How I landed on Spotify Editorial Playlists
UPDATED 7/28/23
If you’re wondering how to get on a spotify editorial and you’re looking at it through a microscope I’ve got good news, it’s not as complicated as you think. Since starting Auracane in 2020 I landed on 6 Spotify Editorial playlists, all within the past 4 months. I have summed up the important parts in three segments, but first I’ll tell you what doesn’t seem to matter.
Many people think you have to pitch a particular time in advanced to land on this which just isn’t true. Spotify playlist curators will typically update their playlists in monthly increments and varies based on personal preference. The largest playlist I landed on, “All Nighter”, added my track that released on a Thursday the next day on Friday. The track had been pitched 4 weeks before. A few months later I pitched another track that was set for release 10 days from the day pitched, and wasn’t picked up until a week later on the first Friday of the month. The conclusion I drew was that the curators have a que of songs pitched that they will check on a scheduled basis, and the length of time between pitch day and release day didn’t matter as much as I thought. The other important part about pitching is obviously the pitch. Let Spotify know how you plan to promote this track, because if you don’t care to they probably wont either. Now for the 3 steps I made up:
A lot has changed since I wrote this, and have revised my pitch method. A fairly large producer informed me that you will need AT LEAST 4 weeks to pitch in order to be considered, which means you have to pitch your song 3-4 days past that (it takes about that long for the pitch to be ready in spotify). Include a list of playlists you think your music will be revilant for, your advertising plans and a back story of your creating process. I know people who don’t need to do this step because they are already on a sh!t load of playlists, but this will apply to anyone who isn’t. Do NOT mention a list of like 10 playlists, but rather 1-3 that would be a good fit. Do not guess about this, go listen to the playlists and make informed decisions. With that being said, my below advice remains the same:
Make good music. Although I started Auracane a year ago, I had a previous project that went nowhere. 10 years of music production got me to this point, so if you’re in your first year of making music, wondering why you haven’t been playlisted you simply need more practice to get better. This one might be a slap in the face, but if you truly believe your music is great and it’s not getting playlisted by spotify, your problem is probably my next point.
Mix better. Once I started investing time in learning to mix better I saw immediate results. Literally the first song after I spent months practicing my mix landed on my first Spotify editorial. The industry values the mix as much as the song these days which is a damn shame but the shitty reality. You ever hear a famous song and thing, omg this song sounds like it was made by a deaf baby, pay attention to how well it’s mixed and it will sting less.
Research your genre. In the beginning of Auracane I set off to make Lofi and Trip Hop because I was really inspired by artists that fell in that genre. It wasn’t until I asked a fan of mine what he thought my music fit under that I realized I don’t make trip hop, or lofi for that matter. He said I had a chillhop trap vibe, and what do you know, the next time I pitched I chose those genres and got placements. Just because your inspired or aspiring to make a certain genre of music doesn’t mean you have made that genre, so ask a friend or fan and they can help you understand where you fall under. This also helped me accept the fact that I made some sort of chill trap, even though I thought I despised trap. I then looked up similar artists in that genre such as SwuM and Ryan Celcius to see what sort of blogs/playlists posted them so I could follow in their footsteps.
Hope this helped, shoot me questions if you have them @auracvne on insta