Sam wrote this for Projekt artists, but any artist could benefit from this advice:

Are you reading the articles about playlists? They are a growing way that fans discover new artists. A band can be plucked from obscurity, by landing on the right tastemaker’s playlist. Kind of like the old days when a DJ loved a band and played them on their radio show a whole bunch.

Have you gone through the Spotify Artist Verification process to take control of your artist page on Spotify? If not, that’s task #1 for today. It’s a bit of a tedious process, but worth the trouble. Once you have that done, task #2 is to create your own playlist. Think of something interesting you want to share with your audience. It’s not just about your music, think of something broader and more creative. Such as, “10 tracks I was listening to when I recorded my first album,” or “10 tracks that I listen to when I meditate” or “6 songs that perfectly captured my confused sexuality as a high school student” (it’s back to school time, ya know!)

Yes, sure, you can include your own music on that playlist. But I think your fans already know your music, what makes this interesting is you are letting them get into your head, and see what you’re thinking. What matters to you.

Another really good use of a playlist is to promote a show or tour. Let’s say you’re playing out on a bill with three other artists. Make a playlist with tracks from each band; now you, the other bands, the promoter, etc, can share the playlist. You can send the link to local press, and maybe get it included in a preview article for the show.

What new ideas do you have, for using playlists to promote?

Here’s a Spotify Playlist I created for Aurelio Voltaire’s tour with Bella Morte.