How to Get on Spotify Playlists
Foundational Guide
Feb 1, 2026
Getting on a Spotify playlist is the most common goal artists and teams set for a release. It makes sense. Playlists drive discovery. A single placement on a major editorial playlist can add tens of thousands of streams in a week. But playlists are a discovery channel, not a growth strategy. The streams from a playlist placement mean nothing if those listeners never come back.
The artists who build careers from playlists are the ones who treat every placement as the beginning of a relationship, not the end goal. A playlist puts your song in front of new ears. What you do before, during, and after that moment determines whether those ears become fans.
This guide covers the three types of Spotify playlists, how to pursue each one, how to avoid the scams that cost artists thousands, and how to convert playlist listeners into an audience that lasts.
The Three Types of Playlists
Not all playlists work the same way. Understanding the mechanics behind each type changes how you approach them.
Editorial Playlists
What they are. Playlists curated by Spotify's in-house editorial team. These include major playlists like New Music Friday, RapCaviar, Today's Top Hits, Pollen, and hundreds of genre-specific and mood-based playlists. Spotify employs editors who specialize in specific genres and regions, and they actively listen to new releases to curate their playlists.
How songs get on them. Two paths. First: you pitch your unreleased song through the editorial pitch tool in Spotify for Artists. Spotify editors review these submissions and select songs that fit their upcoming playlist plans. Second: editors independently discover songs through their own listening, industry contacts, press coverage, social media buzz, or algorithmic signals. You cannot buy your way onto an editorial playlist. The selection is based on the song's quality, fit for the playlist's audience, and the editor's curatorial judgment.
What to expect. Editorial placements drive significant stream spikes, often 10,000-100,000+ streams depending on the playlist's size and your song's position on it. But these streams are temporary. When your song rotates off the playlist (typically after 1-4 weeks), the stream count from that source drops sharply. The value of the placement depends on how many of those temporary listeners convert into followers and saved-song listeners.
The editorial pitch process. This is covered in detail in the Spotify for Artists Analytics Guide, but the essentials are: upload your release to your distributor at least 3-4 weeks before release date, pitch one song per release through the editorial tool in Spotify for Artists, and describe the song's genre, mood, and sonic character with specificity. "Indie pop" is not a pitch. "Indie pop with lo-fi production, conversational vocal delivery, and a lyrical focus on small-town nostalgia" gives an editor something to work with.
Algorithmic Playlists
What they are. Playlists generated automatically by Spotify's recommendation algorithm for each individual listener. The major ones are Release Radar (new music from artists a listener follows or has engaged with), Discover Weekly (songs from artists a listener has not heard, based on their listening patterns), Radio (a station generated from a seed song or artist), and Autoplay (what plays after an album or playlist ends).
How songs get on them. You do not pitch for algorithmic playlists. They are driven entirely by listener behavior signals. The algorithm places your song on a listener's Discover Weekly or Radio if your music shares sonic and behavioral similarities with what that listener already enjoys. The signals that feed this include: save rates, listen-through rates (do people finish the song?), follower activity, and engagement patterns from your existing audience.
What this means for you. Algorithmic playlists are the reward for making music that resonates and having an engaged existing audience. You cannot hack them directly. You can influence them by building a strong follower base (who drive your Release Radar reach), creating music with high save and listen-through rates, and maintaining consistent release activity so the algorithm has fresh data to work with.
The compounding effect. Algorithmic playlists feed on themselves. If your song performs well on Release Radar (high saves, few skips), the algorithm surfaces it to more Discover Weekly and Radio playlists. If it performs well there, it gets pushed further. This is why engagement metrics matter more than raw stream counts. A song with fewer streams but high engagement will algorithmically outperform a song with more streams but low engagement over time.
User-Generated Playlists
What they are. Playlists created by Spotify users who are not affiliated with Spotify's editorial team. This includes casual listeners who make playlists for themselves, independent curators who build themed playlists with substantial followings, and niche tastemakers who focus on specific genres or moods.
