How to Increase Your Followers on Spotify? 

Spotify uses the pay-per-stream system for its artists. So, the more streams there are, the more money you will make from your music career. But for that to happen, you need to have more followers too. 

Unfortunately, getting Spotify followers is not easy as it seems. You can’t just keep uploading music and expect the following to increase. Remember, there are over 11 million artists doing the exact same thing! 

So, to increase your followers on Spotify, you need to use a few different strategies. We’ll be discussing them in detail today. Let’s dive in!

Learn to Use Spotify for Artists

Spotify for Artists is a free tool that was launched back in 2013. Its purpose is simple – to give creators better control over their accounts and overall progress. Sadly, the majority of artists don’t know the correct use of this amazing tool. 

Here’s how you can make the best out of it to increase the follower count: 

1.    Claim your profile and get a blue tick

If you haven’t tried Spotify for Artists yet, the first thing you should do is go to artists.spotify.com and claim your profile. Just fill in the given form and submit it. Once the Spotify team has reviewed and approved it, they will assign you a blue tick. 

This is very important because it shows you are genuine and verified. Anyone who comes across your profile won’t feel hesitation to engage with your music. Instead, they will be encouraged as your profile will appear professional. 

2.    Optimize your profile looks

Spotify for Artists gives you access to a number of profile optimization options. Your job is to avail them all. 

First, get a professional headshot and set it as your profile picture. If you don’t have the budget to hire a photographer, open Pinterest and get creative with whatever resources you have. 

Go outdoors and get a friend to take your picture in a grassy field. Or, if you want some indoor aesthetics, get some cheap RGB strips and use the colored lighting to capture cool headshot pictures. There are multiple other ways – if you think about it.

Apart from this, you should also work on making the bio interesting. Talk about who you are and what inspired you to be a musician. What are your achievements and goals? Is there a specific vision that you want to fulfill? 

At the end of the bio, make sure to add a CTA statement that encourages the viewers to follow you and listen to your latest tracks. You should also add the links to your socials.

3.    Study analytics

The analytics tells you who your audience is and what they like the most. This information is crucial for understanding the type of content you should be producing. It gives you the much-needed direction in your career. 

So, if you want to increase the number of followers, study your Spotify analytics and work accordingly. If there is a track that didn’t perform well, you can revamp it and introduce it in the style of well-performing songs. 

This is called repurposing your content. It will work wonders when you’re out of ideas and inspiration! 

4.    Use promotional tools

Perhaps, the biggest benefit of Spotify for Artists is access to promotional tools. These include: 

1 ➔    Audio ads

2 ➔    Video ads

3 ➔    Podcast ads

4➔    Audience network

5➔    Custom experiences 

Of course, Spotify will charge you fees for running the ad campaigns. But it’s the best way to gain more exposure and recognition. These ads will pop up as recommendations for users who are similar to your audience. 

This targeted promotion increases the chance of these people listening to your music and becoming your loyal streamers. 

5.    Send your unreleased tracks to the in-house Spotify curators

Playlists can be created by any Spotify user. However, the playlists created by in-house Spotify curators are one of the most streamed ones. They’re famous, trendy, and customized specially for the user’s taste. 

So, what could be a better way to gain followers than get onto one of the playlists? Just fill out the application form and pitch your unreleased songs to be featured. 

Build a Social Media Presence & Direct the Traffic

Having a social media presence is mandatory to make any progress in the world today. It’s because millions of people are using social media every day. And so, it’s the best place to gain international exposure. 

But how do you do that? Well, it’s pretty simple. Just make your official accounts on the top platforms and start posting! 

The more consistently you post content, the more followers you will gain. However, you need to make sure that everything you post syncs well with your online musician persona. For example, you can’t share how you cooked something (even though you may be a good cook!). 

Remember, we are building a musician career here. So, you should post about upcoming songs, behind-the-scenes photoshoots, life snippets, and everything else that contributes to your personal brand. 

Once you start gaining traction, start asking your followers to check out your songs on Spotify frequently. This will direct the social media traffic to Spotify and help increase followers.

Some people also create websites, but we don’t recommend that at a beginner level. Website operation and maintenance can cost a lot. So, if you aren’t generating enough from your music yet, there’s no point in investing in a site. 

Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate!

For people just starting out, nothing works better than a good collaboration. You instantly get exposure to the audience as an established or budding artist. This cuts the majority of work as you gain hundreds and even thousands of followers. 

Think about Kid Laroi and his instant international fame – thanks to Juice Wrld, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and all the other amazing musicians he collaborated with. This guy went from rags to riches just on the basis of good collaborations! 

So, find same-level artists in your music genre and send collaboration requests. Once you’ve got a few good collaborations to your name and a decent following, you can pitch to world-famous artists too.