How to Promote Music on Spotify in 2026

Your Spotify profile is your storefront. Before you spend a single dollar on promotion, make sure the storefront looks like someone actually works there. I have seen artists drive thousands of clicks to a profile with no bio, no header image, and a blurry phone selfie as the artist photo. That is money burned.

Start with the basics in Spotify for Artists. Upload a high-resolution artist photo (at least 2660 x 1140 pixels for the header). Write a bio that tells people who you are in two sentences. Not your life story. Not your SoundCloud origin myth. Two sentences that make a stranger want to press play. Pin your latest release or your best-performing track to the top using the "Artist's Pick" feature.

Then go deeper. Curate a playlist of your own music mixed with artists you genuinely love. This shows up on your profile and signals to the algorithm what kind of listener should discover you. Add your social links. Fill in the "About" section completely. Every empty field is a missed signal to both Spotify's algorithm and potential fans.

Playlists are still the primary discovery engine on Spotify. In 2026, roughly 31% of all listening on the platform comes from playlists. But not all playlists are created equal, and the strategy for each type is different.

Start with Spotify's own editorial submission tool. You get one shot per release, and it is free. Go to Spotify for Artists, navigate to "Music" > your upcoming release, and fill out the submission form with genre tags, mood descriptors, and a brief pitch. Be specific. "Indie pop with 80s synth production, similar to The 1975 but stripped down" beats "catchy pop song" every time. Submit at least 7 days before release, though 2 to 3 weeks is better.

Algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar are driven by listener behavior, not human curators. You cannot pitch to them directly, but you can feed them. The more saves, shares, and repeat listens your track gets in the first 48 hours, the stronger the signal. This is why pre-saves and day-one promotion matter so much. For independent playlists curated by real people, you will need to do outreach. Find curators in your genre through tools like SpotOnTrack, SubmitHub, or dedicated pitching services. Personalize every message. Curators ignore templates.

Spotify for Artists gives you more data than most artists ever look at. That is a mistake. The artists who grow consistently are the ones who check their analytics weekly and adjust their strategy based on what they find.

The three metrics that matter most are: source of streams (where your listeners are finding you), listener demographics (age, gender, location), and save rate (saves divided by streams). Source of streams tells you what is working. If 40% of your streams come from your own playlists but only 5% from algorithmic playlists, you know the algorithm is not picking you up yet and you need more external signals. Listener demographics tell you who to target with ads and social content. And save rate is the most underrated metric on the platform. A save rate above 3% means listeners are actively bookmarking your music. Below 1% means they are hearing it and moving on.

Check your "Upcoming" tab every time you have a release scheduled. This is where Spotify shows you whether your song has been placed on any editorial playlists before release day. It is also where you submit for editorial consideration. Set a weekly calendar reminder to review your stats. Ten minutes of analysis saves hours of wasted promotion on the wrong audience.

This is the step most artists skip and later regret. Your Spotify followers, your Instagram followers, your TikTok audience: none of that belongs to you. Spotify can change the algorithm tomorrow. Instagram can tank your reach. TikTok can get banned in your biggest market. The only audience you truly own is your email list.

Start collecting emails now, even if you have 50 listeners. Add an email capture to your smart link landing pages. Offer something in exchange: early access to new music, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive demos, or presale codes for merch and shows. A 2% conversion rate on a smart link with email capture is normal. That means for every 1,000 people who click your link, you get 20 email addresses. Those 20 people are worth more than 2,000 passive Spotify listeners because you can reach them directly, forever, for free.

When you release new music, email your list first. Give them the pre-save link 24 hours before you post it publicly. This creates a wave of day-one saves that signals the algorithm. It also makes your most dedicated fans feel like insiders. I have talked to artists whose email list of 300 people drives more first-week streams than their Instagram following of 10,000. That is the power of owned audience.