Everyone wants to win on Spotify.

The problem is most artists spend the bulk of their time doing everything but the small number of things they need to do to actually move the needle.

Emailing blogs, pitching to playlists, and spending all day on YouTube consuming content about how to succeed in music won’t get the job done.

Fortunately, the list of things that will get the job done is quite short.

So whether you’re a brand new artist on Spotify in 2024 or just need a bit of a refresher, this one’s for you.

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Release as much music as possible

Time and again, I see artists doing any- and everything except releasing new music.

Consistently putting out new work is the name of the game, and everything else stems from that.

So how often should you release music?

If you can do it, every week.

And, specifically, every Friday (because you want to make sure your songs end up on Release Radar for your followers).

I know this may sound like light speed to most, and the truth is, it is, but when you’re a new artist, the single biggest goal you want to pursue is building your catalog.

Yes, every 4-8 weeks works, and this is the sweet spot for most, but the more songs you have in your catalog, the more music you have for your listeners to enjoy, and the more assets you have to share the load of building those overall streaming numbers over time.

Because the last thing you want is to have a song blow up without anything else for your audience to dig into after that.

So release music weekly, and build your catalog quickly.

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Post a short-form video every day

Good music is powerless if nobody knows about it, and the most effective way to tell people about your music is through short-form video.

Reels, Shorts, TikToks—these are powerful avenues to promote your music and build your fanbase.

By building on social media rather than solely on Spotify, you’ll develop stronger, deeper relationships with your fans (and be able to retarget them with an offer at a later date when it’s time to start making some money).

If you can post a short-form video every day, that’s 365 shots at the net to earn new fans, spread the word about your music, and get people over to Spotify to listen.

And that’s just on one platform.

If you post each of those videos to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, that’s 1,460 pieces of content, all working on your behalf.

A word of caution though: only use your music as the audio track for your videos—you want to promote your work, not someone else’s.

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Collaborate with other artists

In music, as in life, community is the cornerstone.

When you’re a brand new artist, it’s natural to want to look at folks who are a few levels ahead of you and try to get in the door with them.

The real opportunity, though, lies in forming bonds with like-minded artists who are on your level.

If you can establish an effective network of collaborators, not only will you be able to cross-pollinate your listeners and streams through primary artist collabs on Spotify and social media, but you’ll have a network of creators and friends who have each others’ backs and that’s worth its weight in gold.

Victory is far sweeter when it’s shared.

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Use ads to apply leverage

Once you have a systematic approach to releasing music, creating content, and collaborating with others, the final step is to apply leverage.

There’s no better way to do this than with digital advertising.

If you don’t have the time to release music every Friday or post a video every day, ads can certainly serve as an effective replacement for your time by leveraging your money in its place, but the true power of ads lies in magnifying a preexisting high level of output.

If you can drop a new song every week, a new video every day, and amplify your winners with ads at every level of the marketing funnel, you’ll reach escape velocity at a much faster rate than you otherwise might have.

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I'll be going into more detail on this topic in this week's YouTube video, so if you're not subscribed, be sure to tap in so you don't miss it.

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