Why do artists create playlists? Playlists as a marketing tool

Haven’t you noticed that now your favorite artists create playlists based on their entire discography or in their inspirations? That’s because they are using them as a marketing tool and because they also improve your artist profile positioning.

You might have in mind the most typical ones “this is… #artistname” but we are not referring to that. The specific requirements for applying for these playlists aren’t published. Spotify automatically creates it when the platform perceives that an artistic project has reached a considerable amount of clout.

In this case, we’re referring to the playlists that artists create. They help with your SEO. and they help to keep the interest in your artistic project. The first thing that we have to take into account is the concept:

Examples

• General Influences (from each member of the group if it’s a band)
• New Releases Influences (from each Single, EP, or Album)
• Collaborative Playlists (between your own mates or maybe with your audience, but be careful, there’s always people ruining them)
• Tour Setlists (good form for communicating your live setlist) 
• Ambient music before or after a live concert (It’s a tiny detail, but it’s always a good strategy for getting the audience excited) 
• Fav Tracks classified according to genres, lyrics or music instruments, etc.

We also have to take into account the track order, does the order matter to you or do you want the listener to listen in on shuffle? A good practice to keep the interest could be hiding secret messages throughout the playlist with the first word of each track, for example.

Another technique being used right now by famous artists is creating playlists with the influences of each tune and making them public before the song is released. This is the best way to create expectations but also to make more people follow the playlist until the song is released. In this influences playlist, you could also include your own tracks. This way you can hook the listeners into listening to more than just one of your songs. You can keep updating these playlists or even changing them for the next release.

You can check out our playlists for more inspiration 🥰

If you like this blog, maybe you want to check out The Magic of Storytelling for Musicians