How To Get More Spotify Followers: The Definitive Guide
Want to learn how to get more Spotify followers, fast? You’re in the right place.
For artists, musicians, and podcasters on Spotify, followers are everything.
When people follow you, they get notified when you release new content, which translates to more listeners.
And as your follower count increases, Spotify’s algorithm should also start featuring you more frequently on personalized playlists like Release Radar and Discover Weekly, helping you to reach even more listeners and further grow your fanbase.
So if you’re trying to make a name for yourself as a musician or promote your podcast, getting more followers on Spotify should be your number one priority
With that in mind, we’re going to reveal actionable strategies you can use to get more Spotify followers in this post.
Plus, we’ll also explain why each strategy works and show you how to get started.
1. Sign up for Spotify for Artists
If you haven’t already set up your Spotify for Artists profile, do it now.
Spotify for Artists is a hub where creators on Spotify can manage and personalize their artist’s profile with a custom image/bio, track their performance, submit their releases to playlists, and more.
Once you sign up and claim your artist name, you’ll get a blue ‘verified’ checkmark next to your account name.
This matters, because listeners are much more likely to follow verified artists than unverified accounts. It makes you seem much more professional and legitimizes you as a creator.
Another upshot is that you’ll be able to start submitting your music/podcasts for playlist consideration. This can help to increase your visibility on the platform, which in turn, helps you to attract new listeners and followers.
How to get started
Head to artists.spotify.com and click Get access in the top-right corner. Then, select Artist or manager.
You’ll have to log in to your Spotify account and then follow the on-screen instructions to claim your artist profile.
Once you have access to your artist profile page, you can fill it out with your bio, images, playlists, etc.
2. Submit your music/podcasts to Spotify playlists
Playlists are a core part of Shopify. They’re how most users discover new music and podcasts to listen to.
So it goes without saying that getting your music/podcast listed in as many popular playlists as possible is a great idea. It can help to boost your visibility and attract new listeners and followers.
There are a few different types of playlists on Spotify that you can target.
The first is editorial playlists, which are curated by the guys at Spotify. These get tons of listeners but it can be much harder to get featured in them—you’ll have to put in the groundwork first and make a name for yourself as a creator so that Spotify’s curation team takes you seriously.
The second is personalized playlists. These are playlists that are curated by the Spotify algorithm for each individual user. To get featured in personalized playlists, you’ll have to game the algorithm (we’ll talk more about that later).
The final type is user-created playlists. These are playlists that have been put together by Spotify’s users (like influencers, bloggers, radio stations, and just plain old hobbyists). Some of these are super popular, and it’s much easier to get featured in them than in editorial playlists.
How to get started
We’ve already put together a comprehensive guide on how to get your music featured on Spotify playlists that you can check out for detailed instructions.
But the basic strategy is to find popular Spotify playlist curators in your niche, get their contact information, and reach out to them with a pitch asking if they can add your music/podcast.
And for editorial playlist consideration, you’ll need to submit your pitch directly to Spotify through your Spotify for Artists account.
3. Create your own Spotify playlist
Getting your music/podcasts added to other people’s playlists can be hard work.
So another easier strategy you can try is to just create your own.
The idea is to curate a playlist of popular music or podcasts in a similar niche to yours. Then, sneak your own stuff in there.
As Spotify users browse the platform, they might discover your playlist and start listening. And when they do, they’ll eventually hear your music/playlist, and if they like it, they might just follow your account.
How to get started
Start by thinking about what kind of playlists you listen to, and what your target audience might listen to. What might make you pick a certain playlist over another?
Then, use this to curate your own playlist. List the best/most popular stuff first and add your own stuff later.
Make sure you name the playlist something that stands out and gets noticed. You might want to choose a name that reflects the genre, mood, or feeling of the music/podcasts in it. You should also make sure you write a killer playlist bio and choose a unique, eye-catching cover image.
Finally, promote your playlist far and wide. One idea is to share it on subreddits like r/spotifyplaylists, r/playlists, etc.
4. Listen to your music/podcasts/playlists frequently
Visibility on Spotify is closely tied to engagement.
