Tag: Education

How To Get Playlisted On Spotify

How To Get Playlisted On Spotify

For as many that are interested in featuring on Spotify Playlist, the process just got easier and candid. The platform now allows for a public process of getting on or suggesting an unreleased song to the curators and editorial team on Spotify. Gone are the days where artists and labels have to go out of their way to pitch new releases, hunt for hidden web forms or source for email contacts to submit for opportunities..

A little while back, Spotify announced the launch of a more formal and transparent process for submission. All you need is; a ‘Spotify for Artist’ account, and you need to deliver your song (scheduled for release) to Spotify within a specific timeframe.

Hints on Song Submission for a Higher Chance: 

  • You are eligible to submit only unreleased songs.
  • You are eligible to submit one unreleased song at a time; once the song is released, you can then submit another unreleased track.
  • It also guarantees that your Spotify followers will have the unreleased track added to their customized Release Radar playlists on Friday, should in a case where they haven’t listened to the song earlier in the week.
  • Songs can only be submitted on Desktop. It is NOT supported on the mobile version of Spotify for Artist.
  • You can only submit songs at least, seven (7) days before the song is released. It would also serve you better to submit your songs way before the seven days’ mark.
  • The process is free!! You need not pay for placement.

How to Submit Song(s):

  • Log in to Spotify for Artists on desktop, and find any unreleased music at the top of the Home or Profile tabs.
  • Select GET STARTED next to the release you want to submit. Or, go to Profile, right-click any unreleased music, and select Submit a Song.
  • Choose a song from the release to submit.
  • Fill out as much info about the song as possible. The more info we get; the better chance it has!

 

As soon as your song gets placed in a playlist, Spotify will notify you via email. Also, it’s good to keep checking the Playlists tab in your Spotify for Artists account.

 

Mistakes That Gets Your Music Removed From Streaming Services

MISTAKES THAT GETS YOUR MUSIC REMOVED FROM STREAMING SERVICE

(MUSIC COVER ARTS)

The first point of interaction between any new release and potential listeners is cover art. It has been observed that the quality of the cover art of a song largely determines if the listeners will interact with the music. The same applies to streaming services. If your cover art does not meet their guidelines, it will either not be uploaded or will be removed from the service.

Many are not aware that there are rules that are in place guiding the cover arts of music. It is however important to state that the general rule guiding the cover art is that; all cover art must be unique in itself, depicting the message of the music. Here are some other guidelines to follow when making cover art for your music:

  • No Information Mismatch: The information on the cover art must match with the information attached to your music i.e artist name, the title of single, or album.
  • There shouldn’t be record label information on the cover art.
  • Parental advisory warnings are not necessary, so far there is the ‘explicit content’ tag on the cover art.
  • Artist name abbreviation: When abbreviating your name, ensure you abbreviate your name completely and not just a part of the name.
  • If you are featuring another artist on the track, ensure there are no information mismatches on the cover art.
  • Avoid copyright and trademark infringement. You don’t put the logo of a company or brand on your cover art without express permission.
  • Don’t use the tag ‘original’ for cover songs.
  • Avoid using watermarked images.
  • Avoid stretching your images aspect ratio. The causes image blurriness.
  • Avoid up-scaling your image to a larger size.
  • Avoid excessive and irrelevant text on your cover art.
  • Avoid including your contact info, pornographic images, violent images, racist signs or logos e.t.c

Here are a few things that are allowed, although are still questioned.

  • There are no rules guiding ‘Word Casing’. You are at liberty to use whatever casing mix you want.
  • You can use the same image for all you release, so far the text on the cover art differs.
  • You can have an image without text but you can’t use the same image for another release.
  • Your social media handles, so far you don’t mention the name of the social media.

How To Make Your Song More Playlist–Friendly

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SONG MORE PLAYLIST–FRIENDLY

For your song to make the listeners’ playlist, it has to be play-worthy, in that, it must satisfy the need of your listeners as well as leave them wanting more. However, getting your song to be added to the playlist isn’t just about making good music or promoting the sound through all channels, there are certain technicalities that can aid your song and make it more playlist friendly. It is along this line that we shall briefly discuss certain fundamentals to achieving this.

As an artist, you must have it in mind that your music must have playlist features i.e short and straight to the point. For instance, to make a radio playlist, certain edits are done. The process of making those ‘edits’ could be burdensome, hence, the radio stations leave the song off their playlist. Having shorter versions of the song is good, especially for radio listeners, who are not as patient to listen to the whole song. It is therefore advisable to make a song for the playlist short and straight to the point.

Before we proceed, it is important to state clearly that this is not to dissuade the creativity of artists or restrict their musical expression, what we have discussed thus far is for the sake of musical playlists, especially on the radio. It is to this that we say it is advisable to make the original version of the song before making ‘playlist edits’. Have it in mind that the edited version of the song shouldn’t be so different from the original song, just a little extraction from different parts will do.

In editing your song, you can take note of the following:

  • Song Length: Make sure the length of your edited song does not exceed 4 minutes. It might begin to bore your listeners after the 4-minutes mark.
  • Song intro & outro: Ensure this does not exceed 15 seconds. Make it captivating and exciting.
  • Song Structure: Be sure to communicate what the song is about with a captivating hook or vocals. Keep your listeners in the groove of what you are singing. 

Also, you must ensure to grab the attention of your audience such that, they won’t be eager to skip your song. In doing this, the song must have a fantastic intro and the body of the song must captivate them to want more. Failure to do so will reduce your chances of making money from your music on music streaming platforms. Before a song is considered streamed, the listener must have listened past the 30-second mark. Anything less than the 30-second mark will mean the song wasn’t streamed, hence, reducing your chances of making money off the song.    

In a nutshell, musicians should make their songs playlist-friendly. To do this, musicians should, after making the original version of their songs have edited versions of their songs. The implication of this is that it relieves the radio stations the stress of editing your song for a radio playlist as well as it is designed to capture the attention of the listeners, within the 30-second mark, on a music streaming platform.