In this post, we're going to talk about the Spotify for Artists profile. We will cover in detail everything you need to know to get up and running on Spotify and to get your music out to the masses.
So what is Spotify for artists?
Spotify for Artists is a site where you can view and edit information regarding your music. Here are some things below that you can do on the artists page. We will go over each of these four sections in detail throughout the post.
1. Home: New trends in the music industry or get helpful marketing tips on how to get more streams for your music.
2. Music: A breakdown of all your streams and monthly listeners.
3. Audience: Find out who is listening to your music and what city or country they live in.
4. Profile: Quickly be able to edit and view your Spotify profile.
But how do I even get a profile you ask?? Well, let's begin!
Step 1
It's important to know that you cannot get a Spotify for Artist profile until you have your music on Spotify. If you already have some music on Spotify then you can skip this first step and move on to the next step.
Sounds a bit weird right?
It does. However, in order to get your music on Spotify you do not actually use Spotify to upload your music. You use something called a music distributor. For example, someone like DistroKid or TuneCore.
These sites require you to pay to get your music on Spotify. This is normal. There is no music distributor out there that is totally 100% free. On the other hand, each music distributor has their own benefits and how they charge people. For instance, DistroKid charges people at an annual level and you keep 100% of your royalties. CD Baby will charge you less but they keep a percentage of your streaming royalties. Some distributors won't charge you anything at all but they'll ask for a larger chunk of the streaming royalties.
But this post is not about music distributors.
If you're new to music distributors then we recommend checking out this blog post by Ari. It is by far the most comprehensive review on all the music distributors there are on the internet or you can watch this comparison video between Tunecore and DistroKid
So let's say you figured out what music distributor you'd like to go with and your music is uploaded and will be out in a few weeks. First off, congratulations! Secondly, you're ready for step 2.
Step 2
Now we need to go to the Spotify for artists website and claim our artist profile.
Simply type in the same name you chose when you uploaded your music to your music distributor. It is important that it is exactly the same because in this step Spotify will be looking for that exact name.
So, if you put Robert Smith as the artist name on DistroKid or TuneCore then you must type Robert Smith in this field on Spotify. It cannot be Bob Smith.
What happens if you have a very popular name?
This happens more than you think so don't worry there are solutions in place to fix this problem.
Most the time you will be able to see the profile picture of the artist that have the same name as you. Right away you'll be able to see that this isn't you. It's unlikely that another artist with the exact same name is trying to claim his or her profile at the exact same time. So because of this, most people will have a profile picture and therefore you do not need to worry about it.
In some cases, where there are 2 or more "Robert Smith's" without profile pictures and you are not sure which one is you, that's still okay. However, it might take one more day to find the solution.
You'll need to go back to your music distributor and ask for the specific Spotify URI code for the the artist you signed up as. This is a unique code to your artist name. Once you have this code you can go back to the Spotify for artists page and claim your artist profile using this code.
You should now be looking at your shiny and new Spotify for artists profile. Congratulations, you are now a verified artist on Spotify. Over the coming days, you'll get a bright blue checkmark on your public Spotify profile.
Step 3
In this section, we will cover everything you'll need to know inside the Spotify for artists website:
1. Home
2. Music
3. Audience
4. Profile
Home
The home section is a brief overview of your streams over the last few days which includes your top songs. It will also include a list of your biggest playlist that you are on.
One of the cool little features they have on this page is a section where you can see the people listening to your music in real time. This is a really cool feature to see how active your audience is.
This feature can also be a little depressing if it's constantly at zero. Don't be too upset if this number is consistently at zero in the first few months of you making music. This number will grow overtime as you begin to get on some Spotify playlist and start engaging your audience.
The bulk of the real estate on this page are links to different Spotify articles that are made for artists. These articles are made with the artist in mind and are created to help you with your music marketing, songwriting, music production, and navigating the music business in general. Here's an example article.
Music
This page is essentially what it says it is. Music. But only your music.
Songs
The first section under songs will include all the music you release to date on Spotify. If your music is not yet live on Spotify it will not shop in the section. It will be in the upcoming section.
