5 legal ways to get more Spotify streams

From ways to customize your profile to collaborating with artists, here are 5 tips on how to get more Spotify streams this year without getting yourself in trouble.

by Collin Steinz of Bandzoogle

If you’re trying to promote your music in 2023, it’s no secret that you need to have your music available on Spotify. With over 489 million active users, it’s become the go-to platform for music fans to discover new music. 

Spotify pays $4 USD for every 1,000 streams. While you may not make life-changing money at first, , it can definitely be a jumping off point for your career as a whole. I’ve been part of projects and surrounded by bands who have secured record deals, publishing deals, booking agents, festival dates and more, all based on their Spotify profile.

I’m going to share some tips and insights on how you can build your Spotify streams to help take the next step in your music career.

1. Customize Your Spotify Profile

Your Spotify profile is the space where you shine, the space where you express yourself. With an estimated 60,000 songs submitted to Spotify each day, you want to make sure that when a listener comes across your Spotify profile, it catches their attention.

To customize your profile, you’ll need to get set up with Spotify for Artists. This will allow you to claim the music you release on Spotify and get insights and data on how your music is performing. It also allows you to update your header image, avatar image, add a bio, add links to social media, and set an artist pick which you can use to promote a new release.

When you’re dressing up your Spotify profile, keep in mind the idea of ‘no plot holes.’ If you’re being 100% your authentic self, then there will be no plot holes in your storyline – the one that your fans will be following across social media and to your music..

As an example, Bandzoogle member Edwin Raphael took a trip to Costa Rica to film footage for his new album Warm Terracotta and wanted to share his journey with his fans. His Spotify header image highlights a journey he took travelling through the Costa Rican jungle by river.

This imagery certainly pops when you land on his page and is definitely unique to Edwin as an artist. Remember – no plot holes. If it’s you, embrace it. It’ll keep fans coming back to see where else the journey will take you.

2. Releasing Music

To get your music on Spotify, you’ll need a digital distributor. There are many to choose from, and it’s worth mentioning that Bandzoogle members get free distribution coupons with CD Baby.  But once you’ve secured your distributor, and you have your mastered track(s) in hand along with some great artwork – well, what next?

Here are a few rules to follow when preparing your music for release.

• Submit your music to distributors at least 4 weeks in advance. For distributors that do additional pitching to DSP’s (digital streaming providers), this is essential.
• Pitch your lead single to Spotify editor’s within Spotify for Artists. Once your music has been delivered by your distributor you’ll see it in your Spotify for Artists under Music > Upcoming Releases. You’ll also see the option to pitch it to editors. You’ll need to do this 7 days in advance (minimum) for the song to be included in your Release Radar and submitted for editorial playlist consideration. It’s important to highlight your genre, instrumentation, and release plan. If you’re hiring PR, going on tour, or running ads – include it! Spotify wants to see what you’re doing to promote your music on your end. Don’t rely only on getting editorial playlisting to get your release out to a wider audience.
• Upload a canvas for your tracks. “Spotify loves to see you using their tools.” This was told to me by the head of marketing for a renowned indie label in Canada. A Canvas is a 8 second visualizer that listeners can look at while they listen to your music and is another way for you to share your journey and creativity with listeners.
• Release with consistency. Have a game plan for your releases. If you’re releasing a 7 song album, think about how you can get the most out of it. You spend a lot of time creating all of those songs, and they deserve to be heard.

The label Favourite Library (Bandzoogle members since 2022) had a strategy in place with their first artist Nicholas Cangiano. Before the release of his album New Occasion, he had great music, but less than 200 monthly listeners. Favourite Library outlined a release plan for the rollout to see if they can help grow Nick’s Spotify reach. 

They released 4 singles leading up to the album, each 6-8 weeks apart, and always making sure to include the promotion strategy in their pitch to Spotify for Artists. The first tracks did not perform so well, but by the time the album was released, it caught traction in the algorithm and was placed on several Spotify editorial playlists. Within the first 4 months of the album’s release, it accumulated over 120,000 streams, close to 1,500 followers, and Nick has been hovering around 10,000 monthly listeners.

