Playlist Marketing vs Spotify Ads: Which Is Better for Music Artists?

Music artists on Spotify are having a hard time establishing their career, and they want to find out which strategy can help grow within budget: Playlisting or Ads? Let’s find out!

It does not require saying that Spotify is currently the biggest music streaming platform in the industry, which is constantly growing with a huge number of emerging artists and their musical contributions. Around 10,000 tracks are being uploaded daily on this platform, and so, the struggle for exposure is quite high among the emerging artists. The rising musicians on Spotify are looking for organic and loyal listeners who can offer them streams to monetize and support as long-term fans, but it is getting increasingly difficult without any promotional approaches.

When it comes to Spotify music promotion, two of the most effective and trendy methods utilized in the industry right now would be Spotify Ads and Playlisting or Playlist Marketing. Now, it is time for the age-old debate, Ads vs Playlists, which is better for the Spotify music artists?

Playlist Marketing vs Spotify Ads

If you take a good look at both of the approaches, neither one of them can be called objectively "better" overall, as the promotional approach you opt for is fairly dependent on the specific goals that you have as a rising artist on the platform. While Playlist Marketing can be effective for driving immediate traction, short-term traffic, and getting featured in Spotify’s recommendation playlists, Spotify Ads or other ad strategies can be helpful for building a long-term fanbase who will be highly engaged in your music. The cost for each promotional approach is also different, but affordable enough to fit within the budget of the rising and emerging artist on the platform. Let’s take a better look at the pros and cons for each side.

Playlist Marketing 

This is comparatively a new strategy that is currently trendy in the music industry, and it is being leveraged by all kinds of artists. In this case, your music gets featured on the Spotify playlists that are similar to your music, which allows you to gain more exposure and attention from like-minded listeners. It involves paying the playlist curators, or you can pitch to the independent playlist creators as well. As a result, your music gets placed on influencer-owned and user-curated playlists.

Pros 

    • Quick Algorithm Growth – Playlist marketing allows your music to get placed in multiple playlists that are active with a huge listener base. These playlists are curated based on genres, moods, and musical styles, and getting featured in them can rapidly improve your visibility on the platform. It can increase your 28-day "Monthly Listeners" count, which is highly important for getting to the top of Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations.

    • Highly Cost-efficient – Playlisting is a cost-effective method, and sometimes it is even free if you pitch to the independent creators who do not charge to get your music featured. Even in the paid playlists, you are more likely to pay a cost-per-stream, which is generally much lower than the advertising efforts. In this case, you do not pay for click-through rates from the external platforms to Spotify. Therefore, you can get complete value for your money.

Cons

    • Temporary Boost – Playlisting only offers a temporary boost to your Spotify career, as there is a limit to how many days your song will be featured in the list. Usually, the curators keep the song a maximum of two months, and after that, you are on your own. After the removal of your songs from the playlist, the stream count can drastically decrease.

    • Passive Listeners – Many of the listeners on such playlists can be passive listeners, and they do not really pay attention to the songs as they listen in the background. Active listening is important to find loyal fans with long-term support. Passive listeners lead to fewer song saves and lower fan retention.

Spotify Ads

Running advertisements for promotion is a traditional method that has been utilized by music artists for a long time now, and it still works. You can run video, audio, or sponsored placement ads directly through Spotify or even Google or Meta. This ad strategy can instigate listeners to click and listen to your music by making an active and intentional choice.

Pros 

    • Long-term Fanbase - An ad campaign can work for all kinds of music artists, and they typically result in a decline in traffic that is much more gradual. The organic exposure offered by advertisements is best known for its ripple effect that helps in organic music discovery for songs even years after the campaign took place. Therefore, the impactful results can have a long-term influence. The results do not drastically drop after the end of the ad campaign.

    • High Engagement – Advertisement can offer you higher engagement along with improved reach among new and relevant listeners. Since listeners consciously click the ad to hear your song, it shows their intention and musical taste. These relevant listeners are more likely to save your song, follow you, and listen to future releases like a loyal fan would do. Therefore, engagement and stream count can both increase significantly.

Cons 

    • Expensive Promotion – Advertisements are going to take a bigger chunk of your budget as you’re practically paying for every conversion and click. This makes the initial cost per stream significantly high in this case, and it is steeper than the playlist efforts. As a result, advertisements might not be availed of by the emerging and rising artists on the platform with a tight budget.

Final Thoughts

After a comparative analysis, it is safe to say that Playlisting might be the preferable choice for rising artists with a small budget, and artists who are already established can expand their reach with the advertisement campaigns. However, it still requires you to define your promotional goals to opt for the right choice. Consult with a promotional expert or an experienced artist to convey your goals and find out what suits you. Since you cannot always keep an eye on promotion rather than music making, you can also hire a professional agency for the task.