You might think it’s impossible to increase your monthly listeners on Spotify by over 100,000 in under a year without bots for only a few hundred dollars. While it’s highly unlikely to accomplish this through traditional marketing strategies, we found the secret to growing your Spotify monthly listeners dramatically. We used this strategy to grow an artist’s monthly listeners from under 1,000 to 300,000 in only a few months. How did we do this? We invested in high-profile collaborations. Want to know what we did to help this artist after they blew up? Read this case study on how we helped them turn these monthly listeners into long-term fans with Spotify Marquee.
How to find the right artist to collaborate with
Investing in the right collaboration can not only grow your fanbase but create passive income as well. A collaboration with the right artist, released the right way, is more likely to land on a Spotify editorial playlist or get millions of streams. We find artists for our clients and artists to invest in collaborations with by reviewing the following analytics:
- Is the artist already on Spotify editorial playlists?
- If an artist already has songs on editorial playlists, Spotify is more likely to add a song by them to a playlist. Releasing a song with that artist means your collaboration is more likely to be playlisted.
- Does the artist have between 50,000 and 200,000 monthly listeners?
- These are impressive numbers, but not mainstream. We target artists on the cusp of blowing up, but early enough that their rate isn’t too high.
- Is the artist independent or signed?
- You can look in the C line and P line of their recent releases to see if the artist is working with a record label. If their music is copyrighted by or published by a record label, we will skip that artist because their fee is likely higher and there is also a likelihood that an additional fee will have to be paid to the label to clear the song.
- Does the artist average 10,000+ streams per song?
- Monthly listeners aren’t the only factor for determining if a collaboration will succeed. We make sure the artist is getting at least 10,000 streams per song to ensure that the track will break the 1,000 stream mark easily.
If an artist passes these four qualifications, we will contact them for a collaboration. In general, we wouldn’t recommend spending more than $500-750 on a collaboration.
How to release a collaboration on Spotify
After you have secured the collaboration, the next step is to release it properly. Ensuring you follow these steps is critical to having a successful release.
- Find a Friday release date that is open for both you and the artist you are collaborating with.
- You should always release songs on Fridays to get onto your fan’s Release Radar playlist on day one. Additionally, Friday to Friday is what is considered the first week sales period. If you release earlier, on a Thursday, your first week sales would only go from Thursday until the closest Friday—that’s only 2 days. If you’re hoping to get on Billboard, always release on Friday.
- Schedule the release as a main artist collaboration for at least 3 weeks in the future with your distributor.
- This is the most important step to ensure as many of the collaborator’s fans as possible hear your song.
- Use Spotify for Artists to pitch the song to Spotify’s editorial team.
- Copy your pitch and send it to the collaborator and ask them to pitch it through Spotify for Artists as well.
How an artist grew their monthly listeners with this strategy
An artist had been averaging 50-150 streams per day in 2017. We identified an artist who was blowing up online and would be the perfect collaboration. For $100, we locked in a collaboration with the artist and held onto the song for a little while. We waited for the collaborating artist to reach what we thought was their peak, and then we released the song. The song immediately took off, hitting over 6,900 streams in its first day. In under two months, the artist went from under 1,000 monthly listeners to 300,000 monthly listeners. The song went on to be streamed 1.7 million times on Spotify, netting over $5,000.
Navigate the music industry with confidence.
Working with a bigger artist can help you blow up overnight on Spotify. While this tactic has been successful many times, it should be used as part of a larger music marketing plan. Want to learn what to do next once you get a viral song on Spotify? Read how we turned this same artist’s one-time listeners into fans with Spotify Marquee. Interested in building a successful music promotion campaign? Read this article on how to create a music marketing strategy that works in 8 steps. Want more articles like this? Check out all of our free artist resources. Interested in hiring a team to help you navigate the music industry more confidently and successfully? See our artist development services or contact us.