5 Spotify Tools You Aren’t Using
So, you’ve uploaded your next single to your distributor and circled the release date on the calendar. Now what? Complete the three steps below within your Spotify for Artists account to freshen up your profile and signal to your followers that new music is coming.
Update your profile photo and “About” section to include new photos and a current biography
Create a playlist of songs that inspired the release and promote on your social channels
Update your “Artist Pick” as the new playlist or a promotional photo with a teaser message
Now that your profile is primed for release day, let’s dive into five Spotify marketing tools you probably aren’t using (yet).
The 5 Best Spotify Marketing Tools
Besides the discography and playlist section of your artist profile, there are two sections of the Spotify artist profile that are often forgotten about.
1) Add Tour Dates To “On Tour” Section
The “On Tour” section of your profile can be populated with current tour dates and links to tickets thanks to the Spotify for Artist and Songkick Tourbox integration. To add upcoming tour dates to the “On Tour” section, create an account on tourbox.songkick.com and add each event with a direct link to the ticket sale page. When the tour is on sale, set your Artist Pick as “Concerts” to create geo-targeted messages directly on your profile. When any one of your followers visits your profile, they will see the tour date listing for the show closest to their geographic location and can click through to purchase tickets!
2) Sell Merchandise On “Offers” Section
For any artist that has an active Shopify store, the “Offers” section can be utilized to feature up to 3 merchandise items from their current Shopify inventory. This is a great place to sell your latest release inspired merchandise, or offer up an exclusive item that only your Spotify followers can purchase - giving them one more incentive to follow you on Spotify.
Utilizing the “On Tour” and “Offers” sections of your profile gives you the chance to passively sell tickets and merchandise to anyone who lands on your artist profile - and who doesn’t like increased revenue with minimal effort?
3) Add Canvas Video
Spotify Canvas videos are looping visuals that play when a song is streaming on Spotify or shared from Spotify to Instagram Story. These 3 to 8 second videos are meant to engage listeners for at least thirty seconds, the amount of time that constitutes one stream. They’re also meant to increase the frequency at which casual listeners stream the full song, save the song to their library, and visit the artist’s profile. When a track that has a Canvas is shared from Spotify to Instagram, the Canvas loops in the background of an Instagram Story and includes a link to click to “stream on Spotify.” According to a recent study conducted by Spotify, artists that utilize the Canvas feature have seen a 5% increase in stream times, 145% increase in social sharing, 20% increase in personal playlist adds, and 9% increase in profile visits.
4) Launch Marquee Ads On Release Day
Spotify Marquee advertisements are full-screen ads featuring your cover art and a direct link to stream your latest release that pop up when a free or premium user lands on the Spotify home screen. Marquee ads are targeted to your “reachable listeners,” or listeners that have interacted with your profile before, but filter out anyone who has already listened so no ad spend is wasted. Marquee ads can be launched on release day, and typically run for up to 7 days, making it an incredible tool for boosting first week streams and saves. In fact, users who view a Marquee advertisement are 2x more likely to save the song. The Marquee feature is available to any artist that has at least 2.5K followers or 15K streams in the past 28 days.
5) Set Up Collection Playlist
As artists grapple with the need to release music every 4 to 6 weeks, the “waterfall” release method has become increasingly popular. Yet keeping up with the Spotify algorithm while still telling a story through a larger body of work (like an EP or album) can be difficult. A waterfall release consists of singles that are released one at a time. But with a waterfall, each new release creates the appearance of an EP or album with all of the singles grouped on one page. The value of the waterfall method is to trap listeners on one page with multiple songs to stream at one time.
While the waterfall method makes sense in theory, it’s truly a pain to set up (ask your distributor). Here’s the good news - by following the steps below to create a collection playlist, you can achieve the same effect with less hassle.
Create a playlist that contains your entire discography, with your latest release at the top
When posting about your release, instead of using the link to the individual song on Spotify, share the link to the whole playlist
When fans click through to listen to your newest release, the next song on the playlist will automatically start playing
This is all a lot to remember - and we didn’t even cover audio ads. Book a strategy call with us via our contact page to get to work.