Here we are in 2025, and Spotify remains the top platform for music streaming. Until the next new thing comes around, musicians are still seeking the best ways to get more streams on Spotify. 

It can’t be argued that Spotify’s artist tools and algorithms offer the most powerful platform for growing your music streams. Whether you’re a musician releasing your first song through a digital distributor, an established artist, or somewhere in between, this blog post – written by a label executive and artist manager – outlines actionable steps to help you thrive on Spotify.

The Great Myth of Consistency

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s all about consistency.” Or you’ve come across stories about artists releasing a song every week or two and attributing their success to that strategy. As someone who has worked at the highest level (including as a Vice President at Sony Music), I can tell you that even today, your favorite musicians did not succeed simply by releasing music frequently. They made an impact because their songs resonated emotionally. If you believe algorithms prioritize frequency over listener engagement, think again. 

I once released the debut album for a group called Wild Party in 2014, during the early days of streaming. The entire team – artist, manager, label, agent, and radio promotion staff—poured their hearts and resources into the project. The band had been together since 2011, and the music was strong. We truly believed we had a hit. Despite our best efforts, the project failed. This wasn’t a case of a poorly executed major label rollout; this was an experienced independent team with patience, and dedication. By the time the band broke up, the album had sold 5,000 copies and amassed 50,000 streams.

By 2016, the project was inactive, with no promotion. Yet, in 2018, the songs began racking up millions of streams on Spotify – with absoultely nothing happening. There were zero new songs over the next nine years.  Yet the songs accumulated 150 million streams. No other platform saw similar growth. In 2023, the band reunited due to this unexpected surge. Call it algorithmic justice for great songs.

So what are the best ways to get more streams on Spotify? Let’s dive into the key strategies.

1. Engagement is Key to Getting More Spotify Streams

There’s no way around it – Spotify’s algorithms prioritize engagement. Not just good engagement, but exceptional engagement. If listeners aren’t streaming your song all the way through (or multiple times), saving it, or adding it to their playlists, the song will struggle.

When people skip your tracks frequently, that signals negative engagement. If they play it once but don’t explore your profile further, that also works against you. There’s no shortcuts for writing songs that move people to engage deeply with your songs. So, how can you improve engagement and increase streams? Besides refining your songwriting and collaborating with skilled producers, consider these strategies:

• • Encourage fans to add your songs to their personal playlists.

• • Ask fans to save your songs by choosing “Add to Liked Songs”

• • Put your song in front of the right audience: Ensure your marketing aligns with the tastes, culture, and location of your ideal listeners to minimize skips.

• • Monitor your Spotify for Artists analytics: Monitor the saves, playlist adds, streams per listener, and which songs are getting the most algorithmic play.

• • Artist Playlists: Curate and share your own playlists that include your songs.

• • Promote your music through live performances. Direct fans to your Spotify profile after gigs.

• • Use engaging short form video (like Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts), or long form video (like on YouTube).

2. Use Active Streaming and Algorithmic Playlists to Get More Streams on Spotify

Think about how most people listen and engage with music on Spotify. According to Spotify, the majority of streams come from “Listeners’ Own Playlists” or “Made By You (Active).”

What is Active Streaming?

Active streaming is the way to get more streams on Spotify and we’re going to learn about it. Active streaming occurs when listeners intentionally seek out your music.
Examples include:

• • Streaming directly from your artist profile or catalog.

• • Streaming from “Listener’s Own Playlists” Listeners stream your music from a playlist they made.

• • Adding your song to their “Listener’s Queue” before a gym session or drive.

Think of it as “leaned-in listening” and “engaged streaming” defined by Spotify as streams  where listener’s “hear your music after seeking it out”. These actions send strong signals to Spotify’s algorithm, that your song is being engaged with, earning you more “programmed streams.”

3. Use Algorithmic Playlists to Get More Spotify Streams

What are programmed streams?

These are streams from Spotify’s algorithmic playlists, such as Radio, Discover Weekly. Programmed streams can also be from Spotify’s autoplay feature, where after an album or playlists ends, Spotify recommends another artist they think you might like. If your songs have strong engagement, they’ll be recommended more frequently throughout the Spotify platform.

