New Spotify tool helps artists, labels, get onto curated playlists

Spotify has added a new tool that will allow easier access for artists and labels onto its curated playlists.

So far the problem has been not to get traction before Spotify audiences, of course.

The trick has also been to get it to the eyes and ears of those 100 curators around the world who put the playlists together.

The streaming service’s new tool is a beta feature which is part of Spotify for Artists and Spotify Analytics.

An artist or a representative can log into their Spotify for Artists account, go to Spotify Analytics, and choose an unreleased song for playlist consideration.

“The number one question we get from labels, artists and their teams is: who do I speak to get on Rap Caviar, Hot Country, ¡Viva Latino!, Ultimate Indie or other Spotify playlists?,” said Nick Holmsten, vice president of content & global head of shows & editorial.

“We’ve listened to feedback from the creative community, and developed a new feature that enables them to easily submit unreleased music for playlist consideration to our entire worldwide team of playlist editors.”

The curators’ selection process, however, remains the same:

“We want to make something crystal clear: no one can pay to be added to one of Spotify’s editorial playlists,” the company says.

“Our editors pick tracks with listeners in mind. They make these decisions using data about what’s resonating most with their community of listeners.”

Spotify recommends that the artist be as specific as possible, when submitting the track – like its genre, mood and other details – to help curators make the choice as to which audience it would best work with.

The service stresses that with over 75,000 artists featured on editorial playlists each week and another 150,000 on Discover Weekly, it’s important to get it right.

To this end, the new tool is a work in progress, and changes will be made to it over time so it can work out better for artists.

Even if the song isn’t selected, it goes on to the artist’s fans’ release radar playlists once it is released, as long as it is tagged and submitted at least a week in advance.

The tool certainly gives Spotify a better advantage over Apple Music as increasingly shifts its playlist choices to editors.