How often should I release music on Spotify?

How often should I release music on Spotify?

We recently had an insightful conversation with someone working at Spotify. We asked him the question; how many songs you should release as an artist? 

We got some inside information from someone working at Spotify on how many songs you should release. The person with whom we spoke is curating one of the most extensive Dance playlists on Spotify. If you want to succeed as an artist on Spotify, you need to know everything about the algorithm. Spotify uses a sophisticated algorithm to choose which songs would be allegeable for curated playlists or not.  

When you do not have a ton of releases or a big following on Spotify, the algorithm wouldn’t push your music to a bigger audience. However, you can work on the number of releases you put out. That’s what the algorithm actually favours, constant releases. So when you do not have a big following consistency is key.  The more frequently you release new material, the more reasons there will be for fans to go there and listen to your music. Together with having the right marketing plan with enough run-time to get the most out of your marketing efforts.

Some key numbers

When you’re just starting out, do six to eight releases per year. This is quite a reasonable amount of releases for you to achieve and will show some consistency. Doing 12 releases a year when you are starting out is just not a feasible number. It’s too much for you to produce high-quality songs and promote them properly. So that will mean a release every one and a half months to 2 months. 

Depending on the music you make there are some key points to take into account. If you make more pop music or music with more vocals it is a good idea to release less music trough out the year and focus on doing a proper marketing campaign. Around 6 releases a year would then be a sweet spot. When you make more underground music or instrumental music you should be aiming for at least eight and maybe consider doing two to four remixes. 

Albums are dead

We also asked him about releasing albums to the streaming service and he has a clear answer to that, no just don’t do it! It doesn’t make any sense nowadays. The only reason to release an album as an artist is if you want to have this creative journey and share that with your fans. If you want to have a piece of work that is a collective of songs that reflect a certain point and time in your life and share this with your fans. But only consider it when you already have a big and tight-knit fanbase. If you still want to do it you should release four or five songs of the album as a single throughout the year to have the desired outcome and reach. 

You could consider selling the album when the first single releases as merch or as a digital download for super-fans. This way you’ll make a lot more money from the music you made. After a year you just release it as an album or as singles so you have the right amount of content for your fans to be growing on Spotify. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is what feels good for you and makes you satisfied. If a song is not ready, don’t release it. There’s no sense in pushing a song without having something that is good enough. 

Our last quick tip for promoting your songs on Spotify playlists is; Try to reach out to Spotify if you know someone there; it’s like gold; it’s worth a ton! It’s really hard to reach these people because everyone wants to be on this playlist; even the big guys are begging for playlist spots. Attend networking events and conferences like ADE to meet the people behind the streaming platforms and get your name out there.

Create your own playlist and trade spots with other artists. Organically grow your playlist, make sure your fans follow it and maybe consider gate the link. So when you release some free music people need to follow your account or playlist on Spotify.

The rest is then completely up to chance; maybe someone at Spotify likes your song or maybe the algorithm likes your song and features it. You could also have a huge hit by just releasing one song once a year. Everything is possible, but these are the recommendations of someone who knows how the algorithm works.

 

 Have fun creating awesome music and don’t forget to submit your demo to us so we can help you get your music heard!