The Spotify For Artists portal provides detailed insights into these streams, offering more transparency than any other platform.

 

Notice that I have been using the plural “algorithms” in this article. Spotify’s app interface uses  multiple recommendation algorithms beyond just playlists. Some include: “Because You Listened to X”, “Discovery Picks For You”, and ”More Like This”. 

List of Spotify Algorithmic Playlists

 

4. Focus on Your Best Songs, Not Just Your Newest

Avoid the trap of ONLY promoting each new song. While you need to enthusiastically release each new song, and apply the lessons from your previous releases, your best-performing song might be your best chance for growth.

Your top songs – those that consistently rank highest across all streaming platforms – are already favored by Spotify’s algorithms. Instead of always starting your marketing from scratch, amplify the success of your strongest songs to attract new listeners every single day.

5. Boosting Those Spotify Streams with Advertising

Are you tired of hearing about Meta (Facebook) Ads and Google Ads? I’m not. These platforms remain the best way for NEW artists to grow streams. 

For established artists, organic reach plays a bigger role, but for newcomers, ads can provide the initial push needed to trigger Spotify’s algorithm. I won’t dive into specifics here, but I cover detailed strategies inside Band Builder Academy.  

However, I’m not a big fan of Spotify Ads, Marquee, or Showcase campaigns. While they offer great analytics and easy booking, the engagement rates are significantly lower than well-targeted video ads on Meta and YouTube. I haven’t given up on testing their campaigns, and I am hopeful they will improve over time. I’m still actively testing new campaign types.

6. Promotion Tactics to Generate More Spotify Streams

It helps to look at your music promotion in two categories, the front door and the side door. When a company or group tells us that their product is good (the front door), we are skeptical. But when our friends or somebody with influence tells us about the product (the side door), we give the product a chance.

Front Door Strategies

• • Social media calls to action: “Add to your playlist!”

• • Instagram Reels and Stories: Encourage fans to add your song to their playlists and comment with a link. In return you could share their playlist on your daily story.

• • YouTube: Lyric videos, shorts, movie trailer style content, and official music videos.

• • Email newsletters: Share direct links with your audience.

• • Live performances: Convert concert attendees into Spotify fans.

Side Door Strategies

• • Short-form video creators: Partner with TikTok and Instagram influencers. Have them use your “sound” in their content that recommend their followers to “add this song to your playlist”

• • YouTube channels: Collaborate with content creators who align with your music style. Examples: reaction videos, review videos, music video promotion channels, or Youtube Shorts

• • Podcasts

• • Collaborations: Work with other artists to cross-promote on “collab tracks”, “features”, or social media.

• • Online communities: Engage with niche groups related to your genre.

7. Freshen Up Your Spotify Playlist Promotion Strategy

If it sounds fishy or it costs money, then stay away. 

Spotify’s “bot” and artificial streaming problems make playlist promotion trickier. I find it puzzling that major tech companies and music services have not applied a “tech” solution to eliminate artificial streaming.

Stick to these reliable playlist types, ranked by importance:

• • Listener’s Own Playlists (Active streaming) – this is where a fan drags your song into their personal playlist they created. These make up the majority of streams on Spotify.
    

    • • Warning: Do not confuse this with “Other Listener’s Playlists”, where users are streaming songs on a playlist that somebody else created. Quite frankly this bucket is where the artificial streams come from, so be wary of putting your songs on them. 

• • Submit to Editorial Playlists: Use Spotify for Artists to pitch your tracks to Spotify’s curators in the Music → Upcoming section. Submit 3 weeks early for the best results.

• • Your Own Curated Artist Playlists: Curate playlists with your songs and similar tracks. Share these with your fans and promote them on social media and through advertising. Experiment with different themes, moods, and genres.

Conclusion

Spotify’s algorithms favor great engagement, not just good engagement. By focusing on active streaming, top-performing songs, targeted advertising, and organic promotion, you can significantly increase your streams.

For new artists, triggering the Spotify algorithms with advertising is the best way to get more streams on Spotify.

If you found this helpful please share the article with a friend and bookmark it. I welcome any comments below, and am always looking to help musicians and improve.