If the Spotify algorithm detects that people listen to your stuff often and keep listening for a long time, it assumes there’s a reason for that. So it boosts its visibility on the platform so that you reach more listeners.
And the more listeners you reach, the more opportunities you have to convert those listeners to followers.
So how do you send off those positive engagement signals and game the algorithm?
One easy strategy when you’re first starting out is to simply listen to your stuff yourself as often as possible.
How to get started
Try to play your music, podcasts, or playlists on Spotify whenever it seems like a convenient time: In the car, at home, or while you sleep… It all helps. And make sure you listen the whole way through to send positive engagement signals.
You could also try asking your friends and family to listen and follow your account too. Just make sure they’ll actually listen to the whole thing and not just click play and then drop off; that can have the opposite effect and hurt your engagement.
5. Optimize your descriptions around keywords
Spotify is a music streaming app—but it’s also a search engine. Users often use the search function to discover new artists and podcasters.
Therefore, SEO (search engine optimization) matters. If you optimize your bio and music/podcast descriptions around keywords that your target followers are likely to search for, it can help to grow your following.
How to get started
Start with careful keyword research. Think about what kind of terms your target followers might search for on Spotify, and create a spreadsheet filled with these keywords.
For example, if you’re trying to get followers for your true crime podcast, you might want to target keywords like ‘true crime’, ‘mystery podcast’, ‘serial killer podcast’, etc.
If you’re trying to get followers as a musician, you might want to target keywords related to the genre of your music. Or even the names of other popular musicians in your niche.
Keyword research tools can help with this step of the process.
Once you know what keywords you want to target, sprinkle them throughout your artist bio and the descriptions of your tracks. Make sure you keep it natural and only add them where it makes sense to do so.
6. Build a social following
So far, we’ve looked at strategies that can help you to attract new followers/listeners from within Spotify.
But it’s also worth promoting your Spotify account outside of the app through other channels. And the best marketing channel for Spotify is without a doubt social media.
If you can build a social following on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc. first, it’s much easier to then turn those social followers into Spotify followers.
How to get started
There’s a lot that goes into building a social media following, and we don’t have to cover everything in this post.
But the most important thing is to focus on consistently publishing engaging social content that your target followers are likely to like, comment on, and share.
It’s worth signing up for a few different platforms that you think your ideal Spotify followers are most likely to use.
Then, you can use a social media scheduling tool to schedule posts to each platform several times a week.
Once you have some content on your social accounts, it might be worth following people who already follow other creators in your niche.
For example, let’s say you’re a true crime podcaster. Find out who your biggest competitor is on Spotify, then take a look at their socials. Click their followers on social media, and follow a bunch of them yourself. When they notice your follow request, they’ll probably check your account out too, and might follow you back.
Once you have a good amount of followers on social media, you can start publishing posts promoting your Spotify and asking them to follow you. It’s also worth adding a link to your Spotify account in all your social bios.
7. Run a social media contest
Running a social media contest is one of the easiest, most powerful ways to get Spotify followers.
If you get it right, you can get literally thousands of new followers overnight.
The idea is that you set up a contest on social media that users can enter to win a prize if they’re lucky enough to be selected at random from the entrant pool.
But in order to enter, they have to follow your Spotify account.
Obviously, for this strategy to work, the prize needs to be something that people want. It’s up to you what you offer as a prize.
For example, if you’re a musician, you might want to offer a signed album or some sort of branded merch package.
How to get started
To create your social media contest, you’ll need to use a social media contest app. We’d recommend SweepWidget. And they have a free entry-level plan so you can get started without having to subscribe to a paid tool.
SweepWidget supports tons of entry methods including two Spotify entry methods. You can require entrants to listen to a song, follow a playlist, or follow an artist in order to enter the giveaway.
To give your contest a better chance of going viral, you might also want to offer bonus entries when users share the contest with their friends on social media.
8. Start a YouTube channel
YouTube is one of the best channels to promote your Spotify account on, especially if you’re a musician.
Over 2 billion users listen to music on YouTube, making it the number one music platform.
You can tap into that huge user base by publishing the same mu