Archive for December, 2020

Our Spotify Marketing Tips for The Holiday Season

The holiday season is a special time for millions of Spotify listeners – and a great opportunity for indie artists to gain new fans! Christmas songs accounted for more than 5% of all Spotify streams from Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve 2017, and received 22% of all streams on Christmas Day. With the right Spotify marketing strategy, musicians can tap into fresh audiences and find new reasons to celebrate at the end of December.

3 Spotify Marketing Tips For The Holiday Season

Record Holiday Cover Songs

Most artists fall into one of two camps: musicians who perform original music, and musicians who perform cover songs. But those rules go out the window during the holidays, and Spotify users love listening to modern interpretations of their favorite seasonal classics. That allows indie artists to record cover songs for a fraction of the cost that it takes to write and produce new music. There are dozens of holiday songs that are in the public domain (and free to record) that you can use as part of your Spotify marketing strategy; if you have your heart set on a song that is still under copyright, you can use a website like Easy Song Licensing to get the right to record it under your own name.

Release Your Own Holiday Music

If you don’t want to record a cover of someone else’s song, you can always release your own holiday music! Don’t forget to plan ahead – the process of composing, recording, and marketing an original song can take months, and if you want to take advantage of Spotify marketing, your release needs to be playlist-ready before the holiday season swings into high gear.One of the added benefits of recording your own music is that you can put your own spin on the most wonderful time of the year. This would be a great opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of the last twelve months, to honor unconventional heroes and holidays, or to express your excitement for the year ahead.

Get On A Holiday Music Playlist

The best way for indie artists to get more streams, gain more followers, and get discovered is to form relationships with Spotify playlist curators. This becomes even more important during the holidays – no one is going to listen to your rendition of “Deck The Halls” if they aren’t exposed to it on one of Spotify’s holiday music playlists. Playlist Streams makes it easy for you to promote your seasonal music online. We’ve built lasting relationships with playlist curators, giving indie artists the opportunity to build a loyal fanbase and get discovered through Spotify marketing. You don’t have to wait for the holiday season to get started – fill out our online application today!

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Spotify Wrapped 2020 Is Out and Here’s What You Need To Know

In the midst of this crazy year, we find some normalcy and comfort with Spotify’s release of their 2020 Wrapped Stats. This year’s most streamed artist was rapper Bad Bunny with more than 8.3 billion streams. Additionally, his album, YHLQMDLG, was the most- streamed album of 2020. 

Most Popular Artists on Spotify – Spotify Wrapped 2020

Most Streamed Artists Globally

  1. Bad Bunny
  2. Drake
  3. J Balvin
  4. Juice WRLD
  5. The Weeknd

Most Streamed Female Artists Globally

  1. Billie Eilish
  2. Taylor Swift
  3. Ariana Grande
  4. Dua Lipa
  5. Halsey

Most Streamed Albums Globally

  1. YHLQMDLG Bad Bunny
  2. After Hours – The Weeknd
  3. Hollywood’s Bleeding – Post Malone
  4. Fine Line – Harry Styles
  5. Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Most Streamed Songs Globally

  1. Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd
  2. Dance Monkey” by Tones And I
  3. The Box” by Roddy Ricch
  4. Roses – Imanbek Remix” by Imanbek and sAINt JHN
  5. Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa

Moving past the top charting artists and songs, we also found some additional data on playlists. Spotify saw an increase in nostalgia themed playlists, as people reflected on better times in their lives than this past year. There also was a new outlet that emerged, “work from home” playlists as much of the world has transitioned to that reality. Spotify also noted a huge increase in streaming while gaming. Both Xbox and Playstation saw a 55% increase in streaming while gaming. In light of the Black Lives Matter Movement, over 65,000 playlists were created to highlight the cause. 

With all of these trends emerging it is a critical time for play-listing. With a rise in streaming as a whole, whether it’s listening to a work from home playlist or streaming while gaming for hours on end, a better time couldn’t emerge for getting your next track on a popular playlist. That’s where Playlist Streams comes in! We have seen success from many of our established curators who have created playlists that fit these trends. The time is now to share your tunes with the world and get your track on the perfect playlist.

Learn more on our website here!

Spotify to offer Promotion to Artists and Labels for “No Upfront Cost”

Recently, Spotify announced a new strategy, offering to promote artists and labels through their algorithm into user’s recommendations in exchange for a “lowered promotional recording royalty rate.” This is spiking many opposing views and opinions on whether this yields a negative or positive change. For artists already struggling to make a profit off their music, this raises concerns. Although, this too can be seen as a useful tool as it opens up the doors to creators of all levels to push their visibility through radio and autoplay functions. 

The catch really is branding this as “no upfront cost.” When in reality, the small portion of revenue that exists to be made is now being sacrificed in exchange for this. The lengthy press release from Spotify also reads “Labels or rights holders agree to be paid a promotional recording royalty rate for streams in personalized listening sessions where we provided this service.”  It also states that going through with this “won’t guarantee placement to labels or artists” which begs the question is this really worth it, or is this just another ploy for Spotify to make a quick buck?

Just last week 4,000 independent artists, all members of The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers proposed a new campaign. In this campaign, they demanded that Spotify should be paying them at least 1 cent a stream. In reality, Spotify would be nothing without these artists and creators, yet they continue to be underpaid and exploited by the company due to the inequitable streaming environment. 

What does this mean for playlisting? Although this has yet to be discussed, it will be interesting to see if this has an effect on artists utilizing playlisting. In the perfect world, maybe this would drive creators to turn more to independent companies such as PlaylistStreams who utilize organic methods of driving streams. The answer to this question will remain unanswered until Spotify’s new strategy rolls out further.

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