The range is enormous. A user playlist might have 12 followers (your friend's workout mix) or 500,000 followers (a popular independent curator's "Chill Indie" playlist). The value of a placement depends entirely on the size and engagement of the playlist's audience.
How songs get on them. Listeners add your song because they like it. Curators add your song because it fits their playlist and they discovered it through their own listening, social media, submissions, or word of mouth. Many independent curators accept submissions through their social media profiles, websites, or platforms like SubmitHub, Musosoup, or Groover.
Getting on Editorial Playlists
You have one tool for this: the editorial pitch in Spotify for Artists. Here is how to maximize your chances.
Before You Pitch
Your profile needs to be complete. Spotify editors look at your artist profile when evaluating a pitch. A profile with no bio, no artist photo, no header image, and no Artist Pick signals that you are not taking your presence on the platform seriously. Fill out every field. Update your photos to match your current release cycle.
Your engagement metrics matter. Editors consider whether your existing audience is engaged. A strong save rate and follower-to-listener ratio on previous releases tells an editor that people who hear your music tend to connect with it. This does not mean you need massive numbers. It means the listeners you have need to be real and engaged.
Your release needs external momentum. If you can show that a release has press coverage planned, a music video dropping, an active social media campaign, or a tour date announcement tied to it, that context strengthens your pitch. Editors are more likely to place a song that is part of a broader moment because it increases the chance that listeners who discover it on the playlist will also encounter it elsewhere.
The Pitch Itself
One song per release. You cannot pitch your entire EP. Choose the song most likely to connect with a new listener on first listen. This is not always the song you think is your best work. It is the song with the strongest hook, the most immediate emotional impact, and the clearest sonic identity.
Be specific. "Pop" is useless. "R&B-influenced pop with minimal production, falsetto vocals, and lyrics about the distance between who you are and who you present online" tells an editor exactly which playlist your song fits. Name comparable artists if it helps, but do not overreach. Comparing yourself to Beyonce when you have 200 monthly listeners damages your credibility.
Describe the song, not yourself. The pitch form has a free-text field. Use it to describe the song's sound, mood, and context. Do not use it to list your career accomplishments or explain why you deserve a placement. The editor is evaluating the song for a specific playlist, not evaluating your career.
Pitch 3-4 weeks before release. This gives editors time to listen, evaluate, and slot your song into their planning cycle. Pitching 2-3 days before release almost guarantees your submission will not be reviewed in time.
After the Pitch
Most pitches are not selected. Spotify receives hundreds of thousands of submissions. A rejection does not mean the song is bad. It means the song did not fit the current editorial plan for the playlists you were considered for. Keep pitching every release. Editors notice consistency.
Even without editorial placement, the act of pitching ensures your song is delivered to your followers' Release Radar. This is valuable on its own. Release Radar is one of the highest-converting playlists on Spotify because it reaches people who already chose to follow you.
Getting on User-Generated Playlists
This is the part of playlist strategy that is most within your control and most often neglected.
Finding Curators
Spotify search. Search for playlists in your genre. Look at who created them. If a playlist has thousands of followers and is regularly updated, the creator is an active curator.
Curator submission platforms. SubmitHub, Musosoup, and Groover are platforms where curators list themselves and accept submissions for a small fee (typically $1-$3 per submission). The fee pays for the curator's time to listen, not for placement. Placement is never guaranteed, and any platform that guarantees placement is not legitimate.
Social media. Many curators announce submission windows on Twitter/X and Instagram. Search for hashtags like #SpotifyPlaylist, #PlaylistCurator, or genre-specific tags. Follow curators in your genre space and engage with their content before submitting.
The Outreach
Listen to the playlist first. If you have not listened to the playlist, do not submit. Sending a trap song to an acoustic folk playlist wastes everyone's time and marks you as someone who does mass outreach without doing any research. Curators remember this.
