 So the fast few weeks I've been making some videos that really made y'all blow up my comments and inbox. So I wanted to set a few things straight. After all, when I've been telling you to try to get on Spotify Playlists and you see clickbaity headlines that major labels control them, you gotta be wondering, what in the goddamn hell is going on? But I'm here to tell you that everyday artists who are not on major labels are using a method to grow on to bigger Spotify Playlists. So in this video, I'm gonna explain how to get on to the biggest Spotify Playlists. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to grow their fan base from zero to 10,000 fans, and this is Muse Formation. All right, straight up. If you are one of those people who watch every video I make, first off, thank you. But second off, some of this is gonna be a bit familiar, but I wanna say it's all gonna get tied together. And while this video is chapter so you can skip around, this is gonna be one of those videos that connects a bunch of concepts we've discussed before into one big plan. And I swear, your mission on what to do on Spotify will be more clear than ever if you just give me a few minutes of your time. Okay, so let's start off doing some quick debunking. Perhaps you saw this article with the clickbaity headline. A new study confirms the obvious. Major labels control Spotify Playlists. I even discussed it on my weekly live stream where I discussed the music business every Wednesday and made a video about it because I thought it was important to say this is one of those articles where the headline is going to get repeated a lot, but even in the article itself, it contradicts its main premise. And yeah, there's no shame in that as someone who works in journalism. Sadly, we need to get you all's attention so you actually read these articles we write, but let me show you why this article, it does not really mean what it's saying in the headline. The article says major labels accounted for nearly 70% of the music featured in the New Music Friday playlist on Spotify. But then by the end of the article, they say currently in April 2022 is an outlier in their data with New Music Friday featuring 63% of tracks from non-major labels. That's a shift from previous months where releases from indie artists barely broke through 30% of the content featured on the New Music Friday playlist. And the video I made two weeks ago on this subject, I also show that so many genre playlists, the major labels aren't even 10% of what's on them. So let's just remember, it's 100% not true that the major labels control what gets on all these Spotify Playlists. There's tons of DIY and small indie acts all over tons of them, if not most of them. But let's discuss this. The really big playlists are in fact dominated by major labels for a reason. The playlists with the biggest audiences play songs that are getting a lot of streams. And majors in big indies have the most popular artists and tend to snatch up artists as they're doing well. And so many of the artists fueling Spotify are up and coming artists that get some traction and then got signed. And that's what these playlists love. And if you notice what's absent from most playlists that are really popular these days are washed legacy artists who are putting out records everyone thinks are bad, well, mostly. But it's not as simple as some of you people who think you know everything, make it sound in my comments. But I say all this so you understand what I'm about to show you. Now I know a lot of you didn't watch the very good and informative video I made on how you can use chart metric to market your music, since I didn't make the video as clickbaity as I should. Notice the trend here. But here's the thing, there's an actual pipeline to how the big playlists add music and you can see it here in what chart metric likes to call playlist journeys. So here's what I suggest you do. First, go into chart metric and search for your favorite playlist of your genre. You know, the one with all the big artists you love that you would like to be on. And I know right now some of you mouth breathers are like, Jesse, so I've never looked at the playlist on Spotify. And to this, I say, okay, listen, I love you, but come on, chief. If you told someone whose dream was to be a baseball catcher that they've never been on a baseball diamond, well, that person seemed like a fool. Anyway, if you don't know what those playlists are, well, then go to an artist who's really popping off that you're similar to Spotify profile and look at that. It lists the big playlists they're on right there. Now punch each of those playlists into chart metric. I want you to look at this section called playlist journeys. It's pretty far down the page but I see how your fingers go off in the comments so I know you can do some scrolling. When you get there, there's a list of playlists that songs on this playlist usually are on before they get here. So now what you do is you add these playlists that songs are on before they get to the big playlist to your target spreadsheet. If you don't know what I mean by that, I strongly suggest you watch my most important video on how you find community around your music. If you don't know what I'm talking about, be sure to watch that video when this video is done as it's linked in the description. Anyway, these are all the playlists you're gonna try to get on. Some will be Spotify's own, others will be users of Spotify playlists and if they are made by users, check the description and if they have an email or a form to submit to the playlist, that's what you should be doing. As they are the key to getting on this playlist you really wanna be on so you get on that even bigger one. And sometimes these playlists are the type that you could submit to on Submit Hub or other playlist pitching services. Since as I've told you before, the biggest playlists look at smaller playlists on what to add and if you're on these, not only are they a high quality playlist with people who are interested in what you do, these are also the type of playlists that is most likely to get to the ears of people who are likely to love you, which in turn will drive up your popularity score and make you more likely to get into the algorithm and onto release radar and discover weekly playlists. But let's say you find some of these smaller playlists that feed the bigger Spotify playlists or actually Spotify editorial playlists. Well then when you go to pitch your song on Spotify for Artists to the editorial playlist, you can literally write in that pitch would belong on playlists like blank and blank and blank. And you know what, I see that working all the time. But that's not the end of it. You see this button here that says look ahead. These are all the playlists that add songs from whatever playlist you look up after the song is on it. And the fact is these are often the playlists that if you get on them, set your song up to get on the big playlist. And as I've told you, it's actually a circle where the big playlist feeds small playlists and vice versa. And as we know with playlists, the more you get added to them, the more you're setting up your future songs to get added to them more easily, especially if you're utilizing consistent sustained promotion. And truly, one of the things you will continually overlook is that while you love your one song immensely and want it to be a blockbuster that storms up the charts, you have to remember in the singles world, when your song gets on a playlist, you're setting up the next one for bigger success. So you have to remember, you're only going to climb up onto these big playlists if you're always seeing each song as a growth tool for future ones. Oh yeah, and if you're looking for playlists that are similar to these ones, guess what? Right below this playlist journey field in chart metric is a list of similar playlists. And if this is blowing your mind, you should be subscribed and get notified since this is what we talk about here. And we're not even done with what chart metric can show you to make you get on these bigger playlists. Now, so many of you asked me whether to submit to these playlists before your song is out or after it's out. Well, here's your answer. For each and every playlist on chart metric, right here in this field, it'll tell you if they add songs the first week they are out, or if they wait till it's out and see if it's getting plays. So if a playlist adds things on the first week, hit them up in advance of your song being out. But if they add songs after they've been out a week, you can wait till it's racked up some momentum and then submit to them. But let's talk about the popularity score. You can also see what type of popularity score your song should be getting to get on these playlists. Now, sometimes you will see zero and think, WTF, they will put anything on this playlist? Why do I want to be on here? But you're overlooking something. That's because this playlist is adding some songs the week they're out, so they are yet to have a score as they're adding some established artists who they know will eventually get a high score. But keep in mind, that popularity score really helps you get on those playlists, so learning how to drive it up is crucial. But let's remember, when you get added to high quality playlists, your numbers go up as people rinse those playlists and drives your popularity score up as these listeners are most likely to enjoy your music. If you don't get that, just remember, I answer every question in the comments below. Now, if your song doesn't have a high popularity score, it's never gonna get on any of these playlists since Spotify wants songs that people actually like. And the Spotify popularity score measures that, but right now so many of you are thinking, great, Jesse, well, what am I to do then? I have great news. I made a whole video on how to drive up your popularity score. It's since I was such a helpful and nice YouTuber, it's on the end screen right now, and you should watch it. And then text a friend how helpful I am and send them these videos. Click and keep learning. Thanks for watching.