August 6, 2018

MMF reports that Bryan Johnson, Director of Artist Services at Spotify, spoke to the MMF about Spotify’s new BETA music feature, which allows labels, managers and artists to pitch music to be considered for Spotify playlists.

MMF explains that Spotify playlists are a relatively new feature for Spotify, running for roughly four years out of the company’s 12-year history. Until now, in order to pitch tracks for Spotify playlists, there were about 30 different online forms for managers to use to submit music to playlist curators. Spotify has decided to streamline this system to make it more efficient for Spotify playlist curators to access the most exciting new tracks. The old forms will still be available until October, while the new BETA feature is being developed.

Key points about the new tool include:

• the new playlist tool will take radio, press and sync activity around a release into account to allow the trending tracks to gain visibility to playlist curators;
• there will be only one pitch for each track via the new system, both label and manager/artist portals should show the same pitch information in their portals, and there should be an opportunity to amend pitch details once the track has been submitted;
• pitches are global and do not need to be submitted based on territory;
• Spotify has a dedicated team to find emerging acts;
• Spotify playlisting is not a quick fix; a track’s performance should not start on Spotify but be a reaction of other activities. New acts should aim to achieve as many organic plays as possible; and
• recommended pitching lead time is at least one week to get on playlist curators’ release radar. The average lead time is one to three weeks in advance.

To read MMF’s report in full, click here.