How To Get More Spotify Followers (2024 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 15 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 music and podcasts you upload to Spotify on YouTube.

Then, you can add a link to your Spotify in the video description, and include a CTA asking your YouTube viewers/subscribers to follow you on Spotify.

How to get started

Head to YouTube and make an account, if you haven’t already.

Then, upload a banner for your channel and a profile picture, and upload your music/podcasts (or short clips of them) via the Creator Studio. Add your Spotify link and a CTA to every video description.

You might also want to check out this guide to learn how to promote your YouTube channel. 

9. Upload short-form content to TikTok

TikTok is another insanely effective marketing channel if you’re trying to get more Spotify followers.

It’s the fastest-growing social network with a super active user base. And it’s built around music (and dancing), so it’s well-suited to Spotify musicians.

How to get started

Create a TikTok account and start making short clips of your podcast, or dance videos using your own music.

Try to grow your TikTok audience by collaborating with other creators and, most importantly, consistently publishing engaging content that your audience will love.

Then, ask your TikTok viewers to follow you on Spotify to keep up to date with your latest music releases.

10. Promote your Spotify at live events

If you’re a musician who performs at live events, you can use your gigs as an opportunity to get more Spotify followers. This is one of our top-recommended marketing strategies for musicians.

When people hear your music live, they might want to be able to keep listening at home once the event’s over. You can cash in on that by inviting them to follow you on Spotify.

How to get started

Visit Spotify Codes and search for the artist/playlist that you want people to follow, then download a QR code.

The next time you’re performing at a gig, make sure your QR code is super visible. Display it on your stall, put up a poster on the stage, hand out flyers, or wear it on your t-shirt—just make sure your audience can see it. 

At the end of your set, let the crowd know they can scan it to follow you on Spotify and hear more.

11. Collaborate and cross-promote

Collaborating with other creators is another great way to get more followers on Spotify.

When you collaborate with another musician or podcaster in a similar niche to you, it exposes you to their audience, and vice versa.

Each of you benefits as you’ll both reach a whole new segment of listeners, and those listeners might end up following you, so it’s a win-win.

How to get started

First, trawl through Spotify and social media to find some creators with a similar audience to yours. Then, grab their contact details.

Send them a well-written outreach email to let them know you like their stuff and start a dialogue. Once you’ve broken the ice, follow up to ask them if they’d be interested in collaborating.

There are lots of ways to collaborate with creators, so it’s up to you how you want to go about it. If you’re a musician, the most obvious way to collaborate is to release a collab track featuring each other. Or you could also agree to both release a cover of each other’s song.

For podcasters, feed drops are a type of collaboration in which an episode or part of an episode is featured on another podcast. You could also host another podcaster as a guest, or appear on their podcast as a guest yourself.

If you’re not ready to collaborate, you could even just agree to cross-promote each other’s Spotify. That way, all you have to do is give each other a shout-out to your listeners. It’s that simple.

12. Create a website

You can also use your own website as a marketing channel to promote your Spotify account.

If you’re a podcaster, you could upload transcripts of your podcast as blog posts on your website. Then, link back to the original podcast alongside the post.

Or you could write blog posts around topics related to your niche to drive organic traffic to your website, then send the visitors your website gets to your Spotify.

For example, if you upload true crime podcasts to your Spotify account, you could write blog posts around missing person cases and optimize them for popular search queries. 

How to get started

You can create a website easily using a platform like Squarespace or WordPress.

Setting up a WordPress blog offers more creative freedom but the process is more involved. Follow this guide to start a WordPress blog. You can then use the site to promote Spotify and any other relevant platforms.

You’ll also benefit from starting your own store. You could launch a store as part of your existing website, however a lot of artists tend to keep them separate.

We’d recommend building your store using an ecommerce platform like Sellfy. 

Sellfy is a particularly good choice because it’s easy to use and allows you to sell both digital & physical products. There’s also a built-in print-on-demand service so you can sell merch without buying stock or dealing with delivery/storing inventory, etc.

13. Leverage email marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool for promoting your Spotify account.

The idea is to build an email list, and then send out regular newsletters and email blasts that notify your email followers about your latest Spotify releases.

You can use your website as a vehicle to grow your mailing list.

How to get started

Sign up for email marketing software like MailerLite to manage your list and email campaigns.

Then, build a landing page and opt-in form to collect email subscribers.

Once you’ve grown your list, set up email automation sequences that encourage them to follow you on Spotify. Or just regularly send out broadcasts notifying your subscribers whenever you drop a new track/podcast.

14. Promote your Spotify in community spaces (or create your own)

Online communities are a great place to find new Spotify followers.

I’m talking about things like Subreddits, Facebook Groups, Discord servers, Lastfm and Quora threads, etc. Basically, anywhere where your target followers hang out online.

How to get started

Find some online community spaces where your target audience hangs out and then join them.

For example, if your Spotify artist account/playlist is filled with heavy metal tracks, find some communities filled with heavy metal enthusiasts, like r/MetalMemes/ or r/HeavyMetal/

If you’re a true crime podcaster, you might join subreddits like r/MissingPersons or r/UnresolvedMysteries/.

Then, get involved in the conversation. Don’t be overtly self-promotional—focus on networking and making friends, and on contributing to the conversation. And if an opportunity arises where you can subtly promote your Spotify, take it.

If you already have a good amount of Spotify followers, it’s also worth building your own community. You could set up your own Discord server or host an online community space on your site using a platform like Podia.

By fostering a sense of community around your Spotify account, you can turn your followers into loyal fans and brand ambassadors. These brand ambassadors might then help you to promote your Spotify further by spreading the word far and wide.

15. Distribute your music/podcasts on other platforms

Spotify may be the most used music streaming service, but it isn’t the only one.

Distributing your music and podcasts on other music streaming platforms can help expose you to more listeners.

And the listeners you reach through other platforms may end up following you on Spotify at some point in the future, so it comes full circle.

How to get started

Check out our roundup of the best music streaming services and sign up for as many as you can. 

Alternatively, you might want to use a music distribution service like Distrokid to automatically publish your songs to all the most popular platforms.

Final thoughts

That concludes our beginner’s guide on how to get more Spotify followers.

We hope you found the tips and strategies in this post useful.

Remember that growing a following on Spotify takes time. And these promotional tips can only get you so far. The most important thing is that you continue to produce great content that people want to listen to. Focus on that, and the followers should come eventually.

While you’re here, you might also want to check out these posts:

• How To Get More SoundCloud Followers: Proven Tactics
• 31 Best Ways To Make Money As A Musician
• How To Sell Music Online: The Beginner’s Guide

Good luck!