Artists can now ask to be placed on a Spotify playlist

After a beta test during the northern summer during which 67,000 submissions were made, Spotify has made official its initiative where emerging acts around the world get a better crack at getting on its major playlists.

This will be through directly reaching a playlist editor through its Spotify For Artists feature, offering a song submission and having potentially millions of music reaching their music.

Previously, playlist curators would pick tracks by artists who were known or buzzworthy, or in rare instances, they took a punt on an unknown.

A playlist like Today’s Top Hits has 20 million followers and can boost a song’s revenue by up to $160,000.

New Music Friday which selects 50 latest tracks – half from indie acts – boosts streams by around 14 million, worth between $84,000 and $117,000 in additional revenue, if the act makes it to the top of the list.

Those artists who tried the initiative in beta stage reveal that there was a significant rise in their streaming figures.

Gustavo Bertoni‘s monthly listeners soared from 7,000 to 617,000, while Yonaka climbed from 82,000 to 290,000.

Belgian rapper Bryan Mg now has 33,000 monthly listeners from 4,600,after getting onto La Vida Loca.

Spotify said that over 10,000 artists had their tunes reach playlists for the first time.

Little known US duo Small Million found their ‘Young Fools’ placed on the Mellow Morning list alongside Leon Bridges and Mitski and generated 230,000 plays.

LA band Valley Hush landed the song ‘Letting a Flower Die’ on New Music Friday, and within a week were getting record label offers.

Spotify is also testing a feature called What’s New which, as to be expected, highlights new releases, but personalised to the listener’s taste.

Spotify is also working with indie musicians and distributor DistroKid to develop technology which allows artists to upload directly onto the platform.