How do I control my Spotify destiny? Growing followers and getting more streams as you work toward support from Spotify's Editorial Playlists are challenges almost all independent musicians face today.

Spotify presence matters. With 180 million global listeners, Spotify is one of the largest paid music streaming providers—and they can make musicians’ careers. 

Easier than it sounds: just ask the artists who know firsthand how difficult it is to add streams and followers. 

The Playlisting Challenge

Getting a song playlisted is the golden ticket. Whether it’s on one of the 3,000 playlists that Spotify’s Editorial Team curates or an “independent playlist” pushed by a global influencer or an algorithmic playlist, like Discover Weekly, playlisting is power. Playlisting means distribution and distribution means leverage over record labels.

But the odds of getting placement on such a playlist are tough. Spotify’s Co-Head of Music, Jeremy Erlich, notes that Spotify reviews music through their playlist submission tool. Picture a massive bottleneck: 1.2 million active artists all vying for some love from Spotify’s editorial team. 

The odds are tough; the costs are worse. Independent playlist pitching campaigns range from $1000 to $3000 per single. And some of those playlists are run through streaming farms and stats that go against Spotify’s Terms of Services. Artist pages have been removed just for working with shady playlisting companies!

Enter Algorithms 

It’s not surprising that artists and labels are looking to ramp up their presence on algorithmic playlists. Growing follower counts ensures their music appears on more fan-personalized “Release Radar”; streams correlate to showing up on “Discover Weekly.” 

At ToneDen, we’ve been huge advocates for content-gating to grow your presence on Spotify and Apple Music. Our pre-release landing pages and viral contests have helped millions of musicians gain tens of millions of fans over the past few years. We’ve also been proponents for running advertising campaigns on social media.

Still, there’s not always content (think, merch, or show tickets) to be gated, and campaigns can bleed cash in an instant. For social marketing to drive effective Spotify growth, targeting, creative, and campaign objectives must be optimized to acquire fans at an affordable rate.

The solution is here. A way to be proactive while you show your stuff to Spotify’s Editorial Team. It’s time to get more streams and followers through our Spotify Growth Playbook.

Spotify Growth Playbook

ToneDen's Solution

ToneDen’s Spotify Growth Playbook lets a musician increase their following on Spotify by tapping into Spotify’s global audience through Instagram Stories.

For as little as $5/day, an artist can quickly double their Spotify streams and followers (okay, we’ve seen followers quadruple, too).

This product is tailored for developing artists. By using “Off Cycle” music in creatives, we could determine if this strategy was driving a meaningful impact. And it was. 

Independent artist Lili Kendall saw an immediate growth in followers when beginning her campaign. She went from 1-2 new followers a day to 65-85 followers by spending $45/day

Excited by the new followers, her team wondered if those followers were actually converting to streams. And they were. Lili Kendall’s average daily stream count quadrupled: from 400 per day to 2,000+ per day.

But that growth wasn’t limited to streams alone. Average daily listener count increased as well.

The people directed to her Spotify profile through ToneDen weren’t just fair-weather fans. They were sticky. This was validated by the fact that once ad spend stopped, there was only a 10% decline in streams and listeners.

Need more social proof? Learn how Position Music added 189 Spotify followers in just six days for artist Floyd Wonder.

What makes ToneDen’s Spotify Growth Playbook so effective for campaigns like Lili Kendall’s?  

• First, we measure Spotify metrics during each campaign. Your growth—followers, streams, listeners—is front and center.

• Next, we leverage Spotify’s API to target fans similar to artists that are comparable to yours. Targeting “fans who also like,” our campaigns have an international reach, drawing on a list of countries where Spotify has the largest market share to guarantee your content gets in front of a global fanbase.

• Artists then clinch the campaign by uploading their creative. Turns out, promoting a 15-second video on Instagram Stories, where users are active and highly engaged—is the ideal method for growing users on Spotify.

The result? Acquiring new Spotify followers for less than a dollar in a scalable fashion. The more followers you have, the more algorithmic playlists you can infiltrate. There’s no easier way for musicians to put their Spotify destiny in their own hands.

The Spotify Growth Playbook is an Add-On feature. Add to any Basic, Pro, or Elite plan for an additional $50/month. Want to give it a few spins first? No worries, we offer a 7-day free trial!

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