Keep it short. A cold pitch to a curator should be 3-4 sentences: who you are, what the song sounds like, why you think it fits their playlist, and a link. Do not send your life story. Do not send press clippings. Do not send five songs. One song, one playlist, one clear reason it fits.
Accept rejection gracefully. Most curators will not respond. Some will decline. Neither is personal. Thank them if they respond, move on if they do not, and submit again with your next release. Relationships with curators build over time.
Building Your Own Playlists
Creating and maintaining your own playlists on Spotify is an underused strategy. Build playlists around the mood, genre, or vibe of your music and include songs from artists you genuinely admire alongside your own. Share these playlists with your audience. This does three things: it positions you as a tastemaker in your genre, it gets your song in front of listeners who are already in the right sonic headspace, and it builds goodwill with the other artists you include (who may reciprocate or share the playlist).
A playlist with 500 genuine followers who are deeply into your genre is more valuable than a spot on a 50,000-follower playlist where your song gets skipped by listeners who are not your audience.
How to Spot and Avoid Playlist Scams
The playlist scam ecosystem costs artists millions of dollars every year. Here is how it works and how to protect yourself.
The Red Flags
Guaranteed placement for a fee. No legitimate service can guarantee editorial playlist placement. Spotify's editorial team is independent. Anyone claiming to have a direct line to editors and charging for guaranteed placement is lying, or they are placing your song on playlists they control that are inflated with bot listeners.
Playlists with suspicious follower-to-listener ratios. A playlist with 100,000 followers but streams that come almost entirely from accounts with no other listening history is a bot playlist. Placement on these playlists does not help you. It actively harms you because Spotify's algorithm detects fake streams and may penalize your account.
Vague "marketing packages" that include playlist placement. If a service bundles "playlist promotion" into a marketing package without naming specific playlists, specific curators, or specific outreach methods, the playlist component is likely either bot-driven or nonexistent.
DMs from accounts offering "playlist placement." If you receive unsolicited messages on Instagram, Twitter, or email from accounts offering to place your music on playlists for a fee, treat it as a scam until proven otherwise. Legitimate curators do not cold-DM artists offering paid placement.
"Pay per stream" or "pay per placement" pricing. Any pricing model tied to stream counts is a strong indicator of bot activity. Legitimate playlist placement is not transactional in that way.
What Spotify Does About It
Spotify actively monitors for artificial streaming and has removed millions of tracks and penalized accounts that use fake streams. If your song is placed on a bot playlist, Spotify may remove the artificial streams from your count (which feels like losing streams you thought you earned), flag your account for suspicious activity, or in extreme cases, remove your music entirely. The risk is not just wasted money. It is potential damage to your account and your standing on the platform.
The Simple Rule
If someone guarantees a playlist placement for money, it is a scam or it uses bots. There are no exceptions. The only legitimate path to editorial playlists is the free pitch tool in Spotify for Artists. The only legitimate path to user-generated playlists is direct outreach to real curators or submission through vetted platforms where payment covers listening time, not placement.
Converting Playlist Listeners Into Fans
This is the strategic shift that separates playlist placement from playlist strategy.
A listener who hears your song on a playlist is not your fan. They are a stranger who heard one song in a sequence of 50 songs. If you do nothing, they will finish the playlist, forget your name, and never seek you out. Converting even a small percentage of playlist listeners into followers, email subscribers, or social media followers is what makes playlist placement valuable long-term.
What Drives Conversion
A complete artist profile. When a listener likes a song on a playlist, some will click through to your artist page. If your profile has a compelling bio, current photos, an Artist Pick (a featured song, playlist, or event pinned to the top of your profile), and a full discography, they have a reason to explore further. If your profile is empty, the visit ends there.
More music to discover. A listener who likes one song and finds a full catalog is more likely to follow than a listener who finds a single or two. This is one argument for consistent release activity: a deeper catalog gives playlist listeners more reasons to stay.
An active presence off-platform. If a listener hears your song, looks you up, and finds active social media with engaging content, they have another entry point into your world. If they find a dead Instagram page with no posts in 3 months, the moment passes.
