Playlists are how people find music these days.
It’s the modern take on the radio station, except now people have complete control over exactly what music they want to be recommended to them.
Major playlists like Spotify’s Rap Caviar or Today’s Top Hits are followed by millions of people and often put new artists into the limelight.
If you want to grow your listener base and promote your music, getting your tracks playlisted should be your number one focus.
Of course, your first step for getting your tracks playlisted is releasing them through a digital distributor.
But, getting your tracks playlisted isn’t easy. You need to be established and have connections to get on playlists, right?
Not always.
Even if you’re just getting started with music marketing and have a small following, there’s plenty of ways to increase your chances of getting on a playlist substantially.
Before you get started with playlisting
Playlisting sites can be helpful, but just like playlists themselves, these services are pretty new to the game.
Using them should be part of a broader promotion strategy that incorporates traditional methods too.
Music promotion is tricky and not even the most professional paid outfits can guarantee success.
In fact, most of the methods that playlisting services employ can be done completely DIY.
If you’re looking for resources to promote your own music directly, check out our series of guides to getting heard.
There may be more you can do on your own than you think.
Keep a healthy sense of skepticism as you investigate playlisting and other music promotion services.
Be wary of any service that offers fraudulent streaming plays in exchange for cash. This practice is illegal and can cause serious issues for digital distribution.
Legitimate playlisting services will never offer this or any other kind of pay-for-play scheme.
With that out the way, I’ll go through the 10 best playlisting services to help get your music on a playlist.
Submit Hub aggregates a huge selection of Spotify playlists that you can submit your tracks to for free.
All you have to do is find a handful of playlists your track is suited for and submit for review.
If the playlist curators like your track and think it’s a good fit you’ll get a placement.
The power here is in numbers.
Sure, your track might not get placed on every playlist to submit to. But, if you submit to a handful of playlist curators you’ll greatly increase your chances of getting a placement.
Repost Exchange is a paid platform with a different model than most playlisting services because it focuses more on SoundCloud promotion.
When you become a member of Repost Exchange your goal is to get a major playlist or influencer to repost your song on SoundCloud.
These re-posts are governed by a credit system, where you “pay” in credits to get an account with a wider following to repost your track.
Members earn credits by reposting tracks from other producers on their own accounts or purchasing credits from Repost Exchange.
Advanced users can also pay for a subscription that gives access to unlimited repost requests.
3. Your own publisher
Working with a publisher is great because they’re focussed on building relationships with playlists.
If you have a publisher representing you, their goal is to get your music placed in as many places as possible.
Yes, it will take time to find a publisher to work with, and you need to be established to get that kind of representation.
But, it’s a tried and true way of getting your tracks in front of a much wider audience.
MySphera is a paid promotion service that submits your tracks to playlists for you.
When you have a track that you’re ready to promote, you can pay them to push your tracks to a wide selection of playlists.
The service guarantees different levels of exposure based on how much you pay for different levels of promotion.
MySphera is one of the more respected playlisting agencies, and they have plenty of testimonials to back their service.
This is a definite go-to for easily getting more exposure for your tracks.
Spotify is the only music streaming platform that gives artists the opportunity to have their tracks playlisted upon uploading a track.
The first step is to create and verify your own Spotify for Artists profile.
Once your profile is set up, you can flag your tracks for playlist consideration once you upload it.
Musosoup is another paid service that will submit your tracks to playlists, blogs and radio stations.
While it appears to focus more on European publications and playlists, it’s a great option for getting your tracks in front of a wider audience in Europe.
To get promotion help from Musosoup you have to register with their platform and submit the track you want to promote.
You do have to pay a small fee to have your submission listed to get placements, but you’ll only have to pay if the track you submit is approved.
That means if your track isn’t likely to receive a placement you won’t have to pay for it.
Soundplate a great free option if you’re on a budget and have time to submit your tracks to playlists yourself.
The website lists countless playlists that are organized by genre, making it easy to find the appropriate playlists to submit your track to for free.
The different playlists that are open for submission are constantly getting updated, so keep checking for new playlists that relate to your genre.
For the Love of Bands is a playlist making organization that has well-followed playlists on the major streaming platforms.
The website welcomes submissions to its many playlists and you can make submissions for free.
If you want your tracks to be reviewed for submission faster you can make a donation or share For the Love of Bands playlists on your social feeds.
Daily Playlists is another free option for easily submitting your track to multiple playlists.
It’s a very simple process, all you have to do is connect your Spotify profile to your Daily Playlist account and submit a link to your song.
Once your song is registered with Daily Playlists you can choose to submit your track to a selection of playlists.
Although placement is not guaranteed, it’s a great way to easily get your tracks considered for multiple playlists.
10. Create your own playlist
For a guaranteed placement, you can always create your own playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.
Spotify even lets you promote your own playlist directly from your artist profile.
Of course, your playlist shouldn’t only contain your songs.
Instead, go through your favorite artists and pick out a handful of songs, then let them know you put their track in your playlists.
By creating a playlist that features other artists, you increase your chances of getting one of those artists to feature you in their own playlists.
