Spotify Guides for Independent Artists

Last checked: 8 October 2026Every guide lists its dated sources

Disclosure: MusicPromoLab sells music promotion. Every guide links each claim to its source.

Before you pay for promotion

Spotify promotion options compared

Free pitching, playlist marketplaces, Spotify’s own paid tools and targeted ads, side by side on the same six criteria, with every price sourced. MusicPromoLab sells one of the options compared.

Is Spotify promotion legit?

Yes, when a service sells work such as pitching, PR or targeted ads. Spotify says any service that guarantees streams, followers or playlist placement for money should be avoided, and the guide turns that rule into seven checks.

How much does Spotify promotion cost?

From €0 for Spotify’s editorial pitch to about $1–€6 per curator, $280 for a Playlist Push campaign, $100–$10,000 for Marquee or Showcase, and £1,000 or more for PR. No legitimate option sells a guaranteed number of streams.

SubmitHub vs Groover vs Playlist Push

SubmitHub credits start at $1, Groover charges €2 a contact with a reply within 7 days, and Playlist Push campaigns start at $280. None of them guarantees a placement, and the guide adds four alternatives.

How to tell if a Spotify playlist is botted

A big save count over tiny song stream counts, far fewer listeners than followers, and a spike from “Other” in Spotify for Artists are three of the nine red flags to check before you pay any curator.

Song removed for artificial streaming?

Spotify acts on the streams, not on who caused them. Contact your distributor in writing, list every promotion you paid for, and report the playlist; whether you can re-release depends on your distributor.

Spotify Marquee vs Showcase

Spotify’s own paid campaigns, booked in Spotify for Artists and charged per click, with budgets from $100. The guide covers who qualifies, where each one appears and what the report shows.

Does DistroKid promote your music?

DistroKid gets your music onto Spotify and gives you free tools such as HyperFollow pages and Promo Cards, but pitching Spotify’s editors stays with you. The guide compares what DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby do after release.

How Spotify pays and recommends

How much does Spotify pay per stream?

There’s no fixed rate. The commonly cited range is $0.003–$0.005 per stream, and since April 2024 a track earns nothing until it reaches 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months.

Is Spotify Discovery Mode worth it?

Discovery Mode takes a 30% commission on the recording earnings from Radio, Autoplay and Mixes instead of a fee, but only artist teams with 25,000+ monthly listeners can use it.

What is Discover Weekly?

A personalised playlist that refreshes every Monday with music a listener hasn’t heard yet. Spotify documents no stream threshold for getting into it.

Spotify monthly listeners, explained

Monthly listeners counts unique people, not plays, so one fan streaming on repeat still counts once. The guide explains what moves the number.

Spotify for Artists stats, explained

A stream counts after 30 seconds of play, and listeners are the unique people behind those plays. The guide explains streams, listeners, followers, saves and where your streams come from.

Reference

Spotify glossary for independent artists

Forty Spotify terms in plain words, from Release Radar to the 1,000-stream minimum, each with its official source and a link to the guide or tool that goes deeper.

Release planning

How Spotify Release Radar works

Pitch an unreleased song at least 7 days before release and Spotify adds it to your followers’ Release Radar, which refreshes every Friday. The guide ends with a release-week checklist.

How to pitch Spotify editorial playlists

You pitch one unreleased song at a time from Spotify for Artists, with the music delivered at least 7 days before release. Pitching doesn’t guarantee a placement, and the guide covers the form step by step.

Plan the release itself with a free tool: the music release plan template, the release schedule planner, the single vs EP vs album quiz, the release-day post planner, the Spotify pitch template and writer and the Is my song ready for Spotify? check.

Every tool runs in your browser, and all eight are on the free artist tools page, including the monthly listeners to money calculator and the streams to minimum wage calculator.