A direct capture mechanism. The highest-value conversion from a playlist listener is an email signup. Include your website link in your Spotify bio and your social media bios. Make sure your website has a clear, compelling reason to sign up (a free download, early access to new music, or exclusive content). Every email subscriber you capture from playlist traffic is a fan you own regardless of what happens on Spotify.
Measuring Playlist Impact
After a playlist placement, track these metrics in Spotify for Artists:
New followers gained during the placement period
Save rate on the song while on the playlist
Source of streams (what percentage came from that playlist vs. other sources)
Monthly listener baseline after the song rotates off (did it increase compared to before the placement?)
If a placement drives 50,000 streams but zero new followers, the placement generated attention without conversion. If it drives 10,000 streams and 500 new followers, the placement is building your audience. The second outcome is more valuable for your career even though the numbers are smaller.
For a full breakdown of how to interpret these metrics, see Spotify for Artists Analytics Guide.
Common Mistakes
Treating playlists as the strategy. Playlists are one discovery channel within a larger marketing plan. An artist whose entire strategy is "get on playlists" is building on rented land. Playlists rotate. Algorithms change. Build owned audience (email, followers) alongside playlist pursuit.
Pitching too late. Pitching editorial 3 days before release means your song almost certainly will not be reviewed in time. Pitch 3-4 weeks before release. This requires planning your upload and distribution timeline accordingly.
Mass-submitting to irrelevant playlists. Sending your hip-hop track to 200 playlists across every genre is not hustle. It is spam. Curators talk to each other. A reputation for irrelevant submissions follows you. Target 10-20 playlists that genuinely fit your sound rather than blasting 200.
Paying for guaranteed placements. This cannot be said enough: guaranteed playlist placement for a fee is either a scam or uses bots. Both waste your money. Bots actively harm your account. There are no exceptions.
Ignoring post-placement conversion. A playlist placement with no follow-up strategy is a wasted opportunity. Before your song lands on any playlist, your profile, social media, and website should be ready to catch the listeners who click through.
Obsessing over editorial at the expense of everything else. Editorial placement is one path. Algorithmic playlists, user-generated playlists, and your own playlists are three others. Artists who build strong engagement metrics and real curator relationships often generate more sustained playlist presence than artists who pin all their hopes on a single editorial pitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many streams can I expect from a playlist placement?
It varies enormously. A spot on a 10,000-follower niche playlist might generate 1,000-5,000 streams over a few weeks. A spot on a major editorial playlist like New Music Friday can generate 50,000-500,000+ streams. Position on the playlist matters too: the first 10-20 songs get significantly more plays than songs near the bottom.
Do playlists pay well?
Streams from playlists pay the same per-stream rate as any other stream (roughly $0.003-$0.005 per stream, varying by market and listener type). The value of playlists is primarily discovery, not direct revenue. A placement that generates 50,000 streams might earn $150-$250 in streaming royalties. The real value is the new followers, saves, and audience growth that come from the exposure.
How often should I pitch for editorial playlists?
Every release. Even if you have never been selected. The pitch process feeds the algorithmic system (Release Radar, Discover Weekly) regardless of editorial selection, and consistent pitching keeps your music on editors' radar.
Are playlist submission services worth it?
Legitimate submission platforms like SubmitHub, Musosoup, and Groover are worth using as part of a broader outreach strategy. They charge a small fee ($1-$3 per submission) for a curator's time to listen, not for guaranteed placement. Curators can and do decline most submissions. Services that guarantee placement, charge large fees, or promise specific stream counts are not legitimate.
Can playlist placements hurt my algorithm?
Yes, if the placement reaches the wrong audience. A song placed on a large playlist where listeners consistently skip it sends negative engagement signals to the algorithm. This can reduce your song's algorithmic reach. A smaller playlist with engaged, genre-matched listeners is better for your algorithmic profile than a massive playlist where your song does not fit.
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