time, your profile will be ranked more trustworthy than fresh newcomer profiles. Activity is therefore of enormous importance for your success on Spotify.
The right ratio between followers and listeners
For a direct and positive effect on the algorithm, it depends on active approval from your fans. If you do not have enough followers, but still have numerous streams, the Spotify algorithm may become suspicious. Even if your streams are developing positively, you should keep an eye on the number of your fans and followers. The better you can develop this value, the more likely you are to benefit from a placement in new playlists. At the same time, your revenue via Spotify will increase.
More quick tips for more success on Spotify
While the figures for direct downloads and CD sales continue to fall, Spotify's success continues to rise. Streaming already accounts for 46.8 percent of all music industry revenue. The following tips can help you build more streams in the long term:
- Continuously produce good music at the highest level.
- Use your reach via social media to draw attention to yourself.
- Put a link to Spotify in your bio on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
- Create your own playlists and make them popular on Spotify.
- Ask your followers to save new songs directly to their own playlists.
- Get in touch with bigger playlist creators and showcase your music.
- Work on features with other artists and benefit from referrals.
- Go for playlists of 20 to 60 songs, one or two of which are yours.
Spotify - the most important foundation for more reach
The music industry is increasingly developing in terms of digitalization, which means that it is hardly possible to earn money with classic CD sales. Even if Spotify doesn't offer the fairest conditions for new musicians at first glance, you should use the platform for yourself and your success. The search for musicians is now often limited to platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, which is why you shouldn't miss out there either.
To increase your success step by step, the statistics on Spotify will help you. They show you what genres your fans prefer, how often they skip your songs, and which tracks have been the most popular so far. The more you know about your success on Spotify, the better you can incorporate the immediate feedback into your songwriting.
Go on a musician search now and find what you are looking for!
Are you looking for support yourself to become active in the music industry? Here with us you will certainly find many like-minded people who are also interested in good music and perhaps already have one or two experiences with Spotify. Via our musician search we support you in the active exchange with producers, bands and other musicians.