The Spotify algorithm for artists: what's official and what you can do

What Spotify says its recommendations learn from

Spotify's own page on recommendations names four kinds of signal:

• What people do: searching, listening, skipping and saving to their library.
• What they share: their general location, device, language, age, and who they follow.
• Trends: what large groups of listeners with similar taste do.
• The music itself: its genre, release date and other characteristics.

So for an artist, a listener who saves your song or follows you tells Spotify much more than a single play. And a skip tells it something too: that the song wasn't right for that listener.

The playlists the algorithm builds

How Release Radar works for your release

This part Spotify spells out in its help pages for artists:

1. Your followers get songs from your new release in their Release Radar.
2. Pitch a song in Spotify for Artists at least 7 days before release day, and that's the song they get. If you don't pitch, Spotify picks one from the release.
3. Each listener gets one song per artist a week, and a song stays for up to 4 weeks if they haven't heard it yet.
4. Release Radar also reaches people who listen to you without following, and some who Spotify thinks will like you.

That makes followers the most valuable number you have: every follower is a Release Radar slot on your next release day, without paying for it.

Discovery Mode: paying for more recommendations

Discovery Mode lets you mark songs as a priority so Spotify is more likely to recommend them in Spotify Radio, Autoplay and Spotify Mixes.

• It isn't a guarantee. Spotify says it raises the likelihood, nothing more, and it doesn't apply to editorial playlists.
• It costs a 30% commission on the recording royalties from those streams. There's no upfront budget.
• Most new artists can't use it yet. Your team needs at least 25,000 monthly listeners and 3 eligible songs; a song must be out for at least 30 days, have 20 streams in those places in the last 28 days, and come through a supported distributor. It's also still in beta in some countries.

What an artist can actually do

1. Pitch every release at least 7 days ahead, so every follower gets the song you chose on release day.
2. Turn listeners into followers. Ask for the follow in your posts, your bio and your videos. Each follower is a slot on every future Release Radar.
3. Earn saves. A save tells Spotify the song fits that listener. Spotify's own numbers say tracks with a Canvas loop get saved more (see our Canvas guide).
4. Bring listeners who chose to come. An ad that puts the strongest part of your song in front of the right people sends Spotify listeners who save and follow, instead of passing listeners who skip.
5. Release regularly. Each release is another Friday in Release Radar and another round of signals.
6. Don't buy streams or "guaranteed" playlist spots. Spotify says paid services that guarantee streams aren't legitimate, and bought plays never save or follow.

Find the part of your song that brings listeners.

Clips makes the ad for every part, from one song.

See Clips →

Rules of thumb (not from Spotify)

• Popularity score thresholds (around 30 to start reaching new listeners through Release Radar and Discover Weekly) are rules of thumb from promotion services. Spotify hasn't confirmed them, though they may reflect how the algorithm behaves. Your followers get your release either way. More in our popularity score guide.
• "Save rate" targets (a fixed percentage that unlocks the algorithm) aren't published by Spotify either. Saves clearly matter; treat any exact number you read as a rough guess.

Questions