You'll be able to see the streams, listeners, and saves for each of your songs. You'll also be able to see the date of the song and when it was first added on Spotify.
You'll be able to sort the data by looking at past dates to see how many streams you got in the past week or since the song was ever released. Finally, you have the option to download all this data as a CSV file and do some further data visualization if you'd like.
It's easy to get overwhelmed with all this data. However, we recommend to focus on the number of listeners and number of saves you're getting for each song. It's a really good sign if you can increase the number of saves you get for a song over time.
This is valuable because it shows us that people are genuinely interested and that they want to hear you on their personal libraries. So what it really means is, your song kicks ass and it's awesome!
Releases
The releases section is similar to the song section however it organizes your music into how you released the music. For example, if you released an EP or an LP Denis songs will be bashed together as so. But if you only releases a single then it will be listed separately.
You'll also be able to see here the number of streams, listeners, and saves that you received for each release. And of course you can filter the dates as well.
Playlists
This section is broken down into the three different types of playlists that Spotify offers.
1. Algorithmic
2. Editorial
3. Listener
Algorithmic
Algorithmic playlists consist of anything that is run by a machine. So none of these playlists are hand-picked music by the Spotify curators. You can think of them like they are handpicked by computers
Popular Spotify algorithmic playlist are:
Discover Weekly
Radio
Release Radar
On Repeat
Your Summer Rewind
Repeat Rewind
Your Daily Mix
So if your music is on any of the Spotify algorithmic playlists then your streaming numbers will show up here. Mine, if you are just starting to release music then it will take between 4 to 6 weeks in order for the Spotify algorithmic playlist to kick in. I know, I thought computers were supposed to be faster than that too, but oh well once they do start to kick in you'll notice a boost in streams.
Editorial
These are Spotify playlists that are hand-picked and curated by actual humans. You've probably heard of this popular one: New Music Friday.
If you're lucky enough to get on a Spotify editorial playlist then they will show up here. Don't get too down on yourself if this section remains blank for a long time. This is normal. #struggle
Listener
This section includes all of the Spotify playlists that are created by humans that do not work for Spotify. This could be a small playlist that your mom made or it could be a huge playlist that is owned by someone else.
This section should start to begin to look busy within the first 1 to 3 days after your song launches.
Audience
The audience section inside the Spotify for artists profile is where you will be able to visualize your streams, listeners, followers, and dive deep into some of the demographic data. For example, location, age, and gender.
Another valuable data point in this section includes the source of the streams. The source of the streams tells you where people are actually listening to your music. Is it directly on your profile page? On an editorial playlist? An algorithmic playlist? Allison her playlist? Or someone's personal library?
In order to make sense of this data, you'll want to strive for is to increase the percentage of listeners in the listeners own playlist category. If you can do this, that means that wherever people listen to your music first, that they're adding it to their own playlists and listening to your songs there. Think about it, it's much better for someone to listen to your song on their own playlist than to just passively listen to it on an algorithmic playlist or even a listener playlist.
Profile
Under the profile section you will be able to completely edit your Spotify profile that is visible to the public. However, you cannot edit your songs. If you need to edit your songs or artwork this must be done by your music distributor.
We recommend to have a complete Spotify artist profile. So what does that mean?
This means that you should have a complete about section. So maybe you have one or two paragraphs and some photos that showcase a little bit about you as an artist. Make sure to link to any of your social accounts so visitors can follow you on other platforms.
We also recommend that you add any concerts that you might have in the coming weeks to months in the Concert section. Unfortunately, you cannot directly you cannot add your concerts directly in the section. You must use a third-party site to add your concerts in the section. Don't worry, it's quite easy. Head over to SongKick and start a free profile. Add your concerts to your song kick profile. From here they will be directly pulled into your Spotify profile.
Lastly, make sure you have a large and clear cover photo. This is important because it takes up a large percentage of real estate on your page. And let's be serious, we want to look professional. You should also start your own Spotify playlist as well since they'll show up on the bottom of your Spotify profile. It's not necessary to do this however it gives another opportunity for your audience to engage with.
This is a great video that goes in depth of what we discussed in this blog post. We recommend checking it out if you have any more questions.