12 Ways To Grow Your Spotify Playlist Followers Organically

Having a Spotify playlist with tens of thousands of followers is a great asset to have, whether you're a music artist...

Or you're just looking to make some extra cash from places like SubmitHub.

In this article, I'll break down how you can organically grow your playlist followers in 12 simple steps. 

Organic growth is going to give you the best possible results, as your followers will actually be interested in listening to your playlist. 

This isn't necessarily the case when you try to share the playlist on Reddit or other social media platforms. 

Real quick, before I dive into the steps, if you are a music artist who wants to get your music on more Spotify playlists, for free... 

Then grab my free Playlist Placement Guide here.

Alright, so how do you actually gain followers for your Spotify playlist? 

Here are the steps:

1. Pick a niche
2. Be selective (choose songs you love)
3. Add 100-200 songs
4. Choose a searchable name
5. Create a searchable bio
6. Create follower-catching art
7. Listen to your own playlist often
8. Put best songs upfront
9. Update your playlist every month (less is more, keep great songs in the playlist)
10. Share your playlist with your fans
11. Add some smaller artists (and ask them to share)
12. Promote Your Playlist

Playlists You Should Curate As A Music Artist

Before unpacking how to grow a playlist, we first have to decide on what playlist(s) to create. 

If you're a music artist, here are some playlist ideas:

1. Your greatest hits
2. Your discography in chronological order
3. What you're listening to
4. Theme specific

The playlists specifically dedicated to your music are great for people who are already your fans, basically numbers 1-3 on the list above. 

The type of playlist that is going to help you attract new fans, and the type that really has a change to gain a ton of followers, is a theme specific playlist. 

If you want help picking a Spotify playlist theme or name...

Then check out my article here on 21+ Spotify playlist theme ideas.

1. Pick A Niche

If you try to create a playlist around popular and established genres, you're likely setting yourself up for disappointment. 

This is because popular genres are already going to be saturated with playlists, so standing out among all of the noise is going to be a challenge. 

So don't make a playlist dedicated to, say, "Hip Hop", as you'll never stand out and be found. 

Instead, here are things you can do:

Anticipate New Genres

Obviously, this is a challenge as no one can see the future. 

However, if you listen to a lot of new music, you may start to detect patters, and see where music might be headed. 

There are always new genres being created by combining two or more established genres, so perhaps you could make a playlist that features music that is a blend of two or more genres. 

Focus On A Theme, Mood, or Subgenre

This task is a little easier, as you can simply pick from a list of emotions/moods, themes, or subgenres that already exist. 

By "niching down", you'll be better able to stand out and rise above the noise

Focus on creating playlists that focus on underground slices of much larger genres. 

Click here for a complete list of Spotify playlist theme and name ideas.

Once you know what 

2. Choose Songs You Love

Only add songs you love to your playlist.

In the end, people are only going to stick around to listen to a playlist if they like the songs on it. 

If you are reading this, then I'm assuming you are a human. Therefore, if you add songs that you love, then odds are, other humans are going to love those songs too. 

Don't try and guess which songs you think people will like, as it's too easy to guess wrong. 

If you're adding songs you love, then you're going to attract other people with similar taste in music to you to your playlist, which is what you want. 

3. Add At Least 100 Songs

I looked at 80 playlists, ranging in size from 13,000 to 5,970,000 followers, and found that the average number of tracks on these playlists was 110. 

However, a great many of these playlists were created by Spotify themselves, and I figured they probably had a lot of followers just because they were created by Spotify. 

So, I then looked at over 40 playlists that were created by users of the platform, and their follower counts ranged from 10,000 up to 250,000. 

When looking at these data, I found the average track count ballooned to 348. The two playlists with the most tracks in this data set each had about 27,000 followers, and contained 2,500, and 3,100 tracks. That's a lot of tracks!

Only 10 playlists had less than 100 songs, and the top 10 playlists (in terms of followers) averaged 179 tracks, and all of these playlists had over 70,000 followers.

So What Is The Take Away?

If you want to replicate successful playlists, and gain tens of thousands of followers, then a good range to shoot for is 100-200 tracks, but you can certainly get away with more. 

Overall, I don't think you should worry too much about the number of tracks on your playlist, but I would add at least 100 tracks. 

4. Choose A Searchable Name

You want your playlist to show up when people search on relevant terms in the Spotify search bar, so you'll want to choose a title that includes words people are actually typing. 

So don't choose a name like: "Cool Vibes". 

Instead, choose a descriptive title that includes the use of genres, search terms, and artist names.

For example: "Synthwave / Popwave". 

You don't have to use a genre in your title, though, as you could instead go with some other relevant mood or term that is searched in Spotify. 

The playlist, Adderall, is a good example of this, as it's a searchable term, but is also relevant to the music on that playlist, which are songs to listen to while studying or focusing. 

Also, the more specific you can be, the better, as the more the title will stand out from all of the noise. If you try to go too broad or vague with your playlist title, it will be hard for people to find it. 

Good specific names include things like "Indie Rock Friday Night", "Rock Inspired By Metallica", "Throwback 80s Party".