3. Promoting your music 

There are two factors to consider when promoting your music: Pre-Release & Post-Release.

Pre-Release: You will be able to request a ‘pre-save’ link through your distributor. A pre-save campaign is a great way to get your audience excited about your new release. They’ll be presented with a page with your album cover, a countdown to the release date, and the option to save the track to their Spotify library before it’s even out.

In 2021, a friend of mine had a song go viral on TikTok. She had shared the idea of a song which got traction and her audience grew and became a part of the creation of the track. When she announced the pre-save, she received over 80,000 pre-saves and was featured on Spotify editorial playlists across the world. While the payout of $4 per thousand streams is not ideal, that traction led to a record deal and worldwide tours opening for some of the biggest artists on the planet.

Post-Release: Not everyone will get a viral track prior to its release, so it’s important to know that once your track is out, the promotion is just beginning. 

Now it’s time to get creative with promoting your song. Maybe it’s a music video, a TikTok campaign, or something more DIY depending on your genre. The key here is to make sure that it’s easy for new fans to find your music, and here’s where Bandzoogle can play a major role.

Bandzoogle offers two features which can be incredibly useful – our Landing Page feature and Smart Links feature. Landing Pages are a great way to convert potential fans from social media to your music. It’s a page on your site that is stripped of site-wide branding, so you can focus attention on what’s important – getting new ears on your music.

Using our Smart Links feature, you can direct new fans to Spotify directly with just one click – at the same time giving them insight to who you are as an artist.

Share and sell more music on your own mobile-ready website. Try Bandzoogle today!

4. Collaboration

Collaboration is a great way to get more streams to your music. Spotify allows for up to three primary artists- this means that if you release a track with three primary artists, your track is delivered to three different artist radars, can be pitched to editors by each of the three artists, and all the streams are shared across profiles.

Bandzoogle members Saint Zenon have embraced this entirely. The band is made up of 11 different artists from Montreal, who collectively have over 2 million monthly listeners. When they release a track, all 11 are included as artists, and the three most prominent voices on the track are added as primary artists. This allows each track to reach a wider audience and get more streams.

Bandzoogle members Flara K used this same approach in 2021 to help gain traction to their upcoming EP. They collaborated with a UK based producer to remix one of their tracks. The producer had been getting attention due to a remix of a popular track that was getting traction on Spotify, and when it came time to release the track, both artists were added as primary artists and pitched the track through Spotify for Artists. The track to date has amassed over half a million streams.

I also believe that when you’re part of a music scene that supports and collaborates with one another, it allows for the most creative music to be made. It also creates a healthy environment where if one of the artists starts to get attention, everyone around them wins. One artist in Montreal signed a record deal and publishing deal and as a result, his collaborators who were songwriters on his tracks were able to secure publishing deals for themselves and now perform and tour in the band. 

5. Create Unique Experiences

I think it’s important to say there is a difference between passive listeners who will stream your music once, and fans who will be playing your album on repeat. The music you’re writing has come from a unique place and it’s important to share that with your fans.

In Montreal, Favourite Library hosts intimate secret shows that are invite only. It started out as a way for a few artists to share the songs they were working on, but has since grown into something bigger. The vibes are warm, the instruments are unplugged, and everyone is there to listen and soak in the experience. Now the shows sell out, have been getting bigger, and the people who were there early on, are coming out in bigger groups and know all the music. They’re involved in the artist’s journey and when the artist asks if the audience can follow them on Spotify, they do without hesitating. The audience is part of a unique experience that creates a fan for life.

For his new album, Edwin Raphael embraced AI and even created a 3D world for fans to venture through to discover his new music and see where the inspiration for his tracks had come from. As you venture through each section of the 3D world, tracks from his album play and you can click a link to stream the released tracks on Spotify, and pre-save each unreleased track.

Building your streams on Spotify in and of itself may not be a lucrative money-maker, but it can open the door to more listeners and greater musical opportunities. Start small, customize your profile, and work your way into creative and authentic endeavours to support your music’s reach online.