BIG NEWS AT SPOTIFY: There’s now a public process for suggesting an unreleased song to Spotify’s edi
You no longer have to hunt around for hidden web forms, find direct email contacts, or consult the ancient runestones to submit an upcoming release to Spotify’s in-house editorial team for playlist consideration.
Today Spotify announced the launch of a far more formalized and transparent process for playlist submissions — and it’s something you can do directly through your Spotify for Artists account, as long as your song has already been delivered to Spotify and scheduled for release.
[Note: Your unreleased track must’ve already been delivered to Spotify by CD Baby in order to submit the song to Spotify’s team, and you must complete the playlist submission process AT LEAST seven days ahead of your release date.]
The 8 most important things to know about submitting a song to Spotify’s editorial team:
You still need distribution; this is not a process for delivering music to Spotify directly, only for drawing Spotify’s attention to a track that has already been delivered to their ecosystem.
You can only submit one unreleased song at a time for playlist consideration; once the song drops, you can then submit another unreleased track to their team.
Submitting an unreleased song for consideration also guarantees that your followers on Spotify will have the track added to their customized Release Radar playlists on Friday, assuming they have not already listened to the song earlier in the week.
Spotify wants DATA to help them match the best songs to the right playlists. They say: It’s important to give us as much information about the track as possible — genre, mood, and other data points all help us make decisions about where it may fit. You can note the instruments on it, whether it’s a cover, and the cultures you or the song belong to. The data you share will be complemented by what we already know about you — what else your fans listen to, what other playlists you’ve appeared on, etc.
You can only submit music on DESKTOP; the submission process will not work in the mobile version of Spotify for Artists.
You’ve gotta submit at LEAST seven days in advance of the song’s release; but the more lead-time you give Spotify, the better. Plan ahead!
It is not possible to submit music that has already been released.
This process is FREE, and there is no mechanism by which to pay in order to increase your chances of placement.
How to submit a song for Spotify playlist consideration
Here are Spotify’s instruction:
Log in to Spotify for Artists on desktop, and find any unreleased music at the top of the Home or Profile tabs.
Select GET STARTED next to the release you want to submit. Or, go to Profile, right-click any unreleased music, and select Submit a Song.
Choose a song from the release to submit.
Fill out as much info about the song as possible. The more info we get, the better chance it has!
You might see this popup the next time you log into Spotify for Artists.
Pretty simple. If your song gets placed in a playlist, Spotify will send you an email notification. Plus, it’s good to get in the habit of checking the Playlists tab in your Spotify for Artists account on the regular anyway.
Here are a few quick questions in closing:
Will this incentivize musicians to release even more singles?
Will this move cut down on all the talk of playola in the industry?
Will artists releasing albums actually take advantage of this tool in order to instruct Spotify about what specific song to get behind?
Will you make a habit of submitting songs in this way?
Holler in the comments below.