How to Make Spotify’s Marketing Tools Work for You
Spotify isn’t just a streaming platform – it’s a service. The world’s largest DSP offers multiple marketing tools that help independent musicians build their audience. Here’s how you can maximize your reach with each of them
What ARE Spotify’s Marketing Tools?
Spotify’s free marketing tools include:
Countdown Pages
Playlist Pitching
Discovery Mode
Clips
Merch
Spotify’s paid marketing tools consist of:
Spotify Showcase
Spotify Marquee
Let’s break them down.
Spotify’s Free Tools
Countdown Pages: Want to get fans excited about your next release? Start with Countdown Pages. They let listeners pre-save your next release, preview its tracklist, and share their excitement directly to social media.
Playlist Pitching: This tool lets you pitch your music directly to Spotify’s editorial team for playlist consideration; we wrote more about it here.
Discovery Mode: An algorithmic tool that directs your music towards Spotify users more likely to love it based on their listening habits.
Clips: Create brief, attention-grabbing clips of your music to share on social media.
Merch: Exactly what it sounds like – an opportunity to sell your merchandise through a platform your fans use constantly.
Paid Marketing Tools
Showcase: The opportunity to promote your latest release front on center on Spotify’s in-app home page.
Marquee: Spotify Marquee offers Spotify artists the chance to reach new listeners through compelling, in-platform advertising by providing full-screen recommendations of artist-selected tracks to listeners most likely to respond to them.
The great news: TuneCore artists get an exclusive 50% discount on both!
Which Tools Do I Need?
That’s the million-dollar question and the answer starts with an honest assessment of where you’re at in your career and where you want to head next.
Are you trying to secure your first 1,000 streams on Spotify and have some disposable income? Showcase is an ideal fit for you.
Starting your album rollout? You need a strategy for Countdown Pages and should be making enough Clips to drop content on the regular.
To figure out which Spotify tools you should be using right now, ask yourself the following questions:
Am I releasing music in the near future?
Am I trying to draw more attention to music I’ve already released?
Do I have a presence on social media or am I trying to build one?
Let’s lay out a plan for each of these paths to show you how Spotify’s marketing tools can work for you,
“I’m Releasing Music In The Future”
You’ve already recorded music. You’re ready for the world to hear it. Use Countdown Pages and Clips to announce the release on social media platforms and tease snippets of forthcoming songs.
You can continue to build excitement for the release through Clips and use the Countdown Page as a hub for pre-saves (which are incredibly important for first-week numbers).
Track the engagement you’re getting in the TuneCore Trends and Analytics dashboard to see where you’re getting the most attention and focus your strategy as release day draws near. (For more to-dos, click here!)
“I’m Trying to Draw Attention to Music I’ve Already Released”
It’s time for Spotify Discovery Mode.
Your music’s out. There’s no reason to try and hype it up with flashy marketing campaigns after the fact. Spotify Discovery Mode is Spotify’s equivalent of “quiet luxury,” a tool that works behind the scenes to generate engagement and excitement in listeners who don’t know you yet.
Select the song you’re trying to draw attention to and enter it into Discovery Mode. Use your TuneCore dash and our regular reporting emails to see if it’s receiving the bump you want.
TuneCore Accelerator uses proprietary technology to pick the best the ideal tracks for Spotify Discovery Mode – and no distributor delivers Spotify Discovery Mode data to artists faster than TuneCore.
If you’re releasing new music: this might be a moment to consider investing in Spotify Showcase or Marquee (and you can read about the latter here)
“Do I Have A Presence on Social Media or Am I Trying to Build One?”
Clips is the tool for you.
As counter-intuitive as this can feel in the non-stop grind that is the music industry: you don’t have to do everything at once. Focus your efforts on building up your audience through engaging content that drives people to your Spotify Artists page and IG / TikTok / Bluesky.
Trust that if one domino starts to fall, the rest will too.
When In Doubt: TuneCore Accelerator
You can make Spotify’s marketing tools work for you – so can TuneCore Accelerator. Accelerator uses proprietary technology to superpower Spotify Discovery Mode and help pitch your tracks like nothing else in the music industry. We want to empower you with the knowledge to market your music effective and do the work for you. Let’s build your career together.