Creating Your Online Brand for Bands (Beginners) #3: Understanding the Spotify Algorithm

‘Tis the season of Spotify Wrapped! Musicians and bands all over the world have been scrolling through their year-end numbers from the popular, albeit controversial, streaming platform. Though we can all agree that Spotify should pay artists more, the music player isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, 286 million monthly active users stream through the platform according to their Q1 2020 report. That’s a lot of users! With that many people listening, you’d think it would be easy to get your music in front of a bunch of people who haven’t heard it before right? Well… wrong. You’re competing with more than 3 million creators, from bands just starting out all the way to the mega-celebrities who’s new songs instantly top the charts. So how do you get more listens from new listeners on your music? It all has to do with the Spotify algorithm - BART - and how your music works with it. This is a very deep rabbit hole my friends, so today, we’re going to work on a basic understanding of the Spotify algorithm and which tactics you can use to increase your chances of your music being played to new fans.