Spotify is great at recognizing its users’ music tastes to a tee and suggesting artists they would love. But the big question is, how do you make sure YOUR music is picked up by Spotify’s smart algorithm and put in front of potential fans?
Let’s get a bit technical…
The Spotify algorithm is an AI system known as BART (short for Bandits for Recommendations as Treatments).
Basically, BART’s job is to keep listeners engaged.
It does this by playing and suggesting songs it knows the user is familiar with while inserting some new tracks it thinks they might like—but most importantly, ones they’ve never heard before.
This ensures that the listener stays engaged, but things never get boring.
BART decides what to suggest to listeners using three main functions:
- Natural Language Processing: Analyzes the language, lyrics, and content of a song.
- Raw Audio Analysis: Detects the “vibe” or “mood” of a song’s audio and determines whether it’s upbeat, relaxed, heavy, minimalist, instrumental, etc.
- Collaborative Filtering: Compares new songs with a listener’s current habits to decide what fits their taste.
Okay, so that’s the technology behind the Spotify algorithm in simple terms.
But when you’re ready to get your music on Spotify, how can artists, bands, and labels plan their releases to make the algorithm work in their favor and reach more listeners?
We’ll go over some key ways tracks are suggested to fans through algorithmic playlists, daily mixes, and other recommendations.
It’s All About the Stats
Just like other social media platforms, the Spotify algorithm is driven by stats. The platform constantly monitors how its hundreds of millions of users interact with different types of music to feed them more of what they like.
Spotify is always helping—and learning!
The algorithm takes many statistics into account when deciding which songs to suggest to users.
Important Spotify algorithm stats include:
- Listening history (mood, style, genre)
- Skip rate (fewer skips = more recommendations)
- Listening time (getting past 30 seconds is crucial)
- Playlist features (inclusions in all personal, independent, and official playlists)
The 30-Second Rule on Spotify
There has been a lot of talk about the 30-second rule in the past year, but the fact is that the first 30 seconds of a track are more important to Spotify than anything else.
If a listener makes it past the 30-second mark of your track, that’s a positive data point. Plus, that’s when a stream is monetized. However, this doesn’t mean you can just create an album full of 30-second songs.
Making a track “Spotify-friendly” just to please the algorithm is a debated topic. Do you compromise your creative vision for a chance at getting into more Spotify playlists? In the end, it’s up to you.
But if you’re trying to make the algorithm work in your favor, think carefully about the first 30 seconds of your song. Make sure it grabs the listener right away to keep your skip rate low.
Maybe reconsider that slow 31-second piano intro for your first releases (unless you’re targeting slow piano playlists!).
That being said, Daniel Ek himself has publicly dismissed any claims that artists can manipulate the system.
(Pssst) – Find out how much your monetized streams are generating with our Spotify Pay-Per-Stream Calculator!
Timing Can Make a Difference
The first 12 to 24 hours after release are crucial. Listener peaks, low skip rates, and listening time matter most on launch day(s).
So you can see why timing is key. Build hype in the lead-up to your release. Get your fans excited enough during the pre-release period so that everyone listens and saves your track on day one.
Don’t forget to watch the competition, too. If a major artist is about to drop a track that all your fans will listen to, try to avoid that release date.
It’s also generally accepted that Friday is the best day to release new music. This gives you a better chance of landing on one of the influential New Music Friday playlists.
Algorithmic Playlist Tricks
Getting your music into Release Radar and Discover Weekly can give a huge boost to your stream count. They generate more streams than any other playlists.
That’s because they are algorithmic playlists linked to each user’s listening habits.
Release Radar is entirely based on your followers. If someone follows your profile on Spotify, your new music will show up in their Release Radar.
Discover Weekly is a bit more complex. It’s based primarily on musical taste, habits, and the analysis of other playlists on the platform. Here’s how Spotify describes how it works:
“We look at what you’re listening to. And what songs are playing around those songs that you’re playing, but that we know you haven’t heard on Spotify yet.”
“Let’s say you’re playing a lot of a song by The Killers and a song by Bruce Springsteen. The algorithms analyze how those songs are played and ordered in other users’ playlists. If it finds that, when people play those songs together in their playlists, there’s another song in between them that someone hasn’t heard before, that song will show up in Discover Weekly.”
One way to increase your chances of landing in Discover Weekly is to leverage the power of your friends, family, and fans!
Every playlist is considered by the Discover Weekly algorithm, so get everyone you know to put your track first in their personal playlists.
Use Tags & Pitch to Playlists on Spotify for Artists
If you’re not using Spotify for Artists yet, sign up right now. I’ll give you a minute… okay, back? Good.
Submitting directly to Spotify playlists and tagging your tracks in Spotify for Artists will help determine who they are suggested to and which playlists they fit into.
These meta tags include mood, genres, etc. If they are labeled incorrectly, they will show up for the wrong people and get skipped. Remember, a skip before the 30-second mark is bad news for the all-seeing eye of the algorithm.