A great title will bring people to your playlist, and if the music is good, they'll stay. 

5. Create A Searchable Description

Similar to the title, it's very important to create a searchable description. 

To create a great description, be sure to pack it full of relevant keywords and terms that people are searching on. This could be genres, but including the biggest artists included in your playlist is also a great idea. 

This way, when people are searching on those specific artists, your playlist will show up in the playlist search results. 

The reasons why including artist names might be a better idea is because people might only be familiar with one or two artists in a particular genre, and not know what the actual name of that genre is. 

So they might not search on the genre, but they will search on those artists. 

6. Create Follower-Catching Art

Eye-catching cover art is what will help you stand out amongst all the other playlists on Spotify. 

Good cover art alone can be enough to earn a click. 

You especially want to create great cover art that appeals to the people most likely to love your playlist. 

For example, if you're wanting to attract synthwave listeners, than a neon-drenched image is going to catch their attention. 

You an use a free tool like Unsplash to find great photos, and then edit them if you wish in a free tool like Canva.

Or, you could spend $5 on a site like Fiverr.com and have someone design a great-looking cover for you.

7. Listen To Your Own Playlist, Often

Once you have your playlist built, it's time to start getting followers, and the best way to get started is actually to just listen to your playlist a lot yourself. 

I know, you might be skeptical, but it works. 

If you listen to your playlist everyday (or nearly so) for several weeks, you'll start to see your follower count start to grow. 

This is true long-term as well. If you don't engage with your playlist (updating, listening) you'll see your growth rate decline. 

The beginning is the hardest part, but as you start to gain active followers, and they start to listen daily, then you'll start to see your follower count take off. 

But it all starts with listening to your own playlist. 

8. Put Your Best Songs Upfront

When new people click on your playlist, the first songs they're going to listen to the first track (and maybe a couple of the songs at the top of your playlist) to see if it's a playlist they want to follow. If they like it, they say, if not, then they leave. 

Therefore, you'll want to put your best tracks at the front of your playlist. 

Have the top 10 songs on your playlist actually be the top 10 best songs on the playlist

These should be songs that you are excited about, and they should flow well, one to the next. 

Another way of thinking about it, imagine you are constructing an album of "greatest hits" from your playlist, and then arrange these at the top of your playlist. 

Always have the music you're most excited about in the top spots.

9. Update Your Playlist Every Month

Within reason, you'll want to regularly update your playlist. 

This doesn't mean you remove every song. After all, if you turn on the radio, you'll find they're still playing the hit songs from the 70s and 80s. 

So keep your best songs on the playlist, the ones people keep coming back for, but then regularly update the rest of the songs on your playlist, a few at a time. 

Keep your playlist fresh and alive, but never remove your favorite songs, or the songs that you think are the favorites of your followers, as those are what keep people coming back. 

10. Share Your Playlist With Your Fans

If you are a music artist, then regularly share your playlist with your fans. 

You can even use a tool like ConvertKit to set up an automated email sequence so that every new fan who joins your list is automatically sent an email asking them to follow your playlist. 

Of course, you can also share your playlist on social media to get your fans to follow your playlist. 

You can pitch your playlist as "what you're listening to", which can be a great way to pique the interest of your fans so they actually go over and follow you. 

11. Contact Artists On Your Playlist

This strategy is basically the inverse of the strategy I teach for how to get your music on Spotify playlists. 

If you are a music artist, then a great way to get your music on Spotify playlists is to simple reach out to Spotify users with relevant playlists and ask them to add your music.

I break down this entire process, step-by-step, in my free guide here. 

However, if you're looking to grow your playlist, then you can flip the script and reach out to the artists you've added to your playlist and see if they would be willing to share and/or feature the playlist on their Spotify profile. 

You'll probably have more success with smaller, less established artists, so consider adding some smaller artists to your playlist as well so you can entice their help with promotion. 

Lastly, there is good old fashioned promotion. 

Reddit

Reddit is a platform with a bunch of different "subreddits" or groups dedicated to specific genres of music. This can be a great place to look for places to share your playlist. 

Some subreddits include:

But you don't have to stop with genre-specific subreddits. What situations, activities, or moods would your playlist go well with?

For example, is your playlist full of great music for studying? Share it in college related subreddits, or subreddits dedicated to school and studying.  

Playlisting Sites

Another promotional option is reaching out the playlisting sites.

There are certain websites dedicated to promoting playlists to which you can submit your music. 

For example, there is Topsify.com, which is sends users one themed playlist a day. This could be your playlist! 

Another playlist submission site you can check out is Soundplate.com.

Finally, you have the Spotify Community where playlists are frequently shared. 

How To Trigger The Spotify Algorithm

If you're a Spotify artist looking to grow your playlist, then these tips should help you. 

But, ultimately, you'll want to get your music on A LOT of playlists if you want to start generating a legitimate stream of income from your streams. 

If you want to learn how to start getting your music onto more playlists so that you can trigger the algorithm so that Spotify starts promoting your music for you...

Then grab my free Spotify Playlist Placement guide here.