How to Pitch Your Song to Spotify Editorial Playlists
The Music Maker
Spotify editorial playlists are put together by people: a team of editors who listen to new music before it comes out. The only way to put your song in front of them is a pitch in Spotify for Artists, and it has to arrive before release day. Miss that window and the song cannot be pitched at all.
Here is how the pitch works, which rules Spotify sets, and how we plan the weeks before a release so the pitch is never a last-minute job.
How the pitch to Spotify editorial playlists works
You pitch from your artist profile in Spotify for Artists, and anyone on your team with Admin or Editor access can write or edit it. Your distributor has to deliver the release to Spotify before you can pitch it. Then you pick one song and tell the editors about it. Spotify says it plainly: more detail gives your song a better chance.
A few rules shape everything else:
You can pitch one song at a time. A new pitch opens once the current song has gone live.Deliver your music at least 7 days before release, so the editors have time to listen.Once a song has gone live, it can no longer be pitched.You cannot pitch compilations, or songs on which you are a featured artist.You can edit the pitch up to release day, but there is no guarantee the editors see the changes.
And the one that keeps expectations honest: pitching does not guarantee a place on a playlist. The editors may also pick a different song from your release than the one you pitched.
The 7 days that also feed Release Radar
A pitch does more than reach the editors. When you pitch an unreleased song at least 7 days before release, Spotify adds it to the Release Radar playlists of your followers. Release Radar is personal: each listener gets one song per artist per week, and Spotify keeps a song there for up to 4 weeks if that listener has not heard it yet.
So even when an editorial playlist does not follow, a pitch on time puts the song in front of the people who already follow you, in the week it comes out. For a new artist that is often where the first real listens come from.
Plan your release backwards from the pitch
The pitch deadline only works if everything before it is ready. That is why we plan a release backwards from release day:
Four weeks or more before release: the master, the artwork and every credit are final, and the song is delivered to your distributor.As soon as you can pitch the release in Spotify for Artists: write the pitch while the story of the song is fresh.Seven days before release at the latest: the pitch is in. Earlier is better, because the editors need time to listen.Release week: share the song with your own audience, so the first listens come from people who care.
Write the pitch the way you would tell a friend about the song: what it sounds like, what it is about, and why you made it. Keep it specific. A clear sentence about the story of the track does more than a list of big words.
A pitch planner that does the counting
Our Release-Ready Kit has a pitch planner for exactly this. You set your countdown dates and tick each one off, draft your pitch for Spotify editors, and keep your first-week numbers to beat next time. The kit also holds a split sheet, a release metadata workbook and a deal checklist with the rules for your country.
This week at The Music Maker
The Theater Maker, our show control app for theatre, launches on 1 December. Sound, video and lights in one cue list, on Windows and Mac. Leave your email on the product page and we will tell you the day it launches.The Release-Ready Kit now comes in 11 country editions, with Belgium, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria added to the first six. Version 1.2 made the pitch planner fillable.Are you an artist looking for a label that does the work around your music? Apply to join The Music Maker.
Spotify editorial playlists are put together by people: a team of editors who listen to new music before it comes out. The only way to put your song in front of them is a pitch in Spotify for Artists, and it has to arrive before release day. Miss that window and the song cannot be pitched at all.
Here is how the pitch works, which rules Spotify sets, and how we plan the weeks before a release so the pitch is never a last-minute job.
How the pitch to Spotify editorial playlists works
You pitch from your artist profile in Spotify for Artists, and anyone on your team with Admin or Editor access can write or edit it. Your distributor has to deliver the release to Spotify before you can pitch it. Then you pick one song and tell the editors about it. Spotify says it plainly: more detail gives your song a better chance.
A few rules shape everything else:
You can pitch one song at a time. A new pitch opens once the current song has gone live.Deliver your music at least 7 days before release, so the editors have time to listen.Once a song has gone live, it can no longer be pitched.You cannot pitch compilations, or songs on which you are a featured artist.You can edit the pitch up to release day, but there is no guarantee the editors see the changes.
And the one that keeps expectations honest: pitching does not guarantee a place on a playlist. The editors may also pick a different song from your release than the one you pitched.
The 7 days that also feed Release Radar
A pitch does more than reach the editors. When you pitch an unreleased song at least 7 days before release, Spotify adds it to the Release Radar playlists of your followers. Release Radar is personal: each listener gets one song per artist per week, and Spotify keeps a song there for up to 4 weeks if that listener has not heard it yet.
So even when an editorial playlist does not follow, a pitch on time puts the song in front of the people who already follow you, in the week it comes out. For a new artist that is often where the first real listens come from.
Plan your release backwards from the pitch
The pitch deadline only works if everything before it is ready. That is why we plan a release backwards from release day:
Four weeks or more before release: the master, the artwork and every credit are final, and the song is delivered to your distributor.As soon as you can pitch the release in Spotify for Artists: write the pitch while the story of the song is fresh.Seven days before release at the latest: the pitch is in. Earlier is better, because the editors need time to listen.Release week: share the song with your own audience, so the first listens come from people who care.
Write the pitch the way you would tell a friend about the song: what it sounds like, what it is about, and why you made it. Keep it specific. A clear sentence about the story of the track does more than a list of big words.
A pitch planner that does the counting
Our Release-Ready Kit has a pitch planner for exactly this. You set your countdown dates and tick each one off, draft your pitch for Spotify editors, and keep your first-week numbers to beat next time. The kit also holds a split sheet, a release metadata workbook and a deal checklist with the rules for your country.
This week at The Music Maker
The Theater Maker, our show control app for theatre, launches on 1 December. Sound, video and lights in one cue list, on Windows and Mac. Leave your email on the product page and we will tell you the day it launches.The Release-Ready Kit now comes in 11 country editions, with Belgium, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria added to the first six. Version 1.2 made the pitch planner fillable.Are you an artist looking for a label that does the work around your music? Apply to join The Music Maker.
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