Spotify is a music streaming service that allows its users to listen to free music and podcasts on their mobile phones, computers, and tablets. It is home to millions of songs from big music labels as well as independent upcoming artists.
With Spotify, users have been enabled to create their music collection and communities by making and sharing their playlists online with thousands of other users. Even better is the fact that you can earn money doing this. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!
Who makes Spotify Playlists
To deal with the issues of copyright, Spotify has partnered with major music labels and independent artists who provide them with the music they stream. And because of this, you will notice that it is majorly owned by these same labels and the playlists are mostly dominated by the label’s artists.
Still, this is not to say that you cannot become an independent playlist curator on Spotify. With the right planning, work and marketing, you too can build your brand on Spotify playlists.
Here is what you need before you can be approved to become a Spotify playlist curator;
- You need to have a minimum of 1,000 followers one each playlist with a minimum of 30 active playlist listeners per month.
- All your followers need to be 100% organic.
If you meet this criteria, the next step is to submit your playlist push application to enable you to become a paid playlist curator. Spotify is strict about the signing in of new curators. Anyone not meeting their requirements or is found in violation of any of their policies is immediately disqualified.
Create Spotify playlists for a living
Making money from Spotify playlists is not easy. To be able to make a substantial amount of cash, your playlists need to have made it to the big leagues, have over 5k active followers. However, we all need to start from somewhere.
The first step to enable you to monetize your Spotify playlists is to sign up for Playlist Push. Once you sign up, you will be sent music to review and be paid for every review you make.
Some great Spotify playlist curators you can look into include; SideKick Music which has about five albums each with a following of over 5k followers, SoundPlate also with five playlists of over 7k followers and Daily Playlists with four albums each with a following of over 10k followers.
Tips on how to become a great playlist curator on Spotify
- Create an aesthetic for your playlist
This helps your followers and anyone who comes across your playlist have an idea of what you are all about. This can be achieved through having a unique cover photo, title and bio. Be keen on including keywords when writing your bio, people are always searching for specific music and artists. This increases your chances of getting discovered.
- Create a playlist with a blend
What you don’t want is to have a playlist that feels like going on a rough roller coaster ride. Ensure that you incorporate different genres of music on your playlist that blend well with each other. A good way to ensure this is to listen to the playlist with a crossfade to get a feel of how the music transitions into one another.
Let your listeners resonate to your playlist. This way you will be able to get a good organic following.
- Network and socialize
Reach out to other playlist curators as well as to your followers on social media. This helps you to have an active following as well as helps to market your brand. Keep your playlist engaging by constantly updating it. Post updates on social media platforms
There are other opportunities you can make use of to make a living off your playlists such as creating playlists for brands, creating playlists for artists or even using your music expertise to work at a label company.
Earn Money Through Playlist Push
Playlist Push is an online marketplace for independent artists to promote their music through playlists by running campaigns. The platform is also used by playlist curators to enable them earn money doing what they love. Listening to music and creating playlists.
For artists;
After you release a new song as a signed or independent artist, you can add it on Spotify if you are signed in with the app. As an artist you can choose to either create your playlists or you can have curators add it to their playlists.
The first option is simple. As for the second, this is made possible by running a campaign through playlist push. With this, your song will be sent to random playlist curators with a huge following for them to review it. If they like your music and feel it is a good fit for their aesthetic, they add it to their playlist where it will be listened to by their thousands of followers.
To be able to run a playlist push campaign, you are required to select your budget which can either be anything below or above $250. The campaign will run for two weeks and the artist will be updated on the review of each curator that listens to their music.
Afterwards, an artist is paid according to the number of listens his/her track receives. Some popular artists in the music industry have been known to make a killing by just having people listen to their music.
For curators;
Curators are generally paid to review new music. As a curator, you will receive a song each time an artist runs a campaign that is in line with your niche. For every song you review you are paid however, how much or how little you get is dependent on the amount of followers that you have and how active your followers are. Payment can range anywhere from $1.25 to $ 15 per song.
Spotify playlist submission
The first step is to sign up for Spotify (if you haven’t yet) and have your profile verified. You then head over to the ‘Music’ section where you will find your unreleased track.
Note: you can only submit one track at a time and a song is only eligible for submission if it is submitted about a week before its release.
Fill out the playlist submission form, leaving out nothing. This process can only be done using a desktop computer.
To increase your exposure, you can send your music to bloggers who have a good following. You can also create your website with which you will use to brand yourself. This is a great way to gain and retain followers.
In Conclusion
Spotify playlist can prove to be a very easy way to artists and playlist curators to make money. However, work still needs to be done to maintain the cash flow. You will need to maintain your followers and market your brand to enable you to keep the money following into your pockets. Remember, Spotify playlists are all about the numbers. The higher your numbers the higher the pay.
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