Spotify wants to help you place new music on its playlists

Spotify thrusts thousands of tracks into unsuspecting ears each day. Now, the streaming giant wants their content providers to have a turn.

The Swedish tech firm today launched a new feature in beta as part of its Spotify for Artists and Spotify Analytics tools, which allows artists and labels and to submit their unreleased music directly to Spotify’s editorial team.

It works like this: if you’ve a Spotify for Artists account owner or a label rep with a sub for Spotify Analytics, just log in, select an unreleased song for playlist consideration and send it their way.

“Editors will be searching through submissions based on the information you share to find unreleased music to consider for their playlists,” the company explains in a blog post.

Spotify is massively upbeat on this exercise, which its claims will offer “unprecedented, efficient and easy access” to its entire global editorial team. For artists and their teams, it can “provide context” around their music, and help reach the right people. And for Spotify, loads of metadata.

According to the streamer, more than 75,000 artists are featured on its editorial playlists each week, and another 150,000 on Discover Weekly.

A Spotify spokesperson says the product rollout is just the first step in a process to connect music with the right people. “We’ll continue to improve this feature based on partner feedback,” the spokesperson adds.

And they do need help…

In some insights into its music discovery prowess, Spotify says artists are streamed on its platform ten billion times each month by someone who has never heard that artist’s music before, with half of those discoveries facilitated by its editorially-curated and algorithmic playlists.

Important questions remain on just how the editorial team will cope with the volume of new music hitting their desktops. And will they offer feedback? Will Spotify take on more staff to help sift through the music. The idea of sending digital music direct to the gatekeeper is nothing new. In 2009, EMI’s theinsoundfromwayout blog activated an “A&R Drop Box,” a function which allowed folks to pitch music to the Australian company’s marketing and A&R team, and back in March 2007, Sony Music U.K. launched A&R and blogging Web sites for its RCA or Columbia labels.

Spotify is a different beast. It’s by some distance the biggest subscription streaming platform, boasting 170 million active users at the end of March, with 75 million of those paying for their subs. Its growing library stores more than 35 million songs and upwards of 2 billion playlists.

Earlier this week, the New York Stock Exchange-listed unveiled its self-serve advertising platform in Australia, on the heels of its world-first launch of its Active Media product in these parts.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.